Today when you say conspiracy theory you conjure up a picture of a man in a camo jacket who has barricaded himself in his basement with a truck load of ammo and an arsenal of fire power and ain't gonna go peaceful. He's paranoid that his government is out to get him and will stop at nothing to destroy only him.
A year ago, that's what I thought too. I had pictures in my head of those militias that lived in the woods and made mountains out of mole hills, totally distorted stories and embellished them so that they were doomsday criers. I now believe things that I never would have because they have been proven true. I never would have believed that a sitting President would call down the Supreme Court on TV. I never would have believed that a sitting President would say a police man acted stupidly, before knowing the facts and then be proven that he acted properly. I never would have believed that with the facts, a sitting President would be hesitant to call a man who walked onto a United States Army base and massacred 14 US military Personnel a terrorist, just because he was a self-proclaimed Muslim.
The "conspiracy theorists" have been yelling for years about gun control. We've been ignoring them. Well, these people in the White House are radicals from the 1960's. They wanted peace back then. They wanted no guns back then. Now they are in a position to get it. You say it can't happen. You also said we wouldn't get universal health care because 70% of America didn't want it. How's that going for you? The big companies are discovering that it's cheaper to pay the penalty than to insure their people. Wow. So they are forcing their people into government health care. It will become a single payer system. Didn't we say that a year ago? And people called us fear mongers.
Now they're saying that cap and trade won't ever pass because 70% of America is against it. So Congress breaks it up and calls it different things and WILL pass it piece meal. But they WILL get their agenda through.
As you will see when you watch this You Tube video, it's all being bank-rolled by George Soros, who has really deep pockets. And he lives in China. I heard a report on TV about not buying food in China, and didn't catch all of it. I wanted to know more, so I did a web search. I don't use Google, because I know they edit your searches. I found this article: http://bluepanjeet.net/2008/03/28/899/avoid-buying-all-processed-foods-from-china/
They basically search the city for dead chickens....they don't say what they died of, just looking for dead chickens...don't say how long they've been dead. Ick. They show the pictures of how they're stored. A picture is worth a 1,000 words. This would destroy Walmart, because they now get almost all their food from China. Maybe Soros leaked that himself? I know all their white label foods (Great Value Brand) have a new ingredients label....may contain...and it lists wheat. Even on their drink mixes. I have celiac disease and can't have wheat, oats, barley or rye. So we don't shop at Walmart for food anymore. I'll bet the whole celiac community doesn't anymore. I'm not loyal enough to keep shopping there and just buy name brands. I have to get store brand because it's cheaper. I just buy a different store brand. Unless the name brands start getting cheaper. I don't see Del Monte coming down in price to Kroger's store brand. Or better yet, Aldi's. If I get get 2 cans of corn at Aldi's for the price of Kroger's store brand, guess where I'm going?
So, Soros is living in China, pushing gun control. I have to wonder why all these radicals want my gun? Is it so I can't fight back when they come for the rest of my freedoms? All you have to do is look at the countries with the history of socialism and fascism and communism. They killed off the ones who were against them. You can't do that if they're armed. America has the 2nd amendment to the constitution. Who is the biggest gun advocate? Texas. Did you know that Texas has been hung out to dry?
Yep. We have a known terrorist that has, according to Intel, been suspected of crossing our border from Mexico. Mohammid Ali, a man suspected of having ties with Somali terrorist is supposed to be near Houston and they won't give us any Homeland Security guards or extra men. they don't want our border secure. Bet if we gave up our guns and stood against Arizona they'd give us support. Well, maybe not, because they'd probably let him come in anyway and tell him where to strike.
They've labeled the Tea Party Movement as sedition. I'm not sure I'd call myself a Tea Partier. I've been to one Tea Party event. It was extremely peaceful. There was one event, and it involved a member of the liberal press scorning my son. I wanted to hold a sign pointing to her saying she was a descenter. But at least she wasn't violent, just had an attitude. They want us to be violent so they can round us up and put us in camps and they can say I told you so.
If we have no guns, we can't fight back. Without being armed, what are we to fight back with? Our kitchen knives? They can shoot from a distance. They have labeled veterans a threat. That's because veterans have been trained to use weapons. The only people who will have weapons are the criminals, and the government. I wonder which side the criminals will take?
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Eagle Cries
The Eagle cries for freedom lost.
The angel bends as wings are torn.
Pick up the torch from feeble hands
Of fallen troops from days gone by.
The Battle falls to us.
We are the ones left behind
To carry the torch to our children.
What will our children find
Down the halls of Time?
The Fallen Soldier limps to the line
And passes the baton to us --
Pick up the Torch of Freedom!
Wipe the tear from the Eagle's eye!
The Eagle cries for freedom lost.
The angel bends as wings are torn.
Pick up the torch from feeble hands
Of fallen troops from days gone by.
The Battle falls to us.
A generation passes as time goes by.
We moan, "Are we too late?"
Freedom may die if we sleep, Oh why?
Why has America slept so late?
Pick up the torch before it hits the ground!
Bandage the angel's wing!
The horn of victory will be our sound!
No more tears will fall!
The Eagle will cry for Freedom found!
The Angel's wings will be mended!
Pick up the torch from feeble hands
Of troops from days gone by.
The Battle falls to us.
Lori Ann Smith
OTA3
1984-88
United States Navy
The angel bends as wings are torn.
Pick up the torch from feeble hands
Of fallen troops from days gone by.
The Battle falls to us.
We are the ones left behind
To carry the torch to our children.
What will our children find
Down the halls of Time?
The Fallen Soldier limps to the line
And passes the baton to us --
Pick up the Torch of Freedom!
Wipe the tear from the Eagle's eye!
The Eagle cries for freedom lost.
The angel bends as wings are torn.
Pick up the torch from feeble hands
Of fallen troops from days gone by.
The Battle falls to us.
A generation passes as time goes by.
We moan, "Are we too late?"
Freedom may die if we sleep, Oh why?
Why has America slept so late?
Pick up the torch before it hits the ground!
Bandage the angel's wing!
The horn of victory will be our sound!
No more tears will fall!
The Eagle will cry for Freedom found!
The Angel's wings will be mended!
Pick up the torch from feeble hands
Of troops from days gone by.
The Battle falls to us.
Lori Ann Smith
OTA3
1984-88
United States Navy
Memorial Day
Memorial Day
I sat today (Wednesday, 5/26/10) and had the longest conversation with a man who was a World War II veteran. I had an opportunity to get a CT today and grabbed it. Glenn Beck had told us to listen to that little voice, so I did. I almost didn't see him in the waiting room. He was off in the corner by himself, with a walking cane in front of him, scribbling on a pad of paper. I started by just asking him if he noticed a difference in the level of patriotism between now and World War II. That's when I discovered that he was a veteran.
He joined the Navy when he was 17. He gave me his service as 9 years, and then added the months, days, hours and minutes. I told him that I was a Navy veteran, too: 3 years, 11 months, and 4 days. Neither one of us could quite wrap our minds around why people aren't as patriotic as they used to be. He said it's because they don't teach it in the schools anymore. I believe he's right. He also said, "It's hard to be patriotic when your President is a communist." Ouch.
So here we were, 2 different generations, telling war stories in an oncology office. This man was at Hiroshima right after they dropped the bomb. He has a 4-point cane because he has neuropathy in his legs. They think he picked up enough residual radiation to cause damage. He has paid a high price for America's Freedom, for our Liberty. Some paid the ultimate price and didn't get to come home. I watched his eyes as he spoke about the bodies still lying on the ground when he got there. The cost of Freedom is high even for those that got to come home. He said, when he gave his years in service, that he just couldn't take it anymore.
My thoughts went back to Washington, D.C., as he asked me why our President doesn't salute the flag when the National Anthem is played. I didn't have an answer for him. I said there is a whole generation who thinks the last words of the National Anthem are "Play Ball!" I told him a year ago, I never would have believed that a man would run for president that wanted to destroy our country. He agreed.
I knew his generation is too polite to ask, so I volunteered why I was there. I'm a 5 year breast cancer survivor experiencing bone pain in my back and breast bone. I was there for a CT. He shared that he was there for his wife to get an iron infusion. She was a 30 year breast cancer survivor. I told him that if Ben Franklin could fight for our country in pain, so could I, and I would.
That generation paid a high price for America's freedom. Every generation that experienced war has paid a high price. I was a peace time veteran and I still came out patriotic, but I was station-keeping. My sacrifice was of time, of giving up my want-to's, but that was only because of the grace of God. Had I been called upon to sacrifice more, I would have, I will. It was the Cold War, from 1984-88.
We are fast losing this generation of men, and yes, even women, who served in World War II. This man mentioned that fact. I could see the sadness in his eyes as he spoke of the lack of patriotism. I told him that I was trying to form my thoughts for an article on Memorial Day. He asked who I wrote for, and it was on my lips to say, "Oh, just As a Mom." But I stopped myself. I dropped the "just." I said, proudly, "As A Mom. It's a Patriot site for moms. I have my own blog, too. I'm doing all I can to wake America up!"
Remember our Veterans, from ALL branches, and ALL eras, who gave their ALL to keep this country FREE this Memorial Day.
Lori Ann Smith
America's Voice Corps
Standing on the Ramparts
http://loriann12.blogspot.com
I sat today (Wednesday, 5/26/10) and had the longest conversation with a man who was a World War II veteran. I had an opportunity to get a CT today and grabbed it. Glenn Beck had told us to listen to that little voice, so I did. I almost didn't see him in the waiting room. He was off in the corner by himself, with a walking cane in front of him, scribbling on a pad of paper. I started by just asking him if he noticed a difference in the level of patriotism between now and World War II. That's when I discovered that he was a veteran.
He joined the Navy when he was 17. He gave me his service as 9 years, and then added the months, days, hours and minutes. I told him that I was a Navy veteran, too: 3 years, 11 months, and 4 days. Neither one of us could quite wrap our minds around why people aren't as patriotic as they used to be. He said it's because they don't teach it in the schools anymore. I believe he's right. He also said, "It's hard to be patriotic when your President is a communist." Ouch.
So here we were, 2 different generations, telling war stories in an oncology office. This man was at Hiroshima right after they dropped the bomb. He has a 4-point cane because he has neuropathy in his legs. They think he picked up enough residual radiation to cause damage. He has paid a high price for America's Freedom, for our Liberty. Some paid the ultimate price and didn't get to come home. I watched his eyes as he spoke about the bodies still lying on the ground when he got there. The cost of Freedom is high even for those that got to come home. He said, when he gave his years in service, that he just couldn't take it anymore.
My thoughts went back to Washington, D.C., as he asked me why our President doesn't salute the flag when the National Anthem is played. I didn't have an answer for him. I said there is a whole generation who thinks the last words of the National Anthem are "Play Ball!" I told him a year ago, I never would have believed that a man would run for president that wanted to destroy our country. He agreed.
I knew his generation is too polite to ask, so I volunteered why I was there. I'm a 5 year breast cancer survivor experiencing bone pain in my back and breast bone. I was there for a CT. He shared that he was there for his wife to get an iron infusion. She was a 30 year breast cancer survivor. I told him that if Ben Franklin could fight for our country in pain, so could I, and I would.
That generation paid a high price for America's freedom. Every generation that experienced war has paid a high price. I was a peace time veteran and I still came out patriotic, but I was station-keeping. My sacrifice was of time, of giving up my want-to's, but that was only because of the grace of God. Had I been called upon to sacrifice more, I would have, I will. It was the Cold War, from 1984-88.
We are fast losing this generation of men, and yes, even women, who served in World War II. This man mentioned that fact. I could see the sadness in his eyes as he spoke of the lack of patriotism. I told him that I was trying to form my thoughts for an article on Memorial Day. He asked who I wrote for, and it was on my lips to say, "Oh, just As a Mom." But I stopped myself. I dropped the "just." I said, proudly, "As A Mom. It's a Patriot site for moms. I have my own blog, too. I'm doing all I can to wake America up!"
Remember our Veterans, from ALL branches, and ALL eras, who gave their ALL to keep this country FREE this Memorial Day.
Lori Ann Smith
America's Voice Corps
Standing on the Ramparts
http://loriann12.blogspot.com
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Feds are Declaring war on Arizona?
So the federal government is declaring war on Arizona. Are the rest of worried they'll pick the rest of us off one at a time? That's basically what they are doing when they decide that the laws that Arizona makes are not worth them enforcing. They are not deciding that they need to be repealed, because there is no legal standing to repeal them. They just are not going to enforce them. That's lawlessness. What if they decide that marriages signed (between a man and a woman) entered into in the state of Arizona are not legal? What if they decide that ministers ordained in the state of Arizona are not legal? You think this is outrageous, but a year ago, would you have considered the head of ICE as coming out and saying that it may not process illegal aliens coming out of Arizona. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/21/official-says-feds-process-illegals-referred-arizona/
And do you know what's even more disgraceful? When I did an Internet research of the head of ICE? I found out that Mr. John Morton has the same name as a signer of the Declaration of Independence. So we are being taken down by someone with the same name as a founding father. How disgraceful. You would think that he would have more pride in his name. Did he not research it? Was he not told the history of his own name? Or does he know and despise it? Has he been holding this bitterness in his heart for his whole life?
It's funny...I can't find anything about the man prior to 1999. Did he just fall into this world when he graduated from Virginia Law School? Has this man been vetted? I want to know more about the man who is deciding about all the illegal aliens who get to stay in our country. I want to know more about the man who decides which ones are terrorists and which ones are poor immigrant workers who are just looking for a job. I want to know more about the man who gets to decide not to process Arizona's illegal aliens because he doesn't like their law. What happens if he decides he doesn't like the national law that Arizona's law is written on? Does he just quit processing those illegal aliens that come from every where? Does he get to start letting in terrorists?
We have to disgrace this man and get him out of office for treason. A lawyer can't just ignore the laws he doesn't like. I believe these lawyers have indeed read these laws and are LYING and saying they haven't. That way they don't have to debate the law on it's merits, they can slam it and then say, well, I haven't actually READ it. They know it follows the national law, and they know there is no room for profiling.
Someone with more research capability than me needs to find out if this man is actually related to the founding father of John Morton. John Morton the founding father is rolling over in his grave right now. I hope he haunts him.
Lori Ann Smith
And do you know what's even more disgraceful? When I did an Internet research of the head of ICE? I found out that Mr. John Morton has the same name as a signer of the Declaration of Independence. So we are being taken down by someone with the same name as a founding father. How disgraceful. You would think that he would have more pride in his name. Did he not research it? Was he not told the history of his own name? Or does he know and despise it? Has he been holding this bitterness in his heart for his whole life?
It's funny...I can't find anything about the man prior to 1999. Did he just fall into this world when he graduated from Virginia Law School? Has this man been vetted? I want to know more about the man who is deciding about all the illegal aliens who get to stay in our country. I want to know more about the man who decides which ones are terrorists and which ones are poor immigrant workers who are just looking for a job. I want to know more about the man who gets to decide not to process Arizona's illegal aliens because he doesn't like their law. What happens if he decides he doesn't like the national law that Arizona's law is written on? Does he just quit processing those illegal aliens that come from every where? Does he get to start letting in terrorists?
We have to disgrace this man and get him out of office for treason. A lawyer can't just ignore the laws he doesn't like. I believe these lawyers have indeed read these laws and are LYING and saying they haven't. That way they don't have to debate the law on it's merits, they can slam it and then say, well, I haven't actually READ it. They know it follows the national law, and they know there is no room for profiling.
Someone with more research capability than me needs to find out if this man is actually related to the founding father of John Morton. John Morton the founding father is rolling over in his grave right now. I hope he haunts him.
Lori Ann Smith
Friday, May 21, 2010
Open Letter to President Obama
Mr. President
I am a veteran of the United States of America. I served my country between 1984 and 1988. It was the cold war, no active war was going on, but I still served. I am proud of my service. I can still tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end. I held a secret clearance, and had to sign a document that I wouldn't talk about it for 10 years after I got out. There are things that I still choose to not talk about because I don't know what would hurt my country. Most things I'm pretty sure are so old as to not matter.
I was raised a Democrat by my parents. I was told that Democrats were for the little man, and Republicans were for big business. I decided for myself as an adult that that was not necessarily true and switched parties during the Reagan era. My parents are "split ticket" but vote mostly Democrat. I should correct that. They have suddenly decided that they are Independent with this administration. Funny how that works.
I should actually thank you. You have woken up a whole generation, maybe two or three generations. You see, I was patriotic when patriotic wasn't cool. It's like the country song....I was country when country wasn't cool. I was patriotic back in the mid-80s when it wasn't cool to be patriotic. I still love my country. And seeing you tear her apart is killing me.
When you were up for election, there were all kinds of accusations of your birth place. You brushed them aside and let the controversy fly. I believe that you were born in Hawaii, not because of the shoddy birth certificate that you put up. It was a terrible scan job that I believe you did on purpose to encourage conspiracy theorists to keep everyone distracted. I saw someone hold one and take a picture of it. My son was born in Hawaii. I have an actual certificate that I can compare it to. I moved on from that issue and was able to concentrate on other issues. That's too bad for you. You would love us to divide our time and be too scattered to even think.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have a handicapped child. When I was raising him, they said not to discuss his handicap around him, not to tell him that he couldn't do something because it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tell him he can do anything, and he won't know he can't do it. Don't tell him, well, you're Down syndrome, you won't be able to read that. Teach him to read. When you go on the air and tell everyone that all that information is just too much for us, do you really think that it will stop us from looking? I am just a little bit of a rebel. It makes me think that you're hiding something and don't want me to look too deep because I might find it. I have to admit that I haven't been politically aware over the past 25 years, but I don't really recall any other President ever standing at a pulpit or podium and using it to espouse his agenda to the American people in such a way as you have. I don't remember any other President telling us that information is dangerous. I do remember the press throwing a fit over President Bush saying that we needed Faith Based programs....and now they are silent when you suggest it. I have to wonder why? Are we turning into Russia with their Pravda newspapers?
