7.19.2003
Cheney's Energy Attack Force
Been to busy to read much at all the last couple days; was planning to ask you to look through my sidebar of blog listings and news sources for some quality gleaning of news facts. They are there because I find them informative and really good.
My blog/perinent info addiction had me stop by Blah 3, and there came across a gem linked from Judicial Watch. Remember how Mr Cheney fought to keep his Energy Task Force meeting with energy company bigwigs secret? As a criminal type person he had good reason. Back in March of 2001 those Anti-American greedheads were not simply planning how to bleed the average American dry due to our energy needs but they were mapping out a plan (here's the Judicial Watch map link) to divvy up Iraqs oil wealth. Read “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts". Now do you wonder why our young people are dying over there? Is the same corporate media that spoonfed us Mr Bush's evershifting tripe about why our service people went there and are there now telling us the truth about how many US fatalities there have been?
The Big Lie, friends. Give the materials Judicial Watch fought to get a look. Fire off a letter to the editor with the website URL and a quick summation. People need to know about this.
Bush is lying, people are dying.
If we take a minute, we can help.
7/19/2003
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7.18.2003
How's that 9/11 investigation going Mr Bush?
( thanks to abuddhas memes for the heads up...)
7/18/2003
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7.17.2003
It is Important
Link fixed and draft edited for clarity this evening.
My Uncle is in his eighties, a sweet kind man that you would never assume was a highly decorated hero in World War II. You would never know it, he never spoke of the war. A fellow that killed folks behind enemy lines quietly, with his bare hands or some piano wire. The doctor says his leg needs to come off; a leg that has been black but functional since he was a commando in the big war, 60 years ago - risking his life and killing the enemy to save Democracy, to root out Fascism.
I see that the area near the Washington Monument where my years finest event is held is closed off to us. We pray for Peace and the continued integrity of all people, all life. Folks from about every faith tradition one can name. A monument glorifying World War II is to be built there, ideally to honor the fallen; not to glorify war itself I hope..
Ronald Reagan visited a grave site in Germany to honor fallen German Stormtroopers, fascist thugs from the same war. Both he and the first President Bush had Fascists from eastern Europe working in their re-election campaigns. Do a search on Bush + Fascist or Republican +Fascist... Or substitute the search term Nazi.
I see our soldiers, outfitted in WWII German style helmets following orders in a bedraggled nation in the middle east, killing and being killed. The people of Iraq are not strewing a path of flowers for us, their Occupiers. But Halliburton and Bechtel are doing well, the oil is flowing. The oil profits are not yet enriching the Iraqi people, nor is their country theirs yet. Our people are now told they may be there years...
I have seen Bush appeased in his relentless drive to end weapon inspections in Iraq, and against the will of a majority of humans on this planet lead America into the dishonor of a "pre-emptive attack", an action that saw Hitler's administration face the Nuremburg trials. Oddly enough using a bunch of "God rhetoric" to validate his ever shifting stated motives even as all the worlds major religions joined in speaking out against this affront to civilization.
Presently we are seeing his fatal web of lies unravel.
To honor our dead that fought to wipe out Fascism all those years ago we really need to stem its rise at home. To honor our dead that have died due to an unelected mans rise to power, the influence of his corporate backers and greedhead lackeys, his administrations disregard for all the ideas that define how we think of ourselves as American; the very qualities they extol while leading us to be a bully nation outside the international laws of decency and natural law- we need to call these folks to account.
Mussolini prophesied that the major idealogical war of the 20th century would be between a system of corporate/state government bound by nationalism and war while slanted to give a corporate elite dictatorial power versus a system that serves the majority of citizens based on progress born of rational man's innovations and fueled by justice and fair play.
Loud and proud, honest and decent, concerned, conscious and acting on it; I'm an American.
How can we be more effective in this medium? Cowboy Khalil has some thoughts. And you?
See you there...
7/17/2003
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7.16.2003
Another Fascist Friend, Mr Bush?
Blogging lightly, hardly have time to read tonight.
Just to tie in the latent fascism of the American far Right I offer for your consideration two links concerning Michael Ledeen. You may remember Him as a JINSA board member, one who was pushing to roll our service people right into an attack on Iran after illegally attacking Iraq.
