11.15.2003
Makes You Wonder
Look out, another Hussein and Bin Ladin a Psy-Op broadcast through Fox News.
One clue is this quote linking Mohammed Atta to Iraqi Intelligence: Even some Bush administration officials have been skeptical about a purported meeting in April 2001.
Probably because our FBI found he was elsewhere: but investigations indicate that at the time of the alleged meeting with the Iraqi agent, Ahmed Chalil Ibrahim Samir Ani, in April 2001, he was in Virginia Beach and Florida.
While he was in Florida he was not the Fundamentalist that the news reports hype. He had a girlfriend and seems to have been quite the "Party Animal"
That Mohammed Atta attended US Military Flight training School is another possibility Fox won't tell you about.
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Butler may know a thing or two. He was vice chancellor for student affairs at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California until he wrote a letter to his local paper blasting the White House resident for foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. (Please read that link to get independent backup of the Flight School connections cited above)
Hijackers lived with an FBI anti-terrorism informant for crying out loud.
Sounds crazy, I know,l this interwoven ForeignTerrorist/US Intelligence. But look at this map of the flight routes of the hijacked planes and the positions of US military bases. Think about it. How could it have happened?
An interview with Daniel Hopsicker (strap on your tinfoil hat), if you chase down some of the stuff he cites it is pretty interesting.
Makes you wonder...
About the Iraq Bin laden stuff, it can be quietly retracted in a day or two. But it will be swimming around in peoples heads, accurate or not. GOP Meme Warfare.
11/15/2003
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11.14.2003
Some Tools
In doing research for I came across a pretty incredible news source News From Babylon, another tool for gathering information to help lead folks into critical thinking about current events. Democracy without accurate information to inform the thoughts of the citizenry is, well , look around, it is only a Democracy in name. I'm also adding The Rational Enquirer and News Alternative to the sidebar information resource list. Read , consider, get the information out there.
The media is in collusion with the moneyed interests that presently run America. Look at the Iraq war lies we have been uncritically fed. The fact of Mr Bush having been AWOL. The continued false 9/11 Iraq connection in this Administrations speeches. Out and out lies from the most secretive administration in America's history.
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." - John F. Kennedy
quote gleaned at President Moron
Here is a tool from The Public I (The Center for Public Integrity), take a look the interweave of Government and Business.
11/14/2003
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Borders Book Strike
There is a strike going on against giant book retailer Borders in Ann Arbor Michigan. I found out about it through an unmentioning e-mail, I just chanced to explore the URL of the writer and then was led to look into it more deeply.
Some resources: Goodspeed Update will give you area newspaper background links and also gives links to Borders Union as well as an online petition in support of the workers.
I'm guessing you read a lot and, like many of us, have seen your local booksellers go the way of the Dodo after these
mega-retailers moved in. In many places they are the only game in town. After reading about the Ann Arbor Workers reasonable demands I was moved to support their Petition. Let Borders/Walden Books/Amazon.Com know that these workers deserve better.
11/14/2003
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11.13.2003
Another Bush Failure
Could we lose the Occupation of Iraq? The CIA guestimates there are 50,000 insurgents willing to fight to free their country, from our troops.
"For every mujahadeen killed or hauled off by Soviet troops in Afghanistan, a revenge group of perhaps half a dozen members of his family took up arms. Sadly, this same rule probably applies in Iraq."
Looks like Mr Bush got his Vietnam. And so did our loyal troops, sad to say. But at least there is talk of getting the Iraqi people in control of their own country, I'm guessing sooner rather than later. But her's what Col. David Hackworth has to say about just who our government empowers there:But that's only if we don't empower yet another world-class serial killer, and then in a decade or two have to spend still more precious American lives making another regime change in a country that's already paid too hard a price.
Just as Andrew Card said about starting the rush to attack Iraq, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August" you probably don't flush a failed product that cost many lives both American and Iraqi, as well as the respect of the international community too close to an election.
How will the Republican Party and Corporate media spin Bush and companies' illogic war?
