Control of the Media

Dan Rather's parting words upon the announcement of his departure from CBS.

"Too much is made of anchors and their personalities, their ups and downs. The larger issues -- the role of a free press and of honest, real news in a democracy, the role of technology in supporting a free press, the "corporatization" of news and its effects on news content -- all deserve more attention, more discussion and more passionate debate.

Dan Rather
Source: CNN

Control of the media is here. It is all around us. There is a machine feeding only that information which is consistent with maintaining control over and molding the general public's understanding of the world around them.

Originally, news outlets served as sources of information and events, based on facts, investigative in their nature. Now, it is more entertainment and spin than news.

Dissemination of misinformation as fact, to conceal the reality that would otherwise stir the populace into questioning the credibility and capability of their leaders, is the modus operandi of the major media outlets today. Relegating important topics to 15-30 second snippets, instead of the comprehensive analysis deserved, does not serve the public interest. On the contrary, the interests being served are those of the corporations, leaders, and financial stakeholders who would benefit from keeping the real news hidden and any mention of it minimized and lumped in with all the other 15-30 second snippets.

We are all running out of time. As it stands, the only place where real news, researched and presented in all its detail by first-hand accounts, can be found is the internet, specifically on independent, alternative news sites. It is only a matter of time before those outlets are either compromised or shut down.

Those in positions to reach an audience and have any sense of responbility to their profession, families, and communities, to let the truth be known, must speak out before it is too late.

Those who find the courage to act based on conscience, knowing what they are being told is not the truth and is resulting in the deaths of many innocent men, women, and children by the continued utterance of the lies, must act out before it is too late.

Speak out, act out, reach out...


Tagged: Censorship, Current Affairs, Media, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Killers

Killers...

There is no other word to describe the Israeli military and their leadership.

As if Friday's killing of a family during a beach outing isn't enough. Five members of the family gone in the blink of an eye. Today, eight innocent civilians are slaughtered in an attempt to kill one "militant".

And people wonder why the Palestinians are so God-damned pissed!

One alternative news site puts it out there very plainly:

There is only one word for the actions of the Israeli government and military towards the Palestinian people - slow and steady Genocide.

Ordinary Jews are not to blame for this. The responsibility lies with the small number of psychopathic Israeli right-wing "Zionist" leaders who, we can only assume, actually enjoy the sight of dismembered Palestinian children.
Signs of the Times

Where is the outrage? Condemnations of Israel's actions are nowhere to be found. Today's Washington Post article, "Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 Palestinians", attempts to present a balanced set of positions, but falls pathetically short of taking on the elephant sitting in the room which is the continued Israeli abuse of Palestinian human rights.

A Cabinet minister from Hamas, Yousef Rizka, condemned what he called "the continuous series of Israeli massacres of our Palestinian people."

"I call on the international community to immediately intervene to protect the Palestinian people from the increasing aggression of the Israeli occupation army, which will definitely provoke a response that will engage the entire region," Rizka said.
Washington Post

Israel's reprehensible actions will continue to go unpunished. All the while, innocent men, women, and children continue to die.

Israel is a terrorist state. The only reason no one has gone after her... the United States' unwavering support. Unfortunately for all of us hoping to see America returned to her glorious image of a land of freedom and defender of the innocent, we will likely see her fall to the same abyss as has Israel and join her as another terrorist state.

Tagged: Current Affairs, Israel, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics, Terrorism, Zionists.

Voices of Reason

Voices of reason speak out.

On leadership...

Never before in our country's history have both the president and Congress been so out of touch with most Americans. Never before have so few of our elected officials and corporate leaders been less willing to commit to the national interest. And never before has our nation's largest constituent group -- some 200 million middle-class Americans -- been without representation in our nation's capital.
Lou Dobbs, CNN

On Iraq...

The [Iraq] war, and the failure to establish order that led to the barbarism that's driving Iraqis away, can't be laid solely on the neocons' doorstep, of course. These second-generation neos needed a trio of arrogant, onetime CEOs -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld -- to actualize their vision. But actualize it they did, and the ideologues whose forebears once argued that the drugged-out Bronx was a monument to liberal folly have now made blood-drenched and depopulating Baghdad the monument to their own neocon obsessions.
Harold Meyerson, Washington Post

On the media...

More important than profit is the mainstream media ownership's interest in preserving the dominance of the corporation over the individual. Starting in the 1950's, post World War II America entered into a period of mass consumption and consumerism that has moved us into a dark period of unparallelled avarice and obsession with materialism. The corporate owners of mass media utilize both mainstream news, and its accompanying advertising, to entice Americans to buy things they do not need and to create an image of who a person "should be" if they want to attain success (i.e. thin, straight, tough, beautiful, young, wealthy). Through the medium of television, corporations have a captive audience to mass market their goods and services to people who neither want or need them, but buy them because they are psychologically manipulated into doing so (think Saturday morning cartoons and toy commercials). Reaching millions of receptive minds at once, the corporate puppeteers have learned to perpetuate the paradigm of white male patriarchy and blind patriotism. The power of television, print and advertising enables the wealthy elite to perpetually employ a variety of propaganda tactics to maintain their hold on most of the wealth and power in our society.
Jason Miller, ZNet

An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only on partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, to ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy — or worse.
Bill Moyers, Free Press

On energy...

