Monday's Choice

"The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television."
--Unknown

Guardians

"We find amongst animals, as amongst men, power of feeling pleasure, power of feeling pain; we see them moved by love and by hate; we see them feeling terror and attraction; we recognize in them powers of sensation closely akin to our own, and while we transcend them immensely in intellect, yet in mere passional characteristics our natures and the animals' are closely allied. We know that when they feel terror, that terror means suffering. We know that when a wound is inflicted, that wound means pain to them. We know that threats bring to them suffering; they have a feeling of shrinking, of fear, of absence of friendly relations, and at once we begin to see that in our relations to the animal kingdom a duty arises which all thoughtful and compassionate minds should recognize-the duty that because we are stronger in mind than the animals, we are or ought to be their guardians and helpers, not their tyrants and oppressors, and we have no right to cause them suffering and terror merely for the gratification of the palate, merely for an added luxury to our own lives."
--Annie Besant (1847-1933)--

Constitutions

"Constitutions are made of paper;
Bayonets are made of steel."
--French Aphorism

The Return Of "Separate But Equal"

Senate Calls for Division of Iraq

The Senate has approved a measure critics say promotes the partitioning of Iraq. The non-binding resolution supports dividing Iraq into federal regions for Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki condemned the Senate vote, saying a partition would lead to “catastrophe.”

Source: Democracy Now, September 28, 2007

_____________________________

At least DN reported this, but like most of the rest of the corporate and pseudo-alternate media, ignored the broader implications.

TLC

Burma Today, America Tomorrow

The events of Burma remind us that, if we do not act now, that may well be a picture of America in a few short years when the American people finally begin to grasp the depths of depravity of the Bush-Cheney Junta.

One notable difference is that the Bush-Cheney Junta will consist of storm troopers from Blackwater and Halliburton. Part of their move toward a complete totalitarian state appears to be the destruction of the U.S. military, one of the few forces they see as standing in their way.

We can get to work now and take back our country peacefully, or we can like the people of Burma bleed and die later.

TLC

Teacher

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."
--Denis Waitley (1933-, American author, speaker, trainer, peak performance expert)

Advice

"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."
--G. K. Chesterton

Daniel Ellsberg: "A Coup Has Occurred"

'A Coup Has Occurred' By Daniel Ellsberg09/26/07 "ICH" -- -- September 26, 2007 (Text of a speech delivered September 20, 2007) -- - - I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

Will there be anything left for NSA to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11.

And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps.

It’s a little hard for me to distinguish the two contingencies; they could come together. Another 9/11 or an Iranian attack in which Iran’s reaction against Israel, against our shipping, against our troops in Iraq above all, possibly in this country, will justify the full panoply of measures that have been prepared now, legitimized, and to some extent written into law. …

This is an unusual gang, even for Republicans. [But] I think that the successors to this regime are not likely to roll back the assault on the Constitution. They will take advantage of it, they will exploit it.

Will Hillary Clinton as president decide to turn off NSA after the last five years of illegal surveillance? Will she deprive her administration her ability to protect United States citizens from possible terrorism by blinding herself and deafening herself to all that NSA can provide? I don’t think so.

Unless this somehow, by a change in our political climate, of a radical change, unless this gets rolled back in the next year or two before a new administration comes in – and there’s no move to do this at this point – unless that happens I don’t see it happening under the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic.


The Next Coup

Let me simplify this and not just to be rhetorical: A coup has occurred. I woke up the other day realizing, coming out of sleep, that a coup has occurred. It’s not just a question that a coup lies ahead with the next 9/11. That’s the next coup, that completes the first.

The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental of our Constitution, … what the rest of the world looked at for the last 200 years as a model and experiment to the rest of the world – in checks and balances, limited government, Bill of Rights, individual rights protected from majority infringement by the Congress, an independent judiciary, the possibility of impeachment.

There have been violations of these principles by many presidents before. Most of the specific things that Bush has done in the way of illegal surveillance and other matters were done under my boss Lyndon Johnson in the Vietnam War: the use of CIA, FBI, NSA against Americans.

I could go through a list going back before this century to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War, and before that the Alien and Sedition Acts in the 18th century. I think that none of those presidents were in fact what I would call quite precisely the current administration: domestic enemies of the Constitution.

I think that none of these presidents with all their violations, which were impeachable had they been found out at the time and in nearly every case their violations were not found out until they were out of office so we didn’t have the exact challenge that we have today.

That was true with the first term of Nixon and certainly of Johnson, Kennedy and others. They were impeachable, they weren’t found out in time, but I think it was not their intention to in the crisis situations that they felt justified their actions, to change our form of government.

It is increasingly clear with each new book and each new leak that comes out, that Richard Cheney and his now chief of staff David Addington have had precisely that in mind since at least the early 70s. Not just since 1992, not since 2001, but have believed in Executive government, single-branch government under an Executive president – elected or not – with unrestrained powers. They did not believe in restraint.

When I say this I’m not saying they are traitors. I don’t think they have in mind allegiance to some foreign power or have a desire to help a foreign power. I believe they have in their own minds a love of this country and what they think is best for this country – but what they think is best is directly and consciously at odds with what the Founders of this country and Constitution thought.

They believe we need a different kind of government now, an Executive government essentially, rule by decree, which is what we’re getting with signing statements. Signing statements are talked about as line-item vetoes which is one [way] of describing them which are unconstitutional in themselves, but in other ways are just saying the president says “I decide what I enforce. I decide what the law is. I legislate.”

It’s [the same] with the military commissions, courts that are under the entire control of the Executive Branch, essentially of the president. A concentration of legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one branch, which is precisely what the Founders meant to avert, and tried to avert and did avert to the best of their ability in the Constitution.


Founders Had It Right

Now I’m appealing to that as a crisis right now not just because it is a break in tradition but because I believe in my heart and from my experience that on this point the Founders had it right.

It’s not just “our way of doing things” – it was a crucial perception on the corruption of power to anybody including Americans. On procedures and institutions that might possibly keep that power under control because the alternative was what we have just seen, wars like Vietnam, wars like Iraq, wars like the one coming.

That brings me to the second point. This Executive Branch, under specifically Bush and Cheney, despite opposition from most of the rest of the branch, even of the cabinet, clearly intends a war against Iran which even by imperialist standards, standards in other words which were accepted not only by nearly everyone in the Executive Branch but most of the leaders in Congress. The interests of the empire, the need for hegemony, our right to control and our need to control the oil of the Middle East and many other places. That is consensual in our establishment. …

But even by those standards, an attack on Iran is insane. And I say that quietly, I don’t mean it to be heard as rhetoric. Of course it’s not only aggression and a violation of international law, a supreme international crime, but it is by imperial standards, insane in terms of the consequences.
Does that make it impossible? No, it obviously doesn’t, it doesn’t even make it unlikely.

