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| Corporate Bushies Have Cooked America's Economic Books ... More Bush Lies ... |
| 11.30.03 (10:10 am) [edit] |
[b]The [i]ruthless corporate-take-all [/i]Bushies have cooked America's[i] Economic Books[/i][/b], according to an eminent economics professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Professor Austan Goolsbee cites that " [i]Jobs-wise, we had a deep [recession]. ... the [Bush] government has cooked the books. It has been a more subtle manipulation than the one during the Reagan administration, when people serving in the military were reclassified from "not in the labor force" to "employed" in order to reduce the unemployment rate [/i]..." [b]More Squalid Bush Lies ... [/b]
We've been sordidly scammed, misled and lied to regarding the [i]state of the economy [/i]in the United States of America, by the rapacious Bush robber-barons and war-profiteers. By focusing on a single indicator, Gross National Product (GDP), that has provided some limited growth (around 8.2%), as some consumers are spending money ([i]on credit[/i]?) ... and that [i]greedy corporate executives[/i] and the [i]richest-of-the-rich [/i]are reaping massive profits from the gains in productivity ([i]although working people are facing higher local/state taxes, rising costs, lower wages & economic rape[/i])-- the neo-fascist Bushies are playing a mean game of [i]smoke-and-mirrors [/i]of diverting our attention away from their real crimes here at home and abroad in their insane bloody guerrilla quagmires in Afghanistan and Iraq! ... However, economics experts agree that Bush's ruthless [i]Tax Cuts for the Rich[/i] are dangerously reckless and foolish, and will severely damage the economy in the future-- having eliminated the surpluses Bush inherited from Clinton, and placing us in a deficit/debt position that is the highest in our nation's history: [b]with nothing to show for it:-- instead of investing in our nation's people and infrastructure, Bush's wild record-level spending is on behalf of the corporate robber-barons, richest 5% of the plutocrats and wealthy campaign contributors; to whom he has funneled hundreds of billions of swindled, plundered & looted taxpayer dollars[/b]!
The insane neo-con, war-mongering Bush regime is also ignoring the vital issues critical to the health of our nation and the well-being of our citizens including:
* Skyrocketing [i]poverty rates [/i]with over 35 million citizens living below the 1960's poverty line ... it's much, much worse;
* Highest [i]unemployment [/i]since the Great Depression with over 9 million (other studies show over 15 million) people out of work, and Bush has destroyed over 3 million jobs, the highest job loss in over 70 years;
* Over 3.5 million Americans are [i]homeless[/i];
* No [i]health care coverage [/i]for over 45-85 million citizens; and, the Bushies' insane [i]corporate-take-all [/i]Medicare Bill is destined to undo coverage for our elderly and most vulnerable citizens.
The callous and corrupt Bush regime also has the [i]worst environmental track-record [/i]in over 40 years ... The UnGreening of America: Connect The Dots on the Bushies' destruction of our natural world on http://www.motherjones.com/ne... , is well-worth reading.
[b]"We the People" should demand that Congress investigate into the Crimes Against Humanity, and the corporate profiteering by the ruthless swindlers and thieves in the Bush Regime. Please contact Congress on http://www.congress.org .[/b]
In "[b]The Unemployment Myth[/b]" by [i]Professor Austan Goolsbee[/i] on http://nytimes.com/2003/11/30... :
"The government's announcement on Tuesday that the economy grew even faster than expected makes the current "jobless recovery" even more puzzling. To give some perspective, unemployment normally falls significantly in such economic boom times. [i]The last time growth was this good, in 1983, unemployment fell 2.5 percentage points and another full percentage point the next year. That's what happens in a typical recovery. So why not this time?[/i] Because we have more to recover from than we've been told.
The reality is that we didn't have a mild recession. [b]Jobs-wise, we had a deep one. [/b]
The government reported that annual unemployment during this recession peaked at only around 6 percent, compared with more than 7 percent in 1992 and more than 9 percent in 1982. [i]But the unemployment rate has been low only because government programs, especially Social Security disability, have effectively been buying people off the unemployment rolls and reclassifying them as "not in the labor force."[/i]
In other words, [b]the [Bush] government has cooked the books[/b]. It has been a more subtle manipulation than the one during the Reagan administration, when people serving in the military were reclassified from "not in the labor force" to "employed" in order to reduce the unemployment rate. Nonetheless, the impact has been the same.
Research by the economists David Autor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mark Duggan at the University of Maryland shows that once Congress began loosening the standards to qualify for disability payments in the late 1980's and early 1990's, people who would normally be counted as unemployed started moving in record numbers into the disability system — a kind of invisible unemployment. Almost all of the increase came from hard-to-verify disabilities like back pain and mental disorders. As the rolls swelled, the meaning of the official unemployment rate changed as millions of people were left out.
By the end of the 1990's boom, this invisible unemployment seemed to have stabilized. With the arrival of this recession, it has exploded. From 1999 to 2003, applications for disability payments rose more than 50 percent and the number of people enrolled has grown by one million. Therefore, if you correctly accounted for all of these people, the peak unemployment rate in this recession would have probably pushed 8 percent.
The point is not whether every person on disability deserves payments. The point is that in previous recessions these people would have been called unemployed. They would have filed for unemployment insurance. They would have shown up in the statistics. They would have helped create a more accurate picture of national unemployment, a crucial barometer we use to measure the performance of the economy, the likelihood of inflation and the state of the job market.
Unfortunately, underreporting unemployment has served the interests of both political parties. Democrats were able to claim unemployment fell in the 1990's to the lowest level in 40 years, happy to ignore the invisible unemployed. Republicans have eagerly embraced the view that the recession of 2001 was the mildest on record.
The situation has grown so dire, though, that we can't even tell whether the job market is recovering. The time has come to correct the official unemployment statistics to account for those left out. The government agencies that can give us a more detailed and accurate picture of the nation's employment situation — the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis — need additional funds and resources from Congress to do their jobs.
Otherwise, announcements about a rebounding economy will continue to show only half the picture. Take the revised numbers released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.[i] They showed that output in the third quarter grew at a rate of 8.2 percent, an extraordinary pace, and productivity grew even faster. [b]Almost no one noted, though, that Social Security also announced the latest data on disability applications. Almost 200,000 people applied in October — up 20 percent from the previous month — tying the highest level ever.[/b] Despite the blistering growth of the economy, the invisible unemployment problem continues[/i].
We didn't have a mild recession and a jobless recovery. [b]We covered up a deep recession and will need a sizable bit of recovery just to get us back to the point the unemployment rate suggested we already were[/b]. As the Red Queen said to Alice in "Through the Looking Glass": "Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
[b]Other Sources[/b]:
"As Stimulus, Tax Cuts May Soon Go Awry" on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1...
"The Productivity Paradox" on http://nytimes.com/2003/11/30...
"Oil Experts See Long-Term Risks to Iraq Reserves" on http://nytimes.com/2003/11/30...
"Home Truths - Over 3.5 Million Americans Homeless on Thanksgiving" on http://www.motherjones.com/ne...
"How Many People Experience Homelessness?" on http://www.nationalhomeless.o...
"Deficit Disorder" on http://www.motherjones.com/ne...
"Crimes Against Nature" on http://www.commondreams.org/v...
"Census Bureau Poverty Data Indicate Increasing Hardship" on http://www.communitychange.or...
"85 MILLION AMERICANS HAD NO HEALTH INSURANCE AT SOME POINT DURING FOUR YEARS - Unstable Coverage Doubles the Number of People that Appear in Annual Counts of the Uninsured" on http://www.cmwf.org/media/rel...
"September Jobs Fall Short of Bush Promises - Again Unemployment Rate Fails to Go Down" on http://www.ourfuture.org/issu...
"More Tax Cuts for the Rich" on http://www.buzzflash.com/cont...
"Bush's Multibillion-Dollar Tax Cut for the Rich" on http://www.commondreams.org/h...
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| Bush Regime's Neo-Fascists Scapegoat "Old Europe" For Their Own Failures & Incompetence |
| 11.29.03 (4:14 pm) [edit] |
The Bush Regime's motto is NOT "[i]The Buck Stops Here[/i]" ... It is more akin to "[b]The Buck Stops Way, Way Over There ... On Whatever [i]'Scapegoat' [/i]We Can Pin It To, That Dumb Americans Will Buy[/b]" ... Apparently, some neo-con buffoons, attack-dogs & court-jesters [i]buy-up [/i]the Bush's [i]flim flam, con-games [/i]and [i]scams[/i]. Frankly [i]neo-con swamp land, [/i]whether in Jeb's [i]rigged [/i]Florida, or the congential idiot brother's (the Mad King George) [i]corrupt neo-fascist police state[/i]:-- neither's mendacious neo-orwellian propaganda, is a good buy, folks!
The [i]panic-stricken desperado[/i] and [i]arrogant buffoon[/i], [b]Rummy Rumsfeld[/b], is on another insane imbecilic[b] rampage & war-path [/b]-- back on the [i]enraged blind-man's [/i]attack of "[i]Old Europe[/i]" to divert the[i] brain-dead sheeps' [/i]attention from his own ruthless corruption and bungling failures and fiascos, resulting in the horrendous massacre, slaughter, carnage, wounded and maimed:-- over 10,000 U.S. Soldiers and 21,000-55,000 dead Iraqis-- in their [i]corporate-take-all[/i] bloody guerrilla quagmire in Iraq.
[b]"We the People" should contact our Congress men & women on http://www.congress.org or via a petition on MoveOn.org on http://www.moveon.org -- to make it clear that it is time for the corrupt & incompetent Rummy Rumsfeld and his ghoulish war-monger & side-kick Wolfy Wolfowitz, to step down ... They've outlasted their usefulness: [i]We need competent administrators with integrity, able to build bridges with others ... Having turned our allies into "[i]enemies[/i]" because they didn't follow like "[i]dumb sheep[/i]", the anti-christian, illegal & immoral [i]Crimes Against Humanity [/i]perpetrated by the Bushies, have not been to our benefit! Frankly, the corrupt Bushies' childish, petty and corrosive behaviour is not only recklessly dangerous ... It is just plain stupid![/i][/b]
In "[i]Rumsfeld Watch: The Defense Secretary on the 'Old' Europe: Who Needs It[/i]?" on http://www.villagevoice.com/i... :
"WASHINGTON, D.C.—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is acting up again, and the president's advisers are scrambling to do damage control. This week, Rumsfeld emphasized the division between "new" and "old" Europe, saying that the latter, which includes France and Germany, might not support the U.S., but so what? Grant Aldonas, the under secretary for international trade, quickly sought to distance Bush from Rummy's divisive views. "Frankly," Aldonas told the Washington Times, "that is not the way I look at the world and it certainly is not the way the president looks at the world." He added: "There is no 'new' Europe or 'old' Europe; there is just Europe."
