Keeping the pressure on the DoJ as well as John Yoo. CREW continues to get to all that is there or possibly destroyed as our Government joined those we Condemn in Torture and Human Rights violations. Not only leaving our Military Troops wide open to the same leaving us with no ability to condemn nor brings charges on the World Court venue, but opening up same for our own citizens anywhere with same results!
It also greatly weaken our National Security as it was one more of the many Failed Policies, of the previous decade, that has created greater hatreds, not just as to our government done clandestine but also the citizens of our country as we all share the guilt of those policies and leave that wide open with no accountability for crimes committed by those who approved and ordered!
He was poised, articulate, even more forceful than aloof at various times. He sure seemed like he really cared. I certaintly wouldn't mind getting the chance to talk with him. He seems like such a well intentioned guy.
The only problem is Obama outright lied in several places, and his wonderful rhetoric is in great conflict with his actual governing decisions and priorities. For example:
1. Obama assured us again that he was "Ending the Iraq War". First he said that he would have all our "combat" troops out by August. Then a few sentences later he claimed that "all our troops" (unqualified) would be out of Iraq. But the reality is that this is the man who brought back George W. Bush's outgoing War Secretary, Robert Gates (CIA-IRAN-CONTRA crook) to run his War Policies. Gates and Obama and Hillary Clinton (also a WarHawk) are all in agreement that at least 50,000 troops will remain permanently in Iraq, and of course, the 17 unwelcome U.S. Military Bases will also be there permanently. The private contractors Halliburton and Blackwater (which operates under another name now), will all continue to remain as well. Obama's claim to end the Iraq War in August 2010 has about as much validity as his claim to end Guantanimo within 1 year. The crooked Oil Contracts, the Corporations, the Military Bases, the huge multi-hundred million dollar U.S. Embassy, and at least 50,000 troops to protect all of that -- ain't going nowhere.
Whether the people that are stuck there are classified as being "combat" troops or not, is hardly relevant. The War and the Foreign Occupation has not ended, is not ending, and will not end. The vow to end the Iraq War is another empty promise from President Obama, and until and unless he stops listening and empowering the likes of Robert Gates - no meaningful change to this corrupt War policy will truthfully occur. We have over 1.5 million dead Iraqis, over 2 million Iraqi refugees, over 5,500 dead Americans, over 75,000 wounded or disabled Americans, and have wasted of some 3-Trillion of the taxpayers dollars. Clearly our Foreign Policy does far more damage to our own Country (as well as to the World) then anything any terrorist could ever dream up. Obama's patty-cake policy on confronting the tragedy of the U.S. Iraq intervention is sadly insufficient.
Moreover, he is expanding our excessive American Militarism and violence to the far corners of the Earth even more by tripling the troop exposure in Afghanistan, starting War with Pakistan, killing civilians with cowardly CIA-run, unmanned Drones equiped with Hellfire bombs, threatening Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela (via Columbia). He has embraced the illegitmate Bush-era policies of detaining people with no charges, and no rights. And he has kept torture sites such as Bagram, Gitmo, and Abu Grahib open for business, while additionally directly outsourcing human torture through the disgraceful secret program of CIA renditions to Foreign prisons. And let us never forget that the Obama Military budget far exceeds any of the Miltary budgets submitted under Bush & Cheney. While the words sounded good, the governing remains a shameful tragedy, and a bankrupt wasteland of corruption and unnecessary human carnage, and bloodshed.
2. Obama also spoke about the plight of the middle-class and winning their trust. He said: "To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve." It is hard to take him seriously however when his administration has empowered and promoted the very special interests that were responsible for the Financial meltdown, such as Timothy Giethner, Lawerence Summers, Ben Bernanke, and unabashed GOP-Lite Corporatists like Rahm Emanuel. If Obama wants to help the middle-class, why are the crooked Banking/WallStreet elites hand chosen by him to run his policies? Why does he want to give the Federal Reserve even more power, instead of audit them?
I've neglecting dipping my toe into the debate regarding the failed terror plot until now. What passed for debate quickly grew tedious since it became transformed into an inconsequential tit-for-tat back and forth regarding the President's decision to not make a statement or strong response in the middle of his vacation. Cable news networks with space to fill have used surrogates and talking heads to spin to their heart's content, but what I'd love to see was an actual substantive debate instead of all of the clutter. A start might be in discussing long-range plans for protecting us from subsequent plots and what we out here in the peanut gallery ought to expect or might even need to contribute ourselves to make the process far more efficient. Often our anti-terrorism response has been primarily reactive and defensive rather than taking the fight to our enemy, but by encouraging a more proactive approach I am notably not advocating for preemptive war or increased military buildup of any sort. Instead, I am pushing for a smarter strategy based on a compulsion to objectively study the complexities of a complex enemy. Some might call it "dithering".
