Wednesday, August 24, 2005
WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? ---- IT IS NO LONGER PURPLE FINGERS FOR THE LADIES
The White House propaganda maestros used an Iraqi women's rights activist as a living prop at Shrub's state of the union address earlier this year, whipping wing nut war hawks and media dingdongs alike into a frenzy of teary-eyed patriotism. They also arranged for her to stand immediately in front of the mother of a Marine killed in action in Iraq -- setting the scene for a "spontaneous" hug that reduced a national television audience to quivering lumps of sentimental jello and left Joe Klein spitting phlegm-coated bile at the Democratic Party.
Now, that very same activist is telling the world the Americans just sold her, and her Iraqi sisters, down the river to a bunch of medieval mullahs with Made-in-Tehran labels on the insides of their turbins.
http://billmon.org/
PICTURE CAPTION
When Norwood started to pull back, the chain from her son's dog tags, which she had been holding, became entangled in al-Souhail's accoutrements. The women had to disentangle themselves on live television, the awkwardness lending the moment an unrehearsed charm. It was, by any measure, magic.
Washington PostThe Moment That America EmbracedFebruary 4, 2005
Intelligent design is for people who don’t understand the word allegory, and for politicians who use them to get elected.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.
U.S. Sen. John McCain knows why he wants to be president
Sounding much like a candidate ticking off the priorities of his platform, McCain said they include immigration, Social Security, global warming, rising health-care costs and the "obscene" spending practices of Washington
NOTE: What else is here.
1. Global Warming
2. Rising health-care costs
3. "obscene spending practices
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/politics/90069
FIRST HE WAS JUST A MURDERER, NOW HE IS A LYING MURDERER
Robertson issued his denial during an interview with former ambassador-at-large for the Republic of Venezuela and outspoken Chavez critic Thor Halvorssen on the August 24 broadcast of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club:
HALVORSSEN: Now, I think that it's very important to also note your comments were about assassination. The person -- I think that alternative is lowering to his level.
ROBERTSON: Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should, quote, "take him out," and "take him out" can be a number of things including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200508240005
SUPPORT THE REVOLUTION; BUY YOUR GAS AT CITGO. --- THIS IS THE REASON FOR ROBERTSON'S FATWA
Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."
Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.
Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that sought to overthrow Chavez.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0516-25.htm
ROBERTSON ISSUES FATWA SIX DAYS AFTER RUMMY GETS HIS ASS KICKED OUT OF PARAGAUY
In an attempt to reverse the cycle of instability that has erupted in the Andean states of South America and that continues to intensify, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay and Peru on August 16-18.
...Washington, which has accused Caracas and Havana of lending support to Morales, fears that populist movements opposed to its strategic aims now have a genuine chance to come to power in the Andean states and institute socialist economic models in place of neo-liberal capitalist free trade
...After his talks with Rumsfeld, Duarte made it clear that "no world power is going to install any military base in Paraguay." He added that "Latin America has to integrate, form a power bloc without any kind of prejudices or exclusionary visions."
Washington's efforts to reverse the cycle of instability in the Andes and the attendant rise of populist movements, and to form a coalition to isolate Caracas, met with failure in Asuncion and Lima, where economic demands trumped strategic concerns. [See: "Cycle of Instability in the Andes: Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru"]
Look for Washington to face increasing difficulties in achieving its strategic aims in South America, as even governments that are willing to cooperate with the U.S. raise the economic price for strategic support and are drawn closer to emerging power blocs in the region that compete with Washington. Given domestic pressures in the U.S., Washington will not have the ability to pay the price demanded by states that it has deemed its potential allies.
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report
_id=351&language_id=1
THE PRESIDENT SAYS SOMETHING STARTLING
White House reporters were urged to note the extraordinary significance of the president -- for the first time anyone can remember -- actually acknowledging the number of soldiers who have died in Iraq.
