Talk About America

Lee Harvey Oswald?

2010-03-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on the radio while driving to work a man, a teacher in Nashville TN, told the story of how, after picking up his 10 year old daughter from school was driving home when a right-wing fanatic rear ended his automobile because he had an Obama bumper sticker on the back of his car. The victim, I dislike that word - let's use survivor, the survivor of the incident recounted the horrible tale of how, after pulling over and exiting his vehicle to speak to the driver, this wingnut continued smashing his SUV into the back of his sedan to the accompaniment of his daughter's screams as she was still strapped into the back seat! If this wasn't enough, AT THAT VERY MOMENT as I was listening to what's become an all too familiar tale of right wing violence these days, a man drives by in a red pickup outfitted like a contractor's vehicle sporting a bumper sticker on the back that read "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when we really need him?"

Silence... pause... what? Let me look at that again...

"Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when we really need him?"

It doesn’t take but a nanosecond to understand what this man advocates. I was incensed as any American should be. I drove by Mr. Bumper Sticker to see what sort of person would put such a hateful message on his truck for all to see and saw a man furiously biting his nails but otherwise appearing as normal as can be; middle-aged Caucasian, thin, fit and tan, with longish salt and pepper hair.

After writing his license plate number on my hand I drove right on by and immediately upon arriving in my office called the Los Angeles field office of the Secret Service and reported what I saw. As we know, the agent said they take all threats against the president no matter how casual or veiled seriously, which in this case is a public statement that one wishes an infamous assassin would do to the current president what he was alleged to have done to a former president. As a card-carrying member of the ACLU I'm all for expressing one's views no matter how repugnant but advocating this in public is well over the line in my opinion especially in the current political milieu.

Where does this hate get us? Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist and columnist of The New York Times says it well when he writes "In the short run, Republican extremism may be good for Democrats, to the extent that it prompts a voter backlash. But in the long run, it’s a very bad thing for America. We need to have two reasonable, rational parties in this country. And right now we don’t." I would argue we need more than two but that’s a different post. See the link to his most recent column in the title of this post.

How did the Nashville story end? Well the teacher obtained the license plate of the offender, called 911 and the man was arrested. Apparently he was drunk, which obviously is no excuse.

Me thinks a goodly portion of the right wing is drunk too - drunk on hate whipped up by the likes of Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, Fox News et. al. and incredibly some Republican elected officials like John Boehner. Disagreeing with a policy or legislation is as American as one can get but the bill passed by majority vote. Last time I checked in a democracy the majority carries the day.

Please, my fellow American citizens that happen to be Republicans - the bill passed and is the law of the land. Get used to it. Get used to it like many Americans who happened to be Democrats had to get used to the fact that conservative Supreme Court justices appointed George W. Bush to be president. Its how the system works. We have rules that we need to follow or else we end up like the Balkans or Somalia.

And we are surprised?

2010-03-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I've been saying essentially the same thing for years now - chickens (as they always do) come home to roost.

These neanderthals wouldn't know totalitarianism or socialism if it bit them on the fanny

2010-03-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

(news flash to the sign holder at left and St. Ronnie - willful ignorance is the problem)

What part of majority rule don't these people get? Totalitarian tactics? Socialism? Given the chance they would and have done the same thing. Hypocrites.

This is one of my beefs with America. Ever since St. Ronald we've been pulled so far to the right that the center begins to look like "socialism." And I'd hazard a guess that 90% of America doesn't even know what these terms actually mean. Socialism is when the state owns the means of production or to put it simply; all private business.

No serious national figure, least of all Barack Obama or even Dennis Kucinich and Barney Sanders advocates that. Socialized medicine is when the hospitals are owned by the government and all staff including doctors are government employees. Kind of like the Veterans Administration and the US Military. Kinda makes you go hmmm. If its good enough for the militarily and the Vets who the "support our troops" crowd worship why isn't just the modicum of reform that the bill represents good enough for the rest of the country?

Rearranging the deck chairs

2009-06-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

Prof. Walt's discussion (click above link) is over the Obama administration's recent pronouncements on the settlements. We essentially agree but he's more polite and erudite about it than I.

In my view this is a lot of heat without much light. Big wow! The US is finally getting tough on the Israelis - woo hoo! What amounts to a simple reiteration of long standing US policy vis a vis the illegal Israel colonies (sorry, can't call them settlements - too dignified - lets call a spade an effing shovel) in the West Bank to generate this kind of twittering (not the electronic kind - the old fashioned OMG did you hear what he said cocktail party kind) just shows how low the bar has sunk. This is pitiful. The notion that the Obama administration is getting all steely eyed is nonsense. Look, the Israeli power structure of Labor/Kadima/Likud are no more interested in peace than Phillip Morris is interested in getting out of the tobacco business. The status quo is too profitable and besides making tons of money at US taxpayer expense the goal is to completely cleanse Eretz Israel of non-Jews leaving a democracy for one religious group. Tell me how that is so much different than Iran?

It started in '48 with the official stated policy of Ben-Gurion and the Zionists to cleanse the land of Palestinians (mainly Muslim and Christians while enlisting the Druze for inside assistance) and everything that has occurred since has been in the furtherance of that goal. Witness the current cleansing of East Jerusalem and the presence of 300,000 rabid fundamentalists in the West Bank. I'll believe that the administration is finally getting tough on these right wing war criminals when we withhold a couple billion dollars of the several billion we ship over there each year. Now that would make front page news.

And while he's at it he should get tough on our own right wing war criminals.

Still its better than Bush - which is about the same thing as saying its better than nothing.

What's wrong with a Bi-National State?

2009-05-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Two questions for Mr. Walt regarding his latest blog post - today at www.foreignpolicy.com

1) What's wrong with a bi-national democracy? Many believe its the only solution that's likely to last. True it would require that Israel not be a "Jewish" state, which on the face of it is as racist as making the US or any other democracy a "insert name of religion here" state. If you want to be a theocratic parliamentary republic, fine, you will engender much opposition - but don't call yourselves a democracy and claim to share American values.

2) As the goal of the Israeli power structure and its allies such as AIPAC in the US and elsewhere is to continue the ethnic cleansing it began in 1948 what could conceivably entice Israel to make peace w/the Palestinians?

The Israeli power structure has ever been interested in peace w/the Palestinians. Yes, they made peace w/Egypt & Jordan and would like a treaty w/Syria and Lebanon because these are existing nations with armies and land from which to launch attacks. But the goal has always been to drive the Palestinians out of Eretz Israel. Read Ilann Pappe's "Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine." Plan Dalet was conceived to force as many Palestinians out of Palestine as possible. There is an article in this month's National Geographic describing the Arab Christian exodus from the Middle East and specifically the West Bank because Israel makes life intolerable spurring emigration. Its working!

Bibi will bide his time waiting for Obama's popularity to wane (which it will) and then launch a new attack on the Palestinians either in Gaza or the West Bank or both. He may even bomb the Iranians. Obama will be hobbled and unable to do anything. New settlements will be built, the wall will be longer and higher and generally magnify the defacto apartheid system in Gaza and the WB eventually passing on to the next government an Israel with fewer Palestinians than when he took over. This is the goal. Gradual depopulation leaving lebensraum for the Jews.

Newt Gingrich: neo-neo-conservative vs. Stephen Walt: of the realist school of foreign policy.

2009-05-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

In these two articles, (links below) one reporting on a speech Newt Gingrich gave to AIPAC just yesterday and the other from Stephen Walt (at left), a well known Harvard professor of international relations, both Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama are accused of endangering Israel. Just who are we supposed to believe?

Gingrich accuses Obama of endangering the security of Israel and says the Obama adminstration is "weak" like the Carter administration. No mention of course that Carter actually brokered peace with Egypt, Israel's most credible external foe, which is galaxies beyond what any Republican administration has accomplshed in the arena. In the latter Walt posits that Netanyahu endangers the security of Israel by being too intransigent and if this stubbornness continues will lead to a much less favorable outcome for the Israelis.

If we look a little deeper, supposedly Newt is positioning himself for a run at the presidency in 2012 and one could be forgiven for thinking he's buttering some bread here and pledging fealty to AIPAC. Given the fact that the USA resoundingly rejected an intellectually and morally bankrupt not to mention failed right wing philosophy last November shouldn't that give us some kind of clue as to the validity of this particular argument? Walt, well known as one of the dynamic duo that penned "The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy" with John Mearsheimer, examines the case from an academicians perch with the freedom that his position allows.

Newt labels Obama's policy of constructive engagement with Iran a "fantasy" and "very dangerous" for Israel. Newt goes on and likens "... negotiations with the current Iranian regime to negotiating with Adolf Hitler, and called for "enforcing the disruption of gasoline supplies until the Iranian economy broke, the ayatollahs were ousted and a new regime was in place without a single shot fired." That earned thunderous applause." Well of course given the audience. Shades of Cheney's "we don't want the smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud" Newt is just as dangerous, maybe even more so because he's really quite intelligent and well spoken.

On the other hand Walt says that... "The prime minister [Netanyahu] and his allies keep harping about an "existential" threat from Iran, but this bogeyman is mostly nonsense. Iran has zero -- repeat, zero -- nuclear weapons today, and even if it were to acquire a few at some point in the future, it could not use them against nuclear-armed Israel without committing national suicide. Let me say that again: national suicide." Not to mention the fact that Iran hasn't invaded any countries lately unlike the good 'ol USA and its "coalition of the willing."

Who in their right mind actually believes Israel faces an existential threat from anyone let alone from Iran? As Walt says... "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said some remarkably foolish things about the Holocaust and repeatedly questioned Israel's legitimacy (as in his oft-mistranslated statement about Israel "vanishing from the page of time"), but he's never threatened to murder millions of Israelis (and Palestinians) with nuclear weapons. Just last weekend, he even told ABC's George Stephanopolous that if the Palestinians reached an agreement with Israel, then Iran would support it. Moreover, as Roger Cohen has noted, there is no evidence that Ahmadinejad has any particular animus toward Iran's own Jewish community. Despite his many offensive statements, in short, Ahmadinejad is not Adolf Hitler and we are not living in the 1930s." Contrast that with what Newt said yesterday at AIPAC where he "called for a military strike to destroy missiles in Iran and North Korea." How many innocents does he think he will kill doing that and what unintened consequences will ensue? Just who are the aggressors here?

According to the US government and the IAEA Israel "possesses between 75 and 400" nuclear warheads and chemical and bilogical wepaons capability as well.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

The myth of an Israel facing destruction from 40 million Arabs every day is just that. Who would attack it? Egypt is at peace with Israel and Jordan, brokered by the Clinton administration, made peace in 1994. Lebanon is powerless and Syria is not a credible military threat. The USA guarantees Israel's security and Iraq conveniently neutralized. The occupation is a cancer that eats at the soul of Israel.

So what does Obama really want? I don't think anyone could find anything that suggests anything other than he (and the rest of the international community) wants is for Israel, as the far more powerful actor in this drama, to be a mensch and honor its many commitments and implement the central platform of the seemingly dozens of peace plans it has signed up for in the last 40+ years, which of course, is the oft mentioned two-state solution. As for Netanyahu his disdain for the plan is well known and in order to prevent an open split with the USA he prevaricates and obfuscates imposing new conditions on the Palestinians.

Me thinks Mr. Gingrich & Mr. Netanyahu engage in some garden variety right wing prestidigitation in an attempt to distract our attention from the real issues.
Here's the Jerusalem Post article on Newt:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1239710853666

Here is Walt's post on the Foreign Policy magazine website:
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/28/the_treason_of_the_hawks

Read them both and let me know (if you wish and can take a few minutes) which is the more logical argument of the two.

The Reason for Torture - looking for justification to invade Iraq

2009-04-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Wonder why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month? What could he have possibly told us on the 180th time that he didn't on the 100th time? (BTW - that works out to over 6x a day for a month). Turns out the administration; Bush, Cheney, Rice, Tenet etc. were looking for reasons to invade Iraq and hoped waterboarding KSM would force him to say al-Qaeda and Iraq were in cahoots. After 183 times in one month he didn't. This despite the well known proclivity for persons under torture to spill whatever beans they think the torturers want to hear just to stop the pain. 183 times!

So after looking for 6 years and going through millions of Iraqi documents no evidence has ever been found that indicates there was operational cooperation beteen Iraq and Al-Qaeda. Not to mention the massive efforts to find the proverbial WMD. But that didn't stop the Bushites from the messianic, illegal and immoral crusade to find non-existent evidence and when none was to be found to simply manufacture it.

From a McClatchy story on the Senate report released just yesterday. "A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under "pressure" to produce evidence of ties between al Qaida and Iraq. "While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq," Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link . . . there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results." http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/66622.html

Why "pressure to produce ties?"The Downing Street Memo states "the intelligence and facts were being fixed" around the policy. http://downingstreetmemo.com

The news here is that, finally, US Government documents are coming to light that prove the Bush Administration deliberately and with malice aforethought fabricated evidence to support its rationale for invading Iraq; thereby killing 4000+ (and counting) Americans (more than the 9/11 attacks) and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, displacing 2m+ of them in the process. If this is proved and I predict it will be beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is the crime of this young century and in my opinion ranks with the 9/11 attacks.

We have no choice but to follow all the evidence wherever it leads. If not we encourage more of this behavior by Democrats and Republicans, it doesn't matter which party, what matters is the abuse of power, privilege, position and the breaking of laws. This is not about retribution or revenge, its to reaffirm the Constitutional principle that no person is above the law. We have a chance to redeem our republic. If we don't we take several more steps down the slippery slope to despotism. "When the president does it its not illegal." That's a dictator (or a crook) speaking, not a president.

