Send your used copy of "1984" to the Oakland Trib! They send to Congress!

Big Brother is watching
December 23, 2005

IT took 21 years longer than expected, but the future has finally arrived.

And we don't like it. Not one bit.

We are fighting a war with no end to create a peace with no defined victory.

We occupy a foreign land that doesn't want us, while at home our civil liberties are discounted.

We are told that it's better not to know what our government is doing in our name, for security purposes. Meanwhile, our government is becoming omnipresent, spying on us whenever it deems it necessary.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

more...

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/oped/ci_3337465

Animal Farm, as well! Quite the eye-opener!

Peace.

...that they were always being watched.

Doesn't mean they like being reminded.

To that end, we're asking for your help: Mail us or drop off your tattered copies of "1984." When we get 537 of them, we'll send them to every member of the House of Representatives and Senate and to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Feel free to inscribe the book with a note, reminding these fine people that we Americans take the threat to our liberties seriously. Remind Congress that it makes no sense to fight a war for democracy in a foreign land while allowing our democratic principles to erode at home.

Remind President Bush that ours is a country of checks and balances, not unbridled power. <snip>

Bring or mail your books to the Oakland Tribune, 401 13th St., Oakland CA 94612. Doors are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Kicked & recommended.

Methinks they might get more than 537 books. Mine is on my desk ready for the trip to the post office! Woo-hoo!

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Why that number I wonder..??

440 Reps in US House + 100 Senators + 1 pRez + 1 Vprez = 542

Well, actually, they only need 541 -- we know that one of the aforementioned people does not read.

:sarcasm:

Maybe someone can send an audiobook for the Idiot Boy.

the US House website and copied and pasted the list of Reps into an Excel file and wound up with 440 lines -- I bet that includes people who represent 'territories' as well as those who represent states...

:shrug:

But the number 435 is set by the Constitution. There aren't any territories or "non-states" that have representation, including Washington D.C., though DC does get three votes in the electoral college, which is why the total there is 539.

Anyway, I'm just doing a fancy job of :kick:

:hi:

:think:

I just shipped a used copy via amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/offer-listing/0451524934/qid=1135631241/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1a//104-6203075-4303125?condition=all

Thank god he wrote that book.

:hi:

I need it to figure out what stunt Bushco will pull next.

and think that they're doing the right thing.

"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

Particularly for the president. However, he reads books upside down so I don't know how much good that will do.

And Bush will see himself as Big Brother who everybody loves and it'll make his day. Fact is, the "1984" world is just what he and his minions want and that's the bottom line.

God help us all! And--welcome to DU.

Tired Old Cynic

I think the Cliff Notes version would be too much for him, but maybe a comic book version would be just right.

He may not get the point of just sending 1984 to him, but perhaps if we sent him both a copy of 1984 AND "America 2014", which talks about Mr. Bush himself as extending his dictatorship past two terms, maybe he'll get the message! Maybe send this to other members of congress too:

http://www.buzzflash.com/reviews/05/rev05050.html

Learning to love Big Brother
George W. Bush channels George Orwell

Here's a question for constitutional scholars: Can a sitting president be charged with plagiarism?

As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is "1984, " the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism -- not a how-to manual.

...

PERMANENT WAR

In "1984," the state remained perpetually at war against a vague and ever- changing enemy. The war took place largely in the abstract, but it served as a convenient vehicle to fuel hatred, nurture fear and justify the regime's autocratic practices.

Bush's war against terrorism has become almost as amorphous. Although we are told the president's resolve is steady and the mission clear, we seem to know less and less about the enemy we are fighting. What began as a war against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda quickly morphed into a war against Afghanistan, followed by dire warnings about an "Axis of Evil," the targeting of terrorists in some 50 to 60 countries, and now the beginnings of a major campaign against Iraq. Exactly what will constitute success in this war remains unclear, but the one thing the Bush administration has made certain is that the war will continue "indefinitely."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/07/28/IN244190.DTL

Check out the date that this article was published: Sunday, July 28, 2002

Thank you, OAKLAND!

:applause:

:applause:

:applause:

stood on the green and talked to crowds about the idea that the government really belonged to the people, even the working people kept in crushing poverty by the wealthy owners of industry who worked hard to make sure that their employees were kept powerless to create a healthier life for themselves or their children, or find any opportunity outside of providing the labor for the monopolies they had created.

The Oakland Tribune does justice to the memory of Jack London today, and I salute them.

of Rights either

OK. I will, but my originals will stay with me so they can be shared with Homeland Security.
:sarcasm:

Not a bad idea even though I quote Orwell so much at DU

said "I think it will be just like 1984" (meaning, Bush will win by a wide margin).

They had no idea how true that statement was, but not in the way they meant it...



(by the way, isn't it interesting how after the election, they held to their assertion that Bush would win in a landslide, and tried to make it true?)

They can read... can't they?

They already have copies. I believe they read that book to get ideas -- along with Machiavelli's.

:patriot: :kick: