More at http://therealnews.com/c.ph…
How the surge has energized McCain
“RNN: McCain: There will be other wars“, posted with vodpod
see
Day: August 6, 2008
Mosaic News – 8/5/08: World News from the Middle East
Warning
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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute
“Iran Given 24hr Ultimatum,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Al Qaeda Focuses Attacks on Algerian Security,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Iraqi Forces Ready to Take Control,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
“Iran Condemns Saudi Arabia for Treatment of Iranian Pilgrims,” IRIB2 TV, Iran
“Mauritanian Government on Verge of Collapse,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Desecration of a Palestinian Cemetery in Israel,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“The Battle for the PM’s Seat Begins,” IBA TV, Israel
“Humiliated Fateh Members Arrive in Jericho,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
“Mosaic News – 8/5/08: World News from…“, posted with vodpod
Countdown: The Anthrax Case + Hamdan Found Guilty At Tribunal
Keith needs to do more on the “Legacy-gate” story in tonight’s Bushed about Bush and the memo received before 9/11. ~ Lo
August 6, 2008
The Anthrax Case
Keith reports on the latest press release from the FBI on the anthrax case. Gerald Posner weighs in.
Bushed!
Tonight’s: The War Will Pay For Itself-Gate, Listening to the Generals On the Ground-Gate and Legacy-Gate.
Hamdan Found Guilty At Tribunal
Military tribunal found Salim Hamdan guilty of “material support and resources to wit: personnel, himself…” which means they found him guilty of being Osama bin Laden’s driver and not for committing acts of terrorism. Keith talks to Neal Katyal, Hamdan’s lead civilian attorney about the case.
Worst Person
And the winner is…Nikki Tinker. Runners up Bill O’Reilly and Brian Kilmeade.
see
Guantanamo jury gives mixed verdict on Bin Laden’s driver
Marching Off Into Tyranny By Paul Craig Roberts
Fort Detrick Scientist “Commits Suicide” as Anthrax investigation closes in
Journalists, their lying sources, and the anthrax investigation
Militarizing the Social Sciences by Tom Burghardt
by Tom Burghardt
Global Research, August 6, 2008
Antifascist Calling…
Since World War II’s Manhattan Project, the above-top secret program that built the atomic bomb subsequently dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. national security state has transformed scientific research into a branch of weapons development.
“Neocon Flap Highlights Jewish Divide” By Alan Hart
Dandelion Salad
By Alan Hart
06/08/08 “ICH”
That was the headline over a splendid piece of reporting for IPS (Inter Press Service) published on 30 July by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe. They concluded that “new political space is being created for the public airing of more moderate views on Middle East policy.” If they are right, and I think they are, there is reason, at last, to be less than totally pessimistic about the prospects of finding a cure for the cancer at the heart of international affairs, the Palestine problem, before it consumes us all.
In the quotation above “more moderate views” is a euphemism for views other than those of the Zionist (not Jewish!) lobby, of which AIPAC is the most prominent public face. It was described by Luban and Lobe as “the powerful lobbying group whose hawkish right-wing leadership has often defied both the views of the broader U.S. .Jewish community and the policies of Israeli governments.” (In my two-volume book, Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, I quote Shimon Peres telling me way back in 1980, when he was the leader of the opposition Labour Party, that the lobby in America “is not an Israel lobby. It’s a Likud lobby and that’s my problem.”)
The excellent IPS article by Luban and Lobe is primarily a review of the controversy sparked by TIME columnist Joe Klein’s blogged statement that by pushing for war on Iraq and now for a “foolish assault on Iran”, Jewish neo-conversatives had caused the question of “divided loyalties” to be asked – because what Jewish neo-conservatives pushed and are pushing for is not in America’s own best interests. (As Mearsheimer and Walt argued in great detail).
Klein was accused by the usual cast of those who support Israel right or wrong of being anti-Semitic; but he refused to back down, accusing his accusers of using charges of anti-Semitism to silence his and other criticism of neo-conservative policies. Klein said those who called him anti-Semitic were wrong. What then was he? “I am anti neo-conversative,” he told Luban and Lobe.