Whatever. Rummy's take on the world continues apace. Yesterday he was welcoming the freedom of press in Iraq as a sign of real progress, noting that the occupuation plan "called to enable a free press to be established, and today some 170 newspapers are being published." But last week Fox reported him as backing the occupation's decision to shut down two popular Arab channels because, as Rumsfeld put it, they were "violently anti-coalition." To combat this unfortunate situation, the defense secretary promised to set up the occupation's own satellite TV system. When reporters pressed for more info on the Arab stations that had been closed, Rummy shot back that he had no opinion because he hadn't seen the details.
The occupation authorities shut down the Arab stations after they were suspected of distributing a videotape of a man firing a surface-to-air missile at a DHL cargo plane. The tape appears to demonstrate a guerrilla operation. Rumsfeld said he had been told of the tape, but didn't know enough to say anything more than this: "It doesn't take a genius to fire off a shoulder-fired missile at an airplane."
On another subject, Rummy aimlessly ruminated last week on possible reunification of the democratic South Korea and communist North Korea. "If and when it happens, I suppose one could look at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the situation in East and West Germany," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "It is complicated. The two halves are so different in nature that it is not an easy thing to bring them together. But I think it can happen and I hope and pray it does happen one day.""
[b]Other sources[/b]:
"Death, injury, illness toll at 10,000 for U.S. in Iraq" on http://seattletimes.nwsource....
"Iraq war killed 21,000 to 55,000: report estimates" on http://www.theage.com.au/arti...
"Casualties in Iraq - The Human Cost of Occupation" on http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/...
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| Two More U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq Within Hours of Bush's Stunt "Visit" |
| 11.28.03 (6:18 pm) [edit] |
Bush made a [i]surprise[/i] 2 hour [i]stunt[/i] "visit" to Baghdad on [b]Thanksgiving Day[/b]. What good did it do for anyone other than his neo-con [i]handlers, attack-dogs & court-jesters[/i], lusting for [i]cynical, "teary-eyed" sentimental [/i]photo-ops to persuade the "[i]not-too-bright[/i]" [b]American citizens [/b]to support a "[i]not-too-bright[/i]" [b]American "useful idiot" Bush [/b]in the upcoming 2004 presidential campaign?
[b]The[/b][b] facts [/b]speak for themselves ... as the corrupt Bush regime has squandered over $87 Billion on their bloody guerrilla quagmire to enrich their corporate cronies (Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Chevron, et al.), campaign contributors, war-profiteers, and the richest-of-the-rich. Another obscene $87 Billion was awarded to this squalid fiasco of carnage, mayhem & chaos, resulting in over $166 Billion in war-mongering, war profiteering; and the largest debts in our nation's history, of over $560 Billion in 2004 alone (Bush's insane deficits amount to over $1.9 Trillion on his [i]borrow-and-spend [/i]for his hyper-wealthy neo-fascist regime) ... with massive tax cuts, boondoggles & tax loopholes awarded to the wealthiest top 5% of the greedy plutocrats, and gluttonous corporations who avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
Meanwhile, within hours of Bush's [b]obscene bombastic circus act [/b]stunt yesterday, [b]an additional 2 U.S. Soldiers have been killed [/b]... all for nothing ([i]ooopppsss ... for OIL[/i]) ... resulting in Bush's Death Toll rising to 346 U.S. Soldiers, 77 Coalition Troops & 21,000-55,000 Iraqis ... a massacre on an enormous scale, with tens of thousands, injured, wounded & maimed for life ... and, Bush has the arrogance and callousness to abuse our U.S. Soldiers and our nation, for his own sordid ambitions for neo-fascist power and vast riches.
[b]"We the People" should refuse to "[i]play-along[/i]" with this outrage and declare our anger and disgust with the cynical manipulation of our U.S. Military by the corrupt Bush regime. Declare your opposition to Bush's [i][b]Crimes Against Humanity [/b][/i]to your Congress men and women today on [/b]http://www.congress.org . [www.congress.org]
[b]Source[/b]:
"U.S. soldiers killed as rebels hit U.S. base in Iraq" by Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press, Nov. 28, 2003 08:35 AM:
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier died when guerrillas shelled a military base in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, a day after President Bush's surprise visit to U.S. troops at a heavily fortified military compound at Baghdad's main airport.
Iraqis expressed differing opinions about the significance of the brief visit, which was organized in such secrecy that even members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council invited to attend Thanksgiving celebrations at the airport were not told about it.
"We cannot consider Bush's arrival at Baghdad International Airport yesterday as a visit to Iraq," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. "He did not meet with ordinary Iraqis. Bush was only trying to boost the morale of his troops."
Bush's 2 1/2-hour visit came just ahead of Friday's arrival in Baghdad of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
The former first lady and Reed, both Democrats, have been critical of the Bush administration's handling of postwar operations in both countries.
In Baghdad, an explosion slightly damaged a highway overpass, and the military said that two U.S. soldiers died in separate incidents in central and northern Iraq.
One soldier died on Thanksgiving from a gunshot wound inside the heavily fortified base in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. It was not immediately clear how the shooting occurred, a military statement said.
Another soldier died Friday when four mortar shells slammed a 101st Airborne Division base in Mosul. Attacks by Iraqi insurgents on U.S. troops in Mosul have increased in recent weeks.
The military said it had captured one of Saddam Hussein's bodyguards, identified as Brig. Gen. Khalid Arak Hatimy. The statement claimed Hatimy had been inciting the uprising west of Baghdad and providing money and weapons to the guerrillas.
More than 60 U.S. troops were killed in hostile action in November, more than any other month since the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1.
Since operations began, nearly 300 U.S. service members have died from hostile action. Another 136 have died from accidents and other causes. A total of 75 soldiers from allied nations also have died, bringing total coalition deaths to more than 500. Several civilians working for the U.S. military have also been killed.
In Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated against terrorism and condemned Saddam Hussein at a rally on a downtown square. The protest occurred in Firdos Square, where a large bronze statue of Saddam was toppled by Iraqis and U.S. Marines on April 9 after the fall of Baghdad in the U.S.-led invasion.
"Yes to Iraq," protesters shouted. "No to terrorism."
The demonstration was organized by a handful of Iraqi political parties, none of which are members of the U.S.-appointed governing council.
Bush, who flew into Baghdad Thursday evening to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. troops, also reserved a word for Iraqis.
"You have an opportunity to seize the moment and rebuild your great country, based on human dignity and freedom," Bush said. "We will stay until the job is done."
Bush also met with four members of the 25-seat Iraqi Governing Council.
Mouwafik al-Rubei'e, one of those attending, said they were simply invited to Thanksgiving dinner with Iraq's American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, and had no forewarning that they would meet Bush.
"It was a fruitful meeting," al-Rubei'e said. "The U.S. president reaffirmed his country's commitment to build a new, democratic and prosperous Iraq."
Ordinary Iraqis said it was difficult to judge the importance of the event.
"It meant little to the Iraqi people. Some are welcoming it, but most are dismissing its importance," said Kamal Mehdi, a cashier in Baghdad."
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| Be Thankful You're Not Dubya |
| 11.27.03 (8:30 am) [edit] |
[b]Be Thankful You're Not Dubya[/b]
[i][b]Craving more juicy reasons to offer up profound gratitude this Thanksgiving-day? [/b][/i]
[i]Try a few of these[/i]:
[b]This Thanksgiving[/b], as you sip the wine and hug the family and toast the friends and hoard the stuffing and curse the airport security, remember to give thanks you are not G.W. Bush. Hey, it's important.
[b]1[/b]) Be thankful that you do not have to suffer Dubya's massive crushing karmic burden, as wrought by inflicting heaps of environmental disaster and vicious unnecessary war and a stunning string of lies lies lies like a firehose of giblet gravy splattered all over the planet.
For it really is all too plain: G.W. Bush is one of the most reviled and openly disrespected major world leaders in modern history. America has never been so embarrassed and reluctant to send a president abroad. We cringe when the man takes the stage. We offer humiliated apologies to our former allies, and to the 200,000 Bush/war protesters in London, just last week.
In Bush's defense, it cannot be easy to be so undeservedly powerful, yet so bumbling and inarticulate and globally loathed for your abhorrent policies and hollow corporate agenda and baffled doofus manner. This Thanksgiving, be grateful you are not him.
[b]2[/b]) Thanks, you might want to give, that you are not Iraqi. Be grateful you did not go from brutal scowling despot who at least kept the damn lights on to brutish occupying army no one asked for that is right now laying waste to whatever remains of your once semi-proud oil-rich nation.
Give thanks, furthermore, that you are not one of the estimated 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed to date by U.S. forces, not to mention one of the untold tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who were hammered by our million pounds of billion-dollar ordnance in the first few days of the massacre. Be grateful you are not dead in the name of American political and petrochemical profiteering.
[b]3[/b]) Give thanks you are not a member of the much-abused U.S. military. Sad but true. Be grateful you are not right now suffering that sickening sinking feeling that you are not, in fact, protecting America from any sort of marauding terrorists, or defending our honor, or our way of life, or guarding innocents from swarthy evildoers and nonexistent WMDs.
But that you are, instead, a wholly disposable henchman for the BushCo corporate regime, with the odds increasing every minute that you will soon join the more than 9,000 U.S. wounded or more than 430 "necessary" dead U.S. soldiers Rumsfeld mentions when he shrugs off the latest round of guerrilla bombings that killed another batch of your friends. Support our troops. Bring them home right now.
[b]4[/b]) Be grateful BushCo's ratings are slipping lower than an SUV's mpg rating, and there is only one year left until he joins his father as one of those embarrassing historical footnotes, a jagged scar on the heart of a wary America that other countries point to in years to come and say wow that's a nasty scar where'd you get that, and we reply, George W. Bush, and they go, oh my God, that's right. So sorry.
[b]5[/b]) Be grateful you are not right now in any way related to, or serve as a spokesperson for, or are employed as one of the apparently very deranged or heavily drugged plastic surgeons who worked on Michael Jackson. This is a gimme.
[b]6[/b]) While you're at it, give thanks you're not Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, Bennifer, Britney, Liza Minnelli, Joan Rivers, Howard Stern, Ann Coulter, Ashton Kutcher, Bill O'Reilly, Anna Kournikova, Madonna or Mary Hart. These are lives you probably do not want to lead. Give thanks your soul is not all withery and Botoxed and that it still manages to radiate cool colors like one of those funky cheesy fiber-optic lamps from the '70s.
[b]7[/b]) Be thankful they have yet to figure out a way to blot out the sun. Or, for that matter, the moon.