Forget all about the poor and homeless we've got to set the market free

2009-02-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is a line from a song I wrote during the Reagan years the title of which is also the name of this blog: "Talk About America."

I really hope Chris Hedges is wrong but there's a 50-50 chance he isn't.

The next time we feel like scapegoating poor Mexican or Central American laborers or one of our fellow citizens who bought too much house with a loan their bank told them they "qualified for" just dust off this little treatise. Some choice passages include:

Hints of our brave new world seeped out Thursday when Washington's new director of national intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He warned that the deepening economic crisis posed perhaps our gravest threat to stability and national security. It could trigger, he said, a return to the "violent extremism" of the 1920s and 1930s. It turns out that Wall Street, rather than Islamic jihad, has produced our most dangerous terrorists. We will see accelerated plant and retail closures, inflation, an epidemic of bankruptcies, new rounds of foreclosures, bread lines, unemployment surpassing the levels of the Great Depression and, as Blair fears, social upheaval.

The economic collapse has exposed the stupidity of our collective faith in a free market and the absurdity of an economy based on the goals of endless growth, consumption, borrowing and expansion. The ideology of unlimited growth failed to take into account the massive depletion of the world's resources, from fossil fuels to clean water to fish stocks to erosion, as well as overpopulation, global warming and climate change. The huge international flows of unregulated capital have wrecked the global financial system. An overvalued dollar (which will soon deflate), wild tech, stock and housing financial bubbles, unchecked greed, the decimation of our manufacturing sector, the empowerment of an oligarchic class, the corruption of our political elite, the impoverishment of workers, a bloated military and defense budget and unrestrained credit binges have conspired to bring us down. The financial crisis will soon become a currency crisis. This second shock will threaten our financial viability. We let the market rule. Now we are paying for it.

The corporate thieves, those who insisted they be paid tens of millions of dollars because they were the best and the brightest, have been exposed as con artists. Our elected officials, along with the press, have been exposed as corrupt and spineless corporate lackeys. Our business schools and intellectual elite have been exposed as frauds. The age of the West has ended. Look to China. Laissez-faire capitalism has destroyed itself. It is time to dust off your copies of Marx,

does this mean prices will go down at Fry's?

2009-02-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Another capitalist crook bites the dust, now if we only had the guts to go after the bankers.

"One company, Phoebe Micro Inc., sold Fry's $80 million worth of goods between 2003 and 2008. The firm gave Fry's a $4 million discount, the IRS said, but paid Siddiqui's company $24 million."

If the $76m worth of merchandise can be further discounted $24m then by my reckoning Fry's can discount the product (this one anyway - others maybe more maybe less) another 30% and maintain margin. Should be a class action suit to force Fry's to rebate their customers who suffered economic loss due to this fraud? Apparently it failed to provide sufficient oversight to their management employee - among other things this is what Sarbanes-Oxley was created to do.

Israel's Lies: By Henry Siegman

2009-02-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

Henry Siegman writes in the London Review of Books:

Israel’s government would like the world to believe that Hamas launched its Qassam rockets because that is what terrorists do and Hamas is a generic terrorist group. In fact, Hamas is no more a ‘terror organisation’ (Israel’s preferred term) than the Zionist movement was during its struggle for a Jewish homeland. In the late 1930s and 1940s, parties within the Zionist movement resorted to terrorist activities for strategic reasons. According to Benny Morris, it was the Irgun that first targeted civilians. He writes in Righteous Victims that an upsurge of Arab terrorism in 1937 ‘triggered a wave of Irgun bombings against Arab crowds and buses, introducing a new dimension to the conflict’. He also documents atrocities committed during the 1948-49 war by the IDF, admitting in a 2004 interview, published in Ha’aretz, that material released by Israel’s Ministry of Defence showed that ‘there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought . . . In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them, and destroy the villages themselves.’ In a number of Palestinian villages and towns the IDF carried out organised executions of civilians. Asked by Ha’aretz whether he condemned the ethnic cleansing, Morris replied that he did not:

A Jewish state would not have come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that population. It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border areas and cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from which our convoys and our settlements were fired on.

In other words, when Jews target and kill innocent civilians to advance their national struggle, they are patriots. When their adversaries do so, they are terrorists.

2 state or bust?

2009-01-31T07:20:00.000-08:00

Probably the most cogent analysis of the situation I've read in a very long time. I'm especially taken by this passage:

"Particularly misguided and damaging has been the oft-repeated demand that Palestinians offer territorial concessions that match the "painful concessions" Israel's leaders have said they are prepared to make. It is a formulation that reveals a profound misunderstanding or deliberate distortion of the history of this conflict, one that will inevitably produce a one-sided outcome that is unjust and untenable. Palestinians have not asked Israel to make territorial concessions--i.e., give up any of the territory Israel controlled between the armistice agreement of 1949 and the 1967 war--nor has Israel ever indicated it would under any circumstances consider doing so. What Palestinians have asked is that Israel return Palestinian territory on which Israel has illegally established settlements and to which it has transferred its own population, in violation of treaty obligations and international law. To describe the return of illegally expropriated Palestinian territory as Israeli "concessions" is to compromise the Palestinian case before negotiations even begin.

Indeed, it is only Palestinians who have made painful concessions. As a condition for Israel's acceptance of the Oslo Accords, the PLO formally agreed to recognize the legitimacy of territory acquired by Israel in the war of 1948. It is a concession that reduced by fully one half the territory originally assigned to the Arab population of Palestine by the UN partition plan of 1947. Given that major Palestinian territorial concession, any new initiative that does not provide that negotiations begin at the pre-1967 armistice line and expects Palestinians to relinquish (other than in equal land swaps) even more of the 22 percent of the territory that has been left them will be stillborn."

And before dismissing this fellow as some fanatic antisemitic raver on the order of say er uh... Jimmy Carter... know that the author is:

Henry Siegman, director of the U.S./Middle East Project in New York, a visiting research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America.

"Israel needs its version of Al Jazeera"

2009-01-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

As if PR were the answer. If the IDF hadn’t killed so many innocent civilians over the years Israel wouldn’t need a “special” media outlet to put lipstick on its policies. Truthful objective reporting would be all that was necessary. “Buying” the Hamas line has nothing to do with it. Stop the killing, the oppression and close down the illegal “settlements” and the negative stories will stop. It’s simple. To paraphrase Bill Clinton “It’s the Occupation Stupid” and until Israel truly ends it, not like the ersatz “pull-out” from Gaza, the world will increasingly view Israel, as it did South Africa, as a pariah nation. America, the last bastion of uncritical support for Israel is slowly waking up to the horror that is the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel: get out while you still have time.

IDF Targeting Civilians

2009-01-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

"Israeli soldiers fired on a group of residents leaving their homes on orders from the military and waving white flags, according to testimony taken by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem."

"Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, declared that he would press forward with an "iron fist"."

That's obvious... and the assertions of the IDF apologists that the IDF goes out of its way to avoid killing innocent civilians wear more thin with each passing day.

The report continues...

"In Gaza, Munir Shafik al-Najar told B'Tselem that members of his extended family started trying to leave their homes after the Israeli army began demolishing buildings in the area of Kuza'a, close to the Israeli border with south-eastern Gaza. Mr Najar said the Israeli soldiers were using gunfire to signify that residents should leave, but then started shooting "indiscriminately".

He testified that his relative Rawhiya had stepped out of the family-owned building, one of whose walls had been destroyed by a bulldozer, expecting her family to follow, but she was shot. The military subsequently attacked another group escaping leaving two more of his relatives dead. The military said late last night that it had found the claim to be "without foundation".

Why do they hate us?

2009-01-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

The Cost of War

2009-01-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Disturbing photos of the innocent victims of the conflict. Sensational? Yes, but we are so desensitized we need to be reminded every so often of the horror. We wonder why they hate us? See these photos and wonder no more.

There is no existential threat to Israel yet thousands of innocent Palestinians die each year

2009-01-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

Its mystifying to me how great numbers of American Jews who self-identify as liberals and honestly espouse liberal causes in the USA and around the world (vote or campaign for Obama, support the ACLU, oppose apartheid in South Africa etc.) yet when it comes to the Palestinian question make a hard right turn and parrot a right wing closet fascist like Benjamin Netanyahu and his terrorist turned politician mentor Menachim Begin.

Robert Scheer a great American (and Jewish) liberal writes in his latest piece on Truthdig.com (click on the above link for the full text)

"Where are the voices that reflect the uncompromising morality of Einstein’s generation of Jewish intellectuals willing to acknowledge fault and humanity on both sides of the political equation?"

In a letter to the NYT Eistein clearly stated his views on Begin and his organization the:

“Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.” The letter urged Jews to shun Begin, arguing, “It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.”

The standard rejoinder as to why the hard right turn is that the Arabs want to destroy Israel and drive the Jews into the sea. Scheer writes:

Why is it that there is such widespread acceptance, beginning with the apologetic arguments of President Bush, that whatever Israel does is always justified as necessary to the survival of the Jewish state?

It is not.

While the Hamas rocket attacks are reprehensible, they are also an ineffectual challenge to Israel’s enormous security apparatus, and the severity of Israel’s response to them is counterproductive. Clearly, the very existence of Israel is not now, nor has it ever been, seriously challenged by anything the Palestinians did. Not back in 1948, when Israel was established as a state with insignificant Palestinian military resistance, nor at the time of the 1967 Six-Day War when Egypt, Syria and Jordan fought Israel."

Israel has nukes and America to back it up. No Middle Eastern group or country can defeat Israel as long as this is true. Fuggedaboudit. Killing innocent Arabs only makes the situation worse and creates more terrorists. How many Islamic terrorist attacks were there in the west before the 1967 6-Day War?

There is a much more robust debate in Israel over this question than there is here in the USA. One has only to look to groups such as Peace Now, the Ha'aretz newspaper and B'Tselem to see that. But try to have the same level of debate in the USA as Jimmy Carter or John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt did and the charges of antisemitism and being pro-terrorist inevitably follow. Its intellectually and morally bankrupt to stifle debate like this. A few voices like Scheer do exist but they are relegated to the fringe and rarely does on hear them in the mainstream media.

Hamas: The Next Generation

2008-12-30T13:00:00.001-08:00

A Jonestown bucketful of political kool-aid

2008-12-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

This post was originally published on 11/17/08 but I had trouble getting the text to display. So I deleted and re-published it today. Hence the date change.

"George W. Hoover?" Bill Kristol, the arch-conservative, writes In today's (11/17/08) New York Times: "There’s nothing conservative about letting free markets degenerate into something close to Karl Marx’s vision of an atomizing, irresponsible and self-devouring capitalism." Something close? No Bill, it might not be "conservative" but anyone with a pair of eyes can see its just plain greedy, self-serving, stupid, and short sighted. And Bill, BTW - there are millions of real people out there suffering from the pipe-dream that was supply side "economics." Just like in the 30s. Just like collectivism and national socialism - its a dead duck. George W. Hoover, George HW Hoover, Ronald R. Hoover, Newt Hoover, John McCain Hoover, Alan Greenspan Hoover - the whole lot are nothing more than the historical heirs of Herbert Hoover (and Ayn Rand). Let's face it - Republicanism is morally, intellectually and philosophically at the endgame. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls; like Yasser Arafat and Michael Eisner its hung around far too long and outlived whatever usefulness it may have once had and its time to go. Hasta la vista baby! All that's left is a party with a focus group (and a mascot) searching for a marketing message to sell to Joe the Sixpack Plumber because what it had, proved to be an Edsel, an "Ishtar" a "Heaven's Gate" and a Jonestown bucket full of political kool-aid that's failed miserably and ruined America in the process. ps.. apologies to Herbert Hoover (because he was actually a pretty good guy he just didn't have any business being president), the Edsel (which is now a collectors item) and "Heaven's Gate" (which was actually a pretty good movie).

Bernie Madoff or Hamas?

2008-12-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

Ironically, Bernard Madoff may end up doing more damage to the Zionists than Hamas. $50bn is a lot of money and much of it was invested by Jewish charities.

Speaking of Hamas... Israel, Hamas, America and the UK do not want peace. As Country Joe said..."There's too much money to be made supplying the army with the tools of the trade." To be sure there are peace-loving Israelis, Britons, Palestinians and yes Dorothy there are peace-loving Americans too. But there aren't enough of us to tip the balance. We need more truth tellers like Robert Fisk (see link above) and the late Edward Said to enlighten the world. Who is there among the Israelis to fill this role? Is he/she on the talk shows of Israel, the UK and America? Does he/she write op-ed pieces for major newpapers? Is he/she a Nobel prize winner? Please let me know for I wish to hear the voice of peace from Israel because thus far the only voice I hear is the voice of apartheid, bigotry and oppression.

The resisters of the Warsaw ghetto are now martyrs. Gaza is an analogue to the Warsaw ghetto. Squeeze Gaza until it erupts into violence and then kill its innocents because (predictably) it erupts in violence; its Newton's law.

Republicanism is dead - lets bury it and get it over with

2008-11-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

John Dean discusses authoritarian conservatism. One more and perhaps, the main, reason to consign Republicanism to the ash heap of history. It's a party that has outlived it's usefulness. It, like Zionism, should join "Communism," Fascism, The Whigs, The Know Nothing Party, ( to which today's Republican party bears a striking resemblance) The Bull Moose Party etc. etc. etc.

To do any less would only invite it to resurrect itself and some day another ruinous Republican administration will "fool all of the people some of the time" and take the reigns of power in Washington digging this country into a hole and another Democrat will have to ride to the rescue of the nation.

Day of Reckoning

2008-11-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

Here's my take on what's at stake.