Yes, after months of painstakingly avoiding specific mention of the extent of American casualties in the war, Bush somewhat startlingly had this to say yesterday:
"We have lost 1,864 members of our Armed Forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 223 in Operation Enduring Freedom. Each of these men and women left grieving families and loved ones back home. Each of these heroes left a legacy that will allow generations of their fellow Americans to enjoy the blessings of liberty. And each of these Americans have brought the hope of freedom to millions who have not known it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
BUSH TAKES TIME OUT FROM HIS VACATION TO TELL US THAT SOMEBODY IS WEAKENING AMERICA
President Bush speaks to the press at the Tamarack resort in Donnelly, Idaho, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005. Bush charged Tuesday that anti-war protesters such as Cindy Sheehan, who want the troops brought home immediately, are 'advocating a policy that would weaken the United States.' (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
SHEEHAN SPLITS DEMS. WILL FEINGOLD BE EUGENE MCCARTHY?
"Democrats say a longstanding rift in the party over the Iraq war has grown increasingly raw in recent days, as stay-the-course elected leaders who voted for the war three years ago confront rising impatience from activists and strategists who want to challenge President Bush aggressively to withdraw troops."
Consider Hillary's predicament. Today, she is taking the same cautious position on Iraq that Richard Nixon took in the fall of 1968 on Vietnam. She is saying she supports the war and the troops, but the war has been mismanaged and America needs new leadership.
No risk there. Hillary's problem is she is three years away from 2008, the antiwar movement increasingly looks on her as a collaborator in "Bush's War," and Democrats like Feingold are going to give these antiwar militants the rhetoric and stances they demand. Hillary's most rabid followers will depart if she does not leave Bush's side – to lead them.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=7056
THIS WAS THE NOBLE CAUSE --- IT WAS A FAILURE
At the onset of Iraq War II from talk radio to business news, from Washington to Main Street the national debate shifted away from waging war to how the victor would enjoy the oil. "There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, claiming Iraqi oil production would foot the bill. "And, on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years," he predicted."Iraq will not require sustained aid," echoed President Bush's Office of Management and Budget.
Two and a half years later, the accuracy of Wolfowitz's "rough recollection" and the OMB's "not required sustained aid" forecasts can now be tallied at the gas pump and will be measured in winter heating bills. A barrel of oil today costs more than twice as much as it did on the eve of the U.S. invasion, while Iraqi oil exports have fallen from 2.5 million barrels per day back then, to 1.6 million bpd now.
http://www.independent-media.tv/index.cfm
HE DIED FOR NOTHING
The plain truth is that Iraq never attacked the United States and never even threatened to do so. Neither the Iraqi people nor their government had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks. Therefore, the U.S. government had no moral or legal right to invade Iraq and kill and maim the Iraqi people. That makes the United States the aggressor nation in this conflict. It is the invader. It is the conqueror. Don’t forget that aggressive war was punished as a war crime at Nuremberg and that it is barred by the UN Charter, to which the United States is a signatory. Don’t forget also that Bush invaded Iraq without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, making the war illegal under our own form of government.
And it was never about democracy, freedom, or the liberation of the Iraqi people. After all, if democracy was so important, would U.S. officials be embracing the military dictator of Pakistan as well as authoritarian dictators all over the Middle East? And if the freedom and well-being of the Iraqi people were so important, would U.S. officials have continued maintaining the sanctions against Iraq year after brutal year, despite the ever-growing number of deaths of Iraqi children?
It just doesn’t add up, does it? And the reason it doesn’t is that it’s all a lie — just as the supposed North Vietnamese attack at the Gulf of Tonkin, which President Lyndon Johnson and the U.S. Congress used as an excuse to expand the Vietnam War, which ended up killing 58,000 American soldiers and wounding countless more, was a lie.
To answer Cindy Sheehan’s question plainly and directly: Her son died for nothing. Or if she would prefer a diplomatic, polite answer, her son died not for a noble cause, as both President Bush and Vice-President Cheney have recently stated, but instead for an ignoble cause — regime change — hard-ball politics at the international level — the ouster and replacement of a foreign politician, Saddam Hussein, who fell out of grace with U.S. officials.
With all due respect, regime change, while important to U.S. politicians and bureaucrats, is nothing worth dying for and, for that matter, it’s nothing worth killing for.
We can all express our deepest condolences to Ms. Sheehan and the other families who have lost loved ones in Iraq. But only the truth, no matter how painful, will ultimately set them and the rest of us free of the lies and deceptions that underlie U.S. foreign policy. Only the truth will enable us move our nation away from the grip of empire and militarism and toward the principles of a limited-government republic that guided our Founding Fathers.
