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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
Showing posts with label Afghanistan Iraq Iran Israel usa war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afghanistan Iraq Iran Israel usa war. Show all posts

Sunday, August 8, 2010

9 Aug - Late Links

YouTube - State Crimes Against Democracy

The Shameless War Propaganda of the Corporate Media

 More Salon.com War Propaganda

 More Salon.com War Propaganda for "Progressives"

BP Disaster Response Workers Report Low Morale, Lack of Pay, Sickness

BP oil disaster response workers are reporting endemic problems, such as not being paid on time, low morale, rampant sickness, equipment failures and being lied to regularly.

Pfc. Manning and the Value of Truth

In times like this we must be careful to keep our bearings, lest we come to love the chaos that passes for reality.
This is why we need to honor our brother Bradley Manning. He was not afraid to face the unknown; not afraid to resist the seduction of conformity; not afraid to follow his conscience, AND not afraid to give us the wherewithal to distinguish truth from lies so that we, too, can follow our conscience.
The principalities and the powers, including the Fawning Corporate Media, have no hold on citizens like Private Manning, who refuse to live in a moral vacuum.
Bradley Manning dared to mock the falsity parading as reality after our country had a nervous breakdown as a result of 9/11 and the efforts of those who would use 9/11 to stoke our fear.
THAT false “reality” has lost its power, because it cannot live in the light of truth.

Indoctrination Tactics and Educational Alternatives

Genuine Situations Wanted

 We're All Partisans Now

Here is Senate candidate Sharron Angle accidentally telling the truth about why she only talks to Fox News and other members of the right wing press: 

 PETITION: STAND WITH ME TO SAVE NET NEUTRALITY AND STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF OUR MEDIA

 Marriage counselling makes people think their relationship is over

Thursday, August 5, 2010

5 Aug - Dire Warning

Cover of "Fubar"Cover of Fubar

I happened to look at ClusterMaps' FAQ page and was reminded of a years old Macdonalds ad...over 6 billion served. Blogaversary was June 20 and stats are taking off with roughly 800 of 6879 - 79 yesterday alone - coming in after the blog's year...but before a full year's stats Aug 15...which should show up on the 16th when a new map is forecast.
Do I care ? Yes, actually. I notice the feedback including countries I hadn't heard of...good excuse to check the CIA Factbook...and am amazed how people from fringe areas seem to come here before those who live in large centers.  
Sometimes I think I know who readers are - BlueGirlRedState, now  of They Gave Us A Republic  from Kansas City, Missouri

Afghanistan: Too FUBAR to fix

and I have tracked each other for years, and Rick B of Ten Percent in London, England  100 Detainees on Hunger Strike at Migrant Prison seems a likely candidate for one U.K. locus...but who's in Edinburgh ?

And I thought one of the northern Hawiian islands might have been Life Extension checking in ...except that when I talked to Marvin when he came through last month he had lost my URL !  

So I know this place is a newsroom and not a community - something I've always found true - but it tells you why I comment elsewhere. Sometimes it's nice to chat.

I ran a Google/Diigo custom search "taleban request proof of bin laden guilt" for the TGuaR  article for a comment using the following

New Evidence Depicts an Uneasy Relationship Between al-Qaeda and the Taliban

The Taliban Isolated Bin Laden

http://www.counterpunch.org/porter02122010.html

What Is This Evidence Against Bin Laden?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,177983,00.html

Incontrovertible?
The "Evidence" Against Bin Laden

http://www.j-n-v.org/AW_briefings/ARROW_briefing006.htm

No negotiations, U.S. tells Taliban
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/10/01/ret.us.taliban


 where's obama bin hidin' ?


http://old.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id276/pg1/index.html
 The Times of India newspaper (referring to a story in the 'LA Times') quotes Richard Labeviere (January 15, 2000), a Swiss journalist, who wrote about "US complicity in the rise of violent Muslim movements, from the religious brotherhoods that combated nationalist leaders like Egypt's Gamel Abdel Nassar, to the foreign troops sent to Afghanistan in the 1980s, and that country's present-day rulers,the Taliban."

Hm. Maybe it's a wonder I have any friends left!


