Saturday, January 31, 2009

The economy in a nutshell

Obama and the Oddsmakers

"America’s economy may be so hollowed out, its industrial base so eroded by twenty years of job exports to China and other low wage sanctuaries, that a bail-out may not turn the tide, Then the Republicans will have their told-you-so’s primed and ready to go in the mid-term elections"

...

"This is not a long-term cure, and leaves ordinary Americans drowning in debt, as before. It provides temporary relief to the big financial outfits on Wall Street which are, after all, the largest political campaign contributors and lobbyists. No doubt the unusually harsh denunciation by Obama of Wall Street’s $18 billion bonus payouts as “shameful” and “the height of irresponsibility” derive some of their edge from the fact that the bonuses make it harder for him and Geithner to sell yet another vast, extremely shameful multi-trillion giveaway to the banks."

"So Wall Street can feel satisfaction that its investment in Obama seems to be paying off. Can the same be said of the Israel lobby which rewarded Obama’s tireless blandishments last year with enthusiastic pre-election endorsements, to the effect that here was a true friend of Israel."

______________________________________


Keep your eye on this one: We are on the brink of war with the South, says North Korea. Would an outbreak of war on the other side of the world divert attention from the utter failure of the crusade for military authority in the Middle East?


Bill

Friday, January 30, 2009

No Happy Ending

In this article:

No Happy Ending

Fred Reed writes, much better then I could, the exact sentiments I would write if I were as skilled a writer.

I wouldn't say I have a leg up on him in perspective on the current situation, but I have some serious thoughts about the larger picture and the direction that Fred either doesn't see or doesn't want to say.

We Americans have been massively duped. Our military invasion of the Middle East was the result of AIPAC's strangle-hold over our so-called representatives in Congress, the Neocon gang in Washington, and Soldiers of Israel embedded throughout our information supply. To this day these soldiers spin and weave "news" stories designed to mask this truth and maximize the aggressiveness of our foreign policies, especially in the Middle East.

Where is it going? Fred doesn't step up to this question, but I have no such compunction. I love what I believe America to be all about, and I just can't stand here and watch my beloved country be destroyed because people have been deeply programmed to be terrified of saying anything bad about the Jews.

I'll be perfectly clear because my thoughts are perfectly clear: I don't hate the Jews, I can live side by side with them as well as Indians, Muslims and you-name-it. What I can't live with is the power the Soldiers of Israel have seized in America, what they've done with it, the consequential course of events, and what awaits us if we don't stop them.

What awaits us is more war, more violence, more killing, and more duping at every stage of the descent. I will say that I predicted the attack on New York City, because I did, and then I saw the invasion of the Middle East becoming a disaster before it began. And now I see a direction, a trajectory that has disaster for America written all over it.

You say it's not a disaster - then I say open your eyes and think for yourself. Think about the millions of people who deeply hate us as a result of the horror we've delivered on them, and feel their demand for justice. Feign ignorance if you will, and try to claim you only knew what the TV and the newspapers told you, but if you're reading this, you know and I know better.


Bill

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Justice

The Definition of A "Two-Tiered Justice System" by Glenn Greenwald

If this article gets you to thinking about what justice means in America, what are your thoughts about Bush and his Neocon handlers murdering tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis for no reason whatsoever? Just try to imagine how our soldiers, who did the killing and dying because they believed the pack of lies, feel now that they've had time to reflect?

And what our information supply, the "news", have to say of these monumental travesties? They say we care about Blagojevich and never mind the other things.

Of all the problems that face America, nothing comes even close to the paramount importance of ousting the propaganda machine and it's barons. Fix this problem and others, from democracy on down, will start to fall into place. Don't fix it and God help us all.



Bill

Friday, January 23, 2009

When is enough enough?

Do you remember the USS Liberty?

".... Moreover, festooned with antennas, the Liberty had a very distinctive profile and was flying a huge American flag. Yet the US Congress never held an inquiry into Israel's culpability (the only time in our history Congress failed investigate the root causes of a Naval disaster) and the DoD inquiry was as a disgraceful white wash."
Hosing Obama Israeli Style

"The crowd that gathered outside New York’s City Hall on Jan. 7 included a lot of Jews like me. We were there to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s enthusiastic support for what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza. For years now, many American Jews have been begging the U.S. government not to use us as an excuse for sending Israel the helicopters and the F-16s."
Bruce Robbins: It’s past time for U.S. to cut off Israel

Investing with Madoff is the last of a 4 part article (links to 1st 3 are included) that does, guess what? looks like an exhaustive indictment of the SEC for letting Madoff get away with his ponzi scheme. This is justice coming, you say? Is it really, or does it set the stage for - guess who? - you, the taxpayer, to wind up holding the bag as Gov't agencies are sued and payments are doled out to the losers from - guess where? - the US Treasury, which gets it's money from - guess who? - you.