[b]8[/b]) Offer immense gratitude that despite a massive ongoing Herculean effort on the part of numerous world governments to rape and pillage and pretty much slap down most all tender offerings of the planet, Earth still manages to produce for us an astonishing array of flora and fauna and oxygen and edible delicacies and awe-inspiring trees and relentless merciless beauty.
[b]9[/b]) Be thankful the planet rather effortlessly continues to baffle scientists and confound astronomers and completely entrance biologists and philosophers and poets. We still, for example, have no idea why whales sing, or how long they live, or where blue whales, the largest and most magnificent creatures on the planet, go to mate. Be grateful for the Mystery.
[b]10[/b]) Kneel down, right now, for free speech. Oh yes. We must. Because it is under severe duress. To exercise it now, to speak out against BushCo and war and global corporate profiteering, is a true sign that you are a traitor and an al Qaeda operative and a personal friend of Barbra Streisand. This is what they sneer at you.
Give it up, instead, for free unfettered alt-news sources like truthout.org. And commondreams.org. And alternet.org and counterpunch.com and buzzflash.com and smirkingchimp.com and even Slate and the BBC and The Onion. Cheney scowls, Rove oozes, Ashcroft would love nothing more than to shut down the entire impious godforsaken Internet. Be grateful they can only quiver and hiss and rattle their chains. So far.
[b]11[/b]) Molly Ivins. Gore Vidal. Michiko Kakutani. David Foster Wallace. Don DeLillo. Maureen Dowd. Caroline Myss. W.G. Sebald. Tom Robbins. Starhawk. William Rivers Pitt. Rob Brezny. David Attenborough. Dave Eggers. Joseph Campbell. Lewis Lapham. Haruki Murakami. Katha Pollitt. Et al. Thank you. [Don't forget Noam Chomsky ... Thank you, too.]
[b]12[/b]) For baskets of locally grown organic small-farm produce delivered to your door. For handmade whiskey-filled chocolate truffles smeared over a lover's tailbone. For Bernese mountain dogs. For the return of Opus. For Rufus Wainwright and Beth Orton and the Mini Cooper. L'Occitane honey incense and the Apple iPod and "Six Feet Under." For Cate Blanchett, The Sun magazine, The New Yorker, Peet's coffee and "Spirited Away."
[b]13[/b]) Here is the big cliché. Here is the final praise. It cannot be overstated: Despite an impressive assault on civil liberties, despite savage BushCo attacks on everything from national forests to air quality to rivers and oceans and water quality and health care, despite attempts to numb the national consciousness overall, we must give enormous, unfettered thanks for this incredible and kaleidoscopic America.
Ours remains the most breathtakingly beautiful, diverse, epic, multifaceted, multiorgasmic landscape on the planet today. It's true.
We tend to forget. We take for granted. We presume it must be like this everywhere. But one quick trip abroad will only serve to remind you and reinforce your devout appreciation for what this country can offer, the free expression and the religious autonomy and the clean water and the good dentistry and the fresh produce and the space to explore.
We are deeply flawed. We are massively arrogant. We are bratty and insolent and abusive and sloppy and violent. But we balance it with astounding acts of love and beauty and art, nature preserves and activism and organic awareness and sex positivism and community awareness and quiet personal spiritual questing and lots and lots of great bookstores.
[b]14[/b]) Here is where you make you own list. Here is where you set aside the cynicism and the sighing and the bitterness, just for a moment, and get quiet, look around, look inside, check the karmic inventory and offer up heaping pies of gratefulness for what you find.
Sure it seems clichéd. Of course you don't need some holiday to be deeply thankful for the radiance in your life. But, hey, an opportunity is an opportunity. Just remember, big meaty drumsticks of general gratitude are absolutely fine. But the divine, personal gravy is where the real flavor is.
- [i]Mark Martford, SF Gate Columnist[/i]
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| Two New Books About America By Two Great American Intellectuals |
| 11.26.03 (6:30 pm) [edit] |
It is a common mistake to assume that great intellectuals are only to be found in Europe ([i]particularly France or any Eastern European country[/i]), Russia, Asia or South America. Americans are frequently dismissed as "practical-not-intellectu al" amongst [i]great thinkers[/i], and some "cough-and-choke-and-whee ze" at using the terms, [i]American & Intellectual [/i]together in association in the same phrase or sentence. -- It is almost as though the rest of the world enjoys their persistent fantasy in romanticizing while simultaneously ([i]and secretly ... sometimes not so secretly[/i]) ridiculing Americans as being impetuous, naive, and driven to "cowboy" shenanigans without great thought and reflection. (One can be forgiven for comprehending and sympathizing with those who criticize the current Prez Bush, using those very same pejorative appellations-- but then no one uses [i]"Bush" & "Intellectual"[/i] in the same sentence ... unless it's a joke!)
"We the People" fortunately possess ([i]at least[/i]) two great American intellectuals, indeed, national treasures, who are highly respected and revered overseas, and here at home, amongst those who love history, truth and honest discourse about our nation's past, present and future:
[b]Gore Vidal [/b]and [b]Noam Chomsky [/b]both have a great and prestigious body of work behind them ... Gore Vidal's essays are a "must-read" for anyone who wants an [i]unorthodox and eagle-eyed[/i] perspective on current events (Collected Essays in [i]United States[/i]) and his historical novels bring our historical icons and events to life ([i]Lincoln[/i] and [i]Burr [/i]are outstanding favorites amongst many avid readers) ... Noam Chomsky's [i]Manufacturing Consent [/i]is a classic for anyone who is interested in the [i]ways-and-means[/i] that the media and press become witting and unwitting puppets of the rich and powerful interests. Noam Chomsky's [i]powerful mind [/i][i]and clear-headed [/i]assessments of the actual actions taken by our leaders versus their often mendacious rhetoric is sometimes chilling, but vital if we as citizens are to responsibly participate in our civic duties.
[b]Gore Vidal's "[i]Inventing a Nation[/i]" [/b]
Gore Vidal finds factoids that most historians leave out of their works: One is from [b]Benjamin Franklin[/b], a luminous man freely contemplating darkness. The [i]government set up by the Constitution[/i], he warned, "[i]is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other[/i]."
Richard Eder in the [i]New York Times [/i]on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1... , observes in a comprehensive review: - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
"Mr. Vidal covers roughly the period from the making of the Constitution through Washington's two presidencies and Adams's single fretful one, to Jefferson's first great presidential move: the fire-sale acquisition in 1803 of a huge expanse of western territory — the Louisiana Purchase — from Napoleon, who was too busy in Europe to think seriously of an American empire.
He portrays a time when American statesmen — the three of the title, but also Franklin, Madison and others — were grappling with their visions, conflicting or converging, of what kind of republic we were to become. They ranged from Hamilton's centralizing economic oligarchy, to Adams's waverings between authority and equality, to Jefferson's fuzzy, sometimes hugely contradictory but nonetheless steady impulse toward popular democracy. Though at the time "democracy" was a term to be wary of, even for Jefferson."
[b]Noam Chomksy's "[i]Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance[/i]"[/b]
Chuck Morse, in[i] InfoShop News [/i]summarizes Noam Chomsky's principle thesis on http://www.infoshop.org/inews... :
"It is important to understand that the super-aggressive U.S. imperialism now transforming the planet is not only a frightening, “bad” development, but also a shift in elite strategies that will create new opportunities for resistance at the base. Anarchists should focus on the contradictory nature of current circumstances by both denouncing the new terrors and articulating the new possibilities disclosed by recent changes in world affairs. The barbarism of the U.S. government's foreign policy is well documented in several new books. Noam Chomsky's[i] Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance [/i]dissects America's quest for global supremacy by tracking the U.S. government's pursuit of policies intended to achieve “full spectrum dominance” at any cost. He shows how policies such as the militarization of space, the ballistic-missile defense program, unilateralism, the dismantling of international agreements, and the response to the Iraqi crisis cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens to turn the world into a wasteland."
[b]Charlie Rose [/b]recently interviewed both [i]Gore Vidal [/i](20 minutes) and[i] Noam Chomsky [/i](1 hour) ... and you can order the transcripts or video-tape on http://www.charlierose.com .
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| Life in the Bubble ... (toon) |
| 11.26.03 (12:19 pm) [edit] |
[b]What is [b][i]Life in the Bubble [/i][/b]Like in Bush's World?[/b]
[image]WinstonSmith_10311 39234.jpg[/image]
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| Digitally Enhanced President ... Now If We Could Only Make Him SMARTER ... |
| 11.26.03 (8:48 am) [edit] |
"[b]Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it[/b]." - [i]George Santayana (1863-1952)[/i]
[b]What happens, however, when history is changed before your very eyes, by a corrupt totalitarian government? ... We are witnessing that crime committed by the current neo-fascist Bush regime:[/b]
[b]IT IS [/b]old news and no secret that the corrupt neo-orwellian Bush regime wire-brushes ([i]edits & changes[/i]) it's transcripts in order to "correct" the record ... This dishonest act of changing what the bumbling, bungling, buffoon Bush says and does should be a crime ([i]perhaps it is ... the Bushies commit so many crimes that go un-reported, un-tried & un-remembered! ... Sigh ...[/i]).
Our government's transcripts and recordings are supposed to provide "We the People" and historians with an accurate picture of events, speeches, press conferences, and, interviews-- as they happened. For the first time, we're faced with a mendacious gang of thugs & goons in the Bush regime, who both despise and are ignorant of history; treat our people and our rights & freedoms with contempt; and, tread and trample on our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
[b]So, why are we permitting and indulging the mendacious and corrupt Bush regime in perpetrating their heinous crimes against our nation and the world?[/b]
In Matt Biven's [i]Daily Outrage [/i]in[i] The Nation [/i] on http://www.thenation.com/outr... :
"Want to spend an entertaining hour? Go and read, or watch, or listen to the 10-month old State of the Union speech -- take your pick, all three options are available here at the White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/new... . We've all been numbed by the debates over whether the intelligence was real, false, good, bad, massaged, misused; but sitting through an hour of the President making his most solemn case is like a splash of ice water on the face.
As you watch or listen, pay special attention around the 49-minute mark. There the President says, "It would take one [awkward pause] vial [pronounced incorrectly and wussily as "wial"], one canister, one crate, slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known."
It's far from the lamest moment in that oddly grab-bagistic speech. Apparently, in fact, the Republicans think it's the best moment in the speech: they use that "one [uh] wial" moment in a new fear-mongering attack commercial: http://www.thenation.com/edcu... .
Only it turns out [ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1... ] that, via the magic of digital enhancement, Bush in the ad actually delivers the line smoothly -- without the pause, and with correct pronunciation. The Republican National Committee insists that there's nothing wrong with secretly editing the President's delivery in a historic State of the Union speech so as to make him sound less clueless and more coherent. It's tempting to scold them for saying this -- but I'm too thrilled with the formal admission that the Republican National Committee had to secretly edit the President so as to make him sound less clueless."