That is because two things come together that with the acceptance for various reasons of the Congress – Democrats and Republicans – and the public and the media, we have freed the White House – the president and the vice president – from virtually any restraint by Congress, courts, media, public, whatever.

And on the other hand, the people who have this unrestrained power are crazy. Not entirely, but they have crazy beliefs.

And the question is what then, what can we do about this? We are heading towards an insane operation. It is not certain. It is likely. … I want to try to be realistic myself here, to encourage us to do what we must do, what is needed to be done with the full recognition of the reality. Nothing is impossible.

What I’m talking about in the way of a police state, in the way of an attack on Iran is not certain. Nothing is certain, actually. However, I think it is probable, more likely than not, that in the next 15, 16 months of this administration we will see an attack on Iran. Probably. Whatever we do.

And … we will not succeed in moving Congress probably, and Congress probably will not stop the president from doing this. And that’s where we’re heading. That’s a very ugly, ugly prospect.
However, I think it’s up to us to work to increase that small perhaps – anyway not large – possibility and probability to avert this within the next 15 months, aside from the effort that we have to make for the rest of our lives.


Restoring the Republic

Getting back the constitutional government and improving it will take a long time. And I think if we don’t get started now, it won’t be started under the next administration.

Getting out of Iraq will take a long time. Averting Iran and averting a further coup in the face of a 9/11, another attack, is for right now, it can’t be put off. It will take a kind of political and moral courage of which we have seen very little…

We have a really unusual concentration here and in this audience, of people who have in fact changed their lives, changed their position, lost their friends to a large extent, risked and experienced being called terrible names, “traitor,” “weak on terrorism” – names that politicians will do anything to avoid being called.

How do we get more people in the government and in the public at large to change their lives now in a crisis in a critical way? How do we get Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for example? What kinds of pressures, what kinds of influences can be brought to bear to get Congress to do their jobs? It isn’t just doing their jobs. Getting them to obey their oaths of office.

I took an oath many times, an oath of office as a Marine lieutenant, as an official in the Defense Department, as an official in the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. A number of times I took an oath of office which is the same oath office taken by every member of Congress and every official in the United States and every officer in the United States armed services.

And that oath is not to a Commander in Chief, which is not mentioned. It is not to a fuehrer. It is not even to superior officers. The oath is precisely to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Now that is an oath I violated every day for years in the Defense Department without realizing it when I kept my mouth shut when I knew the public was being lied into a war as they were lied into Iraq, as they are being lied into war in Iran.

I knew that I had the documents that proved it, and I did not put it out then. I was not obeying my oath which I eventually came to do.

I’ve often said that Lt. Ehren Watada – who still faces trial for refusing to obey orders to deploy to Iraq which he correctly perceives to be an unconstitutional and aggressive war – is the single officer in the United States armed services who is taking seriously in upholding his oath.

The president is clearly violating that oath, of course. Everybody under him who understands what is going on and there are myriad, are violating their oaths. And that’s the standard that I think we should be asking of people.


Congressional Courage

On the Democratic side, on the political side, I think we should be demanding of our Democratic leaders in the House and Senate – and frankly of the Republicans – that it is not their highest single absolute priority to be reelected or to maintain a Democratic majority so that Pelosi can still be Speaker of the House and Reid can be in the Senate, or to increase that majority.

I’m not going to say that for politicians they should ignore that, or that they should do something else entirely, or that they should not worry about that.

Of course that will be and should be a major concern of theirs, but they’re acting like it’s their sole concern. Which is business as usual. “We have a majority, let’s not lose it, let’s keep it. Let’s keep those chairmanships.” Exactly what have those chairmanships done for us to save the Constitution in the last couple of years?

I am shocked by the Republicans today that I read in the Washington Post who yesterday threatened a filibuster if we … get back habeas corpus. The ruling out of habeas corpus with the help of the Democrats did not get us back to George the First it got us back to before King John 700 years ago in terms of counter-revolution.

We need some way, and Ann Wright has one way, of sitting in, in Conyers office and getting arrested. Ray McGovern has been getting arrested, pushed out the other day for saying the simple words “swear him in” when it came to testimony.

I think we’ve got to somehow get home to them [in Congress] that this is the time for them to uphold the oath, to preserve the Constitution, which is worth struggling for in part because it’s only with the power that the Constitution gives Congress responding to the public, only with that can we protect the world from mad men in power in the White House who intend an attack on Iran.

And the current generation of American generals and others who realize that this will be a catastrophe have not shown themselves – they might be people who in their past lives risked their bodies and their lives in Vietnam or elsewhere, like [Colin] Powell, and would not risk their career or their relation with the president to the slightest degree.

That has to change. And it’s the example of people like those up here who somehow brought home to our representatives that they as humans and as citizens have the power to do likewise and find in themselves the courage to protect this country and protect the world. Thank you.


Daniel Ellsberg is author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.


Source: Information Clearing House

Following The Law: Presidents Ahmadinejad & Bush

Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Tuesday that Iran's disputed nuclear program is "closed" as a political issue and said Tehran will ignore U.N. Security Council demands and sanctions imposed by "arrogant powers" to curb its nuclear program.

Instead, he told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly that Iran has decided to pursue the monitoring of its nuclear program "through its appropriate legal path," the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

Full A.P. wire service article, SF Chronicle, September 26, 2007

__________________________________

So what we have here is a President who says his country will act like a semi-sovereign nation and pursue nuclear power but not nuclear weapons (the latter being reserved for more-fully-sovereign nations). At the same time, this President says he will comply with the law and allow oversight.

On the other hand, we have a dictator, er, "President", who has signed hundreds of declarations that he will not obey the law. Who will not allow any meaningful oversight of his reign of terror and, even worse, threatens to unleash death upon those--like members of the U.S. Congress--who ask too many questions. Who says that the President Of Iran--rather than the "President" Of The United States--is a threat to the law-abiding community of nations.

TLC

Educated

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
--Aristotle, philosopher

Sides

"Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
--Elie Wiesel

Prosecuting For Pharma

829,000 Arrested in U.S. in 2006 for Marijuana Violations

New government statistics show police arrested a record 829,000 people for marijuana violations last year. According to the group NORML a pot-smoker is now arrested every 38 seconds in the country. The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. far exceeded the total number of arrests in the U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Source: Democracy Now, September 25, 2007

_________________________________

The pharmaceutical drug cartel will never allow the legalization of a painkiller that one can grow in their basement or backyard.