"The question must be asked: Who runs America? Prime minister Olmert of Israel, who has been forced to stand down because of allegations of corruption, telephoned President Bush to make the latter alter his orders to his Secretary of State to support a mild resolution in the UN Security Council that called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The barely believable transcript of Olmert's boasting of his success is on public record. He said:

"I [Olmert] spoke with him [Bush]; I told him: You can't vote for this proposal. He said: listen, I don't know, I didn't see, don't know what it says. I told him: I know, and you can't vote for it! He then instructed the secretary of state, and she did not vote for it."

There is no other head of government in the entire world who could say such words to the president of the United States. And will Olmert's successor be able to speak with Bush's successor in the same way and with a similar result?"


Bill

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Jan 22 '09 Articles to read

Obama on the Precipice: The Ten Worst Things He Could Do When He Takes Over

Why Did Congress Shamelessly Pander to Israel?


First war tally: 1,284 Gazans dead, 4,336 wounded


How to Inflame the Entire Muslim World

Obama Should Worry About the Bush Family Tentacles Undermining His Plans

Have you noticed the clamor to hold Bush and, presumably the Neocons, accountable for torture? All well and good, and it is a judicial imperative, but it's also smoke and mirrors. The BIGGER crime, the one that those clamoring for justice are blatantly ignoring yet TOWERS over the criminality of the use of torture was the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses. Bush and Company lied and lied again and again to make that invasion happen, and the magnitude of THAT crime, with tens - and more likely hundreds - of thousands of deaths of innocent people and the destruction of a country far outweighs the injustice perpetrated by the gang and their torturous ways. Not to excuse the torture, because that indeed should be prosecuted, but let's not allow the FAR BIGGER crime to be hidden behind this clamor.


Bill

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The economy: 3 statements of the obvious are overdue

America's financial woes have at least 3 major roots that I don't hear enough (any!) talk about. Either I'm nuts or there is a massive lock on our information supply.

1. The connection between our economic plight and the military invasion of the Middle East. Every bullet, tank, etc., the military buys at best will never to be used; at worst used to kill and destroy. Nowhere in this equation is the production of goods and services that benefit anyone. If, for example, you pay someone to build a chair, you'll actually use and enjoy that chair, and maybe you'll even re-sell or give it away so someone else can use and enjoy it. Useful products have lives and durability beyond their original intent and value. Military spending has no such value, and when staggering amounts of money is involved, we're talking about a veritable monster.

2. Failure to use tariffs to keep the playing field level while moving towards an eventual world economy.

Big Business seized license (by paying off politicians who were supposed to represent us, who in turn argued they needed the money to get elected) to move huge chunks of our economy off-shore in their quest for short-term profits. Take Wal Mart for example, paying people a buck an hour to build chairs they could sell cheap here. It was a good deal for Wal Mart and buyers, true, but extremely short sighted for America as a whole. Only now, years later, are we feeling the devastating consequences and economic repercussions of those moves, mostly in job loss.

None of this had to happen, especially so fast. The problem was that, going back to Reagan, our gov't gave Big Business more and more control over our (as in we-the-people) economy, and in marched the predators. Everyone knew that stocks - and their beloved derivatives - couldn't keep going us, that the system would go bust one day. But, as with all Ponzi schemes, the ones who started it and got out before the collapse made killings, never mind the trail of destruction that's left for the rest of us. We have gov't in the first place to protect us against this type of manipulation, but what our best-money-can-buy politicians really did was give the keys to the hen house to the foxes.

Had anyone been watching our for our interests, they would have, at the least, used tariffs on products created by cheap overseas labor to level the playing field, and then carefully worked the system to guide us slowly towards worldwide economic equilibrium. It would have hurt somewhat, but we simply can't have a situation where we Americans are (perceived to be) rich while entire whole countries are starving.

Indeed, with a pumped up manufacturing base and a striving economy, we could have already solved much of the problematic suffering in the world.

3. Election finance reform, i.e. taking the money out of politics. Doing this would make it possible for us to choose among candidates who really want to represent us and not the Biggest Spenders.

It's never too late. We're going to pay Big Time for the damage already done, but if we don't get behind at least these 3 major changes, we're dooming ourselves and generations to come.

1. Cut military spending, in half to begin with, and then further thereafter. Start by dissociating ourselves from Israel and their stupid, unachievable, never-ending quest for authority in the Middle East. Resign Israel's fate to the UN.

2. Use tariffs to bring manufacturing back into America as quickly as possible

3. Challenge our software engineers to use our technologies to replace our election process with a system that delivers the promise of democracy.

Nothing is ever so simple as "do only these things and ...", so I wouldn't say that, but what I am saying is that we've been seriously duped by some very clever people and now it's past time to put an end to it.

I can do #3 myself, and if I live long enough I will do exactly that. And, if I don't create the very best system, then I'll be right there to cheer on the one who does.


