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[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] Diversion and deceit may not be the primary reasons that The Doubleduh-Cheney Gang keeps us in Iraq, but clearly the war is great cover. If you read Part 3 of this series you learned, I hope, that the smog of war does veil the continuing neocon march toward its real goal: the destruction of the United States. In this light, we can see that 9/11's effect was not primarily to allow The Gang to invade Iraq, although it certainly did that. Once there, however, they have benefited from the war's ability to mass-capture the attention and energy of those who might otherwise effectively organize against militant globalization. Leave it not to the Left, but the jingoist, ultra-paranoid militia-types like The Minutemen to see the point . . . [more at P!]

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?

ACT NOW and sign the petition
WWW.FIRSTFREEDOMFIRST.ORG

The founders of our nation believed that all Americans should have
the right to worship according to their own beliefs, or not to
worship at all. So strong was their commitment to religious freedom
that they enshrined it in the first sentence of the Bill of Rights.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

This constitutional guarantee is often known as the "first freedom."

Religion is a deeply personal matter. Americans must be free to
practice their religion without coercion. Government exists to
provide for the general well-being of all people, and its workings
must be independent of specific religious doctrines. Simply put,

Well, that was quite a hoo-ha. In fact, two security camera videos have been released purporting to show Flight 77’s impact on the Pentagon. Unfortunately one of them has been in the public domain for about four years and has been done to death by the 9/11 truth movement. The new, new footage (the first one on the page linked below) throws up more questions than answers.

The frames are spaced about half a second apart, so there is only one image out of the entire video that shows anything new. For one brief moment it is possible to see a tubular shape come in from the right at a low (but definitely not horizontal) angle. I’m no expert but I would say that this object hits the lawn some 50 to 100 feet short of the Pentagon’s outer ring wall.

So, what does this all mean? Well, it’s probably too soon to pack up your “911 Was A Lie” t-shirts and go home. The tubular thingy could be a plane, a missile or even a super-imposed cigar tube. It really isn’t anything conclusive. The two main focus points of investigation have to be the pristine Pentagon lawn which shows little sign of this type of impact short of the wall and the downed light poles, which will now be hotly debated because of the angle of this incoming tube. Also, the angle doesn’t tally up with the white smoke trail from the original frames of footage, yet the cameras seem to be positioned quite close together.

Well, we finally had the release of the official 7th July Narrative and yet another reinforcement of the “no public enquiry” party line from the new Home Secretary, John Reid. I’ve had a read through, and I thought I would post a couple of initial comments.

The first thing that struck me was the constant references to CCTV footage. There are motorway shots of the two cars involved; we have the boys stopping at a garage, then again at Luton Station car park. There is footage of them close to the Thames Link platform at Luton and film from the platform at Liverpool Street at the time of the Circle Line train explosion. The problem is, as with the 9/11 Pentagon footage, the public has only ever seen that one shot, the one with them entering Luton Station. So, as expected, the entire report has an “our word against yours” feel to it.

(crossposted at Daughter of Liberty)

All right, I’ll admit that I have been quoting and paraphrasing Mr. Franklin quite a bit lately. However, in these dark times, it helps to drive the point home for the fence-sitters. For the 33 per cent who are still loyal to their dear leader, well, I am of the opinion that they are beyond hope. The only way they will learn is the hard way.

So, what about those who approve of chipping away at the Constitution? “We’re at war,” they counter. “We need to let the government protect us.” And let’s not forget the ever famous “If this were Clinton, you would approve.” (Don’t you just love how the Bush loyalists love to shift the debate to Bill Clinton, despite his being out of Office for over five years?)

(crossposted at Daughter of Liberty)

As if displaced New Orleans residents haven't suffered enough, they now face disenfranchisement if satellite voting sites are not established outside of Louisiana and if the city's municipal elections are not postponed. (They are currently scheduled for 22 April.) So far, state officials are slow in responding, and so-called Attorney General Gonzales has outright refused to help. (Too busy with the Inquisition, I guess.)

But, if you're waiting to hear this through the MSM, don't hold your breath. The only major paper in which I have found anything remotely about the issue is in the Chicago Sun-Times, which shifts the spotlight to Rev. Jesse Jackson's calling for a march. Not that I'm against his plan. In fact, it would help to bring some attention to this urgent matter. However, the MSM is usually eager to make a media circus of people like the good reverend while diverting attention from the REAL issue. In this case, American citizens are in danger of losing their right to vote.

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.

This first posted on Two for Tea

I have been trying to put my finger on what made Blair’s “I don't destroy liberties, I protect them” so chilling. Then I remembered this quote

“In our state the individual is not deprived of freedom. In fact, he has greater liberty than an isolated man, because the state protects him and he is part of the State. Isolated man is without defence.”

Tony Blair’s modernity appears to be fashioned from the same cloth as Benito Mussolini's world view.

In light of the Senate's support for the renewal of the calamity we call the Patriot Act, I thought I would dust off an old article of mine, written for a blog existing long ago, in an era when Taboo had youth juice burning long trails of fire through his veins. Now Taboo is nothing but an old fogey with barely enough spunk to shake his fist at the news reels. At least my hard drive still has memory.