Obama Warned Israeli May Bomb Iran

From Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, by Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, Patrick Lang, Colleen Rowle
( For context, Russian intelligence warned of a U.S. attack 2 1/2 years ago...and top Generals scotched U.S. plans to assault Iran .  Global Research's Dr. Chussdovsky watched deployment of naval forces - aircraft carrier groups - in the Persian Gulf with concern. I picked up on him doing that August 2006. )


 Haiti crisis forgotten, pace of aid too slow to help victims
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/haiti-crisis-forgotten-pace-584376.html
Hat Tip worldwide hippies

Veterans Administration Gives FBI Health Secrets

Veterans records could block firearms purchases

http://www.vlrc.org/articles/119.html
A division of the Department of Veterans Affairs has provided the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System, or NICS, with confidential medical competency data on tens of thousands of veterans and beneficiaries for the purposes of denying “incompetent” veterans the right to “purchase or redeem a firearm.”

According to a Veteran’s Benefits Administration, or VBA, memo issued June 2, in November 1999, the agency “provided NICS with an initial load of data on incompetent veterans, surviving spouses, adult helpless children and dependent parents from information in the Benefits Delivery Network and the Fiduciary Beneficiary System.”


9/11 Truth Truth
http://www.nolanchart.com/article7896.html


Looks, sounds and smells like Afghanistan ...

How the Indiana National Guard prepares contractors for the real thing.


US foreign aid to subsidize outsourced jobs in South Asia

The US Embassy in Sri Lanka announced late last week that it will be funding a new program in the South Asian country that will help train workers to speak English and business managers to take advantage of business outsourcing.

X-Files describe secret UFO encounters

The government released hundreds of previously secret "UFO files" on Thursday including a letter saying that Winston Churchill had ordered a 50 year cover-up of a wartime encounter between a UFO and military pilot.Skip related content
The files, published by the National Archives, span decades and contain scores of witness accounts, sketches and classified briefing notes documenting mysterious sightings across the country.




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Saturday, July 24, 2010

24 July - Truth Hostage to Polity

Keep Space for Peace demo - Menwith Hill Spy B...Image by pluralzed via Flickr

 Jeff Gates: Sayanim – Israeli Operatives in the U.S.
http://inteltrends.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/jeff-gates-sayanim-israeli-operatives-in-the-u-s  

©  Jeff Gates Source:  Veterans Today

Americans know that something fundamental is amiss. They sense – rightly – that they are being misled no matter which political party does the leading.

A long misinformed public lacks the tools to grasp how they are being deceived. Without those tools, Americans will continue to be frustrated at being played for the fool.

When the “con” is clearly seen, “the mark” (that’s us) will see that all roads lead to the same duplicitous source: Israel and its operatives. The secret to Israel’s force-multiplier in the U.S. is its use of agents, assets and sayanim (Hebrew for volunteers).

When Israeli-American Jonathan Pollard was arrested for spying in 1986, Tel Aviv assured us that he was not an Israeli agent but part of a “rogue” operation. That was a lie.

Only 12 years later did Tel Aviv concede that he was an Israeli spy the entire time he was stealing U.S. military secrets. That espionage – by a purported ally – damaged our national security more than any operation in U.S. history.

In short, Israel played us for the fool.

From 1981-1985, this U.S. Navy intelligence analyst provided Israel with 360 cubic feet of classified military documents on Soviet arms shipments, Pakistani nuclear weapons, Libyan air defense systems and other intelligence sought by Tel Aviv to advance its geopolitical agenda.

Agents differ from assets and sayanim.  Agents possess the requisite mental state to be convicted of treason, a capital crime. Under U.S. law, that internal state is what distinguishes premeditated murder from a lesser crime such as involuntary manslaughter. Though there’s a death in either case, the legal liabilities are different – for a reason.

Intent is the factor that determines personal culpability. That distinction traces its roots to a widely shared belief in free will as a key component that distinguishes humans from animals.

Agents operate with premeditation and “extreme malice” or what the law describes as an “evil mind.” Though that describes the mental state of Jonathan Pollard, Israeli leaders assured us otherwise—another example of an evil mind as the U.S. was played for the fool.

From RSS SnapShot! Yid with Lid

  Democratic governors make awesome movie montage for bloggers

North Korea Says Latest U.S. Sanctions Are Tantamount to `Hostile Policy'

The U.S. should make concrete steps toward engaging in dialogue if it is serious about ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.

New sanctions will target government officials and the foreign banks that help sustain the country’s weapons industry. North Korea’s economy has been battered by existing trade restrictions, including those imposed by the United Nations after nuclear tests in 2006 and last year. 

