Take that American flag and wipe your ass with it

You can take that American flag (made in China) and use it for toilet paper.

It's over.

FBI Outlines Plan to Expand Agents' Tactics; Hill Hearings Set, By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 13, 2008; Page A09.

FBI officials yesterday briefed civil liberties advocates and religious groups on a plan to offer agents an array of tactics to track national security threats, as lawmakers prepared to demand more information at a pair of oversight hearings next week.

The plan also would allow FBI agents to collect information in the United States on behalf of foreign intelligence authorities, as long as their participation aligned with U.S. interests.

Wait, say that again?

The plan also would allow FBI agents to collect information in the United States on behalf of foreign intelligence authorities, as long as their participation aligned with U.S. interests.

So, say, if I go to a pro Palestinian rally and (peacefully, stand there silently while holding my sign) protest the Israeli government's actions in the world, the FBI will photograph me, and get my (somewhat handsome, still, I might add) face to the Mossad and perhaps Shin Bet computer?

What if I protest a Bolivian government in the near future (the poor democratically elected president, indigenous Indian Evo Morales will soon have an "accident", the coup is already on the way), as the newly installed Army junta will start a campaign of terror and start to kill and rape indigenous Indians?

Will the FBI share my photo and information with that government?

After all, the (soon to come) Bolivian dictatorship's interests will be very much aligned with American interests - it is our tax money which will have put them there?

So then when I go vacation in Mexico certain Bolivian gentlemen will be able to visit me and "teach me a lesson", and then dump my body in a ditch somewhere.

How dare have they the nerve to admit that the FBI will spy on American Citizens on behalf of Foreign Powers?

You can tell I am a bit miffed about this, probably.

Oh, and about that Bolivia thing... in case you don't know, the CIA is sponsoring a coup against the elected president, Evo Morales. You see, he is an indigenous Indian, and his plan is to give as much money from the export of Bolivian natural resources as he can to... the Bolivian citizens.

I know - shocking, ain't it.

That is a big no-no as far as our Empire of the United States and Bolivian ruling classes, the big landlords and big business interests, are concerned.

So what's going on in Bolivia these days?

Counterpunch explains:

Early on, Morales--Bolivia’s first indigenous president--moved assertively to exert greater control over the natural gas and oil resources of the country, sharply increasing the hydro-carbon tax, and then using a large portion of this revenue to provide a universal pension to all those over sixty years old, most of whom live in poverty and are indigenous.

The self-proclaimed Civic Committees in Media Luna (Half Moon)--Bolivia’s four eastern departments--have orchestrated a rebellion against these changes, demanding departmental autonomy and control of the hydro-carbon revenues, as well as an end to agrarian reform and even control of the police forces.

Got that?

Morales wants to use the revenues from the Bolivian oil and gas to benefit Bolivian people.

What an evil fuck, says the Empire of USA, and soon planeloads of cash appeared in Bolivia. And so four departments (think states in the USA) basically revolted.

Their goal - autonomy and the rich folks keep control over oil and gas profits.

The Santa Cruz Civic Committee, dominated by agro-industrial interests, is supporting the Cruceño Youth Union (UJC), an affiliated group that acts as a para-military organization, seizing and fire bombing government offices, and attacking Indian and peasant organizations that dare to support the national government.

And the rich folks have their own thugs.

Where do they get the money to organize, arm and train?

This is your tax dollars at work:

On September 10, as violence intensified throughout Media Luna, Evo Morales expelled US ambassador Philip Goldberg for “conspiring against democracy.” The month before, Goldberg had met with the prefect of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, who subsequently declared himself “governor” of the autonomous department and ordered the formal take over of government offices--including those collecting tax revenues. Costas is the principal leader of the rebellious prefects, and the main antagonist of Evo Morales.

September 12, 2008:

Morales declared a state of siege in Pando and dispatched the army to move on Cobija and to retake its airport that had been occupied by right wing forces. Army units are also being sent to guard the natural gas oleoducts, one of which had been seized by the UJC, cutting the flow of gas to neighboring Brazil and Argentina. General Luis Trigo Antelo, the commander in chief of the Bolivian Armed Forces declared: “We will not tolerate any more actions by radical groups that are provoking a confrontation among Bolivians, causing pain and suffering and threatening the national security.” In signing the order authorizing the use of force in Pando, Morales stated that he felt responsible for the humiliation of the military and the police by radicals and vandals because he had not authorized them to use their weapons. This was the quid pro quo for getting the military high command to act.

Wait, wait - what massacre in Pando?

Upsidedownworld.org:

On September 11, in the tropical Bolivian department of Pando, which borders Brazil and Peru, a thousand pro-Morales men, women and children were heading toward Cobija, the department’s capital to protest the right wing governor Leopoldo Fernández and his thugs’ takeover of the city and airport.

According to press reports and eye witness accounts, when the protesters arrived at a bridge seven kilometers outside the town of Porvenir, they were ambushed by assassins hired and trained by governor Fernández. Snipers in the tree tops shot down on the unarmed campesinos. Shirley Segovia, a Porvenir resident recalled to Bolpress, "We were killed like pigs, with machine guns, with rifles, with shotguns, with revolvers. The campesinos had only brought their teeth, clubs and sling shots, they didn’t bring rifles. After the first shots, some fled to the river Tahuamanu, but they were followed and shot at." Others reported being tortured; days later the death toll rose to 30, with dozens wounded and over a hundred still missing. Roberto Tito, a farmer who was present at the conflict, said "This was a massacre of farmers, this is something that we should not allow."