So here it is (posted at Taboo Tenente: A Thinker's MFA Journey):

Taboo's First Amendment to the Constitution

For billing information, press 1. For service options, press 2. For account information, press 3. If you'd like to access your NSA records, press 4.

"WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.
Though much of official Washington has been caught up in the debate over the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, one set of major players has kept a discreet silence: the telecommunications corporations.

Some companies are said by current and former government officials to have provided the eavesdropping agency access to streams of telephone and Internet traffic entering and leaving the United States. The N.S.A. has used its powerful computers to search the masses of data for clues to terrorist plots and, without court warrants, zeroed in on some Americans for eavesdropping, those officials say.

The recent attacks on the Danish and norwegian embassies have sent a shockwave across the civilized world. Once again it has exposed the intensity of anti western feelings harbored by the islamic world. The western europeans live in relative  ignorance of their islamic neighbors.. Infact immigrants have remained a largely segregated entity in europe.In France and  Denmark they are thrown into impoverished housing estates. Even in the UK (which has a long history of immigration) muslims live in the largely blue collar east end of london.It is a fertile recruiting ground for jihadists!!! The US (for all its faults) is far more successful in integrating its immigrants. Even illegal latino immigrants from mexico have made it big. in fact hispanic have a significant cultural prescence . The reason for this discord: immigration in europe is primarily a post colonial phenomenon while US has always relied on immigration.

[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

First posted on Two for Tea

When I was a child of four or five, I woke one evening and screamed the house down. My mum came into my bedroom to see what all the fuss was about. I had had a nightmare and was convinced there were monsters in the street out side my window. My mother opened the curtains and challenged me to show here where the monsters were.

At first I thought they might be hiding behind the lampposts. An idea which my mother found very amusing. Eventually I had to admit that I could not see any. Maybe it was the feeling of safety that having my mother around induced. Or maybe it was the self evident lack of monsters that did it. Either way I soon forgot about the monsters and went back to sleep.

As I grew up I learnt that along with Father Christmas and the tooth fairy, monsters did not exist. I learnt that fear of them was for babies, and not something that big boys indulged in.

As I grew into my teens I learnt that whilst fear is a good thing for self preservation, it is a strong instinct we inherited from our animal ancestors. As rational beings we can control our fear and not allow it to control us. I was taught that well balanced adults examine their fears to see if they are rational or not, and act accordingly.

As my life experience grew I began to put together a theory of people. I decided that those who try to rule by fear, the playground bullies, and pub thugs are often themselves ruled by fear. And if you cease to be afraid of them, like my childhood monsters they cease to be a problem.

I learnt that the most common fear people have is the fear of the unknown. Be it an unknown future or a stranger. I noticed how unscrupulous people manipulate these fears in order to give themselves power.

Through the study of history I learnt of The Enlightenment. Of the time when great minds turned their back on superstition and fear and started to use science to create rational explanations for the physical world. How political theories began to develop based on reason and not fear. How the idea of the “Universal Rights of Man” came into existence.

History also taught me that there are monsters in this world after all. I learnt that these monsters look a lot like me, and so are not always easy to spot. But often they thrive on and encourage fear and ignorance. They empower and are empowered by bigotry. And they despise The Enlightenment and it’s fruits.

Modern western leaders can be split into two broad categories. The ones that use visions and dreams to lead their people away from fear towards justice and liberty, and the ones that empower fear and
ignorance to lead their people back into the dark.

Hence Martin Luther King, Jr “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

Or JFK “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Compare these to Tony Blair’s launch speech of his Respect Action Plan. “My view is very clear: their freedom to be safe from fear has to come first“

I wonder what Blair says to his kids when one of them complains about monsters outside the bedroom window.

Something like “As no one can prove there are no monsters behind the lampposts I will have all them all removed. If anyone complains that we are now living in the dark I will make it very clear your
freedom to be safe from fear has to come first.”

“Don’t worry about the monsters, Daddy is here, Daddy will ALWAYS be here”

Technorati tags : New Labour, Respect Agenda, Tony Blair

BORDC = Bill of Rights Defense Committee -- http://bordc.org/callin.php

The following is from an email I received from ACLU of Massachusetts, but this a nationwide initiative:

Please join our tens of thousands of allies throughout the U.S. in an overwhelming grassroots response to the PATRIOT Act and other governmental excesses. Your phone calls to your senators and representative in support of meaningful reforms can make the difference in restoring our rights to privacy, free speech, and due process.

Please phone both your Senators and your Representative and urge them to work for a PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill that truly preserves privacy and free speech, and that restores checks and balances, including judicial review and much greater congressional oversight. It only takes a few minutes and could have a huge impact.

In a brilliant speech on Martin Luther King day, former Vice President Al Gore pulls no punches as he calls for a special prosecutor to investigate George Bush's policy of illegally spying on American citizens.

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.)

I'm spying on you,

You won't mind if I peep,

I know where you live,

I know where you sleep,

I'm spying on you,

Your emails and such,

Your pizza for dinner,

Your sandwich for lunch,

I'm spying on you,

It's not hard to do,

The books that you read,

At library and school,

I'm spying on you,

And in case there's a doubt,

I'm the Big Brother,

You've been reading about.

http://jimihawk.blogspot.com/

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.