The strategy will involve the dismissal of Democrats as the party of "protests, pessimism and political hate speech," Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee chairman, wrote in a recent memo to party officials -- a move designed to shift attention toward Bush's broader foreign policy objectives rather than the accounts of bloodshed. Republicans hope to convince voters that Democrats are too indecisive and faint-hearted -- and perhaps unpatriotic -- to protect US interests, arguing that inaction during the Clinton years led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001
link gleaned from BC.
Get the facts out. Democracy's survival depends on it.
11/13/2003
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Over at 18 1/2 Minute Gap found this parable, a must read as we consider the 2004 election.
Unless you are a Kucinich supporter and you already understand...
While writing about Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his Halliburton/ DC connections I forgot to mention that Bill Frist's Security Specialist had met with the newly arrested Russian fraud and tax evasion Billionaire. We outed him as being an advisor to the Carlyle Group two days before the Washington Post did. What stirred the memory of the Frist omission though was this excellent and informative article at And Then: Late Night with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Give it a read...
11/13/2003
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11.12.2003
Territory Water and Justice
There is such a thing as International Law. There are rules and obligations which it imposes on an occupying power. Certain minimal obligations towards letting an occupied population enjoy a certain minimal standard of living.There was a time when Israeli rule was more or less within this framework. Now it is totally broken. The only consideration, overriding everything else, is maintenance of the settlements, which are inherently
a violation of International Law.
--Avigdor Feldman, prominent Israeli attorney,at a Tel Aviv symposium, March 12, 2003
Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories
One thing we hear about here when talking about the Israeli Palestinian issue is that the Palestinian People refused Ehud Barak's generous offer for Peace. At Gush Shalom I have found a very revealing graphical representation that offers the facts and figures of this "generous" offer. Initially the Palestinians agreed to keep about 22% of their homeland, conceding the rest of Palestine to bring about Peace. Israel wished to keep 69 illegal Israeli settlements comprising another 10 percent of what was originally these peoples homeland. Explore the link to see just what the deal offered was.
There is plainly nothing just or generous about it, see for yourself. You be the judge.
This "Peace Plan" would leave the Palestinian people to live in what Hitler termed "Ghettos" , what were known in South Africa as Bantustans.
In the late 1970's, hoping to forestall the end of white rule, South Africa began to create "Bantustans." These were nominally "independent" homelands to which all of South Africa's blacks were eventually supposed to be transferred. The end result, so the apartheid rulers hoped, would be a strong white South Africa with few or no black citizens, surrounded by a constellation of poor, weak black states which it could easily control and exploit as a source of cheap labor.
The reality behind this further attempt by Israel to grab Palestinian lands will help you to understand the injustice the Palestinian people are suffering by not getting back the territory they held until 1967. They have granted their Israeli neighbors a huge concession as it is.
Moshe Dayan: "We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country [the total area was about 6%] we bought the lands from the Arabs. Jewish Villages were built in place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal [Dayan's own village] arose in the place of Mahalal, Gevat-- in the place of Jibta, [Kibbutz] Sarid-- in the place of Haneifs and Kefar Yehoshua-- in the place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place in the country that did not have a former Arab population." [Ha`aretz, April 4 1969]
Quoted from"The Question of Palestine" by Edward Said
Water is a very important part of territorial dispute. According to the UN mandated borders (The Green Line) Israel controlled only 3% of the Jordan Basin area. Now Israel controls the majority of its water. Palestinians utilize only 0.5% of water from the Jordan. Israel controls 80% of Palestinian Aquifers of the Occupied Territories. There are approximately 215,000 Palestinians in 150 villages without piped in water. Only 23 new well permits have been allowed by Israeli military authorities since 1967.The "separation Wall" will further exacerbate Palestinian water woes:
At least 32 groundwater wells, with an approximate total discharge of 4 MCM/year, are expected to be affected by the construction of the Wall in this first phase alone, in addition to the consequences to the agricultural lands relying on these wells. In the cases of these wells, they are to be separated from the communities and farmers dependent on them by being placed on the western side of the wall, with the communities to the east. These groundwater wells are located in the Western Groundwater Basin and were drilled prior to 1967. As a result, Palestinians will loose nearly 18% of their share of the Western Groundwater Basin.
Losing 18% of what they are now allowed is drastic.