[b]Suggested reading[/b]:
"[b]1984[/b]" by George Orwell.
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| The Rise of Global Corporate Power |
| 11.25.03 (5:22 pm) [edit] |
Our[i] political system has been over-taken [/i]by a [i]minority of [/i][i]plutocrats[/i] who have[i] plundered our nation's treasury, as well as corporate assets, pension plans and employees' jobs[/i]. Moreover, these [i]Greed-is-Good[/i] thieves and swindlers have an appalling and obscene track-record of avoid paying their fair share of taxes, on a massive scale, harming America, in the process:--
The goal of the [i]Global Corporate Empire [/i]is to swindle the American people (and other nations):-- ... as these corporate robber-barons avoid paying their fair share in taxes ... they undermine the rights of workers to safe working conditions and fair pay (e.g. these ugly corporate thugs & goons are attempting to eliminate minimum wage, overtime, social security, etc.) [[i]Without [b]labour[/b], investment doesn't reap any gains and cannot succeed ... and therefore, labour deserves a proper & decent share in the wealth they produce, along with investors.[/i]] ... they are unravelling any protections & regulations that safeguard consumers ... and, they bribe government leaders to re-distribute ([i]plunder and loot[/i]) taxpayer dollars into their slimy hands. [b]High unemployment and poverty are advantageous to the corporate top-dogs & fat-cats, because they can coerce desperate people into [i]accepting (sic) [/i]anything ... absolutely any measly scraps-and-bones including slave labour wages-- as the poor souls are grateful just to put food on their family's table ... Meanwhile, these neo-con slave-owners live in lavish palaces, gluttonously gorge on rich foods while swilling gallons of fine wines-- like the most corrupt of the imperial Roman Emperors. Indeed, they have become our own corrupt neo-imperial rulers[/b].
There isn't a favor or request demanded by the [i]corporate-take-all [/i]rapists, that the whorish puppets and "useful idiots" in the Bush regime haven't granted to their corporate pimps. Moreover, the Bush/Cheney Inc.'s [i]junta[/i] has awarded immoral and anti-christian tax cuts, boondoggles and tax loopholes to the rapacious corporations, war-profiteers, and their hyper-rich campaign contributors-- a wholesale rape of America on a massive scale, unseen since Herbert Hoover [i]opened-up [/i]the doors of the treasury to his corporate cronies, and created the Great Depression.
[b]Do "We the People" really want to be turned into a struggling slave population serving callous neo-feudal lords-- with no protections ... no services ... no civilization ... a brutal barbaric state, right out of the Dark Ages? Surely not[/b].
A few facts cited by the [b]Corporate Power Facts & Stats [/b]web-site on http://www.globalissues.org/T... , demonstrates the undeniable rise of the insidious corporate power over the few last decades:
* Of the[i] 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations[/i]; only 49 are countries (based on a comparison of corporate sales and country GDPs).
* The [i]Top 200 corporations' sales are growing at a faster rate than overall global economic activity[/i]. Between 1983 and 1999, their combined sales grew from the equivalent of 25.0 percent to 27.5 percent of World GDP. [In other words, the wealth is going into the pockets of the corporate top-dogs & fat-cats ... and not in employment and our nation isn't reaping benefits.]
* The [i]Top 200 corporations' combined sales are bigger than the combined economies of all countries minus the biggest 10[/i].
* The [i]Top 200s' combined sales are 18 times the size of the combined annual income of the 1.2 billion people (24 percent of the total world population) living in "severe" poverty[/i].
* While [i]the sales of the Top 200 are the equivalent of 27.5 percent of world economic activity, they employ only 0.78 percent of the world's workforce[/i].
* Between 1983 and 1999, [i]the profits of the Top 200 firms grew 362.4 percent, while the number of people they employ grew by only 14.4 percent[/i].
* A full [i]5 percent of the Top 200s' combined workforce is employed by Wal-Mart, a company notorious for union-busting and widespread use of part-time workers to avoid paying benefits. The discount retail giant is the top private employer in the world, with 1,140,000 workers, more than twice as many as No. 2, DaimlerChrysler, which employs 466,938[/i].
* [i]U.S. corporations dominate the Top 200, with 82 slots (41 percent of the total). [/i]Japanese firms are second, with only 41 slots.
* Of the [i]U.S. corporations on the list, 44 did not pay the full standard 35 percent federal corporate tax rate [/i]during the period 1996-1998. Seven of the firms actually paid less than zero in federal income taxes in 1998 (because of rebates). These include: Texaco, Chevron, PepsiCo, Enron, Worldcom, McKesson and the world's biggest corporation - General Motors.
* Between 1983 and 1999, [i]the share of total sales of the Top 200 made up by service sector corporations increased from 33.8 percent to 46.7 percent[/i]. Gains were particularly evident in financial services and telecommunications sectors, in which most countries have pursued deregulation.
[b]Sources[/b]:
"Corporate Power Facts & Stats" on http://www.globalissues.org/T...
"Research Institute Releases Study on Corporate Power on 1st Anniversary of Seattle Protests - Study Reinforces Public Distrust of Corporations" on http://www.ips-dc.org/reports...
"MANY U.S. CORPORATIONS AVOID PAYING TAXES" on http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/w...
"Study finds largest US corporations avoiding billions in taxes" on http://www.wsws.org/articles/...
"Bush's Tax Cuts: $128 Billion Corporate Tax Cut?" on http://www.cbsnews.com/storie...
"Bush's Insane Energy & Medicare Bills: Another Big Swindle for Bush's Top Campaign Contributors" on http://www.tblog.com/template...
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck.
"A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara W. Tuchman.
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| Bush Doctrine: The Rich Are Getting Richer ... And Only The 'Little People' Pay Taxes |
| 11.25.03 (12:49 pm) [edit] |
The Bushies are smirking, smiling and bubbling with joy ... as the [i]Rich are Getting Richer, and Everyone Else is Getting Poorer[/i] ... but the Bush/Cheney Inc. [i]junta[/i] doesn't give a damn, since they've "[i]got theirs'[/i]". In the [b]Doctrine According to Emperor Bush: "[i]Only the 'Little People' Pay Taxes & Bear Burdens[/i]" [/b]... [b][You might want to study the history of Progressive Taxation.][/b]
Take a little drive and visit ([i]you can't because of armed guards and a fortress of attack-dogs[/i]) Bush's Crawford, Texas Palace ... and then take a little drive and visit those who live in abject poverty in Brownsville, Texas ([i]no running water, no indoor plumbing, no electricity[/i]) ... Texas has the worst record of any state of the union: with the highest child poverty rates ... no health care for the poor and vulnerable ... poor education with crumbling schools in poor areas ... and the worst environmental track-record of pollution in the U.S.A.-- so after depriving poor & vulnerable citizens, of the basic needs and services [i][b]to live a decent life[/b][/i] ([i]not at all a lavish one[/i]), the callous Bushies have no [i]second-thoughts [/i]about poisoning the earth, air and water in the vicinity of under-privileged people without riches and power. [i]And, the Bushies have the unmitigated gall to condemn Saddam Hussein for his mistreatment of his own people? Come on, folks, anyone having a problem seeing the Bush/Cheney Inc. hypocrisy here?[/i]
[b]"We the People"[/b] are now saddled with the [b]horrific nightmare [/b]of:
* Bush's [i]highest deficits and debts in our nation's history[/i], at nearly $560 Billion in 2003, and $1.9 Trillion for his insane reign from 2000-2004;
* Bush's [i]skyrocketing poverty rates [/i]of over 35 million citizens living in abject and dire need, below the poverty line (poverty line established in the 1960s)-- it's much, much worse;
* Bush's [i]highest job losses since the Great Depression[/i], having wiped-out over 3 million jobs-- now 9-15 million citizens are unemployed;
* Bush's [i]callous disregard for over 45-85 million Americans without the ability to obtain health care[/i];
* Bush's [i]worst environmental record [/i]in over 40 years ...
And, the list goes on ... Don't forget the corrupt Bush regime's neo-fascist [i]immoral and illegal anti-christian war-mongering in Iraq, resulting in the massacre of over 433 U.S. Soldiers, 77 Coalition Troops & between 21,000-55,000 Iraqis[/i]-- in a neo-con, neo-nazi act of aggression based upon lies, deceptions and falsehoods ... all to enrich his corrupt war-profiteers and corporate cronies: Halliburton, Bechtel, Chevron, Carlyle Group, etc. etc. etc.
Isn't it time to say NO to this neo-con, neo-fascist Bush regime whose purpose in life is to enrich and empower themselves, and enslave the rest of us and our natural world? Methinks it is indeed time to say NO MORE insane corruption, war-mongering and re-distribution of our hard-earned production and wealth to the greedy & corrupt Bush/Cheney Inc.'s criminal cronies.
[b]Interesting readings[/b]:
"Corrupt Neo-Con Buffoons CROW About Economy: The Corporate WHORES Benefit, NOT YOU!" on http://www.tblog.com/template...
"The Uncivil War" by Dr. Paul Krugman on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1...
"The Sticker-Shock Congress" on http://nytimes.com/2003/11/25...
"Re-creating Iraq in the U.S. image" on http://www.signonsandiego.com...
"What's that nasty smell?" on http://www.dfw.com/mld/starte...
"Bush signs $400bn defence bill" on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/am...
[b]Five Biggest Defense Budgets[/b]: ([i]USA Spends More than all other nations combined on weapons instead of on our people! Defense contractors' recipients of "corporate-take-all" rape of America ... and this obscenely excessive expenditure on boondoggles enriching top-dogs & fat-cats doesn't make us any safer[/i].)