Bill

The fine print

Read False Dawn
Obama's election doesn't mean peace is breaking out all over – far from it

"We didn't build the biggest embassy in diplomatic history just to leave it to become a Museum of American Atrocities."

...

"This "regional" approach championed by Obama is a technocratic euphemism for yet more – and bigger – U.S. military interventions throughout the Middle East. The preparations for an Afghan "surge" have been long in the making, and in this arena Obama will take up where Bush left off, and then some."

...

"Some kind of military operation into Pakistan is a virtual certainty, the only question being one of scale: will it be a "surgical" strike, or a large-scale Iraq-style invasion? In any case, the former is a plausible prelude to the latter."

And The myth of Israel's strategic genius

"In the wake of September 11, neoconservatives in the United States, who had been pushing for war against Iraq since early 1998, helped convince President Bush to attack Iraq as part of a larger strategy of "regional transformation." Israeli officials were initially opposed to this scheme because they wanted Washington to go after Iran instead, but once they understood that Iran and Syria were next on the administration's hit list they backed the plan enthusiastically. Indeed, prominent Israelis like Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, and then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres helped sell the war in the United States, while Prime Minister Sharon and his chief aides put pressure on Washington to make sure that Bush didn’t lose his nerve and leave Saddam standing. The result? A costly quagmire for the United States and a dramatic improvement in Iran's strategic position."


Bill

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Obama. What I think

If you've studied the presidental election at all, you must have taken note of how Obama handled AIPAC and Wall Street, since many of the same players are in both places.

But AIPAC is the more important of the two, since they have a strangehold over our foreign policies, and therein lies our greatest problem.

His handling of AIPAC amounted to a bow-low-to-power session, and who knows how much more bowing took place behind the scenes.

If you see these goings on, Washington politics in particular, as I've come to, it's not unlike a chess game.

In this game, we know the McCain rose to candidacy on hero-status alone, so the Republicans put on a good show of coming up with their candidate, but they also knew they had no hope of winning, so didn't waste their big guns on even trying, they just threw McCain in there to look like they were trying.

Behind the scenes, with the folks making the moves, McCain wasn't supposed to actually win, but there is a lot of sentiment out there for war heroes, so he started to garner a lot of votes.

Since Obama was the real "chosen guy", this created a problem. After all, nobody seriously wanted McCain to win.

Now, if you were moving the chess pieces forward, what would be the best thing you can do to hobble McCain? No-brainer: line up Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. You knew all along (because you chose her) that her niavity and ignorance would stop McCain from winning and that it would be reasonably close and even look like a real election, so you'd congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Where do you stand now? You've gotten your man Obama elected, and at the same time convinced people it was a fair and square election that let us choose between America's best and brightest.

You stroke yourself over your brilliant handling of the succession of power, with nothing actually changing while at the same time convincing people by appearances that it will.

There is a wild card though, in the form the King and Queen on the board. Maybe Obama was being sincere in his pledges, or maybe he's just playing the game, knowing the rules, to get elected and then do a turnabout in favor of his more basic feelings.

This is the AIPAC concern. If you dig a little you can find articles such as this that say he really can't be trusted by our rulers.

So what to do? How would you hedge to make sure he'll either be trusted or you can pull an ace in hole if he lets you down?

That means you have to have an ace in the hole. What would a ace look like? One such would be to have the next in line be a person of unquestioned loyalty. See this article among many, where "Biden has frequently described himself as one of Israel's best friends in Washington."

Now that's your established the 2nd in command, who is as often said a mere heart-beat away from the Presidency, if Obama does get out of control, all you have to do is get rid of him to get back to normal.

How hard would it be to get rid of Obama? Hey, with control of the information supply and the headlines, all you'd have to do is make a few mountains from molehills and you got it. You know how easy it is to do because you've got a lot of practice. Just pick any minor transgression, blow it all of of proportion, replay it ten million times, and he's reduced to useless meat as fast as someone could say "what happened to Obama?".

Maybe you're wondering, as I am, just what are Obama's true feelings? Does he really intend to, as promised, become the latest American Presidential lap dog for Israel, or does he really think otherwise? Does he think he's smarter then they are and did all that bowing because he knew he had no chance of getting elected without their nod, and then once elected plan to do as he sees fit? It is a quandary for him because if you look at that he's been saying - and how he's been hiring - he has been talking out of both sides of his mouth. In the jubilation of the moment (getting rid of Bush) this huge hypocrisy is going unnoticed, but it's profoundly, deeply, seriously there without question will lead to a moment of truth pretty soon (as in what he does about our military invasion and mission to secure authority in the Middle East. We pull out, we're defeated and the mission is over. I don't believe for a minute that AIPAC will let that happen).