I am not surprised that the Office of Homeland Security failed in its stated objective. I am not surprised that the system let all of us down. Republicans have long advanced the obsessive desire to pare down or even eliminate entirely many government agencies, and yet they established one of their own out of what was deemed at the time extreme necessity. That would be like handing Libertarians control of the United Nations and asking them to devise a new system that would add another seat to the Security Council. Moreover, I strongly believe that establishing a new agency was to some extent merely window dressing set in place to pacify people who were understandably worried and fearful after the 11 September 2001 attacks. Homeland Security, in many ways was a completely disingenuous, empty construct, like so many made in the immediate aftermath (See: Color-coded Terror Alert scale) since we know now that power and with it decision-making was primarily concentrated during the Bush Administration years in a very secretive, very small inner circle.
Many Futurists, those who observe existing trends and predict trends likely before us, have come to a belief that we are in for a 30-40 year period of terrorism. And as soon as it subsides, it is highly probable that something else will spring up in its place. We enjoyed a relaxing, but short-lived, decade-long respite from the Cold War, but before that we clung desperately to the notion of Mutually Assured Destruction as the most supreme deterrent to prevent nuclear war with the USSR. Furthermore, much of our national identity is based upon the first two centuries of this county's history, years when we were very much an isolationist country cautious of foreign entanglements. Back then we ran a strong second place to the nation/states of Western Europe, though we dreamed to scale those same heights. Our status as a superpower is still a relatively recent development and we have yet to either firmly embrace it or to understand its implications. If we did, we might understand one important reason why we are consistently targeted by radical Islam. Anyone who has been the runaway number one for any extended length of time is going to have a bull's eye emblazoned upon them and create instant motivation for those who are jealous and envious.
Additionally, though this nation has a long, ignoble history of disregarding the basic rights and just recompense owed to its own indigenous people as well as the natives of other countries when financial gain was at stake, that in and of itself is an insufficient sole rationale for why terrorist tactics are used against us. To be sure, exploitative power plays that privatized oil-rich plots of Native American land claims under the domain and care of the Federal government have antecedents that stretch back to the 1920's; it is also true that the United States government meddled in the affairs of other countries, particularly in the Middle East and South America to protect its supply of the natural resources coveted by big business. But as for why and where this hatred truly stems from, one needs consider class disparities and economic inequality, which are often the major offenders. Since terrorism cannot so broadly be defined and since each unique group has a different strategy and rationale, it cannot be emphasized enough that terrorism has no one set definition nor stated agenda. Where simplistic answers or a lack of them altogether exists, baseless speculation rushes in to fill the void.
It is indeed true that a common enemy in the form of the United States of America is the focal point upon which a variety of terrorist organizations draw unity. Yet, what we don't hear about quite so often is that many of these groups also target governments in their own region, so it would be a mischaracterization to assume that all cells purely project their entire hatred upon the Great Satan. When we over-simplify a very complex issue like Terrorism for the sake of time constraints or election year sloganeering, then we do everyone a grave disservice. So many Republican talking points would be reduced to either wishful thinking or naive saber-rattling if the public knew just how nuanced were the goals, ambitions, and agendas of those who advocate our utter destruction.
Cultural identity, just like individual identity is predicated on difference, not on similarity. We form our conception of ourselves and our country based on how we differ from other nations and other peoples. Those who have traveled outside of the U.S. are instantly aware of their American citizenship when surrounded by a culture completely different from their own. Those who would otherwise discount or take for granted their status as Americans often metaphorically wrap themselves in the Stars and Stripes when on foreign soil. In so doing, they often seek out conversation and companionship with other ex-patriots, even those they would likely never give a second glance to when back inside the borders of their own country. Other important identities we claim for ourselves manifest themselves in this same manner when we are isolated from a larger gathering, be it religious/spiritual identification, supporter of a particular sports team, adherent to a particular philosophy or movement---to merely state a few examples. As we have seen with Al-Qaeda, its adherents hail from a variety of countries and cultures, but it is unified out of a sense of collective purpose, a more or less common enemy, and a uniform belief system.