USA: $401bn
Russia: $65bn (2001 figures)
China: $47bn (2001 figures)
Japan: $42.6bn
UK: $38.4bn
[b]Source[/b]: [i]US Centre for Defense Information [/i]
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| Nightmare on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue |
| 11.24.03 (5:10 pm) [edit] |
[b]"We the People" are living in the midst of a "Nightmare on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue".[/b]
Many have speculated upon the raw & arrogant abuse of power by Bush and his corrupt regime in the aftermath of his rigged [i]"banana-republican coup d'etat[/i]" in 2000 -- and the subsequent tragedy of 9/11, in which we're still left with questions that the mendacious Bushies are stonewalling and refusing to answer. [ http://www.wsws.org/articles/... , http://205.177.120.143/artman... , http://washingtontimes.com/up... , http://www.insightmag.com/new... , http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1... ]
The corrupt Bush regime cynically and ruthlessly exploited the 9/11 tragedy ([i]along with phony WMDs posing an imminent threat to our national security[/i]) in order to wage an immoral & illegal incursion into Iraq (turned[i] bloody guerilla quagmire & "long hard slog"[/i]), costing enormously in precious lives and hard-earned treasure-- but, instead of asking all citizens to sacrifice: Under the Doctrine According to Bush: "[i]Only the Little People Pay Taxes & Bear Burdens[/i]". Thus far, the Bushies have squandered the lives of 433 U.S. Soldiers, 77 Coalition Troops & 21,000-55,000 Iraqis. Additionally, the Bushies have squandered over $86.6 Billion (and obtained an obscene additional $87 Billion) rendering the costs through September 2004 in excess of $166 Billion-- and, the highest deficits & debts in our nation's history: to enrich their corporate cronies & war-profiteers, and hyper-rich campaign contributors. [ http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... , http://www.theage.com.au/arti... , http://www.costofwar.com ]
[b]As the Democratic race to choose a candidate for the Presidential Election in 2004, is underway, others have speculated as to the lengths that the "crazies" in the White House (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove) and the Pentagon (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Bolton) will go, in order to retain power[/b].
[b]In a recent interview, a frightening glimpse into the neo-con, neo-fascist thought processes of [i]America's worst regime in history[/i] is revealed[/b]:
"[i]Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack[/i]" on http://www.newsmax.com/archiv... : - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
Gen. Tommy Franks says that [i]if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the [b]Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government[/b][/i].
Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.
In the magazine’s December edition, the former commander of the military’s Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.
Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that “the worst thing that could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.
If that happens, Franks said, [i]“... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is [b]freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy[/b][/i].”
Franks then offered “[i]in a practical sense[/i]” what he thinks would happen in the aftermath of such an attack.
“It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be [i]in the United States of America – that causes [b]our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event.[/b] Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important[/i].”
Franks didn’t speculate about how soon such an event might take place.
[b][i]Already, critics of the U.S. Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, have argued that the law aims to curtail civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent[/i][/b].
But Franks’ scenario goes much further. He is the [b][i]first high-ranking official to openly speculate that the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government.[/i][/b]
The usually camera-shy Franks retired from U.S. Central Command, known in Pentagon lingo as CentCom, in August 2003, after serving nearly four decades in the Army.
Franks earned three Purple Hearts for combat wounds and three Bronze Stars for valor. Known as a “soldier’s general,” Franks made his mark as a top commander during the U.S.’s successful Operation Desert Storm, which liberated Kuwait in 1991. He was in charge of CentCom when Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda attacked the United States on Sept. 11.
Franks said that within hours of the attacks, he was given orders to prepare to root out the Taliban in Afghanistan and to capture bin Laden.
[b]Why would it be assumed that the form of government that generations of Americans, past and present, have fought and died for, would be [i]scrapped[/i] ... unless those who hold the reigns of power refuse to comply with our system of government, and instead plan to hijack it?
Instead of planning on how to uphold our precious freedoms and rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights, in perilous times, the corrupt Bush regime seems to be planning for a military coup d'etat!
[i]Is this not our worst nightmare[/i]?[/b]
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| The Corrupt Bush Regime's Neo-Cons Are Undermining the "War on Terrorism" |
| 11.24.03 (10:56 am) [edit] |
The corrupt Bush regime's blood-thirsty neo-con operators are undermining the "[i]war on terrorism[/i]". Their motives for war-mongering & war-profiteering have more to do with their insane, neo-fascist doctrine according to the "[i]Project For the New American Century[/i]" ([i][b]PNAC[/b][/i]) -- designed to turn-over the entire world's human and natural resources to the Global Corporate Empire's rulers, who will ruthlessly enslave and exploit them in order to swindle, loot and embezzle untold power and riches.
The "crazies" in the White House (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove) and the Pentagon (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Bolton) [i]LUST FOR WAR [/i]... In fact, they don't really want peace, because the war has enabled them to provide an "open-door" for their corrupt corporate cronies to wantonly rape Americans and Iraqis. Moreover, by nurturing a climate of terror and fear, here at home, the Bushies are able to play their ugly "[i]bait-and-switch[/i]" neo-con-games intended to undermine and destroy any safeguards or programs that enable the middle-class, low-income workers, and the poor to partake in the bounty of this nation's wealth. Indeed, the [i]Greed-is-Good [/i]"corporate-take-all" Bush regime has reigned over the largest re-distribution of wealth from the middle-and-lower income people to the wealthy plutocrats in the top 5% income bracket, in this nation's history.
[b]"We the People" are being drawn into an insane blood-thirsty neo-orwellian "[i]perpetual war for perpetual peace[/i]" ... and it's a neo-fascist crime in which we should refuse to collaborate.[/b]
[b]Current Affairs[/b]
In "Intel Sources Tell [i]Newsweek [/i]that Neocons are Undermining War on Terror" on http://www.antiwar.com/blog/c... : - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
The latest issue of [i]Newsweek[/i] warns that al-Qaeda is building toward a "spectacular" attack.
Intelligence sources tell [i]Newsweek [/i]that "[b]the neocons in the Pentagon have been undermining that relationship by accusing (without much proof) the Syrians of encouraging jihadists to cross into Iraq and of hiding Saddam’s WMD inside Syria[/b]."
The report goes on to reveal the longtime dream of "[i]many in the Bush administration, especially the neoconservatives in the Pentagon centered on Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, that a democratized Iraq will be both a beacon and a base in the fight against radical Islam[/i]." [i]Newsweek[/i] warns that "some senior of-ficials worry, though usually not out loud, [b]that the war could backfire[/b]. A leaked memo from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pointedly asked whether Islamic religious schools, fueled by anti-Western rage, are creating terrorists faster than American soldiers can kill or capture them."
[i]Newsweek[/i] concludes that the [b]war in Iraq has "almost certainly diverted resources" from the war on terror[/b]. "Meanwhile, in Washington, transcripts of electronic intercepts of possible terrorist conversations pile up, unread and untranslated for weeks. Similarly, many Special Operations soldiers who had been chasing through the mountains of Afghanistan looking for bin Laden and his followers were shifted over to Iraq to spend months fruitlessly searching for weapons of mass destruction."
Meanwhile, officials tell [i]Newsweek[/i] that they have no idea who is behind the most recent deadly bombings in Iraq. They have evidence of many different sources, but it is beginning to look more like "Murder on the Orient Express," where literally everyone is guilty.
[b][i]MORE...[/i][/b] on http://www.msnbc.com/news/997...
[b]Historical Context[/b]
[b]Long before September 11[/b], [b]before the first inspections in Iraq had started, a small group of influential officials and experts in Washington were calling for regime change in Iraq[/b]. Some never wanted to end the 1991 war. Many are now administration officials. Their organization, dedication and brilliance offer much to admire, even for those who disagree with the policies they advocate.
We have assembled on our web site links to the key documents produced since 1992 by this group, usually known as neo-conservatives, and analysis of their efforts. They offer a textbook case of how a small, organized group can determine policy in a large nation, even when the majority of officials and experts originally scorned their views.
[i]In the Beginning[/i]
[i]In 1992, Paul Wolfowitz, then-under secretary of defense for policy, supervised the drafting of the Defense Policy Guidance document. Wolfowitz had objected to what he considered the premature ending of the 1991 Iraq War. In the new document, he outlined plans for military intervention in Iraq as an action necessary to assure "[b]access to vital raw material, primarily Persian Gulf oil[/b]" and to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and threats from terrorism.[/i]
[i]The guidance called for preemptive attacks and ad hoc coalitions but said that the U.S. should be ready to act alone when "collective action cannot be orchestrated." The primary goal of U.S. policy should be to prevent the rise of any nation that could challenge the United States. When the document leaked to the New York Times, it proved so extreme that it had to be rewritten. These concepts are now part of the new U.S. National Security Strategy.[/i]
[b]So, where are all those WMDs? ... Sorry, It's The OIL, Stupid![/b]
[b]Sources[/b]:
"Is "President" Bush Insane ?" on http://ebean390.tripod.com/wa...
"Project for the New American Century (PNAC) ... Exposed!" on http://www.tblog.com/template...
"PNAC.info - Exposing the Project for the New American Century" on http://www.pnac.info/
"Origins of Regime Change in Iraq" on http://www.pnac.info/blog/arc...
"Origins of Regime Change in Iraq - Indepth" on http://www.ceip.org/files/non...
"A Current Affairs Primer" on http://www.democraticundergro...
"Iraq Symposium: Where Are We Headed?" on http://frontpagemag.com/artic...
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| Bush SAYS "Freedom is Beautiful" & ORDERS F.B.I. to Intimidate PROTESTORS |
| 11.23.03 (5:19 pm) [edit] |
"[b]Dissent is the highest form of patriotism[/b]" - [i]Thomas Jefferson[/i]
Emperor Bush has a squalid and sordid track-record of SAYING one [i]cliche-ridden [/i]thing, but instead DOING another [i]completely opposite [/i]and[i] harmful [/i]thing. Recently, during his obscenely extravagant and highly unpopular visit to the U.K., the mendacious buffoon, Bush said that "[i]Freedom is Beautiful[/i]" ... Hmmm ... What about his actions?
[b]The 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of U.S. citizens the "free exercize of ... "freedom of speech" and the right of the people "peaceably to assemble"[/b]" ... but then the neo-fascist Bushies tread on the U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights, as well as, international law and treaties.
[b]JUST another [/b]one of many of Bush's hypocritical neo-con screeds, as the[b] corrupt [/b][b]Bush regime has ordered [/b]their [b]F.B.I. attack-dogs to "scrutinize" (i.e. [i]intimidate[/i]) anti-war protestors[/b]:
"It is depressing to learn that what you have may have long suspected is unapologetically true. A confidential FBI bureau memorandum leaked to the New York Times shows the bureau has collected information on demonstrators and has advised local officials to report suspicious activity to counterterrorism squads. "[i]The F.B.I. memorandum ... appears to offer the first corroboration of a coordinated, nationwide effort to collect intelligence regarding demonstrations[/i].""
[b]"We the People" are being intimidated, neo-nazi style into becoming "useful idiots" and "willing collaborators" in the Bush regime's [i]Crimes Against Humanity[/i][/b].
[b]Sources[/b]:
"Freedom is Beautiful? ... Another Bush Blooper!" on http://www.tblog.com/template...
"F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies" on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1...
"The Less-Than-Special Bush/Blair Relationship" on http://www.alternet.org/story...
AlterNet on http://www.alternet.org
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| Know Your Dubya |
| 11.22.03 (8:16 am) [edit] |
[b]Know Your Dubya[/b]
[b]Find out how much you know about Bush by trying the following quiz:[/b]
[b]Q1[/b]. [i]Who holds the record for the largest number of executions when the governor of a state[/i]?