TLC

Creating Refugees Refugees, Bu$h Style

Plans to Demolish 4,500 Public Housing Units in New Orleans Approved

The Bush administration has given the Housing Authority of New Orleans the go ahead to demolish the city's four largest public housing complexes. The Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the demolition of the 4,500 housing units on Friday. Democratic Seantor Mary Landrieu criticized the ruling but other lawmakers have endorsed such moves. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Republican Congressman Richard Baker said: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it but God did."

Source: Democracy Now, September 25, 2007

Burma And The US

Protest Continue In Burma, In Defiance of Military Junta

In Burma, tens of thousands of monks and protesters are marching through the city of Rangoon today in defiance of military orders.

Source, and full item, Democracy Now, September 25, 2007

Separate expanded segment, Democracy Now, September 25, 2007:
Burmese Protesters Defy Military Warning to Continue Marches Against Ruling Junta

____________________________________

Meanwhile, in the USA, tens of thousands of supposedly religious ministers, reverends, and so on, sit on their hands because they fear if they take on the Fourth Reich, they will 1) Offend those in the church that they hope will die leaving lots of money for the church to build a bigger temple; 2) Offend those they expect will continue buying their stairway to heaven while alive; and 3) Lose their tax exempt status, and we all know that God conditions our beliefs on whether we can write off our support of God on our taxes.

TLC

Comprehension

"What the factory farmers emphasize is that animals are different from humans: we can't, we are told, judge their reactions by our own, because they don't have human feelings. But no one in his senses ever supposed they did. Anyone acquainted with animals can guess pretty well that they have less intellect and memory than humans, and live closer to their instincts. But the reasonable conclusion to draw from this is the very opposite of the one the factory farmers try to force upon us. In all probability, animals feel more sharply than we do any restrictions on such instinctual promptings as the need, which we share with them, to wander around and stretch one's legs every now and then; and terror or distress suffered by an animal is never, as sometimes in us, softened by intellectual comprehension of the circumstances."
--Brigid Brophy (1929- )

Bush Prepares to Pass Baton to Hillary

The Washington Post this weekend reported an off-the-record meeting that President Bush had at the White House with various pundits, where he predicted that Hillary Clinton will be the next President. Bush is shaping his legacy, said the Post, and is planning to make it feasible for his successor to keep us in Iraq. It’s a sharp contrast with Hillary’s support among Democratic voters, who think she’s more likely to get us out of Iraq and are more likely to view her as “liberal” than John Edwards or Barack Obama. But if you parse Hillary’s statements, she has left enough wiggle room for a Clinton Administration to stay in Iraq for a while. It is easy to dismiss Bush’s talk as delusional, but in recent years Hillary’s husband has developed a close personal friendship with the elder President George Bush as if 1992 never happened – suggesting a stronger tie between the two political families than one might imagine.

But take a closer look at what Hillary says, and it is not certain what her plans would be about getting us out. Like the other candidates, she is crystal clear about saying she would begin withdrawal – but is vague about when all of our troops would come home. She promised on yesterday’s “Meet the Press” to “end our involvement” in Iraq, but qualified it “at the level that we’ve seen.” Clinton would have fewer troops than what we have right now, but her words imply keeping a residual force for an undetermined period of time.

...Stephanopoulos recounted the analogy yesterday when he had Hillary Clinton on his TV show. Rather than deny it, Hillary replied that she would “likely continue a presence in Iraq” to fight Al-Qaeda, protect civilian employees and the U.S. embassy, train the Iraqi army, and protect the Kurds. When Stephanopoulos asked her to pledge that all U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of her first term, Clinton refused.

Source, and full article: Beyond Chron, September 24, 2007

Fish

"Only dead fish follow the stream."
--Unknown

We Have Nothing But Fear Itself

We Have Nothing But Fear Itself
Posted by davidswanson in General Discussion
Sun Sep 23rd 2007, 09:38 AM
By David Swanson

A Roseland, Indiana, city council member orders police to remove a fellow city council member. The police escort him out, shove him down on his face and pound his head. Onlookers either cheer, do nothing, joke, behave as if all were normal, or yell at others to let the police do their jobs. Not a single person protests. Only the one victim is hauled off in the police car. No one jumps in and shouts "Before this becomes Nazi Germany, arrest me too!"

A University of Florida student asks inconvenient questions of a U.S. senator. Police tackle him and shoot him with a taser. Onlookers, including the senator, either cheer, do nothing, joke, behave as if all were normal, or yell at others to let the police do their jobs. Not a single person seriously protests. Only the one victim is hauled off to jail. Fascist-friendly media outlets love the story because the senator is a Democrat, but they don't tell the story right. Progressive media outlets don't tell the story, even though they would tell it right, because the senator is a Democrat.

A television newscaster announces that planes were delayed in Boston's airport and tells us the name of a college student, shows us her picture, and tells us that we should blame her. He tells us to give the airport security guards credit for doing their jobs. They mistook her school project for a bomb. Again, we must let the "authorities" handle things.

We must pretend toothpaste and deodorant are weapons. We must pass through metal detectors. We must shout through bullet proof glass. We must refrain from hysterically laughing at police officers who solemnly believe every backpack or stroller is a threat to national security. We must speak freely in "free speech zones," except when we speak the wrong things freely and go to jail for it. We must be treated as criminals any time we attempt to get near members of our government.

We must accept genocide to support "our troops" doing their job. With very few exceptions, when those troops witness torture, rape, and murder, they either cheer, do nothing, joke, behave as if all were normal, or yell at others to let the mercenaries and the troops do their jobs. They're brave enough to fight and kill, but just as scared to challenge abuses of power as everyone back home.

Back home in the land of the free, the wrong sign or t-shirt can now land you in jail. The wrong bumper sticker at a peace rally can get you a ticket. The wrong words out of your mouth can now constitute any number of serious crimes. Police brutality is now considered part of keeping us safe. And everyone is too scared to notice that anything is changing. Those who notice, obviously believe nothing can be done or believe someone else will do it. If those abroad who resent the United States really did so for our freedoms, we'd be pretty safe now.

"If You See Something, Say Something."

Everyone needs to quit all the idiotic spying on neighbors and snooping around their bags to check for bombs. When you see someone assaulted by police, SAY SOMETHING. Do not let that moment pass.

One young woman approached the University of Florida police and screamed "Why are you doing that?" That's a start.

Sam Provance exposed some of the torture at Abu Ghraib. That's a start.

But most Americans appear paralyzed by fear. And that includes many Americans with the power to put a halt to our slide into martial law. We have an opposition political party afraid to oppose anything. We have grassroots groups that swear obedience to the opposition party, even as the useless unopposing party condemns the activists. Those with the power to end national crimes are afraid to do so. They fund the occupation of Iraq and promise never to impeach anyone, all as part of letting the "authorities" handle things. And citizens play along, pretending the Democrats have no power and, in addition, shouldn't use it. They base this on the theory that by not using any power you are most likely to acquire more power. This is thinking driven by fear. We have almost nothing but fear now driving our national decisions, and it is beginning to scare me.