And now we have the Arizona Immigration Law. Have you read it? Have you read the National Immigration Law? Why are you dividing our country? Does it suit your needs? Are you trying to start a Brown-White civil war? Arizona is enforcing the National Law that you (and to your credit, your predecessor, President Bush) wouldn't enforce. Now, I have to ask you the question, because the press corps won't ask it, what is your immigration status that you are so against us asking for it? Did your step father really give it up in Indonesia? There are no records of you coming back into the country as Barack Obama or Barry Soetoro, through Immigration, so are you an illegal alien as well? Is this why you take Arizona's law so personally?
Let me explain to you why we are so upset. We are not profiling. We don't care about the illegal aliens nationality. We don't care about people coming in who are taking jobs. We feel sorry for people who come in because they need jobs. You have the power to change that, why don't you? You have the chance to be the hero, why don't you? You can write a bill to change immigration law and come to the rescue of all those poor, pitiful people who are having to cross that border and risk their lives. Set up immigration lines, have them fill out the proper paper work, get in line, maybe even cut down the amount of paper work, whatever it takes. Set up schools on the border to teach English as Second Language classes, because we still require that you take the test in English in this country. Once you learn English and can take the test, you're a citizen. But these people don't want to be a citizen, they just want our benefits, and then go home with all our money. And you want to allow that because all you want is to bankrupt America so you can bring about your plan.
And you have another plan. You want a Muslim America. Why do I think this? Because there are more than Mexicans and Central Americans crossing our southern border. I'm from Texas, that's why I'm keenly aware of this issue. You, Mr. President are the elite, and stuck on the East Coast. I'd bet if the Muslims were crossing the Canadian border, those states would be keenly aware of the border issue. I'd bet if the Canadians had a war going on the issue would be making more news. I'd bet if bodies were being found in Montana, Washington, New York, and Michigan, if they were finding Prayer rugs and military jackets with Muslim emblems on them all along our northern border, you wouldn't be hearing the end of it. But there are only 4 states, one of which has the highest Muslim population in the country (California). So, it gets buried.
If you would like to see a video about it, check this out: http://www.wsbtv.com/video/23438021/index.html
Of course, with your resources, now it will get scrubbed off the Internet. There's a news station in Arizona trying to get answers from your Janet Napolitano, but she's refusing an interview. No one wants to address this issue of terrorists crossing our border. Glenn Beck tried back in 2007, but he's just a crazy man. Do you want our border open so terrorists can cross freely? Are you leaving us open for an attack on purpose? America knows about this. When we are attacked there will be NO WAY you will be able to BLAME BUSH for this one.
I have one last question before I go. I want to know, since just about everyone suspects you are a Muslim: Has an Imam declared the jihad on America to be Fard Kifayah? You see, with all this information on the Internet, I was able to find the distinction between two terms in Islam. Fard A'yn is when everyone has to do it and no one can do it for you, like praying and fasting. But Fard Kifayah is when it's called for everyone to do it, but if a sufficient number of people respond, then everyone else is absolved from doing it. Fard Kifayah was declared on the jihad in Afghanistan so that not every Muslim had to kill the communists there. Has it been declared on the Jihad in America? Is that why the moderate Muslims are not coming out and condemning the radical Islam? Because Radical Islam is performing a task for them. If we get rid of all the radical Islamic terrorists, then the moderate Muslims will have to step up and take over the task. Because according to Fard Kifayah, if not enough respond, all are in sin. That would be you, too, if you are indeed Muslim. How will you respond, Mr. President, to Fard Kifayah? And does this cover you, if you are indeed an American? If the Muslims have declared jihad against all America, shouldn't we put more security around you, as an American? You don't seem too worried. Maybe you're not American.
Lori Ann Smith
http://loriann12.blogspot.com
Please help me get this out by sending to everyone you know as long as you keep my name and web site with it. Thank you.
I am a veteran of the United States of America. I served my country between 1984 and 1988. It was the cold war, no active war was going on, but I still served. I am proud of my service. I can still tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end. I held a secret clearance, and had to sign a document that I wouldn't talk about it for 10 years after I got out. There are things that I still choose to not talk about because I don't know what would hurt my country. Most things I'm pretty sure are so old as to not matter.
I was raised a Democrat by my parents. I was told that Democrats were for the little man, and Republicans were for big business. I decided for myself as an adult that that was not necessarily true and switched parties during the Reagan era. My parents are "split ticket" but vote mostly Democrat. I should correct that. They have suddenly decided that they are Independent with this administration. Funny how that works.
I should actually thank you. You have woken up a whole generation, maybe two or three generations. You see, I was patriotic when patriotic wasn't cool. It's like the country song....I was country when country wasn't cool. I was patriotic back in the mid-80s when it wasn't cool to be patriotic. I still love my country. And seeing you tear her apart is killing me.
When you were up for election, there were all kinds of accusations of your birth place. You brushed them aside and let the controversy fly. I believe that you were born in Hawaii, not because of the shoddy birth certificate that you put up. It was a terrible scan job that I believe you did on purpose to encourage conspiracy theorists to keep everyone distracted. I saw someone hold one and take a picture of it. My son was born in Hawaii. I have an actual certificate that I can compare it to. I moved on from that issue and was able to concentrate on other issues. That's too bad for you. You would love us to divide our time and be too scattered to even think.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have a handicapped child. When I was raising him, they said not to discuss his handicap around him, not to tell him that he couldn't do something because it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tell him he can do anything, and he won't know he can't do it. Don't tell him, well, you're Down syndrome, you won't be able to read that. Teach him to read. When you go on the air and tell everyone that all that information is just too much for us, do you really think that it will stop us from looking? I am just a little bit of a rebel. It makes me think that you're hiding something and don't want me to look too deep because I might find it. I have to admit that I haven't been politically aware over the past 25 years, but I don't really recall any other President ever standing at a pulpit or podium and using it to espouse his agenda to the American people in such a way as you have. I don't remember any other President telling us that information is dangerous. I do remember the press throwing a fit over President Bush saying that we needed Faith Based programs....and now they are silent when you suggest it. I have to wonder why? Are we turning into Russia with their Pravda newspapers?
And now we have the Arizona Immigration Law. Have you read it? Have you read the National Immigration Law? Why are you dividing our country? Does it suit your needs? Are you trying to start a Brown-White civil war? Arizona is enforcing the National Law that you (and to your credit, your predecessor, President Bush) wouldn't enforce. Now, I have to ask you the question, because the press corps won't ask it, what is your immigration status that you are so against us asking for it? Did your step father really give it up in Indonesia? There are no records of you coming back into the country as Barack Obama or Barry Soetoro, through Immigration, so are you an illegal alien as well? Is this why you take Arizona's law so personally?
Let me explain to you why we are so upset. We are not profiling. We don't care about the illegal aliens nationality. We don't care about people coming in who are taking jobs. We feel sorry for people who come in because they need jobs. You have the power to change that, why don't you? You have the chance to be the hero, why don't you? You can write a bill to change immigration law and come to the rescue of all those poor, pitiful people who are having to cross that border and risk their lives. Set up immigration lines, have them fill out the proper paper work, get in line, maybe even cut down the amount of paper work, whatever it takes. Set up schools on the border to teach English as Second Language classes, because we still require that you take the test in English in this country. Once you learn English and can take the test, you're a citizen. But these people don't want to be a citizen, they just want our benefits, and then go home with all our money. And you want to allow that because all you want is to bankrupt America so you can bring about your plan.
And you have another plan. You want a Muslim America. Why do I think this? Because there are more than Mexicans and Central Americans crossing our southern border. I'm from Texas, that's why I'm keenly aware of this issue. You, Mr. President are the elite, and stuck on the East Coast. I'd bet if the Muslims were crossing the Canadian border, those states would be keenly aware of the border issue. I'd bet if the Canadians had a war going on the issue would be making more news. I'd bet if bodies were being found in Montana, Washington, New York, and Michigan, if they were finding Prayer rugs and military jackets with Muslim emblems on them all along our northern border, you wouldn't be hearing the end of it. But there are only 4 states, one of which has the highest Muslim population in the country (California). So, it gets buried.
If you would like to see a video about it, check this out: http://www.wsbtv.com/video/23438021/index.html
Of course, with your resources, now it will get scrubbed off the Internet. There's a news station in Arizona trying to get answers from your Janet Napolitano, but she's refusing an interview. No one wants to address this issue of terrorists crossing our border. Glenn Beck tried back in 2007, but he's just a crazy man. Do you want our border open so terrorists can cross freely? Are you leaving us open for an attack on purpose? America knows about this. When we are attacked there will be NO WAY you will be able to BLAME BUSH for this one.
I have one last question before I go. I want to know, since just about everyone suspects you are a Muslim: Has an Imam declared the jihad on America to be Fard Kifayah? You see, with all this information on the Internet, I was able to find the distinction between two terms in Islam. Fard A'yn is when everyone has to do it and no one can do it for you, like praying and fasting. But Fard Kifayah is when it's called for everyone to do it, but if a sufficient number of people respond, then everyone else is absolved from doing it. Fard Kifayah was declared on the jihad in Afghanistan so that not every Muslim had to kill the communists there. Has it been declared on the Jihad in America? Is that why the moderate Muslims are not coming out and condemning the radical Islam? Because Radical Islam is performing a task for them. If we get rid of all the radical Islamic terrorists, then the moderate Muslims will have to step up and take over the task. Because according to Fard Kifayah, if not enough respond, all are in sin. That would be you, too, if you are indeed Muslim. How will you respond, Mr. President, to Fard Kifayah? And does this cover you, if you are indeed an American? If the Muslims have declared jihad against all America, shouldn't we put more security around you, as an American? You don't seem too worried. Maybe you're not American.
Lori Ann Smith
http://loriann12.blogspot.com
Please help me get this out by sending to everyone you know as long as you keep my name and web site with it. Thank you.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
I Don't Feel So Alone
I've had a lot going on medically lately. Seems like Satan has been attacking. I've cried out to God asking why me? I've been feeling lately like I could break under the strain of it all. I even felt like I should pull in and just take care of my family for a while. I felt like I should forget all this politics stuff, my family needs me more. Besides, I'm just one person. Starting to sound like my brother in law.
Let me briefly explain what all has been going on in my family. This is not a pity party. This is just so that you can see how full my plate is. Some of you liberals who are sitting in your parent's basement with no job, just blogging away with nothing to do, or maybe you come home from your nice cushy job, and have a few extra minutes and decide to throw a few words on a page, take heed to my life. I'm sure there are more like me, I'm not alone. And I'm sure there are liberals out there with a lot on their plate and just as dedicated to their cause, I'm not saying we have a corner on the market.
First, I have the stuff I've always had: I have a Down syndrome adult son, who just turned 20. He's also autistic. He doesn't understand that he's not the center of the universe. I have to keep up with his meds and appointments. He just needed new glasses. Turns out that his vision had slipped to 20/80. He has snowflake cataracts and they can only correct to 20/30 now. I have a gifted son who just switched schools to a charter school. No drama there. He'll be 11 next month, a "tween," so lovely hormones are kicking in. He's severely ADHD, so we have med checks and I have to make sure I don't run out of meds.
I have epilepsy, so I have to make sure I eat right, get enough sleep, don't alter my caffeine intake drastically, etc. It's under control, but drastic changes could change that. All three of us have celiac disease. That's an auto-immune disease controlled with diet. If you think it's easy to cook gluten free ALL the time, you try it. Can't just say, don't feel like cooking, let's order a pizza. When you eat out, you have to read everything. When you shop, you have to read everything. And Walmart? They just relabeled everything in their nice white labels? And everything says "may contain wheat" which means we can't eat it. Even their drink mixes say that. We may boycott Walmart. Wonder why their sales are down? The whole Celiac community can't shop there. They aren't going to buy name brand in these hard times. They're going to other stores and buying their store brand.
Then, my husband was walking/running to get out of therain and ran across the church parking lot and tore the cartilage in his knee. He just had knee surgery. There were complications and his whole leg swelled up. First they thought he had a blood clot. He was also in the emergency room with suspected pancreatitis. Turned out his doctor over-reacted because she wasn't going to be in the office on Friday and if the numbers of his labs kept climbing, he wouldn't have made it the weekend, so she wanted him admitted. The ER released him. I had to drop and run at the ER, because I was on my way to my own appointment. I was getting my back X-Rayed because I've been having back pain that gets worse at night. I'm also a breast cancer survivor, and that's not something you want to hear...bone pain that gets worse at night. My x-rays came back clear...praise God. But what is it? So today I went for a T-spine MRI to find out just what it is....
It's a good thing I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Half way through the MRI, just after they injected the dye, and put me back in the machine, the MRI machine broke...with me in it. Isn't this how the movie always starts? Conservative blogger is in an MRI, the President's men find out she has an MRI so they put a gun to the tech's head and "break" the machine. People are running and screaming, bullets are flying.... But he comes out, "Man, did you hear that? The machine broke..." As he pulls me out manually. He has to reboot the machine, like rebooting a computer....said it was the second time this week. Oh, but they validated my valet parking for me. I valet parked because I happened to have $6 in my wallet and I was late for my appointment because of traffic. God is good. I tipped her $1 anyway.
So, my plate is full. Enough to make me want to take care of me and my family only, ya think? Oh, and I forgot, I had my mammogram yesterday. Thank God, it came back clear, too. After finding a cyst 7 months ago. After taking care of my family, I'm a month late for that diagnostic mammogram.
But, yesterday, I sat a really long time in the waiting room, in the little gown they give us, because there was an emergency. I sat with another lady because they only have 2 rooms. We talked small talk. What do you say to another woman in a gown that only Velcros at the top? We talked a little religion....I'm Baptist, she's Methodist...really, I used to be Methodist. Do you watch Glenn Beck? Really?! Love it! I'm discovering there are a lot more conservatives in the Dallas metroplex than I ever imagined. Not in Dallas proper, but in the surrounding areas. Dallas, we have you outnumbered!
I am embarrassed to say that we have two city hall members in Dallas calling for a boycott of Arizona. I don't think they'll get it. Well, maybe from Dallas the city, but not from Dallas county. If there is one good thing that has come from all my medical appointments lately, I have learned that I AM NOT ALONE. America is waking up. We do outnumber the liberals. I was afraid that America was asleep because my brother in law lives in Dallas, and he is still asleep. Maybe he moved to Dallas because he feels more comfortable with that ilk. It did teach me, no matter what, I can't give in. No matter my health issues. No matter what Satan throws at me...there is always time to fight. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Bring it on.
Lori Ann Smith
Let me briefly explain what all has been going on in my family. This is not a pity party. This is just so that you can see how full my plate is. Some of you liberals who are sitting in your parent's basement with no job, just blogging away with nothing to do, or maybe you come home from your nice cushy job, and have a few extra minutes and decide to throw a few words on a page, take heed to my life. I'm sure there are more like me, I'm not alone. And I'm sure there are liberals out there with a lot on their plate and just as dedicated to their cause, I'm not saying we have a corner on the market.
First, I have the stuff I've always had: I have a Down syndrome adult son, who just turned 20. He's also autistic. He doesn't understand that he's not the center of the universe. I have to keep up with his meds and appointments. He just needed new glasses. Turns out that his vision had slipped to 20/80. He has snowflake cataracts and they can only correct to 20/30 now. I have a gifted son who just switched schools to a charter school. No drama there. He'll be 11 next month, a "tween," so lovely hormones are kicking in. He's severely ADHD, so we have med checks and I have to make sure I don't run out of meds.
I have epilepsy, so I have to make sure I eat right, get enough sleep, don't alter my caffeine intake drastically, etc. It's under control, but drastic changes could change that. All three of us have celiac disease. That's an auto-immune disease controlled with diet. If you think it's easy to cook gluten free ALL the time, you try it. Can't just say, don't feel like cooking, let's order a pizza. When you eat out, you have to read everything. When you shop, you have to read everything. And Walmart? They just relabeled everything in their nice white labels? And everything says "may contain wheat" which means we can't eat it. Even their drink mixes say that. We may boycott Walmart. Wonder why their sales are down? The whole Celiac community can't shop there. They aren't going to buy name brand in these hard times. They're going to other stores and buying their store brand.
Then, my husband was walking/running to get out of therain and ran across the church parking lot and tore the cartilage in his knee. He just had knee surgery. There were complications and his whole leg swelled up. First they thought he had a blood clot. He was also in the emergency room with suspected pancreatitis. Turned out his doctor over-reacted because she wasn't going to be in the office on Friday and if the numbers of his labs kept climbing, he wouldn't have made it the weekend, so she wanted him admitted. The ER released him. I had to drop and run at the ER, because I was on my way to my own appointment. I was getting my back X-Rayed because I've been having back pain that gets worse at night. I'm also a breast cancer survivor, and that's not something you want to hear...bone pain that gets worse at night. My x-rays came back clear...praise God. But what is it? So today I went for a T-spine MRI to find out just what it is....
It's a good thing I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Half way through the MRI, just after they injected the dye, and put me back in the machine, the MRI machine broke...with me in it. Isn't this how the movie always starts? Conservative blogger is in an MRI, the President's men find out she has an MRI so they put a gun to the tech's head and "break" the machine. People are running and screaming, bullets are flying.... But he comes out, "Man, did you hear that? The machine broke..." As he pulls me out manually. He has to reboot the machine, like rebooting a computer....said it was the second time this week. Oh, but they validated my valet parking for me. I valet parked because I happened to have $6 in my wallet and I was late for my appointment because of traffic. God is good. I tipped her $1 anyway.
So, my plate is full. Enough to make me want to take care of me and my family only, ya think? Oh, and I forgot, I had my mammogram yesterday. Thank God, it came back clear, too. After finding a cyst 7 months ago. After taking care of my family, I'm a month late for that diagnostic mammogram.
But, yesterday, I sat a really long time in the waiting room, in the little gown they give us, because there was an emergency. I sat with another lady because they only have 2 rooms. We talked small talk. What do you say to another woman in a gown that only Velcros at the top? We talked a little religion....I'm Baptist, she's Methodist...really, I used to be Methodist. Do you watch Glenn Beck? Really?! Love it! I'm discovering there are a lot more conservatives in the Dallas metroplex than I ever imagined. Not in Dallas proper, but in the surrounding areas. Dallas, we have you outnumbered!
I am embarrassed to say that we have two city hall members in Dallas calling for a boycott of Arizona. I don't think they'll get it. Well, maybe from Dallas the city, but not from Dallas county. If there is one good thing that has come from all my medical appointments lately, I have learned that I AM NOT ALONE. America is waking up. We do outnumber the liberals. I was afraid that America was asleep because my brother in law lives in Dallas, and he is still asleep. Maybe he moved to Dallas because he feels more comfortable with that ilk. It did teach me, no matter what, I can't give in. No matter my health issues. No matter what Satan throws at me...there is always time to fight. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Bring it on.
Lori Ann Smith
A Brief Explanation
I added this to the end of the previous blog, so you may have missed it. I thought it was important enough to warrant it's own blog.
I have uncovered two terms in the Muslim community that could possibly explain why Moderate Muslims are not rushing to condemn Radical Islam.
First, I got this from the following web site, so you can look it up yourself: http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/azzam/defense/chap3.html.
I'm cutting and pasting the exact definition first:
Fard Ayn
It is the Fard that is a compulsory duty on every single Muslim to perform like praying and fasting.
Fard Kifaya
It is the Fard that if performed by some, the obligation falls from the rest. The meaning of Fard Kifaya, is that if there are not enough people that respond to it, then all the people are in sin. If sufficient amount of people respond, the obligation falls from the rest.
____________
Now, do you get the distinction there? In Fard Ayn, every one has to do it, like praying however many times they do it, every day. That's why they have to make our schools allow them to pray. We can't pray in school, but they can. Supposedly it's their souls in danger if they don't pray to Mecca. According to our religion, we can pray at any time, any where, with our eyes open, talking to God at any time, etc. They have strict guidelines, have to lay the rug down, bow so many times, face Mecca, etc. So we have to allow them this because it's their soul in danger. They won't get to go to heaven if we don't allow this. How terrible of us. No more separation of church and state. In the Muslim countries, the church is the state. Do you see that happening here now, with President Obama merging "Faith based incentives?" Did you hear the outcry when President Bush did it? Where is the outcry from the press now that President Obama is calling for it? No where, because the press is Obama's Pravda.
Now, Fard Kifayah is different. It's a requirement for all, but if a sufficient amount of people respond to it, they won't hold the whole population responsible. This particular article uses Afghanistan as an example. I didn't see a date, but I assume it's old. I have to wonder, did they get some Emam to declare the jihad against the United States as Fard Kifayah? If enough respond to it, the Moderate Muslims don't have to respond?
The article states 14 countries, but doesn't list them. Are we one of those 14 countries? They want to eradicate the "communists" from the lands. Should President Obama be concerned? He's spouting communist principles all the while he's trying to "fundamentally transform" our nation...into what? And yet he doesn't want to step on the toes of the Muslim community. Is he trying to transform our country without alarming them? Or is he trying to keep us focused on communism because that's been our foe for so many years? All the while, he's been a Muslim and he wants to transform us into a Muslim nation.
I've been researching the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66 (http://www.massviolence.org/Indonesian-Killings-of-1965-1966) written by Dr. Katherine McGregor. The Indonesian government tricked (according to the nation of Islam) the Muslim youth group into helping to kill between 75,000 and 2 million communists during the period of 1965 and 1968. The number accepted is 500,000 because there were reasons to under report and over report. The military (of Indonesia) was involved as well. Is our government tricking us into being against the communists now, so we don't look to Islam? We are constantly told to look to Communism, or old enemy. We are constantly told there are no radical Islams. The moderate Muslims won't stand up and say we are moderate, we don't want jihad.
Is this because the radical Islams are being their Jesus and getting them into heaven to be with their 70 virgins? Are the radical Islam terrorists, performing Fard Kifayah, being the few who absolve the many from the duty of jihad?
Is this the reason that President Obama wishes to shut down the Internet so that we can't research these things? I'm only slightly above average intelligence. And with the medications I'm on, I'd say I have my days when I fall below average. I am one person. I don't do a whole lot of good, because I don't reach a large audience with the information that I uncover. Help me. Spread this around. I don't know if this information is dangerous to me personally, and frankly, I don't care. I am one person, with a family, but my country is more important to me. I fought for my country once....I will continue to fight until I'm taken down. Information needs to get out. Are we facing Fard Kifayah? I don't know....but I do know that the Moderate Muslim seems to be a myth. I don't see any speaking out against radical Islam.
Lori Ann Smith
I have uncovered two terms in the Muslim community that could possibly explain why Moderate Muslims are not rushing to condemn Radical Islam.
First, I got this from the following web site, so you can look it up yourself: http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/azzam/defense/chap3.html.
I'm cutting and pasting the exact definition first:
Fard Ayn
It is the Fard that is a compulsory duty on every single Muslim to perform like praying and fasting.
Fard Kifaya
It is the Fard that if performed by some, the obligation falls from the rest. The meaning of Fard Kifaya, is that if there are not enough people that respond to it, then all the people are in sin. If sufficient amount of people respond, the obligation falls from the rest.
____________
Now, do you get the distinction there? In Fard Ayn, every one has to do it, like praying however many times they do it, every day. That's why they have to make our schools allow them to pray. We can't pray in school, but they can. Supposedly it's their souls in danger if they don't pray to Mecca. According to our religion, we can pray at any time, any where, with our eyes open, talking to God at any time, etc. They have strict guidelines, have to lay the rug down, bow so many times, face Mecca, etc. So we have to allow them this because it's their soul in danger. They won't get to go to heaven if we don't allow this. How terrible of us. No more separation of church and state. In the Muslim countries, the church is the state. Do you see that happening here now, with President Obama merging "Faith based incentives?" Did you hear the outcry when President Bush did it? Where is the outcry from the press now that President Obama is calling for it? No where, because the press is Obama's Pravda.
Now, Fard Kifayah is different. It's a requirement for all, but if a sufficient amount of people respond to it, they won't hold the whole population responsible. This particular article uses Afghanistan as an example. I didn't see a date, but I assume it's old. I have to wonder, did they get some Emam to declare the jihad against the United States as Fard Kifayah? If enough respond to it, the Moderate Muslims don't have to respond?
The article states 14 countries, but doesn't list them. Are we one of those 14 countries? They want to eradicate the "communists" from the lands. Should President Obama be concerned? He's spouting communist principles all the while he's trying to "fundamentally transform" our nation...into what? And yet he doesn't want to step on the toes of the Muslim community. Is he trying to transform our country without alarming them? Or is he trying to keep us focused on communism because that's been our foe for so many years? All the while, he's been a Muslim and he wants to transform us into a Muslim nation.
I've been researching the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66 (http://www.massviolence.org/Indonesian-Killings-of-1965-1966) written by Dr. Katherine McGregor. The Indonesian government tricked (according to the nation of Islam) the Muslim youth group into helping to kill between 75,000 and 2 million communists during the period of 1965 and 1968. The number accepted is 500,000 because there were reasons to under report and over report. The military (of Indonesia) was involved as well. Is our government tricking us into being against the communists now, so we don't look to Islam? We are constantly told to look to Communism, or old enemy. We are constantly told there are no radical Islams. The moderate Muslims won't stand up and say we are moderate, we don't want jihad.
Is this because the radical Islams are being their Jesus and getting them into heaven to be with their 70 virgins? Are the radical Islam terrorists, performing Fard Kifayah, being the few who absolve the many from the duty of jihad?
Is this the reason that President Obama wishes to shut down the Internet so that we can't research these things? I'm only slightly above average intelligence. And with the medications I'm on, I'd say I have my days when I fall below average. I am one person. I don't do a whole lot of good, because I don't reach a large audience with the information that I uncover. Help me. Spread this around. I don't know if this information is dangerous to me personally, and frankly, I don't care. I am one person, with a family, but my country is more important to me. I fought for my country once....I will continue to fight until I'm taken down. Information needs to get out. Are we facing Fard Kifayah? I don't know....but I do know that the Moderate Muslim seems to be a myth. I don't see any speaking out against radical Islam.
Lori Ann Smith
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I am an American
I am an American. Lately I feel like a rape victim. I've been thinking about all the advice over the years of what they tell you to do as a victim of rape. They've told women in the past to not resist an attacker, and it won't be so bad. Remember those days? Just lay there and take it and you will live through it. Go in your mind to your "happy place" and they can do anything to your body but they can't take your mind. I'm sorry, but bull crap. You can try that, I'm gonna kick him where it hurts little boys the most.
I'm afraid that's what 1.) the liberals are doing to us. And then as we lie there, 2.) the illegal aliens see us and see an opportunity to get in on the deal. And then there are 3.) the Muslim population who hate us anyway and now there's a line. It's a gang rape.
Well, I know this whole time I've been preaching peace, but I can only take so much. My head is about to explode. I'm not going to go off half cocked and start something, which is what Obama wants. But I'll tell you what, there are some pro-active things we can do. It's just like being a victim of rape. You don't have to put yourself in a dangerous situation.
Let's keep this in the rape analogy. If you've been the victim once, do you go into that same situation unarmed? No. You change the rules a bit. If some smooth-talking SOB lies to you and gets you into a compromising situation, you don't trust him again. OK, apply that to the liberals/progressives. I added progressives to that because there are Republican progressives. I learned a new term the other day. CINO. Conservatives In Name Only. I am for getting rid of every politician who has been in office for more than 2 terms. That's a career. I don't like career politicians because I am learning real fast that they will tell you anything they think you want to hear to get you in bed with them. How many politicians lately have switched parties? I've lost count. It used to be that the parties were diametrically opposed on issues. How could you switch? The big issues were abortion, spending, and the size of government. Suddenly you're for abortion, or against spending when you were for it? Suddenly you like big government when you didn't? I don't think so. You decided the public opinion changed and you want to keep your job. Men or women in government should want what they think is best for our Republic, and they should have a conviction to change things, for a short time, and then go back to their real jobs. Do our politicians have REAL jobs?
Immigration. Do these illegal aliens want to stay in our country? Fine, get in line and change your immigration status the legal way. I get the feeling, though that they just want the bennies and the freebies so they can send them home to their real country. Otherwise they wouldn't still be flying the flag of their REAL country. I'm Irish, but I don't fly the flag of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. I'm American. When all the Irish in my family immigrated here (a long time ago mind you) they probably came through Ellis Island. I'll bet they met with a lot of discrimination, too. What's the slang for Irish people? I don't even know. I'm part French, too. I don't wave the French flag either. I do know that my family changed the spelling of their name during the French and Indian war so as to not be labeled as being French. From Waldeaux to Waldo. I guess that means there was discrimination back then, too. It's gonna happen, it's human nature. Did you know when Obama was in Indonesia, in 1966, the Indonesian President made it a LAW that all Chinese with Chinese sounding names had to change them to Indonesian sounding names? That's racism. That law was in effect until 2000. America doesn't have the market on racism. You can check it out yourself...google China 1966 Indonesia. Of course, you may need to use a different search engine than google. It was called Decision 124. But I digress. If they were intent on becoming one with this nation, they wouldn't be raping us of our resources, they would be fitting in.
As it stands, they are grabbing what they can, and running. That's rape. What can we do? Change the laws. The suckers will fall off. We make it easy. It's like a victim walking down a dark alley unprotected. If you are a woman, do you walk down a dark alley alone at night? Or do you park your car under a street light and carry your keys between your fingers and look into the corners and watch carefully? We make it easy for them to rape us of our resources. We leave the car unlocked, leave a bag of groceries in the seat, leave our wallet in the seat with our address in it, leave our kids at home with the door unlocked for them to take. This has got to stop.
Tightening up the borders is not just for the "brown man." I don't care what color your skin is. I have "brown" friends. Look at who is whipping up the discontent. California. Where is the biggest concentration of Muslims in America? California. You can get that off the Internet, too. Why do you think our illustrious President says too much information is bad for you? Too much information is bad for HIM.
I did a little research on our president. I found some one's blog who figured out that our president has an estimated IQ of 125. Guess what? Mine is higher than that. My son's is higher than that. My son just tested in the top 1% of his class. In IQ of 125 these days is close to average, isn't it? Any average person knows how to research stuff on the Internet. They can look stuff up. Our president doesn't want you to do that. He will find a way to stop you from doing that. He is trying to get the Internet listed as a public utility so that he can regulate it so that all this pesky information doesn't bog you down and depress you. Do you want that? Just another way to rape America. And now our "friends" are getting in on the act. That's ok, we can get rid of our friends, too. That's what elections are for. We have got to shrink government back down to have less power.
These are the radicals of the 1960's (yes, I know, he was born in 1961 - but he studied at their feet), who just didn't grow up. They still want to overthrow the government and turn it into a Marxist utopia. The problem? They are now inside the government and have the power to do it. And we are all asleep. We've been given a date rape drug and they can do anything to us that they want. We have got to get people in Congress that have no interest in STAYING in congress. We need people who want to fix things and then go home to their real jobs.
We also need protection for these people, because of the 3rd threat. The radical Muslims are real. I don't know how big the radical Muslims are, because the "moderate" Muslims won't stand up. For all I know, they are the myth. I don't hear much from them. That tells me either 1.) Radical Muslims are so huge and powerful that the moderates are afraid of them because they value their lives more than standing up for us or 2.) Moderate Muslim is a myth and in order to be a practicing Muslim, you have to kill the infidels or convert them. If I'm wrong, stand up and condemn the radicals. Preach peace. I don't see it happening.
Update: I found an interestiong article on http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/azzam/defense/chap3.html. It gives the definition of two Muslim terms, Fard Ayn and Fard Kifaya. Fard Ayn: It is the Fard that is a compulsory duty on every single Muslim to perform like praying and fasting. Fard Kifaya: It is the Fard that if performed by some, the obligation falls from the rest.
Now, do you get the distinction here? If the radical Muslims perform the jihad of eradicating the world of the infidels, then the moderate Muslims don't have to do it. All they have to do is get some Emam to declare jihad to be Fard Kifaya. That would absolve all Moderate Muslims from jihad. That's why they aren't standing up and condemning the radical Muslims. They are performing their duty for them. They are their substitute to get them into heaven and their 70 virgins. They are being their Jesus. I have signed my own death warrant? Do I care? I know where I'm going, do you?
Lori Ann Smith
I'm afraid that's what 1.) the liberals are doing to us. And then as we lie there, 2.) the illegal aliens see us and see an opportunity to get in on the deal. And then there are 3.) the Muslim population who hate us anyway and now there's a line. It's a gang rape.
Well, I know this whole time I've been preaching peace, but I can only take so much. My head is about to explode. I'm not going to go off half cocked and start something, which is what Obama wants. But I'll tell you what, there are some pro-active things we can do. It's just like being a victim of rape. You don't have to put yourself in a dangerous situation.
Let's keep this in the rape analogy. If you've been the victim once, do you go into that same situation unarmed? No. You change the rules a bit. If some smooth-talking SOB lies to you and gets you into a compromising situation, you don't trust him again. OK, apply that to the liberals/progressives. I added progressives to that because there are Republican progressives. I learned a new term the other day. CINO. Conservatives In Name Only. I am for getting rid of every politician who has been in office for more than 2 terms. That's a career. I don't like career politicians because I am learning real fast that they will tell you anything they think you want to hear to get you in bed with them. How many politicians lately have switched parties? I've lost count. It used to be that the parties were diametrically opposed on issues. How could you switch? The big issues were abortion, spending, and the size of government. Suddenly you're for abortion, or against spending when you were for it? Suddenly you like big government when you didn't? I don't think so. You decided the public opinion changed and you want to keep your job. Men or women in government should want what they think is best for our Republic, and they should have a conviction to change things, for a short time, and then go back to their real jobs. Do our politicians have REAL jobs?
Immigration. Do these illegal aliens want to stay in our country? Fine, get in line and change your immigration status the legal way. I get the feeling, though that they just want the bennies and the freebies so they can send them home to their real country. Otherwise they wouldn't still be flying the flag of their REAL country. I'm Irish, but I don't fly the flag of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. I'm American. When all the Irish in my family immigrated here (a long time ago mind you) they probably came through Ellis Island. I'll bet they met with a lot of discrimination, too. What's the slang for Irish people? I don't even know. I'm part French, too. I don't wave the French flag either. I do know that my family changed the spelling of their name during the French and Indian war so as to not be labeled as being French. From Waldeaux to Waldo. I guess that means there was discrimination back then, too. It's gonna happen, it's human nature. Did you know when Obama was in Indonesia, in 1966, the Indonesian President made it a LAW that all Chinese with Chinese sounding names had to change them to Indonesian sounding names? That's racism. That law was in effect until 2000. America doesn't have the market on racism. You can check it out yourself...google China 1966 Indonesia. Of course, you may need to use a different search engine than google. It was called Decision 124. But I digress. If they were intent on becoming one with this nation, they wouldn't be raping us of our resources, they would be fitting in.
As it stands, they are grabbing what they can, and running. That's rape. What can we do? Change the laws. The suckers will fall off. We make it easy. It's like a victim walking down a dark alley unprotected. If you are a woman, do you walk down a dark alley alone at night? Or do you park your car under a street light and carry your keys between your fingers and look into the corners and watch carefully? We make it easy for them to rape us of our resources. We leave the car unlocked, leave a bag of groceries in the seat, leave our wallet in the seat with our address in it, leave our kids at home with the door unlocked for them to take. This has got to stop.