If we want to do something about gas prices, we should demand greatly reduced welfare and military spending, a balanced budget, and fewer regulations that interfere with the market development of alternative fuels. All subsidies and special benefits to energy companies should be ended. We also should demand a return to a sound commodity monetary system.
Ron Paul, Congressman, US Representative

On CIA war crimes...

European Parliament investigator Giovanni Fava and his committee come to Washington this month. He has some additional questions for Bush administration officials, members of Congress, and human rights groups here about the renditions around Europe. Also among those inquiries are other possible CIA crimes, including torture, in the CIA's secret prisons.

My suggestion to Tim Russert of Meet the Press and others who preside over Sunday morning programs that profess to get inside the news is that they invite Giovanni Fava—either in person or from wherever he is in Europe—to present his documented evidence on CIA renditions in a debate with obstructionist senator Pat Roberts, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who keeps blocking any investigations of those who have been tortured with the complicity of the CIA and, at the top of the command, the president.
Nat Hentoff, Village Voice

On Zionism and the danger to Israel...

The ugly reality is that 'Jewish lobby groups' are much more accurately described as 'Zionist lobby groups', and Zionism today poses the biggest existential threat to Jews since Nazi Germany.
...
The really alarming aspect all of this is that these 'Zionists' seem to realize, but not care, that needlessly igniting a war with 80 million Iranians and hundreds of millions more sympathetic Arabs in the Middle East is very obviously the real existential threat to Jews in Israel. All of which leads us inexorably to the conclusion that Zionist collaboration with the Nazis during WW II was the first phase of a decades-long two-part plan to shepherd the Jewish people into a position where Hitler's final solution could finally be accomplished. If Zionist entities masquerading as Jewish groups are permitted to continue to spread lies and propaganda that seem destined to turn the Middle East into a glass parking lot, while at the same time urging the world's Jews to migrate to Israel, the day of the "final solution to the Jewish problem" will continue to draw ominously every closer.
Joe Quinn, Sign of the Times

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Missing Pentagon Video

Found at last!

This is what the missing Pentagon video footage should have looked like...

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Pentagon Video Silence

The request from Judicial Watch for release of additional footage of Flight 77's crash into the Pentagon was finally fulfilled. And, much to my dismay, was met with ... silence.

Does anyone else think it odd the revelation of this long-withheld video segment would be met with no media attention? There is nothing to be found on any of the major news web sites: CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC, or Wall Street Journal.

One would think the smoking gun would be blatantly obvious since the video has been kept out of public reach for over four years. But, neither a smoking gun nor obvious it is.

What has become obvious is the lack of proof that what hit the Pentagon was a commercial airliner!

There is nothing resembling a large, commercial airplane anywhere in the few frames of significance. Although, a huge clue surfaces when one freezes the frame where the white object begins to come into view....

Whatever the object is, it is coming in very low and fast. So low, in fact, that if it were a Boeing 757, one would expect such a large, unmaneuverable plane to smash into the ground before hitting the Pentagon.

Perhaps this is the video they are looking for????

One of the Signs of the Times editors, Joe Quinn, sums it up ...

At this stage, absent any new future video from the DOD, the U.S. government's "evidence" that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon consists of:

the "nose cone" frame

the white smoke trail or "blob" frame

the explosion at the Pentagon frames.

Convincing stuff, eh? This evidence is all the more suspect given the fact that the FBI confiscated tapes from at least two other video cameras in the area that would surely provide a more complete picture, but they refuse to release them.

The release of the DOD video footage comes at a very interesting time. Some readers may be aware that the pre-eminent Cannes film festival is just starting. Fewer however will be aware that the "Pentagon Strike" Flash animation is being shown at this year's festival. While we are not paranoid per se, we couldn't help but feel it was a little strange that the DOD would release their videos on the very day that our team set off to Cannes to promote the Pentagon strike flash. If we were "paranoid", we might say that the release of these videos is an attempt at pre-emptive damage control over potential exposure at Cannes. Of course, it will also simply help to raise the profile of all things 'Pentagonian', which can only help our team in Cannes.

Too bad anyone questioning the veracity of the Flight77-hitting-the-Pentagon theory, since that is what it is pending conclusive proof, will likely be labeled a conspiracy theorist. Another attempt to sweep under the rug the demands from those with very valid doubt of what is offered as proof, similarly to how those disputing the lone gunman theory of the John F Kennedy assassination were/are treated.

Today's conspiracies will become tomorrow's (hopefully) revelations.

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Lob the Lobbying Bill Out the Window

Today's Washington Post editorial is dead on. The lobbying reform bill about to be brought before the House today is nothing but a joke. It is a feeble attempt to disguise inaction and, thanks to parenthood, I have my share of experiences with feeble attempts at deception from which to draw my conclusion.