Any defensive measure we or any other country adopts to contain and detect terrorist cells is going to need to recognize that our commitment to keep the citizens of the United States safe from this unique threat should expect to be in place for at least a generation, perhaps even a bit longer than that. This was a long time coming and it will be a long time gone. Government does not need to be scrapped, but it does need to be streamlined considerably. We've seen this in plain view recently with the health care debate. Our legislative branch was never built for speed or swift decision making and, prior to that, we viewed the shameful epic fail of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), itself under the dubious control of Homeland Security. Populist anger drives the opinions of many at this time, but though I have heard the voices or read the words of those who tear into the worthlessness of government and with it the base incompetence of government officials, I have heard precious few solutions or proposals that might reduce or at least begin to address the problem. Notably this unfocused rage isn't just relegated to the person on the street. It also finds favor in the form of the person paid to state an opinion supposedly shared with the person on the street.
What continues to amaze me (perhaps I should not be surprised) is how a certain brand of ultra-hawk led by Dick Cheney has ripped into the President for somehow downplaying the importance of the would-be Christmas Day underwear bomber. While Americans can at times be duped, they are not rubes. Having seen the 11 September attacks transformed into a shaky rationale for a costly and highly unnecessary war, they now hold a skeptical, cynical opinion regarding the amazing assertion that anyone who argues that a new President elected to right those wrongs doesn't believe that we are really still at war. Cheney seems to want to live in the past, somewhere around 2003, when the Administration of which he was a vital part still held some degree of veracity with the American public. He fails also to understand that recent disappointment with President Obama does not mean that Bush Administration policies are somehow being vindicated in the process. The former Vice-President is just as unpopular now as he was the day he left office and those who might concede him one or two hair-splitting points do so grudgingly at best.
Much of what lies ahead of us is brand new and unprecedented. I can understand anyone's reluctance to sound the twelve-alarm-fire as we did after 11 September. It was taxing, exhausting, and emotionally draining. I have absolutely no desire to repeat the process. As many of us are already strained and feeling vulnerable from the recession and the dismal unemployment rate, I simply don't think we have much in reserve left to enter into the state of panic and paranoia that existed in the immediate aftermath of that awful day. Not overreacting would probably do us well, especially if one keeps in mind the aftermath of the attacks, which spawned a thousand unfounded rumors and knee-jerk reactions. It is notable that when we have the ability to create imaginary bogeymen, we do so in ways that hindsight renders absolutely ridiculous. When our free time and our ability to conjure up the fanciful is muted, then we are better able to keep things in perspective. It really makes one wonder if times of adversity are as bad as we might think they are.
We have now reached a point where there is beginning to boil over a lot of open criticism and disappointment finally from the "mainstream" left over the performance of Barack Obama, and his leadership skills.
Instead of just a few grumblings, made over hushed tones, immediately followed by pronouncements about how it's only been just 3 months...5 months...8 months... etc., people are now coming to the full realization, even on DailyKos now, that Obama is not going to govern in a manner that brings about any substantial change whatsoever.
Yet many commentators from Ed Schultz, to Michael Moore, to Arianna Huffington, to Markos, to Keith Olbermann etc. generally see the problem as one of being -- that Obama is just too unengaged, or not forceful enough, or not providing strong enough leadership. The idea put forth here is that Obama really wants to do the right thing, but he is just a poor negotiator, or isn't standing up enough, or too happy to compromise away his real "dearly held" beliefs.
But I disagree with this second part of the analysis. I have seen enough now to come to the conclusion that Obama is really executing the agenda that he wants, and advancing the agenda that he and his friends want. He just fooled a whole lot of people during the Primaries with his (deceptive) lofty rhetoric, deliberately left unspecific, and charming speeches and charisma.
The problem with Obama, however, is not one of ommission, but one of commission. Recall that just as George W. Bush ran in 1999-2000 as a "compassionate" conservative with no critera at all about what that really meant for the middle-class ( a Dick Cheney Presidency-??). Well, Barack Obama ran his campaign very similarily as "Martin Luther Obama" come to save the little people - with no policy program ever put forward for doing any such thing - and an ever accumlating track record for totally backtracking on the few progressive ideas casually tossed about (then later retracted) throughout his campaign. Things like....suddenly being anti-NAFTA during the critical Wisconsin Primary (which he won), only to immediately reverse himself (and align himself with the pro-NAFTA agenda) once that State had voted for him.