Tightening up the borders is not just for the "brown man." I don't care what color your skin is. I have "brown" friends. Look at who is whipping up the discontent. California. Where is the biggest concentration of Muslims in America? California. You can get that off the Internet, too. Why do you think our illustrious President says too much information is bad for you? Too much information is bad for HIM.
I did a little research on our president. I found some one's blog who figured out that our president has an estimated IQ of 125. Guess what? Mine is higher than that. My son's is higher than that. My son just tested in the top 1% of his class. In IQ of 125 these days is close to average, isn't it? Any average person knows how to research stuff on the Internet. They can look stuff up. Our president doesn't want you to do that. He will find a way to stop you from doing that. He is trying to get the Internet listed as a public utility so that he can regulate it so that all this pesky information doesn't bog you down and depress you. Do you want that? Just another way to rape America. And now our "friends" are getting in on the act. That's ok, we can get rid of our friends, too. That's what elections are for. We have got to shrink government back down to have less power.
These are the radicals of the 1960's (yes, I know, he was born in 1961 - but he studied at their feet), who just didn't grow up. They still want to overthrow the government and turn it into a Marxist utopia. The problem? They are now inside the government and have the power to do it. And we are all asleep. We've been given a date rape drug and they can do anything to us that they want. We have got to get people in Congress that have no interest in STAYING in congress. We need people who want to fix things and then go home to their real jobs.
We also need protection for these people, because of the 3rd threat. The radical Muslims are real. I don't know how big the radical Muslims are, because the "moderate" Muslims won't stand up. For all I know, they are the myth. I don't hear much from them. That tells me either 1.) Radical Muslims are so huge and powerful that the moderates are afraid of them because they value their lives more than standing up for us or 2.) Moderate Muslim is a myth and in order to be a practicing Muslim, you have to kill the infidels or convert them. If I'm wrong, stand up and condemn the radicals. Preach peace. I don't see it happening.
Update: I found an interestiong article on http://www.islamistwatch.org/texts/azzam/defense/chap3.html. It gives the definition of two Muslim terms, Fard Ayn and Fard Kifaya. Fard Ayn: It is the Fard that is a compulsory duty on every single Muslim to perform like praying and fasting. Fard Kifaya: It is the Fard that if performed by some, the obligation falls from the rest.
Now, do you get the distinction here? If the radical Muslims perform the jihad of eradicating the world of the infidels, then the moderate Muslims don't have to do it. All they have to do is get some Emam to declare jihad to be Fard Kifaya. That would absolve all Moderate Muslims from jihad. That's why they aren't standing up and condemning the radical Muslims. They are performing their duty for them. They are their substitute to get them into heaven and their 70 virgins. They are being their Jesus. I have signed my own death warrant? Do I care? I know where I'm going, do you?
Lori Ann Smith
Enough Money?
Thomas Sowell did an interesting article on enough money...it can be found here: http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/05/18/enough_money
It got me to thinking. I have that situation inside my family that might make it easier to understand, on a more personal level. Let me explain our situation.
My husband and I make about $52,000 a year, if you include his Military retirement check. We have 2 children, one of which is special needs. We're paying 2 mortgages because we moved out of a house we had bought with my MIL and FIL. Let's just say it didn't work out. They own their half, so there's no mortgage. They send us a pro-rated half of the property tax (because she insists that they get a senior discount on their half of the property tax) and half the insurance...yes, I have to figure out what their senior discount is and it comes out to 44%.
My in-laws are both on social security, but she works part time, with no bills. My father in law gets a retirement, though really small, from another firm. When you figure all that, they actually clear more than we do. They closed off the upstairs where we used to live, which has separate heat and ac, while we're trying to sell it so it's not running.
My brother in law and his wife both work at AT&T. They make in the range of $150,000 a year with no kids. To their credit, they do have a steep mortgage because he just moved into a quarter of a million dollar condo in Dallas to be closer to his job. But that means he doesn't commute for 45 minutes one way any more.
Now, my brother in law just decided that WE are going in and buying mom a new computer for Christmas. Her computer is newer than ours. It's faster than ours. We told him if we were going to buy a computer, it would be for us. We can't even afford one for us, let alone one for her. Do you know what he told us? We have until Christmas. Skip meals and save the money we would have spent on food to buy her one.
These liberals will just never get it. When it's not their money, they just don't care. If he wanted his mother to have a new computer, he would pay for the whole thing out of his pocket. He is the richest one in our family. But, you see, he doesn't have enough money yet, but he has determined that we do have enough money. Even though we make half the amount that he does, and have twice as many people in our family as he does and probably pay the same mortgage as him (because we're paying a double one to his high priced one).
We have got to kick all the liberals out of Congress like cutting cancer out of a body.
Lori Ann Smith
It got me to thinking. I have that situation inside my family that might make it easier to understand, on a more personal level. Let me explain our situation.
My husband and I make about $52,000 a year, if you include his Military retirement check. We have 2 children, one of which is special needs. We're paying 2 mortgages because we moved out of a house we had bought with my MIL and FIL. Let's just say it didn't work out. They own their half, so there's no mortgage. They send us a pro-rated half of the property tax (because she insists that they get a senior discount on their half of the property tax) and half the insurance...yes, I have to figure out what their senior discount is and it comes out to 44%.
My in-laws are both on social security, but she works part time, with no bills. My father in law gets a retirement, though really small, from another firm. When you figure all that, they actually clear more than we do. They closed off the upstairs where we used to live, which has separate heat and ac, while we're trying to sell it so it's not running.
My brother in law and his wife both work at AT&T. They make in the range of $150,000 a year with no kids. To their credit, they do have a steep mortgage because he just moved into a quarter of a million dollar condo in Dallas to be closer to his job. But that means he doesn't commute for 45 minutes one way any more.
Now, my brother in law just decided that WE are going in and buying mom a new computer for Christmas. Her computer is newer than ours. It's faster than ours. We told him if we were going to buy a computer, it would be for us. We can't even afford one for us, let alone one for her. Do you know what he told us? We have until Christmas. Skip meals and save the money we would have spent on food to buy her one.
These liberals will just never get it. When it's not their money, they just don't care. If he wanted his mother to have a new computer, he would pay for the whole thing out of his pocket. He is the richest one in our family. But, you see, he doesn't have enough money yet, but he has determined that we do have enough money. Even though we make half the amount that he does, and have twice as many people in our family as he does and probably pay the same mortgage as him (because we're paying a double one to his high priced one).
We have got to kick all the liberals out of Congress like cutting cancer out of a body.
Lori Ann Smith
Thursday, May 13, 2010
I may take a break
You may not hear from me for a while....I have some health issues that I need to attend to. Just so you don't think something is up. My attentions are just so divided lately. As soon as some tests come back and I know what I'm dealing with, I'll let everyone know. It's the not knowing that's tough.
Lori Ann Smith
Lori Ann Smith
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Driving in Texas
I've been wondering, here in Texas, how illegals -- oops, excuse me, undocumented aliens -- get around. How do you register a car when you don't have a green card? How do you drive a car or insure it when you don't have it registered?
Well, we're trying to sell a car and we just had that questioned answered for us. God works in mysterious ways. You see, back in November, when I renewed (or was supposed to renew) my registration, I forgot for a month....so I mailed it in. I didn't want to go down to the office and explain that I was late. So I mailed it in the beginning of December. Ooops. No biggie. You pay $1 more to mail it, plus postage to mail it. That's why I usually just run down to the office. The hassle of standing in line is worth $1.43
So, I put the registration in the book I was reading, I think. It lay in the car for a while. I thought I gave it to my husband. I thought he put the sticker on the windshield. He thought I put the sticker on the windshield, it is after all, my car. It's now May. We're trying to sell that car. We looked and the sticker is not there.
Well, after the dust settled from the ensuing fight between the two of us (not MY fault, I thought YOU put the sticker on!), and after we tore the house apart looking for the DARN thing, I went down to the Department of Public Safety to see if they would reissue me another one. I thought about saying they never sent me one, but decided honesty was the best policy. I told the truth. They reissued me one for $6.30. I explained that we were selling that car and wanted a sticker for it. She explained to me that the laws for Texas had changed, and now the plates DON'T stay with the vehicle, nor the registration. When I sell it, I should scrape the sticker and take the plates off.
I didn't give it much thought. I paid my fee, got the registration and went home.
I was out in the front yard trimming back an Oleander bush that the bad snow had killed back to almost the roots, when someone stopped to look at my car. There was a slight language barrier, as he spoke very little English, and my Spanish, un Paquito....very little. We discussed the car as best as we could. He looked at the sticker and asked if it was out. I explained that I had payed for it, and had the sticker inside, November. He brightened and said renewed? He said he had to sell his car first and he'd be back.
After he left, it hit me. I don't know if HE was an illegal or not. But now I know how illegals do it. They buy cars that still have registration left on them. They drive it until the registration runs out, maybe a month or two afterwards, and then sell it to someone who is legal and will have no problem with registering it. Then they go and buy another one with registration left on it. How do they do this? They have jobs and don't pay taxes. They have no problem saving up the $500-1,000 for the "Hoopdies". Besides, they're probably getting benefits besides that. So they're getting food stamps, SSI, etc. Their under the table paycheck, without paying into social security, taxes, etc. goes directly into their pocket and doesn't pay for their food. If they buy a car with registration left on it, they can drive it no questions asked as long as they don't break the law. They could probably drive it a couple months out of registration...I did...as long as they don't break traffic laws. If you don't give a police officer a reason to stop you, he can't ask for your immigration card. Arizona knows that, too. So does California.
Before you yell racist at me.....we're also selling a house. We are selling a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath house. We've had a multi-family come look at it. That's not multi-generational, that's multi-family. Now, personally, I don't care who buys it. I'll sell it to whoever has the money. If 2 or 3 families want to go in and live together, that's fine with me. I'll sell it to them. I actually considered it before. I considered moving in with my best friend and home schooling all our kids. We decided against it. Do I think all multi-family units are illegals? No. They could be fundamentalists. If they were fundamentalists, they would speak English.
BUT, by changing the law to the plates no longer go with the car, and you have to re-register all vehicles when you buy, even from private persons, you are stopping "undocumented" aliens from being able to drive and move around in the state of Texas. I'm not saying that I agree with everything Governor Perry does, but this is one step in the right direction. Will he go further? Will he close our borders? With Arizona reinforcing the federal laws currently in place, Texas is going to become the next opening point. I don't think Mexicans are the problem, really, with the borders in Arizona.
Do you realize that there is a high element of Muslims in Arizona? The Muslim population in California is even higher. The biggest complainer against Arizona's law is California. I think they're whipping up the Hispanic community to keep the people looking away from the real problem....they want the border open so Muslims can come in and attack us freely. Breaking the law is breaking the law.
If I lose my job, and decide I don't have enough money so I need to rob a bank, they won't consider the fact that I didn't have a job, and a special needs child, they'll still put me in jail.....close our borders, enforce our laws.
Lori Ann Smith
Well, we're trying to sell a car and we just had that questioned answered for us. God works in mysterious ways. You see, back in November, when I renewed (or was supposed to renew) my registration, I forgot for a month....so I mailed it in. I didn't want to go down to the office and explain that I was late. So I mailed it in the beginning of December. Ooops. No biggie. You pay $1 more to mail it, plus postage to mail it. That's why I usually just run down to the office. The hassle of standing in line is worth $1.43
So, I put the registration in the book I was reading, I think. It lay in the car for a while. I thought I gave it to my husband. I thought he put the sticker on the windshield. He thought I put the sticker on the windshield, it is after all, my car. It's now May. We're trying to sell that car. We looked and the sticker is not there.
Well, after the dust settled from the ensuing fight between the two of us (not MY fault, I thought YOU put the sticker on!), and after we tore the house apart looking for the DARN thing, I went down to the Department of Public Safety to see if they would reissue me another one. I thought about saying they never sent me one, but decided honesty was the best policy. I told the truth. They reissued me one for $6.30. I explained that we were selling that car and wanted a sticker for it. She explained to me that the laws for Texas had changed, and now the plates DON'T stay with the vehicle, nor the registration. When I sell it, I should scrape the sticker and take the plates off.
I didn't give it much thought. I paid my fee, got the registration and went home.
I was out in the front yard trimming back an Oleander bush that the bad snow had killed back to almost the roots, when someone stopped to look at my car. There was a slight language barrier, as he spoke very little English, and my Spanish, un Paquito....very little. We discussed the car as best as we could. He looked at the sticker and asked if it was out. I explained that I had payed for it, and had the sticker inside, November. He brightened and said renewed? He said he had to sell his car first and he'd be back.
After he left, it hit me. I don't know if HE was an illegal or not. But now I know how illegals do it. They buy cars that still have registration left on them. They drive it until the registration runs out, maybe a month or two afterwards, and then sell it to someone who is legal and will have no problem with registering it. Then they go and buy another one with registration left on it. How do they do this? They have jobs and don't pay taxes. They have no problem saving up the $500-1,000 for the "Hoopdies". Besides, they're probably getting benefits besides that. So they're getting food stamps, SSI, etc. Their under the table paycheck, without paying into social security, taxes, etc. goes directly into their pocket and doesn't pay for their food. If they buy a car with registration left on it, they can drive it no questions asked as long as they don't break the law. They could probably drive it a couple months out of registration...I did...as long as they don't break traffic laws. If you don't give a police officer a reason to stop you, he can't ask for your immigration card. Arizona knows that, too. So does California.
Before you yell racist at me.....we're also selling a house. We are selling a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath house. We've had a multi-family come look at it. That's not multi-generational, that's multi-family. Now, personally, I don't care who buys it. I'll sell it to whoever has the money. If 2 or 3 families want to go in and live together, that's fine with me. I'll sell it to them. I actually considered it before. I considered moving in with my best friend and home schooling all our kids. We decided against it. Do I think all multi-family units are illegals? No. They could be fundamentalists. If they were fundamentalists, they would speak English.
BUT, by changing the law to the plates no longer go with the car, and you have to re-register all vehicles when you buy, even from private persons, you are stopping "undocumented" aliens from being able to drive and move around in the state of Texas. I'm not saying that I agree with everything Governor Perry does, but this is one step in the right direction. Will he go further? Will he close our borders? With Arizona reinforcing the federal laws currently in place, Texas is going to become the next opening point. I don't think Mexicans are the problem, really, with the borders in Arizona.
Do you realize that there is a high element of Muslims in Arizona? The Muslim population in California is even higher. The biggest complainer against Arizona's law is California. I think they're whipping up the Hispanic community to keep the people looking away from the real problem....they want the border open so Muslims can come in and attack us freely. Breaking the law is breaking the law.
If I lose my job, and decide I don't have enough money so I need to rob a bank, they won't consider the fact that I didn't have a job, and a special needs child, they'll still put me in jail.....close our borders, enforce our laws.
Lori Ann Smith
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mother's Day
I've been thinking today of my mother. Actually, both of my parents, but mostly my mother. It is, after all, Mother's Day. I'm thankful for the strength that she has given me or I never would have gotten through this trial of the last year. My mother is a very strong woman. She's a cancer survivor, too. It's been almost 12 years for her. She's a nurse, retired now. She taught me now to turn clinical in an emergency. I've used that with medical emergencies with my children. There was the time my oldest choked on fried eggs in his spider walker; the time my youngest threw himself down and cut his lip, swallowed I don't know how many things. My youngest is ADHD. We've spent our fair share of time in the emergency room. And I've seen lots of Doctors' offices with my oldest having a heart condition. Mom being a nurse gave me the foundation to understand all the doctor talk.
My parents were also Democrats. Not today's Democrats, mind you, but what Democrats used to be. You see, time was, a Democrat was just a Patriot of a different color. They still loved their country, they just had a different idea of how to run the government. They still wanted a Republic....mostly. I was taught basically the same thing growing up. A Democracy is when everybody gets to vote on everything. That's not really practical when you have as many people living in a country as we have, so we elect officials to do it for us. That way we get to live our lives instead of being involved in government every single day. I didn't really know the difference between Republican and Democrat growing up. Dad always said the Republicans were for big business and the Democrats were for the little guy. I'm learning that that wasn't really true, but more on that later.
I got into politics in the mid 1980's. I joined the Navy in 1984. I know in the mock-elections in 1976 in my school, I voted for Jimmy Carter. I don't remember who I voted for in 1980. I think I voted Democrat. I know that I voted for Reagan in 1988, and every election after that. But, I have to admit to being a Yellow Dog Democrat, and just voting the R behind the name just as badly as my parents were voting the D behind their candidates.
I have decided that I am so mad at this current administration, no so much that they are Democrats, but because they aren't. I have never been mad that my guy didn't win. My parents' guy did, if mine didn't. I just went on with life. But these guys are lying to my parents now. They're saying they're Democrats when they're actually Socialists and Marxists. They dis-ing my parents. I don't take to that too well. They've been lying for a long time, though. They're not for the little man. They're the elite, and they use the little man, and lie to him so that he'll vote for him. They are the ones who want big government, and the Republicans are the ones who want little government. Yes, the Republicans are for businesses, so therefore they want government as small as possible to stay out of it. Small government also helps the little man, too.
So, to my mom, and to all the moms out there, Happy Mother's Day. I hope the government can stay out of it.
Lori Ann Smith
My parents were also Democrats. Not today's Democrats, mind you, but what Democrats used to be. You see, time was, a Democrat was just a Patriot of a different color. They still loved their country, they just had a different idea of how to run the government. They still wanted a Republic....mostly. I was taught basically the same thing growing up. A Democracy is when everybody gets to vote on everything. That's not really practical when you have as many people living in a country as we have, so we elect officials to do it for us. That way we get to live our lives instead of being involved in government every single day. I didn't really know the difference between Republican and Democrat growing up. Dad always said the Republicans were for big business and the Democrats were for the little guy. I'm learning that that wasn't really true, but more on that later.
I got into politics in the mid 1980's. I joined the Navy in 1984. I know in the mock-elections in 1976 in my school, I voted for Jimmy Carter. I don't remember who I voted for in 1980. I think I voted Democrat. I know that I voted for Reagan in 1988, and every election after that. But, I have to admit to being a Yellow Dog Democrat, and just voting the R behind the name just as badly as my parents were voting the D behind their candidates.
