A USA EXPATRIATE Act
I enjoy an unusual status as an American citizen living overseas, specifically in Viet Nam. Those of us who have opted to live outside America's boundaries are referred to as "expatriates."
There are just as many reasons to be an expat, as we are usually known, as there are people who chose to abandon the confines of their homeland. In the immediate instance, my leaving America can be referred to as a USA EXPATRIATE Act.
Ex-pats Have Their Reasons
The act of my leaving the US to become an expatriate was related to various reasons, which most expats, will not usually discuss. What one is escaping from or going towards is not a topic freely spoken about in expat groups. The fact that one has already made the step in living overseas, that is unless one has chosen Canada or Mexico, is accepted and reasons become moot and quite usually uninteresting.
For as long as most living today can remember, the United States has been involved in an ideological struggle with communism. I am a veteran of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the American War in Viet Nam. Viet Nam is a socialist country under the one party rule of the Viet Nam Communist Party.
Some of my Republican Christian family members have difficulties reconciling the fact that their socialist-leaning Buddhist liberal brother's has chosen to live in a country that America considered its enemy for over a dozen years. Not only was Viet Nam considered an enemy, but it continues to be a communist party-ruled country.
A Tale Of Two Countries
Communism was generally viewed as an economic practice that also included limiting civil rights, giving the state power to pry into the people's private lives, redistributing wealth and taking the property of individuals for the state's good. In comparison, one can argue quite reasonably that the only difference politically between living here and in America is the food and the language.
On July 18, 20045 the Supreme Court decided that the State can take personal property under eminent domain when it serves the community's need for economic development. Under the Kelo decision by the U.S. Supreme private property can now be taken by the state only to be handed over to private developers for their private gain, and the U.S. Constitution offers no protection, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
I'm still wondering where the conservatives are who fight and yell so loudly for private property rights are hiding now. The predominantly conservative court that appointed George Bush president in 2000 has decided government can now seize your private property. Funny, the communists have done that also. Where is the US headed?
The State Grows Ever More Powerful
On Thursday, July 21st, the House of Representatives voted to make permanent the US government's right to limit the civil liberties of its citizens. The USA PATRIOT Act, not to be confused with my own EXPATRIATE Act, was rushed through Congress suspiciously soon after September 11, 2001 and passed by Democrat and Republican alike.
The USA PATRIOT Act, as many already know, allows the government to intrude into personal lives under the guise of fighting terrorism. The Act allows roving wiretaps, monitoring of emails and internet usage without being limited to an individual or specific phone. It also allows for government agents to obtain business, library and medical records all without the individual being aware of being the subject of an investigation.
It is illegal for custodians of records to advise the individual that personal records have been obtained.
One Senate Republican sponsored bill proposes to give the FBI, who may be watching me from afar, expanded powers to subpoena records without the approval of a judge.
Another interesting Senate proposal is establishing a new crime of narco-terrorism, which is usually defined as supporting terrorism from drug profits. If that were to pass, I propose America investigate itself. During the French Indochina war, the French government sold opium and heroin from Laos to Marseilles criminals to finance their war against the Viet Minh, the precursors of the Viet Cong.
Narco-Terrorism Finances War
Later, the US CIA, which also may be watching me at a much closer range, continued the practice of using profits from opium and heroin sales to finance the US operations in the region during the US war. As the Geneva Convention of 1954 prohibited foreign personnel to operate in Laotian territory, America's actions of more than 600,000 bombing sorties in Laos can be considered terrorism, under new definitions.
I challenge the US to investigate those Americans and government officials who traded in opium and heroin to finance that war.
Another similarity to communism is the Republocratic Party. The voting of Democrats has been closely aligned with the Republicans, both funded by major corporations. Let's face it, both parties voted for the USA PATRIOT Act, the War in Iraq, the World Trade Organization, GATT, tax cuts for the rich, a burdensome federal budget, increasing the federal deficit, the new bankruptcy bill that prevents people to get out from under excessive debts that may have been caused by divorce, critical medical care or other emergencies and the Republocratic Party is once again voting for the USA PATRIOT Act again.
What Have We Become?
Many should face reality that America has finally become what it has hated for several generations. She now lacks moral leadership in the world. Her government has acted cowardly in supporting dictatorships, providing them with training, weapons and even selling weapons to enemies (Iran) to finance Contra rebels in Nicaragua (Iran-Contra scandal).
The US helped Diem and Ky in Viet Nam, Noriega in Panama, Patrice Lamumba in the Congo, then had him killed, Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, and Saddam Hussein when he was fighting the Iranians who were using our weapons we sold to them.
For me, I like my own version of the USA EXPATRIATE Act. I'm not encouraging others to leave the country, but it seems, I am beginning to experience more liberties here than in America. Here, at least, expats don't live in a paranoid surveilled state.