McCain/Palin = policies that continue to benefit the rich and Fortune 500 corporations, especially the oil and arms industries

Endless war
More socialism for the rich (trickle down voodoo economics & tax cuts for people and corporations that don't need it) & corporate welfare (see $700bn bank & Wall Street Bailout, deregulation allowing the fox to guard the henhouse) & corporate lobbyists running government; in fact most of his top campaign staff are lobbyists and are likely to go back to lobbying after the campaign. Those that don't will likely join his adminstration and do favors for their buddies in the private sector - that's the way it works folks... we all know that.
Continued erosion of our Constitution i.e. spying on innocent Americans without a warrant, continuing Bush's policy of torture and illegal detentions & renditions. McCarthyite tactics to stifle legitmate dissent. (See the mass arrests of legitimate protesters and credentialed journalists at the Republican Convention) the possible end of a woman's reproductive rights!
Continued belligerence and bluster in international relations - see "bomb bomb bomb bomd bomb Iran." He has a military mind that favors force over diplomacy.
The least qualified VP candidate in history. I shudder to think that a someone who can't even name a Supreme Court decision (besides Roe v. Wade) or a single newspaper or magazine she reads to keep current could be one 72 year old heartbeat away from having her finger on the nuclear trigger! What are we thinking? Electing a potential spokesmodel-in-chief? A Vanna Whitehouse? Please let's get serious here folks.

In short a McCain/Palin adminstration would continue the most egregious, ruinous excessive laissez fair capitalist policies that created this mess we're in today. With poverty levels and income equality not seen since the Great Depression, unbelieveably high deficits, state bankruptcies, high unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, wasteful, useless spending in the arms sector, corporate pork & erosion of Constitutional rights; McCain's policies will solve very little beyond palliative measures and exacerbate the decline of the USA while plundering the resources of the people to continue a quest for some kind of world-wide American Empire. Why do we need 750 military bases around the globe?

Obama/Biden = polices to help the middle class, working folks and the poor - the rich and the Fortune 500 don't need it

Two self made men, family men, that have risen up to the highest levels of our society through hard work and talent. Nothing was handed to them. Unlike George Bush and John McCain they came up the hard way by earning it and represent the best of our country.
End the occupation of Iraq responsibly - we've already won the war folks, victory is ours - Saddam is dead. Its over. Continuing to stay is just Cheney's and the neocon's plan for American Empire dominating militarily the Middle East, Central Asia and its oil reserves. If Iraq can muster an $80bn surplus while we spend $10bn a month they are well enough along for us to begin a significant but measured withdrawal down to a force to protect our Embassy. Without deadlines people don't perform. Its human nature.
Domestic economic policies designed to help the people that actually need it. McCain/Palin call this socialism? If that's socialism I've got a bridge to nowhere for sale. When FDR created the New Deal it was called good government. When Teddy Roosevelt busted the trusts and reduced the power of big corporations it was called reform. The GI Bill, Social Security, Medicare, roads, bridges and other infrastructure, good schools, firefighters, police, National Parks; all these cost money. The rich, having suckled at the breast of America, need to pay their fair share to help those that aren't as fortunate as they. Republican policies since Ronald Reagan have systematically redistributed wealth to the wealthy by cutting taxes and deregulating corporations while starving programs for the people and attempting to tear down these basic social safety programs. Aren't you glad that Bush wasn't successful at privatizing social security? Can you imagine trying to retire at this point in history with the worst stock market meltdown since 1929? Using a socially conservative agenda to trick the American people into thinking they represented the common folk while in reality the Republican power structure cares no more for the people than did Marie Antoinette.
Fair trade - let's stop the outsourcing of our jobs. Ross Perot was right. There has been a giant sucking sound of jobs leaving the country. Its just business folks, its completely amoral, money like water seeks it own level. If you can make your automobile or refrgerator or TV set in a country where you can pay workers $100 a month with no environmental controls or social rights instead of $100 a day, and shield your profits from US taxes (which are the lowest effective corporate tax rates in the industrialized world - which McCain wants to reduce even more) then you'd be a fool not to take advantage of these enormous loopholes.
Respect for work - allow people to organize without fear - which is a right enshrined in law in this country just as healthcare should be
A benevolent healthcare system so peope aren't held hostage to their jobs and are covered regardless of their health status. A government takeover of healthcare? If only, Medicare spends 3% of its revenues on adminstration while the fat cats at United Health, Aetna etc. suck up 30% of revenues for administrative overhead. Obama will not nationalize healthcare just make it nearly 100% accessible and reduce its cost.
Diplomacy first - force as an extreme last instead of a first resort - rebuild our alliances and regain respect and our moral standing in the world - cooperate not dominate
Respect for the Constitution and appointment of Supreme Court Judges that will as well
End torture - illegal wiretapping - illegal renditions - close Guantanamo - end the "War" on Terror - treat it as the criminal problem it is
End the quest for Empire and go back to being a Republic
Capture Osama Bin Laden and go after the people who actually attacked us instead of those that had nothing to do with it. Osama still has a job - do you?

And finally - competence - after 8 years of the most incompetent, morally and intellectually bankrupt presidency in history it will be a relief to get things working again. Stop the flight of qualified people from government. One reason we're in this economic mess is that the organs of government have become so politicized by Bush/Rove that many of the best people just left; leaving us with political cronies and hacks without any experience to run things. (see Alberto Gonzales) John McCain can't even run his campaign without lobbyists and his campaign has been a disaster swerving erratically from one extreme to the other. What makes us think he will run the country any better? Obama's campaign has been a model of organization and efficiency. Its brought millions of new voters into the democratic process and we finally have an opportunity to elect a leader who inspires hope instead of fear; competence and intelligence instead of crony capitalism and intellectual dishonesty; reason instead of superstition.

We can't let the fearmongers scare us. We're Americans, we're not scared of anything! When the going gets tough America gets going! We've done it before and we'll do it again. Obama is the absolute right choice at this crucial moment in our history. He isn't perfect but he's miles ahead of McCain/Palin who are a throwback to fear, superstion and the dark ages. Its time to evolve....

What the bailout does is help those concerned about the healthcare reform...

2008-10-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

The US Americans the Iraq and like such as....

2008-10-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Is the Reichstag burning?

2008-09-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

So - we're concerned about America are we? Then why threaten to veto the package that extends unemployment benefits helping those who really need it while touting a $700bn plan to bail out the Wall Street vultures??

As a good friend of mine said "The Republicans have wrecked America." How stupid do they think we are? The Bushites are trying to stampede Congress into another disaster. After Iraq you'd think that they'd wise up. There is glimmer of hope the Dems and a few sane Republicans might fight off this coup d'etat of unprecedented proportions. No oversight? No challenge in court? This amounts to Congress giving the power of the purse to the executive branch. Reichstag fire anyone? The parallels are uncanny.

I predicted the Bushites would come up with something before the election to perpetuate their power. This may be it. What would really roil the country is another terrorist attack... October surprise? I believe Bush and Co. knew an attack was coming on or around 9/11 and chose to let it happen so they could institute a national security state, and carry out the plans embodied in the "Project For a New American Century" which included invading Iraq. Look it up and then tell me I'm just paranoid.

Of pigs, fish & lipstick: Bravo Andrew!

2008-09-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic Monthly, an a-typical conservative rather than a typical conservative opines on the charade that is the McCain/Palin candidacy.

I must admit I cribbed the "a-typical conservative" line from one of the comments in the above referenced Truthout article.

The outright lies of Republicans are "Beyond the Palin!"

Cribbed that one too - from Keith Olbeman's show. :-)

Choice quotes:

"And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil."

"Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base."

I've predicted for many months the right wing Pavrovian (made that up myself) smear machine would go into overdrive because it has nothing substantive to run on. By just about any measure this country is worse off now than it was 8 years ago; unless of course you're part of Bush's base and are in the $1m+ income bracket. The Republicans have trashed our economy through laissez-faire robber baron style capitalism, trashed our military with the neo-con wet dreams that are the invasion of Iraq and the quasi-war with Iran, trashed our Constitution with warrantless wire-tapping, the end of habeas corpus and signing statements, the government itself has been trashed so that it has a hard time performing basic governmental functions. As Obama said "they campaign well and govern poorly." That's the understatement of the century. And don't give us that tripe about a do-nothing Democratic Congress that Fred Thompson et. al. spewed - the Dems majority is too slim to pass the important things like cutting off funding for the war and certainly too slim for a veto override.

And McCain/Palin expect us to believe they are change agents???? A religious fundie in the White House - that's change? A campaign run by lobbyists - that's change?

She was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it? If thats what you mean by change then, OK, works for me. Keeping the money after the bridge was nixed by Congress that's pretty cynical especially when you use it to build a road right up to the water where the nowhere bridge was supposed to be. Billing the state $40K in per diems for living in your own house is even worse. Road to nowhere is right - let's hope this candidacy is on a road to nowhere.

Actually real change would be Ralph Nader or Ron Paul in the White House but I'll be very happy to see O'Biden at the inauguration. (that one is courtesy of a slip of the tongue by Chris Matthews during his convention coverage)

A Noun, A Verb and POW

2008-09-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

From our friends at "The Nation"

John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country."

We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks, but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr. Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know-friends, family members, coworkers, and especially those who don't share your political views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that has ever overplayed McCain's POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!

My Country, Right or Wrong?

2008-09-06T08:54:00.001-07:00

This has been bugging me ever since she made this statement at the convention.

From the WP 9/5/08 - click on the link above for the whole story.

"Palin, the first woman to appear on a Republican presidential ticket, continued her attacks on Obama, mocking his background as a community organizer in Chicago and deriding him as showing indifference toward small-town people.

"These are the people who do some of the hardest work in America," she said, prompting chants of "U-S-A." "They grow our foods and they run our factories and they fight our wars. They love their country, in good times and in bad, and they are always proud to be an American."

So, according to Palin people in small town America are proud of their country when it engages in a preemptive war based on fabricated intelligence against a country that did not - I repeat - did not - present a clear and present danger? Proud of America when it tortures innocent people? Proud of America when its fits of imperial pique is responsible for the deaths of countless innocent Iraqis, Afghanis, Vietnamese, El Salvadorians, Guatemalans, Native Americans etc.? Proud of America when its chief executive ignores the law and spies on American citizens? I suppose proud of America too when it arrested and beat lawful, peaceful dissenters at the just concluded Republican convention?

If she is right - and she is not - then what? How can one be "proud" of these actions? I too am proud to be an American but not for these reasons. I'm proud of our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence and our other founding documents. I'm proud of how we separate church from state, that we ended slavery and under the law at least all people are equal. I'm proud of many other actions America has taken over the years and the fundamental principles upon which our society is based. However, one needs to use one's intelligence to discriminate between right and wrong actions. America is far from perfect and has fallen very far in these last dark years of the Bush/Cheney regime.

Palin insults the intelligence of small town America. There are plenty of folks out there that don't agree with her radical right-wing Christian fundamentalist view of the world. God help us if McCain is elected and dies in office and she becomes president. She claims to be a Christian? True Christians don't kill innocents, true Christians don't lie. Her beliefs, which she is entitled to under our system, are in lockstep with the most radical neo-con, neo-fascist, anti-environmentalist, ant-feminist segments of the political spectrum.

Yes, there are unthinking people in small towns just as there are in big cities who chant U-S-A and support whatever war mongering politician happens to be the flavor of the moment but don't paint all small town folks with that brush.

You say poe-tay-toe - I'll say poe-tah-toe

2008-09-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

An old saying goes: "There are at least three sides to every story; yours, mine and the truth." To wit:

From the NYT by way of Think Progress:

"Bush’s place in history depends on alternate narratives that are hard to reconcile. To critics, he is the man who misled the country into a disastrous war, ruined U.S. relations around the world, wrecked the economy, squandered a budget surplus to give tax cuts to fat-cat friends, played the guitar while New Orleans drowned, politicized the Justice Department, cozied up to oil companies and betrayed American values by promoting torture, warrantless eavesdropping and a modern-day gulag at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for people never even charged with a crime. To admirers, he is the man who freed 60 million people from tyranny in Afghanistan and Iraq and planted a seed that may yet spread democracy in a vital region, while at home he reduced taxes, introduced more accountability to public schools through No Child Left Behind, expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs, installed two new conservative Supreme Court justices and, most of all, kept America safe after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Peace Now?

2008-07-25T22:52:00.000-07:00

Photo at left is of one of the thousands of Palestinian homes destroyed as mass punishment against Palestinian villagers. See http://www.interfaithpeaceinitiative.com/ProfitingFromOccupation.htm for more info

Nicholas Kristof has written some thoughtful columns recently on the situation in Israel and the occupied territories. I applaud him. Its refreshing to see a mainstream columnist finally shedding some needed light on the sorry mess that is Israel and Palestine. I (of course) have what in some quarters might be considered an extreme point of view but it certainly is degrees of magnitude less extreme than an Israeli colonist (I cannot call them "settlers") clubbing 4 innocent Palestinians. Where apartheid policies strangle freedom of movement so that women cannot get to hospitals to have their children and in some cases the babies have died. Or a Palestinian youth bereft of hope resorting to killing his or her hated oppressor by becoming a suicide bomber. I posted the following to Mr. Kristof's column.

----------

Its clear the Israeli government does not want peace. Although there are many peace loving people in Israel, alas there as in the United States they seem to be in the minority. Israel has its military-industrial complex too and its closely tied to America's. Conflate the untold billions made from the war trade with fanatic, fundamentalist Jews holding rational people hostage in their own country with the superstition that "Eretz" Israel was promised to them by God and you have a recipe for endless conflict.