"Most Americans have never heard of Michael Ledeen, but if the United States ends up in an extended shooting war throughout the Middle East, it will be largely due to his inspiration.
If that doesn't pique your interest in this dirtbag how about
When The Washington Post published a list of the people whom Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's closest advisor, regularly consults for advice outside the administration, foreign policy veterans were shocked when Michael Ledeen popped up as the only full-time international affairs analyst.
"The two met after Bush's election," the Post reported cheerfully, quoting Ledeen about Rove's request that "any time you have a good idea, tell me." "More than once, Ledeen has seen his ideas, faxed to Rove, become official policy or rhetoric," noted the newspaper.
Thanks to Tiger Lilly at Brief Intelligence I have this gem of a read
Flirting with Fascism
Neocon theorist Michael Ledeen draws more from Italian fascism than from the American Right, By John Laughland. Please give it a moment of your time. Yesterday we read of Berlusconi, one of Italy's richest men, who is rooted in the Italian NeoFascist movement hanging around with our un-elected leader. Now we read what a fan of Fascism this fellow who has a great disregard for our Servicemen and women and the Presidents ear all at the same time. Let this quote gleaned from Democratic Veteran show this un-American bastards true colors. ( Kristol quote thrown in to remind you that this sick man is not rambling to himself bedraggled and drooling on a park bench in some big city- folks sympathetic to him and Kristol control the White House and the Media. If regular folks like us could get wind of the total disregard for our troops and our shared human values- our common decency as people for crying out loud more of us would be standing tall and saying No More! I want my country back!
I think the level of casualties is secondary. I mean, it may sound like an odd thing to say, but all the great scholars who have studied American character have come to the conclusion that we are a warlike people and that we love war. . . . What we hate is not casualties but losing. And if the war goes well and if the American public has the conviction that we're being well-led and that our people are fighting well and that we're winning, I don't think casualties are going to be the issue.
Michael Ledeen
AEI Breakfast
March 27, 2003
At the American Enterprise Institute, some of the finest minds in our nation are at work on some of the greatest challenges to our nation. You do such good work that my administration has borrowed 20 such minds.- Official Whitehouse Transcript of Bush's Remarks at AEI's Annual Dinner
(Bush quote gleaned from the always good Shocking Elk)
I think the American people are going to have great tolerance for the war taking longer, and they are going to have great tolerance for more casualties.
William Kristol
AEI Breakfast
March 27, 2003
I usually don't resort to name calling, but to speak so cavalierly of the sacrifices of our fellow American in this illegal and immoral occupation angers me. And more of us die each day, regular folks, people who love their families, who worry about making ends meet, who deserve to be home. Plain people. Not rich idealogues insulated from the reality of war. War is about Death, Mr Ledeen.
While idiots talk about American deaths as if they don't matter and Iraqi fatalities in thisillegal expedition like they don't exist this is what our loyal troops get from Mr Bush and company
... the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are wasteful and unnecessary -- including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity paid to families of troops who die on active duty. This comes at a time when Americans continue to die in Iraq at a rate of about one a day.
Similarly, the administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.
And
The chintz even extends to basic pay. While Bush's proposed 2004 defense budget would continue higher targeted raises for some ranks, he also proposed capping raises for E-1s, E-2s and O-1s at 2 percent, well below the average raise of 4.1 percent.
Quotation found at thousand yard glare.
How do these folks sleep at night?
This kind of mentality is what we need to expose to everyone we know. Regular folks get no sense of the larger picture through the agency of corporate media. And it will anger and disappoint them. Truth is our tool; that, a gift of gab, a "letter to the editor/representitive" writing pen ...
7/16/2003
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Hats off to American Stranger and Symbolman- it looks like they are going to give the hatemongers a run for their money with a weekly radio show TBTM Radio. Just found out about it. Anyone heard it yet? Tell me what you think. I'm looking forward to it.
Starring American Stranger and Symbolman, it's a brand new 'We're not gonna Take It Anymore' Progressive Power Hour from the same Guys that brought you many poignant, educational, and funny Animations that are being imitated all over the web - they set the standard for political animations.