Obama Omits Jobs Killed or Thwarted from Tally: Caroline Baum

Sure the government can spend money and generate GDP growth in the short run: Government spending is a component of GDP!  Firms less than five years old are responsible for all of the net new jobs created in the U.S., the Kauffman study found. Job creation by start-ups is more stable, less sensitive to the business cycle.

So, if the goal is to create more jobs, and start-ups are the ones that create them, why is the Obama administration partnering up with existing firms?
“Job-creation policies aimed at luring larger, established employers will inevitably fail,” said Tim Kane, Kauffman Foundation senior fellow in research and policy and author of a follow-up study released this month.

 Three of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for federal government

Key lobbying hires include 18 former members of Congress and dozens of former presidential appointees. For other senior management positions, the industry employs two former directors of the Minerals Management Service, the since-renamed agency that regulates the industry, and several top officials from the Bush White House. Federal inspectors once assigned to monitor oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico have landed jobs with the companies they regulated.
With more than 600 registered lobbyists, the industry has among the biggest and most powerful contingents in Washington. Its influence has been on full display in the wake of the BP oil disaster: Proposals to enact new restrictions or curb oil use have stalled amid concerted Republican opposition and strong objections from Democrats in oil-producing states.

THE WAR FOR ISRAEL
http://www.nogw.com/warforisrael.html  ( and you thought the oil was for the US )
You are looking at the reason for the war against Iraq. This war was initiated by Ariel Sharon for Israel's strategic benefit!

Thats what Israel does. It has its intelligence organization, Mossad, carry out false flag operations and deceives others into attacking their enemies. In short they get others to fight their wars for them.
Israel is in the midst of its plan to use the United States military, which it controls, to conquer Iraq and divert Iraqi oil to the Haifa refinery via the Mosul to Haifa pipeline. The U.S. has built airbases at H1, H2 and H3 (which stand for Haifa 1, 2 and 3) to protect this strategic pipeline. The pipeline is used to send oil to Israel. Paid for with the blood of American soldiers that die in Iraq. See: The Reason Bush Is Pushing For Syria's Invasion PDF
Iraq is being turned into another Palestine state for Israel.
This war was fought in order to secure Israel's future. Israel, being a parasite nation, needed to create an income stream that would continue if funding from the United States should dry up. They have been working on the plan to steal Iraqi oil for years. Read Israel's Blitzkrieg on Middle East Oil PDF by Joe Vialls for more on this.
To quote Mr. Vialls article, "... they are already planning to steal 1,825 million barrels of Iraqi oil per annum. Taking a nominal price of US $25.00 per barrel ... the Israeli-Jewish terrorists stand to make a cool US $45,625,000,000.00 each year .... " [Thats over 45 1/2 Billion dollars a year or $125 million each day!!!]
Mr. Vialls claims that the 45 billion a year jackpot is more than just a lot of money, it's a matter of survival for Israel.
Israel has become the 3rd largest exporter of weapons in the world PDF, selling everything from Uzis to PHALCON airborne early warning systems. Defense Ministry figures show Israeli weapons export contracts were worth $4.1 billion in 2002. Only the United States with $13.2 billion and Russia with $4.4 billion sold more weapons that year.
Israel's possesses the fourth largest army in the world.

Israel is the only nuclear enabled country in the Middle East. Israel has overtaken England to become the worlds 5th largest nuclear power, roughly equivalent to France and China in the size and sophistication of its nuclear arsenal. Recent reports indicate that Israel has deployed five different nuclear weapons designs. It is estimated to have 2000-5000 conventional nuclear warheads and many micro nuclear devices like the bomb that destroyed the Sari Club in Bali. (These new nuclear devices only emit alpha radiation that is invisible to a standard geiger counter). In addition they have the neutron bombs, (that can kill people and leave the buildings intact) and hydrogen bombs PDF. Hydrogen bombs are currently the most fearsome and intimidating weapon on earth, capable of causing over 60000 times the damage of a nuclear bomb like the one used on Nagasaki. The Hydrogen bomb is so intimidating that most nations vow never to produce it, though it is really not much harder than producing regular nukes. When we are talking WMD, this is the big Kahuna.