House members should reject the diluted snake oil that Mr. Dreier and the GOP leadership are peddling as bold reform. Their bill, which is expected to come before the House for a vote today, is an insult to voters who the GOP apparently believes are dumb enough to be snookered by this feint. The procedures under which it is to be debated, allowing only meaningless amendments to be considered, are an insult also -- to the democratic process.
Source: Washington Post

Here's a catch to the above, to be insulted one has to be aware of the what is happening, to be paying attention. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are not paying attention due to decades of dumbing down.

Democrats tempted to vote for this sham because they're scared of 30-second ads that accuse them of opposing lobbying reform ought to ask themselves whether they really think so little of their constituents. As for Republicans willing to settle for this legislative fig leaf, they ought to listen to Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.). "I happen to believe we are losing our moral authority to lead this place," Mr. Shays said on the House floor last week. He was generous not to have put that in the past tense.
Source: Washington Post

Generous indeed. If there is any moral authority remaining in Congress, it is well-concealed. Very few members of Congress speak openly of the sad state of our country and, when they do, know well the high political price they will pay. These same individuals who speak at their own political peril should be concerned about the successful abuse of their position on these 30-second negative ads. Americans nowadays can't handle more than a few seconds of information, the ads making the most appearances will likely be the ones whose messages will be taken as fact.

Yesterday, the CNN Politics page carried a piece by Molly Ivins which made me chuckle. I like Molly. She is down-to-earth and smart. Here's the opening...

Either the so-called "lobby reform bill" is the contemptible, cheesy, shoddy piece of hypocrisy it appears to be ... or the Republicans have a sense of humor.

The "lobby reform" bill does show, one could argue, a sort of cheerful, defiant, flipping-the-bird-at-the-public attitude that could pass for humor. You have to admit that calling this an "ethics bill' requires brass bravura.
Molly Ivins

and here's getting to the heart of the matter...

Come on, people, get mad. You deserve to be treated with contempt if you let them get away with this.

I'm sorry that all these procedural votes seem so picayune, and I know the cost of gas and health insurance are more immediate worries. But it is precisely the corruption of Congress by big money that allows the oil and insurance industries to get away with these fantastic rip-offs.

And therein lies the problem. Nobody seems to give a flip.

Why is no one screaming to get all these other issues under control. The same issues costing the average American additional hard-earned dollars.

Alright, so someone wants to focus on lobby reform as a start. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States Congress, you want to tackle lobby reform? Start with a committee to investigate the Israel lobby.

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Throwing the Lap Dog a Bone

We have a problem.

I'm not talking about the obvious problem of government's refusal to get the oil and gasoline prices under control. Notice I chose to use the word 'refusal' instead of something a little more negotiable like 'hesitation'. Word selection is intentional. Our government is refusing to take real action on this issue. But, that's not what I want to talk about.

I'm not talking about the insane profits being reported. Not Chevron's announcement of a 49% increase in quarterly earnings (source: CNN Money), nor Exxon's announced record 1st quarter net earnings of $8.4 BILLION (source: Washington Post), nor British Petroleum's or Shell's record profits of $19.3 BILLION and $22.94 BILLION, respectively (source: BBC News).

I'm not talking about the proposed changes being debated in Congress. According to a Wall Street analyst, the profit tax on oil company profits won't impact gasoline prices:

Wall Street analysts discounted the likelihood of congressional action against oil companies. "As someone in the industry for more than 25 years, I've seen it before," said Fadel Gheit, an oil company analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "Penalizing oil companies does not lower prices at the pump. If we have a windfall profits tax, it will just create another moneybag for the government. It will not increase oil production by one barrel. It will not lower gasoline prices by one cent or alter our dependence on OPEC countries."
Source: Washington Post

I'm not talking of President Bush's disengenuous request for renewal of the effort to raise the mileage standards for vehicles. If the past is proof of the executive and legislative branches' commitment to reducing the dependency on oil by making vehicles more economical, forget about it.

But neither Congress nor the administration has shown much interest in raising passenger car standards, which were set in the 1970s and haven't changed since 1985. In March, the Bush administration said it would raise average fuel economy standards by 1.9 miles a gallon for sport-utility vehicles, pickups and vans for models in 2008 through 2011, a long-awaited move that environmentalists said was too modest.
Source: Washington Post

I'm talking about the $100 bone thrown to the lap dog which is the average American. Apparently, the Senate GOP leaders believe the average American is so naive as to take a deal where $100 in cash today is more important than the long-term reduction in the price of gasoline. This attempt at what in nothing less than a bribe reveals the mindset which is prevalent in Washington. Display to the citizenry the appearance of action, perhaps even provide a little something with which to entertain themselves, and the citizenry will feel as if their interests have been served.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The American public is not being served, it is being played.

I'd like to say this really jerks my chain, but then I don't have one. Do you?

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Changing Face on Media Relations

With today's announcement of Fox News commentator Tony Snow as the replacement for White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, it is evident the Bush administration feels it necessary to have a spokesman with a stage presence. Snow's experience with the camera, his previous stint within the White House with the senior Bush's presidency, and journalist skills will serve him well.

Selecting a familiar face to deliver the administration's messages is a calculated and wise move. Not only is Tony Snow a familiar face in one of the most widely watched news channels, he is capable of managing the relationship with the audience, which is what ultimately counts. He also understands there is a gap which must be bridged between the Bush administration and journalist.