But what we continually see is that Obama has no problem whatsoever with twisting arms, pressuring the Senate, asserting his own will, etc. when he wants them to vote against the reimportation of cheaper, generic Drugs (to prevent seniors from saving enormous amounts of money). He has no problem with villifying Howard Dean right out in the open, or outright intimidating progressive Congressman like Pete DeFazio with the open threat "Don't think we're not keeping score, brother", when he disagreed with Obama's new Military escalations. And he has no problem with protecting, and even praising the agenda of Joe Lieberman.
There is a lot of blame to go around over the Health Care debacle. A lot of people (DailyKos) are focusing their anger on just Joe Lieberman or Harry Reid.
Harry Reid tried at least to put in some token amount of reform, but then he knuckled under the pressure -- not so much from Joe Lieberman -- but from Rahm Emaneul and Obama.
You see, Leiberman knows that he can just walk the thing backwards all day long, because Obama and Rahm Emanuel will never arm twist or pressure him -- just as they never pressured the Drug and Insurance Companies themselves. They will always gut the reform part out of the bill, and instead conspire to please whatever corrupt demands that Lieberman and the GOP make of them.
It is time to understand that Obama is just a theater President. He likes to create the illusion that he is on the side of the people, but he has really done nothing but place pro-WallStreet, pro-Bankster, pro-Corporatist, pro-NAFTA, pro-War, Pro-Drone, and pro-Bush-NEOCON apologists into the key positions of real control and power to ensure that their crooked agenda always carries the day.
Obama thinks nothing of going to the progressive wing and telling them all "you have to get in line now" and making that demand on them (and the House will now cave-in and vote for this charade just for Obama's sake). But would Obama ever in a million years ever go to Joe Lieberman and tell him "Joe, you have to get in line"?
Of course not. This tells you everything you need to know about Obama, and the Obama Presidency.
A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just."
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.
Last week over 1.6 Million viewers tuned-in to former Minnesota Governor Jessie Ventura's program "Conspiracy Theory", on the Cable TV Station TruTV (10:00pm), where he covered the secret Military program known as H.A.A.R.P.
HAARP is a phased-array Ionospheric heater that is capable of focusing large quantities of Electromagnetic energy into very localized regions that are very far away from the source. Ionospheric heaters can use the Ionosphere to reflect their energy at distances several thousand miles away by using the Ionosphere as a 'mirror' much the same way as AM radio signals travel over vast distances. Unlike an AM radio, HAARP can use phase interference to focus it's energy on a localized area (such as the weak point on the power grid).
Simply put, HAARP is an Ionospheric Warfare device that can be used to manipulate and sabatoge Satellites, Electric grids, Computer Networks, and even cause substantial and severe Weather Manipulation.
During the age of perpetual United States Warfare (and perpetual United States propaganda), along with the U.S. Patriot Act Police-State trend this Country has taken, there is justified concern here that not only would this "Dr. Evil" type of weapon be used in Military situations abroad (why else would they have developed it?), but also employed domestically here as well, for whatever pretext du jour our Orwellian government insiders feel is "justified".
Thus, it is possible, for example, that weather events as serious as Katrina could be manipulated to occur on cue, and directed at specific areas.
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And now: Tonight on TruTV (10:00PM, but check your local listings), Jessie Ventura will have the floor once again to raise America's most controversial conspiracy by challenging the 9/11 Commission Report and searching for evidence that the September 11th attacks may have been an inside job.
At the urging of victims' families, he finds witnesses who claim the towers were brought down by explosives, the missing black box flight recorders were actually recovered and ground control knew the hijackers were in the cockpits before the jets took off.
Okay folks, here's the money quote that says it all:
Republicans generally gave Obama high marks for deciding to send 30,000 more troops.
"If you would have told me a year into the president's administration (that) he would have doubled our presence in Afghanistan ... plus not reduce our troops meaningfully in Iraq ... I would have a hard time believing it," Dan Senor, who was a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq under former President George W. Bush, said in a conference call arranged by the Republican National Committee. "So I'm pleasantly surprised!"
--Dan Senor, former Bush Administration Official, CFR-Neocon
When Neocons are "pleasantly surprised", the whole World has a problem here.
But that is Obama's true governing constituency (regardless of his totally disingenuous campaign theatrics). And to think they gave this guy a Nobel Peace Prize....for what???.....buying a dog?
Some things just totally defy any possible logic, rhymn, or reason.
More than 150 Countries, all around the globe, have agreed to the Treaty to end the production, stockpiling, trade, and usage of civilian-killing Land Mines. Under the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld administration, The United States had been a hold out.