But there are signs of courage. There is a growing and successful counter-recruitment movement. Expensive corporate movies are beginning to challenge the occupation of Iraq. And peace and impeachment activists are engaging in more and more civil disobedience. People are speaking and protesting and sitting-in in the face of nascent fascism. Even sometimes those in power are speaking truth to those with more power.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich alone in Congress is repeatedly articulating the indisputable but taboo fact that the Democratic leadership in Congress can end the occupation by announcing that it will not fund it anymore. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has suggested that pseudo peace activists targeting Republicans may not be enough, that it might be a good idea to challenge pro-war Democrats as well. The Congressional Black Caucus Monitor is holding "Lawn Jockey Awards" for the "four worst black members of Congress." And many progressives around the country are energetically opposing the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. There are signs of life still in our body politic, but they are struggling against an incoming tide of fear and self-inflicted terrorism.

Source: David Swanson, at Democratic Underground, September 23, 2007

Time To Renew Do Not Call Registry

Consumers who fail to reregister for the national Do Not Call list may start getting interrupted again by telemarketers next year.

Millions of phone numbers will be dropped from the popular program starting in June, when the registry reaches its five-year anniversary.

As part of the rules behind the Do Not Call program, enrollments are valid for five years. However, people can avoid being jettisoned by re-enrolling, ensuring quiet dinners without pitches for credit cards, mortgages and carpet cleaning.

Registering for the list and filing complaints can be done at http://www.donotcall.gov or by calling (888) 382-1222.

Source, and full article, SF Chronicle, September 22, 2007

Olbermann to Bush: "Your Hypocrisy Is So Vast"

Source--Watch and/or download the video: Crooks & Liars, September 20, 2007

Alternative source for Video: Truthout

Olbermann to Bush: "Your Hypocrisy Is So Vast"
By Keith Olbermann
MSNBC "Countdown"
Thursday 20 September 2007

So the President, behaving a little bit more than usual, like we would all interrupt him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR, stepped before the press conference microphone and after side-stepping most of the substantive issues like the Israeli raid on Syria, in condescending and infuriating fashion, produced a big political finish that indicates, certainly, that if it wasn't already - the annual Republican witch-hunting season is underway.

"I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. Military."

"And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad.

"And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military."

"That was a sorry deal."

First off, it's "Democrat-ic" party.

You keep pretending you're not a politician, so stop using words your party made up. Show a little respect.

Secondly, you could say this seriously after the advertising/mugging of Senator Max Cleland?
After the swift-boating of John Kerry?

But most importantly, making that the last question?

So that there was no chance at a follow-up?

So nobody could point out, as Chris Matthews so incisively did, a week ago tonight, that you were the one who inappropriately interjected General Petraeus into the political dialogue of this nation in the first place!

Deliberately, premeditatedly, and virtually without precedent, you shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman and now you're complaining about the outcome, and then running away from the microphone?

Eleven months ago the President's own party, the Republican National Committee, introduced this very different kind of advertisement, just nineteen days before the mid-term elections.
Bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri's rumored quote of six years ago about having bought "suitcase bombs."

All set against a ticking clock, and finally a blinding explosion and the dire announcement:

"These are the stakes - vote, November 7th."

That one was ok, Mr. Bush?

Terrorizing your own people in hopes of getting them to vote for your own party has never brought as much as a public comment from you?

The Republican Hamstringing of Captain Max Cleland and lying about Lieutenant John Kerry met with your approval?

But a shot at General Petraeus, about whom you conveniently ignore it, was you who reduced him from four-star hero to a political hack, merits this pissy juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?

Your hypocrisy is so vast that if we could somehow use it to fill the ranks in Iraq you could realize your dream and keep us fighting there until the year 3000.

The line between the military and the civilian government is not to be crossed.

When Douglas MacArthur attempted to make policy for the United States in Korea half a century ago, President Truman moved quickly to fire him, even though Truman knew it meant his own political suicide, and the deification of a General who history suggests had begun to lose his mind.

When George McClellan tried to make policy for the Union in the Civil War, President Lincoln finally fired his chief General, even though he knew McClellan could galvanize political opposition which he did when McClellan ran as Lincoln's presidential opponent in 1864, nearly defeating our greatest president.

Even when the conduit flowed the other way and Senator Joseph McCarthy tried to smear the Army because it wouldn't defer the service of one of McCarthy's staff aides, the entire civilian and Defense Department structures, after four years of fearful servitude, rose up against McCarthy and said "enough" and buried him.

The list is not endless but it is instructive.

Air Force General LeMay - who broke with Kennedy over the Cuban Missile Crisis and was retired.

Army General Edwin Anderson Walker - who started passing out John Birch Society leaflets to his soldiers.

Marine General Smedley Butler - who revealed to Congress the makings of a plot to remove FDR as President and for merely being approached by the plotters, was phased out of the military hierarchy.

These careers were ended because the line between the military and the civilian is not to be crossed!

Mr. Bush, you had no right to order General Petraeus to become your front man.

And he obviously should have refused that order and resigned rather than ruin his military career.

The upshot is and contrary it is, to the MoveOn advertisement he betrayed himself more than he did us.

But there has been in his actions a sort of reflexive courage, some twisted vision of duty at a time of crisis. That the man doesn't understand that serving officers cannot double as serving political ops, is not so much his fault as it is your good, exploitable, fortune.

But Mr. Bush, you have hidden behind the General's skirts, and today you have hidden behind the skirts of 'the planted last question' at a news conference, to indicate once again that your presidency has been about the tilted playing field, about no rules for your party in terms of character assassination and changing the fabric of our nation, and no right for your opponents or critics to as much as respond.

That is not only un-American but it is dictatorial.

And in pimping General David Petraeus and in the violation of everything this country has been assiduously and vigilantly against for 220 years, you have tried to blur the gleaming radioactive demarcation between the military and the political, and to portray your party as the one associated with the military, and your opponents as the ones somehow antithetical to it.

You did it again today and you need to know how history will judge the line you just crossed.

It is a line thankfully only the first of a series that makes the military political, and the political, military.

It is a line which history shows is always the first one crossed when a democratic government in some other country has started down the long, slippery, suicidal slope towards a Military Junta.

Get back behind that line, Mr. Bush, before some of your supporters mistake your dangerous transgression, for a call to further politicize our military.


Source--Watch and/or download the video: Crooks & Liars, September 20, 2007

Alternative source for Video: Truthout

Bill Richardson's Betrayal Of America

Vigil-Giron, along with Governor Bill Richardson, not only stopped any attempt at a recount directly following the election, but demanded that all the machines be wiped clean. This not only concealed evidence of potential fraud but destroyed it. In 2006, New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled the Secretary of State’s machine-cleaning job illegal — too late to change the outcome of the election, of course.