"President Bush hates responding to the press, hates responding to political enemies -- he thinks it's beneath him," Snow said on Fox News in March. "He's got a stubborn streak." What the president needed, he said, was "a series of vigorous defenses" of his position.
Washington Post

In order to kick-off the relationship building process with the media, he may need to start with restating his previous positions and framing them within the context of where he stands today.

Dee Dee Myers, a press secretary in the Clinton White House, said that if Bush wants smoother relations with journalists, "Tony has stature. He understands how the press works from both sides. He has a big personality, and that can be helpful." But she noted that Snow has "a long paper trail" and would have to defend policies he has criticized.Washington Post

Speaking of media presence...

Over at this blogger's site, I found an interesting analysis of the factors at play in the effort to corrupt the messages of serious researchers into areas which some very powerful groups would prefer not be critically analyzed. The article, The Destruction of the 911 Truth Movement, presents information on how major alternative news sites, the likes of Jeff Rense, and discussion forums, the likes of Above Top Secret, are used to assimilate, or disparage those which can't be assimilated, researchers with either a significant following or serious message which must be "handled".

Control of the media will determine which messages actually get delivered and what is contained therein.

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Megalomania and Ponerology

megalomania  n.

1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.

ponerology n.

1. A division of theology dealing with evil; theological doctrine of wickedness or evil; from the Greek: poneros -> evil'.

Earlier this week President Bush declared himself "The Decider".  As I read those words, the above two words immediately came to mind.  I have provided the definitions above, and a few thoughts below...

Positions of power are full of individuals of the above types.

Study the types well.

Educate yourself in their ways.

Understand their purpose and aim.

They do not act in our best interest.

Protect yourself with knowledge.

And, remember these from Musashi Miyamoto's The Book of Five Rings...

• Think of what is right and true.
• Understand the harm and benefit in everything.
• Learn to see everything accurately.
• Become aware of what is not obvious.
• Be careful even in small matters.
• Do not do anything useless.

Tagged: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

FBI: Federal Bureau of Intimidation

Not long after columnist Jack Anderson's funeral, FBI agents called his widow to say they wanted to search his papers. They were looking for confidential government information he might have acquired in a half-century of investigative reporting. USA Today

Yesterday, we read about how the FBI is attempting to obtain the personal files of investigative reporter Jack Anderson under the pretext it will help the government's case against two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, have been charged with disclosing classified information.

Interestingly, the FBI is expanding the scope to remove any documents discovered during the search which may be stamped "secret", "confidential", or may be otherwise classified. Smells to me very much like a fishing expedition to attempt to identify individuals, sources or contacts, who may have helped Anderson obtain access to information revealing unethical, illegal, or less than flattering activities of certain powerful figures.

Mark Feldstein, a George Washington University journalism professor and Anderson biographer. Feldstein said he was visited by two agents at his Washington-area home in March.

Feldstein, who is writing a book about Anderson's relationship with Nixon, said the attempt is part of the "greatest assault on the news media since the Nixon administration."

"On the one hand, I think it's really disturbing to have the FBI come knocking at your door, demanding to look at things you've been reading. It smacks of a Gestapo state. On the other hand, it's so heavy handed to be almost ludicrous," Feldstein said. Washington Post

Today, another Washington Post article more accurately reports, albeit via the comments from Kevin Anderson, Jack Anderson's son, the more troubling aspect of this demand from the FBI:

Kevin Anderson said agents were "duplicitous" about their "true objective . . . to whitewash Jack Anderson's papers and attempt to remove from history embarrassing documents."

Here we see firsthand attempts at rewriting history, erasing all evidence of the truths, facts, and events as they occurred. Under the cover of the search for security leaks compromising national security, the true objective of silencing patriots and honest citizens who would reveal corruption, unconstitutional, and criminal behavior, will now be sought.

Any document can be classified and excluded from revelation under the guise of protection of national security, at the discretion of anyone with the power to apply the classification, and thus sweep under the rug any act or decision they choose.

Criminal acts and abuses of power would never be revealed. Everyone would continue to believe what a clean house the intelligence, military, executive, and legislative communities maintain.

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Rockers Speak Out

Today, Neil Young joins the ranks of rockers speaking out against the policies and actions of the Bush administration. Seems that interviews aren't making out to the public, so might as well let the lyrics do the talking for you...

"I raise my hand in peace ... I never bow to the laws of the thought police ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again ...

"In the big hotels ... in the mosques and the doors of the old museum ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again."
from Living With War

Other artists who have spoken out include Steve Earle, Willie Nelson and the Rolling Stones.

According to CNN:

Veteran rocker Neil Young has recorded a protest album featuring an anti-Iraq war track with "a holy vow to never kill again" and a song titled "Let's Impeach the President," the singer said on Monday.

The New York Times reports on Neils' renewed activism:

Neil Young, who has periodically touched on political themes during a four-decade career, plans to release a hastily recorded new album ruminating on the war in Iraq and directly calling for the impeachment of President Bush.