America's financial support and security guarantees enable the Israeli government to act with impunity, which it does. The Palestinians, rightly or wrongly fight back with everything they have - one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Israel is not a democracy any more than the US would be if it forcefully expelled all non Christians and allowed only Christians to become citizens. America must recognize the travesty and tragedy of supporting these policies. Blindness and collaboration with some of the most egregious human rights violations on the planet has cost us our position as honest brokers, if we ever really had it, and we now, witness 9/11, have become a target of the Islamic fundamentalists. Everytime you go through the security at an airport just think; why? We aren't hated for our freedom we are hated because we oppress and support oppression.

One state? It's the *only* solution. One person, one vote, Israel must be secular, the Zionist dream must join the other failed ideologies of the 20th Century, communism and fascism, on the dust heap of history. Insisting on a Jewish majority is simply a racist ideology and will fall of its own accord because it is wrong. It cannot stand. Sorry, but thats the truth and if you think about it everything else is just an incremental step to the inevitable.

Damn Liberal Media!

2008-07-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Katie Couric: "Senator Barack Obama said recently that there might have been improved security [in Iraq] even without the surge” “What’s your response to that?”

Senator McCain: "I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarland was contacted by one of the major Czechoslovak sheiks on the Iraq/Afghanistan border. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.

Aawww - I just kid the Senator.

Think its funny? Click the title for the link above

Shades of Herbert Hoover

2008-07-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Another clueless Republican mess you've gotten us into Stanley!

From the LA Times 7/14/08 "As thousands of customers waited hours in the heat Monday to withdraw deposits from failed IndyMac Bank, investors dumped the stocks of many mortgage lenders, precipitating the steepest one-day decline in banking shares since 1989.

Southern California fixtures Downey Financial Corp. and FirstFed Financial Corp., specialists in the nontraditional mortgages that fueled the housing boom, were among the hardest hit, with their stock prices down 24% and 19% respectively. Shares of Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest savings and loan, fell nearly 35%."

Join a credit union - at least your money will be lent to people like yourself instead of some high flying deal making super capitalist.

RED CROSS REPORTS GITMO WAR CRIMES

2008-07-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

Weapons of mass deception

2008-07-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is too funny. Looks like both the American and Iranian "Ministry of Truth" screwed up. Now it seems these aren't' even the type of missiles they were initially reported to be. Raw Story has a bit that says they are "old equipment" and "didn't demonstrate any new capabilities and may not have included the long-range missile Iran claims among those launched, a US official said."

Trouble is this image was on the front page of every major newspaper as well as many "respectable" Internet sites and the ignoramuses that are the majority of the American electorate won't see the retraction or the follow up stories and when the sabres are again rattled by the chimp-in-chief they will harken back to this image and be afraid... very afraid.

Whose empire is it anyway? Questioning McCain's Military Record

2008-06-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

McCain's neocon beliefs and the platform of the Republican party are enough for a thinking electorate (an oxymoron if ever there was one) to consign them both to the dustbin of history without questioning his military record even if it is, as some say, a dubious one. If Democrats would repudiate their own complicity in America's long, racist, extreme capitalist, imperialist agenda (when pigs fly) and let this country become a republic again, eschewing the empire it has become, we will enjoy a long, prosperous and glorious future living up to the ideals in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Close the 750 odd military bases around the world return the trillions being spent on military-industrialist cronies of both parties to the people, reducing the military to a true defensive entity and cooperate with instead of dominate our fellow humans or, in a massive blowback of historic proportions, we will suffer the same fate as Rome. 9/11 was just the beginning my friends.

Why must we spend more on "defense" then the rest of the world combined if not to dominate? America, do we really want this? Read the ugly manifesto that is "The Project for a New American Century" for just the latest iteration of the ideology driving the corporatist ruling class. From nearly the beginning of the republic through "manifest destiny" to the neocons of both parties this country has been on a mission to subjugate and dominate for profit.

John McCain is a poodle for the military-industrialists: no more no less. He is no more interested in helping the American people than was John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, a modern hedge-fund manager or an oil market speculator. Barack, while initially offering a glimmer of hope, sadly is rapidly turning out to be the Democratic equivalent.

Same as it ever was.

sic transit gloria mundi

Democracy Now? WMD was just a cover to bring Democracy to Iraq?

2008-06-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

photo at left was taken at Camp Victory just outside Baghdad.

For those of us who still think, ala Scott McClellan, GWB's real reason for the war was to bring democracy to the Middle East here's a chunk of gristle to chew on.

BAGHDAD -Iraqi lawmakers say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed "status of forces" agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely.

Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews the Iraqi government rejected this proposal along with another U.S. demand that would have effectively handed over to the United States the power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq. Lawmakers said they fear this power would drag Iraq into a war between the United States and Iran.

impeach, convict, imprison...

Yes I know it will never happen - I suspect because the Democrats don't want anyone held truly accountable because when its their turn they don't want be held accountable either.

This used to be a Republic -

Unintended or intended Consequences?

2008-06-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Judge for yourself in this Q&A with the two authors of the book "The Three Trillion Dollar War"

A couple of choice ones:

Q: How much money could we have saved if we did not have "contractors" doing the jobs that used to be done by our military? (i.e. security, food & laundry services, construction, etc.) A: It is hard to get a precise number. It appears that, at least in many case, using contractors at least doubles the cost. Part of the reason that it is difficult to get a precise number is explained in the book: the government appears to be financing both the insurance premia for death and disability and much of the benefits (as strange as that may seem.) There is no full accounting. The overall cost of using the contractors is, however, far greater. We have created competition for our military--contractors doing the same work as soldiers are paid far more. This is bad for morale, but it also means that when their service time is over, many leave to work for the better paying contractors. In response, the military is forced to pay big re-enlistment bonuses. But the contractors have cost us in other ways: they focus on minimizing costs and maximizing profits, and those objectives are often not consistent with our broader strategic objectives, as we explain in our book.

Q: The Iraq War has removed a significant amount of oil from the world market. How much has the absence of this oil contributed to the rise in prices? How great is the negative impact of the oil price increase on the American economy, especially now that we are in a recession.

A: In response to several earlier questions, I explained how the war contributed to the rising oil prices. In our book, we attributed only $5 to $10 of the $75 to $85 rise in the price of oil to the war, but I actually think the war was responsible for a far larger part of the increase in the price of oil. As we explain in the book, the high oil prices have had a very, very negative effect on the economy--the effects of which were covered up by the Fed. Money spent on Saudi Arabian or Kuwait oil (or oil purchased from any other oil exporter) is money that is not available to be spent here at home. That means the economy is weaker than it otherwise would be. As I mentioned, the Fed covered up these effects through a flood of liquidity and lax regulations. It fueled a housing bubble and a consumption boom. But it can't do it any more. So in the coming years, we'll be feeling the bite of the high oil prices much more.

"Shut the hell up!"

2008-05-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Special Comment from Keith Olbermann - the closest thing we have to a real journalist on television in this sad country of ours these days. See the rest of it on the link above.

"The war in Iraq - your war, Mr. Bush - is about how you accomplished the derangement of two nations, and how you helped funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to lascivious and perennially thirsty corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater, and how you sent 4,000 Americans to their deaths - for nothing.

It is not, Mr. Bush, about your golf game!

And, sir, if you have any hopes that next January 20th will not be celebrated as a day of soul-wrenching, heart-felt Thanksgiving, because your faithless stewardship of this presidency will have finally come to a merciful end, this last piece of advice:

When somebody asks you, sir, about Democrats who must now pull this country back from the abyss you have placed us at…

When somebody asks you, sir, about the cooked books and faked threats you foisted on a sincere and frightened nation…

When somebody asks you, sir, about your gallant, noble, self-abnegating sacrifice of your golf game so as to soothe the families of the war dead…

This advice, Mr. Bush…

Shut the hell up!"

Hang Up and Drive

2008-03-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

According to a story in today's LA Times driving while using your mobile phone approximates the level of impairment one experiences when legally drunk and indeed reflexes for drivers at the legal limit for alcohol actually were better when braking or performing avoidance maneuvers!

Anecdotally speaking I have to agree as it seems that if I happen to pass a slow or erratic driver invariably they are talking on the telephone.

The text message revolution makes it even worse.

Time to go...

2008-03-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

While I would gladly support Mrs. Clinton in the general against any Republican candidate I do not believe she can win the nomination. Mathematically its almost impossible. Therefore instead of continuing to split and damage the party she should bow out of the race and support Mr. Obama immediately before she creates more talking points for the Republican party ensuring the election of John McCain. Mr. Obama is the candidate of the future, as much as I respect and admire Mrs. Clinton she is not. She is also too divisive of a figure. I do not believe she has capability of winning more than 50% + 1 in the general while Mr. Obama has the capability of winning 55% - 60% in the process providing coattails and increasing the Democratic majority in Congress. If Mrs. Clinton wins the nomination her candidacy will not provide those same coattails and the Dems will end up with a slim majority in Congress ensuring four more years of gridlock. As much as it pains me t say this, Mrs. Clinton please bow out before its too late.

The New Gestapo? Part II

2008-03-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

This is an email comment received on my post about the "New Gestapo." This man is a Vietnam Vet and an artist. I have great respect for him. I asked him if I could post this and he didn't reply. He's probably pretty angry with me but his comments are so poignant I just had to share them. My reply to this follows below.

---------------
I wanted to briefly comment on your statements about the military, which are basically doing what they are trained to do under orders and fear. This is coming from someone who learned about the innocent civilian camps in Vietnam near where I served and in an outrage to them, made a series of works called, "Innocent Citizen Series". I tended to empathize for the poor Vietnamese farmers, women and children, who were detained by American troops, questioned and deemed innocent or hostile in Kangaroo court fashion. The innocents were sent to a special camp for Innocent Citizens (called I.C's). These camps had a corrugated tin for a roof, barbed wire surrounding them and very basic necessities. Never mind that their farms were burned to the ground or taken over by the enemy the following week.

I also have tape recordings of pilots in helicopters chasing people on foot running through the fields--"If they're running, they must be bad guys, so shoot the m. f'"

As I made the IC Series, I was outraged -- some 12 years after returning home. I continue to be outraged, but what else is war suppose to be? I remember my Dad mentioning that the British would stop the war for tea time, then go back to fighting. That was rather disgusting to him. He was attached to a British air force unit in "Project Avalanche" over Foggia, Italy. To have heard him talk about it, he thought he was over Sicily. I found his army record which said otherwise. He mentioned to me once that he was scared shitless.

I didn't see direct combat, but I rode luxury jet liner with audible explosions around us with no idea what was happening or whether we were the target and what will happen when we land, if we did safely land. I was scared shitless then too. No one knew anything. We continued to not know anything for the 11 months while I was there. After four months of this, one breaks down to a godless and numb state of self-denial, that took those following 12 years and more to expel. And I didn't even see combat. After six rocket attacks, one that came within feet of me, nothing else happened the entire year. My most vivid memory remains to be a pile of combat boots, used, two stories high as I walked on the tarmac to enter the freedom bird. I still had my boots on. I could never shake a sense of guilt about that. And I could never shake the guilt about the IC camps.

But the IC camps were nothing like the Nazi death camps. Abu Grave is laughable by comparison. My Dad was proud of how Americans did not use the tactics that the Germans and the Japanese used in their camps. Hogen's Heroes was just a TV program. This is not to mention the Stalinist Russians, who out killed the Nazis by far. The fact that the victims were Ukrainian, Russians and Poles makes it forgettable for most Americans, and apparently for Roosevelt.

What's my point? Bluntly put, your statements about our military are naive, and because of this stand to lose credibility. Other nations laugh at us because of our perceptions of war. Yes, Bush and his machine are comparable, to only a small degree to the Nazis, but the fascist direction he is taking is unmistakable. As for our military, They are following orders in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are not Nazis. They are gadgetized spoiled brats that find themselves in the sorry mess of a reality that their commander in chief and his buddies sent them to. While they can call home on a whim, email every day and enjoy AC barracks at least some of the time, it is our leaders who should take the rap. Saying this has become more difficult, now that we have a volunteer Army. When people were drafted there was more protest and subversion within the ranks. I am sure that guys volunteered though, for numerous reasons: money, education and the faith in our leaders to use their wisdom (maybe?). Some volunteered to be like Rambo and simply shoot. Some are addicted to killing. That is a small, small percentage of most people in the military. Something like 90% plus are support. 10% minus are actual warriors. (I remember well standing in formation before guard duty how our office personnel would tip their helmets and hold the machine gun they never used in target practice to look like John Wayne or some WWII hero in the movies before the Officer in Charge would straighten their asses out with a few sharp words before they moved out to their posts.) Most are trained to simply think of this war in only one way--and for them that might be their best means for survival. I also remember being told to shoot "anyone" who moved, regardless of age or gender and whether or not I thought they were innocent. That is a part of war I did not have to follow through on, thank God. War is war. Increasingly, those who return home find themselves feeling disillusioned, broken and neglected. They have paid for the war what Bush will never pay for the decision to put them to war. That is the real tragedy.
--------------------------------

The post was deliberately put in the form of a question. War brutalizes both sides and makes people do things they would never do in normal life. My point is the German soldiers were pretty much the same in that they were "doing what they were trained to do under orders and fear." Obviously we have to blame the leaders that put them there in the first place. We also have to look within to understand how we empower these so-called leaders to make war, especially those started under false pretenses like Vietnam and this war in Iraq. Hitler, after all, was freely and fairly elected.