Full article, by Greg Palast

Promises

"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one."
--Adolf Hitler, promise to the Reichstag (Parliament) on the occasion of the imposition of "temporary" dictatorship following the Reichstag Fire

Choices

"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same."
--Carlos Castaneda, 1925-2000, Author

Killing Without Punishment: Just Like Humboldt County California

Judge Accepts Chiquita Plea Deal

A federal judge has accepted a plea deal that will avoid jail time for current and former executives of the fruit giant Chiquita. Earlier this year Chiquita admitted to paying one point seven million dollars to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. terrorist watch list. Questions are being raised whether the Justice Department decision is an attempt to avoid scrutiny of whether the Bush administration gave Chiquita its tacit approval. Last month Chiquita revealed it told Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff of the payments while Chertoff was at the Justice Department in April 2003. Chertoff promised a response, but never replied. Chiquita kept making payments for nearly another year. Under the plea deal, Chiquita will pay a twenty-five million dollar fine that the company itself proposed. Chiquita has an estimated four point five billion dollars in annual revenue. Colombian officials have criticized the deal. Colombian Justice Minister Carlos Holguin said: “[This agreement] is not worthy of U.S. justice… it gives the idea that impunity can be bought for a few million dollars.”

Source: Democracy Now, September 19, 2007

_________________________

Come to Humboldt County
Meet beautiful people
Piss off "law enforcement", tho,
And die.

And it'll be your fault, too.

No prosecution of "law enforcement" here, either.

TLC

MDA Sheep

Locally, probably nationally, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is doing a fundraiser, in which supporters are put in "jail", where they are "incarcerated" until they can hound all their friends, neighbors, countrypersons, associates, complete strangers, etc. etc., and "post bail".

Excuse me.

I do not happen to support the MDA. Yes they do some good things, but they are WAY too far tied in with the pharmaceutical drug cartel and large polluting corporations.

If you want to eliminate Muscular Dystrophy, then you need to cut out the pharmaceutical drug cartel which, if they ever produce anything, will be just another drug that doesn't cure anything, has serious side effects, and will require the victim, er, "patient", to take it for the rest of their lives.

You'll also need to force polluters to stop polluting. Stop agribusiness from using toxic pesticides and Genetically Modified FrankenFoods.

And you'll need to find ways to heal the body--things that BigPharma isn't going to make obscene profits from.

In short, you'll need to create a loose organization of humanitarians that have little in common with the financial interests that promote MDA.

In the meantime, if I want to donate to a charity, it will be MY choice, not that of co-workers or others that are suckered into supporting MDA. For example, I would strongly encourage--and donate as able--to the Animal Liberation Front, Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty, investigative reporter Wayne Madsen, investigative reporter Dave Lindorff, or any of a multitude of other worthy groups and individuals.

But your decision to get suckered does not create an obligation on my part to drink the purple Kool-Aid.

And if you do not take "no" for an answer, you may find yourself getting an earful.

Sadly, most people will take the proverbial path of least resistance, and fork over some money to MDA. More evidence that we have become a nation of sheep.

TLC

The Return Of O.J.

Did the Bu$h Regime pay O.J. to do something dumb? The result has been that the corporate media is following the story like a group of teenage boys in a strip bar for the first time.

Meanwhile, serious national and international issues like, oh, say, the upcoming war on Iran, and the fact that the same Blackwater that kills in Iraq continues to occupy New Orleans, go ignored.
TLC

Genius

"Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience."
--Benjamin Franklin

Going

"Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down."
--Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor

US officials deny visas for British pop stars

British performers are being forced to cancel American tours after being denied visas, often because United States officials do not consider them famous enough.

Lily Allen had her visa withdrawn last month forcing her to miss a Las Vegas performance

Source, and full story: Telegraph UK, September 17, 2007

Lily Allen, threat to the U.S. National Interest???

The Emmys: What You Didn't See On Faux

Fox Censors Sally Field's Anti-War Message At Emmy's

Fox is being accused of censoring the actress Sally Field at last night's Emmy Awards. She ended her acceptance speech by saying: "If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be god-damned wars in the first place." But that's not what viewers watching on Fox heard. The network cut off Sally Field's mic mid-sentence.
Sally Field: "“If mothers ruled the world, there would be no –-."

Source: Democarcy Now, September 17, 2007

Watching

"People need somebody to watch over them... Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave."
--Arnold Schwarzenegger, a/k/a HerrGoobernator, US News and World Report, 1990.

Robert Fisk: In the Colosseum, thoughts turn to death

At midnight on Thursday, I lay on my back in the Colosseum and looked at a pageant of stars above Rome. Where the lions tore into gladiators, and only a few metres from the cross marking the place of Saint Paul's crucifixion – "martyrdom", of course, has become an uneasy word in this age of the suicide bomber – I could only reflect on how a centre of cruelty could become one of the greatest tourist attractions of our time. An Italian television station had asked me to talk about capital punishment in the Middle East for a series on American executions and death row prisoners. Two generators had melted down in an attempt to flood the ancient arena with light. Hence, the moment of reflection.

For bin Laden, 11 September 2001 was "punishment" for America's bloodshed in the Muslim world; indeed, more and more attacks by both guerrillas and orthodox soldiers are turning into revenge operations. Was not the first siege of Fallujah revenge for the killing and desecration of the bodies of American mercenaries? Wasn't Abu Ghraib part of "our" revenge for 11 September and for our failures in Iraq?

Full article, Independent UK, September 15, 2007

Britain: Gambling addiction hooks 600,000 people

Gambling addiction in the UK has more than doubled in recent years with up to 600,000 people hooked, new figures are expected to reveal.

Full article, Independent UK, September 17, 2007

_____________________________

See my previous Posts:

The Best Government Ca$ino$ Can Buy

Feeding Into The Gambling Addiction

Love That Legalized Gambling

Casino Gambling: Eerie Parallels

Casino Monies

"It's Just A Dog"

To anyone who says, "It's just a dog:"

You are the reason rescues exist, why thousands of dogs die everyday in shelters, homeless and unwanted.

You are the backyard breeder or puppy miller, who looks at a dog and sees dollar signs, who cares nothing for the inevitable decline in the dog's health after having litter upon litter of puppies, nor for the countless dogs who will now die in shelters because the puppies you breed have taken up their homes.

You are the supporter of these backyard breeders and puppy mills, willing to pay $500 or more for a puppy rather than $90 for a rescued dog, because having a pedigree to show off to friends is more important than saving the life of a true and loyal companion.

You are the one who trains dogs to fight, whether for sport or protection, thus abusing your dog and bringing the call for the extermination of an entire breed of perfectly wonderful dogs.