A George W Bush B Jeb Bush C Arnold Schwarzenegger
[b]Answer[/b]: A. (George just pipped brother Jeb by ordering the executions of 152 people while governor of Texas).
[b]Q2[/b]. [i]Who is alleged to have been an investor in George W Bush's first oil company Arbusto[/i]?
A Osama bin Laden. B Osama's big brother, Salem. C Saddam Hussein.
[b]Answer[/b]: B.
[b]Q3[/b]. [i]Which Saudi family was allowed to fly out of the US in the aftermath of September 11, despite the ban on flights[/i]?
A The bin Ladens. B The Abu ben Adams. C The Fahds.
[b]Answer[/b]: A.
[b]Q4[/b]. [i]As former governor of Texas, Bush reneged on the US's environmental commitments set out in the Kyoto Treaty. Which state is the most polluted in the USA[/i]?
A Texas. B Missouri. C Michigan.
[b]Answer[/b]: A.
[b]Q5[/b]. [i]When giving an interview on foreign policy in 2000, Bush couldn't name?[/i]:
A The Prime Minister of India? B The President of Chechnya? C The President of Pakistan?
[b]Answer[/b]: All of the above.
[b]Q6[/b]. [i]In his state of the union address, Bush said that Saddam Hussein had tried to get uranium from Africa to make a nuclear bomb. But what had the CIA already told him[/i]?
A That was true. B They didn't know. C There was no evidence of Saddam trying to get uranium from Africa.
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q7[/b]. [i]Who is the only US president to come to office with a criminal record[/i]?
A Abraham Lincolm B Bill Clinton C George Bush
[b]Answer[/b]: C (he has a conviction for drink driving in Maine).
[b]Q8[/b]. [i]At the height of the Vietnam War George W Bush[/i]:
A Enlisted to fight on the frontline. B Stayed at home with the National Guard. C Joined the Quakers.
[b]Answer[/b]: B.
[b]Q9[/b]. [i]Bush's most successful business venture was when he ran[/i]:
A Texas Rangers, lawmen. B Glasgow Rangers Football Club. C Texas Rangers Baseball club.
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q10[/b].[i] In 2000, George W Bush needed to win the vote in Florida to overtake Democrat candidate Al Gore and claim the election. By how many votes was he declared the winner in Florida[/i]?
A 53,700 B 5370 C 537 [Of course, in independent analysis Bush lost Florida because of rigged U.S. Military absentee ballots rejected for Gore but accepted for Bush, and rejected votes of Floridians for Gore.]
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q11[/b]. [i]How many black voters almost all Democrat supporters were left off the Florida electoral roll[/i]?
A 173 B 1730 C 173,000
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q12[/b]. [i]Who declared the result[/i]?
A Jeb Bush, Florida Governor and brother of George W. B Katherine Harris, Florida secretary of state and co-chairman of the Bush for President Campaign. C Mickey Mouse.
[b]Answer[/b]: B.
[b]Q13[/b]. [i]Which oil industry figure donated large sums to George W Bush's presidential campaign[/i]?
A Kenneth Lay, disgraced chairman of Enron, the energy firm which crashed after committing the biggest corporate accounting fraud in history.
B William S Farish, the president of WS Farish & Co, who became ambassador to Britain after Bush was elected and whose friendship with the Queen paved the way for this week's state visit.
C Both of them.
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q14[/b]. [i]What item did Bush auction for $150 during a record-breaking $33 million fundraising dinner in Washington last year[/i]?
A A picture of the New York Yankees baseball team.
B A picture of the Texas Rangers baseball team.
C A picture of himself taken on September 11, 2001, as he flew to safety onboard Air Force One.
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q15[/b]. [i]Which member of the Bush family was convicted of underage drinking twice in the space of three months[/i]?
A Reformed heavy drinker George W?
B Wife Laura?
C Daughter Jenna?
[b]Answer[/b]: C (Jenna dubbed "Jenna and tonic'' in the US press was given community service in May 2001 and again in July 2001.)
[b]Q16[/b].[i] In the 1980s, George W Bush was on the board of a film company set up by some of his old college pals. Which gory horror film did the company produce[/i]?
A The Hitcher. B Halloween. C Friday the Thirteenth.
[b]Answer[/b]: A.
[b]Q17[/b]. [i]George W Bush has been criticised for the number of days off he takes. According to the Washington Post, how many days vacation had he spent at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, up to this August[/i]?
A 42. B 98. C 166.
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q18[/b]. [i]The struggling US jobs market and ongoing problems in Iraq will give George W Bush a real headache in next year's presidential elections. How much is he planning to spend on his campaign[/i]?
A $100 million. B $150 million. C $200 million.
[b]Answer[/b]: C.
[b]Q19[/b]. [i]Who is the former boss of oil and construction giant Halliburton, the company given the biggest contract to rebuild Iraq[/i]?
A Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
B Vice President Dick Cheney.
C Secretary of State Colin Powell.
[b]Answer[/b]: B.
[b]Q20[/b]. [i]In which unspoiled wilderness has President Bush allowed oil exploration to go ahead[/i]?
A Alaska. B The Rockies. C The Everglades.
[b]Answer[/b]: A.
[b]Source[/b]: [i]The U.K. Daily Record [/i]on: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk
... Of course, "We the People" have had time to "[i]get to know" Dubya[/i]-- and the more we see, the more disillusioned and disgusted we become ...
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| URGENT: Please Contact Congress to STOP Bush Push for PATRIOT ACT Expansion |
| 11.21.03 (11:04 am) [edit] |
"We the People" are in danger. Our freedoms and way of life, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights , are being systematically undermined at this time, by the corrupt Bush regime.
Only an immediate and large outcry by you and other citizens can halt this neo-con, neo-fascist sabotage of our [i]Republic for Which It Stands ... with Liberty and Justice for All[/i]. The Bush White House is pressuring Congress to push through legislation that will EXPAND the already intrusive and corrupt PATRIOT ACT.
I urge you to [b]Contact Congress [i]NOW[/i][/b], on http://www.congress.org , and [i]please ask your friends and neighbors to do the same[/i]:--
[b]STOP Bush Push for PATRIOT ACT Expansion[/b]:
[b]Demand that the expansion of the Patriot Act be REJECTED and that the existing Patriot Act be OVER-TURNED and REPEALED[/b].
[b]Source[/b]:
"[i][b]Going Backwards[/b]: Patriot Act Expansion Moves Through Congress[/i]" on http://www.commondreams.org/h...
"WASHINGTON -- Congress is poised to approve new legislation that amounts to the first substantive expansion of the controversial USA Patriot Act since it was approved just after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Acting at the Bush administration's behest, a joint House-Senate conference committee has approved a provision in the 2004 Intelligence Authorization bill that will permit the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to demand records from a number of businesses--without the approval of a judge or grand jury--if it deems them relevant to a counter-terrorism investigation.
The measure would extend the FBI's power to seize records from banks and credit unions to securities dealers, currency exchanges, travel agencies, car dealers, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers and any other business that, according to the government, has a "high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters." Such seizures could be carried out with the approval of the judicial branch of government.
Until now only banks, credit unions, and similar financial institutions were obliged to turn over such records on the FBI's demand.
Shortly after the conference agreement was reached, the House of Representatives approved the underlying authorization bill by a margin of 263 to 163. The measure is expected to pass the Senate shortly.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it was "disappointed" with the House's approval, but also expressed satisfaction that a number of lawmakers on both left and right decided to oppose the bill because they oppose the records provision, whose inclusion in the bill was discovered by staff aides only last week.
Particularly notable in Thursday's House vote was the defection by several conservative Republicans from the administration's fold.
"This PATRIOT Act expansion was the only controversial part of this legislation, and it prompted more than a third of the House, including 15 conservative Republicans, to change what is normally a cakewalk vote into something truly contested," said Timothy Edgar, ACLU Legislative Counsel.
"One need look no further than this vote to get an effective gauge of the PATRIOT Act's lack of popularity on Capitol Hill and among the American people," he said.
The USA PATRIOT Act--which gives unprecedented powers to the FBI and the federal government as a whole and was rammed through Congress at the administration's behest just six weeks after the 9/11 attacks--has evoked great controversy.
An unusual coalition of liberal, left, and right-wing groups is convinced that the law's expansion of the government's surveillance and investigatory powers threatens individual freedoms and privacy rights.
More than 200 local governments, including some of the country's largest cities, have approved resolutions upholding the full enjoyment of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and urging a narrowing of the USA PATRIOT Act, while the Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding a series of critical hearings over the past month about the Act's impact.
Members of the Judiciary Committee, including Republican Larry Craig of Idaho and five Democratic senators, sent a letter to the conference committee earlier this week urging it strip the new provision from the intelligence bill so that it could be taken up by their Committee in public hearings. The provision has never been publicly debated.
"I'm concerned about this," Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, who tried unsuccessfully to limit the life of the new provision, told the New York Times. "The idea of expanding the powers of government gives everyone pause except the Republican leadership."
The government wants these powers in order to more effectively prosecute the "war on terrorism," although critics warn that, once given these powers, the FBI may use them in cases that are not relevant to terrorism in order to gather evidence against other targets of investigation.
Indeed, recent Senate hearings have covered incidents in which information about individuals was obtained by the FBI through the use of its counter-terrorism powers even though the such investigations were directed against what the ACLU called "garden-variety criminals."
The provision not only permits the FBI to seize records from more kinds of businesses; it also forbids businesses from informing their clients about the seizures.
In that respect, it is comparable to a particularly controversial section of the PATRIOT Act permitting the FBI to seek an order for library records for an "investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities" and imposing a gag order on librarians, who are prohibited from telling anyone that the FBI demanded the records. Librarians and civil-liberties groups have sued the government to have that section declared unconstitutional.
"The more checks and balances against government abuse are eroded, the greater that abuse," said the ACLU's Edgar. "We're going to regret these initiatives down the road.""
[b]See also[/b]: [u]Bill of Rights Defense Committee[/u] Web-site on http://www.bordc.org/
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| Neo-Con Campaign Waged To Deceive & Defraud The American People |
| 11.20.03 (6:24 pm) [edit] |
"We the People" are being defrauded with a bombardment of lies, deceptions and outright falsehoods by the neo-con, neo-fascist right-wing [i]so-called [/i]"[i]think tanks (sic)[/i]" such as the [i]American Enterprise Institute & Heritage Foundation, amongst others [/i](pretty names for nefarious groups) and, their attack-dogs & court-jesters working for ultra-conservative propaganda machines such as [i]Fox News, World Net Daily, Weekly Standard, etc. [/i](neo-nazi propaganda outlets funded by corporate interests, wealthy plutocrats & the richest-of-the-rich campaign contributors funneling hundreds of millions to the Bushies, in return for ...) -- ALL mouth-pieces of the insane PNAC ([i]Project for the New American Century[/i]) groupies & thugs in the corrupt Bush regime.