I have decided that I am so mad at this current administration, no so much that they are Democrats, but because they aren't. I have never been mad that my guy didn't win. My parents' guy did, if mine didn't. I just went on with life. But these guys are lying to my parents now. They're saying they're Democrats when they're actually Socialists and Marxists. They dis-ing my parents. I don't take to that too well. They've been lying for a long time, though. They're not for the little man. They're the elite, and they use the little man, and lie to him so that he'll vote for him. They are the ones who want big government, and the Republicans are the ones who want little government. Yes, the Republicans are for businesses, so therefore they want government as small as possible to stay out of it. Small government also helps the little man, too.
So, to my mom, and to all the moms out there, Happy Mother's Day. I hope the government can stay out of it.
Lori Ann Smith
Saturday, May 8, 2010
An Interesting Perspective on Arizona
I'm not against Immigration. I have a sister-in-law from the Netherlands. She's not actually naturalized. She married my brother-in-law, but kept her Netherlands citizenship. I guess that means she kept her "green card." She never took the citizenship test, so I suppose if my brother-in-law ever divorces her she'd have to go back to the Netherlands. I'm not sure of the details.
I'm not against someone coming in the front door. As a matter of fact, I think we should make the door a little bigger. I just don't think we should let in criminals. So I think if you're a terrorist, you shouldn't be made a citizen. I don't mind accepting families from Mexico. If you want to become a citizen, fine by me. But I get the feeling most of these people just want our money, don't want to pay taxes, want our free benefits, and then want to go back home with the goodies. They don't really want to leave their home country. Otherwise they wouldn't be still flying the flag of their own country. They would be like the ones speaking out and waving the flag of their new country, pledging allegiance to it.
But that's not my twist. My question is this: Our President of all people, who is a LAWYER, is taking the side of the people who haven't read the bill. He's a Lawyer. He should know the law. He knows what's in the Federal law, too. He knows how it's written. He knows that it says IF someone is already pulled over and stopped they have to show their papers anyway. It's not if a police officer hears someone speaking Spanish and they think they might be here illegally they can walk up and say, "Papers, please." But if so, if an immigrant is here on a School Visa, and takes her child to the ice cream parlor for a Sundae, she is supposed to have her papers with her anyway. I'm sure if she left them at home, the officer would gladly follow her home to get them. If there is a bank robbery, committed by a white woman with spiky brown hair slightly greying, in her mid-40s, looking more like her late 30's, 5'5, which matches my description, and an officer asked to see my driver's license, I'd show it to him. If I happened to walk to an ice cream parlor and didn't have it on me (because I always have my purse on me so I can't imagine any incident when I don't have my ID on me, unless I didn't want someone to know who I was), I would ask if I could go home and get it.
So, if that's not the case, let me ask another question. Is this a distraction? Are we supposed to be looking at another type of Illegal alien? I am wondering how many Muslims there are in Arizona? Do we need to keep the southern border porous so that the Muslim population can come into Mexico and then into the United States? Are just Mexicans coming into the United States through our southern border? We don't know because our border isn't secure. Are we supposed to be looking at the hand with the illegal immigration issue which is supposedly only about Latinos? What's in the other hand? Islam?
Did you know that according to http://www.islamicweb.com/begin/population.htm 3.75% of the US population is Muslim. Here's the site that gives the breakdown of the other major religions: http://www.islamicweb.com/begin/religions_changes.htm. Roman Catholic is 59%, While the combination of Protestant is 62.5%. Jewish is 4.3% and Greek Orthodox is 1.5%.
While Christianity has increased by 47%, Islam has increased by 235%. We are being overrun. We are being exterminated. When Christians go into a country, do we demand that everyone do things our way? Do we make little communities and ignore the laws of the land and set up our own schools and temples and ignore everyone until we out-number them? You want to hear Islam's plan for America? In their own words? http://www.billionbibles.org/sharia-canada-america.html There is already Sharia law being felt in Minnesota. They put different color cab lights on top of the cabs so they can refuse passengers at the airport who land with duty free alcohol.
So, again I ask the question, how many illegals are trying to not get caught with this new law that are trying to sneak in of Muslim origin and not Latino? We are trying to close our borders to illegal activity. If you want to come into our country to work, get a work visa. Do it the right way. IF president Obama really wants to help the Latinos, or anyone else who wants to work in this country, make it easier to get a work visa. Or is that too simple of an idea? You know most Latinos are Catholic, not Muslim. Is that gonna be a problem for you, Mr. President? And they usually have conservative values. They only vote Democrat because you have convinced them you are for the little guy. But what about all the big oil money you've taken? What about all the bribery? What about all the bribes you had to offer to get your health care bill passed? I don't want my wealth redistributed. And I want the terrorists kept out of the border states. When the Latinos find out they left bribery and graft to come to bribery and graft, will they just go home? And the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Funny, California has the highest Muslim population, and they're protesting the immigration law the loudest. Watch the other hand.
Lori Ann Smith
I'm not against someone coming in the front door. As a matter of fact, I think we should make the door a little bigger. I just don't think we should let in criminals. So I think if you're a terrorist, you shouldn't be made a citizen. I don't mind accepting families from Mexico. If you want to become a citizen, fine by me. But I get the feeling most of these people just want our money, don't want to pay taxes, want our free benefits, and then want to go back home with the goodies. They don't really want to leave their home country. Otherwise they wouldn't be still flying the flag of their own country. They would be like the ones speaking out and waving the flag of their new country, pledging allegiance to it.
But that's not my twist. My question is this: Our President of all people, who is a LAWYER, is taking the side of the people who haven't read the bill. He's a Lawyer. He should know the law. He knows what's in the Federal law, too. He knows how it's written. He knows that it says IF someone is already pulled over and stopped they have to show their papers anyway. It's not if a police officer hears someone speaking Spanish and they think they might be here illegally they can walk up and say, "Papers, please." But if so, if an immigrant is here on a School Visa, and takes her child to the ice cream parlor for a Sundae, she is supposed to have her papers with her anyway. I'm sure if she left them at home, the officer would gladly follow her home to get them. If there is a bank robbery, committed by a white woman with spiky brown hair slightly greying, in her mid-40s, looking more like her late 30's
So, if that's not the case, let me ask another question. Is this a distraction? Are we supposed to be looking at another type of Illegal alien? I am wondering how many Muslims there are in Arizona? Do we need to keep the southern border porous so that the Muslim population can come into Mexico and then into the United States? Are just Mexicans coming into the United States through our southern border? We don't know because our border isn't secure. Are we supposed to be looking at the hand with the illegal immigration issue which is supposedly only about Latinos? What's in the other hand? Islam?
Did you know that according to http://www.islamicweb.com/begin/population.htm 3.75% of the US population is Muslim. Here's the site that gives the breakdown of the other major religions: http://www.islamicweb.com/begin/religions_changes.htm. Roman Catholic is 59%, While the combination of Protestant is 62.5%. Jewish is 4.3% and Greek Orthodox is 1.5%.
While Christianity has increased by 47%, Islam has increased by 235%. We are being overrun. We are being exterminated. When Christians go into a country, do we demand that everyone do things our way? Do we make little communities and ignore the laws of the land and set up our own schools and temples and ignore everyone until we out-number them? You want to hear Islam's plan for America? In their own words? http://www.billionbibles.org/sharia-canada-america.html There is already Sharia law being felt in Minnesota. They put different color cab lights on top of the cabs so they can refuse passengers at the airport who land with duty free alcohol.
So, again I ask the question, how many illegals are trying to not get caught with this new law that are trying to sneak in of Muslim origin and not Latino? We are trying to close our borders to illegal activity. If you want to come into our country to work, get a work visa. Do it the right way. IF president Obama really wants to help the Latinos, or anyone else who wants to work in this country, make it easier to get a work visa. Or is that too simple of an idea? You know most Latinos are Catholic, not Muslim. Is that gonna be a problem for you, Mr. President? And they usually have conservative values. They only vote Democrat because you have convinced them you are for the little guy. But what about all the big oil money you've taken? What about all the bribery? What about all the bribes you had to offer to get your health care bill passed? I don't want my wealth redistributed. And I want the terrorists kept out of the border states. When the Latinos find out they left bribery and graft to come to bribery and graft, will they just go home? And the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Funny, California has the highest Muslim population, and they're protesting the immigration law the loudest. Watch the other hand.
Lori Ann Smith
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Latest
As Posted on my friend's blog.... http://freespeechpolitics.ning.com/
I've not really got time to go into great detail, but let me summarize what I'm researching:
Let me lay out for you a little scenario: You're 5 years old. You're mother is a communist. Your father was a communist, but he left you and your mother for another woman, possibly two. Your mother is marrying another man and moving to Indonesia from Hawaii. He's Islam. You pack everything up and move to Indonesia. When you get there, there's a mass murder going on. They're hanging bodies in the streets. Who is getting murdered? Communists. Who is doing the murdering? The military, Islam youth groups, Women groups, and they're even arming peasants to go out and kill communists. That's your family. They mutilate the bodies and hang them in the streets. They even hang the genitals in the streets. Do you think it will affect you? Is your step-father also a Communist? How do you reconcile being a communist and Islam? Do you kill yourself? They are also rounding up people and arresting them and putting them in internment camps. This little boy lived with this for at least 2 years, with the killings, and the imprisonments went on for longer than that.
I'm talking about the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66, and I'm talking about Barack H. Obama. He got there in 1966, and the killings went on into possibly 1968. They started counting the bodies before they were done killing, so the numbers range from 75,000 to 2 million. The "accepted" number is 500,000 to 1 million. They imprisoned between 600,000 to 750,000 people for 1-30 years. I printed the article, which was removed from the internet for about 4 days, to mysteriously reappear, after I typed it and posted it on my blog. The author of the blog, Dr. Katherine McGregor, has done extensive research on this event. Apperently Indonesia is extremely racist against the Chinese as well. They didn't suffer too much in this politicide. They were concentrated in the cities due to their persecution over the years.
Did you know, also that they are so racist, the Indonesians are, that in 1967 they passed a law that if you had a Chinese sounding name you had to change it to an Indonesian sounding name? This continued until the year 2000. Have you ever heard President Obama say anything about rights for the Yellow Man? Only the Brown Man. But I digress.
This "event" explains why Obama is so adament about not releasing his records. I believe it is possible that he was actually born in Hawaii, and is letting everyone to argue the fact because it deflects from the real facts. 1. Did he become a citizen of Indonesia? After the Indonesian killings of 1965-66, they outlawed communists from holding certain offices....teacher, the military and LAWYER. The Obamas have both voluntarily given up their law degrees. Interesting, huh? It's been said that the only reason you voluntarily give up a law license is when you are about to lose it. How about because you are a citizen of a country that doesn't allow you to hold it?
2. Another question to ask is, did either of his parents, his mom or step-dad, get put in an internment camp during this period of time? His mom supposedly came to visit him in Hawaii, but no mention of his step-dad. Why is that? Did he not love him? They didn't get divorced until the late 1980's. Obama went to visit his mom and sister in 1981....was his mom not living with his step-dad, yet they were not divorced until something like 1987?
Questions....
Lori Ann Smith
I've not really got time to go into great detail, but let me summarize what I'm researching:
Let me lay out for you a little scenario: You're 5 years old. You're mother is a communist. Your father was a communist, but he left you and your mother for another woman, possibly two. Your mother is marrying another man and moving to Indonesia from Hawaii. He's Islam. You pack everything up and move to Indonesia. When you get there, there's a mass murder going on. They're hanging bodies in the streets. Who is getting murdered? Communists. Who is doing the murdering? The military, Islam youth groups, Women groups, and they're even arming peasants to go out and kill communists. That's your family. They mutilate the bodies and hang them in the streets. They even hang the genitals in the streets. Do you think it will affect you? Is your step-father also a Communist? How do you reconcile being a communist and Islam? Do you kill yourself? They are also rounding up people and arresting them and putting them in internment camps. This little boy lived with this for at least 2 years, with the killings, and the imprisonments went on for longer than that.
I'm talking about the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66, and I'm talking about Barack H. Obama. He got there in 1966, and the killings went on into possibly 1968. They started counting the bodies before they were done killing, so the numbers range from 75,000 to 2 million. The "accepted" number is 500,000 to 1 million. They imprisoned between 600,000 to 750,000 people for 1-30 years. I printed the article, which was removed from the internet for about 4 days, to mysteriously reappear, after I typed it and posted it on my blog. The author of the blog, Dr. Katherine McGregor, has done extensive research on this event. Apperently Indonesia is extremely racist against the Chinese as well. They didn't suffer too much in this politicide. They were concentrated in the cities due to their persecution over the years.
Did you know, also that they are so racist, the Indonesians are, that in 1967 they passed a law that if you had a Chinese sounding name you had to change it to an Indonesian sounding name? This continued until the year 2000. Have you ever heard President Obama say anything about rights for the Yellow Man? Only the Brown Man. But I digress.
This "event" explains why Obama is so adament about not releasing his records. I believe it is possible that he was actually born in Hawaii, and is letting everyone to argue the fact because it deflects from the real facts. 1. Did he become a citizen of Indonesia? After the Indonesian killings of 1965-66, they outlawed communists from holding certain offices....teacher, the military and LAWYER. The Obamas have both voluntarily given up their law degrees. Interesting, huh? It's been said that the only reason you voluntarily give up a law license is when you are about to lose it. How about because you are a citizen of a country that doesn't allow you to hold it?
2. Another question to ask is, did either of his parents, his mom or step-dad, get put in an internment camp during this period of time? His mom supposedly came to visit him in Hawaii, but no mention of his step-dad. Why is that? Did he not love him? They didn't get divorced until the late 1980's. Obama went to visit his mom and sister in 1981....was his mom not living with his step-dad, yet they were not divorced until something like 1987?
Questions....
Lori Ann Smith
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966 (Part Three) by Dr. Katherine McGregor
Once again, I began research on the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66, and found this wonderful article by Dr. Katherine McGregor. I went back the next day and it had been removed from the Internet. Luckily I had printed it. Because I printed it and didn't save it to my computer, I'm having to type it manually, and not copy and paste, so there will be typos. If you're left leaning and wish to critique, please keep your comments to facts and not typos. I have carpal tunnel syndrome and that's why this is not in one piece, but several parts. It is extremely long, and it pains me to type for long periods. But this information needs to get out. President Obama was in Indonesia during the tail end of this massacre and it had to have had an effect on him. There is no way murdered and mutilated bodies being hung in the streets would not effect a child, especially when they were murdered for being the same political party that your parents professed to be, and murdered by the religion that your dad was. How conflicting is that? The government enlisted Muslim youths to kill communists. And better yet, Indonesia still doesn't allow anyone who was involved in that movement, or their children or grandchildren, to hold certain offices if they are of that country. Could that be why the Obama's gave up their lawyer licenses? Hmm. Something to look into?
NOTE: I just looked up this link and found it back on the Internet! http://www.massviolence.org/The-Indonesian-Killings-of-1965-1966
Should we be asking why President Suharto, the President who "crushed" the communist rebellion, died in 2008, the same year the President Obama took office? When President Obama was in Indonesia at the same time that he committed these atrocities to communists, who happened to be the political affiliation of his parents, and "used" Muslims, who were the religion of his Father? I'm sure it's just a coincidence. I wonder what he died of?
Contested Memories of the Killings
The collapse of the Suharto [http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime in May 1998 ushered in a period of openness and a new curiosity about the events of the 1960s emerged. After restrictions on the media were lifted, discussions began about the official version of the coup attempt and then eventually the 1965-66 killings and imprisonments.
Former political prisoners seized this opportunity to publicise their experiences. Some began to publish memoirs of their prison experiences emphasising their suffering. A common trend in these stories is to begin narrating one's experiences from the moment of arrest in a way that obscures the author's involvement in politics and indeed the militancy of some PKI affiliated organizations (Watson, 2006 and McGregor and Hearman, 2007). The intention is to generate sympathy for this group of people and demand their rehabilitation in addition to seeking justice by more formal means. Some former political prisoners have also made, or provided testimony, in documentary style films about the violence of 1965-66 to help raise public awareness about what happened.
Survivors also joined together to form a number of victims' organizations. One of the most active victim's organizations in the first years after Suharto [http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] was the YPKP (the Foundation for Research into Victims of the 1965-66 Killings) founded by the famous novelist and former prisoner Pramoedya Anota Toer [http://www.massviolence.org/Ananta-Toer-Pramoedya] and former Gerwani leader Sulami [http://www.massviolence.org/Joyoprawiro-Sulami]. YPKP's initial activities included collecting testimonies, investigating and exhuming mass graves and producing publications with the aim and challenging the orthodox history of the killings and bringing perpetrators to account. In the early years of its operations the activities of the YPKP and the split off group LPKP(Institute for Research on Victims of the Killings) prompted sporadic protests, and their branches repeatedly received threats from organizations such as the Front Pembela Islam (Islam Defenders Front).
In addition to these efforts a number of NGOs and independent research groups such as ELSAM, Kontras, the National Commission on Women's Rights and Institut Sejarah Sosial Indonesia (ISSI - Institute for Indonesian Social History) began to research the mass violence of 1965-66. ISSI has collected oral histories of over two hundred people affectee by the violence of 1965 and published a collection of these stories (Roosa, Ratih and Farid, 2004). ISSI has also been involved in efforts to promote greater awareness about the violence of this period among younger Indonesians.
At an official level, responses to efforts to address this past have been mixed. The first president after Suharto [http://www.massviolence.org/Shuarto], Bacharuddin Habibie[http://www.massviolence.org/Jusuf-Habible-Bachruddin], released all remaining political prisoners, cancelled the tradition of screening the propaganda film about the coup on the 30 September and promised revisions to school history textbooks that had previously encouraged hatred towards all alleged communists. In 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid[http://www.massviolence.org/Wahid-1940-Abdurrahman], who was the former leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, suggested lifting the long standing ban on communism and proposed a judicial investigation into the killing. In response there were mass rallies of protest from Islamic groups.