You are the one who thinks nothing of putting your dog to sleep because it doesn't go with the furniture, or it urinates on the carpet, while at the same time balking at the thought of spanking an unruly child.

You are the one who dumps your dog at the shelter when you move, because you're too lazy to find pet-friendly housing.

You are the one who keeps your dog tied up outside, only bothering to provide the occasional bowls of food and water and possibly a tree for shade, because after all, it is just a dog, right?



To the 90 year old woman in the nursing home, abandoned by her family, yearning for companionship, stroking the fur of a new friend with the words "Therapy Dog" on its side, it's not just a dog.

To the young child who has become literate by reading aloud to a dog in the classroom, it's not just a dog.

To the person with skin cancer who had it detected by a dog when the doctors couldn't, it's not just a dog.

To the blind man who now can see through his companion, it's not just a dog.

To anyone who has been in bed, sick with the flu, and has felt the warmth of that cold nose as he curls up between your legs to give you comfort, it's not just a dog.

To anyone who comes home from a hard day of work to be greeted by someone who's so happy to see you they can't stop wiggling, it's not just a dog.

To anyone who has cried at Old Yeller, because they know what it's like to lose their best friend, to know that their friend is suffering and though it may be hard, the best thing to do is to help them go peacefully, it's not just a dog.

When you say, "It's just a dog," you really mean, "Why should I care about it? Dogs aren't important. They're useless. They don't give anything to us, so why should I give them anything in return? Why do I have to care about their feelings? They don't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's just a dog."


To everyone who says, "It's just a dog," I just have this to say to you:

"You're just a human."


Copyright 2006 Brandy Henderson
President of the Friends Fur Life Pet Sanctuary
http://friendsfurlife.tripod.

Bush setting America up for war with Iran

In a chilling scenario of how war might come, a senior intelligence officer warned that public denunciation of Iranian meddling in Iraq - arming and training militants - would lead to cross border raids on Iranian training camps and bomb factories.

A prime target would be the Fajr base run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force in southern Iran, where Western intelligence agencies say armour-piercing projectiles used against British and US troops are manufactured.

Under the theory - which is gaining credence in Washington security circles - US action would provoke a major Iranian response, perhaps in the form of moves to cut off Gulf oil supplies, providing a trigger for air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and even its armed forces.


Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Dick Cheney ('The Man') with George W Bush

Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail.

Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran.

Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action.

In a chilling scenario of how war might come, a senior intelligence officer warned that public denunciation of Iranian meddling in Iraq - arming and training militants - would lead to cross border raids on Iranian training camps and bomb factories.

A prime target would be the Fajr base run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force in southern Iran, where Western intelligence agencies say armour-piercing projectiles used against British and US troops are manufactured.

Under the theory - which is gaining credence in Washington security circles - US action would provoke a major Iranian response, perhaps in the form of moves to cut off Gulf oil supplies, providing a trigger for air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and even its armed forces.

Senior officials believe Mr Bush's inner circle has decided he does not want to leave office without first ensuring that Iran is not capable of developing a nuclear weapon.

The intelligence source said: "No one outside that tight circle knows what is going to happen." But he said that within the CIA "many if not most officials believe that diplomacy is failing" and that "top Pentagon brass believes the same".

He said: "A strike will probably follow a gradual escalation. Over the next few weeks and months the US will build tensions and evidence around Iranian activities in Iraq."


Full story, Telegraph UK, September 16, 2007

Course

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, Poet and Essayist

Children's Health: Not Important; BigPharma: VERY Important

A Salina Central student was arrested for having drugs at the school.

Thursday morning school officials allegedly found a beef jerky bag of marijuana and a tire gauge that had been converted to a pipe. They turned it over to Police.

17-year-old ___________ of Salina was arrested on possible charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He also had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in another case.

Source: KSAL Radio, September 14, 2007

____________________________

This is a typical school where children are forced to take vaccines containing toxic substances, force-fed Ritalin and other mind-altering garbage, and the cafeteria serves pesticide-filled Genetically Mutated Frankenfoods.

But Salina has its priorities straight: BigPharma won't put up with any substance that a person can create in their own home.

And their storm troopers, as usual, are right there to take care of business.

Screw The People! Long Live BigPharma.

TLC

Ink

"A little lemon and seltzer will remove those pesky ink stains after you've been fingerprinted"
--Martha Stewart

Simple Solution To Ending Iraq Nightmare

"A few days ago, President Bush showed up in Iraq for a few hours. But, then he came home and left all of our military people there. Maybe he just should have stayed there, sorted the mess out and brought everybody home with him."
--The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous Extension 333 call-in line, published September 13, 2007

Happy Birthday H.L. Mencken

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

--H.L. Mencken, September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956
Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920, in an article titled, "Bayard vs. Lionheart".

Reprinted in the H.L. Mencken collection, "On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe". Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-801-85342-7 (p. 21).

Special thanks to Keith Olbermann for featuring the above quote on his show "Countdown",September 12, 2007

Democracy Now: Forget The Reichstag

Take a look at Democracy Now's coverage of 9/11: No mention whatsoever of it being a False Flag operation, no suggestion that it was anything other than 19 fanatics with boxcutters.

September 11th

September 12th


Yup, Chomsky's buddies continue to ignore reality.

TLC

HerrGoobernator: You Vill Fight For The Fatherland

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced early Wednesday he had vetoed legislation that would have allowed Californians to vote on an advisory measure calling for President Bush to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

"Placing a nonbinding resolution on Iraq on the same ballot, when it carries no weight or authority, would only further divide voters and shift attention from other critical issues that must be addressed."

Full AP wire service article, SF Chronicle, September 12, 2007

_____________________________

Yeah, like killing off the most vulnerable:


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed the nearly two-month overdue state budget that included $703 million worth of line-item vetoes that he promised to Senate Republicans as part of a deal to gain their support to approve the state's spending plan.

The largest chunk of the spending cuts - about $300 million - come from Medi-Cal, which
provides health insurance to the state's needy residents.

Perhaps the most contentious cut is the elimination of $55 million for services to homeless adults with serious mental illnesses.

Full article, SF Chronicle, August 25, 2007


TLC

Slow Painful Death: Part Of His Plan

"Michael M Moore’s ‘Sicko’ movie is a hoax, like global warming. If there are health or pollution problems, that’s what God intends. Government should not be part of the solution."
--The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous Extension 333 call-in line,published September 12, 2007

Aim

"The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action"
--Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher

Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water (& Brains?)

An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.

John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.

The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.

Full Associated Press wire service article, SF Chronicle, September 11, 2007

__________________________________

There are longer and more detailed articles, but the SF Chronicle, to its credit, does not charge for access to its archives.