In the same article they quote MJ. Rosenberg, a former AIPAC staffer now associated with the moderate Israel Policy Forum, as saying, “Although most neocons are Jews, few Jews are neocons.” That is undoubtedly so, which is a tribute to the effectiveness of the few who are. Luban and Lobe also quote Rosenburg as expressing the hope that commentators would “stop equating neo-conservatism with Judaism.” (My emphasis added).
Indeed they should, but there is a much bigger and related imperative. As I never tire of writing and saying, commentators should stop equating Zionism with Judaism. The difference between the two, why they are total opposites, is THE key to understanding who must do what and why for justice and peace in the Middle East.
For those who are not familiar with the matter, I must add that I am, of course, aware that there are two kinds of Zionism – one purely spiritual, the other political. In the sense that religious Jews look to Jerusalem as their spiritual home, it can be said that all religious Jews are spiritual Zionists. The Zionism that should not be equated with Judaism is political Zionism. And why is not all that complicated.
Judaism is the religion of Jews, not “the” Jews because not all Jews are religious. Like Chistianity and Islam, Judaism has at its core a set or moral values and ethical principles.
Political Zionism is a sectarian, colonial ideology which created in the Arab heartland, mainly by terrorism and ethnic cleansing, a state for some Jews. Simply put, political Zionism made a mockey of, and has contempt for, Judaism’s moral values and ethical prnciples.
Political Zionism’s own ethic was set down in writing by Vladimir Jabotsinky, the founding father of Israel’s army. He was a Russian Jew born in Odessa in 1880. In 1923, years before Adolf Hitler came to power, he published The Iron Wall, which became the main inspirational text for all Jewish nationalists who committed themselves to Zionism’s colonial enterprise. Its purpose was to take for keeping the maximum amount of Arab land with the minimum number of Arabs on it. In The Iron Wall, Jabotinsky was brutally frank about what Zionism’s ethic had to be. He wrote this (my emphasis added):
“Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. There is no other ethic. It is important to speak Hebrew but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot- or else I am through with playing at colonization. To the hackneyed reproach that this point of view is unethical, I answer – absolutely untrue. As long as there is the faintest spark of hope for the Arabs to impede us, they will not sell these hopes – not for any tasty morsel because this is not a rabble but a people, a living people. And no people makes such enormous concessions on such fateful questions, except when there is no hope left, until we have removed every opening visible in the Iron Wall.”
In the light of subsequent events including the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust, an honest, up-to-date statement of what political Zionism is really all about would be something like the following:
“Jews can never again trust Gentiles. If the Gentile world cannot understand why the Zionist state of Israel must do what it’s doing to hold and keep what it has (most if not all of it), the Gentile world can go to hell.”
In private conversation I once asked Israel’s one-eyed warlord, General Moshe Dayan, the creator in 1967 of Greater Israel, why it had nuclear weapons when, I said, we both knew it didn’t need them vis-à-vis the Arabs. He replied to this effect: “Ben Gurion wasn’t stupid, I’m not stupid. We know how the real world works. We took it as read that a day will come when even our best friends will say to us, ‘You’ve become a liability and to protect our own best interests we want you to do this.'” The obvious implication, which Dayan knew he didn’t have to put into words for me, was that if ever a day came when America required Israel to do what it did not consider to be in its own best interests, an Israeli leader would say something very like, “Mr. President, don’t push as further than we are prapared to go because, if we must, we’ll use all the weapons at our disposal.” Simply stated, Israel went nuclear in order to possess the ultimate in blackmail cards. At about the time Dayan said that to me, Prime Minister Golda Meir also told me, on-the-record during the course of an interview I did with her for the BBC’s Panorama programme, that in a doomsday situation Israel would be prepared to take the region and the whole world down with it. (Her full quote with its context is as set down on page xii of Waiting for the Apocalypse, the Prologue to Volume One of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews).
Question: Why, really, is it so important for the citizens of the mainly Gentile nations of the Judeo-Christian or Western world to be made aware of the difference between Judaism and political Zionism?