As to what Obama will really do, a good guess doesn't even come to mind. My (and it should be our) worst fear is that he will play the role as promised, keep his integrity, and finish the job of destroying the American spirit in the unwinnable Middle East crusade.

You may be wondering "how would Omama go against his promises and still keep his integrity?" He has been, in effect, speaking out of both sides of his mouth, so there is a moment of truth on the horizon. If he does the right thing and reneges on his AIPAC promises, how will he withstand the full scale media assault that's sure to follow?

Does he have some chess moves of his own up his sleeve? Is he really smarter then everyone, or are we all just being duped and played for fools again?

Hope does spring eternal, and I'm as hopeful as every other American that he can get this right, but I have to admit to some very serious doubts. With his promises and his hiring, it seems to me that he's already painted himself into a corner.

Why should I or anyone be so concerned? It's the stakes. We're not talking about a chess game, we're talking about our world.


Bill

The tip of the iceberg

This article speaks volumes by itself.

But keep thinking. Ask yourself "how many other times has this kind of control over our government been exercised?"

The very sad truth is that the more you look, the more you see.


Bill

Saturday, January 17, 2009

How has such an astounding figure passed the world's media by?

In addition to the 1,000 deaths, there are some 1.5 million injured in Gaza. How has such an astounding figure passed the world's media by?

If you take this question seriously, and you really should, then do a little googling on who owns and controls the media.

Here's a guy who has researched this question, and what a pro-Zionist website has to say about it.

My take is this explains America's one-sided pro-Israel support. Taken in combination with the report on The Israel Lobby America, this explains how America, which was founded on basic Christian principles, has lost it's way.

The next time you read a bad-priest story in the "news", ask yourself "don't priests ever do anything good, at all?"

Two more articles from the "what's not on TV" dept:

Gaza invasion: Powered by the U.S. says "Taxpayers are spending over $1 billion to send refined fuel to the Israeli military -- at a time when Israel doesn't need it and America does"

Who’s in Charge—Obama, the Pentagon or Israel? reports

"Olmert told an Israeli audience that, last Friday, upon hearing of Rice’s position, he immediately telephoned George W. Bush. Told that Bush was delivering an address in Philadelphia, Olmert replied, “I’m not interested,” demanding to speak to Bush. Bush then left his Philadelphia podium and, according to Olmert, the Israeli prime minister instructed the American president that “the U.S. cannot possibly vote in favor of this resolution.” Bush then telephoned Rice and ordered her to abstain from the vote"

Does it make you feel good to throw your tax money, year after year after year, into this sink-hole to prop up this arrogant, belligerent, misguided empire wannabe? How about sending your kids to kill people and die for Israel's lust for authority in the Middle East?



Bill

Friday, January 16, 2009

The mighty propaganda machine

As if we need it any more examples, yesterday gave us another blast of insight into how the "news" propaganda machine works. As anyone who turns on the TV knows full well, you couldn't change the channel without another story about the plane that landed in the Hudson River in NY. The story was repeated over and over, all day and all night long, and it's still going on this morning, preempting all other "news".

Now it just so happened that yesterday there was an actual important story that was buried and thus missed the 'news cycle': Israeli shelling set fire to the UN headquarters, a hospital, a school and a building used by the media

These events were unconnected, I'm sure, but this does illustrate, once again, how what's important is decided for us by our information supply:

Plane landing in river: 10
Israel Bombing the UN: 0

As Philip Giraldi wrote a few days ago,

"The Israeli propaganda machine has called up its allies in the media and Congress to make sure that no one will condemn the invasion of Gaza, which has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians, most of them civilians and many of them children. The pictures of small bodies lined up to be buried are convincing evidence that something is very wrong in Gaza, but leaders in Congress from both parties have nonetheless rallied to the cause of Israeli victimhood, putting all the blame for the conflict on the Palestinians."

Philip didn't need yesterday's example of the propaganda machine at work, but here it is anyway.

--------------

It just so happened that yesterday I was out shopping and stopped into a local major appliance dealer to look around. There were something like a hundred TV's on display.

I don't think the salesperson recognized me from having been there before with the same question, because he was just as unprepared to answer it as the last time. And it's a very simple question:

"when are the TV and the computer monitor going to merge and be one?"

He shrugged his shoulders, as if he never thought of this, or was never asked this question before. He had no answer, at all. Finally I said "must be political, huh?", and he shrugged.

Now you tell me, would you rather have TV "news" dominated by the handful in charge today (google "media consolidation" for details), or would you rather have millions of channels, with your own favorite editors to help you sort it out?

Unless you really are as ignorant as they believe you to be, you must consider the implications of this divide that looms as large as a fork in the road, and can be just as fleeting.

The technologies that make this choice possible are in their infancy and still uncontrolled. Today I can write like this, and you can read it, and neither of us has to run and hide from the "Thought Police". Okay Thought Police is the worst case scenario, but what about one that is not so far away at all?