I'm all for getting us away from oil and fossil fuels--the US should be running battery-powered cars and operating primarily on solar energy.

What caught my attention is that, if radio frequencies weaken the bonds between the elements of salt water, what is happening to life on this planet with the constant bombardment of all sorts of man-made frequencies?

Remember, when radio was invented in the 1800s, and grew exponentially in the 20th century, we lacked the ability to test its effects. Not that we necessarily could do so today since there are so many sources, it would be difficult to isolate a test group of humans, and then there is the immense number of different frequencies that we are subjected to. Not to mention that, for example, frequency "A" and frequency "B" could, alone, be safe, but in combination could be deadly.

Yes, let us explore getting hydrogen out of salt water, definitely. But let us note this latest proverbial canary in the coal mine.

TLC

Most & Least

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 19th Century German Poet, Dramatist & Scientist

Rolling Stone: All The News That Fits The Corporations Wishes

Rolling Stone's National Affairs department, once the domain of Hunter S. Thompson, had
a lively thread today on MoveOn's ad objecting to General Petraeus.

Well, it *was* lively, until they decided to pull the plug on truth.

Three of my Postings have been yanked.

Hunter must be rolling over in his grave.

What does Rolling Stone want to protect you from?

Pay No Attention To What Is Plainly Before Your Eyes

Monkeying With The Death Toll

The "Get Over It" Refrain


This should come as no surprise. As Frank Zappa observed:

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."


Apparently Rolling Stone has concluded that it's curtains for America.

TLC

Pay No Attention To What Is Plainly Before Your Eyes

Another Posting by yours truly at Rolling Stone (See my earlier posts):

The Denial as to what is plainly going on before our eyes is surreal.

For a dose of sobriety, check out Joe Conason's article, "It Could Happen Here", from the book of the same name.

Excerpts and reviews of Chalmers Johnson's trilogy, most recently "Nemesis", are eye-opening, e.g.

Sinclair Lewis warned us in 1935 in his book, "It Can't Happen Here", and we barely survived the machinations of the earlier Bu$h,

TLC

Monkeying With The Death Toll

The MoveOn discussion at Rolling Stone continues (See my earlier Posts):

"Jed Clampett", a regular, opines:

"yea, we’ve seen so much good come out of iraq that those of us that can still think for ourselves don’t want to see anything good come out of Iraq. Why is it we can’t see that the surge reduced murders in bagdad of 80% compared to last years same month instead of the fact that most of baghdad has already been ethnically cleanse and the murders are no longer necessary.

While I understand the frustration at the administration and all it’s lackeys at their lies, misrepresentations, falsehoods, dissembling and obfuscation, I find it a bit disingenous to pre-villify the general. At least let him speak and try to sugarcoat the progress before he’s called out on his BS. Why put the cart in front of the horse? isn’t it counterproductive?"

_______________________________________

Sad, even the liberals buy into the Big Lie. My response, Posted at RS:

“the surge reduced murders”??? Only in an alternative parallel universe…

Paul Krugman, as usual, nailed it:

Here’s what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he’ll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq - as long as you don’t count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head.

Apparently, the Pentagon has a double super secret formula that it uses to distinguish sectarian killings (bad) from other deaths (not important); according to press reports, all deaths from car bombs are excluded, and one intelligence analyst told The Washington Post that “if a bullet went through the back of the head, it’s sectarian. If it went through the front, it’s criminal.” So the number of dead is down, as long as you only count certain kinds of dead people.

Full article at Truthout:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090707C.shtml

TLC
_________________________

The "Get Over It" Refrain

Hallzee, in response to my Post at Rolling Stone on MoveOn's ad, stated:

Fascist, Fascist, Fascist.

That is the lib’s answer for everything. Just be honest and admit that the Dems don’t want to see any good come from Iraq.

And TLC, this has nothing to do with your sour grape, stolen election theory. Get over it!

______________

That non sequitur being so stale you could make enough penicillin to supply the US for at least a year, needs to be nailed once and for all. My response, Posted at Rolling Stone:

"Sour Grapes"? If I break into your house tonight and steal all your stuff, will you "get over it" as soon as I'm gone? By the time I sell your stuff on the streets? If not then, when?

That's what I thought...

TLC

Rolling Stone & MoveOn's "General Betray Us" Ad

Tim over at Rolling Stone, which far too often has become a gatekeeper for the Fourth Reich, is outraged over MoveOn's ad:


What a fucking stupid thing to do.

“General Betray Us”?

For God’s sake, it’s not even clever. A bad pun driving a despicable message.

But to impugn the patriotism of a man who is doing what the commander in chief has asked him to do — try to win the war in Iraq — is as despicable as Dick Cheney questioning the patriotism of those Americans who want us to redeploy from Iraq.

Full rant, Rolling Stone, September 10, 2007

______________________

My Post at Rolling Stone:

Did Petraeus take an oath to support the Constitution Of The United States Of America? Or the fascists that have stolen two elections and currently occupy the White House with just as much legitimacy as the U.S. occupies Iraq?

TLC

"Troops" In Iraq

Thanks to Citizens For Legitimate Government for their Link and reference to a typical article on the 172K figure cited in the AP article, below.


The corporate media only reveals some of the numbers of Fourth Reich forces in Iraq, and fails to address the ramifications. Take this typical example from the Associated Press:


"The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has climbed to a record high of 168,000 and is moving toward a peak of 172,000 in the coming weeks — a level that could extend into December, a senior military official said Thursday."

Source, and full article, SF Chronicle, September 6, 2007


Here are some of the *real* issues not being covered by the corporate press. Always remember, there are both lies of commission AND lies of omission:

How many Blackwater and Halliburton storm troopers there are in Iraq?

What of the fact that the Bu$h Regime is creating a mercenary force whose occupation of New Orleans is just a test drive?

What of the stark reality that the US Military is being weakened to the point that it may well lack the ability to fight the next coup d'état (the most recent previous ones, depending on one's analysis, being those that took out Richard Nixon and JFK)?

TLC

Paul Krugman: Time To Take A Stand

Here's what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he'll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq - as long as you don't count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head.

So how can the military be claiming otherwise? Apparently, the Pentagon has a double super secret formula that it uses to distinguish sectarian killings (bad) from other deaths (not important); according to press reports, all deaths from car bombs are excluded, and one intelligence analyst told The Washington Post that "if a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian. If it went through the front, it's criminal." So the number of dead is down, as long as you only count certain kinds of dead people.

Oh, and by the way: Baghdad is undergoing ethnic cleansing, with Shiite militias driving Sunnis out of much of the city. And guess what? When a Sunni enclave is eliminated and the death toll in that district falls because there's nobody left to kill, that counts as progress by the Pentagon's metric.