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation and a 1972
graduate of Virginia Military Institute. Send him email.
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0508g.asp
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
THIS CANT BE GOOD
Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE ELSE THINKS SHEEHANS SON DIED FOR ISRAEL
...I came upon this filthy piece of anti-semitic propaganda from Will Marshall, the head of the Progressive Policy Institute and a well-known DLC fellow traveler:
"As they catalogue the administration's many mistakes, Democrats should also attend to the other side of the balance sheet. That side shows that our forces and their allies have toppled one of the world's most odious tyrants; upheld the principle of collective security; liberated a nation of 24 million; made possible Iraq's hopeful experiment in representative self-government; and changed the strategic equation in the Arab-Israeli conflict. (emphasis added)"
I have to say, I find this very disturbing. Marshall appears to be arguing that one of the reasons for the invasion of Iraq (and the deaths of 1,871 U.S. soldiers and counting) was to further the military and strategic interests of the state of Israel. Our brave men and women in uniform, in other words, are dying for Israel -- or so this purveyor of vicious anti-Semitic slurs would like us to believe.
Now as I'm sure you know, when Cindy Sheehan allegedly wrote a letter claiming her son Casey "was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel," she was roundly condemned and vilified by every sentient conservative on the planet -- and by Christopher Hitchens, too. And yet, here we have a leading member of the Dino Democrat establishment saying much the same thing, and the reaction on the right, is . . . dead silence.
Clearly, the anti-semitic conspiracy has spread its foul tentacles far and wide.
READ THE ENTIRE PIECE HERE:
http://billmon.org/archives/002099.html
FOR GOD'S SAKE, CAN'T THESE WIDOWS JUST SHUT UP!! I AM TRYING TO KEEP SOME BALANCE TO MY LIFE
BOISE, Idaho -- Officials are concluding preparations for President Bush's arrival today at Gowen Field for his first trip to Idaho, where he'll vacation in rural Valley County and deliver a speech on U.S. wars.
Bush is due to arrive today afternoon aboard Air Force One following an appearance at the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference in Salt Lake City. From Boise, he'll fly north to Donnelly, where he's due to spend two nights at Tamarack Resort, a ski and golf resort that opened in December 2004.
Melanie House, a 27-year-old widow whose husband, Petty Officer 3rd Class John House, was killed in Iraq on Jan. 26, is scheduled to be in Boise on Tuesday for the events.
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050822/NEWS06/1054
It's Pat's Shake and it's now at GNC stores around the country.
It's rich! It's creamy! It's the most delicious, nutritious shake you will ever taste!
WHAT WOULD JESUS DRINK?
Pat Robertson has made a great study of nutrition over the years. He has taken that knowledge and created his own unique blend of scientifically proven weight-loss ingredients, and combined them in a delectable shake that will help you build muscle and lose fat.
Check it out
ONE FREE PRAYER REQUEST WITH EVERY CASE
Pat Robertson's Age-Defying Shake
Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 2000 pounds! How does he do it?
Where does Pat find the time and energy to host a daily, national TV show, head a world-wide ministry, develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman?
Get yours here
http://www.cbn.com/communitypublic/shake.asp
"HOLY FATHER, WE THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING US WITH D. JAMES KENNEDY
George Roller, left, of the Center for Christian States -manship, and Jeremy Bouma, of the Statesman-ship Institute, help offer seminars for members of Congress and staff, teaching them to mine the Bible for ancient wisdom on modern policy.
(Andrew Councill / For The Times)
"Holy Father, we thank you for providing us with guidance," said Bouma, who works for an influential televangelist. "Thank you, Lord, for these students. Build them up as your warriors and your ambassadors on Capitol Hill."
Nearly every Monday for six months, as many as a dozen congressional aides — many of them aspiring politicians — have gathered over takeout dinners to mine the Bible for ancient wisdom on modern policy debates about tax rates, foreign aid, education, cloning and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
"We help them understand God's purpose for society," said Bouma, who coordinates the program, known as the Statesmanship Institute, for the Rev. D. James Kennedy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)