The answer is in two related parts.
One is that knowledge of the difference is the key to understanding why it is perfectly possible to be passionately anti-Zionist (opposed to Zionism’s still on-going colonial enterprise) without being in any way, shape or form anti-Semitic (meaning anti-Jew because Arabs are Semites, too).
The other is that knowledge of the difference explains why it is wrong to blame all Jews everywhere, or even all Israelis, for the crimes of the hardest core Zionist few in Palestine that became Israel. (It is a fact that prior to the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust, many if not most Jews everywhere were opposed to Zionism’s colonial enterprise. They believed it to be morally wrong and they feared it would lead to unending conflict. Some also feared that there could come a day when Zionism, if it was allowed by the major powers to have its way, would provoke anti-Semitism).
Alan Hart – Visit his blog http://alanhartdiary.blogspot.com
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Guantanamo jury gives mixed verdict on Bin Laden’s driver
By Carol Rosenberg
http://www.mcclatchydc.com
Miami Herald
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — A U.S. military jury on Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden’s driver of providing material support for terror but found him not guilty of a more serious charge of conspiring with al Qaeda in a string of worldwide terror attacks.
Salim Hamdan, 37, stood and listened with head bowed to an Arabic translation as he became the first man convicted at trial in the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II.
He said nothing but wiped his eyes with his head scarf.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Kucinich: Mindless threats imperil millions + Oil companies’ influence over govt
The Bush Administration’s mindless threats to use nuclear bunker busters against Iranian nuclear research facilities could, if implemented, wipe out 2.6 million people in Iran, Pakistan, and India, and expose another 10.5 million to nuclear fallout.
“Mindless threats imperil millions“, posted with vodpod
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Oil companies’ influence over govt
A handful of giant oil companies that met secretly with Vice President Dick Cheney in 2001 are poised to get “unusual” no-bid contracts from the Iraqi government to boost production — further proof that the U.S. invaded Iraq for oil, says Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
“Oil companies’ influence over government“, posted with vodpod
see
This is Your Moment. Impeach Bush NOW! Sign the Petition + ON or Off the table?
The Molotov: In The Red
http://www.facebook.com/themolotov
Film clip for the Demo Song, In The RED by The MOLOTOV.
Eliza Wren: Am I Losing Me? (Nader; housing)
2008 Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader discusses the sub-prime market meltdown, the imminent foreclosure on millions of homes, and Nader/Gonzalez solutions.
Music by Eliza Wren
http://www.elizawren.com/Family photos courtesy of Eliza Wren
“Eliza Wren: Am I Losing Me? (Nader; h…“, posted with vodpod
see
Nader criticizes McCain and Obama as corporate candidates h/t: Mike Price
Socialism for Speculators by Ralph Nader
The Economy Sucks and or Collapse
Vision 2015: Consolidation of Intelligence Into Global Intel Network
by Michael Vail
Global Research, August 6, 2008
blacklistednews.com/
“By 2015, a globally networked Intelligence Enterprise will be essential to meet the demands for greater forethought and improved strategic agility. The existing agency-centric Intelligence Community must evolve into a true Intelligence Enterprise established on a collaborative foundation of shared services, mission-centric operations, and integrated mission management, all enabled by a smooth flow of people, ideas, and activities across the boundaries of the Intelligence Community agency members.” – Mike McConnell(DNI)[1]
The Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and The Council on Foreign Relations has made public a twenty eight page document called ‘Vision 2015’ which outlines a plan to integrate the entire United States intelligence network into a global intelligence community. Unsurprisingly there are many in the 16 intelligence agencies that support this project. At this very moment there is in-fighting between our own intelligence agencies, also currently there are problems between the CIA and Pakistani ISI. So how are they going to resolve these issues that have existed for decades?
