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Study confirms that Gulf of Tonkin attack (basis for Vietnam war) never happened| |
Scroll way, way down: ... probably the "most historically significant feature" of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson's sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.
The author of the report "demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was 'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night,'" FAS said in a statement.
"What this study demonstrated is that the available intelligence shows that there was no attack. It's a dramatic reversal of the historical record," Aftergood said.
"There were previous indications of this but this is the first time we have seen the complete study," [Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists project on government secrecy] said.
Comment: How many people died because of this lie, and how much money did President Johnson and the rest of the scum make from this? How much of the American Democracy was subsequently eroded from this lie? It's sadly ironic that as this info is being released, Bush is using the same lie about naval attacks to escalate a current war and start a new war. Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK |
Iran -- Run-up to the next war
You're supposed to believe that Iranian speedboats threatened US Navy ships in Hormuz| |
Excerpt: Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in the Gulf, said five Iranian fast boats moved aggressively toward the US ships in international waters and their actions were "unduly provocative."
"The ships received a radio call that was threatening in nature, to the effect that they were closing on our ships and ... the US ships would explode," Cosgriff told reporters at the Pentagon via videolink from his Bahrain headquarters.
Comment: The military admitted right off the bat that the audio and video came from different sources, and that they had edited a bunch of footage together to “condense it down.” Someone has to tell these guys that in an age when everyone is going to have access to your fake “evidence” on the YouTube, you’ve got to do a much better job of making it look real. Maybe they should contact J.J. Abrams. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Iran accuses US of faking Persian Gulf video
Excerpt: The audio and video recordings were made separately but were pulled together by the Navy. Often uneven and shaky, the video condenses what Navy officials have said was a confrontation of about 20 minutes.
Comment: After seven years of general-issue lies and more than a year of lies about Iran, the Bush-Cheney administration has zero credibility. I don't believe the video is real, and sad to say, I trust the Iranian government more than the American government. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Iranian TV airs video of Gulf encounter
US admits, voices on recording may not have been from Iranian speedboats
Comment: In other words, the Americans lied. Again. Rebecca PERMANENT LINK
Now US Navy says it fired warning shots at Iranians days before speedboat incident
Radio trolls probably to blame |
Bush poo-poos consensus of American intelligence agencies;
tells Israel that Iran is scary scary scary| |
Excerpt: But in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his six-nation trip to the Mideast. "He told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views" about Iran's nuclear-weapons program, said the official, who would discuss intelligence matters only on the condition of anonymity. |
Bush continues lying about Iran| |
Excerpt: President Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger "before it's too late."
Bush said Iran funds terrorist extremists, undermines peace in Lebanon, sends arms to the Taliban, seeks to intimidate its neighbors with alarming rhetoric, defies the United Nations and destabilizes the entire region by refusing to be open about its nuclear program.
Comment: Of course, I don't have access to the same intelligence that Bush ignores, but he's never told the truth about any aspect of any policy foreign or domestic, and there's just no doubt that everything he says about Iran is a lie. Marina D. PERMANENT LINK |
Bush insists Iran is world's biggest terror sponsor| |
Excerpt: President Bush gently nudged authoritarian Arab allies Sunday to satisfy frustrated desires for democracy in the Mideast and saved his harshest criticism for Iran, branding it "the world's leading state-sponsor of terror." ...
The warning about Iran was much tougher than Bush's admonition about spreading democracy in the Middle East, which had been billed as the central theme of his speech.
Comment: It's exhausting to try to cut through George Bush's endless lies, but we do try. I just spent twenty minutes looking for serious evidence -- beyond endless Bush administration claims -- that Iran is at all a sponsor of state terrorism, let alone the biggest. And I couldn't come up with much beyond the hundreds and hundreds of news accounts quoting this, that, and the other Bush administration official -- often Bush or Cheney themselves -- saying over and over again that Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The US has long kept a well-publicized list of "state sponsors of terrorism", but the list has always been so politicized it's difficult to take it seriously. Cuba, for example, has been on the list since 1982, but I've never seen any credible account of Fidel Castro underwriting terrorism. Iraq was on the list until the height of the Iran-Iraq war, when it was removed from the list to make it legal for America to sell Saddam Hussein weapons of mass destruction. And then, as soon as Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, presto, Iraq was again declared a state sponsor of terrorism. So being on the list, like Iran is, doesn't mean much.
Near as I can figure, factually, Iran may have sent some financial support to Palestinian groups that are called terrorists in similarly politicized terminology -- Hamas and Hezbollah, etc. I'd keep my distance from either group, but is writing a check to Hamas or Hezbollah really all it takes to be "the world's leading state-sponsor of terror"? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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There are more than three stooges
(and one of them will be
America's next President)
Clinton got big boost in New Hampshire
areas that used Diebold machines
US corporate elite fear candidate Edwards | |
Excerpt: The former North Carolina senator's chosen profession alone raises the hackles of business people. Before entering politics, he made a fortune as a trial lawyer. In litigious America, trial lawyers bring lawsuits against companies on behalf of aggrieved individuals and sometimes win multimillion-dollar settlements. Edwards won several.