Israel has the capability to take out every major city in Europe. Israel refuses to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) or to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities by International inspectors.
Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council Resolutions. A further 33 resolutions against Israel has not seen the light of day thanks to the United States vetoing power on the Security Council.
Nuclear disarmament must begin with Israel. Until that time, Arab states in the region have an inalienable "right" and "obligation" to develop similar weapons (of mass destruction) to counter this overwhelming threat to their nations and peoples.
Since Israel possess such a large nuclear arsenal, they are able to blackmail the United States into supplying them conventional weapons. They have been known to sell those weapons and technologies to other countries, once they are given to them. The Patriot missile, the Phoenix air-to-air missile, the Lavi fighter, based on the F-16, have all been sold to Beijing. Only direct U.S. intervention prevented Israel from selling Beijing AWACS technology.
Zionist forces are in control of the United States. When Ariel Sharon said:
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, October 3rd, 2001, as reported on Kol Yisrael
-- it was no idle chatter. He was telling the truth. They have gained control through the Federal Reserve System PDF and control of the central banks. The Illuminati and their Zionist agents also employ nuclear blackmail PDF. They are firmly in control of Australia, Germany and England as well as the U.S. Their allies will unite to fight the good fight for the greater good of Israel.
Just follow the trail of the money!

Yet Another Israeli Spy Case (UPDATED)
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/19/another_israeli_spy_case
Oct 15, 2009
Another Israeli spy scandal is making news. Of course, at this point, we don't know much only that like other recent spy scandals, it is an ugly episode that will reverberate negatively on the "Israel, right or wrong" crowd. ITALICIZED MATERIAL IS NEW.
The Israel-first crowd is screaming that this spy case doesn't involve the government of Israel.
Not true. The US government charges that the spy took over $200,000 from Israel Aircraft -- an Israeli government entity -- in exchange for top secret information. Obviously, the case involves the government of Israel. This is not to say the accused spy is guilty. A trial will determine that. However, the State of Israel is deeply implicated in the charges.
It is also worth noting how quickly the Israel firsters defend accused spies. Why? It is as if Arab-Americans immediately rushed to defend those charged with terrorism based on ethnic solidarity?
Can you imagine the brouhaha if Arab Americans rushed to knee-jerk defense of the guy charged with those thwarted New York terror attacks scheduled for this September 11? They don't do that. The Israel-first do, over and over again. Any Israeli, any Jew, is always, by definition, unjustly accused. It is exactly the opposite with Arabs and Arab Americans. Fortunately, the Israel firsters constitute exactly .000003% of the American Jewish community (slightly higher here at the Cafe).
This is from the Wall Street Journal. It looks huge.


Biggest reason Right Wing groups Oppose Kagan nomination?
http://codylyonblogolater.blogspot.com
July 13, 2010
Judicial Action Group is a 501(c)4 non-profit corporation with offices in Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 2006, the 501(c)4 status (unlike a tax-deductible 501(c)3 status) allows JAG to engage in unlimited lobbying, 'maximizing its influence.' The group is part of a larger coalition of right leaning groups including the web umbrella, Freedom Federation.' That particular coalition of activists calls itself "a federation of multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations and leaders committed to plan, strategize, and mobilize to advance shared core values to preserve freedom and promote justice" Featured along with Judicial Action Group on the Freedom Federation website, several other widely known Right Wing groups including better known groups like Family Research Council, American Family Association, Eagle Forum and The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

Leading JAG is president Phillip Jauregu,a partner at Birmingham law firm Jauregu & Lindsey who Jauregu's biography says represents various clients ranging from small business, to corporate entities, to individuals, such as former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Judge Roy Moore, a hero in right wing circles gained national attention when as Chief Justice, he placed a washing machine sized replica of the biblical ten commandments in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court. When challenged and eventually court ordered to remove the replica, hordes of fundamentalist Christian groups from around the nation descended onto the capital Montgomery to pray, protest and hold vigils.

Moore was eventually ordered out of office and Jauregui led the legal team that eventually lost an appeal that resulted in the removal of then Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from office, over his refusal to remove the granite replica.

Jauregui's JAG says it believes that the present state of the culture war created the need for a Special Forces unit that single-mindedly devotes itself to one mission: "defeating judicial activism." On its website, JAG says it serves this vital niche.

But, some saw Jauregui client Roy Moore as an activist judge. In a November 2003 Court of the Judiciary hearing, Alabama's Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system. He said what message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it."
.......................................

Alabama, Tim James, George Wallace and Campaign Exploitation



During a chat on politics while home visiting friends and family in Birmingham Ala., one friend remarked that candidates who speak in ‘positives’ rarely do well in campaigns for state office in Alabama. She pointed to the legacy of unfortunate condescension, that use political formulas where candidates steer people’s attention from true ‘center of life’ issues towards hot button social topics.