“Old problems assume new dimensions: information operations with emphasis on a cyber domain, asymmetric political or military responses, and illicit trafficking. Lastly, we confront the challenge of acting in an environment that is more time-sensitive and open to the flow of information, in which intelligence sources and analysis compete in a public context established by a global media. By 2015 we will need integrated and collaborative capabilities that can anticipate and rapidly respond to a wide array of threats and risks.” –Mike McConnell(DNI)
According to the existing protocols they will integrate and patch up the problems as they emerge. This is the Achilles heel of globalism, and we have seen time after time how calamity comes forth and brings globalism to a standstill. And nations that were fully globalized begin to act in their own interests which is the nature of the beast. This mammoth global intelligence project has been under wraps for some time and now the NGOs, members of elite academia and think tanks are going to unveil it in front of our eyes as if it was a brand new concept.
“Our analytic professionals will collaborate with world-class experts in academe, commercial interests, and think tanks, all with similar knowledge and personal networks. Deep expertise will require broad access to open source information, our unique collection results, and a network of outside experts. Our understanding of the breadth and depth of policy intelligence doctrine, and global situational awareness must match the depth of our analyses.” –Mike McConnell(DNI)
Our world has slowly been globalized from the economic sector to health, wealth and trade. They have taken the power from we the people and placed it in unelected non-governmental organizations which has led to heights of corruption never seen before. The direct and after effects of the IMF[2], WTO[3] and WHO[4] are well known but just imagine the power and influence that will be wielded by those who will control our spy satellites and command intelligence forces around the world. Will there be increased domestic spying on citizens who fight against globalism? More importantly will all of our intelligence capabilities be controlled from outside the and will there be foreign Intel forces operating in ?
“By 2015, the Intelligence Community will be expected to provide more details about more issues to more customers. We anticipate different types of customers — with greater expectations — and new demands to change the basic engagement model by which we serve them. “
“To carry out its mission in an increasingly turbulent and complex global environment, the Intelligence Enterprise must enhance capabilities to evaluate global risks affecting our national security. Greater systems interconnectedness increases the need to identify vulnerabilities emerging at the nexus of multiple systems (e.g., critical information infrastructures, disruptions in energy supplies, fragile financial markets, and climate change-related spread of diseases) and the potential for multiple, simultaneous crises. Global awareness and strategic foresight will provide the response to these challenges, linking methods for strategic forecasting and assessment of systems vulnerabilities in constantly renewed communities of diverse expertise and insight. “ –Mike McConnell(DNI)
The intelligence agencies which provide geopolitical statistical data and analysis increasingly have to compete with multinational corporations who have former high-level military generals on staff making six figure salaries. Booz Allen Hamilton[5], Blackwater Worldwide[6], SAIC[7] and others have Intel analysts who have been providing services to not only the NSA, NGA, and NRO but also to foreign governments. These multilateral corporations offer their services to the highest bidder. Everything is for sale in this global economy.
“The opportunity now exists to tap into a vastly larger amount of expertise than was previously available to intelligence. However, this will require working from a very different paradigm from that which characterized much of our Cold War history. The key features of that traditional paradigm were: secrets; classified channels of information flows; a focus on a few hard targets (e.g., the Soviet Union, other so-called “denied area” Communist Bloc countries, their military forces and technologies and other observables); very limited contact with outside experts who were almost always US citizens; and focus on key facts and finished intelligence products.
The new paradigm, in contrast, will focus on “open source” information and reach out to a wide variety of experts who are non-intelligence professionals drawn from different sectors and often non-Americans.” –Roger Z. George(CIA)[8]
Globalization dissolves our borders, strips us of our independence and renders us dependent on unstable nations for our daily bread and clothes on our backs. From top to bottom every sector of our government is going under the influence of foreigners. Globalization should be a dirty word if you look at our world from a larger perspective. This should be a stark example for anyone who would rely on this government for the protection of their life and liberty. The only way to survive in this new dark age of global governance is to become self reliant. Let’s establish our own intelligence network on and off the internet.
