The New Gestapo? Part II

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.

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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.
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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

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?

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!

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

The War on Tolerance

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

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?

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

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

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

"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.

Rudy as the Grand Inquisitress

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!

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

"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

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

How many more?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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?

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

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 -

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

Its enough to make you want to cry.

Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee

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..."

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

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!

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?

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!

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

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!

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?

"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

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

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?

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?

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?

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.

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

Meanwhile - back at the ranch

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

"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!

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

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

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.

Pre 9/11 mindset? Loserman loss "good for Al-Qaeda types?"

Cheney talks about a pre 9/11 mindset. It's clear he and his ilk are looking to take the US back to a pre 1776 mindset complete with King George when there was no separation between church and state and the military ran everything.

Sore Loserman 2006

Sore Loserman - as much as I hated that sobriquet in 2000 it is apt now. If Joe would have fought as hard then as he is now perhaps we would not have had 8 years of Bushie boy to contend with.

One thing people don't talk about is his potential role in Gore's defeat. There are plenty of good 'ol fundie Christian white boys all over the country and especially in north Florida who will never vote for a Jew. As admirable as Gore's motives undoubtedly were I think he made a huge error putting Lieberman on the ticket to begin with. Even one of my best Jewish friends said "there goes the election!" when Gore announced Lieberman as his running mate. Running two campaigns - one for senate and the other for VP - was highly cynical and also a mistake that cost the ticket votes.

Having said that - let him run - it's still a free country - isn't it?

Where the heck has their maintenance department been all these years?

BP is shutting down the Prudhoe Bay field because 3/4 of the pipelines are corroded and need to be replaced.

Don't they check these lines regularly? All of a sudden 3/4 are no good!? What the f? Some one needs firing here. Taking 8% of America's oil off line will only give the Republicans another reason to drill in ANWR and jack the profits of the oil compaies. This is very fishy.

Cease-Fire in Lebanon - withdrawal from all occupied territories

There must be an immediate unconditional cease-fire in South Lebanon. Innocent civilians on both sides bear the overwhelming brunt of this tragic, senseless war while the militaries of both antagonists suffer miniscule casualties in comparison.

Lebanese civilian casualties exceed innocent Israeli civilians by a ratio of 10 to 1 and will soon exceed 1000 dead. We're not in the sandbox here with a bunch of 5 year olds, although it may seem like it. Regardless who started the latest round of the "50 Years War," we all know it’s Israel's occupation of the West Bank and (re) occupation of Gaza that fuels the fires of the Middle East.

Who is the mature nation-state here? The Israeli Army (courtesy of the American taxpayer) is exceedingly more powerful than Hezbollah and yet stoops to the level of the terrorists by ruthlessly attacking innocents every day. Israel has been responding to attacks and killing by attacking and killing for over 50 years. What has it achieved? It will never end until they withdraw. As Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.”

The eyes of the world see Israel bombing aid convoys, attacking funeral processions and firing on refugees who are just following the instructions of the Israeli Army to leave the area. This is far beyond self-defense. If Israel did not occupy the West Bank and Gaza, Hezbollah, Hamas and Al-Qaeda, like the Red Brigades and Bader-Meinhof gang, would be mere footnotes of history. American made bombs bought with our tax dollars kill Lebanese babies. I don’t want that on my conscience.

Remember; Nixon’s illegal bombing of Cambodia in the 1970's popularized the Khmer Rouge and led to them taking over the country. Is our goal for Hezbollah to do the same in Lebanon? Every dead Lebanese mother or child hands Hezbollah 100 converts just as we hand the insurgents more converts every day we stay in Iraq and handed converts to the Khmer Rouge with every stick of napalm dropped from the B-52s. It’s not that far fetched. Hezbollah could establish an Iranian style theocracy in Lebanon before this is over. They gain power daily. If we really want to help the democratically elected government of Lebanon we need to stop this now before it’s too late. Handing Israel one-sided cease-fire resolutions from the UN will not do it either. Any plan must include an Israeli pullback first and then Hezbollah must stop their missile attacks. This is all that will work. The rest can be worked out after the terror and killing stops.

It may be too late though as I firmly believe, and know I am not alone, that the USA is losing if not already lost our status as an honest broker. Our unfair and unbalanced support for Israel is the cause of much of the hatred directed at us, hatred that reached a crescendo with 9/11 and continued in Bali, Madrid and London and possibly Mumbai. Add the ill advised and incompetently managed Iraq war and we have a recipe for utter disaster.

