The Progressive Blog Alliance HQ

Doctors in a Surveillance Society By Angelique Omega

I first wrote this poem in 2003 and posted it to my blog, BloggingPoet.com but considering the current economic state of my neighborhood I thought it would bear repeating. Thank you. -Billy Jones

Dreams strewn ‘cross the sidewalk
piled high for the truck to come
to pick them up, haul them off:
a family, hopes undone.
Again, we wander lonely
a life of hell begun.
A chance, we wanted only.
Could nothing have been done?

Clear Channel’s playing music
but they’ll not play this song.
Clear Channel banks on Wall Street
while my street struggles on.
And Sony’s selling records,
cheat the artists out their say
while the people watch reality TV.

I am sure most of you have been to a musical performance where the sound level is gradually increased without you even realizing it in order to prepare you for the main event. I call it the concert theory. Looks like it can be applied to other arenas as well.

The further the administration drops in the polls the more threatening the rhetoric around dissent becomes. The statements Donald Rumsfeld has been making are a few decibels higher these days.

For instance: Rumsfeld had this to say on America's moral superiority and blameless innocence in world affairs.

Rumsfeld:

"Can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that America — not the enemy — is the real source of the world's troubles?"

The message here is clear. The act of self-examination, of either self or your country is destructive to America.

The right wing argument might be that it is better to be safe than sorry. Ordinarily I would agree with that statement, however there is something else I like to take into account and it is called the bigger picture. Right wingers, are not without their own bigger picture, but sadly it rarely reaches beyond their own self-interests and preservation of a rather narrowly focused status-quo.

I watch as many people who identify with this group swallow lies whole and glory in their dutifulness to authority in doing so.

In their most private thoughts do they ever question their allegiance? Do their leaders’ cries of wolf always work on them? Or do they accept the economy of truth as a necessary evil? I wonder if one ever really feels safe with a ruthless master. Who knows? I guess only they do.

But what if Bush saying Boo is not enough anymore for the rest of us?

The swaggering simpleton, his features half-frozen in that ridiculous smirk of the clueless nincompoop, lets slip to a credulous, beholden media that Syria and Iran are “responsible for this shit”. And, lo and behold, that is the message that is dutifully relayed to the world - and there is hardly a discernable tongue in any cheek as this unadulterated clap-trap is transmitted.

So, having been given the green light by Bush and Blair, the Zionist terror apparatus continues to lay waste the people and infrastructure of Lebanon, a sovereign nation. This frightening exercise of raw military power we see on our screens everyday can by no stretch of the imagination be characterised as a case of Israel “defending itself from terrorism”.

This wanton destruction is the work of one man. He sits at the apex of an axis of evil incorporating Zionist hawks, a craven British political class, America’s military-industrial complex, end-time Christian fundamentalists and a bought-and-paid-for media establishment. It is not the work of so-called Muslim terrorists.

Below is a statement/petition on the current situation in Palestine being circulated by Britain's Palestine Solidarity Campaign. It is currently being forwarded to British public figures, organizations, trade unions and others who are asked to sign it. The British Palestine Solidarity Campaign has asked sympathizers in other countries to undertake similar initiatives in their own countries. The British initiative has already received considerable support. Here is the text of the British statement:

Emergency in Palestine

The Israeli government's behavior at present is to be comdemned. The failure of our government to speak out against Israel's oppression of the Palestinian population is complicit with those actions of the European Union, the United States and Israel. It is in effect a coordinated attempt to collectively punish the Palestinian people for electing a government of which they disapprove .

You've got to admire the sheer chutzpah of Bush. Having set out to create a Gulag in Guantanamo, outside of the reach of any legal process, and having manoeuvred constantly over a four year period to ensure that this immoral detention centre has remained outside of the reach of any American or international courts, Bush now claims that he wants to shut down Guantanamo but is waiting for direction from the US supreme court. Talk about trying to sell a defeat as a victory. Knowing that he is about to lose, Bush now pretends that this coming loss at the Supreme Court is simply the "clarification" that he has been waiting for.

It takes balls to carry off a lie that huge.

Here is the headline of a piece in the WaPo written by Josh White:Detainee in Photo With Dog Was 'High-Value' SuspectOne might get a sense that maybe just a little torture might be okay if he really was a "high-value" suspect, eh? The second paragraph reads like this:

Although officials characterized the other detainees who appeared in the Abu Ghraib photographs as common criminals and rioters, the orange-clad detainee seen cowering before the dog was different. Detainee No. 155148 was considered a high-value intelligence source suspected of having close ties to al-Qaeda. According to interviews, sworn statements from soldiers and military documents obtained by The Washington Post, Ashraf Abdullah Ahsy was at the center of a military intelligence "special project" designed to break him down, and was considered important enough that his interrogation was mentioned in a briefing to high-ranking intelligence officials at the Pentagon.