In the hot months Palestinians must use water saved in cisterns, while the settlers water allotment is upped the water to Palestinian towns is shut off to allow for this increase in consumption. Overall, Palestinians are allowed 70 liters per person per day, while the average Israeli uses 282 liters per day. USAID and the WHO recommend 100 liters as the bare minimum amount a people need per person for domestic as well as civic use( schools, etc).
Water is costly. The percentage of Palestinians that cannot afford their piped in water bills is reaching towards 100%. Settlers pay $.40 for their piped domestic water while Palestinians pay $1.20.
Many communities that depend on trucked in water cannot afford the cost; a cost that is rising due to negotiating checkpoints making for increased transportation times. Many of the trucks are having trouble actually accessing water.
The Israeli water company Mekerot has lessened the amount of water they supply to some communities, and stopped supplying others.
There is more to the picture than meets the eye when you get your news from the mainstream media. The Palestinian/Israeli issue is complex and warrants much exploration. Consider the issue in all its depth yourself, and the next time you here it reduced to a simplistic religious conflict give folks some insight, e-mail them some of the links I've shared. Knowledge is power, and the truth will out.
Resources: How the Wall will effect Palestinian ability to access water
11/12/2003
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11.11.2003
AWOL: A Study in Hypocrisy
Just as it was in the days of the founders, the struggle to ensure that media serve some common good, as opposed to merely the private interests of media owners and their powerful allies, goes to the heart of whether the United States will be a free and functional democracy.
Thai Farmers half a world away from here put a curse on Mr Bush and we can't even get the Beltway bound US media to tell us the truth about him.
Soldiers are considered deserters when they remain AWOL for over 30 days. When soldiers return to military control, they are usually charged with desertion and can receive a court-martial for the offense.
These punishments do not only affect an AWOL soldier's future military career but also his life when he returns to civilian society.
But not if you have pull. And the Bush family name.
Not only can you be a "C" student and attend America's most prestigious schools, you can walk away from 1,000,000 dollars worth of Air National Guard pilot training, against orders and still be made President. Only in ruling class America...
Please look at this list of direct Bush Lies concerning his Air National Guard "experience". It, like much of his actual biography, is a tale of political influence and favoritism, a tale too long for me to recount here.
The media can access the truth as easily as you or I can. Why isn't the truth about this man ever discussed, say on television.But you can easily read the whole story of his military nonservice, here on the internet?
The hypocrisy of an AWOL sitting in the White House, bearing the mantle of "Commander-in-Chief is appalling, and newsworthy, especially since he can get away without question the playing up of his military/ presidential solemnity at the tomb of the Unknowns:
"We have laid to rest young men and women who died in distant lands," Bush said after visiting Arlington National Cemetery and laying a wreath there.
This points out the irony of him attending that solemn event and stating "we":
Unlike Presidents Reagan, Bush I and Clinton, who all attended memorial ceremonies for troops killed in overseas terrorist attacks, Bush II declines to be present at services for soldiers who have died in Iraq.
Your "Mission Accomplished" and "Bring em on" are what are ringing through my mind this Veterans Day.
Soldiers are still dying. Remember Afghanistan? Can you believe US soldiers and Afghanistan civilians died only to have the present administration cozying up to the Taliban again?
All that remains is to get out, as the US has little interest in what happens to the country next. As such, it is actively engaged in discussions with so-called "moderate" Taliban to involve them in the Kabul government, as this could result in bringing stability to the country, and allow the US to depart gracefully.
Here is a flash media piece (requires flash player) concerning Mr Bush and his time spent AWOL from Take Back the Media. It will take a minute to load if you use a dial-up connection.
Resources:
AWOLBush.Com
Photocopies of documents showing Bush AWOL status (scroll down) and link footnoted account of "discrepancies" that pepper his explanatory accounts...
A comprehensive collection of Bush documents gathered by a "regular guy" like you or me documenting Bush's incomplete flirtation with the Texas Air National Guard.
11/11/2003
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Although I am just a plain old American, one of the hoi polloi, George Soros and I have something in common: We are dedicating our lives at present to seeing Mr Bush defeated. I wish I was rich instead of handsome, but hey, I do what I can for the cause of Truth and Democracy. And they are clearly on our side.