Scenario: another terrorist attach occurs anywhere in the US, and those with the power over our gov't, information and lives declare the attack happened because there was collaboration within, i.e. we have enemies within, and that the only way to fight these terrorists is to re-instate something like the sedition laws, which you may recall from the not-long-ago days of McCarthy, and the national witch hunt for "Communist sympathizers". They will say our enemies-within must be tracked down and silenced, thus preempting the very concept that they, not we, are the destructive force.

Now you tell me if the invasion of the Middle East gained us only the hated of foreign Muslims, or is it possible there are actual sympathizers here? And would anyone who stands against the policies at the core of our problems be called a sympathizer?

How far are we away from such an attack and the declarations sure to follow? I gave up predicting dates after my clear premonition of the attack on New York didn't happen for several few years. But it could easily be tomorrow.

In my lifetime, I've had a few premonitions - clear predictions of the future - but to me there is nothing magical going on at all, that these aren't really premonitions, they are much more simply statements of the obvious.

There is no question whatsoever in my mind, whether it's a premonition or just a statement of the obvious, that (a) there will be another attack here, and (b) the people who have seized the reigns of power in America (primarily media and gov't) will use this attack to seize far greater power.

Everyone realizes by now that you can't have a "war on terror", even though they actually got away with it for years. By now even the biggest dumbo among us must have come to realize that you can't have a war against a tactic. The next realization is that America is caught up in a war of ideologies. A war of thought, of beliefs, of religion.

The explosion of information technologies, as we're witnessing before us, means many things. The two most important involve our information supply, and how we can use these improvements to make our democratic republic better.

But what if those with the reigns are threatened by these developments? How would they move to protect their investment?

One thing they would make sure of: that the Internet doesn't eat the TV.


Bill

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

How to stop the madness

Juan Cole puts it all together in a post entitled Only a "For America" PAC Can Stop the Madness

The key part of his report:

"'Europe has ceded dealing with the Israelis to the United States. The people of the United States have ceded dealing with the Israelis to the US Congress. The US Congress generally abdicates its responsibilities when faced with large powerful single-issue lobbies such as . . . the Israel lobbies. So Congress has ceded Israel, and indeed, most Middle East, policy to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its myriad organizational supporters, from the Southern Baptist churches to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. The Israel lobbies take their cue on what is good policy from the Israeli government and the Likud Party. So, US Israel policy is driven by . . . the Israeli rightwing. That is why Congress voted 309 to five to support Israel's war on the people of Gaza, with 22 abstaining. '"



More on the lobby
...


Why is this matter so important? In a word: attitude. The attitude of this gang has given us a bad reputation, gotten us into a war, broke our bank, and, as they say of the best con artists "did it in such a way that we thanked the artist for the fucking".

No, it can't be like that! The world isn't a rotten, stinking place desperately in need of the authority of arrogant, belligerent, criminal warmongers.

Here's another "bet you didn't know this" article. US spends more than $52 billion a year on nukes



Bill

A Message from a Gazan to the World

I've copied an article from Commondreams in it's entirety below.

Messages such as this are filtered from the American information supply, but they make it into the Arab world.

Here's another one, The Language of Death, by Chris Hedges

Save these articles. One day, when you really want to know why we're so hated, they may come in handy.


Bill

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Published on Monday, January 12, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Gaza is Sinking in a River of Blood: A Message from a Gazan to the World

by Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi

I want to write about the suffering of my people and my family in these days of siege against the people of Gaza. 888 people have been killed and more than 3700 injured. The Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of repeatedly refusing to allow ambulances to go to Zeitoun area, so those who are injured become those who die; a premeditated and purposeful violation of human rights.

In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed.

There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends -- networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals.

Our life is centered around the burials of those who have died, our martyrs, At night our camp, Jabalya Refugee Camp, is a ghost town, with no sounds other than those of Israeli military aircraft.

There is a horror in every minute and it is clear especially in the lives of children. For example, there were five sisters in one family killed from the Israeli occupation while they stayed in their home. But there are 800,000 other children in Gaza, all afraid, all waiting for someone or something to help them. They are caught in a prison that is becoming a concentration camp. Every day we sleep and open our eyes to the Israeli crimes of killing children and women and destroying civilians' homes. My words are unable to convey my feelings about this life in Gaza.

I have two messages to the world, to those who claim they love peace and seek freedom.

Imagine your life consisting of no electricity, destroyed homes, the sounds and strikes of missiles, day and night, and the only hunger as great as that for food is the hunger for an end to this occupation and siege. Imagine it is not just you but your children and your family who tell you through their eyes and cries: "We are afraid of the missiles." "We cannot sleep." "We may never sleep again." Imagine you are the dam and the river of blood has turned into a flash flood. How long could you stand it?

