I am me / and you are me / and I am you / and we are we /and we are all together.

These days, in ever less and less subtle ways, the independent man has become an enemy of the state.  It is more than my conscience and my spirit wants to swallow, or tolerate.  Though my voice is small and largely insignificant, I must speak out.  We are the Patrick Henrys and Ben Franklins and Thomas Paines of our day.  If we do not speak up, who will?

The republic is in tatters; firmly restrained, bought, sold, owned, managed, manipulated, governed, and controlled by the banksters and giant corporations, who own outright and/or are in collusion (yes; please read conspiracy) with the Federal Reserve, the banking system, the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Presidency, the bureaucracy, the armed forces, the many three letter acronyms (FBI, CIA, NSA, CFR, CPS, DEA, DOD, ODS, ATF, DOT, CDC, EPA, FEMA, FHA, FTC, HSC, HUD, INS, IRS, NRC, SS, SSA, etc. to name a few)*  that are the networked mycelium of the federal government, as well as state government, legislatures and judiciaries, the police, the court system, the war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on our food and our water and our soils and our air, the war on our national and global environment, the war on global warming, the war on our children’s educational system and our collective social welfare, the war on our healthcare system and on health itself, the war on our transportation and communications infrastructure, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and 118 other nations in which we have an operating military base;  the war on common sense, and the war on us (U.S.) (God forbid they are really spraying us with chemtrails) and everything we stood for (I use the past tense reluctantly, but with reason) with the assistance and coverage of the network media; all of which now, often blindly, serves the machine.

That was a long sentence to describe the systemic intransigence, muck, and quagmire we have slid and settled into, and the great abyss and moral morass out of which We the People  must climb if we are to survive as an intact culture and a populace who are alive and happily thriving and engaged instead of glassy eyed and drone-like and spiritually dead.  Some people will say I am over reacting and reaching with this post, and they will staunchly (and defiantly, and religiously, and nationalistically) defend the establishment, telling me/you/us (U.S.) we can’t throw out the baby with the bathwater; that we need to work within the established system to affect lawful and peaceful change; but note please the few acronyms I cited as government departments or agencies, and refer to http://members.cox.net/govdocs/govspeak.html  which will provide a more complete and exhaustive list of who supposedly works for us (U.S.), the likes of which amaze… and provides a indication of how pervasive the government really is; and who is really working for whom.  Scroll down through the list of bureaucracies, each with a budget and fully staffed with ‘social and civil servants’ who are invested in an ever growing administration; and tell me we are not a socialistic system moving inexorably …into what…?*  This is just the A’s.

AAA Archives of American Art AAD Access to Archival Databases AAPC Accounting and Auditing Policy Committee AAS Office of Airport Safety and Standards ABMC American Battle Monuments Commission ABPP American Battlefield Protection Program ACC Air Combat Command ACD Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence ACDA United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency ACE Automated Commerical Environment ACES Active Community Environments Initiative ACF Administration for Children and Families ACFR Administrative Committee of the Federal Register ACHP Advisory Council on Historic Preservation AcqNet AcqNet ACQWeb Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology ACS Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management ACSFA Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance ACSL Alternate Crops and Systems Lab (changed to CSGCL) ACYF Administration for Children, Youth, and Families ADA Americans with Disabilities Act (Text of ADA legislation) ADC Program Against Digital Counterfeiting of Currency (changed to ACD) ADD Administration on Developmental Disabilities ADDS Aviation Digital Data Service ADF African Development Foundation ADR Alternative Dispute Resolution AES Automated Export System AFC American Folklife Center AFCARS Adoption and Foster Care Reporting and Analysis System AFDC Aid to Families with Dependent Children (defunct; see history) AFI Assets for Independence Program AFIS American Forces Information Service AFMLS Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section AFP Asset Forfeiture Program AFRC Air Force Reserve Command AFRH Armed Forces Retirement Home AFRL Air Force Research Laboratory AFROTC Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps AFRRI Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute AFRTS Armed Forces Radio and Television Service AFS Air Facility System AFSC Armed Forces Staff College (replaced by JFSC) AFSIC Alternative Farming Systems Information Center AFSPC Air Force Space Command AGC Army Geospatial Center AGDC Alaska Geospatial Data Clearinhouse AGID AGing Integrated Database AGRICOLA Agricultural OnLine Access AHCPR Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (changed to AHRQ) AHRQ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality AHS American Housing Survey AID Agency for International Development AILO American Indian Liaison Office AIRS Aerometric Information Retrieval System (changed to AFS) AMES Ames Laboratory AML Abandoned Mine Lands AMS Agricultural Marketing Service AMTIC Ambient Monitoring Technology Information Center Amtrak National Railroad Passenger Corporation ANA Administration for Native Americans ANG Air National Guard ANL Argonne National Laboratory AO Administrative Office of U.S. Courts AOA Administration on Aging AOC Architect of the Capitol AOML Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory APH American Printing House for the Blind APHIS Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service APIS Advanced Passenger Information System APLAA Office of Asian Pacific, Latin American, and African Analysis APP Office of Airport Planning and Programming AQA Air Quality Analysis AQS Air Quality System ARB Administrative Review Board ARBA Army Review Boards Agency ARC Archival Research Catalog | Arctic Research Commission ARIS Air Resources Information System ARL Air Resources Laboratory | Army Research Laboratory ARM Atmospheric Radiation Measurement ARNet Acquisition Reform Network (changed to AcqNet) ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency ARPA-E Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ARRA American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ARS Agricultural Research Service ASC Appraisal Subcommittee ASL Assistant Secretary for Legislation ASPE Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation ASPR Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response ATF Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives ATFP Antiterrorism/Force Protection Directorate ATIP Anti-Trafficking in Persons ATO Air Traffic Organization ATP Advanced Technology Program ATS Automated Targeting System ATSDR Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ATUS American Time Use Study ATW Air Toxics Web Site AWC Aviation Weather Center AWIC Animal Welfare Information Center