There are just as many reasons to be an expat, as we are usually known, as there are people who chose to abandon the confines of their homeland. In the immediate instance, my leaving America can be referred to as a USA EXPATRIATE Act.
Ex-pats Have Their Reasons
The act of my leaving the US to become an expatriate was related to various reasons, which most expats, will not usually discuss. What one is escaping from or going towards is not a topic freely spoken about in expat groups. The fact that one has already made the step in living overseas, that is unless one has chosen Canada or Mexico, is accepted and reasons become moot and quite usually uninteresting.
For as long as most living today can remember, the United States has been involved in an ideological struggle with communism. I am a veteran of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the American War in Viet Nam. Viet Nam is a socialist country under the one party rule of the Viet Nam Communist Party.
Some of my Republican Christian family members have difficulties reconciling the fact that their socialist-leaning Buddhist liberal brother's has chosen to live in a country that America considered its enemy for over a dozen years. Not only was Viet Nam considered an enemy, but it continues to be a communist party-ruled country.
A Tale Of Two Countries
Communism was generally viewed as an economic practice that also included limiting civil rights, giving the state power to pry into the people's private lives, redistributing wealth and taking the property of individuals for the state's good. In comparison, one can argue quite reasonably that the only difference politically between living here and in America is the food and the language.
On July 18, 20045 the Supreme Court decided that the State can take personal property under eminent domain when it serves the community's need for economic development. Under the Kelo decision by the U.S. Supreme private property can now be taken by the state only to be handed over to private developers for their private gain, and the U.S. Constitution offers no protection, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
I'm still wondering where the conservatives are who fight and yell so loudly for private property rights are hiding now. The predominantly conservative court that appointed George Bush president in 2000 has decided government can now seize your private property. Funny, the communists have done that also. Where is the US headed?
The State Grows Ever More Powerful
On Thursday, July 21st, the House of Representatives voted to make permanent the US government's right to limit the civil liberties of its citizens. The USA PATRIOT Act, not to be confused with my own EXPATRIATE Act, was rushed through Congress suspiciously soon after September 11, 2001 and passed by Democrat and Republican alike.
The USA PATRIOT Act, as many already know, allows the government to intrude into personal lives under the guise of fighting terrorism. The Act allows roving wiretaps, monitoring of emails and internet usage without being limited to an individual or specific phone. It also allows for government agents to obtain business, library and medical records all without the individual being aware of being the subject of an investigation.
It is illegal for custodians of records to advise the individual that personal records have been obtained.
One Senate Republican sponsored bill proposes to give the FBI, who may be watching me from afar, expanded powers to subpoena records without the approval of a judge.
Another interesting Senate proposal is establishing a new crime of narco-terrorism, which is usually defined as supporting terrorism from drug profits. If that were to pass, I propose America investigate itself. During the French Indochina war, the French government sold opium and heroin from Laos to Marseilles criminals to finance their war against the Viet Minh, the precursors of the Viet Cong.
Narco-Terrorism Finances War
Later, the US CIA, which also may be watching me at a much closer range, continued the practice of using profits from opium and heroin sales to finance the US operations in the region during the US war. As the Geneva Convention of 1954 prohibited foreign personnel to operate in Laotian territory, America's actions of more than 600,000 bombing sorties in Laos can be considered terrorism, under new definitions.
I challenge the US to investigate those Americans and government officials who traded in opium and heroin to finance that war.
Another similarity to communism is the Republocratic Party. The voting of Democrats has been closely aligned with the Republicans, both funded by major corporations. Let's face it, both parties voted for the USA PATRIOT Act, the War in Iraq, the World Trade Organization, GATT, tax cuts for the rich, a burdensome federal budget, increasing the federal deficit, the new bankruptcy bill that prevents people to get out from under excessive debts that may have been caused by divorce, critical medical care or other emergencies and the Republocratic Party is once again voting for the USA PATRIOT Act again.
What Have We Become?
Many should face reality that America has finally become what it has hated for several generations. She now lacks moral leadership in the world. Her government has acted cowardly in supporting dictatorships, providing them with training, weapons and even selling weapons to enemies (Iran) to finance Contra rebels in Nicaragua (Iran-Contra scandal).
The US helped Diem and Ky in Viet Nam, Noriega in Panama, Patrice Lamumba in the Congo, then had him killed, Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, and Saddam Hussein when he was fighting the Iranians who were using our weapons we sold to them.
For me, I like my own version of the USA EXPATRIATE Act. I'm not encouraging others to leave the country, but it seems, I am beginning to experience more liberties here than in America. Here, at least, expats don't live in a paranoid surveilled state.
posted by NewsstandGreg at 12:19 AM
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