We wouldn't have to stand it any longer if the world stood with us. If they demanded an end to the siege and the killings and demolition of houses for our children. If they demanded assistance reach the people through rallies and sit-ins.

Finally, I invite you to come to Gaza and see the Holocaust. Because despite the siege, the barriers, the killing of my people and homes, and the total destruction of our lives by the Israeli occupation, they can not and will not kill the will of our people for equality and justice.

Mohammed Al Majdawali is a university student, member of Al-Assria Children's Library, and volunteer with Middle East Children's Alliance. He lives in Jabalya Refugee Camp with his family and aspires to be a professional filmmaker.

To help MECA send more medical aid to Gaza for thousands of sick and injured people living under siege, www.mecaforpeace.org

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Bill Moyers and Glenn Greewald

There are a few heroes in media, and Bill Moyers is one of them. He has a show on public television called the Bill Moyers Journal.

His "Buying the War" film explains how the public was sold on (duped into) supporting the invasion of the Middle East.

Also see Bill Moyers on Israel/Gaza

See Glenn Greenwald: Both parties cheerlead still more loudly for Israel's war if you have any doubts or lingering questions on John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy".


Bill

Saturday, January 10, 2009

It's NOT the economy, stupid!

Here's a well reasoned article on the state of the economy and what to do about it.

Take point # 6

"6. Large-scale government investment would inevitably turn into an orgy of waste, fraud and abuse. True -- but only if we let conservatives run the show."

I'll be presumptuous and assume "conservatives" means "neoconservatives", because I'm a conservative, certainly insofar as the greed and corruption being referred to here, and I don't relate one iota to that mentality.

This point should be # 1, pre-requisite to the others. We know full well how they act. The missing ingredient is a plan on what to do about it. Without it, we're just talking, and there's log of talk so far, but it hasn't changed anything. Something has to really change.

Here's what I'd call a plan: put the neocons, the leaders being the signers of the PNAC, who wrote their philosophy down, signed it, and then acted it out, the war crimes and crimes against humanity, that would be part of such a plan, included. It's one thing to talk about doing these things, although that is called 'conspiracy' when crimes are involved, but that thought aside for the moment, it's quite another to act out such a philosophy. They not only did that, they did in the worst, most depraved way.


Bill

Be scared

Report: Israel Forced Civilians Into Single House, Repeatedly Bombed It

House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill Cheering Israeli War on Gaza

There's been an explanation, but like most studies and reporting, too few even people know about it (which is why I write and I see others are too. The Internet is our last and only hope to stop this machine and right a terrible wrong.

The explanation can be found here: John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

Theirs isn't the only report. Many observant and thoughtful people have been speaking similarly. If you wish links, I'll post them, but google can find much of it.

After publishing this report, Mearsheimer and Walt said the one thing they were surprised by was the amount of opposition they faced. I don't know this, but my guess is that their lives have been made miserable and their reputations and careers ruined to the extent possible.

Their report goes back a few years. What's the status today? Here is an example.

Is having this power in Washington enough?

No. The other half of the power equation is information. Our mass media, our information supply, the headlines we all follow. Who decides these headlines and assigns our priorities?

Google "who controls the media" and read for example, but there are others as well, each of which has done their homework. The simple explanation is along the lines of there being fewer then a dozen people who exercise editorial control over the majority of America's information supply. They decide the "news" headlines, which are basically our national priorities. If they want to invade the Middle East, they know they can arrange headlines enough to whip us into a frenzy. And they did! Would be funny if there weren't on the order of a million seriously grieving widows, fathers, family members who have paid such a high price. Oh, it didn't hurt you? YET.

I have been studying the matter of editorial controls over our information supply for some time now. I worked at Prodigy in the beginning of what is now the Internet. At the time I launched and became engaged in a - call it a campaign - to use Prodigy to supplant the media's authority. Some of us knew is was possible to do. Even the then-President of the company realized it. To make this multi-year story short, in the end I was told to shut up. Evidently the powers-that-be had spoken at the top, the message was handed down the chain of command, and my little old supervisor-boss finally delivered the shut-up message, and in no uncertain terms.

What I have yet to see is someone put together this research into a big picture. Just imagine an interest group that has the power to control American foreign policy and ALSO the American headlines.

Think about the connection between war machine spending and our looming financial meltdown. There is no connection, they say. Bullshit. Not only is that money being poured into a flaming pit, the sour attitude of the world for America via a vis the Middle East debacle is digging that very pit.

And Obama is going to fix things by what?

Be scared.

These "soldiers of Israel" have lit fuses all over the place. If they are not stopped, something really bad is going to happen to us. I was once in a real war and I'll say this, believe or not: the TV, movies, headlines ... they show you about one percent of what it's really like, and much of that is spun to stay on message. When push comes to shove, and war does come to you, you will seriously regret it.