“The only thing worth globalising is dissent”, Arundati Roy
1. Mike McConnell. Vision 2015: a Globally Networked and Integrated Intelligence Enterprise. 2008 [cited; Available from:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16890/vision_2015.html]
2. Physorg. New research links International Monetary Fund loans with higher death rates from tuberculosis. 2008 [cited; Available from:
http://www.physorg.com/news135917494.html]
3. Ronald Bailey. Perpetuating Poverty by Protecting Livelihoods. 2008 [cited; Available from:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/127925.html]
4. Living Nutrition. Codex Alimentarius: Monstrously Toxic Power Play for Control of the Global Food Supply & Natural Health Industry. 2007 [cited; Available from:
http://www.livingnutrition.com/articles/codex.html]
5. Democracy Now! Mike McConnell, Booz Allen and the Privatization of Intelligence. 2007 [cited; Available from:
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/1/12/mike_mcconnell_booz_allen_and_the]
6. Washington Post. Blackwater’s Owner Has Spies for Hire. 2007 [cited; Available from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110202165.html]
7. FCW. NSA taps SAIC for Trailblazer. 2002 [cited; Available from: http://www.fcw.com/print/8_43/news/77905-1.html]
8. Roger Z. George. Meeting 21st Century Transnational Challenges: Building a Global Intelligence Paradigm. 2007 [cited; Available from:
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no3/building-a-global-intelligence-paradigm.html]
© Copyright Michael Vail, blacklistednews.com/, 2008
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9752
see
Private Spies: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
Democracy Now! Spies for Hire + Secret Overseas Prisons + Malcolm X
IVAW Ft. Hood Soldiers Speak Out
IVAW Active Duty Soldiers Selena Coppa, Ronn Cantu, and Casey J Porter speak out for Soldiers rights, and against the war.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
“IVAW Ft. Hood Soldiers Speak Out“, posted with vodpod
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It’s March 19 and Blogswarm Day! Posts on Iraq War by Lo (includes links to Winter Soldier)
This is Your Moment. Impeach Bush NOW! Sign the Petition + ON or Off the table?
sign the petition at http://kucinich.us
Only one Congressman has the personal courage and the profound respect for our Constitution to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and exercise his right and his responsibility to bring Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush – Ohio Representative Dennis J. Kucinich.
Beginning today, Americans who cherish our Democracy and the Constitutional principles upon which it was founded can stand up, speak out, and take action by signing the one official petition that carries the full and unqualified support of the one and only original sponsor of the impeachment resolution: Continue reading
“This is Horsesh**” by Cindy Sheehan
by Cindy Sheehan
Dandelion Salad
featured writer
Cindy Sheehan for Congress
Aug. 6, 2008
It is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be? — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
You know, I don’t care if it’s not proper for a Congressional candidate to say: “horseshit.” I don’t care if it is not a good “tactic” to get kicked out of a Congressional non-impeachment hearing that was just a bunch of horseshit anyway. I don’t care if I get accused of being too “extreme” for bucking the (cyst)em by doing everything form camping in a ditch in Crawford, Tx to non-violent civil disobedience to, lately, running for Congress as (oh no!) an independent.
If people can’t see how this nation is teetering on the precipice of financial ruin and dragging the rest of this planet down with us as we destroy our ecology, too…and if people don’t realize how desperate our situation is, then I must say, that’s horseshit!
I am angry. No, I am incensed that hundreds of thousands of people are dead, dying, wounded, displaced from their homes or being imprisoned and tortured by the sadists that reside or work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the approval of their accomplices down the road in Congress. I am furious that I buried my oldest son when he was 24 years old for the unrepentant lies and the unpunished crimes of the Bush mob. Are you incensed? If not, maybe you should ask yourself: “Why?” Hypothetically: “Why am I not enraged that my country has killed or hurt so many people for absolutely no noble cause in my name and with my tacit approval?”
I am steamed that the working class has to, once again, pay for the excesses of the capitalist criminals that feeds its rapacious appetite with the flesh and blood of our children and won’t rest until it owns every penny in this world and has all the power.
You may say, “But Cindy, it is not polite to be angry or to use such strong language in public.” Horseshit! In my opinion, every citizen in this country should rise up in anger and DEMAND that George Bush and Dick Cheney not only be impeached and removed from office, but be tried and convicted for murder and crimes against the peace and humanity!