According to the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL), efforts undertaken in 1999 to recover mines "have saved millions of lives through the removal of more than 2.2 million emplaced antipersonnel mines, 250,000 antivehicle mines, and 17 million" explosive remnants of war.
According to the Associated Press, last year land mines killed at least 1,266 people and wounded 3,891.
But hey, we have a new President with that hope-y, change-y thing going on...right?
Statement from Obama Adminstration:
"This administration undertook a policy review and we decided that our landmine policy remains in effect. We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs [ -?- ], nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention."
In contravention of the treaty, the United States stockpiles some 10 million antipersonnel mines and retains the option to use them.
--Rueters
Two peas in a pod
And we're supposed to be inspired by this shallow little puppet of a man.....
There's a great blog out there which is starting to get picked up in what you might call the "mainstream blogosphere" quite a bit. Mainly in regards to its blogging about Wall Street. In fact, if you just scroll down the front page right now, you'll find a great many stories on Wall Street and the economy, and you'll realize it's really a fantastic compendium of information.
But what you also might not realize is that this very same blog is a great resource for information on the truth about 9/11.
How interesting, and how timely! Here's the headline: Self-Confessed 9/11 "Mastermind" Also Falsely Confessed to Crimes He Didn't Commit
But wait a minute, the Obama administration is telling me this guy is guilty as sin, no question! The mainstream bullshit media is also telling me the same thing! How can there be such a disconnect!?
The thing the Bullshit Media (BM) is not telling us about KSM is that he was waterboarded 183 times in ONE MONTH.
As the Washington Post writes of Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaida:
President George W. Bush had publicly described him as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations," and other top officials called him a "trusted associate" of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a major figure in the planning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. None of that was accurate, the new evidence showed.
Okay, maybe they got that one wrong.
But certainly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession that he was the mastermind of 9/11 proves his guilt, right?
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of 9/11, was waterboarded 183 times in one month, and "confessed" to murdering the journalist Daniel Pearl, which he did not. There could hardly be more compelling evidence that such techniques are neither swift, nor efficient, nor reliable
If one of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's major confessions (Pearl murder) was false, why should we believe his confession about 9/11?
After all, tough-as-nails Navy Seals usually become hysterical when waterboarded once in training sessions. After 183 waterboarding sessions in a month, I wouldn't be surprised if KSM also confessed to murdering Lincoln and Kennedy.
Good old Robert Gates, good friend of the Bush family, a player in the Iran/Contra scandal, the man who wanted to bomb Nicaragua in 1984, and former head of the CIA and now Obama's ruler of all things Military Industrial Complex, has decided for us, that we shouldn't see the infamous torture photos that have for so long been hidden from our view.
You know, the ones of soldiers raping and murdering and torturing children in front of their parents, those nice nasty bits of American Empire which salted the wound we'd cut in the breast of Iraq, that led to the brutal murder of the five mercenaries whose charred corpses were hung from the bridge? Which led to the destruction of Fallujah, where American soldiers then shot families in their sleep, left the bodies to be eaten by dogs, burned people's flesh off their bones with white phosphorous, and shot unarmed people who were swimming across the river to escape the carnage?
Yeah, it's all part of the big picture, and we're not allowed to see it.
A new TV program premires on TruTV (Turner Broadcasting/Time Warner) in December, titled: Conspiracy Therory, starring former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura.
If you know anything about Ventura, it is that he never minces his words, or holds back how he really feels about things (a refreshing trait for any politician), and on December 9 at 10:00pm, he tackles the subject that no one else on television will: What really happened on Septemeber 11, 2001 to the most well defended Country on the face of the planet?
Jesse steps into America's most controversial conspiracy by challenging the 9-11 Commission report and considering the claim that the September 11th attacks were an inside job. At the urging of victims' families, he finds witnesses who claim the towers were brought down by revolutionary explosives that were placed in plain sight, but no one knew what they were. Ventura also hears from those who claim the missing black box flight recorders were actually recovered. And he is told a shocking story about who may have been in the cockpits before the jets took off.
Featured Experts and Eyewitnesses: Physicist Steven Jones, who says he found evidence of thermite, a bomb material, in the residue from Ground Zero; explosives expert Van Romero, who performed a test purported to show that liquid thermite can make steel girders burn hotter and faster; demolition expert Brent Blanchard, who says that no inspection for explosive materials was done at the scene; former Air Force pilot Jeff Dahlstrom, who is convinced that 9-11 was a "false flag" operation carried out to push the country into war; Mike Bellone, a recovery worker at Ground Zero who says that he saw airline flight recorders recovered at the scene; Dave Lindorff, a journalist, who says that the recorders were recovered, inspected and turned over to the FBI; Dale Leppard, a former head of the Airline Pilots Association who insists recorders are always found; and former FBI investigator Jack Cloonan, who disputes claims the recorders were found.