This corrupt neo-con cabal is a "win-at-all-cost" gang of mendacious operators who are waging a propaganda war (very similar to Joseph Goebbles' [i]Tell Big Lies [/i]campaign) to defraud the American people and the rest of the world. It is not working in the European Union (EU), where the people are more skeptical of government rhetoric and certainly recognize a crook like Bush when they see one. It is working in America, because our people have become, fat, dumb and lazy. Moreover, since people have no respect for the facts or the truth in the [i]United States of Amnesia[/i]-- they are even willing to LIE to WIN.
You will hear their dishonest campaign to slander and discredit leaders such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who led us out of the Great Depression (1929-1941), which he inherited from Herbert Hoover. The corrupt neo-cons want you to believe that FDR's New Deal (i.e. social programs putting people to work, social security, and any collective populist project that enables those who aren't filthy rich to also enjoy services such as policemen, firemen, clean water, sewage systems, education, health care, etc. ...) are BAD, BAD, BAD. They [i]stupidly[/i] cry: Government Evil ... Private Sector Good ... for all things ... an imbecilic notion recognized as such by anyone with an iota of understanding of government, civil institutions, society, economics, corporate interests, and culture.
In reality, FDR inherited a disastrous situation with unemployment at 25% (worse than in Germany which led to the rise of the Fascist Dictator Adolf Hitler) from the corrupt corporate-puppet Herbert Hoover, and through his New Deal initiatives brought unemployment back down to below 10% by 1941. For those who are stupid, spoiled and care nothing about their fellow citizens who live in dire poverty and are without jobs:-- the ignorant or corrupt choose to ignore the lessons of this age of despair (or to outright lie about it, in order to propagandize their neo-con agenda). However, for those who were able to obtain jobs and provide for their families, FDR was a hero. Of course, the capitalists of the FDR era, including corporate robber-barons, wealthy plutocrats, and the richest-of-the-rich called [b]FDR "A Traitor to His Class" [/b]... Yes, these obscenely rich and greedy rapists would have absolutely adored Bush.
[i][b]Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose[/b][/i]
Fast forward, to the neo-feudal age of the corrupt Bushies -- who now are maneuvering to turn us into a neo-slave state ... with the largest deficits & debts in our nation's history -- skyrocketing poverty rates (35 Million), citizens without health care (45-85 Million), and, the highest unemployment (9 Million) & job losses since the Great Depression. The middle-class, low-income workers and poor are facing ever greater hardships, while the rich are becoming fabulously richer from obscene and immoral tax cuts, tax loopholes & boondoggles awarded by the anti-christian Bush & Cheney Inc.
The Bush & Cheney Inc. neo-con strategy is to pretend that these dire problems and hardships do not exist, with the willing collusion of a compliant neo-con "corporate-owned" media. The callous and ruthless Bush regime are ignoring the misery they've caused, and instead order their "useful idiot" attack-dogs & court-jesters to propagate LIES:--
* Pretend that the economy is great (which it is, if you're one of the richest 5% or a corporate rapist), when instead, the high costs of paying-off Bush's record-level deficits & debts, slashed services, rising local/state taxes & increasing energy costs, etc., is a disaster for the rest of us ...
* Pretend that policies which will ruthlessly rape & swindle the middle-class, low-income workers & poor are good, when instead, their designs to eliminate overtime pay for hourly workers, eliminate social security for the elderly, privatize education & destroy medicare, etc., are squalid, harmful and dangerous ...
* Pretend that corporate-mandated energy policies that rape & plunder consumers and endanger the health of our environment and the planet are sound, when instead, they place our health & well-being, and that of future generations, in peril ...
* Pretend that all is rosy in Iraq, when instead, we are embroiled in a bloody guerrilla quagmire, and the death toll, carnage, and casualties rise daily ... while Bush's corporate cronies (Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, etc.) rape & loot Americans & Iraqis, and,
* Pretend that their insane isolationist "pre-emptive" foreign policies of aggression will make us safer, when instead, we are more hated than ever before and we are witnessing an increase of terrorism around the world-- [b]
All of the Bush regime's policies have placed us in greater danger, here at home and abroad[/b].
The recent LIE exposed by Katrina vanden Heuvel, in [i]The Nation [/i]on http://www.thenation.com/edcu... , relates to the latter:
"[b]The Postwar[i] Post's [/i]Nuclear Truths[/b]"
"At the end of October, The [i]Washington Post [/i]published a ground-breaking 3,200-word front-page story about Iraq's prewar nuclear weapons program. [i]Post[/i] reporter Bart Gellman's reporting provided painstaking detail and overwhelming evidence to reveal what David Kay's inspectors have concluded (that Iraq had no WMD programs) but have been afraid to admit.
After the [i]Post[/i] published Kay's cagey rebuttal of the piece's findings, without reply, given the[i] Post's [/i]policy of not responding to letters about its stories, some readers concluded that the paper was acknowledging that Kay's assertions letter were correct.
But, Gellman and the[i] Post's [/i]editors say they stand by the story 100 percent, as Gellman's convincing rebuttal to Kay--which was sent to "Iraq News," a listserv run by neocon pundit Laurie Mylroie--strongly shows. Gellman's letter, which we've reprinted below, should be widely circulated to counter a campaign underway--led by rightwing newspapers like the Rupert Murdoch-owned [i]New York Post[/i], internet columnists like Matt Drudge, and think tanks like the [i]American Enterprise Institute[/i]--to discredit Gellman's invaluable reporting and obscure the way the Bush Administration willfully deceived the American public"
To read GELLMAN LETTER click on : http://www.thenation.com/edcu...
[b]Sources[/b]:
"The Great Depression (1929-1941)" on http://www.sparknotes.com/his...
"Great Depression of the 1930s" on http://history.searchbeat.com...
"The Great Depression and the New Deal" on http://us.history.wisc.edu/hi...
"Great Depression - Time Line" on http://www.geocities.com/Athe...
"FDR's Fireside Chat on the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program" on http://www.archives.gov/digit...
"Timeline of the Great Depression" on http://www.korpios.org/resurg...
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal" on http://www.geocities.com/Athe...
"FDR's `New Deal': An Example of American System Economics" on http://www.larouchepub.com/ot...
"The Great Depression and the New Deal" on http://www.usembassy.de/usa/h...
"A Case of Unemployment" on http://ingrimayne.saintjoe.ed...
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck.
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| War Critics Astonished As US Hawk Admits Invasion of Iraq Was Illegal |
| 11.20.03 (10:49 am) [edit] |
[b]THIS is one for the record books (as well as the history books) ...[/b]
The Bushies' surprising admission of guilt in violating international law, underlines what many legal experts have been saying all along ... So with one [i]sweep of the hand[/i], the corrupt, neo-con Bush regime has chosen to eradicate & simply ignore the principles enshrined in the Magna Carta, U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights, the United Nations Charter, and International Treaties & Conventions. The Bush regime show utter contempt for the rule of law and are unfit to hold office.
The rule of law is the only basis under which civilization can be maintained. For a neo-fascist dictatorial tyrant to say [i]I am powerful ... the rules don't apply to me ... I will trample upon & destroy anyone in my path, at a whim ... To hell with the law, if I don't like the law ... I'm strong & powerful and can tread on anyone weak & vulnerable ... You're either with me or against me [/i]... is disastrous and is eerily similar to the ugly rhetoric and barbaric behaviour of Adolf Hitler. To conduct an aggressive invasion of a sovereign nation, based upon lies, deceit & falsehoods & in violation of the law,[b] is an act of treason.[/b]
[b]"We the People" should be outraged and call for Congress to commence impeachment hearings into the [i]Crimes Against Humanity [/i]committed by the criminals in the Bush regime. Contact Congress on http://www.congress.org .[/b]
"[b]War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion [of Iraq] was illegal[/b]" by Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington, on http://www.guardian.co.uk/Ira...,2763,1089158,00.html :
"[b]International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal[/b].
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "[b]I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing[/b]." [i][b][Ergo, it's okay to break the law? ... might makes right? ... brute force supercedes our rights under the law? ... The arrogant brutish Bush regime doesn't even care, as they know they can commit any crime with impunity. It's disgraceful!][/b][/i]
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
French intransigence, he added, meant there had been "no practical mechanism consistent with the rules of the UN for dealing with Saddam Hussein".
Mr Perle, who was speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, had argued loudly for the toppling of the Iraqi dictator since the end of the 1991 Gulf war.
"They're just not interested in international law, are they?" said Linda Hugl, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which launched a high court challenge to the war's legality last year. "It's only when the law suits them that they want to use it."
Mr Perle's remarks bear little resemblance to official justifications for war, according to Rabinder Singh QC, who represented CND and also participated in Tuesday's event.
Certainly the British government, he said, "has never advanced the suggestion that it is entitled to act, or right to act, contrary to international law in relation to Iraq".
The Pentagon adviser's views, he added, underlined "a divergence of view between the British govern ment and some senior voices in American public life [who] have expressed the view that, well, if it's the case that international law doesn't permit unilateral pre-emptive action without the authority of the UN, then the defect is in international law".
Mr Perle's view is not the official one put forward by the White House. Its main argument has been that the invasion was justified under the UN charter, which guarantees the right of each state to self-defence, including pre-emptive self-defence. On the night bombing began, in March, Mr Bush reiterated America's "sovereign authority to use force" to defeat the threat from Baghdad.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has questioned that justification, arguing that the security council would have to rule on whether the US and its allies were under imminent threat.
Coalition officials countered that the security council had already approved the use of force in resolution 1441, passed a year ago, warning of "serious consequences" if Iraq failed to give a complete ac counting of its weapons programmes.
Other council members disagreed, but American and British lawyers argued that the threat of force had been implicit since the first Gulf war, which was ended only by a ceasefire.
"I think Perle's statement has the virtue of honesty," said Michael Dorf, a law professor at Columbia University who opposed the war, arguing that it was illegal.
"And, interestingly, I suspect a majority of the American public would have supported the invasion almost exactly to the same degree that they in fact did, had the administration said that all along."
The controversy-prone Mr Perle resigned his chairmanship of the defence policy board earlier this year but remained a member of the advisory board.
Meanwhile, there was a hint that the US was trying to find a way to release the Britons held at Guantanamo Bay.
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said Mr Bush was "very sensitive" to British sentiment. "We also expect to be resolving this in the near future," he told the BBC. "
[b]Other sources[/b]:
"International Law Aspects of the Iraq War and Occupation" on http://www.globalpolicy.org/s...
