Tuesday, August 29, 2006

JOIN THE GLOBAL INSURGENCY


We might take a lesson from the growing Iraqi insurgency and the response of that nation nearly destroyed by our pretext-laden invasion and the American neo-Jacobin possession of that country. ...

They know what they don’t want, and have made a personal commitment to resist it.

They are living at reduced standards, not only within or under their means but often proudly and creatively so, relying upon and strengthening extended networks of family and friends as they do. ...

All are qualified to resist. None are excluded.

— Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D., Lt. Col. (USAF, ret.): Unleashing the Resistance

IF THEY CAN GET YOU ASKING THE WRONG QUESTIONS --- THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE ANSWERS


Welcome to the One-Party Police State

War? What War?

By DAVE LINDORFF


The main legacy of Johnson's "war" on poverty, really, was not on poverty, but on political language. It led directly to the subsequent Nixon/Carter/Reagan/Clinton "war" on drugs.

That deceptively titled policy initiative had nothing to do with a war, but everything to do with expanding police power and police tactics within the U.S., and with filling prisons with people who didn't belong there.

In that regard, the "war" on drugs was a model for Bush's subsequent "war" on terror. Claiming that hordes of dark-skinned "Islamofascist" terrorists are out to destroy America, Bush and his cronies, following the 9-11 attacks, declared "war" on the terrorists.

This is what Bush's phony "War on Terror" is about in reality: not a war, but an excuse for a police state. He has even claimed that this fake "war" makes him "commander in chief" and since this faux war is global, taking place everywhere including within the U.S., he claims that gives him the power of a generalissimo both internationally and here at home--the power to declare anyone he wants, including you and me, an "enemy combatant" without rights of any kind, the power to ignore the courts, the power to ignore laws passed by Congress, and even the power to ignore the Constitution itself.

Let's get real: There is no "war" on terror, just a war on the American people and on our Constitution.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

WORLD'S GREATEST LIVING GENERAL CELEBRATIES 95TH BIRTHDAY


Vo Nguyen Giap is the Vietnamese general who planned the Ho Chi Minh trail and defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu. In a rare interview with the author of a book about the trail, he recalls his part in defying the might of the US military

The teacher turned military genius Vo Nguyen Giap, who celebrated his 95th birthday today, is one of the last connections with the days of Ho Chi Minh and the start of the fight against colonial rule.

Remarkably, his army originally consisted of 34 people. By the time of the ultimate battle against the French at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954, it was a conventional force of thousands with weapons supplied by China and the USSR. His army would eventually rise to be over a million-strong against the Americans.

Gen Giap planned the Ho Chi Minh trail to run through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with a total road length of 12,500 miles. It became a lifeline that provided his army with everything needed to live and fight effectively against the US. In a vain attempt to destroy the trail, the US dropped more than 1.6m tonnes of munitions on lower Laos alone during its 16-year period of operations, starting in 1959.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

IS IT GLOBALIZATION? OR CRONY CAPITALISM?


IRS Privatization
A big sign to date that we are moving towards a market-state:

...

Given these returns, it is clear that competitive pressures are nearly nill. Of course, this is almost certainly a bastardized system that is allocating contracts to cronies (as are almost all of these public-private boondoggles everyone is touting).

David Cay Johnston. "I.R.S. Hires Debt Collectors." New York Times. August 20, 2006.

It looks like the US implementation of the market-state concept is going to end up relatively badly implemented. What does that mean? Here's what a poorly executed US market-state look like in 15 years: A largely privatized state. Lots of crony capitalism due to a massively corrupted government. Huge disparities in wealth. Oodles of paramilitaries (think in terms of private security firms replacing the thousands of SWAT teams that have proliferated over the last couple of years). Radical increases in poverty. Urban decay on a grand scale. Immigration out of control. Wealth flight (to the Caymans).

The keys to making this work are ruthless efficiency (likely through extremely competitive marketplaces), incorruptibility, fairness (to a fault), transparency, platforms, and viable ecosystems. Anything less and it breaks (fragments) due to: your opportunity is at the expense of my opportunity...

CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS: FROM WACO TO WASHINGTON

Sunday, August 20, 2006

IRAN'S THIRD FRONT


In Iraq, where Iran is deeply involved in political developments, the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is said to have made Hezbollah the model for his Mahdi Army militia.

Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst, looks at the rising casualty rates in Iraq. From Asia Times:

The author says a Hezbolla-style power play by Muqtada al Sadr would put the USA in a lose-lose position:

If it happens, and Muqtada decides to end all restraint, he could immediately bring down the Maliki cabinet. Or he could withdraw his ministers from the government and replace them with non-entities, and transform the cabinet into a political dwarf unable to make any real decisions. In this event, what would govern the state of affairs under Muqtada would be the power of the sword on the Iraqi street...

... with Iraq in such civil strife, it could in all likelihood become a battleground for the entire Persian and Arab neighborhood. The Saudis would support the Sunnis. Iran - and Lebanon's Hezbollah - would support the Shi'ites.

The United States would be trapped in the middle. It would be unable to side with any one party against the other. Supporting the Sunnis would mean supporting former Ba'athists. Supporting the Shi'ites would mean allying with Iran...

The United States stands in a helpless situation.

WAR GAMES IN IRAN


IRAN TEST FIRES 10 SHORT RANGE MISSILES


By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Sun Aug 20, 9:50 AM ET

TEHRAN, Iran -
Iran test-fired 10 surface-to-surface short-range missiles on Sunday, a day after it launched a series of large-scale military exercises throughout the country, state-run television reported. The Saegheh missile had a range of between 50 and 150 miles, the report said. It did not specify whether the missile was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, but it was not believed to be.

Real people. Real success stories. Yahoo! Personals. See Stephanie and Mike's story.

State-run television said the missile was built based on domestic know-how, although outside experts say much of the country's missile technology originated from other countries.

Iran said it launched the new military exercises Saturday to introduce a new defensive doctrine.

"We have to be prepared against any threat and we should be a role model for other countries," local newspapers quoted army spokesman Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, as saying earlier this week.

The military exercises come as Iran faces heightened international scrutiny because of its contentious nuclear program and for supporting the guerrilla group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

IRAN TO US: BUGGER OFF


IRAN SAYS IT WON'T HALT ATOMIC WORK

ReutersReuters

Aug 20, 2006 — By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it would not suspend uranium enrichment, ruling out the main demand in a nuclear package backed by six world powers that aims to allay Western fears Tehran is seeking to build atomic bombs.

Tehran, which insists its nuclear aims are purely civilian, shows no sign of accepting the package.

"We are not going to suspend (enrichment). The issue was that everything should come out of negotiations, but suspension of uranium enrichment is not on our agenda," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

Analysts say Iran's defiance may be based on a calculation that divisions at the United Nations mean it will only face modest measures such as travel restrictions on officials or asset freezes. The world's fourth largest oil exporter, brimming with petrodollars, feels it can cope with such steps.

Permanent Security Council members United States, Britain and France back sanctions, but China and Russia, the two other members with veto powers, oppose such steps.

Friday, August 18, 2006

HEZBOLLAH ALAMO WITH A TWIST


THE MISSION IS DESTROYED, BUT...

THE DEFENDERS SURVIVE

THE ATTACKERS ARE ROUTED


U.S. PROPAGANDA MINISTRY SHIFTS FOCUS


BENEFITS

  1. Shifts focus from Iraq civil war debacle
  2. Shift focus from US massive defeat at the hands of Hezbollah
  3. Perp-Karr looks like Ned Lamont
  4. US public opinion will awaken to this hoax as they awaken to the latest Brittish "bomb an airplane" hoax and will confuse the two on the subliminal level at which US public opinion operates.

CHAVEZ EXPLAINS WHAT HE THINKS OF GEORGE W BUSH


Thursday, August 17, 2006

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT 911. WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE MEDIA


READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE

911

1) I will begin by stating what we know to be a solid incontrovertible scientific fact.

We know that it is strictly impossible for any building, much less steel columned buildings, to “pancake” at free fall speed. Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false.

The only explanation known to science for the free fall collapse of a building, especially into its own footprint, is engineered demolition, which removes the supports for each floor of the building at split second intervals so that the debris from above meets no resistance on its fall. To call this explanation a “conspiracy theory” is to display the utmost total ignorance. Any physicist or engineer who maintains that buildings can “pancake” at free fall speed has obviously been bought and paid for or is a total incompetent fool.