Democrats, particularly Progressive Democrats, have been collectively incredulous. The motives and tactics driving the rancor and bile spewing forth from Republican politicians, Fox News, talking heads, pundits, entertainers, and conservative citizens seems so unjustified and so irrational. Looking back to what we recently came through might be the best way to understand this reactionary response. We must believe that one election cycle or one President can undo the blight upon the human psyche or the sustained abuse upon our sacred institutions, sense of safety, and peace of mind. President Obama has been Chief Executive for less than a year, but what we've all learned, much to our chagrin, is that change that you can believe in is slow and incremental.
The reaction of conservatives is directly proportional to the massive amount of fear-mongering, manipulative tactics, and irresponsible governing perpetrated by the Bush Administration. That we on the left are not as affected by this steady barrage of fear and loathing is merely a reflection of the fact that we were hardly the ones to believe in it in the first place. We were the target of scorn, not the targeted audience. One cannot discount for a second the combined evil we were all exposed to for eight long years and that this degree of emotional torture cannot be whisked away with the stroke of a pen, an award, or a sizable agenda. It did not arrive overnight, nor will it depart like a thief in the night.
The old adage of how to cook a frog comes to mind. As the story goes, one doesn't place the frog immediately into boiling water, else the animal would jump out. Instead, one places the frog in lukewarm water and incrementally increases the temperature, allowing the animal to slowly adjust. Eventually the frog is tricked into staying in water hot enough to kill and then thoroughly cook it. This is what has happened to the conservative movement and why we face such a challenge in reversing course. They have been subtly and not-so-subtly manipulated by the doctrine of opportunist neo-conservative thought to the point that conservatives cannot see any common ground with the left. What made this strategy particularly effective and insidious is that it was implemented little bit by little bit until the combined evil was much greater than any individual part.
It should surprise no one then that we've seen this degree of nonsensical, uncompromising, petty, sheer hatred of liberals and President Obama. The Bush/Rove Doctrine might as well have been a a commandment to despise that which opposes you, forsake common humanity for single-minded gain, use any means necessary to win, and never accept the blame for mistakes. We on the left have mentioned this battle plan upon the American public in oversimplified, outline form so frequently that it borders on platitude, but we haven't gone much deeper. For Republicans and conservatives, however, Bush Administration tactics have left a devastating legacy than will not easily be corrected. We need to ask ourselves if there is anything much we can do to refute it. The GOP itself must recognize the damage and make ends to reverse it. If they do not, then this perspective will further calcify and we ought to expect more of these ridiculous nontroversies and petty partisan attacks. Shelving our skepticism for a moment, we need to understand that humans are much more impressionable and easily duped than our frustration with immediate results will allow. We are clamoring for systemic change, but that comes with time. No President ought to have to clean up messes he or she didn't create, but that's the foremost challenge facing our current President, and one that has and will continue to impede what he wants accomplished.
The Ancient Greek fable of Pandora's Box is an allegory to explain the paradox human nature. Simultaneously blessed and cursed with the gift of curiosity, Pandora opens a particularly tempting box and unwittingly unleashes a plethora of ills upon the human race. However, it must be mentioned that what is last to leave the box is the gift of hope. A more Biblical illustration would be that of Adam and Eve, who ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and in so doing were banished from the Garden of Eden. I find a Jewish interpretation to be most instructive in this instance.
According to the Jewish tradition God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree that was to give free choice and allow them to earn, as opposed to receive, absolute perfection and intimate communion with God at a higher level than the one on which they were created. According to this tradition, Adam and Eve would have attained absolute perfection and retained immortality had they succeeded in withstanding the temptation to eat from the Tree. After failing at this task, they were condemned to a period of toil to rectify the fallen universe. Jewish tradition views the serpent, and sometimes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil itself, as representatives of evil and man's evil inclination.
