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