Gee, I feel my resolve weakening, maybe just the dogs, but nothing more okay? At least he was a "high-value" suspect so he had it coming.

There are two different views that arise in the subject of human cloning. On the side for cloning; I believe that a human being should have the right to choose whether to reproduce or not and although cloning is a totally different method of reproducing; it is still producing life. On the other hand; what is the purpose of cloning a human anyway? We might live longer or even have a twin but that won't make a difference. i don't think humans should be made to be used as spare parts for another human; it's just immoral. There are many emotional, religious and political factors that are involved in the procedure as well. The risks of it turning out wrong are very high and the concequences would be even worse; we would be bringing life to something totally different. A person should just live their life like to the fullest everyday. I don't believe it would be nice to live forever; or even a little bit longer...i want to die naturally. Humans are getting to complicated; i think they should just think of the necessary things and forget about any new technical advancements. We just invent things to make our lives easier; we are getting a lot lazier over the years. I believe that the human kind is a disease on this planet for the reason that we only think about ourselves and nothing else; we do nothing to help the planet we live on. In conclusion; humans shouldn't be able to create anything no matter how creative they are. i can't explain what i think very good but that's the best i can do.

"The Rich Are Very Different From You and Me."
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Grindstaff Chronicles
And How! They Can Actually Eat
They also can afford better medical care, better housing, better medication, better education, and a remarkably better quality of life. So, Marie Christine said (I don't know where her tongue was) what's wrong with George Bush's budget if it helps the richest of the rich on the backs of the middle and poorer classes? Marie Christine continued, saying that Bush is planning on cutting, grotesquely, sizeable amounts from Medicare and Medicaid, in total she said, he plans to slash funds for 141 programs, none of which, thank you, hurt the rich. In her opinion, this budget is a moral disgrace.

[Ghost of Adam S]	Welcome to the Thursday Morning meeting of Imperialists Anonymous. My name is Adam and I am an Imperialist.
[All]	Hello Adam.
[Ghost of Adam S]	Will somebody be so kind as to read "Who"?
[Ghost of Winston C]	My name is Winston and I am an Imperialist.
[All]	Hello Winston.
[Ghost of Winston C]	Who is an Imperialist? Most of us do not have to think twice about this question, we know! Our whole life and thinking was centred in domination in one form or another: the getting and using of resources and finding ways and means to monopolise more. We lived to dominate and dominated to live.

For reasons of possible copyright infringement, we'll leave this meeting of IA, but it continues here.

War Against Conservativism

Let us see then if we cannot in fact eff the ineffable ~ Douglas Adams RIP

Disreputable Lazy Aliens

A fact exists independently of our subjective consciousness or acknowledgement.  We can close our eyes, bury our heads in the sand, but those foolhardy tactics will not alter its inherent empirical and objective character. A fact, which is, axiomatically, a truth, endures precisely because it is firmly grounded in historical reality.One such fact is the dispossession of the Palestinians of their humanity, a travesty which began mid-last century and continues to this day. Another fact is that this great wrong has been legitimised by the acquescience and support of international powers that be, in a word the “civilised” Western world. Another fact - and this is even being created as I write – is that what remains of Palestinian land is being robbed under cover of a gigantic “security” wall.Another truth worthy of mention in this veritable directory of facts is that anyone who even attempts to criticise Israel’s gross violations against the Palestinian people risks being labelled “anti-semitic”. But, you can call every Tom, Abu or Lahai anti-semitic, but it certainly won’t stop the truth from being uttered.

So, it seems Ambassador Craig Murray's website has been pulled.

It's a record of his correspondance with the UK Foreign Office detailing concerns about policy toward Uzbekistan and human rights abuses. Also, the UKGovernment's legal advice stating that it is not an offence to use 'evidence' obtained under torture, unless it's used in a court of law. What a load of disgusting shameful shite. It's times like these when i am truly ashamed to be a British Citizen today. Read it now, before they use the Official Secrets Act to gag everybody (download it and repost everywhere):

(and if you are a UK citizen, email your MP: don't let them slime their way out of this one. If you're unsure of your MP's contact details, you can get them here.)

by aliasBruce

So they have murdered Stanley Tookie Williams, 51, co-founder of L.A.'s notorious Crips gang, who, in 24 years behind bars, became an international icon for the cause of reconciliation and a short-lister for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Make no mistake, it was indeed murder. Let us not quarrel over the semantics of using the shined-up legal term "execution" versus the plain-spoken "murder." The argument for euphemism here is a shamefully empty one, and not worth the huffing and puffing of death penalty supporters. The careful planning and carrying out of the killing of another human being against his or her will is murder, period, whether it is murder for money or murder for betrayed love or murder as societal revenge for murder. You can argue, if you like, that government has the right to murder a citizen once he or she has murdered another with sufficient brutality. But, please, spare us the linguistic run-around. Murder is murder, and those arguing earnestly and passionately for taxpayer-sanctioned murder ought to at least have the stuffing to own up to the nature of what they seek...