The 10-song album, "Living With War," will probably represent Mr. Young's most overtly partisan work since the song "Ohio," recorded and quickly released by the group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as a response to the Kent State shootings in 1970.

I am finding more songs on the radio, specificaly the alternative radio stations, taking a stand against either the Bush administration or the Iraq war. System of a Down and Pearl Jam have songs critical of the war. Again, from the NY Times article:

The album comes at a time when major record companies and radio stations appear to have developed a degree of comfort with bluntly political material. The latest song from the band Pearl Jam, "World Wide Suicide," which accuses the president of taking soldiers' sacrifices for granted, recently logged three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard modern-rock airplay chart. And Green Day's 2004 album "American Idiot" which addresses themes of alienation but also includes lyrics like "Sieg Heil to the president gasman," has emerged as a blockbuster, selling more than 5.4 million copies so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

Green Day's web site is www.greenday.com.

Neil Young's web site is www.neilyoung.com.

Pearl Jam's web site is www.pearljam.com.

Rolling Stones' web site is www.rollingstones.com.

Steve Earle's web site is www.steveearle.com.

Willie Nelson's web site is www.willienelson.com.


Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Spring Cleaning in Washington

With Spring comes change. New life where only death or deep slumber existed.

Let the change start with the removal of Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State.

An Opinon piece in the Washington Post today reports on the high level of dissatisfaction with Rumsfeld within the ranks and the risk associated with allowing him to stay in his position. Yet, Bush's continued support for Rumsfeld, despite Rumsfeld's poor performance and continued criticism, is raising serious doubts about the president's ability to make sound decisions based on facts. The steadfast support Bush exhibits is not viewed as commitment, it is a realization of his stubbornness. A captain must know when to change course or risk crashing his ship.

Rumsfeld has lost the support of the uniformed military officers who work for him. Make no mistake: The retired generals who are speaking out against Rumsfeld in interviews and op-ed pieces express the views of hundreds of other officers on active duty. When I recently asked an Army officer with extensive Iraq combat experience how many of his colleagues wanted Rumsfeld out, he guessed 75 percent. Based on my own conversations with senior officers over the past three years, I suspect that figure may be low.
...
Rumsfeld is a stubborn man, and I suspect the parade of retired generals calling for his head has only made him more determined to hold on. But by staying in his job, Rumsfeld is hurting the cause he presumably cares most about. The president, even more stubborn than his Pentagon chief, is said to have rejected his offer to resign.
David Ignatius, Washington Post

The New York Times reports :

"Are the floodgates opening?" asked one retired Army general, who drew a connection between the complaints and the fact that President Bush's second term ends in less than three years. "The tide is changing, and folks are seeing the end of this administration."
David Cloud and Eric Schmitt, New York Times

The public no longer buys the lies used to support the invasion of Iraq. And, to continue to believe the players which got us into this mess, makes fools of us all.

One who cannot see the reality of the situation, one who believes the lie because the truth is too painful or embarassing, lives a life dissociated from reality. The wife who fails to believe her husband is cheating on her, even though coming home late from work she can smell the perfume on his clothes. The proud parents who fail to believe their son or daughter may have a drug problem, even though the grades have slipped, the appearance has changed, and a different personality has replaced the one they loved. The citizen who once thought their country could do no wrong, only to find out they've been continually lied to and manipulated.

Spring is here and the time to clean house has come.


Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Flight 93 and the Making of a Patsy

The case to try and sentence Zacarias Moussaoui for his involvement in the 9/11 attacks has taken a long time to bring to court. Enough time for just about anything to happen. Even the unlikely, but not impossible, following scenarios:

• Apply interrogation techniques to "convince" Moussaoui of his involvement and role in the attacks.


• Silence, by pay-off or intimidation, those who witnessed Flight 93 being shot down.


• Re-create or alter the flight cockpit and data recorder data.

Anything is possible.

The truly sad and unforgivable side to this trial is the pain the families have to continue to endure reliving the day they lost their loved ones. And for what? To send some guy to his death who may or may not have been involved?

From today's Washington Post article:

The trial seemed an afterthought yesterday amid the drama of the recording. Prosecutors rested their case for the execution of Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon. The defense will now begin its case, and Moussaoui is expected to take the stand again as early as today.

In the trial's first phase, Moussaoui testified that he had planned to hijack a fifth plane and crash it into the White House on Sept. 11 with a crew that included shoe bomber Richard Reid. The jury found Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty and will decide whether he should be executed or spend his life in prison.

When the jury found Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty, it became evidently clear to me that emotions would overtake logic and reason in this trial. Now, after publishing the recordings, and reading the reactions in the courtroom, there is no doubt justice will not be served by dispensing the utlimate form of punishment on this man.

The government is throwing the public a bone! The real perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks have not been caught and will likely not be caught. Killing Moussaoui will appease many people, making them feel like at least one person was held accountable for the actions which forever changed this country. Although temporarily gratifying, the feeling will fade as more people begin to notice the disinformation campaigns.

Moussaoui is not the only patsy, there are 29 other patsies in Spain for the Madrid bombings.

Justice will truly be served when the real perpetrators are found and proven guilty in a court of law. Governments are replacing the real actors with stand-ins and hoping the audience doesn't catch on.


Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Latest Poll Results Reflect Disgust with Bush

The latest CNN / USA Today / Gallup poll results are out today and they reflect a growing dissatisfaction with George W. Bush and his administration. It is becoming evidently clearer there exists a very real lack of confidence in the administration's ability to handle the situation in Iraq and, more troubling, a growing sentiment of distrust. Result highlights are as follows:

• 57% believe going to war in Iraq was a mistake.


• 60% believe things are going badly in Iraq.


• 67% believe George W. Bush does not have a clear plan for Iraq.


• 51% believe the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction.

It's no wonder Bush's ratings are at an all-time low of 36%. The evidence lies in the lack of substance behind the talk. Spin intensity is at an all-time high.

Everyone should be very concerned. It is not out of the realm of possibilities and, as the Bush administration is so fond of saying, all options are on the table for a significant event, either allowed to occur or planned and executed, to force the American public to rally around the president and thus provide the opportunity to increase his approval rating.

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Once Upon a Time, there was Freedom of Speech

How fitting that prior to last night's State of the Union address by the president, Cindy Sheehan should be detained and arrested. According to CNN:

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Tuesday in the House gallery after refusing to cover up a T-shirt bearing an anti-war slogan before President Bush's State of the Union address.

And what exactly was on this "anti-war" t-shirt that resulted in her arrest? Well, brace yourself... nothing more than the number of American deaths since the beginning of the war with a simple question, "How many more?".

Outrageous! How this simple fact and question can be construed as offensive and in violation of any local ordinance is beyond me. The Washington Post reports that demonstrations within the Capitol are prohibited and that Capitol Police removed Sheehan after refusing to "close her jacket and quiet down". Anyone who has the courage to fight back and not submit to those who enforce conformity better watch out.

From the Washington Post article:

Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, opened her jacket to reveal a T-shirt that, according to a supporter, gave the number of U.S. war dead and asked, "How many more?"

She was also vocal, said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, and after she ignored instructions to close her jacket and quiet down, she was led out and arrested. Demonstrating in the House gallery is prohibited.

Again, from CNN:

"She was asked to cover it up. She did not," said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman.

Schneider said Sheehan was arrested around 8:30 p.m. on charges of unlawful conduct, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

The incident is an apropos metaphor for the deteriorating conditions in America. Arresting an individual for peacefully expressing disagreement with the government. Am I wrong to believe, despite what I have been taught my entire life, that what this great country, America, stands for is no longer true? Can we, the American people, no longer peacefully disgree with the government without being hauled off and arrested? Apparently not.

Last night, not only did freedom of speech take a hit, but also the right to privacy as President Bush announced his commitment to continue domestic surveillance without oversight. Despite internal efforts to reign in the run-away administration, the president is convinced he has the authority to continue his domestic illegal spying program.

For a alternative view of last night's speech, something you will certainly not read or hear on mainstream media outlets, take a look at Paul Craig Robert's article on the Counter Punch website.

Mr Robert's article starts with the gloves off...

The state of the union is disastrous. By its naked aggression, bullying, illegal spying on Americans, and illegal torture and detentions, the Bush administration has demonstrated American contempt for the Geneva Convention, for human life and dignity, and for the civil liberties of its own citizens. Increasingly, the US is isolated in the world, having to resort to bribery and threats to impose its diktats. No country any longer looks to America for moral leadership. The US has become a rogue nation.

Least of all did President Bush tell any truth about the economy. He talked about economic growth rates without acknowledging that they result from eating the seed corn and do not produce jobs with a living wage for Americans. He touted a low rate of unemployment and did not admit that the figure is false because it does not count millions of discouraged workers who have dropped out of the work force.

and finishes with the knock-out punch:

The state of the nation has never been worse. The Great Depression was an accident caused by the incompetence of the Federal Reserve, which was still new at its job. The new American job depression is the result of free trade ideology. The new job depression is creating a reserve army of the unemployed to serve as desperate recruits for neoconservative military adventures. Perhaps that explains the Bush administration's enthusiasm for globalization.

Who is Paul Roberts? Is he some yahoo, conspiracy-believing, liberal? Far from it...

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

Go on and do yourself a favor. If you haven't done so already, read more of the alternative news and opinion sites. Visit the following and read information assembled by individuals seeking to reveal the truth of our current situation:

• American Free Press


• Counter Punch


• Information Clearing House


• Signs of the Times

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Speak Out While You Can

Today, the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee approved Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. Although the full Senate will get a chance to vote on the recommendation, it is merely a formality. It is a done deal. Political ponerology in action.

With this Republican decision, the country moves one step closer to having the Supreme Court be nothing more than a rubber stamp for executive branch policies and decisions. It will not be long before the ideological line separating the presidency and a dictatorship fades, leaving the difference to mere semantics.

But, lest we lose all hope, there are some who are taking it upon themselves to express their right to privacy. Exercise your free speach NOW, while it still exists. In the not too distant future, the price of free speech will be the entry of all personal information into government databases. Breaches of privacy which would cause our fore-fathers, if they were alive today, to call for another revolution against a tyrannical government.