Perhaps each of us must toil to rectify our own sin or even take the time to rectify someone else's sin. I believe this to be a function and a role we must all take on as part of being human. It might not be fair, but life is rarely just as we would wish it to be. In this instance, the President, the Congress, and we ourselves are going to have to first reverse trends that have now become entrenched. Some of them have their Genesis eight years prior to today, some of them came into being in 1980, and some of them date back to the 1960's. The hope lies, I firmly believe, with a strategy of persistence and steady pressure that ought not to be perceived as a failure if it does not garnish immediately discernible results. Sometimes it doesn't take an Act of Congress to make a major impact on someone or even on the debate itself.
Probably the single biggest mistake that President Obama made, was losing a great deal of control over the direction of the ongoing (corrupt) U.S. Foreign Wars, Occupations, and general Policy, by bringing back the outgoing (Bush-Cheney appointee) Robert Gates -- whose policies the public clearly rejected in the 2006 and 2008 Elections.
An article has been reported today that goes into more details about the internal struggle going on now within the Administration, and the tragic consequences for having left things in the hands of Robert Gates.
Obama In Secret Russia Visit Warns Putin, "I May Not Make It" By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are detailing an extraordinary 'secret' meeting held between Prime Minister Putin and President Obama at the request of the American leader that took place on Air Force One upon its landing at the Russian military airstrip at Pulkovo I in Saint Petersburg during a stopover while in route to Copenhagen, Denmark.
According to these reports, Obama stated to Putin that the US Government was in "total disarray" after what the American President called a "putsch" made against him by high-ranking members of the US Military during a 'fractious' meeting in the White House of the United States top Military, Intelligence and National Security officers over the future course of the war in Afghanistan.
Most distressing to Obama was his chief and longest serving, National Security Advisor, US Naval Intelligence Officer Mark Lippert, being forced out of the White House by the Bush appointed US Defense Secretary, and former CIA Director, Robert Gates who 'ordered' Lippert out of the White House and back to active duty.
Obama further reported to Putin that Gates told him, "in no uncertain terms" that the President had "no power whatsoever" over US Military decisions regarding Afghanistan whereupon Gates then 'leaked' to the US propaganda media his intention to massively increase America's troop levels in the Afghan war zone.
Even worse for Obama, who is already struggling with a collapsing economy, Gates further undermined the President by ordering 6,600 armored war trucks at a cost estimated to be in excess of $8 billion the US Military intends to pour into Afghanistan during the coming year at the expense of his Nations people already struggling under their Nations massive war debts.
When queried by Putin as to his ability to regain control of those factions opposing him Obama in these reports is quoted as saying, "I may not make it".
Further troubling evidence of the disarray the US Government now finds itself in as Obama wages this titanic battle against the right-wing fascist forces seeking to destroy him can be seen in the actions of the powerful US Senator Jim DeMint who is openly defying the White House by traveling to the Central American Nation of Honduras to give his support to the CIA backed coup leader, Roberto Micheletti, who recently overthrew that countries legitimate President Manuel Zelaya and put his Nation under martial law.
When the storm hit, Zeitoun stayed, to protect his house, help friends and clients, and watch over properties he and Kathy owned: their office building and houses bought as investments. Kathy and their four children evacuated to Baton Rouge.
Zeitoun weathered the storm's harrowing landfall, and ended up in a tent on his house's roof. He dug a secondhand canoe out of the garage and began paddling around, seeing how he could help. He spent the first days aiding neighbors and strangers, saving the life of at least one person trapped in her house, and even feeding stranded dogs.
Then the standing feet of water became toxic with organic material and spilled pollutants, his meetings with people became more fraught and weird, he saw his first body and his first criminal entrepreneurs, and decided it was time to go. And that's when the unnatural disaster happened.
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005, armed and badged black-uniformed men and a tall woman in a power boat appeared at the door of one of his properties that he, his tenant, and two others were using as a meeting place because it still had a working phone. Zeitoun was in the middle of a call with his brother Ahmad, a ship captain, calling from Spain to repeat his pleas to Zeitoun to leave town.
With no questions asked and no questions allowed, Zeitoun and the others were handcuffed and shackled at automatic weapon-point, dropped into the boat, and taken away; the officers didn't secure the house or treat it as a crime scene and left it unlocked, which meant it was eventually completely stripped and looted.
Zeitoun documents a little-known fact: the existence of "Camp Greyhound," an outdoor jail built in New Orleans' central bus station within hours of the hurricane's landfall at the behest of the federal Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. Similar to Guantanamo Bay, Camp Greyhound (the guards' name for it) was a kennel, runs of wire fencing and concrete flooring; there was nothing to sit or sleep on, and toilet facilities were portables outside the enclosures. Power was provided by a running diesel locomotive parked within yards of the cages, providing a continuous deafening hum and diesel pall.