The WTC buildings are known to have collapsed at free fall speed into their own footprints.

This fact does not tell us who is responsible or what purpose was served.

The Popular Mechanics article and the TV documentary are obviously false since they both endorse the official explanation that the WTC buildings “pancaked” at free fall speed, an obvious scientific impossibility. Whether the false reporting by Popular Mechanics and television are due to incompetence or to complicity in a government cover-up, I do not know.

2) We know nothing about alleged suicide flyers led by M. Atta except what the government has told us, a government that has lied to us about everything else, such as Iraq’s alleged WMD and alleged links to Osama bin Laden, and Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, a program for which the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors cannot find evidence.

...are good indications that we have no documented information of who was behind the plot, why it occurred, or how it operated.

THE MEDIA

With regard to the role of the US media, if it is indeed a media rather than a propaganda ministry, one reader cited remarks by the distinguished investigative reporter, John Pilger, made in an address at Columbia University on 14 April 2006:

“During the Cold War, a group of Russian journalists toured the United States. On the final day of their visit, they were asked by their hosts for their impressions. ‘I have to tell you,’ said their spokesman, ‘that we were astonished to find after reading all the newspapers and watching TV, that all the opinions on all the vital issues were by and large, the same. To get that result in our country, we imprison people, we tear out their fingernails. Here, you don’t have that. What’s the secret? How do you do it?’”

The uniformity of the US media has become much more complete since the days of the cold war. During the 1990s, the US government permitted an unconscionable concentration of print and broadcast media that terminated the independence of the media. Today the US media is owned by 5 giant companies in which pro-Zionist Jews have disproportionate influence. More importantly, the values of the conglomerates reside in the broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, and the corporations are run by corporate executives--not by journalists--whose eyes are on advertising revenues and the avoidance of controversy that might produce boycotts or upset advertisers and subscribers. Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

AL-CIADA: "WE SHALL NOT REST UNTIL THEY FLY NAKED


found at Crooks and Liars

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

BERTOLT BRECHT HAS "THE SOLUTION"


By THOM SHANKER and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: August 16, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — President Bush made clear in a private meeting this week that he was concerned about the lack of progress in Iraq and frustrated that the new Iraqi government

Those who attended a Monday lunch said...

“I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally — that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,”

“The president wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success.

the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq

“I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,”


The Solution
Bertolt Brecht

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

GEORGE PONDERS THE QUESTION OF THE DAY: IS I AN IDIOT? .....UH?....I REALLY DON'T KNOW

THE HORROR, THE HORROR


Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.

Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?

Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.

Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?

Willard: I'm a soldier.

Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.

Read here

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

BREAKING WIND



Back from Israel to resume hosting his "700 Club" broadcast, Robertson quoted a Bible passage from the prophet Isaiah: "We were with child. We writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind."

"In other words," he said, "nothing came out of this at all. 'We writhed in pain,' but nothing was born from it."

Suggesting that the invasion of Lebanon failed to achieve its objective, Robertson said, "Israel went in, but what have they done? Is the word of Isaiah true? -- 'We writhed in pain but we gave birth to wind' -- I'm afraid so."

Monday, August 14, 2006

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON IN THE 3 1/2 MONTHS SINCE ATENCO -- IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING


Mexico’s Partial Vote Recount Confirms Massive and Systematic Election Fraud
With Less than 9 Percent of Precincts Recounted, More than 126,000 Votes Are Found to Have Been Disappeared or Illegally Fabricated

By Al Giordano
Part V of a Special Series for The Narco News Bulletin

August 14, 2006

...And added to the post-electoral conflict, more related to that in Oaxaca, is the unsettled account of 30 political prisoners arrested May 3 and 4 in San Salvador Atenco, the pending arrival there of indigenous comandantes from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials), and the quiet organizing being done from Mexico City and in other states by its Subcomandante Marcos and thousands of organizations and adherents to the Zapatista Other Campaign, which, outside the glare of the media and the electoral spectacle, organizes toward a national rebellion more ambitious than saving the vote of a single election, but, rather, seeking to topple an economic system. The Trife, if it imposes the fraud, will accelerate the Zapatista calendar as perhaps the greatest consequence.