The reaction to this proposal was a precursor to a looming back lash against all efforts to address this past. In 2001, members of the group Forum Ukuwah Islamiya Kaloran (Kaloran Islamic Raternity Forum) violently obstructed a YPKP coordinated reburial of remains of victims from 1965. The remains had been recovered from a mass grave in Wonosobo. Prior to the 2004 elections the government lifted the ban on former political prisoners standing for elections. In August 2005 a number of anti-communist groups also protested outside the Central Jakarta State Court against a class action brought by ex-political prisoners from LPKP. The action, against the current President and his predecessors including Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto], sought to repeal the 1966 decrees banning the Communist Party, historical correction, compensation and rehabilitation of the names of victims.
By 2004, approved textbooks included alternative versions of the attempted coup. the propaganda about communist barbarity was discarded, but no mention was made of the post-coup killings or the mass imprisonments that followed. Even these tame revisions, however, prompted protest. In 2005 the Attorney General called the authors of these textbooks to explain why they had not described 1965 as a communist coup attempt. In 2004 the push for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) encompassing the 1965-66 killings also gained momentum, but in 2006 the idea was abandoned.
Opposition to both the revised textbooks and the TRC was particularly strong from the NU elder Yusuf Hasyim [http://www.massviolence.org/Hasyim-Yusuf] who formed part of an anti-communist coalition. In 2001 and 2003 he organized exhibitions devoted to the theme of PKI treachery and barbarity. Another polemical anti-communist is Taufig Ismail[http://www.massviolence.org/Ismail-Taufig], whose poetry was popular in the anti-communist student movement of 1966 of which he was a part, has repeatedly published accounts alerting Indonesians to communist crimes in history and the aleged fate they were 'saved from' in 1965 (Ismail, 2004)
There were different views, however, among Indonesian Muslims concerning this past. One Islamic organization Syarikat, which is composed of NU youth, is working hard towards community level reconciliation between ex-political prisoners and members of Hahdiatul Ulama on the basis of a belief that members of the NU participated in the killings only because they were manipulated by the military.
F - General and Legal Interpretation of the Facts
The most prolific writer on Indonesian killings is the Australian based historian, Robert Cribb. Cribb edited the first scholarly book on the killings in 1990, in which he attempts to survey patterns in the violence of 1965-66. Since this publication he has published several articles on the killings (Cribb, 1997, 2001a, 2001b, 2002).
From the 1980s, some scholars began to regard the Indonesian killings as genocide because of the scale of the killing, but this interpretation was rejected by other scholars on the grounds that the United Nations definition of genocide does not mention the targeting of political groups. Cribb (2001) has since argued that ethnic and political identities can overlap so strongly that excluding mass political killing from the definition of genocide is no longer tenable. Another term sometimes used to describe politically motivated killings is politicide.
Some observers have suggested cultural explanations for the killings. The journalist Frank Palmos (1966), for instance, drew on the fact that amuck (amuk in Indonesian spelling) is an Indonesian word to suggest that Indonesians had run amuck or participated in a wild frenzy and killed other Indonesians in a form of psychopathology. Yet there is no evidence of such a frenzy and serious sociological studies of amuck as a phenomenon show that it is a response to defeat and humiliation, never carried out by those who have the upper hand in a conflict. Other observers have suggested (e.g. Hughes, 1967) that Javanese and Balinese cultures place unusually high value on social harmony and that social forces take revenge on anyone seen as disrupting that harmony. This explanation, however, is based on an orientalist view of traditional Javanese and Balinese cultures which ignores the elements of conflict and violence that have consistently been present.
Scholars differ in the emphasis they place on certain factors in contributing to the killings. Cribb (2001) argues that the killings were directed by the military and fueled by economic and political tensions. He stresses military agency as one of the most significant factors driving the killings, yet he qualifies this stating that the military often co-opted civilian vigilantes to do the killing. Most serious studies of the killings acknowledge that the military played a central role in the killings.
Cribb (1990) has argued that only Islam provided an ideiological justification for the killings. Fealy (1998) further notes that in Islam the concept of bughat - revolt against a legitimate government - provides a rationale for taking action against those who have revolted against a legitimate government. Caution is however required in assuming a causal link between religious devotion, theological justifications and participation in the killings. Robinson's (1995) work on Bali offers a useful way of interrogating the assumed casual link between religious identity and the killings. Importantly, he notes that although religion was often used as justification for the killing, the military actively shaped and encouraged a popular discourse of anti-communism based on exacting religious ideas and cultural analogies' (1995:279). He claims that those who directed their members to participate in the violence were driven primarily by political, rather than religious, considerations. In the case of Islam, McGregor (2009) argues that ideas of Islam were similarly exploited to further political agendas.
There are several detailed studies of regions affected by the violence and these studies also point to different contributing factors. The results from the 1955 elections, the last and only democratic elections prior to the coup attempt (see maps below), [note: maps were not printed] indicate where the PKI had the greatest following.
East Java was a stronghold for both the Nahdlatul Ulama and the PKI. Violence in this area was particularly intense and the NU youth organization Ansor was at the forefront of the killings. Fealy (1998) has provided one of the most detailed accounts of the involvement of Ansor in this violence. Young (1990) offered the first attempt to weigh up the influence of local and national factors in explaining the killings based on his research in Kediri, East Java. He argued that it could not be assumed that patterns in the frequently cited case of East Java were universally applicable. He points to the specific impact of land reform and a unique social history in this region.
In his study of the killings in Jombang and Kediri, two areas where there are many Islamic boarding schools and hence devout Muslims, Sulistyo (1997) points to long standing social conflict, clashes in political views and the key role played by Muslim youths in the killings, giving some specific examples of the impact of peer pressure on participation in the violence. He suggests the military played a relatively passive role in this region.
In his research on East Java and Bali, Sudjatmiko (1992) emphasizes the policies and practices of the PKI and affiliated organizations as central to the revenge enacted upon them. He represents the PKI as deserving of their fate.
Robert Hefner (1990), who researched the killings in the upland area of Pasuruan, East Java, notes that Ansor did not wait for the military to act in this area. Here, there were complex social relations and Ansor targeted not just the PKI, but also the PNI, which were supportive of Hindu-Buddhist religious practices and antogonistic to Islamic groups.
There is little research on Central Java. there were extensive killing in the areas of Solo-Klaten, Pati and Banyumas. Here RPKAD, under Sarwo Edhie[http://www.massviolence.org/Edhie-Sarwo], played a dominant role (Cribb 1990).
Violence was less widespread in West Java. One explanation put forward by Cribb (1990) for this is that the army had only recently suppressed the Darul Islam (House of Islam) revolts and was thus reluctant to rearm and use people involved in this rebellion to counter the communists.
In Bali, where approximately 80,000 people died, Robinson (1996) notes that tensions resulted from the PKI's encouragement of changes to rigid social relations connected to the caste system and because it challenged the authority to Hindu religious leaders. The BTI was also very active in implementing land reform resulting in disquiet amongst those who lost land. Robinson stresses the central role played by the military in Bali in encouraging militia linked to the PNI to take revenge against the PKI. He also notes that there was a delay in killing in this region due to the closeness of the governor to the PKI and a period of waiting to see how things played out in Jakarta.
Most explanations use historical and political perspectives to explain the violence of 1965, but in recent years anthropologists have added new insights into the dynamics of the killings and the lasting effects of the killings. Based on their field research in Bali, Dwyer and Santikarma (2007) have, for example, examined how the violence of 1965-66 has continued to impact on local level social relations and the resultant reluctance of some survivors to openly remember the past and engage in forms of internationally sanctioned reconciliation or peace making processes.
In Wes Kalimantan, ethnic Chinese involved in the Malaysia campaign were targeted by the indigenous Dayak people, with encouragement from the army. The killings began here at a later stage (Coppel, 1983).
The killings were also intense in North Sumatra. There is not much published research on this area, yet we know there were many plantation and industrial workers in North Sumatra who had joined the PKI and affiliated organizations in response to efforts by the party to improve their lot (Stoler, 1995). In North and South Sumatra party membership was also strong amongst migrant lagorers from Java, another group the PKI had become advocates for. In Aceh there were only a small number of PKI and the killings occurred quickly. According to Kahin (1999) the British Consul estimated there were 200,000 deaths throughout Sumatra.
Webb (1986) notes that in West Timor the Protestant Church supported land reform and its members were subsequently targeted. In Lombok, Muslim Sasaks were involved in the killing of Balinese and Chinese. Despite its anti-communist stance, in Flores, the Catholic Church forbade the killing of communists. On the killings in West Timor, Farram (2002) also emphasizes that the PKI had successfully attracted members of the Christian Church, supporters of animist belief and challenged traditional authority, leading to a broad cross section of people being killed.
Several authors such as Roosa (2006), Farid (2006), Hadiz (2007) and Simpson (2008) place greater emphasis on the alliance between the US government and the Indonesian army as a crucial determinant to the actions of the Indonesian military. They emphasize the joint agenda of building a capitalist economy founded on Western aid and continued access to Indonesian natural resources and markets. Roosa (2006) argues that as a consequence of all their grievances against the PKI, the military, with Western backing, were looking for a pretext to crush the PKI. The actions of the 30 September Movement provided this pretext. These authors argue that by killing members of the PKI, trade unions and farmers who pushed for the nationalization of assets, labor, and land reforms, the army also paved the way for implementing this new economic system. these interpretations, however, also focus on elite motives and do not explain why the killings reached the scale they did.
In the context of the Cold War and especially the Vietnam War, which had been underway for three years by 1965, the US government was deeply afraid of the possiblity of a communist victory in Indonesia. In this context the army leadership courted Western powers and the US supported, pro-Western sections of the army in coming to power by any means possible. Western governments were also largely pleased when the army began moving against the PKI in October 1965. Time Magazine reported the rise of Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] as 'The West's Best News for Years'. There was limited sympathy for the victims of the violence because they were communists and also because of racist assumptions about the lower value of life placed on Indonesian people.
Legal Issues
In the ten years since the end of the Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime there have been some state level initiatives to address the human rights abuses of 1965-66. The National Commission on Human Rights was given a mandate to investigate the detention and treatment of prisoners sent to Buro Island sent to Buru Island. this was, however, a very narrow investigation and commissioners were given a very short time to complete their research. In addition there was no follow up to their findings.
In 2004 the parliament passed a law enabling the formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono[http://www.massviolence.org/Bambang-Yudhoyono-Susilo] began to consider a list of potential commissioners. However, the commission was abandoned in 2006 after the Constitutional Court declared the TRC law to be unconstitutional. The Court was responding to objections human rights groups had raised against proposed amnesty provisions that would have given impunity to those who confessed crimes. There was also pressure exerted by sections of the NU in co-operation with the military.
In 2008 the Indonesian Commission on Human Rights began investigating the 1965-66 killings by collecting evidence and testimonies from individuals and organizations throughout Indonesia, in order to compile a report about the killings and recommend judicial action by the Indonesian government. however, the Commission continues to receive regular threats. Whenever NGOs or surviving victims have attempted to open this past to public scrutiny or stake claims for justice, protests, instances of direct intimidation, and violence have followed.
In the case of the 1965-66 killings, there are no powerful or significant lobby groups either inside or outside Indonesia pushing for justice on this case. In addition, there is on consensus that the New Order's origins were a shameful period in Indonesian history. For this reason there has been no significant progress in efforts to address this past by legal means.
G. Bibliography
I'm skipping the bibliography, as it is quite extensive. If anyone wants it, you can post a comment, and I'll add it later. This has been painful on my wrists and back to sit and type all this.
NOTE: I just looked up this link and found it back on the Internet! http://www.massviolence.org/The-Indonesian-Killings-of-1965-1966
Should we be asking why President Suharto, the President who "crushed" the communist rebellion, died in 2008, the same year the President Obama took office? When President Obama was in Indonesia at the same time that he committed these atrocities to communists, who happened to be the political affiliation of his parents, and "used" Muslims, who were the religion of his Father? I'm sure it's just a coincidence. I wonder what he died of?
Contested Memories of the Killings
The collapse of the Suharto [http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime in May 1998 ushered in a period of openness and a new curiosity about the events of the 1960s emerged. After restrictions on the media were lifted, discussions began about the official version of the coup attempt and then eventually the 1965-66 killings and imprisonments.
Former political prisoners seized this opportunity to publicise their experiences. Some began to publish memoirs of their prison experiences emphasising their suffering. A common trend in these stories is to begin narrating one's experiences from the moment of arrest in a way that obscures the author's involvement in politics and indeed the militancy of some PKI affiliated organizations (Watson, 2006 and McGregor and Hearman, 2007). The intention is to generate sympathy for this group of people and demand their rehabilitation in addition to seeking justice by more formal means. Some former political prisoners have also made, or provided testimony, in documentary style films about the violence of 1965-66 to help raise public awareness about what happened.
Survivors also joined together to form a number of victims' organizations. One of the most active victim's organizations in the first years after Suharto [http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] was the YPKP (the Foundation for Research into Victims of the 1965-66 Killings) founded by the famous novelist and former prisoner Pramoedya Anota Toer [http://www.massviolence.org/Ananta-Toer-Pramoedya] and former Gerwani leader Sulami [http://www.massviolence.org/Joyoprawiro-Sulami]. YPKP's initial activities included collecting testimonies, investigating and exhuming mass graves and producing publications with the aim and challenging the orthodox history of the killings and bringing perpetrators to account. In the early years of its operations the activities of the YPKP and the split off group LPKP(Institute for Research on Victims of the Killings) prompted sporadic protests, and their branches repeatedly received threats from organizations such as the Front Pembela Islam (Islam Defenders Front).
In addition to these efforts a number of NGOs and independent research groups such as ELSAM, Kontras, the National Commission on Women's Rights and Institut Sejarah Sosial Indonesia (ISSI - Institute for Indonesian Social History) began to research the mass violence of 1965-66. ISSI has collected oral histories of over two hundred people affectee by the violence of 1965 and published a collection of these stories (Roosa, Ratih and Farid, 2004). ISSI has also been involved in efforts to promote greater awareness about the violence of this period among younger Indonesians.
At an official level, responses to efforts to address this past have been mixed. The first president after Suharto [http://www.massviolence.org/Shuarto], Bacharuddin Habibie[http://www.massviolence.org/Jusuf-Habible-Bachruddin], released all remaining political prisoners, cancelled the tradition of screening the propaganda film about the coup on the 30 September and promised revisions to school history textbooks that had previously encouraged hatred towards all alleged communists. In 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid[http://www.massviolence.org/Wahid-1940-Abdurrahman], who was the former leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, suggested lifting the long standing ban on communism and proposed a judicial investigation into the killing. In response there were mass rallies of protest from Islamic groups.
The reaction to this proposal was a precursor to a looming back lash against all efforts to address this past. In 2001, members of the group Forum Ukuwah Islamiya Kaloran (Kaloran Islamic Raternity Forum) violently obstructed a YPKP coordinated reburial of remains of victims from 1965. The remains had been recovered from a mass grave in Wonosobo. Prior to the 2004 elections the government lifted the ban on former political prisoners standing for elections. In August 2005 a number of anti-communist groups also protested outside the Central Jakarta State Court against a class action brought by ex-political prisoners from LPKP. The action, against the current President and his predecessors including Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto], sought to repeal the 1966 decrees banning the Communist Party, historical correction, compensation and rehabilitation of the names of victims.
By 2004, approved textbooks included alternative versions of the attempted coup. the propaganda about communist barbarity was discarded, but no mention was made of the post-coup killings or the mass imprisonments that followed. Even these tame revisions, however, prompted protest. In 2005 the Attorney General called the authors of these textbooks to explain why they had not described 1965 as a communist coup attempt. In 2004 the push for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) encompassing the 1965-66 killings also gained momentum, but in 2006 the idea was abandoned.
Opposition to both the revised textbooks and the TRC was particularly strong from the NU elder Yusuf Hasyim [http://www.massviolence.org/Hasyim-Yusuf] who formed part of an anti-communist coalition. In 2001 and 2003 he organized exhibitions devoted to the theme of PKI treachery and barbarity. Another polemical anti-communist is Taufig Ismail[http://www.massviolence.org/Ismail-Taufig], whose poetry was popular in the anti-communist student movement of 1966 of which he was a part, has repeatedly published accounts alerting Indonesians to communist crimes in history and the aleged fate they were 'saved from' in 1965 (Ismail, 2004)
There were different views, however, among Indonesian Muslims concerning this past. One Islamic organization Syarikat, which is composed of NU youth, is working hard towards community level reconciliation between ex-political prisoners and members of Hahdiatul Ulama on the basis of a belief that members of the NU participated in the killings only because they were manipulated by the military.
F - General and Legal Interpretation of the Facts
The most prolific writer on Indonesian killings is the Australian based historian, Robert Cribb. Cribb edited the first scholarly book on the killings in 1990, in which he attempts to survey patterns in the violence of 1965-66. Since this publication he has published several articles on the killings (Cribb, 1997, 2001a, 2001b, 2002).
From the 1980s, some scholars began to regard the Indonesian killings as genocide because of the scale of the killing, but this interpretation was rejected by other scholars on the grounds that the United Nations definition of genocide does not mention the targeting of political groups. Cribb (2001) has since argued that ethnic and political identities can overlap so strongly that excluding mass political killing from the definition of genocide is no longer tenable. Another term sometimes used to describe politically motivated killings is politicide.