Photo courtesy of CNN

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Death of Democracy

We live in scary times.

Our form of government, which has served us well with checks and balances in place between Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, may very well move one step closer to death on January 24 when the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito. The potential for our democracy to morph into a dictatorship has never been higher, nor closer to realization.

Alito is Bush's choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was the deciding vote in several individual rights decisions:

O'Connor has cast the decisive fifth vote on cases upholding the right to an abortion, affirming affirmative action and limiting the application of the death penalty.

Her position as the key swing vote heightened the political stakes for Alito's nomination, with conservatives hoping he will swing the court to the right, and liberals fearful of the same thing.

So far, none of the Senate's 55 Republicans has announced opposition to Alito's nomination, meaning he can be confirmed with GOP votes alone, barring an increasingly unlikely Democratic filibuster.
USA Today

During his confirmation hearing, Alito dodged any direct answer on his position on abortion. It is clear he considers the Roe v. Wade decision open for re-evaluation. Newsweek's Eleanor Clift makes an interesting observation:

Now that the GOP is within striking distance of overturning Roe, they're having second thoughts. The public is not ready to abandon the landmark case legalizing abortion, and neither is the Republican Party. They used abortion as a wedge issue because the politics worked; they really didn't think abortion would ever be banned.

Would it be a good thing for the GOP to have the Roe decision overturned? Such a decision would unite the pro-choice supporters, which I truly believe to be the majority of Americans (not necessarily the most vocal), to rally around Democratic candidates who would support bringing the right of a woman to make decisions affecting her body back into her hands. Republicans' support for Alito would thus lead to their own demise.

It has become obvious from last week's hearings that Samuel Alito is more interested in upholding executive powers over individual rights. Answers to questions during his nomination hearings have proven to be quite revealing.

From a New York Times editorial:

In three days of testimony, he has given the American people reasons to be worried - and senators reasons to oppose his nomination. Among those reasons are the following:

EVIDENCE OF EXTREMISM Judge Alito's extraordinary praise of Judge Bork is unsettling, given that Judge Bork's radical legal views included rejecting the Supreme Court's entire line of privacy cases, even its 1965 ruling striking down a state law banning sales of contraceptives. Judge Alito's membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton - a group whose offensive views about women, minorities and AIDS victims were discussed in greater detail at yesterday's hearing - is also deeply troubling, as is his unconvincing claim not to remember joining it.

OPPOSITION TO ROE V. WADE In 1985, Judge Alito made it clear that he believed the Constitution does not protect abortion rights. He had many chances this week to say he had changed his mind, but he refused. When offered the chance to say that Roe is a "super-precedent," entitled to special deference because it has been upheld so often, he refused that, too. As Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, noted in particularly pointed questioning, since Judge Alito was willing to say that other doctrines, like one person one vote, are settled law, his unwillingness to say the same about Roe strongly suggests that he still believes what he believed in 1985.

SUPPORT FOR AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY Judge Alito has backed a controversial theory known as the "unitary executive," and argued that the attorney general should be immune from lawsuits when he installs illegal wiretaps. Judge Alito backed away from one of his most extreme statements in this area - his assertion, in a 1985 job application, that he believed "very strongly" in "the supremacy of the elected branches of government." But he left a disturbing impression that as a justice, he would undermine the Supreme Court's critical role in putting a check on presidential excesses.

INSENSITIVITY TO ORDINARY AMERICANS' RIGHTS Time and again, as a lawyer and a judge, the nominee has taken the side of big corporations against the "little guy," supported employers against employees, and routinely rejected the claims of women, racial minorities and the disabled. The hearing shed new light on his especially troubling dissent from a ruling by two Reagan-appointed judges, who said that workers at a coal-processing site were covered by Mine Safety and Health Act protections.

DOUBTS ABOUT THE NOMINEE'S HONESTY Judge Alito's explanation of his involvement with Concerned Alumni of Princeton is hard to believe. In a 1985 job application, he proudly pointed to his membership in the organization. Now he says he remembers nothing of it - except why he joined, which he insists had nothing to do with the group's core concerns. His explanation for why he broke his promise to Congress to recuse himself in any case involving Vanguard companies is also unpersuasive. As for his repeated claims that his past statements on subjects like abortion and Judge Bork never represented his personal views or were intended to impress prospective employers - all that did was make us wonder why we should give any credence to what he says now.
January 12, 2006

How could it be possible that with all these doubts, such an individual would still be confirmed? Obviously, there exists a culture of political self-servitude and indebtedness repaid by placement based on past favors or relationships instead of qualifications.

This requires more study.

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Remember John Lennon

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia


John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980)

• Member of the British rock group The Beatles.


• Half of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team.


• Vietnam War protester.


• Returned the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) he received from Queen Elizabeth II "in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing and support of America in Vietnam".
  


• Husband of Yoko Ono.


• Peace supporter.


• Songs: "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Give Peace a Chance", "Imagine"


• 8th place in the 100 Greatest Britons of All Time vote conducted by the BBC in 2002.


• Assassinated by a deranged fan.

We miss you and God knows we need your voice in protest to the egregious actions of this American Administration.