It will be so good to see someone elected put in the White House, don't you think?
11/11/2003
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11.10.2003
We're Watching YOU
"Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream . . . and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. . . . We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect rule Iraq. . . . There was no viable 'exit strategy' we could see. . . . Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different -- and perhaps barren -- outcome."
The current White House Resident should have listened to his father, President Bush, from who the quote above comes. If you haven't read "Blueprint for a Mess" by David Rieff that appeared in the New York Times you really should to get an idea on just how slapped together the rush for war was. As well as how little concern was given to the reality of occupying Iraq.
Although Scott Ritter found nothing pertaining to "Weapons of Mass Destruction" while at a compound belonging to the Special Operations Directorate of the Iraqi Intelligence Service he did come across training materials dealing with the construction and use of Improvised Explosive Devices, the same homebuilt armaments that are taking so many American lives today. Reading the link you'll also note that the Iraqi Intelligence Service had a program of surveillance chillingly akin to the Poindexter/DARPA "Total Information Awareness" program, albeit a low tech version. Although Congress cut the funding out of TIA are you aware that it has morphed into a privatized version of data surveillance entitled MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange). Yup, privatized, funded to the tune of 4 million dollars by the Justice Department with another 8 million fom the Department of Homeland Security in the pipe. Privatized, meaning no bothersome Congressional oversight between Big Brother and your privacy. Did I mention the CIA might get access? Read the informative article by By Anita Ramasastry linked above.
While researching this piece I came across a chilling account of the folks at the website Cryptome being visited by the FBI because it was categorized as a place to get information"that could harm the United States" the excellent site deals with truth, with the facts concerning civil liberties, 9/11, things like how many of our men and women are dying in Iraq. They are valuable resource that, if you have been stopping by here for a while you have doubtless followed links to.
Is truth dangerous to a Democracy? Or just to the liars that have so successfully subverted it?
Bush Lies and our fellows are dying.
Rumsfeld lies about lying.
Cheney Lies
And they couldn't get away with it without media collaboration.
Think about it.
11/10/2003
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11.09.2003
Duty Now For The Future
The Bush tax cuts are bleeding the states dry. Spending is not the culprit.
Treasury Department figures show that actual corporate income tax revenues fell to $132 billion in 2003, down 36 percent from $207 billion in 2000.
As a result of these low levels, corporate revenues in 2003 represented only 1.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (the basic measure of the size of the economy), the lowest level since 1983, the year in which corporate receipts plummeted to levels last seen in the 1930s.
Corporate revenues represented only 7.4 percent of all federal tax receipts in 2003. With the exception of 1983, this represents the lowest level on record (these data go back to 1934).
Do you want your kids to have a day cut out of the school week so rich folks can pay less taxes?
Here are some figures Jim Hightower points out:
67 percent would prefer to have more spending on such needs as education and health care than to have Bush's latest tax cut. (ABC/Washington Post).
By a two to one margin, the public thinks that Bush's tax plan will benefit the wealthy, not all Americans (NBC/Wall Street Journal).
If there's to be a tax cut, 58 percent think it should be targeted to middle-income and low-income folks, while 40 percent think taxes should be cut equally for all income brackets -- I'm not great at math, but I think that leaves only 2 percent thinking it's a good idea to target tax cuts for the rich, as Bush is doing (Pew Research Center).
Instead of federal funds being given away as tax cuts, 74 percent prefer that the money be used to stabilize Social Security (FOX News).
Please read the above links.
This is "class war". Those who can buy politicians can dictate policy, while the majority of America gets screwed.
The pretender in the White House increased the "acceptable" amount of arsenic in our drinking water for his corporate funders as one of his first moves in office. He has moved to take away overtime pay for many of us.
See what our troops have to say about the conditions our AWOL pResident has subjected them to. He does not even honor them in death.
Are we a people ready to get off our asses, put our bodies on the line for Democracy? For a livable world for our children?
Our Presidency and our country were stolen on a cold night in November 2000. We watched TV, let it happen.
Share all you learn.
11/09/2003
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