The shock value of using the word "Gestapo" was deliberate and while a police organization American soldiers are forced to act counter to their training and police a civil war. I use the term to help the reader question if there are indeed any parallels between the Nazis and our own soldiers. Did you read the entire piece referenced in the link? The quote is from a long article in Rolling Stone by a reporter who spent several weeks with the 2-2 Stryker Cavalry Regiment. The thrust of the article is that the story of the surge working is a myth, a reduction in violence brought about by buying off former Sunni militias and Al-Qaeda insurgents. Essentially we are arming and paying both sides in a civil war to stand down. Whatever works I guess but a small victory in a maelstrom of our own creation. The quote I used struck me so hard that I had to make a post about it. As the saying goes, "never again." and "Those who forget history (or in many cases don't know it to begin with) are condemned to repeat it." All my knowledge of the history of the 20th century as limited as it is keeps me ever vigilant to historical parallels. America is so powerful she can cause great harm to herself and others if she doesn't remember the lessons of other great nations in history.

The facts of your Vietnam experience would tend to illuminate the question posed by my post. But am I naive in this area? Perhaps, possibly, probably; I certainly don't have the same experience as a veteran. All I have is my intellect and education to guide me (and a big mouth). War is ever so. The Nazi death camps were unique. Abu Ghraib and the IC camps you recount were nothing like them. Nor were the Japanese-American internment camps, the Indian reservations, the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, the Andersonville prison camp in the Civil War or the slave ships and plantations during slave times. Notwithstanding that these don't reach the level of the death camps doesn't mean they weren’t atrocities. It's a slippery slope we travel. Many in the world see us as crusading imperialist jack booted invaders. The Native Americans and slaves were just the first to feel the brunt.

When does the mission of the soldier become the soldier? I ask because I don't know. Fear and the instinct of self preservation has made humans do unmentionable things.

Your point that these soldiers are volunteers is instructive and brings up questions we probably won't have the answers to for a very long time. The soldiers in WWII and Vietnam were conscripts. What we have now is basically a mercenary army many of whom, due to the failed policies of our government where "free" trade ships jobs overseas to low wage countries, have very little other choice in life to better themselves but to join the military. Not to mention the Blackwater mercenaries completely unaccountable to the rule of law - Iraqi OR American but that's another post.

America and especially the "new left" committed a grave injustice to its returning soldiers after Vietnam by not recognizing they too were victims of a failed policy. Calling returning vets baby killers and showering hate & vitriol on the young men and women who were "doing what they were trained to do under orders and fear" was inexcusable in my opinion. We have to be careful we don't do it again. But should that prevent us from asking the hard questions? Artists are the conscience of society. You perform that function with your work and I in my small way do with words (and music if I can ever finish my new CD!). Provocative? Yes, but shouldn't it be?

Thanks for sharing your experience its a valuable thing to do.

I recommend "People of the Lie" by Dr. Scott Peck. The same fellow who wrote "The Road Less Traveled" he was the psychiatrist hired by the Army to study and report the reasons behind the My Lai massacre. The book studies evil in people and its cause.

This is not a new phenomenon in American history. The Indian Wars, the invasion and occupation of the Philippines during the Spanish American war and many other acts of our government show our history is not as benign as we've been taught and is replete with examples of imperialist behavior and atrocities committed both during war and peace.

The Happiest Place on Earth - and it ain't Disneyland

2008-03-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

According to a study published by an English researcher in '06 (I'd heard about it then but came across it online again today as a result of a conversation with my 17 year old daughter) the happiest place on earth is Denmark. The US is #23.

I'll bet that number improves greatly when GWB leaves office. It's been like the Dark Ages in the USA ever since he took office. Click the title of the post for the link to an article on The BBC Site.

The New Gestapo?

2008-03-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

George, have you turned us into The New Gestapo? Support the troops? Following orders? That's what the Nazis said. Where is the line?

I ask not because I know but because I don't know.

Reader - search your heart.

"Somebody move!" shouts one soldier. "I'm in the mood to hit somebody!"

Another soldier pushes a suspect against the wall. "You know Abu Ghraib?" he taunts.

The Iraqis do not resist — they are accustomed to such treatment. Raids by U.S. forces have become part of the daily routine in Iraq, a systematic form of violence imposed on an entire nation. A foreign military occupation is, by its very nature, a terrifying and brutal thing, and even the most innocuous American patrols inevitably involve terrorizing innocent Iraqi civilians. Every man in a market is rounded up and searched at gunpoint. Soldiers, their faces barely visible behind helmets and goggles, burst into a home late at night, rip the place apart looking for weapons, blindfold and handcuff the men as the children look on, whimpering and traumatized. U.S. soldiers are the only law in Iraq, and you are at their whim. Raids like this one are scenes in a long-running drama, and by now everyone knows their part by heart. "I bet there's an Iraqi rap song about being arrested by us," an American soldier jokes to me at one point.

YES!

2008-02-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, yes - about time someone finally used the "L" word.

The War on Tolerance

2008-02-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Another example of the general racism and bigotry the party of Lincoln has come to embody. Especially since Nixon, Reagan, crooks like Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff and charlatans like James Dobson have taken over.

Republicanism used to represent individual freedom, small government and free enterprise which while I didn't always agree with the expression thereof one could have a reasonable debate over. Now it's just come to represent racism, religious bigotry, fear and dog-eat-dog globalistic corporate & class greed.

These attitudes are un-American in the extreme and another argument for the demise and consignment of the Republicans to the dustbin of failed political parties.

He continues to do his best to ruin our country

2008-02-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

Foolish in the extreme, misguided, ruinous, disingenuous, fiscally catastrophic, irresponsible - these are just some of the adjectives used to describe Bush's budget.

The highest level of military spending SINCE WWII! Cuts in mental health, education and health care and he wants to make his giveaway tax cuts to the rich permanent?

$400bn plus deficits and then a craven, disingenuous lie of a statement that says the budget will be balanced by 2012. This idiot hasn't done anything right since he was appointed in 2000. Why should he start now? He's failed at everything he's ever done his entire life, why should this be any different?

Why do conservatives hate the Constitution?

2008-02-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

Titled borrowed from my friend at HipNerd

The above link will take you to an Op-Ed by Richard Clarke - former head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

He makes a simple and logical argument that conservatives have trouble understanding. Similarly conservatives have a hard time understanding the constitution guarantees freedom and justice for all: including illegal immigrants, minorities and yes, even our enemies. This is the strength of America, not its weakness and those who would eviscerate and subvert the Constitution – except by legally changing it through the amendment process built into the document - are ipso facto "enemies” of the Constitution as defined by the oaths of office the president and congress swear to upon taking office.

Clarke says; "In order to defeat the violent Islamist extremists who do not believe in human rights, we need not give up the civil liberties, constitutional rights and protections that generations of Americans fought to achieve. We do not need to create Big Brother. With the administration's attempts to erode FISA's legal standing as the exclusive means by which our government can conduct electronic surveillance of U.S. persons on U.S. soil, this is unfortunately the path the president is taking us down."

This government already has all the tools it needs to prevent terrorist acts on the USA. They may not bat 1000% but most Americans, at least those with a SPINE, would be willing to suffer casualties to keep our country from becoming a right wing nut Gestapo dream state. After all more Americans have died for a war started under false pretenses than died in the 9/11 attacks. Get it? George Bush has killed more Americans than Osama Bin Laden.

“We have met the enemy and he is us”

Shades of Rose Mary Woods

2008-01-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

Except this is much worse - 473 days worth of email versus 18 1/2 minutes of a taped conversation in the Oval Office. These guys are in a different league.

I sense a pattern

Nixon Administration: Along with the current administration arguably the most criminal administration in US history
• Accepted illegal campaign contributions in the 50s
• Watergate
• Illegal secret war in Cambodia & Laos leading to the deaths of 3 million innocents
• Secret taping of White House conversations
• More illegal campaign contributions; see Bebe Rebozo
• CoIntelpro (illegal surveillance of so called "subversives")
• Pentagon Papers - Criminal break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
• His VP resigned in disgrace and was imprisoned having been convicted of income tax fraud and bribery.

That’s just the main points. Watergate alone contains a multitude of sub-scandals from the break-ins to illegal hush money to wiretapping and numerous convictions and imprisonments of Nixon administration officials.

Ford Administration:

Pardoned the criminal Nixon as quid pro quo for assuming the presidency

Other than that which is bad enough as it seems to have led Republican’s ever after to believe they can be pardoned for criminal acts (see Scooter Libby) his was a pretty clean tenure.

Reagan Administration: Perhaps the most unethical & criminal administration of the 20th Century

• These guys started early even before taking office by stealing debate materials from the Carter campaign
• A record total of 225 people who served in the Reagan administration either quit, were fired, arrested, indicted, or convicted for either breaking the law or violating the Ethics Code
• Sold WMD making material to Saddam
• Stood by and looked the other way when Saddam actually had WMD and used them against his people
• Materially supported Saddam’s aggressive war against Iran for eight years – over a million die
• Cynically and immorally played both sides of this war and illegally sold very sophisticated weapons to the Ayatollahs so they could defend themselves against Saddam and used the profits to fund right wing paramilitary death squads in Nicaragua in violation of US and international law
• Used CIA assets and directed Contra narco-trafficking operations to smuggle cocaine into the USA resulting in the crack epidemic and the explosion of cocaine use in America.
• Drastically increased the funding of the mujahedein in Afghanistan via the Pakistani ISI which led to the blow back of Al-Qaeda, 9/11, the current “war on terror” and the current instability in south Asia. Unintended consequences? Perhaps; but nevertheless precursors to the current permanent state of war we find ourselves in and the erosion of our civil liberties such as losing the right to habeas corpus.
• Granted federal funding to constituents, and defrauded the US government out of money intended for low income housing
• Chief of staff Michael Deaver convicted for lying to Congress
• Used Superfund money to rig local elections in favor of the Republican party
• Aggressive deregulation led to Savings and Loan crisis... the largest public scandal in US history
• De-funded programs for the needy and veterans leading to an explosion of homelessness in America

"Morning in America" indeed. This is the guy that the current crop of Republican candidates want to emulate?

Bush the Elder Administration:

Many historians say he was intimately involved in the Iran-Contra affair but nothing was ever proved. However he continued the Republican tactic of pardoning criminals involved in the administration’s criminal conduct. Which many believe is a major factor in the current administration’s habit of disregarding the law and following Alastair Crowley's dictum of “do what thou wilt” – as we’re going to be pardoned anyway.
Took America to war to support a dictatorial monarchy.
Fomented uprisings in Iraq after the war and stood by while Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his own people.
Part of the cabal of previous Republican administrations as DCIA, UN Ambassador, Vice President of the USA, and Chair of The GOP.

Bush the Younger Administration: What a way to start the 21st Century!

Too many “gates” to count! Many continue to unfold. From lying to start an illegal war of choice to illegal surveillance of law abiding citizens this administration sets a new Republican standard in criminal behavior. I would award this administration the "Gold" if Nixon hadn't already won it for his and Kissinger's illegal secret war in Cambodia and Laos. Of course after the recent Tonkin Gulf inspired PT boat incident and other saber rattling exercises I wouldn't be surprised if he invades or bombs Iran under false pretenses.

There were 34 scandals and accusations of lawbreaking in the first four years alone. See this link: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_scandals

Why would America put this party back in power? The party of Abraham Lincoln has sunk to the level of a con-artist ponzi scheme of an organization. They need to relegated to the dustbin of history along with the Whigs & the Federalists.

With a significant minority (and perhaps a majority) of racist, homophobic, sexist members the party uses social wedge issues to advance their war mongering and game the system in the name of globalization and free market economics to enrich their class at the expense of the middle & working class of this country and the world.

Of course we shouldn't let the Dems off the hook. Both FDR and LBJ lied their ways into war too. It's not a new tactic but removing the current crop of scoundrels via impeachment is a start to taking back our country. Not likely but they certainly deserve it. But at least lets not elect more of the same. Stay away from Hillary, Obama and the entire crop of Republicans. It seems Edwards might be the only honest man in the race.

Money for nothing

2007-12-30T01:12:00.000-08:00

There's a round of thinly veiled racist emails (there is and always will be a round of thinly veiled racist emails) bemoaning the help that the people of New Orleans receive as if somehow they don't deserve it. I draw your attention to the above link which relates how "... the U.S. gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he'll use it to invest in the Pakistani people." And pray tell what is the ROI on this $$? Need I say more?

All we need is another liar for President

2007-12-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

"An examination of many of his statements by The New York Times, other news organizations and independent groups have turned up a variety of misstatements."

Ahem... that's what I like about the NYT, they call it like they see it.

So much for the myth of the liberal media... why can't they call a lie an effing lie? The NYT Style Guide must make it mandatory to use words like misstatement, misspoke, untruth, exaggeration etc. instead of lie, cheat and steal which is what really goes on.

It was this kind of hairsplitting by the MSM and hyping of false Intel by the administration that let Bush & Co. get away with the greatest presidential crime in the history of the office (except for Nixon and Kissinger's secret & illegal war in Cambodia and Laos which led to the deaths of 3 million innocents but that's another post).

Are we American's really as stupid as Bill Maher thinks we are? Or have we just become so cowed by the incessant drumbeat of fear from the right wing smear machine and wannabe Republicans like the Clintons we’ll vote for anyone that says they’ll make us safe? Come on America let's rediscover our collective spine and stop cowering every time someone mentions the word terrorism or Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda. America is a strong and good country… if we want it. We can be strong and good for all the right reasons. Not strength to exploit innocents at home and abroad with dog-eat-dog laissez-faire vulture capitalism but to be a force for the betterment of humanity through example, friendship, fair trade, diplomacy and good works like the Peace Corps; not at the barrel of a gun. Not by turning our men and women in uniform into monsters to do the bidding of corporate elites and the American fundamentalists.

2007-11-28T23:20:00.001-08:00

Rudy as the Grand Inquisitress

2007-11-28T22:42:00.000-08:00

From the NYT

"Mr. Giuliani said on Wednesday night at a forum in Davenport, Iowa, that he favored “aggressive questioning” of terrorism suspects."