Bill

Friday, January 9, 2009

Looks like the neocons have found a new home in the Obama administration

In "The same old change" Justin Raimondo say "It looks like the neocons have found a new home in the Obama administration, where they're settling in quite comfortably, and acting as if they owned the place. And maybe they do …. "

Read this, another, very interesting article on the subject of neocon power in Washington and it's influence on our foreign policy. Follow links in his article for more information.

Here's an article on where Israel is getting the weapons to pound Gaza: US Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza in case you don't know this (which is likely if you follow only the mainstream propaganda)

The point of all this is that we have been - and are being - duped on such a massive scale that it shocks the senses once you realize it.



Bill

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask

Robert Fisk: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask

"Yes, Israelis deserve security. Twenty Israelis dead in 10 years around Gaza is a grim figure indeed. But 600 Palestinians dead in just over a week, thousands over the years since 1948 – when the Israeli massacre at Deir Yassin helped to kick-start the flight of Palestinians from that part of Palestine that was to become Israel – is on a quite different scale. This recalls not a normal Middle East bloodletting but an atrocity on the level of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. And of course, when an Arab bestirs himself with unrestrained fury and takes out his incendiary, blind anger on the West, we will say it has nothing to do with us. Why do they hate us, we will ask? But let us not say we do not know the answer."

Pity the Poor Neocons
"As bloody and grotesque as Israel’s pounding of Gaza has been, it marks a bitterly disappointing end for seven-plus years of neoconservative dominion over U.S. foreign policy, a period that was supposed to conclude with the dismantling of Israel’s Muslim enemies in the region."

Obama: this is change we can believe in? Who is kidding who?

Uh oh ...

Neoconservatism in the Obama Age

Our worst fear is that Obama will replace Bush's face and nothing else will change. Despite running on a platform with the word change all over it, how is it possible that the most egregious crimes committed by this gang are to be left unnoticed, unmentioned, unsolved, unpunished - and left in positions of power and authority to do still more damage?

We must put not only Bush, but Cheney and the whole roster of the neocon leadership on trial for the war crimes they've committed. We must make it crystal clear to their ilk they aren't welcome in Washington any longer. If we don't or can't do this, we'll get more of the same, more sliding down this very slippery slope we're on.

They've seized and ruined American foreign policy, and committed terrible injustices for which we-the-people are now indebted. We are already in serious peril, but if let these people sneakily preserve their power apparatus, we're fools beyond words.

Another good article you wouldn't find on the TV:
Holocaust Denied - The lying silence of those who know

Don't miss this one: Many Americans do love their police state This whole police state thing is a subject that deserves major attention, but it's dwarfed by the neocon problem (who are also a accelerator to this problem, which also has a life of it's own)

Can you say "Murderous treachery"? Death toll in Gaza passes 700, including 220 children. There are almost a million Americans in jail for pot possession. Compare their crime to this wholesale murder of kids, and tell me what you think.


Bill

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Afghan Quagmire and Predictions

From, of all papers, the NY Times - that bastion of American thoughtfulness who helped lead the charge into the invasion of the Middle East for it's masters in Israel, comes this op-ed on the foolishness of it all.

By saying "the time has passed" for the Afghanistan war to be won, Bob Herbert feebly suggests that "we were right then but we're wrong now", as if to wipe away the culpability of the propagandists who played their part in psyching the American people to war while their cohorts in Washington leaped at the chance to launch their military invasion of the Middle East with Afghanistan serving as springboard.

In newspaper-land, the owner is the chief editor. In the case of the NY Times this would be Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. Evidence that he colluded with the neocon gang in Washington to get their invasion launched can be found in the archives of the NY Times. Disbelieving should start with the Judith Miller and "Scooter" Libby connection and unravel from there.

Do propaganda machines like the NY Times have a right to exist? Sure, freedom of speech is arguably our most important freedom. What's the problem then? The problem is what's referred to as media ownership consolidation, as made possible by our neocon-friendly Congress. This device placed the power of our information supply into the hands of a handful of people, who proceeded to use their power to dupe us into a military invasion we really didn't want.

-----------------------------------------

In an article titled "Predictions" Justin Raimondo once again resonates with truth that deserves but never gets equal attention.



Bill

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Great analysis and history of America's biggest problem

Robert Parry provides not only a very good summation of how we got where we are, but also some good insight into what's to come.

Israel's Looming Catastrophe

I would ask you to pay special attention to the part about Jimmy Carter, and how he was dealt with. I think Jimmy Carter is the greatest of all the people the scumbag neocons have disposed of.

While Mr. Parry does spell out how "untenable Israel's long-term position" is, he (reasonably) stops there, not mentioning what this means for America.

Dare I?

Well I will. It's bleak, that's what it is. That's why I take the time out of my demanding schedule to do the only thing I can do: talk.

I'll mention somewhere here that I've seen this coming for years now, since before 9/11 (which I correctly predicted). But I limited talking about what I was learning and feeling to an on-line programmer's forum of several hundred members.