"Reuters: Iraq War Illegal" on http://www.casi.org.uk/discus...
"International legal experts regard Iraq war as illegal" on http://www.wsws.org/articles/...
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| New Leak Smells of Neo-Con Desperation: Neo-Cons Willing To Betray U.S. National Security? |
| 11.19.03 (10:25 pm) [edit] |
More evidence is coming to the forefront to demonstrate that the neo-cons are desperate, very, very desperate to recover from their discredited reputations as liars & thugs, lusting to aggressively invade sovereign nations in order to achieve immoral & illegal objectives, based upon nefarious motives [[i]not WMDs posing an imminent threat ... but instead, for their terrifying, ghoulish neo-fascist scheme entitled the [b]Project For The New American Century [/b]([b]PNAC[/b]) to enrich the Global Corporate Empire[/i]].
In their desperation, the question that must be asked is whether or not, in order to achieve their immoral & illegal aims, these neo-con, neo-fascist thugs & goons, are willing to betray (or, are in the process of betraying) the U.S. National Security?
"We the People" should demand an open-door investigation into the actions underway by the neo-con cabal in the corrupt Bush regime-- it may well be that these [b]neo-con "crazies"[/b] end-up the direct cause of a horrible attack on the U.S., killing and harming more innocent citizens, due to their zeal to leak classified information, in order to attempt to "save their sorry skins". (Although the neo-con liars attempt to abuse & twist outdated, irrelevant 10 year old information is outrageous, the CIA analysts still confirm it is not valid intelligence!) Contact Congress on http://www.congress.org .
Read "[b]New Leak Smells of Neocon Desperation[/b]" on http://www.antiwar.com/ips/lo... :
"This week's blockbuster leak of a secret memorandum from a senior Pentagon official to the Senate Intelligence Committee has spurred speculation that neo-conservative hawks in the Bush administration are on the defensive and growing more desperate.
Both the committee and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation of the leak, which took the form of an article published Monday by the influential[i] neo-conservative [/i]journal,[i] The Weekly Standard[/i].
Committee Chairman Pat Roberts characterized the leak as "egregious," noting that it might have compromised "highly classified information" on intelligence sources and methods of collecting information, as well as ongoing investigations. He also said he did not believe the leak came from his committee or its staff.
The Pentagon issued an unusual press statement declaring that the leak was "deplorable and may be illegal."
The article, "Case Closed," [ http://www.weeklystandard.com... ] is a summary of a lengthy memo sent to the committee Oct. 27 by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.
He had been asked by the senators to provide support for his assertion in a closed hearing last July that US intelligence agencies had established a long-standing operational link between the al-Qaeda terrorist group and Baghdad.
That, and similar assertions by senior Bush officials before the war, have long been considered questionable, more so after the war when the administration – as with its prewar contentions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) – failed to come up with evidence to back its case.
Investigative reporters and Iraq war critics have accused Feith's office of having manipulated or "cherry-picked" the intelligence on Iraq's purported ties to al-Qaeda and WMD programs before the war to persuade Bush and the public that Saddam posed a serious threat to the United States.
The leaked memo consists mainly of 50 excerpts culled from raw intelligence reports by four US intelligence agencies about alleged al-Qaeda-Iraqi contacts from 1990 to 2003.
Some of the reports include brief analysis, but most cite accounts by unnamed sources, such as "a contact with good access," "a well placed source," "a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer," a "regular and reliable source," "sensitive CIA reporting," and "a foreign government service."
Although the article's author, [i]Weekly Standard [/i]correspondent Stephen Hayes, concludes that much of the evidence is "detailed, conclusive, and corroborated by multiple sources," the only example of real corroboration is with respect to several reports regarding contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraqi agents in Afghanistan in 1999.
Most of the excerpts deal instead with alleged meetings or less direct contacts in which sources claim that al-Qaeda agents are requesting certain kinds of assistance, such as a safe haven, training or, in one case, WMD.
While supporters of the war in Iraq, such as the [i]New York Times' [/i]William Safire, have jumped on the Hayes' article as proof of what the administration had alleged, retired intelligence officers have criticized it, both because of the security breach of the leak itself and because its contents are anything but "conclusive" of an operational relationship.
W. Patrick Lang, former head of the Middle East section of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the [i]Washington Post [/i]the article [ http://www.washingtonpost.com... ] amounted to a "listing of a mass of unconfirmed reports, many of which themselves indicate that the two groups continued to try to establish some sort of relationship."
At the same time, he added, it raises the question: "If they had such a productive relationship, why did they have to keep trying?"
Other retired officers stressed that, to the extent that virtually all of the excerpts consist of raw intelligence unvetted by professional analysts, the article appeared to prove precisely what critics had been saying: Feith's office simply picked those items in raw intelligence that tended to confirm their preexisting views that a relationship must have existed, without subjecting the evidence to the kind of rigorous analysis that intelligence agencies would apply.
"This is made to dazzle the eyes of the not terribly educated," Greg Thielmann, a veteran of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) who retired in 2002, told IPS.
"It begs the question, 'Is this the best they can do'? If you're going to expose this stuff, you'd better have something more than this," he said, adding, "My inclination is to interpret this as probably a very good example of cherry-picking and the selective use of intelligence that was so obvious in the lead-up to the war."
Melvin Goodman, a former top CIA analyst, said the leak is a sign of desperation. "To me, they had to leak something like this, because the neo-conservatives (in the administration) have nothing to stand on."
"They're trying to get the idea out there that, 'Hey, there was a case for war', and they have 'useful idiots' like Safire who say they're right."
The notion that the leak was "friendly" or "authorized" by hawks in the Pentagon or their allies in Vice President Dick Cheney's office – as opposed to an unauthorized leak designed to embarrass the author – is widely accepted here.
[b]The [i]Standard,[/i] particularly Hayes and executive editor William Kristol, have acted as a mouthpiece for administration hawks like Feith, his immediate boss, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and their friends in Cheney's office, particularly his powerful chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, since even before the administration's "war on terror," declared after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001[/b].
[b]But at the same time it raises serious questions about the judgment of those responsible for the leak. Not only does the intelligence contained in the article fall embarrassingly short of "closing the case" on Iraq-al-Qaeda links, the leak itself of such highly classified material might fuel the impression that the neo-conservatives, if they were indeed the source, are willing to sacrifice the country's secrets to retain power[/b].
"[i]It shows a cavalier and almost contemptuous regard for the national security rationale for keeping information classified[/i]," according to Thielmann. "[i]The objective of silencing the critics is so overwhelming that you have to throw national security secrets to the wind[/i]."
Both he and Goodman noted striking similarities between this latest case and the leak last July of the identity of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA officer.
Wilson had just embarrassed the administration by disclosing his trip on behalf of the CIA to Niger to check out a report that Iraq had bought uranium "yellowcake." He charged that Bush's assertion about the yellowcake in his 2003 State of the Union address was false and that the White House knew it or should have known it at the time.
The evident purpose of the leak to columnist Robert Novak was to discredit Wilson by suggesting that his mission to Niger was suggested by his wife.
In fact, the leak provoked enormous anger in the intelligence community as a major security breach that effectively ended Plame's career as a covert officer, and potentially endangered her life and those of people who had worked with her abroad.
[b]The FBI is currently running a criminal investigation on the matter[/b].
"[i]It's obvious that if you cared about the real national security interests of this country, you wouldn't reveal an asset[/i]," said Goodman. "[i]That shows this is a venal and desperate group who are not considering the real national-security interests of this country[/i].""
[u][b]Senate Intelligence Committee[/b][/u]: http://intelligence.senate.go...
[b]Other sources[/b]:
"Memo Exacerbates Defense-CIA Strains - Clues on Al Qaeda-Hussein Ties at Issue" on http://www.washingtonpost.com...
"More Proof of Iraq-Qaeda Link, or Not?" on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1...
"Officials confirm probe of Pentagon memo leak" on http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11...
"Pentagon Debunks Reports on Osama-Saddam Ties" on http://www.infoshop.org/inews...
"The dubious link between Iraq and al Qaeda" on http://www.thehill.com/marsha...
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| Bush: The Bizarro Effect ... Or Simply That We've Entered The Age of Orwell's World |
| 11.19.03 (7:11 pm) [edit] |
... "You could not create such a world as you have just described. It is a dream. It is impossible." - [i]Winston[/i]
... "Why?" - [i]O'Brien[/i]
... "It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure." - [i]Winston[/i]
... "Why not?" - [i]O'Brien[/i]
... "It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide." - [i]Winston[/i]
... "Nonsense. You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting than love. Why should it be? And if it were, what difference would that make? ..." - [i]O'Brien[/i]
- [i]Conversation between Winston Smith and O'Brien ... George Orwell's [b]1984[/b][/i]
Men and women of conscience scratch their heads in disbelief at the outright lies ... 180 degree changes in positions ... bold-faced contradictory statements with other statements -- untrue statements opposed by the facts -- perpetrated by the Bush regime, on a vast array of issues ranging from their illegal & immoral guerrilla quagmire in Iraq; abuse & exploitation of the environment & the natural world; crumbling & strained international relations with other nations; and, dire economic problems including the skyrocketing poverty rates (35 million); lack of health care (45-85 million); unemployment (9 million), and, basic services slashed across our country, as local/state taxes rise, and the middle-class & low-income workers must pay-off the largest debts in history to pay-for tax-cuts that Bush & Cheney Inc. awarded to corporations and the rich.
Is this phenomena of [i]Bush-speak [/i]a neo-con, neo-fascist insurgence of "[i]the bizarro effect[/i]" or is it simply that we've now entered the age of George Orwell's[b][i] 1984 [/i][/b]world? The Bush regime's ugly orwellian rhetoric is corrupt and frightening ... but it can be dissembled, analyzed, understood, and exposed, as it represents insane rantings. The Bush & Cheney Inc.'s handlers understand perfectly well that should the Bushies[i] tell the truth[/i], their insane & illegal, neo-hitlerian foreign aggressions, and their blood-thirsty, rapacious & ruthless domestic rape of America and other nations-- would be loudly condemned by an outraged and angry public throughout the entire world.
As it stands, the public can comfortably pretend that all is well ... Why? Because, Bushy-boy says so ... Hitler said the same thing to the Germans in the aftermath of his early "victories of aggression" in 1940 ... and it is "nice-and-comfy" to follow-the-leader ... it requires no leg-work, no effort, no struggle, and no risk. It's safe & easy to follow ... it takes courage to think for oneself & "take the road less traveled."
Of course, for those people of conscience who are truly patriotic and truly care deeply for this nation and it's future: ... "We the People" refuse to suspend our cognitive processes and blindly follow the corrupt neo-con Bush regime's neo-fascist, brain-washing machinations ... and moreove | |