He also bragged that he'd used "aggressive questioning" as a US Attorney for New York.

Fred Thompson seems to like the idea as well. Even though John "Bomb Bomb Iran" McCain is almost certifiable at least he knows torture is a dead end.

Don't these guys/gals get it? A suspect will say anything to stop the pain. The intel one gets from these techniques is no better than what you get from a Ouija Board.

But hey - Just show up looking like this and anyone will talk!

Double your fun!

2007-11-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Romney: Double Guantanamo

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When asked about interrogation methods for terrorist suspects, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said the goal should be to prevent future attacks and suggested doubling the capacity of the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

"I don't want them on our soil," Romney said. "I want them on Guantanamo, where they don't get the access to lawyers that they get when they're on our soil. I don't want them in our prisons. I want them there. Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo."

Cheesus K. Reist! Cancel my rumba lesson, we're on the road to out Bush , Bush

When you uphold an unjust dispensation, it corrodes your humanity

2007-11-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

"When you uphold an unjust dispensation, it corrodes your humanity."

Recently Bishop Desmond Tutu gave a speech at the Old South Church in Boston. He said the oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis in some instances is worse than the system of apartheid in South Africa. Having gone there himself and reporting what he saw with his own eyes instead of parroting the Zionist line, among other things he said "...there were things that even you didn’t find even in apartheid South Africa, ... such as collective punishment."

Furthermore he said "You [meaning Israel] will probably not succumb to an outside assault militarily. With the unquestioning support of the United States of America, you are probably impregnable. But you who are called are they who are called, asked to deal with the oppressed, the weak, the despised, compassionately, caringly, remembering what happened to you in Egypt and, much more recently, in Germany. Remember and act appropriately. If you reject your calling, you may survive for a long time, but you will find it is all corrosive inside, and one day, one day, you will implode."

These are words of wisdom meant for the oppressors of Palestine but should also be heeded by the people of America. But we support our troops! This is good to a point but for many it is meant to inoculate the critics of the war from charges of blaming the soldiers for the horror that is war. A noble sentiment indeed. But if we are to support the soldiers we must also examine the mission. Otherwise to do so is simple blind faith. What is their mission? Can we separate the soldier from his or her mission? If the mission is to prosecute an unjust war based on lies, how long can we support people who are "just following orders"? At what point do we say "enough!" At what point can we no longer support those who "uphold an unjust dispensation." When do the good people of America wake up to the fact that we are supporting "unjust dispensation(s)" in Israel, Iraq and many other parts of the globe?

Click on the link above for the entire speech.

Photos of Dead Iraqis

2007-09-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is sickening - US Solders Posting Pictures of Iraqis killed to access porn

How many more?

2007-09-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

How many more innocents must die to satisfy the Bush regime's blood hunger? Blackwater and other mercenary contractors indiscriminately kill anyone that invades their perimeter and the Bush regime, having lost the ability to operate on the ground in many areas, increasingly relies on air strikes to attack their targets.

According to various sources the estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths range from about 80,000 by Iraq Body Count to 655,000 according to a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet to 1.2 million(!) according to another study published by ORB, a British polling firm. You decide. Suffice it to say the innocents pay the highest price.

And that doesn't count the displaced. 4 million have fled their homes; 2 million outside Iraq and anther 2 million internally. That's 16% of the population. Imagine 48 million Americans displaced and you get the idea. 24 million fleeing to Canada or Mexico and the other half going out to the countryside to get away from the violence in the cities.

Nearly 4,000 Americans are dead and another 30,000 are injured many so badly they will never have a normal life.

Is it worth it? Where is the ROI?

For American Jews, Dissent Against Israel Has Become Mainstream

2007-09-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

The link above is to an article by Tony Karon, a senior editor at TIME.com where he analyzes the Middle East and other international conflicts.

He writes: "I was often surprised to find that people with whom I seemed to share a progressive, cosmopolitan worldview would suddenly morph into raging ultranationalists when the conversation turned to Israel."

I've experienced exactly the same thing...

Oil, Oil, Oil

2007-09-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Did we ever really think this was about "freedom and democracy?"

Having lived in Saudi Arabia much of my life and being familiar with the history of the oil industry in that country this rings very true. The first oil companies in Arabia were Standard of California (Chevron) and later Texaco, Mobil and Exxon. In the early 1930s Standard of California signed an agreement with the Saudi King Abdel Azziz granting it exclusive rights to explore, drill for and produce oil giving the consortium of the four American oil companies which came to be known as ARAMCO, ownership of the Saudi oil. In turn ARAMCO paid the Saudis a royalty for each barrel they sold. In the beginning it was something on the order of 25 cents a barrel. Remember, oil was $2.50 a barrel back then. This arrangement lasted until the early 70s when the Saudi Government began a transition to full ownership of the county's natural resources, where ARAMCO, the company my father worked for, for nearly 30 years, became a contractor to the Saudi government to produce the oil.

The difference between the Saudi/American agreement in the 1930s and what is now occurring in Iraq is that in the 1930s no one knew for sure if there was oil in Arabia, not to mention there weren't 160,000 American soldiers in Arabia. The Americans took a very big risk and didn't find oil until after many millions in investments and a couple of years of drilling with the 7th well in Dhahran. Much of the oil in Iraq has been found and with present day techniques the rest won't be that difficult to find. The so called oil "sharing" law is a giveaway/payback to the American oil industry. One could argue and some of the more honest supporters of the war do, that since we spent our national treasure and blood to "secure" these oilfields we have a right to the profit from our "investment." I disagree. It belongs to the Iraqi people and unless we want to continue to fuel more anger, resentment, insurgency and terrorism against us for many years we should withdraw and let the Iraqi's run their own show. If they want to hire Chevron et. al to help produce this oil that's fine but don't pressure them at the barrel of a gun to grant ownership to non-Iraqi companies.

Palestine: democracy not Zionism

2007-09-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

John V. Whitbeck says in a Christian Science Monitor Op-Ed piece on Friday Sept. 14th that "...Israelis have immense psychological problems in coming to grips with the practical impossibility of sustaining forever what most of mankind views as a racial-supremacist, settler-colonial regime founded upon the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population."

Saying the only way to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians and therefore the rest of the Arab world is a one-state solution with universal suffrage. He also compares Israel to South Africa saying that:

"The world also recognized that the solution to that problem could not be found either in "separation" (apartheid in Afrikaans) and scattered native reservations (called "independent states" by the South African regime and Bantustans by the rest of the world) or in driving the settler-colonial group in power into the sea. Rather, the solution had to be found – and to almost universal satisfaction was found – in democracy, in white South Africans growing out of their racial-supremacist ideology and political system and accepting that their interests and their children's futures would be best served in a democratic, non-racist state with equal rights for all who live there."

Click the link above for the entire piece -

Bush knew there was no WMD

2007-09-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Something I've been saying for a long time. The "Downing Street memo" was one of the early indications. The stories about "Curveball" that began appearing after the aggression. Amb. Joseph Wilson's Op-Ed in the NYT about the fiction of Iraq buying yellowcake from Niger and other stories and "confessions" of departed administration officials from Paul O'Neil to Richard Clarke weave an extremely convincing argument that Bush, Cheney and the rest of their cabal are damn liars and deserve to be impeached, convicted and imprisoned for taking this country to war under completely false pretenses, for the death and maiming of 30,000+ Americans and upwards of 1 million Iraqis. How much more evidence do we need to begin the proceedings?

This article from Salon is another nail in the coffin of lies of the Bush administration. When will the American people wake up and hold this man and his henchman Dick Cheney accountable?

Do American Presidents get to drag the nation into war under completely false pretenses and get away with it?

My analysis is the Democrats don't want to because if they don't have the votes to end the war or cut off funding they probably don't think they have the votes for this. Maybe so but perhaps if the evidence were laid out in hearings people might change their minds. The other caveat is political calculation. They don't wish to "get any on them" or appear vindictive during impeachment hearings and diminish their chances of victory in 2008. Plus they want a really good issue to run on and it doesn't get any better than a failed war for that!

Letters to my California Representatives

2007-07-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

I am outraged at the commutation of the criminal Lewis Libby's sentence by the President and as a citizen, patriot, taxpayer and voter I demand the President be held accountable and investigated by the Congress and if found to have committed a crime and obstructed justice to have articles of impeachment introduced against him. How much more damage are we going to let this man do? We cannot let him just run out the clock and get off scott free. He has too much power. His finger is on the nuclear button and he is just itching for a fight with Iran. I believe his commutation of Libby's prison sentence is part of a pattern of obstruction of justice and he and his Vice-president must be investigated with the full force of the law.

Please don't let this slide like all the other travesties this administration has perpetrated. Please be a Congress with a backbone and do something. This is a democracy and the people have a right to representation and their leaders to be held accountable and not be above the law.

Letter to George Bush

2007-07-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

I sent this to GWB just a few minutes ago -

Mr. President,

I vehemently disagree with your decision to commute the sentence of a convicted criminal. It proves the accusations of egregious cronyism and wholesale disregard for the law in your administration. How dare you second-guess the court of the land in this callous manner? I know you have the power and I respect the office and its prerogatives but the way you use and abuse it is disgusting to me and millions of other honest Americans.

I know you don't care what I think but I feel the need to reach out and tell you how completely disappointed I am. This is part of a pattern of your disregard for the laws of these United States and I sincerely hope Congress has the moral fiber to not only condemn this callous act but hold you accountable under the same laws that you so flippantly disregard. Mr. Libby obstructed justice, lied to a grand jury, was indicted in accordance with the law then convicted by a jury of his peers and in further accordance with the law sentenced by a Federal judge to a mere 30 months in jail and you have the temerity to think you know better than 231 years of legal precedent and with a stroke of your pen make a mockery of the entire system of jurisprudence in this country?

It's obvious you don't care what the people think or you wouldn't have done this. You sir, are not a king, you must care what the people think, this is a democracy not a monarchy, you are servant of the people and you are accountable to the people. You have at the stroke of a pen increased cynicism about life in America and insulted everything that millions of law-abiding citizens who make an honest living, pay their taxes, and play by the rules stand for.

We the people stand scorned and humiliated by our President's disregard for the rule of law. What are we to tell our children? That if you have friends in high places you don't need to worry about breaking the law? If taking this country to war under false pretenses weren't enough you make it obvious that in George Bush's America its not what you know but who you know that counts.

On the eve of the anniversary of our independence as a nation your action has sullied what American's have shed blood for over the last 231 years. You have brought extreme dishonor to the character of this nation and its Constitution. Simply because you have the power to commute this criminal's sentence does not make it right.

Sincerely,

F

The Great Unraveling - the rats are leaving the sinking ship

2007-05-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

Seems the rats, tired of bailing water, are heading for the exits!

"As rancor in the nation rises over handling of the war in Iraq, at least 20 senior aides have either retired or resigned from important posts at the White House, Pentagon and State Department in the past six months."

Nobody wants to be tarred with that brush. Bush may end up with Laura and Barney being the only ones left holding the bag after all.

The Great Unraveling - he can't veto an impeachment

2007-05-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of these bastards - its time to go after them. Was a time when I thought impeachment would be too traumatic for the country. Now I think the greater trauma is in them continuing in office.

I mean - how many crimes and misdemeanors does one president have to commit before he's voted off the island? Imus was canned for insulting some basketball players. McCain jokes about killing thousands of innocent Iranians and people take him seriously as a presidential contender.

Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Feith/Wolfowitz get to kill 600,000+ Iraqis and 3500 Americans for a lie. When does Congress get the cajones to do its constitutional duty? End the war? End this presidency is more like it. They will never have the votes to override his veto, but guess what? He can't veto an impeachment.

TAKE A STEP: SWITCH TO COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS.

2007-05-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

The EU recently passed a law banning the incandescent bulb by 2009. According to the Financial Times newspaper "The universal symbol of the bright idea is, by 21st century standards, a really dumb product. Only about 5 per cent of the energy it uses is emitted as light. Fluorescent bulbs deliver the same amount of light while using a fifth of the energy. If you tried to get funding today for a company selling Thomas Edison’s version of the telephone, you would be laughed out of the door. Yet General Electric, among others, makes a good business out of selling what is more or less his light bulb."

We don't drive model T's anymore so I guess its time to change our bulbs. I really dislike fluorescent light but I guess it's time to get over it. The Australians are banning the bulb too.

Replacing just one frequently used conventional lightbulb in our home with a compact fluorescent bulb can save us money on our utility bill and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. If every household in the United States replaced one incandescent light bulb in their home with a compact fluorescent, it would save a total of 90 million pounds of global warming pollution over the lifetime of the bulbs. This would be equal to taking 6.3 million cars off the road. Though compact fluorescent light bulbs are more expensive than conventional light bulbs, they last 10 times longer. One bulb can lower your energy bill by $15 annually and reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 150 lbs.

Take a step and switch out a lightbulb.

According to Home Depot this bulb costs $7.99 and uses 75% less energy than a 100 watt incandescent equivalent and lasts 13 times longer.

•	Saves $308 over life of bulb... thats not chump change - use four or five and save $1500
•	Lasts 13 times longer than traditional incandescent bulb
•	Same appearance as incandescent bulb
•	Fits most fixtures an incandescent bulb will fit

Looney Tunes

2007-05-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly Batman! When three of the Republican candidates for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES said evolution is a crock at this weeks "debate" at least the so-called front runners had enough sense to not join the loonie fundie crowd and kept their hands down. But now it seems that was a Pyhrric moment, at least where Mitt Romney is concerned.