We should all walk off of our jobs and refuse to work and refuse to be cogs in the wheels of psychotic consumerism until our troops, military contractors and permanent bases are removed from Iraq and Afghanistan. We should, but most of us won’t. We won’t because it may mean that we would lose something of “value.” Material possessions are so transitory, as are our lives. We can leave a lasting impression by our courageous activism and moral sacrifice, or we can leave a pile of rusting metal or rotting wood. I choose the former for myself.
We should come out of our comas of too much TV news and not enough non-biased information to push for alternatives to fossil fuels that are clean and renewable and protest nuclear facilities and off-shore oil drilling like we used to in the olden days when people actually cared enough about not poisoning our world to get off of their couches or (today) out from behind their computer screens to do something constructive instead of complacently shelling out hundreds of dollars a week for gasoline and food.
I get so pissed off when one of my supporters has a tooth ache and can’t afford to go see a dentist to fix it or when my sister has had a cough for almost two years and doesn’t have the health insurance she needs to get fully well. And when I think that almost 50 million people in this country are non-insured or under-insured, I see red. Why, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, do some have the “privilege” of being fully insured and healthy, when health care is a basic human right, not a privilege for the elitists? My heart hurts every night when the men who sleep propped up against my campaign office, huddled under their blankets against the San Francisco chill, wish me a “good night” and I can’t choke the same words back to them, or do much of anything but give them coffee to keep warm and books to read to help pass the time. My campaign office is being visited on a daily basis by Iraq war vets who can’t access the help they need to get physically or mentally healthy—and I am “extreme” because I actually want things to really change and choose to act on this desire and not sit around passively pretending that this horseshit doesn’t exist?
Since Casey died, even though every day I am filled with pain and longing, I have tried to be the poster-mom for this pain telling my neighbors and fellow Americans how it feels to be profoundly hurt by the Military Industrial Complex and that it wouldn’t be too long before the cancer of BushCo would strike every American home and now that this prediction is awfully coming true, I see more and more apathy and less and less action.
Three years ago today, I first sat in a ditch in Crawford, Texas and three years later, we are in dire straits, my friends, and the prognosis is not good, unless we all make a conscious effort to sacrifice some of today’s comfort for the sake of our children and grandchildren’s futures.
Sixty-three years ago today, the monsters of the US war machine dropped a WMD on hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children and since then, this nation has just descended into a further spiral of war and profiting from war and preparing for war and more profiting from war; which is destroying every aspect of our society and we MUST reclaim our very souls from the Military Industrial Complex before it is too late.
Please don’t wait for November, or January or for the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius because every second we allow this demented pattern to continue, is one second too long!
Get moving!
see
Disenfranchisement, The New American Way? by Cindy Sheehan
Working Poor Unready to Revolt by Joel S. Hirschhorn
ImpeachmentWatch Day 56 (2008-08-04)
Know Your Place? by Cindy Sheehan + More signatures needed
Time for Pelosi to go – Vote Independent Cindy Sheehan
The Most Important Election In The United States of America in 2008
Money Bomb For The Peace Mom Aug 6th! + Help Cindy Sheehan Get On The Ballot
Working Poor Unready to Revolt by Joel S. Hirschhorn
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
www.delusionaldemocracy.com
www.foavc.org
August 06, 2008
Once upon a time when governments no longer served most of their citizens it was the most economically disadvantaged that could be counted on to rebel against tyranny and injustice. Times have changed, for the worse, despite the spread of democracy.
Here we are with a two-party plutocracy that preferentially serves corporate and wealthy interests and lets the middle class suffer and sink. Plausibly, the middle class is unready to revolt because it still maintains a relatively good standard of living despite rising economic insecurity. But what about the lowest 40 percent of Americans that are the working poor?
A recent survey of this group by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University conducted this past June looked at the beliefs of adults ages 18 to 64 working 30 or more hours a week, not self-employed and who earned no more than $27,000 in 2007. The results show a fascinating dichotomy. Though there is widespread pain and discontent there is also a stubborn faith in the American dream despite little help from government.