Liberals may well accuse McCain of having served as a useful tool for the Bushites on the torture issue, in that, by diverting the public's attention away from the real problem — the US Administration’s preposterous definition of torture — he has made it impossible to discuss the issue that really should be discussed. But that is only one part of the story. Yes, it is true that Bush can now simply claim that the US "does not torture," skirting completely around the question of what he means by the word "torture." The Bushites have manipulated the definition of torture so as to make it meaningless. And it is true that, meanwhile, activities that any rational person would consider to be torture will continue as before.  (read more at http://alse.blogspot.com )

The denials have come fast and furious, one after the other, cascading off lips well-versed in the art of dissembling; gobs schooled to raise lying into both scientific enterprise and art form. The self-same lips that gave us the 45-minutes-away-from-kingdom-come rationale, the very ones that negated Abu Ghraib abuse and torture and killing. Yes, those lips.

Needless to say, the denials of CIA torture flights were not plausible. But- and this is incredible - they expect us to believe them. This is Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, Metternich de nos jours: If you don’t believe me, or Secretary [Condi] Rice, you must believe that there is a conspiracy here with some dark US forces. Some quaint protocol forbids the British MP from calling his/her fellow a liar. So they prevaricated.

The Grindstaff Chronicles

Summary:
John McCain won an anti-torture battle yesterday, and immediately, the administration started to scuttle it. When George Bush and the guy who browns his nose, Dick Cheney, said they wanted to keep torture, they meant it, and they haven't stopped this insane war with John McCain. They are already adding a secret addendum to the Army Filed Manual. Nice people, those Bush people. Whew, if we could just have them on the ranch for one day they'd be singing a very different song.

This is fiction, of course, but it's about a reality for the poor and working people of my city:

Starasia is a very good girl. She is eight years old. She lives with her mother in the projects. Starasia's mother's name is Jessica and Jessica works at a McDonald's that has replaced a hospital cafeteria in The Bronx.

Starasia gets up every morning and takes a shower and brushes her teeth. Starasia puts on the school uniform her mother has laid out for her before she goes to sleep. Starasia's mother fixes her breakfast and walks with her across the street to her school. Jessica catches the D train and goes to work. She comes home at six thirty every day.

Starasia is, like I told you, a very good girl. Her mother told her that she could watch cartoons when she comes home for half an hour and Starasia usually does just this, and then she does her homework and cleans her room, because she knows that she and mom are a team. Starasia heats up some ravioli or spaghetti in the micro wave, eats it and drinks a glass of milk. Then she does her homework. I was a city kid like Starasia, only not such a good kid, but for a while both my parents had jobs and I was, like Starasia, a latchkey kid. Millions of us were, and millions of them are.

Australia's Fueh... er... Prime Minister John Howard has refused to attribute the race riots to racism. Hmm... Anyway, below are some highlights of Howard's career, which may shed some light on the current events.  He predicted, in 1985, that "The times will suit me." Not that the times do suit him, but that they will. He has made his self-fulfilling prophecy come true by pursuing policies such as:

• Opposition to multiculturalism
• Promotion of "a shared national identity"
• Claims that the rate of Asian immigration was too high
• Repudiation of any accommodation with Asia or the Aborigines
• Turning away Asian asylum seekers on the high seas
• "Border protection" issues
• Enthusiastic participation in the war on Iraq

Obviously, the race riots have nothing to do with racism. If they did, John Howard would know...  http://alse.blogspot.com

The Grindstaff Chronicles
Catholic or Calvinist, Europeans Put Bush-Cheney to Shame

Many years ago, the Belgians arrested and brought to trial 18 men connected to Al-Qaeda. Tonight, we don't wish to go into the labyrinthine details of these arrests and trials. Why? Because we have only one point to make tonight: the Europeans are finding, arresting, and bringing to trial terrorists legally, without the American perversion of torture. The Europeans don't need to resort to medieval or Nazi methods, as Bush and Cheney seem to. Of course, the Europeans don't have a horrendous, toad-like Azteco-american Attorney General frothing at the mouth, just dying to by proxy use his obsidian knife to cut out the still-beating hearts out of the "terrorists" who under the system designed by the Devil's spawn cannot have valid, in the open to the world trials in a humane, timely manner.