But now we have the de facto front runner paying homage and obeisance to one of the the looniest right wing Christian fundies of them all. Yes boys and girls - it's the same Bat Time and same Bat Channel all over again that Ronald Reagan showed up on.

Mitt Romney goes to Fundieland! Check out the link where he says, and I quote “This university, its students, its alumni and the faculty serve as an example of Dr. Robertson’s dedication to strengthening and then nurturing the pillars of this community and our country: education, fellowship, and advancement.”

Cheesus K Riest! Education? Fellowship? Community? Read the piece linked above for quotes of the good "Dr." agreeing with another knuckle headed fundie Jerry Falwell when he said "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, not to mention the A.C.L.U. and People for the American Way" were to blame for 9/11. Not to mention suggesting we put out a hit on the President of Venezuela, saying that towns struck by disaster have forsaken God (Sodom and Gomorrah anyone?), and the Federal Judiciary being a bigger threat to America than Al-Qaeda.

America - we can't take these guys seriously. They are absolutely freakin' looney tunes.

The new mass transit

2007-05-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

I think if everyone who could, telecommuted one day a week congestion would decrease tremendously. Think about it - most or at least many people have computers at home now and decent internet connections and can log on to a company network to access files and email. A phone and a computer would be the new mass transit. How many office workers are there in LA County? One million, two million? Imagine each one of them working from home one day a week. Reduce congestion, reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gases and spend more time with your family. Whats not to like? We have the technology. Many studies show that people are at least as productive from home as they are at the office and sometimes more.

Obviously, this is not a new idea but no one is pushing it now and push it we should. With the price of gasoline at all time highs in LA County letting employees who can work from home would be like getting a small raise.

What about it Antonio? A little leadership from the Mayor's office on this would be great!

The Great Unraveling - cont. WAY TO GO GEORGE - McGovern that is

2007-04-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

The Prairie Populist indeed. Would that we had a few more like you these days. Keep telling the truth George. Here are a few choice lines from Mr. McGovern's Op-Ed piece in today's Los Angeles Times.

"[Bush and Cheney] ...foolishly sent U.S. forces into Iraq against the advice and experience of such knowledgeable men as former President George H.W. Bush, his secretary of State, James A. Baker III, and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft."

"[the Bush administration] ...mistakenly asserted Iraq's involvement in the 9/11 attacks, it also falsely contended that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction."

"The war in Iraq has greatly increased the terrorist danger."

"... [Nixon] defeated me overwhelmingly. But lest Cheney has forgotten, a few months after the election, investigations by the Senate and an impeachment proceeding in the House forced Nixon to become the only president in American history to resign the presidency in disgrace."

"Who was the real loser of '72?"

"...Cheney and Bush have repeatedly lied to the American people."

"The Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over. "

There you have it folks... a prediction in black and white in the pages of the Los Angeles Times that Cheney and Bush will resign their offices before 2008 is over.

In 1972 I raised countless toasts to the future imprisonment of Richard Nixon... it almost came to pass. Will this administration unravel to the point that George McGovern predicts? He knows more about it than I do.

The Great Unraveling - cont. (Or Rove on the Hot Seat?)

2007-04-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Further evidence of "The Great Unraveling." Photo shows Rove's general attitude toward any efforts at holding the Bushites accountable.

Bomb Bomb Bomb - Bomb Bomb Iran

2007-04-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

No friend of Don Imus I but one can't help but wonder how John McCain manages to get away with this "joke" with nary a scratch when Imus gets the wrath of a nation. As offensive as Imus' comment was at least it didn't involve joking about the death of untold thousands of innocent civilians. But then Mr. M. is a born again hawk is he not? Having been in Vietnam you'd think he'd have learned a bit of history.

Glock World

2007-04-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

From the Glock World Website -

"Can I really buy a gun on the Internet?

Absolutely, as long as you do the following:"

Click the link - its legal, think about it. How many more VT shooters do we need before we end this madness???

The Great Unraveling

2007-04-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

It's going to be very interesting and very sad between now and January '09 watching the most incompetent and ill-intentioned administration in American history unravel now that there is some semblance of Congressional oversight shining a light into the dark corners of the West Wing. Rummy is gone, Gonzales is pretty much toast. Rove and Meiers have to be quaking in their boots right now hoping all those emails really are lost and with Libby guilty on 4 of 5 counts he might sing the Cheney song rather than go to prison.

The Abramoff scandal took new casualties this week. The Pentagon report on the WMD lies told by the administration to scare the shit out of Congress and the American people in order to support the war is a huge nail in the coffin of the neocon cabal that brought us this war of aggression and has even centrists talking "war crimes." Looks like Condie might be getting her very own subpoena soon from Waxman's committee. Even Wolfie has his ass in a crack. As the old Chinese proverb says... "may you live in interesting times."

A Glock for you

2007-04-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

Check it out folks - here's some buying advice from the people who brought you the weapon of choice used by the Virginia Tech shooter.

Here's just one of the salient features of the Glock 9: "...the more experienced shooters who do shoot a lot enjoy cheaper ammo prices." "mmm... cheaper ammo - I'll take 10 clips."

I wonder if he spent some time researching his weapon on this website before purchasing the Glock 9mm he used to kill 32 innocent kids.

Denmark - Laissez faire welfare

2007-03-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

An interesting but ultimately flawed story describing a political & economic system that works as well as and probably better than most where, after extolling the virtues of the Danish system, accompanied by hard facts and figures and even charts for pâté’s sake, the writer then quotes one expat Dane in a thinly disguised journalistic sleight of hand masquerading as objectivity?

How can one person's opinion (right or wrong) stack up against the facts presented in this story and be called objective? Where are the facts and figures supporting that person's opinion? Without facts the point of view is not empirical but strictly subjective. Nothing wrong with that per se but in this case not enough. Presenting a POV without facts approaches mendacity.

Unfortunately journalism like this is all too common. The way the writer adds the section with the Dane from London plays on common American prejudices at worst and is naive but still negative at best. It's one thing to say there's a difference of opinion on the matter but to state so and not support that with any facts has the effect of sowing enough doubt on the premise of the story as to make it easily dismissible in the minds of an unsuspecting reader thereby obfuscating the meaning of the piece and reducing the impact of the article; which in this case is clearly about imparting the notion to millions of USA Today readers that perhaps, just perhaps, there might be another way besides the dog eat dog of laissez-faire globalism.

I hope most readers see through the journalistic device and get the best from the article.

The Road to the White House

2007-03-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

As much as I prefer Democrats to Republicans it’s sad to see them get so much of their money and, ipso facto, marching orders from AIPAC and the Zionist lobby, whose connections with the neo-cons and the plan to invade Iraq and dominate the Middle East are very well documented. I think this is why Hillary won’t repudiate her vote for the war. She knows that one of the main reasons for the war was to separate the Iranians from the Israelis with a friendly buffer state regime in Iraq. Too bad it was so badly mismanaged. Notice how she is primarily focused in the mismanagement of the war and not the basic premise thereof. I don't believe she thinks the war was such a bad idea. If she did repudiate that vote then Mssr. Haim Saban and her buddies in AIPAC would turn off the spigot. You watch – she will far outstrip the other Dems in fundraising from the Zionist lobby.

Except for some cosmetic changes things will be business as usual in Washington come 2009. In this presidential campaign we will avoid discussing the real reasons behind Islamic fury, the causes and solutions to the "war on terror" and the attacks of 9/11; namely our unbalanced support for the Israeli government and their imposition of apartheid on and oppression of the Palestinians.

If we held the Israelis to the same standard we accused Saddam of flouting there would be peace in Palestine and Israel. 90% of the Islamic fury would evaporate and Osama bin Laden would be just another fundamentalist in the wilderness.

But since America cannot see past the propaganda and any discussion of this issue is immediately met with cries of anti-Semitism (i.e. the furor over Jimmy Carter's latest book) don't look for much of a change when it comes to our foreign policy.

Think about it – you know its true. The UN didn’t equate Zionism with Racism without reason.

"Same as it ever was..."

Tempest in a Scuzzy Glass Teapot Dome - The furor over Walter Reed Bldg. # 18

2007-03-03T05:06:00.000-08:00

As serious as this is its somewhat of a tempest in a teapot. In a rational world the administration would be held to the same level of accountability for fabricating the intelligence used to justify the invasion and its subsequent mismanagement of the war as was the Secretary of the Army for Building 18 at Walter Reed.

If Bush and/or Cheney had any honor whatsoever they would resign and let the Speaker of the House govern for the next two years. What a pipedream that is.

In the words of the senior Senator from Nebraska, Chuck Hagel, this administration has made "the worst foreign policy blunder of our lifetime" but in the twisted Twilight Zone reality of Bush’s looking glass world anyone engaged in efforts to extricate America from this blunder are defeatist, unpatriotic, terrorist sympathizers. "We f***ed it up but don't you dare try to fix it and while we're at we'll just make it worse by throwing away good money after bad and guarantee that more Americans are killed and maimed so the other dead and maimed Americans that came before them will not have died in vain.”

The immorality and intellectual dishonesty of this position is truly staggering. Thank God (or the deity or non-deity of your choice) Bush & Co. was not running the show during WWII because if they were we’d either be speaking Japanese and/or German.

Cheney World

2007-02-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

"Shortly after the first Gulf War, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney was a little sensitive to charges that he failed to “finish the job” against Iraq. More than a few hawks thought that Cheney and the other Bush administration dropped the ball when it had the opportunity to take out Saddam but chose not to.

In a 1991 speech, Cheney delivered a rather defensive speech on the subject, noting the intense sectarian rivalries that dominate Iraqi society and the likely inability to maintain stability in Baghdad. As for replacing Saddam with a democracy, Cheney asked his audience, “How much credibility is that government going to have if it’s set up by the United States military when it’s there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for the government, and what happens to it once we leave?”

One of the comments is particularly appropos...

"In Cheney's Batshit Crazy World there are only two rules:
1) No matter what the facts say, Dick Cheney is always right.
2) If Dick Cheney is wrong, see rule number one. "

Matter of fact that seems to be the entire Republican modis operandi...never admit a mistake, tell the big lie enough times until people think it's the truth - exactly what Reichsfuhrer Goebbels did in WWII.

What's so funny about helping people instead of the MIC?

2007-02-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Mr. Samuelson's implication is that there is something wrong with helping people via the federal budget and by contrast a $500b+ military budget, which is being used less and less for self defense and more for offensive pre-emptive war, is so small in comparison to the total budget, there is no sense in reducing it.

What's wrong with helping people? It is barbaric to kill with WMD and invade other countries under false pretenses but to help the poor and see that our seniors aren't left destitute by crippling medical bills is simply the mark of an advanced society. Where is the discussion of massive transfers of tax money to large corporations, whose profits are at all time highs, in the form of subsidies, tax breaks and no-bid defense contracts? If indeed “two thirds of all taxes come from the richest fifth” I say bravo… encore! It’s not enough. The so-called conservatives love to point back to the days when Ike was president, when society behaved, we didn’t have social ills as we do today and our infrastructure wasn’t crumbling. One thing they forget to mention when pining for the good old days is that the top tax rate was up to 90%; under a Republican President. One could also raise a family with one income.

Despite the so-called conservative revolution of the past 20+ years it seems the American people, via their elected representatives, decided that welfare for the people is not such a bad thing after all in this crazy unpredictable world; doesn’t the Constitution call on the Union to “promote the general welfare…” of the people? I don’t see where it calls on the Union to promote the welfare of corporations and Wall Street. I’m all for making a profit and believe in free enterprise but we are too laissez-faire and tilted toward business and not enough toward the people. 10 Amtraks would be great! We need much more publicly subsidized transportation in this country to wean us off the lethal oil economy.

Our allies in Europe obviously have had this discussion and decided the state exists mostly for the welfare of its people and less for its corporations and defense contractors. We in the USA have only a fraction of what the Europeans have gained. I posit that if we had not spent so much of our national treasure on weapons of mass destruction life in the USA would be much less harsh and we wouldn't have over 500,000 homeless people living in the streets of this country and new parents would have more than 12 weeks of leave to care for newborn children. Where are our priorities? Trillions for the military industrial complex while our cities, roads and society crumble and the rich retreat to gated communities with private security.

Of course the politicians are craven and in denial about our country’s priorities. That doesn’t mean we should stop helping ourselves – to paraphrase GWB... "it’s our money." Why shouldn’t we give it back to ourselves in the form of national health, educational grants and subsidies, pensions for the elderly and programs to help the poor extricate themselves from poverty? This is simply what a mature society focuses on. So the next time you see an article such as this questioning the premise of Social Security, Medicare and the other government programs that promote the general welfare remember that’s what government is for and the people we’re helping are us. The defense budget is for the common defense not for aggressive war and enriching the military industrial complex.

Buggering off...as our friends across the pond say

2006-10-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

Good riddance - take a few with you. There may yet be others as it seems the House Republican leadership kept this under their hats. I'm for equal rights for all... gay, lesbian, straight, all races and religions but Representative Mark Foley's behavior was clearly out of line and resigning was the honorable thing to do. It would have been out of line if he was pestering underage girls or if the member was female pestering underage boys or girls. The issue is these kids are underage not the man's sexual orientation.

Using social issues like gay marriage and reproductive choice as wedges to get out the vote when obviously there are G&L Republicans like Mr. Foley and Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter illustrates the pervasive Republican hypocrisy on social issues. Moralizing to the rest of the country and world when they are just like everyone else makes them look ridiculous.

This is just plain wrong -

2006-09-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here we go folks - it's been brewing for some time but now it really looks as if the Bush/Cheney dream of the Fascist States of America is coming true. They say they want to protect us but I don't trust them. I think it's a power play to install an imperial presidency exceeding Dick Nixon and Henry Kissinger's wildest fantasies.