Full article, courtesy of Truthout, September 7, 2007

Alternatively, NYT Select

Leisure

"But there is another strong objection which I, one of the laziest of all the children of Adam, have against the Leisure State. Those who think it could be done argue that a vast machinery using electricity, water-power, petrol, and so on, might reduce the work imposed on each of us to a minimum. It might, but it would also reduce our control to a minimum. We should ourselves become parts of a machine, even if the machine only used those parts once a week. The machine would be our master, for the machine would produce our food, and most of us could have no notion of how it was really being produced."
--Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) British essayist, critic, poet, and novelist
Source: Illustrated London News, March 21, 1925

Neutrality II

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."
--Desmond Tutu, activist

Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi

People should avoid using Wi-Fi wherever possible because of the risks it may pose to health, the German government has said.
And Germany's official radiation protection body also advises its citizens to use landlines instead of mobile phones, and warns of "electrosmog" from a wide range of other everyday products, from baby monitors to electric blankets.

Full story, Independent UK, September 9, 2007

The appalling fate of the polar bear, symbol of the Arctic

It has been declared at risk by conservation groups. Yet rich Westerners are paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of shooting an animal whose very existence is already threatened by environmental disaster. Geoffrey Lean reports from Ilulissat, Greenland, on a fight for survival

Polar bears – the very symbol of the Arctic's looming environmental disaster – are crashing towards extinction as a result of global warming, the US government has found. The admission, the result of a massive investigation by the Bush administration, could force the President finally to take action against climate change.

The Arctic crisis has become so compelling that leaders of the world's main religions gathered this weekend on the iceberg-studded sea off this small town, deep in the Arctic Circle on the west Greenland coast, to pray for the planet. Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox church – who convened the group – told them: "the danger of an avoidable catastrophe is now more acute than ever." On Friday senior representatives of the Roman Catholic and protestant churches, Sunni and Shia Islam,and the Hebrew, Hindu, Shinto and Buddhist Zen religions joined the Patriarch in silent prayer on the prow of a liner under a lowering sky in the shadow of giant icebergs.

Full Story, Independent UK, September 9, 2007


The bloody business of the trophy hunters

Rich "sportsmen" are paying up to $35,000 (£17,000) per trip to hunt down and kill polar bears, which are then stuffed and mounted for display.

An IoS investigation has identified 10 companies offering polar bear hunting trips. On many of their websites are images of bloody bear carcasses, besides which a grinning hunter poses with gun or crossbow.

Full story, Independent UK, September 9, 2007

Stop Bambi Butchers

On August 26, 2007, a PETA investigator filmed the slaughter of deer at Musicon, Inc., a deer farm and venison sales company in Goshen, New York.

Deer are high-strung, extremely nervous herd animals, so any handling—especially by humans in a loud, strange indoor environment—is frightening to them. Our investigator documented that a worker at Musicon was kneeling on frightened deer's backs in order to restrain the animals and then yanking their heads back by their ears and antlers to expose their throats—which were then slit while the deer were still conscious. Some deer also had a restraint door slammed on their heads as they were bleeding to death. The animals remained conscious for up to a minute and a half after their throats were cut and in one instance, a deer was yanked from the restraint pen by the bleeding hole in her neck while still conscious.

Give Norman Schlaff, the owner of Musicon, a piece of your mind (you can also watch a horrific video at the site).

_____________________________

I modified the canned response and sent the following:

Please get into another line of work - one that does not involve inherent cruelty to animals. I would suggest turning heartless corporate executives and their subservient butchers into deer food, but both are so vile that they would be poisonous to the deer.

TLC

Success II

"Success is the child of audacity."
--Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman

USAF Announces The Next False Flag Operation

Six nuclear warheads on cruise missiles were mistakenly carried on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, prompting a major investigation, military officials have confirmed.

The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on September 14 to allow for a review of procedures.

Source, and full story: CNN, September 6, 2007

______________________________

So we have a one-time screwup and that's cause to ground the US Air Force?

Reminds you of The 9/11 USAF Stand Down, eh?

Time to buy some stock market options. Why should Bu$hCo make all the money this time too?


TLC

Neo-Cons Enlist Bin Laden's Help To Counter 9/11 Truth

The U.S. government, via its closely affiliated IntelCenter front, is to release a new tape of Osama Bin Laden on the sixth anniversary of 9/11 in a desperate ploy to counter 9/11 truth and a new Zogby poll that again proves the majority of Americans are highly suspect of the official story.

But whether you think it's Bin Laden or not is really beside the point, if Bin Laden was dead it would be necessary to perpetuate the myth anyway, the thing to bear in mind here is that Osama has never failed in ensuring his tapes get released at the most politically opportune times - not for 'Al-Qaeda' - but for the Neo-Cons and the Bush administration.

In addition, the security services and IntelCenter have been caught on numerous occasions doctoring Bin Laden tapes and passing off footage they filmed as originating from Al-Qaeda, as well as claiming that 6-year-old footage is new material. Their credibility on this issue has been shot to pieces again and again and only the supremely naive or the witting dupe would lend any credence to the authenticity of this new tape.

The Osama tapes are about as genuine as a used car salesman convention, and have been proven fraudulent on countless occasions. They are nothing more than crude propaganda unleashed in a desperate move to put the genie of what really happened on 9/11 back in the bottle.

Full article, by Prison Planet's Paul Joseph Wilson, September 7, 2007

Waiting

"The Universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."
--Eden Philpotts

George & Osama: Friends Helping Friends

Seems that George wants to jack up his poll numbers for a mandate to blast Iran into smithereens, murdering millions in the process, so he's called upon his old friend Osama to yell "Boo". Or at least send a video card.

Let's see, we have the announcement, a report of a dye job on the beard, lookin' good we're told. And while the US is being turned into a totalitarian state, in which the brownshirts can tap your phone clear across the country, the new Osama video is gonna rock DerBu$hler's poll numbers upward, and not a single electron is going to be moved in any attempt to stop the video from being broadcast around the world.

That's what buttbuddies are for, eh George?

TLC

Sovereignty

"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile."
--William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950)
Prime Minister of Canada
1935

__________________________________________________

The Outstanding U.S. Public Debt, as of September 6, 2007, at 05:31:58 AM GMT is:

$8,997,032,354,176.31

The estimated population of the United States is 302,907,558 so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,702.24.

Source: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Conformity II

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."
--John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
35th US President Source:
Speech, United Nations General Assembly 25 September 1961

Ability

"It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test."
--Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) American Writer, Printer, Businessman

Labor

"Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor. But their work goes beyond their own job, and even beyond our borders. For the labor movement is people. Our unions have brought millions of men and women together . . . and given them common tools for common goals. Their goals are goals for all America--and their enemies are enemies of progress. The two cannot be separated."
--John F. Kennedy