Librarians are some of my favorite people in the world; as Nancy Pearl, model for a new Librarian Action Figure says "The role of a librarian is to make sense of the world of information. If that's not a qualification for superhero-dom, what is?"
Naomi Klein spoke before the ALA/CLA : "Why Being a Librarian
is a Radical Choice"
When I look out at this room I see people who represent values that are distinctly different from the ones that currently govern the globe.
These values are, in no particular order:
- Knowledge (as opposed to mere information gathering)
- Public Space (as opposed to commercial or private space)
- and Sharing (as opposed to buying and selling).
It so happens that those are three of the most endangered and embattled values you could have chosen to represent. If you decided to represent “profit” or “global competitiveness” your lives would be easy.
But you didn’t and the very notion that that some things that are so important that cannot be fully owned and contained is under siege around the world.
Funny world, where thinking and sharing are countercultural lifestyle choices, don't you think? And telling the truth?
I salute my friends at TBTM and Librarians around the world. And you too- you're working to get the truth out in the public eye too, aren't you? We're all in this together. We are the media.
Many hands make work light.
7/16/2003
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Stop on by Democracy Now! and listen to a long list of the lies Mr Bush and his regime have used to govern America. Like you haven't heard enough lies since Mr Bush took office.
"All this was inspired by the principle - which is quite true in itself - that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes.
Adolph Hitler "Mein Kampf"
On one hand you have Bernie Sanders , a champion of regular folks, giving a reality based fact supported rundown on the US economy as it applies to the real world, to the lives of folks like you and me.
On the other you have Mr Bush, Corporate Conservative, taxcutter to the rich and famous and his regime lying like rugs. The "Big Lie" technique is a given in non-Democratic governance. Are we as a people so cowed, so just plain stupid that we will allow this to go on?
unrepentant Fascist Silvio Berlusconi (please read) will be hanging with Mr Bush at his place in Texas.
Birds of a feather?
Bush is acting “in effect as a selected dictator,” Nader told journalists before the war on Iraq. He has also attacked the president for “not listening to any of the many retired admirals, generals and foreign-policy experts who have warned against the war.”
“For a cheap political advantage, the administration will destroy freedoms and civil rights, undermine our economy and destroy the position of the United States in the world.”
Let truth be served. Between the Iraq attack lies and the 9/11 smokescreen it is time call Mr Bush to account. They Impeach Murders, Don't
They?
(short post- I actually managed to lose a couple hours work in blogger again... )
7/16/2003
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7.13.2003
Read All About It
(Forgotten hyperlink added in on 7.15- sorry to have something posted for a couple days that made little sense without the "Todays Entry" initial hyperlink...)
Todays entry: Read what Bush's buddy Norman Schwartzkopf said about the attack on Iraq. Better yet, compare and contrast the Bush State of the Union address with both reality ( Mr Bush, you are a liar!) and the quality and tone of FDR's speech "The Four Freedoms" where he says:
Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional duty to "give to the Congress information of the state of the union," I find it unhappily necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders.
Hit the hyperlinks. It all concerns today's news. Get reacquainted with the lies told or insinuated. On NPR I actually heard Condaleeza Rice say " The President never said it was true he said the British said it was true" or something to that effect.
What ever happened to "The Buck Stops Here"
He has an MBA. The CEO in Chief. He knows he is responsible.
He should be impeached. It has been obvious to People Who Follow Politics, but the media has snowed folks that just watch tv. Get the message out. Write letters to the editor. Have your Representitives heard your perspective? What I'm saying is, it takes a groundswell. Write "Bush is Lying People are Dying on your money- Spread the truth. It is all coming out, from Cheney's secret energy meetings to the truth about what is at best government ineptness an is most probably something much worse concerning 9/11. These folks have already shown they are ruthless- remember the Subliminal ad early on the the GOP floated in the media? The 2000 election? Recent history?
We need to be the media. Like Mcluhan says " The Media is the Message" ( he actually wrote "massage" I believe...) We are the message.
7/13/2003
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