Ninety percent of this group sees the current economy negatively, either not so good or poor, with 52 percent feeling financially insecure and 50 percent feeling less secure than a few years ago. The fractions saying they have difficulty affording basic things are severe, including: 88 percent that cannot save money for college or other education for their children, 82 percent paying for gasoline or other transportation costs, 81 percent saving money for retirement, 65 percent paying for health care and health insurance, 65 percent handling child care, close to 60 percent paying credit card bills, monthly utility bills and rent or mortgage costs, and 47 percent buying food. Three quarters say it has gotten harder to find good jobs and nearly that fraction for finding affordable health care, and 68 percent finding decent, affordable housing.
In the past year this group has had to take many actions to make ends meet, including 70 percent that cut electricity use and home heating; 62 percent that took an extra job or worked extra hours, 51 percent that postponed medical or dental care and 50 percent that took money out of savings or retirement funds.
All this sounds pretty bleak. But are these people mad and pessimistic? Not exactly.
An amazing 69 percent are hopeful about their personal financial situation, 59 percent believe they are more likely over the next few years to move up in terms of their social class, 59 percent believe that their children will have a standard of living much or somewhat better than theirs, and 56 percent think they will achieve the American dream in their lifetime.
Do these lower economic class, hardest hit Americans that account for 25 percent of the adult population believe that government helps them? No. Only 22 percent believe that government programs are making things better for them. But apparently they have bought hook, line and sinker into Barack Obama’s change rhetoric, with a 2 to 1 margin favoring him over John McCain. And when it comes to beliefs about which candidate will do better for them the margins favoring Obama go up to 3 or more to 1 for improving their own financial situation, the national economy and the national health care system. Similarly, Obama is seen as much more concerned with their needs and better represent their values. All very good news for Obama, except that only 70 are registered to vote and about a third saw no difference in whether Obama or McCain was in office.
Faith in Obama, however, pales in comparison to the other source of comfort for dealing with hard economic times. A striking 78 percent find religion or faith in God helps them get through tough economic times.
The unmistakable conclusion from all these data is that no rebellion against the power elites running the two-party plutocracy seems likely. If the bottom 40 percent of Americans in terms of income still believe in the American dream and change-spouting politicians like Obama, it is hard to believe that the more affluent middle 40 percent of the population are ready to support more radical change through political rebellion.
Interesting how gasoline prices are dropping as we approach the Republican and Democratic conventions and Election Day. Apparently, America’s ruling class knows what it is doing. It can keep channeling more and more of the nation’s wealth to the rich, Upper Class producing more economic inequality without fearing the kind of political revolution that Thomas Jefferson thought the nation needs periodically. Consider this: In the three decades after World War II household inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90 percent increased 83 percent compared to 20 percent increase for the top 10 percent. In contrast, in the past three decades, the bottom 90 percent saw only a 10 percent increase while the top 10 percent received an increase of 232 percent! The two-party stranglehold on our political system has produced rising economic inequality.
Forget all that nonsense about the proletariat. Most Americans use their faith in God or religion or conventional politicians to cope, even in some of the most insecure economic times in American history. They remain overly confident in voting as the path to change. The ruling class has successfully used propaganda to dumb down and manipulate most of the public because delusion has become the opiate of the masses.
In God and Barack Obama We Trust could be placed on all our currency if the views of millions of Americans are taken seriously. Don’t you feel better?
Joel S. Hirschhorn can be reached through www.delusionaldemocracy.com
see
Our President Should Support More Direct Democracy by Joel S. Hirschhorn
What will real economic change look like?
The U.S. Economy and Bad Government Policies by Rodrigue Tremblay
The Economy Sucks and or Collapse
More On JFK – Messing With The $$$ Supply
by Bruce Gagnon
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Dandelion Salad
Bruce’s blog post
space4peace.blogspot.com
Aug. 6, 2008
After I recently sent out my review of the new JFK book by Jim Douglass I have received quite a few emails telling me about Presidential Executive Order 11110. Frankly I had never heard of it before so I have done some research into it.
Dandelion Salad 