Ah, THAT massacre in Pando.

You might think that this is a popular insurrection versus president Evo Morales, that the people have risen to overthrow the man.

Not so - this is classic CIA, sponsored from the outside (Empire of USA) destabilization of the country, to let the American trained (in the School of the Americas) generals take power in order to, forgive the pun, restore order.

That's how these things usually play out.

The uppity Morales, just like myself, calls it how he sees it and speaks the truth. He is in a somewhat bigger danger than my own self, though... because he really is in the way of the Empire, unlike me, the cowardly blogger.

Morales demanded that US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg leave the country. "Without fear of anyone, without fear of the empire, today before you, before the Bolivian people, I declare the ambassador of the United States persona non grata," Morales said. "The ambassador of the United States is conspiring against democracy and wants Bolivia to break apart."

Did you get all that?

Mr. Goldberg (I will NOT dare to guess what is the religion of this American hero) was expelled for helping to organize this campaign of violence and trying to destabilize the country.

And did you catch the word 'Empire'?

The announcement came after a private meeting Goldberg had with the right wing governor of Santa Cruz on August 25, and a later visit to the opposition governor of Chuquisaca. Throughout Goldberg’s time as ambassador, which began in 2006, the Morales government has accused him of orchestrating US funding and support to opposition groups in the eastern part of the country.

Following the US ambassador’s expulsion from Bolivia, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced that the US ambassador in his country had to leave: "He has 72 hours, from this moment, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas, to leave Venezuela." The US responded by asking the ambassadors of Venezuela and Bolivia to leave the US. This all took place during a tense few months in US-Latin American relations in which the US Navy re-instated its Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean after decades of inactivity, Chavez announced joint exercises with Russia in the Caribbean and Bolivia strengthened its ties with Iran.

I really loved it when I saw the fact that Bolivia and Venezuela expelled American ambassadors reported on American TV "news", and then the shrug of the shoulders and the implication that these Latinos be crazeeeeee.

On September 15 in Santiago, Chile, the nine presidents within the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), including Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile – even Colombia, a close US ally - met to come to a resolution on the Bolivian crisis. This organization is one of the newest in a series of regional networks that are making increasingly collaborative political and economic decisions throughout South America. All of the leaders backed Morales, condemned the opposition’s violent tactics and emphasized that they won’t recognize separatists in the country.

Because all of the Latin American nations have seen this scenario before - after all, ALL OF THEM were victims of American sponsored coups and military juntas (which usually shot, imprisoned and tortured a good percentage of a nation's population).

They have experienced this scenario before.

And so, even pro America Colombia backed Morales vs American sponsored thugs and criminals out to murder, loot, rape and destroy so that the Army can step in to "restore order".

Oh, and the facts on the ground...

Counterpunch, a different article:

After registering astonishing levels of support in the referendum, the MAS government declared that it was going to bring forward for popular referendum the draft of a new constitution approved by the Constituent Assembly in Oruro several months ago.

In celebration, indigenous peasant and working-class supporters of the government set off on August 29 for a peaceful march to the Plaza 24 de Septiembre, in the centre of the city of Santa Cruz.

According to the mainstream daily La Prensa, one UJC speaker at the autonomist rally declared: “We are not going to permit [the entrance of the masistas] into the Plaza. When we go to their communities, they treat us like dogs. We want independence. We don’t want this damned race in our territory.” Other chants and phrases used that day, according to the vociferously anti-Morales La Razón newspaper, included: “shitty collas,” (colla is a racial epithet used in Santa Cruz to refer to indigenous people from the western highlands), and, “Indians return to your lands.”

After the speeches, the racists when on a rampage against the unarmed trade unionists and peasants, as well as any visibly indigenous person in proximity of the plaza. Indigenous women wearing the traditional pollera, or gathered skirt, were particularly vulnerable to beatings and racist taunts. One autonomist youth leader, Amelia Dimitri, was captured in video footage and photographs whipping an indigenous woman wearing a pollera. This occurred immediately after Dimitri addressed the crowd of autonomist thugs in a rousing speech. She’s only the latest face of hatred on the autonomist right.

On national television, Bolivians watched as racist teenagers wielded clubs, whips, and two-by-fours against unarmed indigenous workers and peasants. Images of men and women with broken noses and shirts literally drenched in blood quickly made their way to You Tube, private and national state media, and the front pages of the local newspapers. These are the “democracy supporters” supported by imperialism against the “dictatorship” of Evo Morales.

Your American tax dollars at work, folks.

Brought in by Mr. Goldberg and others of his ilk.

Thugs beating up women and children.

So, come on - go on, scream it: USA! USA! USA!, eh?

I am a patriot.

But this government does not represent me.

This criminal enterprise, bent on world domination and control of the world's natural resources to make profits for themselves, the ruling elite (instead of the United States of America leading the world in the research for alternate sources of energy, as it should be and need to be if we want to live the same way we are doing)...

This is not me.

These people don't represent me nor do they care about my well being.

These people spy on me on behalf of foreign powers.

Hopefully your eyes have been opened.

I am an American. A patriot. A concerned Citizen.

You, the SUV driver with an American flag magnet and "support the troops" and "I shoot hippies!" magnet stickers on your car can take that made in China American flag and wipe your ass with it.

The Empire has set its sights on Bolivia - the Indian president dared to be uppity and now the Bolivians will pay the price.

Good luck Bolivians - you will need it.

And who will dare say now that 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman is not true, word for word?