Of course, this is probably one of the easiest, oldest and cheapest tricks in politics but, fueled on by a media focused on the sensational, it often works, not just in the South, but, across the nation,

And, for some us who grew up or live in Alabama, headlines seem to say this deep-south state has produced more than its fair share of this sort of similar political games.


Over the past few weeks, Americans have met Alabama Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James, the 48-year old son of former Governor Fob James who was noted in part for blunt language and loud opposition to the teaching of evolution.

The younger James, a millionaire businessman, has inspired news headlines, sneers from liberals and now a barrage of viral videos based on a real television campaign ad where the candidate for governor tackles Alabama’s practice of offering drivers license exams in 12 languages.

During the ad, James looks earnestly into the camera and say’s “this is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.” One would be hard pressed to find evidence that offering drivers license tests to a variety of languages is a ‘central to Alabama life issue,’ nonetheless, since the ad’s debut, James’ poll numbers have gone up and local interest in the governor’s race has jumped. These days, he’s drawing big crowds as he criss-crosses the state in the ‘common sense’ express.

FBI false flag terror plot exposed in court
http://911blogger.com/node/22993
Defense says NY synagogue-bomb plot was feds' idea - Washington Pos

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

13 July - Militarism and 'Freedom'


How Sea Otters Make The Case For Carbon Trading
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-vine/76204/how-sea-otters-make-the-case-carbon-trading
Chris Wilmers, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and colleagues determined that the endangered animal, feasting on sea urchins, helped the growth of kelp forests, which can sequester at least 0.18 kg of carbon from the atmosphere for every square metre of otter occupied coastal water.
The fur craze took a huge toll on the otter populations, which in some areas are seriously endangered—there are just 70,000 in Alaska today. So urchins are running wild and kelp forests are dwindling. Bad news.

Threatening World Order: US and Israel Quietly Announce Plans to Reconstitute Their Nuclear Stockpiles
http://www.truth-out.org/threatening-world-order-us-and-israel-quietly-announce-plans-reconstitute-their-nuclear-stockpiles61
Part of the fear of those advocating nuclear abolition in the Middle East is that the United States will agree to send nuclear materials - extracted from its own civilian nuclear power plants - to Israel, much as it did for India, another country that refuses to sign the NPT.
The Obama and Netanyahu governments are seeking to obscure their contempt for nuclear abolition by calling for "nonproliferation" in the Middle East, while Israel simultaneously boycotts New-York-based discussions (at the 2010 NPT conference) of the need for a "nuclear free" Middle East.(2) "Nonproliferation," within this context, can be understood to apply only to other countries such as Iran, which has long been a target for US and Israeli military planners.

Sanctions against Iran and the Next War
http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/10518
by Alejandro Nadal (source: Monthly Review)
Friday, July 9, 2010
In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides relates how Pericles, in the fifth century BC, imposed economic sanctions against the city of Megara, which had allied itself with Sparta.  Athens prohibited trade with this city state and sent a message: if Megara did not break its alliance with Sparta, it would be punished.  Megara was enraged and urged Sparta to unleash war.  The resulting hostilities lasted for 30 years.
The history of economic and political sanctions to compel a country to change its conduct is long, but it teaches us that they frequently result in failure.  Not only do they fail to change the conduct of the sanctioned states, but they invariably lead to war.
The Security Council voted last week for a set of sanctions against Tehran.  It's another step toward confrontation in the course of the myopic foreign policy of the United States vis-à-vis Tehran.

( Related posts
 
ECONOMIC SANCTIONS, JUST WAR DOCTRINE, AND THE "FEARFUL SPECTACLE OF THE CIVILIAN DEAD"

Secret Document Affirms U.S.-Israel Nuclear Partnership

Israel’s Army Radio reported on Wednesday that the United States has sent Israel a secret document committing to nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

According to Army Radio, the U.S. has reportedly pledged to sell Israel materials used to produce electricity, as well as nuclear technology and other supplies, despite the fact that Israel is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Other countries have refused to cooperate with Israel on nuclear matters because it has not signed the NPT, and there has been increasing international pressure for Israel to be more transparent about its nuclear arsenal.

