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A bit of good news before the bad - I chose Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine as my staff pick at the book store but we can’t get any more copies at the moment because it’s sold out!! It is in the process of being reprinted. This made me so happy to hear!! I haven’t seen it get on the bestseller list as a paperback yet. (I may be wrong about that though.)

But now, a number of things I’ve come across recently that I’ve wanted to call attention to -
 
Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations - Hat tip to dark daughta for calling my attention to this. Police state, anyone?

Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.

 
That the nomination of Obama is the result of rampant fraud. Hat tip to Dr. Socks at Reclusive Leftist on this, who has also been challenging my line of thinking concerning Palin. (That’s not to say I’m suddenly supporting a McCain/Palin ticket - but it’s certainly helping me to sort out how internalized misogyny may be skewing my views towards her.)
 
I don’t know what to think about this, but I’m feeling incredibly dismayed. From Lynette Long’s CaucusAnalysis, dedicated to studying the possibility of fraud:

As I write this, the Democratic Party is poised to formally nominate Barack Obama as its candidate for President of the United States.

It’s the triumph of fraud.

I’ve spent the past two months immersed in data from the 2008 Democratic caucuses. After studying the procedures and results from all fourteen caucus states, interviewing dozens of witnesses, and reviewing hundreds of personal stories, my conclusion is that the Obama campaign willfully and intentionally defrauded the American public by systematically undermining the caucus process.

 
I’m surprised about how little people I talked to today know about this one - that the McCain campaign got the style of tonight’s VP debate changed.

From the New York Times:

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

——

McCain advisers said they were only somewhat concerned about Ms. Palin’s debating skills compared with those of Mr. Biden, who has served six terms in the Senate, or about his chances of tripping her up. Instead, they say, they wanted Ms. Palin to have opportunities to present Mr. McCain’s positions, rather than spending time talking about her experience or playing defense

A woman called up to proclaim a few things about herself on the Sean Hannity show in an oh-so-chipper manner - A Christian who rents with her husband because she understands she can’t afford a home!

And Sean!! We love to give!!!

Well, that makes me feel so much better about you, considering you felt the need to backhand people who are losing their homes in this crisis. I’m so much more convinced of your sterling character now.

(Proceed to some drivel about how if Obama gets elected it will destroy her “giving spirit.”)

I was pointed to this NPR program - The Giant Pool of Money - as a means to try and better understand what’s going on right now, and I have to say, so far I am really liking it.

Naomi Klein has also been writing about this, and I’m a little disturbed since I’m about halfway through the Shock Doctrine - ESSENTIAL reading and rather frightening.
Free Market Ideology is Far from Finished
Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine

EDIT 9/24: This was posted today at What About Our Daughters - Very good video about stopping the bailout!

EDIT 9/25: In and around Wall Street and Washington at Toban Black - A chronology of quotes pulled from a large number of articles on the subject.

I started Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine. She begins with a brief history of torture and how research funded by the US in the 50s and 60s has been put into practice. Let me just say, that seeing the pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib and having read that portion of the book puts it into a whole new terrifying perspective. The idea they tried to sell us that this was just a few bad apples having their “fun” was laughable anyway, but this seals it. State sanctioned torture. Sickeningly enough they don’t even need to lie anymore. It is well known that we are still doing these things to “terrorists” (No proof needed - classification of “enemy combatant” can be bestowed at any time to anyone.) in Guantanamo Bay and other secret prisons around the world.

Family values, morals, FREEDOM and democracy - aren’t they beautiful? But I guess this is the “liberal” (According to Republicans anyway, I think I must be far past liberal at this point.) way - It’s so weak and girly to give a shit about things like the human rights of people.

Have I mentioned that I completely envy/admire/love/idolize/want to be Naomi Klein? As much as I hate to “reduce” her to the level of celebrity crush or something.