Those "debates" went on for years. It was a very difficult forum for me because a few neocon supporters dominated the forum with posts loaded with every "clever-speak" word the neocon think-tanks came up with (the same arguments heralded by the American information supply, so they had to be right, right? Wrong.).

These people are not smart, but they are determined and clever as Hell. There are always counter-argument to keep debates alive until people tire of them. That is, they NEVER lose. Indeed, persistent and clever often wins, but that doesn't make them smart or wise, just victors, and that's temporary.

Do you (does anyone?) still believe the neocons and their propaganda machine? Look at what they've actually done, and much worse, where it's (we are) heading. We must stop them, replace them, and put them on trial.


Bill

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Gaza

As the propaganda machine does it's usual song and dance, I can only hope people are turning to the Internet for better information.

As a self-employed person (how else could I get away with talking as I do?), time is my great enemy.

I am trying, though, to spend at least some time reading and posting links to the more informative articles I come across.

Here's two articles you may find interesting, neither of which will see the light of day in America's information supply:

Eric Margolis Israel's 'Fait Accompli' in Gaza

Bringing the Arab-Israeli War Home

In my lifetime, the center of which was consumed by the supremely tragic war in Vietnam, I have never, ever felt this badly for - and about - America.

What we have allowed to happen in the Middle East, and what we paid for with our tax dollars, isn't going to yield any more shots across the bow. We are accomplices and financiers of actions in the Middle East that save secured the rage of too many people. That rage and sense of injustice has cast a fog over our country. Unless we do something about it, it's only a matter of time before really bad things happen to us for what's been done in our name.

There are two key ingredients to the American problem: government and our information supply.

The solution to the government problem has been right in front of us all along: campaign finance reform. Make it so everyone in this country has 1 vote and can't buy others. It can be done because nobody is in that election booth with us when we decide. The problem is getting the best people onto the ballot in the first place. This can be done using the Internet and voting system even a run-of-the-mill programmer can write.

We must pay our elected representatives very well, but they must agree on this limit on their income, and no tricks. That is, they must commit their career to public service, and we will pay them well for it, so the best people will apply. Even if we have to pay Congresspeople a half-million a year each, that's peanuts to the robbery that's been administered by the ruling class now in charge.

One such election and America's face will change from the ugly to beautiful. Inside America, the average person isn't like our rulers. We're not getting together to say this because we have no means to, so we think "it must be just me", shake our head and go on about our day. It's not just you, or I, it's many millions of us who subscribe to those most basic sense of Christian morality - and not the spun and distorted views all over the TV screen.

For our information supply: we've got the Internet. What's missing is the consumption by the Internet of the TV screen. Simple technical feat, and then we'd have millions of channels to choose from. But don't worry, there will be a new breed of editors to help you navigate the maze. More is good, less is bad. Media consolidation has left us today with the worst system we could possibly imagine: it is nothing less then a propaganda machine.

Somewhere here I want to say these things, because they are very much on my mind today.

Arrogance, belligerence, war, those horrible weapons and the spirit of hatred they produce are ugly.

Family, friends, love, trust, music, justice, building things, conserving our environment, real freedom, real democracy and good information are beautiful.

We want to look up and contemplate the stars, not down into a sinkhole of despair. We are witnessing, as we speak, our own slide into that sinkhole, with consequences well beyond history's worst.

We can do nothing, as we've basically done. We can stay the course and keep paying with the blood of our children and our treasure. Or we can join in peaceful protest so loud that it cannot be ignored. Try to image a hundred million people feeling as I do right now - and then saying so? We can't know what would happen because it's never happened before, but it can't be any worse then the plight we're in right now!!

We've got to realize that the attack of 9/11 was a response to arrogant and belligerent behavior in the Middle East, and that behavior that was supported and abetted by you and I. Just suppose 9/11 was really just a shot across the bow, a warning of what could happen? When I see them again, I'll post some links to articles by people who have seriously studied the status of those many thousands of wmds out there.

The Muslim sense of justice has been deeply violated by American actions and, even more importantly, attitudes. Now, with the invasion of Gaza, the flames under that kettle are turned up some notches. We know what a handful of determined people can do. What if even a small percentage of 1.3 BILLION Muslims explode on us?

I think that's exactly what will happen unless you, I and a hundred million other people speak up, declare ENOUGH, replace every seat in Washington with fairly elected representatives of the American people, and put the neocon gang on trail in the World Court for what they've done.


Bill

Friday, January 2, 2009

What happened with the Huffington Post?

Sadly, sellouts aren't the exception, they are the rule. Here's another:

The Spineless Huffington Post Gives ‘Equal Time’

The Huffington Post: Israeli-Occupied Territory

Media operators who follow the money instead of the truth should rot in Hell.


Bill