But beyond his profession, Edwards' tone and language on the campaign trail have increased business antipathy toward him. His stump speeches are peppered with attacks on "corporate greed" and warnings of "the destruction of the middle class." He accuses lobbyists of "corrupting the government" and says Americans lack universal health care because of "drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists."
Comment: And of course and obviously, this is why Edwards gets minimal coverage in the corporate-controlled media, and just about the only thing average Americans know about him is that he has expensive haircuts. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
McCain says he met with al Qaeda| |
Excerpt: "I met with a high-ranking former al Qaeda operative in Iraq recently, and I asked him, how did you succeed?" |
Giuliani invokes 9/11 when asked about Hillary's tears| |
Excerpt: On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Rudy Giuliani discussed Hillary Clinton's "emotional moment." "This is not something I would judge anyone on," Giuliani said. He then quickly slipped in a reference to 9/11, pointing out that it was impossible for him not to feel emotion then:
The reality is, if you look at me, September 11 -- the funerals, the memorial services -- there were times in which it was impossible not to feel the emotion. |
Giuliani going broke? Top staffers
are asked to work for free
Fossil undermines Huckabee's beliefs
Judge says it's OK to keep Kucinich off
Texas ballot because he won't sign loyalty oath
Kucinich qualifies for debate under
NBC rules, so NBC rewrites its rules
Giuliani says immigrants must speak
English, but airs political ad in Spanish
Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me
McCain lies that he's never
been a pork-barrel Senator
John Kerry endorses Barack Obama| |
Comment: Another reason to remain skeptical about Barack Obama. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Corrupt judge won't ask further
questions about missing torture videotapes| |
Excerpt: The decision by US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy was a victory for the Bush administration, which had urged the courts not to wade into a politically charged issue already being investigated by the Justice Department, CIA and Congress.
Comment: Of course, it's flamboyantly obvious that any "investigations" by the Justice Department, the CIA, or this corrupt-to-the-core Congress are all shams. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Ex-CIA official wants immunity
to tell about destroying tapes
Excerpt: Attorneys for Jose Rodriguez told Congress the former CIA official won't testify about the destruction of CIA videotapes without a promise of immunity, two people close to the tapes inquiry said Wednesday.
Comment: His asking for immunity is almost a confession. "I'm telling you I did it, so I want immunity if I tell you I did it." Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK |
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Lightning round news |
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Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
US pays 70,000 "former insurgents" $10 per day to not be violent| |
Scroll way, way down: "We need to understand that buying off your enemy is a good short-term solution to gain a respite from violence," [retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor] says, "but it's not a long-term solution to creating a legitimate political order inside a country that, quite frankly, is recovering from the worst sort of civil war." |
Study claiming 151,000 Iraqi deaths counts only "violent deaths"| |
Excerpt: But the biggest problem is the non-violent death problem. There seems to be an idea that only violent deaths "count," as if people dying from poor public health conditions, poor nutrition, or poor health care are somehow less dead, or as if the increase in their numbers is any less attributable to the invasion. |
Marine testifies of needless killing of Afghans| |
Excerpt: A former Marine testified Tuesday that he thinks Afghans were killed needlessly by his special operations unit after its convoy was attacked by a car bomb.
"I really felt there were a lot of people who died who didn't need to," said Nathaniel Travers, a former intelligence sergeant who left the Marines last year. "They were just driving their cars."
Comment: How long will this whistleblower live? Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK |
Army officer is cleared in Abu Ghraib torture| |
Excerpt: The only Army officer charged with a crime as a result of the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has been cleared of all criminal responsibility in the case after a general this week dismissed the one conviction against him and wiped away the sentence.
Comment: There's no penalty for Americans torturing Iraqis, 'cuz after all, we're Americans and they're just Iraqis. And by the way, why do they hate us again? Mark E. PERMANENT LINK |
Iraqi soldier who killed US troops is a hero in Iraq| |
Excerpt: The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni organization, issued a statement saying the Iraqi soldier had shot the US soldiers after he saw them beat up a pregnant woman.
"His blood rose and he asked the occupying soldiers to stop beating the woman," they said in the statement. "Their answer through the translator was: 'We will do what we want.' So he opened fire on them."
Comment: Is the Iraqi version of events true? It hardly matters. It's completely plausible, so it'll be believed by ordinary Iraqis, who will turn in even larger numbers against the occupying army of Americans. What a stinking sh*thole President Bush has dug for our sons and brothers to be buried in. Mark E. PERMANENT LINK |
Diplomats oppose Iraq policy| |
Excerpt: Nearly half of US diplomats unwilling to volunteer to work in Iraq say one reason for their refusal is they don't agree with Bush administration's policies in the country, according to a survey released Tuesday. |
Afghan detention center rivals bleak Guantanamo
US warplanes pound Baghdad
Taliban kills 16 at police checkpoint
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Telecoms stopped some spying on Americans ... because FBI wasn't paying their bills| |
Excerpt: A telephone company cut off FBI international wiretaps after the agency failed to pay its bills on time, according to a US government audit released on Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the report highlighted hypocrisy from telephone companies that want Congress to give them lawsuit immunity for cooperating in certain wiretaps on the grounds they were only acting as responsible corporate citizens. |
FDA to approve cloned meat ... no labels required| |
Excerpt: The Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as this week that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring pose no public health threat. The agency is likely to lift its "voluntary moratorium" on their sale.