The "Military Commissions Bill" passed by, in the words of Senator Barbara Boxer D. CA "a rubber stamp senate" eviscerates our Constitution by codifying IN LAW that the judicial branch does not have the right to Constitutionaly mandated review of administration actions.

At this point one can only hope that the Supreme Court will indeed decide it has the right and declare all or parts of it un-Constitutional as it so clearly is. Unfortunately the same rubber stamp senate allowed Bush to put two right wingers on the court which almost guarantees the bill will withstand any judicial review it might be subject to.

We indeed have entered, as the NYT writes, a time not unlike the "dark chapters in [US] history, comparable to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts in the fragile years after the nation’s founding and the internment of Japanese-Americans in the midst of World War II." Some will say the republic has endured greater challenges and survived. We shall see.

truth is ignorance - war is peace - freedom is slavery

2006-09-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Its enough to make you want to cry.

Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee

2006-09-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Please fulfill your constitutional duty and hold this adminstration accountable for its actions and do not let them off the hook. We cannot allow them to trample the Constitution and Bill of Rights or the terrorists will have won. I support Sen. Feinstein's bill and deplore Sen. Spector's attempt to arrange a Congressional pardon for administration officials (including the president) in advance. If, as they say, they haven't broken the law then why do they need advance immunity for their actions?

"it's unacceptable to think..."

2006-09-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

1984 - 1984 - 1984

it wasn't just a book it was a prophecy.

when do we wake up and listen to what these people are saying and doing??

Top Ten Abuses of Power Since 9/11

2006-09-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

From the ACLU website:

"Safe and Free: There has never been a more urgent need to preserve fundamental privacy protections and our system of checks and balances than the need we face today, as illegal government spying, provisions of the Patriot Act and government-sponsored torture programs transcend the bounds of law and our most treasured values in the name of national security."

Liberal Media? Give me a break!

2006-09-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

So much for the liberal media. The conventional wisdom that the media is biased is a myth. You want to see some liberal media? Go to www.thenation.com, www.counterpunch.org or www.democracynow.org for some real liberal media. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN are not liberal media outlets as the story referenced at www.mediamatters.org makes very clear. The New York Times and The Washington Post while decent newspapers aren't liberal. And ever since the LA Times was taken over by the Tribune it has skewed ever further right. These media organizations are not liberal they are simply less conservative than Faux News, The Washington Times or The New York Post etc.

ABC turning into Faux?

2006-09-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

The facts of 9/11 are compelling enough - no need to play foot loose and fancy free with them.

"With Kazakh's Visit, Bush Priorities Clash" What do you mean? He'll fit right in!

2006-09-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

No clash here - the man will fit right in. He'll probably make a deal or two with the Bushes while he's there. After all George is going to need a place to work after Jan 2009. What better way than to start coddling and networking with oil rich dictators - uh oh wait a minute. Didn't they do that with Saddam back in the '80s? Maybe this fellow better watch his back. This is a treacherous crowd he's wading into.

The State Department investigates misuse of American supplied munitions

2006-08-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Ya think?

Worse than Hezbollah launching rockets that can only be aimed in a general direction not unlike the V1 and V2s in WWII? Certainly in terms of destructive capacity. Terror rains down on innocents on all sides...that's why they call it war.

Say hoss - did you hear the one about that Harris gal shootin' off her mouth again? Wee hoo!

2006-08-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Nice gams though...

BUT seriously folks - you wanna talk "old Europe?" This is old Europe - the kind thinking Americans of all races and religions have tried to escape from for a few hundred years now. Trouble is the fundies always seem to rear their ugly way of thinking by interjecting their "my way or the highway" kill it if it moves philospophies.

We need a new paradigm...

Tim Russert objective?

2006-08-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

"A howler from Bush: “Nobody’s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack.” OK, maybe not in those words, but how ’bout in these?"

Reading Russert’s words in the link found above, with what we know now, I'm struck by how much he was pushing for the invasion - it's almost like he's goading Cheney and Rice to say Iraq was responsible for 9/11. The symbiotic relationship Russert has with these people is, not unlike Tom Friedman in his column and books, that he uses his show to ask the right questions leading to the endorsement of whatever the previaling winds seem to be blowing his way. He doesn't really get in these people's faces very much. If he did they wouldn't come on the show. So how can you get to the truth if you aren't going to get in their faces once in a while?

He really nailed Howard Den during the 2004 primary season. He wouldn't let Dean off the hook for love nor money. Why doesn't he do that to Cheney, Rice et. al.?

Comments anyone?

Right wing debate tactics

2006-08-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

This post is in response to a typical right-wing tactic of changing the subject while debating a specific point while commenting on an article about Ann Beeson of the ACLU winning the decision on the illegal NSA Spying program. Click the link above for the article in question.

---------------

Mr. White - don't change the subject - the subject is the court decision that declared GWB's actions illegal.

Bulletin to all liberals: This is a typical right wing debate tactic - when faced with facts and the inevitability of losing the argument because their position is bankrupt they change the subject and resort to name calling accusing anyone who doesn't agree with their narrow self-serving POV of being unpatriotic and wanting to tear down the administration. It’s no more than playground bully tactics – don’t let it scare you or divert you from the point being discussed.

Mr. White - As I said no amount of wishing, washing or prevarication and obfuscation by the right wing is going to change the fact that a distinguished jurist has declared the NSA spying program illegal.

So the question here is did GWB break the law? So far the answer is; absolutely, unequivocally … YES. What does the Constitution say about lawbreaking presidents? We all know the answer to that. Let's see if, after the case winds up in the Supreme Court and they rule the program illegal, Congress has the will to enforce the Constitution.

One point I will grant - you are correct in saying America proper has not been attacked since 9/11. Your grasp of the obvious is truly astounding. However, our new enemies (courtesy of the bungling boobs running this government) have managed thus far to kill, wound and maim 23,000 Americans not to mention 45,000 Iraqis and hundreds of thousands that we’ve helped to kill and maim.

This is an idea, a concept? We are better off? I'd say we are pretty well screwed and substantially worse off due to the incomprehensible policy of attacking Iraq because of 9/11. To quote a famous "liberal" (not!) Richard Clarke it was "like attacking Mexico for Pearl Harbor."

This is foreign policy dilettantism at its worst... shoving democracy down someone's throat at gunpoint is a very difficult thing to do. It takes magnitudes more intelligence and will than the present group of bungling neo-cons has. Expecting that such a wimpy effort as 130,000 soldiers would do the job is faith based foreign policy. If the Bushites and neo-cons really wanted to get the job done right they would have listened to Colin Powell and committed at least a half million soldiers to the effort. Then they may have had a chance. But the bungling neo-cons couldn't muster the will. Now you want to do the same in Iran? You are truly deluded.

THE WALL - Essential Reading

2006-08-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

Essential reading - more to the argument that the USA is a target because of unbalanced support of Israel.

BTW - THE WALL looks stronger than the levees in New Orleans.

Peace keeping in the Middle East?

2006-08-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Beyond the oxymoronic implications of a peace keeping force in the Middle East it seems the Europeans in general and the French in particular ought to step up to the plate with plenty of soldiers for UNIFIL (200 soldiers is not a peacekeeping force it's an insult) especially as Lebanon is France’s old bailiwick and they are in large part responsible for the mess the Middle East has become. (See Sykes-Picot 1916)

But as usual it seems the French want someone else to do the heavy lifting being content to sit back and throw brickbats rather than contribute to a solution, however imperfect.

Fortunately the guilt free Italians (see Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea & Somalia in the 1930’s) have decided to take the mantle and move into the breach. Analogous to the Balkans in the 90's? Not really, but the Europeans twiddled and whistled while the Serbs massacred Muslims. It took Bill Clinton's and the USA’s leadership put a stop to that.

The Emperor has no clothes - or hasn't anyone told him yet?

2006-08-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

Alberto? Please tell Mr. B that spying on Americans without a warrant is illegal. A high school history student could have told him that. But apparently you couldn't as obviously it took someone with much more legal acuity, knowledge and gravitas in their pinky finger than your Dept. Of Justice has in a gaggle of neo-cons to do the job.

Why won't you all just wise up and realize that George can't be King - ok? There is that pesky thing we call a Constitution that George just doesn't care for because it gets in the way of his protecting "America."

George - someone should tell you you took an oath (twice) to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic - not some neo-con "Leave it to Beaver" version of "America." An America where the rich get richer and the poor get $1 T-shirts at Wal-Mart and 99 cent burgers at McDonalds. As Pogo said "we have met the enemy and they is us..." It seems the the biggest enemy of the Constitution right now (of course there are others) is domestic and your administration and the Republican right wing fundies top the list.

Well, well, well, I had no idea - Tom Friedman a billionaire?

2006-08-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

I always thought there was something not quite right about this fellow. Now I think I see why. Having money on that scale makes it very hard to gain anything but academic knowledge of a subject - especially when it relates to socioeconomic issues. Still that doesn't mean the man doesn't have a brain and cannot reason or use logic to deduce a solution to an issue. Never been a big fan of his though - I prefer Dowd - at least she doesn't hide that she's pretentious.

2006-08-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

This is a photo from Christmas 2005 near the Wyoming Montana border

Meanwhile - back at the ranch

2006-08-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

NYT: Six-year, $4.7b effort to slash Colombia's coca crop has left price, quality, availability of cocaine on US streets unchanged

Why do I have a strange feeling that the War on Terrorism is no different than the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty? None of them are winnable and all of them lead to oppression of one form or another. Fear and repression of the people is the only constant. Marx would say the ruling classes are just inventing new ways to control the little people. But what did he know - right?

Couldn't have said it better myself - this from an Israeli historian

2006-08-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

"Killing children is wrong. Period. A "war on terror" cannot be won by a democratically elected government acting like a terrorist organization. War is too serious a business to be left to the generals."

Tell it George Bush...

Israel & the US - Creating tomorrow's terrorists today!

2006-08-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

California Congressman Darrell Issa watches as a refugee woman screams "kill Bush" in arabic as she holds aloft her baby that she delivered three days ago at a Catholic Relief Services shelter in the Aschrafieh area of Beirut. - Photo by the LA Times

The latest chapter in the 50 years war will solve nothing. It's just making things worse. The main protagonist of this article, a Mr. Fadl Chalak says

"You see, watching TV every day, I get so angry, I just give up," he said. "Make no mistake. Every Arab now, every Muslim, has a little bit of Bin Laden in himself. We're not religious fanatics, we're a bunch of atheists, after all! But we just feel we have nowhere to go.

"We get together, and one of us will raise the glass, 'Here's to Bin Laden.' And everybody will raise the glass."

Who is this man? A dispossessed Shia Muslim from the no-mans land that southern Lebanon has become? No, this man is none other than the President of the Council for Development and Reconstruction of the government of Lebanon. An upper middle class highly educated technocrat. The kind of man the neo-cons hope will build their "new" Middle East. Imagine, Israel and the US has systematically alienated generations of Arabs both secular and fundamentalist by making war on them, killing innocent civilians, expropriating their land and we wonder why they attack us? We wonder why we have to surrender a bottle of shampoo before boarding an aircraft? We wonder why they hate us? It's no wonder in my opinion.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

• Israel must leave the West Bank, Gaza, Golan, Southern Lebanon
• Jerusalem must be an international city or with some form of shared sovereignty
• The Wall must come down and the settlements dismantled. Period, full stop, end of story.
• Israel and the US should pay reparations to Lebanon.

This is a small price - $2.5 billion according to the estimates of Mr. Chalak’s office – to pay. Iraq costs us more every month. Just put it on George Bushes tab. He’ll just add it to his $400 billion deficit.

Mainstream British Muslims fault foreign policy for making UK a target for terror

2006-08-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

I emphatically agree with the authors of this letter. Typically, when it comes to Israel, No. 10's reaction is the usual specious argument also made by the Bushites.

"No 10 is frustrated by the letter, which it did not know about until last night. A spokesman said: "Al-Qaida starting killing innocent civilians in the 90s. It killed Muslim civilians even before 9/11, and the attacks on New York and Washington killed over 3,000 people before Iraq. To imply al-Qaida is driven by an honest disagreement over foreign policy is a mistake."

This began long before 9/11. The Brits promised the Arabs independence for siding with the Allies against the Ottomans in WWI. Then the Balfour Declaration (1917) began the British tilt toward the Zionists. Coming on the heels of the stab in the back of the Sykes Picot Agreement (1916) where the Britain and France carved the Middle East into French and British zones. The whole mess was followed up by the Paris Peace Agreement in 1919 and the world has been paying the price ever since.

And whether the disagreement is honest or not is immaterial - the Islamic fundies are still trying to kill as many of us as they can. We need to address the #1 root cause of the problem - Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan, the so called security wall and the settlements. All of which have been declared illegal multiple times by the UN and other international bodies.

The Guns of August

2006-08-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Richard Holbrooke who, for a mainstream diplomat, I admire immensely, wrote a prescient piece in the WP this past Thursday. I agree with his point that events in the ME are spiraling out of control as they did in August of 1914. He makes other important points but a basic underlying premise of his point of view validates the thesis of many of my posts on this blog.

Unconditional support for Israel is not the way we are going to help solve the problems of the Middle East and make this country safer. We must bite the bullet, and despite what AIPAC and it’s ilk have managed to put over on the American taxpayer, start concentrating on what’s fair and what’s truly in the interest of this country and the region as a whole.

At a minimum Israel must withdraw from all occupied territories and Jerusalem must be an international city. The WALL must come down and the settlements dismantled. Anything less and our children will be talking about the 100 Years War in 2048.