Technorati Categories: Activists, Anniversary, Freedom, Heroes, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Protestors, Random Thoughts, War, Weblog

Pearl Harbor - 65 Years Later

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, leading to America's entry into World War II occurred at 7:55 AM (local time) on this day, December 7, in 1941.

The Washington Post reports:

The Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and other military bases on Oahu lasted two hours, leaving 21 U.S. ships heavily damaged and 323 aircraft damaged or destroyed.

It killed 2,390 people and wounded 1,178.

Why does nobody mention the fact that the attack could have been prevented?! I guess someone believed it would be a better opportunity if it were allowed to happen.

From a September 2004 Common Dreams web site article:

In his 1982 book 'Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath', Pulitzer-prize winner John Toland reveals that almost everything the Japanese were planning to do "was known to the United States" on the morning of the attack, via intercepted messages never communicated to commanders at Pearl Harbor. He cites the case of US counterintelligence translator Dorothy Edgers who uncovered critical Japanese messages days before the assault, including "a scheme of signals regarding the movement and exact position of warships and carriers in Pearl Harbor." But Edgers' boss, Alwin Kramer, seemed "more annoyed than electrified" at the discovery and ordered her to "run along home." Unbeknownst to Edgers, Kramer was part of the subterfuge.

Please join me in a sincere moment of silence for all who were allowed to die senselessly due to the President Franklin Roosevelt's administration's decision not to warn the base of the incoming Imperial Japanese Navy.

Other books and articles:

• Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
  by Robert Stinnett


• Pearl Harbor: Official Lies in an American War Tragedy?
  from a special program at The Independent Institute


• What We Need to Know About Pearl Harbor and Why
  by Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt, Times Record Contributor


• The McCollum Memo: The Smoking Gun of Pearl Harbor
  What Really Happened web site

Technorati Categories: Conspiracy, Military, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Random, War, Weblog

A Killer Goes Free

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Another day, another Palestinian child's killer goes unpunished. This is nothing new. It has happened over and over for years.

The manner of Iman's [the young girl] killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.

An innocent girl whose cold-blooded murder will never receive the attention due the barbaric and needless act. Her only crime was to walk within a security zone on her way to school. A warning would have been appropriate. None was given.

A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.

In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post's operations room and describes Iman as "a little girl" who was "scared to death". After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot.

Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body.

On the tape, Capt R then "clarifies" to the soldiers under his command why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the [security] zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed."

At no point did the Israeli troops come under attack.

Capt R claimed that he had not fired the shots at the girl but near her. However, Dr Mohammed al-Hams, who inspected the child's body at Rafah hospital, counted numerous wounds. "She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs," he told the Guardian shortly afterwards. "The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face."

The Washington Post reports on the case in a very interesting manner, completely understating the callousness of the action. As a matter of fact, the tone of the entire article is very low-key compared to the Guardian article.

The article states the Israeli officer was acquited by a military court because "she [the girl] was already dead when he shot her". The defendant claimed "he did not identify the figure on the ground as a child" and "I'm happy and satisfied that the truth has come to light, I hope the army will understand its failure, the failure was not on my part."

Alright, so there are a few items making the readers feel he might very well be innocent, but let's see how the Post presents the position of the child:

Soldiers shot 13-year-old Iyman Hams as she approached a military observation post near the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza on Oct. 5, 2004. The soldiers said they thought she was planting a bomb. The girl's family said she was on her way to school.

Then, according to an army indictment, the officer approached the girl's body and fired two more shots _ an illegal practice called "verifying the kill." Palestinian doctors said that at least 15 bullets hit the girl.

Where's the stuff about the child getting up and trying to walk away before being gunned down? How about the bag being shot and not exploding thus proving there was no bomb in the bag? How about the part where witnesses saw the officer turn around and empty his magazine into the child's body after having shot her twice in the head?

I wonder why it is the Post article leaves out quite a bit of the damning evidence lending credibility to the case against the Israeli officer. Why are the facts not more prominently presented? Does the Post not want to foster anti-Israeli sentiment? Well, chew on that for a while, but now, back to this poor girl.

She was no match for young men with rifles and a life's worth of anti-Palestinian programming. Young Israelis are taught Palestinians lives are meaningless. Actions taken against Palestinians will not be punished.

It is sad to see how ethnic and religious differences are used to instill hate, to view others of different groups or beliefs as less than human. When children grow up in environments where this type of brainwashing is promulgated as "normal" behavior, the result is an inhuman being with no empathy toward others. Even though they may function "normally" within their society, they are truly abnormal within humanity.

Comments from an alternative news site:

The girl was clearly no threat. She had been identified by the Israelis as a scared, little girl. The article suggests that the only danger for the Israelis was if she had been sent out to lure them into a trap, which means the way for the Israelis to remain out of danger would have been to stay put. Instead, they go out, are not fired upon, which shows that it was not a trap, and then the accused empties his weapon into her body. However, this hypothesis implies that the Palestinians are such savages that they would risk the life of a small child in such a ploy. Such are the unstated assumptions in much mainstream news reporting on the conflict.

Source: Signs of the Times

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