Some observers have suggested cultural explanations for the killings. The journalist Frank Palmos (1966), for instance, drew on the fact that amuck (amuk in Indonesian spelling) is an Indonesian word to suggest that Indonesians had run amuck or participated in a wild frenzy and killed other Indonesians in a form of psychopathology. Yet there is no evidence of such a frenzy and serious sociological studies of amuck as a phenomenon show that it is a response to defeat and humiliation, never carried out by those who have the upper hand in a conflict. Other observers have suggested (e.g. Hughes, 1967) that Javanese and Balinese cultures place unusually high value on social harmony and that social forces take revenge on anyone seen as disrupting that harmony. This explanation, however, is based on an orientalist view of traditional Javanese and Balinese cultures which ignores the elements of conflict and violence that have consistently been present.
Scholars differ in the emphasis they place on certain factors in contributing to the killings. Cribb (2001) argues that the killings were directed by the military and fueled by economic and political tensions. He stresses military agency as one of the most significant factors driving the killings, yet he qualifies this stating that the military often co-opted civilian vigilantes to do the killing. Most serious studies of the killings acknowledge that the military played a central role in the killings.
Cribb (1990) has argued that only Islam provided an ideiological justification for the killings. Fealy (1998) further notes that in Islam the concept of bughat - revolt against a legitimate government - provides a rationale for taking action against those who have revolted against a legitimate government. Caution is however required in assuming a causal link between religious devotion, theological justifications and participation in the killings. Robinson's (1995) work on Bali offers a useful way of interrogating the assumed casual link between religious identity and the killings. Importantly, he notes that although religion was often used as justification for the killing, the military actively shaped and encouraged a popular discourse of anti-communism based on exacting religious ideas and cultural analogies' (1995:279). He claims that those who directed their members to participate in the violence were driven primarily by political, rather than religious, considerations. In the case of Islam, McGregor (2009) argues that ideas of Islam were similarly exploited to further political agendas.
There are several detailed studies of regions affected by the violence and these studies also point to different contributing factors. The results from the 1955 elections, the last and only democratic elections prior to the coup attempt (see maps below), [note: maps were not printed] indicate where the PKI had the greatest following.
East Java was a stronghold for both the Nahdlatul Ulama and the PKI. Violence in this area was particularly intense and the NU youth organization Ansor was at the forefront of the killings. Fealy (1998) has provided one of the most detailed accounts of the involvement of Ansor in this violence. Young (1990) offered the first attempt to weigh up the influence of local and national factors in explaining the killings based on his research in Kediri, East Java. He argued that it could not be assumed that patterns in the frequently cited case of East Java were universally applicable. He points to the specific impact of land reform and a unique social history in this region.
In his study of the killings in Jombang and Kediri, two areas where there are many Islamic boarding schools and hence devout Muslims, Sulistyo (1997) points to long standing social conflict, clashes in political views and the key role played by Muslim youths in the killings, giving some specific examples of the impact of peer pressure on participation in the violence. He suggests the military played a relatively passive role in this region.
In his research on East Java and Bali, Sudjatmiko (1992) emphasizes the policies and practices of the PKI and affiliated organizations as central to the revenge enacted upon them. He represents the PKI as deserving of their fate.
Robert Hefner (1990), who researched the killings in the upland area of Pasuruan, East Java, notes that Ansor did not wait for the military to act in this area. Here, there were complex social relations and Ansor targeted not just the PKI, but also the PNI, which were supportive of Hindu-Buddhist religious practices and antogonistic to Islamic groups.
There is little research on Central Java. there were extensive killing in the areas of Solo-Klaten, Pati and Banyumas. Here RPKAD, under Sarwo Edhie[http://www.massviolence.org/Edhie-Sarwo], played a dominant role (Cribb 1990).
Violence was less widespread in West Java. One explanation put forward by Cribb (1990) for this is that the army had only recently suppressed the Darul Islam (House of Islam) revolts and was thus reluctant to rearm and use people involved in this rebellion to counter the communists.
In Bali, where approximately 80,000 people died, Robinson (1996) notes that tensions resulted from the PKI's encouragement of changes to rigid social relations connected to the caste system and because it challenged the authority to Hindu religious leaders. The BTI was also very active in implementing land reform resulting in disquiet amongst those who lost land. Robinson stresses the central role played by the military in Bali in encouraging militia linked to the PNI to take revenge against the PKI. He also notes that there was a delay in killing in this region due to the closeness of the governor to the PKI and a period of waiting to see how things played out in Jakarta.
Most explanations use historical and political perspectives to explain the violence of 1965, but in recent years anthropologists have added new insights into the dynamics of the killings and the lasting effects of the killings. Based on their field research in Bali, Dwyer and Santikarma (2007) have, for example, examined how the violence of 1965-66 has continued to impact on local level social relations and the resultant reluctance of some survivors to openly remember the past and engage in forms of internationally sanctioned reconciliation or peace making processes.
In Wes Kalimantan, ethnic Chinese involved in the Malaysia campaign were targeted by the indigenous Dayak people, with encouragement from the army. The killings began here at a later stage (Coppel, 1983).
The killings were also intense in North Sumatra. There is not much published research on this area, yet we know there were many plantation and industrial workers in North Sumatra who had joined the PKI and affiliated organizations in response to efforts by the party to improve their lot (Stoler, 1995). In North and South Sumatra party membership was also strong amongst migrant lagorers from Java, another group the PKI had become advocates for. In Aceh there were only a small number of PKI and the killings occurred quickly. According to Kahin (1999) the British Consul estimated there were 200,000 deaths throughout Sumatra.
Webb (1986) notes that in West Timor the Protestant Church supported land reform and its members were subsequently targeted. In Lombok, Muslim Sasaks were involved in the killing of Balinese and Chinese. Despite its anti-communist stance, in Flores, the Catholic Church forbade the killing of communists. On the killings in West Timor, Farram (2002) also emphasizes that the PKI had successfully attracted members of the Christian Church, supporters of animist belief and challenged traditional authority, leading to a broad cross section of people being killed.
Several authors such as Roosa (2006), Farid (2006), Hadiz (2007) and Simpson (2008) place greater emphasis on the alliance between the US government and the Indonesian army as a crucial determinant to the actions of the Indonesian military. They emphasize the joint agenda of building a capitalist economy founded on Western aid and continued access to Indonesian natural resources and markets. Roosa (2006) argues that as a consequence of all their grievances against the PKI, the military, with Western backing, were looking for a pretext to crush the PKI. The actions of the 30 September Movement provided this pretext. These authors argue that by killing members of the PKI, trade unions and farmers who pushed for the nationalization of assets, labor, and land reforms, the army also paved the way for implementing this new economic system. these interpretations, however, also focus on elite motives and do not explain why the killings reached the scale they did.
In the context of the Cold War and especially the Vietnam War, which had been underway for three years by 1965, the US government was deeply afraid of the possiblity of a communist victory in Indonesia. In this context the army leadership courted Western powers and the US supported, pro-Western sections of the army in coming to power by any means possible. Western governments were also largely pleased when the army began moving against the PKI in October 1965. Time Magazine reported the rise of Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] as 'The West's Best News for Years'. There was limited sympathy for the victims of the violence because they were communists and also because of racist assumptions about the lower value of life placed on Indonesian people.
Legal Issues
In the ten years since the end of the Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime there have been some state level initiatives to address the human rights abuses of 1965-66. The National Commission on Human Rights was given a mandate to investigate the detention and treatment of prisoners sent to Buro Island sent to Buru Island. this was, however, a very narrow investigation and commissioners were given a very short time to complete their research. In addition there was no follow up to their findings.
In 2004 the parliament passed a law enabling the formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono[http://www.massviolence.org/Bambang-Yudhoyono-Susilo] began to consider a list of potential commissioners. However, the commission was abandoned in 2006 after the Constitutional Court declared the TRC law to be unconstitutional. The Court was responding to objections human rights groups had raised against proposed amnesty provisions that would have given impunity to those who confessed crimes. There was also pressure exerted by sections of the NU in co-operation with the military.
In 2008 the Indonesian Commission on Human Rights began investigating the 1965-66 killings by collecting evidence and testimonies from individuals and organizations throughout Indonesia, in order to compile a report about the killings and recommend judicial action by the Indonesian government. however, the Commission continues to receive regular threats. Whenever NGOs or surviving victims have attempted to open this past to public scrutiny or stake claims for justice, protests, instances of direct intimidation, and violence have followed.
In the case of the 1965-66 killings, there are no powerful or significant lobby groups either inside or outside Indonesia pushing for justice on this case. In addition, there is on consensus that the New Order's origins were a shameful period in Indonesian history. For this reason there has been no significant progress in efforts to address this past by legal means.
G. Bibliography
I'm skipping the bibliography, as it is quite extensive. If anyone wants it, you can post a comment, and I'll add it later. This has been painful on my wrists and back to sit and type all this.
Class Shows Up
One should remember.....never send an email about Ft. Hood to a Texan...And to those liberals out there who wander on to my site...there is a photo to document this post. I truly hope this goes viral. President Bush may have his faults, of which I have been vocal, but he is a Texan and he has supported our troops. I can't validate the fact that the White House asked him to leave, but with this administration, I would not be surprised. When I heard our current president LAUGH as he came out to make the announcement, and do a SHOUT OUT before hand....I was livid. NO CLASS what so ever. He didn't even go visit those wounded? How outrageous.....
____________
The doctor had his TV on in his office when the news of the military base shootings at Ft. Hood , TX came on. The husband of one of his employees was stationed there.
He called her into his office and as he told her what had happened, she got a text message from her husband saying, "I am okay." Her cell phone rang right after she read the message. It was an ER nurse,” I’m the one who just sent you a text, not your husband. I thought it would be comforting but I was mistaken in doing so. I am sorry to tell you this, but your husband has been shot 4 times and he is in surgery."
The soldier's wife left Southern Clinic in Dothan , AL
and drove all night to Ft.Hood. When she arrived, she found out her husband was out of surgery and would be OK. She rushed to his room and found that he already had visitors there to comfort him. He was just waking up and found his wife and the visitors by his side. The nurse took this picture.
Class shows up...
What? No news crews and cameras? This is how people with class respond and pay respect to those in uniform. I sent my cousin in Fayetteville , N.C. (Retired from Special Forces) that picture of Geo. W. visiting the wounded at Ft. Hood . I got this reply:
What is even better is the fact George W. Bush heard about Fort Hood, got in his car without any escort, apparently they did not have time to react, and drove to Fort Hood. He was stopped at the gate and the guard could not believe who he had just stopped. Bush only asks for directions to the hospital then drove on. The gate guard called that "The President is on Fort Hood and driving to the hospital."
The base went bananas looking for Obama. When they found it was Bush, they immediately offered escort. Bush simply told them to shut up and let him visit the wounded and the dependents of the dead.
He stayed at Fort Hood for over six hours, and was finally asked to leave by a message from the White House.
Obama flew in days later and held a "photo" session in a gym, and did not even go to the hospital.
All this I picked up from two soldiers here who happened to be at Fort Hood when it happened.
This Bush/Obama/Ft.Hood story is something that should be sent to every voter in the US . Those who wanted "change" certainly got it.
Lori Ann Smith
Proud Veteran.....
____________
The doctor had his TV on in his office when the news of the military base shootings at Ft. Hood , TX came on. The husband of one of his employees was stationed there.
He called her into his office and as he told her what had happened, she got a text message from her husband saying, "I am okay." Her cell phone rang right after she read the message. It was an ER nurse,” I’m the one who just sent you a text, not your husband. I thought it would be comforting but I was mistaken in doing so. I am sorry to tell you this, but your husband has been shot 4 times and he is in surgery."
The soldier's wife left Southern Clinic in Dothan , AL
and drove all night to Ft.Hood. When she arrived, she found out her husband was out of surgery and would be OK. She rushed to his room and found that he already had visitors there to comfort him. He was just waking up and found his wife and the visitors by his side. The nurse took this picture.
Class shows up...
What? No news crews and cameras? This is how people with class respond and pay respect to those in uniform. I sent my cousin in Fayetteville , N.C. (Retired from Special Forces) that picture of Geo. W. visiting the wounded at Ft. Hood . I got this reply:
What is even better is the fact George W. Bush heard about Fort Hood, got in his car without any escort, apparently they did not have time to react, and drove to Fort Hood. He was stopped at the gate and the guard could not believe who he had just stopped. Bush only asks for directions to the hospital then drove on. The gate guard called that "The President is on Fort Hood and driving to the hospital."
The base went bananas looking for Obama. When they found it was Bush, they immediately offered escort. Bush simply told them to shut up and let him visit the wounded and the dependents of the dead.
He stayed at Fort Hood for over six hours, and was finally asked to leave by a message from the White House.
Obama flew in days later and held a "photo" session in a gym, and did not even go to the hospital.
All this I picked up from two soldiers here who happened to be at Fort Hood when it happened.
This Bush/Obama/Ft.Hood story is something that should be sent to every voter in the US . Those who wanted "change" certainly got it.
Lori Ann Smith
Proud Veteran.....
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966, by Dr. Katherine McGregor, (Part Two)
Once again, this is from an article that I found on line, and then was suddenly gone, so I am rewriting it. Since I didn't save it to my computer, but printed it, and am having to type it in manually, and have carpal tunnel, there may be typos. For the left leaning critics out there, this is not my article. Hang in there to the end and she gives a whole page of foot notes, unlike the books on the slamming of our founding fathers. WARNING CONTAINS SOME GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS.
C. Victims
As noted above, the PKI claimed a membership of 3.5 million people by 1965. In addition it had another 23.5 million members in affiliated organizations. These affiliated organizations included a wide range of interests including the Barisan Tani Indonesia (BTI - Indonesian Farmer's Union), The Indonesian Workers Union (SOBSI), Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat Indonesia (LEKRA - The Indonesian People's Culture Institute), Gerwani (The Indonesian Women's Movement) and the youth organization Pemuda Rakyat (The People's Youth). Members of these organizations shared a broad political agenda with the PKI. In some cases, however, they joined for a very specific reasons rather than an overarching commitment to communist ideology. Some illiterate farmers, for example, were attracted to BTI because of the potential to gain their own land holdings or the promise of fairer wages. The army condemned members of these affiliated organizations alongside the PKI for their alleged involvement in the 30th of September Movement.
Members of the PLI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani, SOBSI and LEKRA were all targeted in the initial arrests and imprisonments. they were identified by means of organizational lists compiled by the army, or in the case of local communities, by means of general knowledge of peoples' alliances.
The PKI remained a legal party until 1966 because of President Sukarno{http://www.massviolence.org/Sukarno] refused to ban the party. Despite this, repression of PKI members and members of affiliated organizations began in the weeks after October 1.
Members of the Cakrawirawa guard and members of the two battalions that supported the 30 September Movement, the Diponegoro and Brawijaya divisions from Central java, were also targeted. the air force, which was the force most sympathetic to the PKI, was also subject to purges. In addition there was a split within the Indonesian National Party and some of those on the left, who were most supportive of President Sukarno[http://www.massviolence.org/sukarno], were also purged from both the military and the government.
The ethnic Chinese were not especially targeted in the violence of 1965-66. Historically the ethnic Chinese have frequently been persecuted in Indonesia and as a result of this and other discriminatory policies they were concentrated in the cities in the 1960s. Because the killings were most intense in rural areas they were not especially targeted, although many suffered property loss or damage (Cribb, 2001a and Coppel, 1983).
Members of the PKI and its affiliated organizations sometimes reported directly to authorities and were detained, others were arrested at their homes and taken away by members of the military or religious vigilantes for interrogation, often involving torture. They were commonly detained first in temporary prisons and later taken to the forests to be killed with knives, bayonets, firearms or were beaten to death. Their bodies were disposed of in mass graves. In other cases the corpses were dumped in the sea, caves, major rivers, left on main streets or mutilated and strung up for public display as a further form of terror.
Estimates of the number of people who died range from 100,000 to 2 million people. There is a wide range of estimates because there was little record keeping at the time and no serious attempt afterwards to reconstruct what happened. President Sukarno[http://www.massviolence.org/Sukarno] ordered a Fact Finding team to investigate the killings in December 1965, but it completed its work before the killings finished. A KOPKAMTIB (Komando Operasi Pemulihan Keamanan dan Ketertiban - Operations Command to Restore Order and Security) survey in 1966, still not available to researchers, is said to have estimated that a million people had been killed. There are serious doubts about the reliability of this report because there were motivations for both over and under reporting the killings. Because the corpses were disposed of in numerous ways and due to the climate of Indonesia, which promotes rapid decay, remains were not frequently discovered in ensuing years. In addition, there was no political will or interest in uncovering mass graves until the late 1990s and the end of the Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto regime. Acknowledging the many difficulties of arriving at an accurate estimate, Robert Cribb (2001b) suggests a figure of 500,000 as most accurate.
In addition to those killed, 600,000-750,000 people were also imprisoned for periods of between one and thirty years (Fealy, 1995). The military categorised prisoners into three groups. Group A consisted of the highest ranks of the PKI, those for whom there was allegedly evidence of planning and leading the 30 September Movement. these prisoners were held for long periods until a military trial could be scheduled. Of those tried no-one was acquitted and many received the death penalty.
Group B consisted of people who were the rank and file of the PKI, whom the military deemed indirectly involved. Category B prisoners were sent to penal colonies in remote areas like Buru Island in the Laluku region where they were set the task of opening up agricultural lands while remaining isolated from the rest of society. To survive, they were forced to establish self-supporting communities with their own sources of food. During the period of imprisonment some prisoners also carried out forced labour (sic) to build roads and infrastructure.
Third came category C prisoners, including those who supported the PKI's 26 mass organizations. Most category C detainees were detained closer to home where their families could provide supplies and were released by 1972. Once they were released they faced sever restrictions on their employment, compulsory registration and monitoring by local officials and loss of voting rights.
Prisoners were often subject to torture when they were first detained and sometimes long after this. During these torture sessions their captors sought to extract confessions from prisoners as to their involvement in the 30 September Movement and as members of the communist Party, the were also asked to name other people in the party or its affiliated organizations and reveal their locations. Gaol (sic) rations were minimal andmany men and women died of hunger and related illnesses.