Army Radio’s diplomatic correspondent said the reported offer could put Israel on a par with India, another NPT holdout which is openly nuclear-armed but in 2008 secured a U.S.-led deal granting it civilian nuclear imports.

http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/10516  )

No Dominion: The Lonely, Dangerous Fight Against Christian Supremacists Inside the Armed Forces
http://www.truth-out.org/no-dominion-the-lonely-dangerous-fight-against-christian-supremacists-inside-armed-forces61214
Mikey Weinstein and the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) have recorded a tremendous string of victories in the fight against Christian supremacists inside the armed forces.
Mikey Weinstein can be a brute and a zealot. He knows this and admits it freely. But he believes it's the only position a reasonable person can take when confronted with a faction dedicated to mutating the U.S. military into "a weaponized Gospel of Jesus Christ." The military cannot favor one religious sect over another because it's destructive of good order and discipline, creating divisions between service members when they must rely on the guy next to them to survive in a firefight.

Why Are We in Afghanistan? As Petraeus Takes Over, Could Success Be Worse Than Failure?
http://www.truth-out.org/tom-engelhardt-why-are-we-afghanistan-as-petraeus-takes-over-could-success-be-worse-than-failure6126
Experts expect the counterinsurgency campaign to continue for years, even decades more; the NATO allies are heading for the exits; and, again according to the experts, the Taliban, being thoroughly interwoven with Afghanistan’s Pashtun minority, simply cannot in any normal sense be defeated.
We would be in minimalist possession of a fractious, ruined land, at war for three decades, and about as alien to, and far from, the United States as it’s possible to be on this planet. We would be in minimalist possession of the world’s fifth poorest country. We would be in minimal possession of the world’s second most corrupt country. We would be in minimal possession of the world’s foremost narco-state, the only country that essentially produces a drug monocrop, opium. In terms of the global war on terror, we would be in possession of a country that the director of the CIA now believes to hold 50 to 100 al-Qaeda operatives (“maybe less”) -- for whom parts of the country might still be a “safe haven.” And for this, and everything to come, we would be paying, at a minimum, $84 billion a year.
On the basis of our stated war objective -- “[W]e cannot allow Al Qaeda or other transnational extremists to once again establish sanctuaries from which they can launch attacks on our homeland or on our allies,” as General Petraeus put it in his confirmation hearing at the end of June 2010 -- success in Afghanistan means increasingly little. For al-Qaeda, Afghanistan was never significant in itself. It was always a place of (relative) convenience. If the U.S. were to bar access to it, there are so many other countries to choose from.
A counterinsurgency “success” there would be meaningless unless, based on the same strategic thinking, the U.S. then secured Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and a potential host of other places. In other words, the U.S. military would have to do one thing the Bush years definitively proved it couldn’t do: impose a Pax Americana on planet Earth.

The Disappearing Intellectual in the Age of Economic Darwinism
http://www.truth-out.org/the-disappearing-intellectual-age-economic-darwinism61287
There are plenty of talking heads spewing lies, insults and nonsense in the various media,all of whom trade in reactionary world views, ignorance, ideological travesties and outlandish misrepresentations - all the while wrapping themselves in the populist creed of speaking for everyday Americans.
Richard Cohen, writing in The Washington Post about Sen. Michael Bennett, was shocked to discover that he was actually well-educated and smart but had to hide his qualifications in his primary campaign so as to not undermine his chance of being re-elected. Cohen concludes that in politics, "We have come to value ignorance."[5] He further argues that the notion that a politician should actually know something about domestic and foreign affairs is now considered a liability.  
As social protections disappear, jobs are lost, uncertainty grows and insecurity prevails, Tea Party members express anger over a weakened social state that represents one of the few institutions capable of providing the capital, policies and safety nets necessary to protect those who have been shaken by the economic recession. Yet the Tea Party movement wants to abolish government and expand even more the deregulated capitalism that has unsettled the lives of so many of its members.
There is a kind of intellectual vacuum produced at different levels of American society that cultivates ignorance, limits choices, legitimates political illiteracy and promotes violence.
Students are urged by some conservative groups to spy on their professors to make sure they do not say anything that might actually get students to think critically about their beliefs. Faculty are being relegated to nontenured positions and because of the lack of tenure, which offers some guarantees, are afraid to say controversial things inside and outside the classroom for fear of being fired.
A culture of ignorance serves to both depoliticize the larger public while simultaneously producing individual and collective subjects necessary and willing to participate in their own oppression.
A theater of cruelty and a mode of public pedagogy undermines all forms of solidarity while simultaneously promoting the logic of unrestricted individual responsibility.
As the welfare state is dismantled it is being replaced by the harsh realities of the punishing state as social problems are increasingly criminalized and social protections are either eliminated or fatally weakened. The harsh values of this new social order can be seen in the increasing incarceration of young people, the modeling of public schools after prisons and state policies that bail out investment bankers, but leave the middle and working classes in a state of poverty, despair and insecurity.