Zeitoun was not formally charged, was not read Miranda rights, was not allowed a phone call. He was physically and verbally abused, pepper sprayed, strip-and body-cavity searched; and was accused of being a "terrorist" during his processing at the "camp." The details of his captivity only become increasingly outrageous.
Fellow prisoners he was able to talk to included a New Orleans firefighter ordered to stay in the city to work who was arrested in his own yard, and a Houston sanitation worker whose company contracted to help in the cleanup effort - arrested wearing his work uniform, possessing ID, and with the keys to his garbage truck in his hand.
Prisoners included Marlene Maten, 73-year-old diabetic deaconess at Resurrection Mission Baptist Church, arrested as she carried a package of sausages from a cooler in her car, parked beside the hotel to which she was returning.
Marlene, along with Zeitoun and hundreds of others from Camp Greyhound, ended up at maximum security Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, in St. Gabriel, La., 70 miles from New Orleans. They were FEMA prisoners: FEMA rented state prison space and Camp Greyhound transfers were, according to prison staff, "FEMA's problem." Again: transferred with no charges, no information, no opportunity to make a phone call or talk to a lawyer.
Thanks to a volunteer prison missionary who agreed to call Kathy, she found out Zeitoun was alive. (His family had assumed him dead once contact was broken for weeks.) She immediately hired a lawyer, who found out there would finally be a hearing on Zeitoun's "case." However, when Kathy contacted the Hunt center to find out where the hearing would be held, she was told that location, and whether Zeitoun was even at the prison, was "private information."
Released from Hunt on Sept. 29, 2005 - after paying a $75,000 bail - Zeitoun was lucky, compared with the three men he was arrested with. Todd, Nasser and Ronnie spent, respectively, five months, six months and eight months in maximum security Hunt prison. All charges against all of them were dropped.
"... Dick Cheney isn't sorry about any of it." In his ABC News interview he "betrayed no second thoughts - and certainly no remorse - about the policies pursued by the administration that he both served and, according to some, led.
But Cheney's role is an old, if still developing story. After all, he warned us five days after Sept. 11 that our government would work on the "dark side." He told the late Tim Russert, "We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies." ...
Their arguments have always been, and continue to be especially from their propaganda machines, TV and Radio, that what they did was cleared by the administrative lawyers, as I heard one say this morning "Highly experienced Lawyers!", and they were are then legal!
The George Washington University National Security Archives have posted up the reports, side by side, from the Bush administration, in May 2008, and the newly released same report from the Obama administration, August 24th 2009.
Never for a moment in my life have I been "in love." I do not believe in the notion. Fireworks have not filled my heart. Flames of a fiery passion do not burn within me. Indeed, my soul has not been ablaze. Thoughts of a hot-blooded devotion seem illogical to me. Such sentiments always have. Fondness too fertile is but torture for me. I admire many, and adore none. For me, the affection I feel for another is born out of sincere and profound appreciation. To like another means more to me than to love or be loved. Excitement, an emotional reaction to another, rises up within me when I experience an empathetic exchange with someone who has glorious gray matter.
Today, it happened. I felt an a twinge that startled me. I stood still as he entered the room. I expected nothing out of the ordinary, or at least nothing other than what has become his recently adopted, more avoidant, routine. Although long ago, I had become accustomed to his face, his voice, and his demeanor, for I have known the man for more than a few years. In the last few weeks, while essentially he is who he always was, some of his stances have changed. Possibly, Barry has felt a need to compromise his positions, but I wonder; what of his principles.
In his attempt to counter a perceived threat to America, Philip Zelikow, the policy representative to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the National Securities Council (NSC) Deputies Committee, unexpectedly became the threat from within the White House.
The Bush Administration believed the best way to deal with suspected terrorists was to inflict extreme physical and psychological pressure on these perilous persons. Mister Zelikow offered his dissent. In a written and verbally stated opinion, Philip Zelikow contradicted what the occupants of the Oval Office accepted as necessary. "Individuals suspected of terrorism, can be legally tortured."
A short time after the Office of Legal Council (OLC) issued the now infamous judgments which allowed for officially sanctioned torment, Mister Zelikow, his superior, who was then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and her Legal Adviser, John Bellinger, gained access to the torture memos. After a review, Philip Zelikow stated his concern. He sensed others within the Administration might share his angst. However, no one, inclusive of Mister Zelikow, publicly voiced an apprehension, that is, not until this past week.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