Due to the propaganda surrounding Gerwani and their alleged debauchery in the events of 30 September, Gerwani women and other women affiliated with the PKI were subject to intense stigmatization and sexual abuse including rape inside the prisons (Wieringa, 2002). Women were detained in either a mixed or women's only prisons such as Bukit Duri in Jakarta and the more isolated Plantungan prison in Kendal, Central Java.
In some cases, when women had young children or were pregnant their children went to gaol (sic) with them. In other cases, women had to ask for help from their wider family to adopt their children. sometimes children were also left orphaned by the killings or forcibly removed from the families of alleged communists. Families left behind also suffered due to the intense stigmatization of communists.
The houses and property of those killed or detained were sometimes burnt down or seized by the military. Some became temporary detention centres (sic).
From the 1980s onwards, after the release of most political prisoners, the New Order government applied a form of screening called the 'clean environment policy' towards appointments to certain professions such as teachers, lawyers, journalists, civil servants, and in the military. According to this policy former political prisoners and the children and grandchildren of those allegedly connected to the 30 September Movement were barred from working in these professions.
D - Witnesses
Most Indonesians, particularly in Bali and East Java would have witnessed incidents of killings or other violence during the 1965-66 period. however, until the fall of the Suharto[http:www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime in 1998, there were only a handful of published accounts by survivors about what they had witnessed in 1965-66.
Since 1998 several former political prisoners have published their memoirs, focusing on their experiences inside gaol (sic). These works include accounts of torture, beatings and murder inside the gaols (sic) as well as accounts of prisoners being taken away never to return (see for example Sulami, 1999).
Several researchers have also collected oral testimonies from survivors of the violence, which include recollections of witnessing killings.
There are a number of published accounts by witnesses and perpetrators available in English. The first major edited book on the killings by Cribb (1990) includes a translated report from the army history division on crushing the PKI in Central Java, an anonymous report on the killings in East Java, two reports on the killings in 1969 in Purwodadi and three short reports on the violence in Bali.
Pipit Rochijat, a graduate in electrical engineering, provided an account of the killings in Kediri, East Java in a piece titled 'Am I PKI or non-PKI?' (Rochijat, 1985). At the time of the killings Rochijat was a student. He witnessed the killings, in which his friends participated. He recalls that troops from nationalist and religious youth groups, including recruits from Islamic boarding schools, would surround a village suspected of being communist such as Pare in East Java. The next day he would see corpses, sometimes mutilated, floating down the Brantas river often tied to or impaled with bamboo sticks so they would float and be visible to others. He also recalls the road west of Kediri being decorated with PKI heads and make genitals being hung outside brothels. He recalls watching people die and beg for mercy, the image of heads being decapitated, the screams of a Gerwani woman as her vagina was pierced with a bamboo pole. As a member of a PNI youth group he also was targeted for arrest in a later wave of army-directed arrests.
In 1989 an unidentified member of a leftist youth organization, possibly Pemuda Rakyat, who escaped death recorded his memories of witnessing some killings from hiding. His work was published in English under the title By the Banks of the Brantas. In this piece, republished in Cribb (1997), he recounts his experiences of avoiding capture and viewing the slaughter and decapitation of several men and women.
Yusuf Hasyim[http:www.massviolence.org/Hasyim-Yusuf] also published a short account of Ansor's role in opposing the communists before and after the 30 September Movement in a larger volume on the New Order period (Hasyim, 2005).
In 2008, shortly after the death of former president Shuarto[http:www.massviolence.org/suharto], journalist Anthony Deutsch published some interviews with people who recalled the violence of 1965. In one interview in Blitar, East Java, Markus Talam, a former member of a left-wing union for park rangers who was gaoled (sic) for ten years on suspicion of being a communist sympathiser, recalls seeing soldiers herding prisoners from trucks, lining them up and shooting them with automatic weapons (Deutsch, 2008a).
In another rare interview, for perpetrators in Bangil, East Java, expressed no remorse for the killings. Sulchan, who is now a preacher and was a former member of Banser suggested the order to kill communists came through Islamic clerics within the Nadhlatul Ulama. Sulchan admitted to leading the killings in his local area and recounted how his men killed a school teacher with a sledghammer, how they decapitated one man and hung his head in the town square. On another night they took 20-30 prisoners to an execution site, dumping the bodies in a ditch (Deutsch, 2008b).
Both military official histories of particular regiments and histories of Ansor and/or the NU include accounts of the killings throughout Indonesia (see for example Semdam VIII, Brawidjaja, 1969 and Anam, 1990). In addition to these first hand accounts there are several fictionalised accounts of the killings (see for example Aveling, 1975).
E - Memories
Official history during the New Order period
For the duration of the Suharto [http:www.massviolence.org/Suharto] New Order regime, the 1965-66 killings were described obscurely in school history textbooks under the generic term of crushing the PKI, which could have been interpreted as the suppression of those directly involved in the 30 September Movement. the military regime used its version of the coup attempt to deflect attention from the killings. Within forty days after the coup attempt the military produced the first white book on the events, emphasising PKI culpability and their alleged depravity during the kidnapping and killing of the seven army martyrs (Pusat Sedjarah Angkatan Bersenjjata, 1965). It then set about memorialising the site, Lugang Buaya in Jararta, at which the bodies of the martyrs were found. Over time, an elaborate monument and museum complex was built.
From the mid-1980s a propaganda film including a reenactment of the kidnapping and killing of the army men was screened repeatedly on all television stations. In addition, the regime began to commemorate October 1 each year as Sacred Pancasila Day (McGregor, 2002). The name of this day suggested that the day of the coup attempt was suppressed the national philosophy, Pancasila, had been saved. The overarching narrative was thus that the Indonesian people had been saved on October 1 from a communist betrayal, that for this reason the day should be commemorated and the military victims mourned as martyrs to this cause.
For thirty two years, on October 1, Indonesian newspapers continued under tight press controls to faithfully replicate the official version of the coup attempt and made little or no mention of the killings that followed. In military histories and histories compiled by religious organizations involved in the violence, the killings were generally referred to by the military term penumpasan, meaning crushing. Both these groups recorded their participation in the killings with pride, as part of their service to the nation. In communities in which the violence had taken place many people were afraid to speak out or write about the violence because of an enduring campaign of anti-communism and possible consequences of being labelled a communist even thirty years after the coup attempt.
One reason that the government kept anti-communism alive was that the Suharto[http:www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime feared communism as a political force. The New Order regime placed severe restrictions on the employment, movement and political activities of former political prisoners thereby restricting the capacity of these people to seek redress for past violence. In this climate it was difficult to express public sympathy for victims of this violence.
C. Victims
As noted above, the PKI claimed a membership of 3.5 million people by 1965. In addition it had another 23.5 million members in affiliated organizations. These affiliated organizations included a wide range of interests including the Barisan Tani Indonesia (BTI - Indonesian Farmer's Union), The Indonesian Workers Union (SOBSI), Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat Indonesia (LEKRA - The Indonesian People's Culture Institute), Gerwani (The Indonesian Women's Movement) and the youth organization Pemuda Rakyat (The People's Youth). Members of these organizations shared a broad political agenda with the PKI. In some cases, however, they joined for a very specific reasons rather than an overarching commitment to communist ideology. Some illiterate farmers, for example, were attracted to BTI because of the potential to gain their own land holdings or the promise of fairer wages. The army condemned members of these affiliated organizations alongside the PKI for their alleged involvement in the 30th of September Movement.
Members of the PLI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani, SOBSI and LEKRA were all targeted in the initial arrests and imprisonments. they were identified by means of organizational lists compiled by the army, or in the case of local communities, by means of general knowledge of peoples' alliances.
The PKI remained a legal party until 1966 because of President Sukarno{http://www.massviolence.org/Sukarno] refused to ban the party. Despite this, repression of PKI members and members of affiliated organizations began in the weeks after October 1.
Members of the Cakrawirawa guard and members of the two battalions that supported the 30 September Movement, the Diponegoro and Brawijaya divisions from Central java, were also targeted. the air force, which was the force most sympathetic to the PKI, was also subject to purges. In addition there was a split within the Indonesian National Party and some of those on the left, who were most supportive of President Sukarno[http://www.massviolence.org/sukarno], were also purged from both the military and the government.
The ethnic Chinese were not especially targeted in the violence of 1965-66. Historically the ethnic Chinese have frequently been persecuted in Indonesia and as a result of this and other discriminatory policies they were concentrated in the cities in the 1960s. Because the killings were most intense in rural areas they were not especially targeted, although many suffered property loss or damage (Cribb, 2001a and Coppel, 1983).
Members of the PKI and its affiliated organizations sometimes reported directly to authorities and were detained, others were arrested at their homes and taken away by members of the military or religious vigilantes for interrogation, often involving torture. They were commonly detained first in temporary prisons and later taken to the forests to be killed with knives, bayonets, firearms or were beaten to death. Their bodies were disposed of in mass graves. In other cases the corpses were dumped in the sea, caves, major rivers, left on main streets or mutilated and strung up for public display as a further form of terror.
Estimates of the number of people who died range from 100,000 to 2 million people. There is a wide range of estimates because there was little record keeping at the time and no serious attempt afterwards to reconstruct what happened. President Sukarno[http://www.massviolence.org/Sukarno] ordered a Fact Finding team to investigate the killings in December 1965, but it completed its work before the killings finished. A KOPKAMTIB (Komando Operasi Pemulihan Keamanan dan Ketertiban - Operations Command to Restore Order and Security) survey in 1966, still not available to researchers, is said to have estimated that a million people had been killed. There are serious doubts about the reliability of this report because there were motivations for both over and under reporting the killings. Because the corpses were disposed of in numerous ways and due to the climate of Indonesia, which promotes rapid decay, remains were not frequently discovered in ensuing years. In addition, there was no political will or interest in uncovering mass graves until the late 1990s and the end of the Suharto[http://www.massviolence.org/Suharto regime. Acknowledging the many difficulties of arriving at an accurate estimate, Robert Cribb (2001b) suggests a figure of 500,000 as most accurate.
In addition to those killed, 600,000-750,000 people were also imprisoned for periods of between one and thirty years (Fealy, 1995). The military categorised prisoners into three groups. Group A consisted of the highest ranks of the PKI, those for whom there was allegedly evidence of planning and leading the 30 September Movement. these prisoners were held for long periods until a military trial could be scheduled. Of those tried no-one was acquitted and many received the death penalty.
Group B consisted of people who were the rank and file of the PKI, whom the military deemed indirectly involved. Category B prisoners were sent to penal colonies in remote areas like Buru Island in the Laluku region where they were set the task of opening up agricultural lands while remaining isolated from the rest of society. To survive, they were forced to establish self-supporting communities with their own sources of food. During the period of imprisonment some prisoners also carried out forced labour (sic) to build roads and infrastructure.
Third came category C prisoners, including those who supported the PKI's 26 mass organizations. Most category C detainees were detained closer to home where their families could provide supplies and were released by 1972. Once they were released they faced sever restrictions on their employment, compulsory registration and monitoring by local officials and loss of voting rights.
Prisoners were often subject to torture when they were first detained and sometimes long after this. During these torture sessions their captors sought to extract confessions from prisoners as to their involvement in the 30 September Movement and as members of the communist Party, the were also asked to name other people in the party or its affiliated organizations and reveal their locations. Gaol (sic) rations were minimal andmany men and women died of hunger and related illnesses.
Due to the propaganda surrounding Gerwani and their alleged debauchery in the events of 30 September, Gerwani women and other women affiliated with the PKI were subject to intense stigmatization and sexual abuse including rape inside the prisons (Wieringa, 2002). Women were detained in either a mixed or women's only prisons such as Bukit Duri in Jakarta and the more isolated Plantungan prison in Kendal, Central Java.
In some cases, when women had young children or were pregnant their children went to gaol (sic) with them. In other cases, women had to ask for help from their wider family to adopt their children. sometimes children were also left orphaned by the killings or forcibly removed from the families of alleged communists. Families left behind also suffered due to the intense stigmatization of communists.
The houses and property of those killed or detained were sometimes burnt down or seized by the military. Some became temporary detention centres (sic).
From the 1980s onwards, after the release of most political prisoners, the New Order government applied a form of screening called the 'clean environment policy' towards appointments to certain professions such as teachers, lawyers, journalists, civil servants, and in the military. According to this policy former political prisoners and the children and grandchildren of those allegedly connected to the 30 September Movement were barred from working in these professions.
D - Witnesses
Most Indonesians, particularly in Bali and East Java would have witnessed incidents of killings or other violence during the 1965-66 period. however, until the fall of the Suharto[http:www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime in 1998, there were only a handful of published accounts by survivors about what they had witnessed in 1965-66.
Since 1998 several former political prisoners have published their memoirs, focusing on their experiences inside gaol (sic). These works include accounts of torture, beatings and murder inside the gaols (sic) as well as accounts of prisoners being taken away never to return (see for example Sulami, 1999).
Several researchers have also collected oral testimonies from survivors of the violence, which include recollections of witnessing killings.
There are a number of published accounts by witnesses and perpetrators available in English. The first major edited book on the killings by Cribb (1990) includes a translated report from the army history division on crushing the PKI in Central Java, an anonymous report on the killings in East Java, two reports on the killings in 1969 in Purwodadi and three short reports on the violence in Bali.
Pipit Rochijat, a graduate in electrical engineering, provided an account of the killings in Kediri, East Java in a piece titled 'Am I PKI or non-PKI?' (Rochijat, 1985). At the time of the killings Rochijat was a student. He witnessed the killings, in which his friends participated. He recalls that troops from nationalist and religious youth groups, including recruits from Islamic boarding schools, would surround a village suspected of being communist such as Pare in East Java. The next day he would see corpses, sometimes mutilated, floating down the Brantas river often tied to or impaled with bamboo sticks so they would float and be visible to others. He also recalls the road west of Kediri being decorated with PKI heads and make genitals being hung outside brothels. He recalls watching people die and beg for mercy, the image of heads being decapitated, the screams of a Gerwani woman as her vagina was pierced with a bamboo pole. As a member of a PNI youth group he also was targeted for arrest in a later wave of army-directed arrests.
In 1989 an unidentified member of a leftist youth organization, possibly Pemuda Rakyat, who escaped death recorded his memories of witnessing some killings from hiding. His work was published in English under the title By the Banks of the Brantas. In this piece, republished in Cribb (1997), he recounts his experiences of avoiding capture and viewing the slaughter and decapitation of several men and women.
Yusuf Hasyim[http:www.massviolence.org/Hasyim-Yusuf] also published a short account of Ansor's role in opposing the communists before and after the 30 September Movement in a larger volume on the New Order period (Hasyim, 2005).
In 2008, shortly after the death of former president Shuarto[http:www.massviolence.org/suharto], journalist Anthony Deutsch published some interviews with people who recalled the violence of 1965. In one interview in Blitar, East Java, Markus Talam, a former member of a left-wing union for park rangers who was gaoled (sic) for ten years on suspicion of being a communist sympathiser, recalls seeing soldiers herding prisoners from trucks, lining them up and shooting them with automatic weapons (Deutsch, 2008a).
In another rare interview, for perpetrators in Bangil, East Java, expressed no remorse for the killings. Sulchan, who is now a preacher and was a former member of Banser suggested the order to kill communists came through Islamic clerics within the Nadhlatul Ulama. Sulchan admitted to leading the killings in his local area and recounted how his men killed a school teacher with a sledghammer, how they decapitated one man and hung his head in the town square. On another night they took 20-30 prisoners to an execution site, dumping the bodies in a ditch (Deutsch, 2008b).
Both military official histories of particular regiments and histories of Ansor and/or the NU include accounts of the killings throughout Indonesia (see for example Semdam VIII, Brawidjaja, 1969 and Anam, 1990). In addition to these first hand accounts there are several fictionalised accounts of the killings (see for example Aveling, 1975).
E - Memories
Official history during the New Order period
For the duration of the Suharto [http:www.massviolence.org/Suharto] New Order regime, the 1965-66 killings were described obscurely in school history textbooks under the generic term of crushing the PKI, which could have been interpreted as the suppression of those directly involved in the 30 September Movement. the military regime used its version of the coup attempt to deflect attention from the killings. Within forty days after the coup attempt the military produced the first white book on the events, emphasising PKI culpability and their alleged depravity during the kidnapping and killing of the seven army martyrs (Pusat Sedjarah Angkatan Bersenjjata, 1965). It then set about memorialising the site, Lugang Buaya in Jararta, at which the bodies of the martyrs were found. Over time, an elaborate monument and museum complex was built.
From the mid-1980s a propaganda film including a reenactment of the kidnapping and killing of the army men was screened repeatedly on all television stations. In addition, the regime began to commemorate October 1 each year as Sacred Pancasila Day (McGregor, 2002). The name of this day suggested that the day of the coup attempt was suppressed the national philosophy, Pancasila, had been saved. The overarching narrative was thus that the Indonesian people had been saved on October 1 from a communist betrayal, that for this reason the day should be commemorated and the military victims mourned as martyrs to this cause.
For thirty two years, on October 1, Indonesian newspapers continued under tight press controls to faithfully replicate the official version of the coup attempt and made little or no mention of the killings that followed. In military histories and histories compiled by religious organizations involved in the violence, the killings were generally referred to by the military term penumpasan, meaning crushing. Both these groups recorded their participation in the killings with pride, as part of their service to the nation. In communities in which the violence had taken place many people were afraid to speak out or write about the violence because of an enduring campaign of anti-communism and possible consequences of being labelled a communist even thirty years after the coup attempt.
One reason that the government kept anti-communism alive was that the Suharto[http:www.massviolence.org/Suharto] regime feared communism as a political force. The New Order regime placed severe restrictions on the employment, movement and political activities of former political prisoners thereby restricting the capacity of these people to seek redress for past violence. In this climate it was difficult to express public sympathy for victims of this violence.
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