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

7 July - Geopolitics and Sweetness

 Zion-power and War: From Iraq to Iran

If the official political and military justifications for the US colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ring hollow and convince few, what of the other economic explanations for the war put forth mostly but not exclusively by critics of the Bush administration?

Big Oil has failed to benefit from the US occupation because of the heightened conflict, continuous sabotage, the predictable resistance of the Iraqi oil workers to privatization and the general insecurity, instability and hostility of the Iraqi people. Whereas 'Big Oil's' negotiations and third party deals with pre-war Iraq provided a stable and consistent flow of oil and revenue, the war has not only reduced these revenues to zero, but has all but eliminated any new options for the next decade.

Iraq was severely bombed several times during the Clinton regimes and over 1 million of its citizens, including an estimated 500,000 children, died prematurely from conditions related to the US imposed deprivation of food and essential medical and water treatment supplies.

There is an alternative view, which argues that Israel promoted the US attack on Iraq, did all in its power through its US pro-Israel followers to design, propagandize and plan the war. This alternative view sustains that at no point did the Zion-Cons act contrary to Israeli state interests. In fact, Israeli officials worked on a daily basis with its US agents inside the government, particularly the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans to provide disinformation to justify the military attack. If, as we will show, Israel was deeply involved in pushing the US to attack Iraq and is behind the current disinformation campaign to provoke a US war against Iran, then anti-war forces and US public opinion must openly confront the 'Israel factor'.

We will argue that the exoneration of Israel is mainly an attempt to deflect US public hostility away from those Israel Firsters who manipulated us into this costly, bloody unending war. Exoneration of Israeli responsibility for the US invasion of Iraq allows the Jewish state and its US agents to escape any blame for the degradation of US forces in Iraq and provides them a 'clean moral slate' for launching a new bloody US attack against Iran.

( Nobody is going to accuse this piece as being another apologist analysis. Those who confuse Zionism with Jewry will have all sorts of problems. )

 

Civilizing Afghanistan While We Decivilize Ourselves

( The article starts with a declaration 'America' is not a colonial power LOL 

Comments, though, quickly eviserate this nonsense and are generally very astute. )

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN:
Will the sum change if we switch the summands’ places?

KYRGYZSTAN: BLACK HOLE OF MIDDLE ASIA. Vacuum of power, emerged after the color revolutions of 2005 is filled with chaos now

ESTONIA: Syndrome of inertial Rusophobia
GOOGLE VERSUS CHINA: New round
POLAND: Presidential elections at the background of collapsing Fourth Republic
EURO-UNION POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK. Part III. Neo-fascists at the political scene of the new EU member-states
EURO-UNION POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK. Part II. West has to re-educate its own xenophobes and racists, rather than Russia
EURO-UNION POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK. Part I. Prior to teaching us how to be tolerant, Europeans should have better overcome their own complexes, inherited from the colonial epoch
"FATHERS’ GRAVES" OF THE POLISH POLITICS
THOUSANDS OF COMMEMORATION LIGHTS AT THE GRAVES OF OUR SOLDIERS IN POLAND

The Arab World Against Ahmadinejad?

( Another ridiculous essay redeemed by commenters )

AFGHANI TWIST: 30 years later.

Intellectual ferment among ethnic groups could have spread to the allied republics of the USSR that neighbored Afghanistan — Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenia. Life itself has proved that these apprehends weren’t groundless. After the Soviet military withdrawal and the proclamation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992 radical Islamist ideas have gained considerable support in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.


Justice Department To File Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality Of Arizona Immigration Law

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's new law targeting illegal immigrants, setting the stage for a clash between the federal government and the state over the nation's toughest immigration crackdown.


America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With Name Change

aspartame was previously listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent! 

Sold commercially under names like NutraSweet, Canderel and now AminoSweet, aspartame can be found in more than 6,000 foods, including soft drinks, chewing gum, table-top sweeteners, diet and diabetic foods, breakfast cereals, jams, sweets, vitamins, prescription and over-the-counter drugs.