We must use our influence with Israel and induce them to cease-fire in Lebanon and withdraw unconditionally from all occupied territories. Israel, dependent on our aid, professing to be our friend will surely listen to us, comply with international law and many UN resolutions, and withdraw. This after all is the stated policy of the Israeli Government, is it not? The settlements must be dismantled and the wall must come down. They are illegal under all international laws and just contribute to more hate and as defensive measures are utter failures.

I believe with all my heart and mind that if this happens 90% of the wind will fall off from the sails of Hezbollah, Hamas and Al-Qaeda. The extremists will have nothing to build their so-called movements on. Then we may return to a modicum of national security and the USA will no longer be the target of the terrorists as we are today. This is how we drain the swamp, George. We can’t bomb our way to security, not in today’s world. Killing just makes it worse.

It's very simple really - to paraphrase Bill Clinton "It's the Occupation Stupid."

AIPAC's Hold [on American Foreign Policy]

more from the Nation Magazine...

"It's the Occupation Stupid!" This is just another round of the same war that's been going on since 1948 - to say Hezbollah started it is like saying the US started WWII when it invaded Europe in 1944. It begins and ends with the occupation. If Israel withdraws and leaves Gaza and the West Bank alone and dismantles all settlements and leaves the border where international law recognizes it should be (per several UN Resolutions) on the 1967 Green Line; 90% of the reasons for Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and Hamas existence goes away. Neither Israel nor the USA can kill our way to security. Sooner or later we must start addressing the root causes of terror not just the symptoms.

Is Israel Good for the Jews?

Seems the word is getting around... further examples of opinion coming around to the notion that unbalanced support of Israel and its policies are not in the interest of the USA or even American Jews.

this is truly sick

Your taxpayer dollars at work -- killing innocent Lebanese babies, women, children, old men and many hundreds of others who don't have anything to do with this conflict.

They just want war, war, war, ...

and they want us in more war. They wanted us in Iraq. Now they want us in Iran. Now they want us to get into the Middle East.

The subject line of this email is a paraphrase of Juan Williams speaking with Bill Kristol on Faux News Sunday.

"You just want war, war, war, and you want us in more war. You wanted us in Iraq. Now you want us in Iran. Now you want us to get into the Middle East. … You’re saying, why doesn’t the United States take this hard, unforgiving line? Well, the hard and unforgiving line has been, we don’t talk to anybody. We don’t talk to Hamas. We don’t talk to Hezbollah. We’re not going to talk to Iran. Where has it gotten us, Bill? Kristol threw up his hands and didn’t answer."


Mr. Wlliams here's a news flash - we're already there. As I write these words American tax dollars subsidize the killing of innocent Lebanese civilians and GWB is giving the Israeli government more time to kill more. The truth is ever since 1967 we've given the Israeli government carte blanche to kill as many innocents as they want. Who is the grownup in this equation? The Israeli government just stoops to the level of the terrorists with this behavior. Except their/our weapons are more lethal. For every dead Israeli there are at least 10 or more dead Arabs.

The line is that the Syrians and Iranians are supplying Hezbollah with arms. No doubt they are - they have to get them from somewhere - I don't think there are too many rocket factories in South Lebanon. Arms are freely available on the black market all over the world. Who is the worlds primary arms dealer? The USA! We Americans can't make a decent car anymore but we sure can build bombs and missiles. The USA is followed distantly by Britain, France, Russia and China - all of whom happen to be the permanent members of the UN "Security" Council.

Who do we think makes the bombs and missiles killing Lebanese children right now? Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrup Grumman: all US companies that contribute mightily to both the Republicans AND the Democrats.

Does Israel have the right to defend it self? Of course, but there is defending and there is naked aggression. Its clear what we have at the moment is the latter. Of course if Israel would end its illegal occupation of the West Bank and (recoccupation) of Gaza most of the reasons for radical Islam to attack them and America would evaporate... simple. To paraphrase another liberal "It's the occupation stupid."

Another news flash: both Hamas and Hebollah were supported by the Israelis in the early years of their existence because they were a counter weight to the PLO. It's true - look it up. Just as the USA supported Osama Bin Laden against the Russians in Afghanistan. This is just a cynical war that the powers that be play with innocents just as they have from the beggining of time. It's no different. The little people always pay the price for the ruling classes megalomania. Throw the religious fundamentalists (Christian, Islamic & Jewish) into the mix and you get what we have today.