The remainder of the alphabet is well represented, I assure you. Look for yourself.  It’s We the People  who aren’t represented.  We pay for every one of them.  Flip U.S. around and you have S.U. (Soviet Union), something of an ironic accident in nomenclature, perhaps; and yet it is our tax dollars and our blood which supports and pays for all these agencies, and the debt; and the deficit; and the empire building; and the Congress, so they can parasitically persist; each one of them requiring more and more funds yearly to keep your head above water.  

I’m only choking.  Check that list again.  S’lotta letters in that alphabet.

They are farming us, (U.S.) like livestock.  Moo.  It does a body good.  Moo.  Practice the mantra.  Make yourself heard, good citizens.  Moove over and make room for more government manipulation, interference, and the entrenched bureaucracy already so securely in place and thereby ‘required’ and mandated to manage us (U.S.), legislate us, tax us, charge us, fine us, and imprison us if we do not comply.  Bear in mind also that the fastest growing industry in America today is the prison system.  I believe it’s time to run a new bath for the baby. 

I would hate to do the research involved to compile the annual budget of each of these agencies and bureaucracies and add it all up: to get the grand total of what it costs to feed the machine.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is a case in point.  If you go to the official FTC website, they are “Protecting America’s Consumers.”  That’s a laugh.  I don’t think of the FTC as a big ticket budget item, (if I think of them at all) but they’re on the list. I threw a dart and it hit the FTC; so let’s take them as an obscure and random example of what’s going on all over the alphabet.  In an article published on a website called Main Justice (Politics, Policy, and the Law) http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/02/02/ftc-budget-would-add-40-new-staffers/ Aruna Viswanatha writes, “the Federal Trade Commission would get a $22.3 million funding increase under the president’s fiscal 2011 budget request sent to Congress on Monday.  The approximately 7.6 percent increase would support the hiring of 40 new staffers, including 17 in the competition bureau.  Nine of the new full-time competition positions would be dedicated to review mergers in pharmaceutical, health care, energy and technology markets, according to the request.  The agency signaled that energy would be a key focus, with four additional staff members slated to review price manipulation in the petroleum market and three new economists to focus on energy markets.  Four additional positions would concentrate on enforcement in the pharmaceutical and tech sectors.  The agency also asked for several new positions on its competition support staff, and one new member on its policy planning task force.  On the consumer protection side of the agency, the FTC asked for 23 new positions, to focus on financial services and health fraud, schemes that target “vulnerable Americans” and others.  The request also includes several new positions in the areas of privacy and data security, and mobile marketing and new media.” …The total budget requested by the FTC for fiscal year 2011: $314 million dollars.  That’s one little government agency. 

The FTC is in the F’s, if you go looking for them.

More on this state of the union reckoning in forthcoming essays, if I elect to post more.  I may not.

with deepest respect for our nation, our engaged citizens, and the toxicity of our self serving ship of state, which is leaking oil all over the planet, and us (U.S.).