FDA's announcement appears timed to avoid a provision in the Senate version of the farm bill requiring additional safety tests on cloned products before ending the moratorium," said Margaret Mellon, director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "The FDA should not try to subvert the will of Congress, which has wisely called for further studies to ensure there is no risk to public health." |
White House is told to provide e-mail info| |
Excerpt: A federal magistrate ordered the White House on Tuesday to reveal whether copies of possibly millions of missing e-mails are stored on computer backup tapes.
The order by US Magistrate Judge John Facciola comes amid an effort by the White House to scuttle two lawsuits that could force the Executive Office of the President to recover any e-mail that has disappeared from computer servers where electronic documents are automatically archived.
Comment: The Bush administration will either ignore the order, or lie and say nope, sorry, no back-ups here ... Mathilda M. PERMANENT LINK |
Saudi dictatorship gets another $20B in US weapons| |
Excerpt: Despite concern about the deal from some lawmakers, the State Department, which last month said it would delay the notification until after Congress comes back into session, will announce the proposed sale on Jan. 14, a day before the House returns to work and more than a week before senators return to Washington, said a senior official. |
US court says Guantanamo interrogators can't be held
liable for torture -- they were just following orders
Ex-Atty Gen Ashcroft got "$28-52M" no-bid contract from Justice Dept| |
Excerpt: Attorney General Michael Mukasey said there were concerns of favoritism in the 18-month deal made last fall in which the Ashcroft Group is to receive $28 million and $52 million, the New York Times reported. |
Bush "pocket veto" of defense bill was illegal| |
Excerpt: The founders inserted the pocket veto in the Constitution to prevent Congress from passing a bill and adjourning to prevent an anticipated veto. But they made it conditional so it would not be abused by the president; they emphatically rejected the idea that the president should have an absolute, monarchical veto that could not be overridden.
In this case, Bush tried to have it both ways. He pocket vetoed the bill as if Congress were entirely out of session -- but then he did, in fact, return it to Congress by sending it and an outline of his objections to the House clerk. He did so, according to his veto message, "to leave no doubt that the bill is being vetoed." |
Destroying civil liberties is like letting the terrorists win
Chertoff threatens pat-downs for citizens from states balking at "REAL ID"| |
Excerpt: Chertoff, as he revealed final details of the REAL ID Act, said that in instances where a particular state doesn't seek a waiver, its residents will have to use a passport or a newly created federal passport card if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."
Comment: These threats sound a little hollow to me. Are they really going to bring air traffic over a dozen states to a screeching halt by making every single person go through extra security? Not likely. They’re just trying to scare us into putting up with as many police-state tactics as they can before the sane people take over in a year. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Police monitor grade school students by GPS| |
Excerpt: The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the Middletown School Department to drop its planned pilot program of a student-tracking system that the ACLU says would treat children like "cattle" and violate their privacy.
The school district this month will test the Mobile Accountability Program, or MAP, which will place GPS tracking devices in two school buses and attach radio-frequency identification labels to the backpacks of the 80 or so Aquidneck Elementary School students who ride those buses. School administrators will then be able to monitor -- in real-time, via an online map of Middletown at MAPIT's secure Website -- the progress of those buses and their passengers as the children enter and exit the buses.
Comment: Implanting the tracking devices under everybody's skin is just a skip and a hop after this. Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK |
NeoCon Supreme Court OK's battering-ram home invasions| |
Excerpt: The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices. |
4-year-old lands on Do-Not-Fly List
How do you atone for 27 years of unjust imprisonment?
Voter ID requirements reduce political participation, study finds| |
Comment: Well, duh and of course, and in case you tuned in late, that's the point. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
US and UK rival China for government surveillance
Judge blocks adoption because prospective parents are atheists
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US intelligence czar McConnell says waterboarding would be torture if anyone did it to him| |
Excerpt: Asked if waterboarding -- the practice of covering a person's face with a cloth and then dripping water on it to bring on a feeling of drowning -- fit that definition, McConnell said that for him personally, it would.
"If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can't imagine how painful!" McConnell said in the article. "Whether it's torture by anybody else's definition, for me it would be torture." ...
McConnell said he could not be more specific because "if it ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it."
Comment: You're damned right, Mr McConnell, and you're damned cowardly and un-American for still trying to sidestep the question. Angry Annie PERMANENT LINK |
US mercenaries, above and beyond the law
Blackwater dropped tear gas on crowd to clear traffic jam| |
Excerpt: Suddenly, on that May day in 2005, the copter dropped CS gas, a riot-control substance the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.
None of the American soldiers exposed to the chemical, which is similar to tear gas, required medical attention, and it is not clear if any Iraqis did.
Officers and noncommissioned officers from the Third Infantry Division who were involved in the episode said there were no signs of violence at the checkpoint. Instead, they said, the Blackwater convoy appeared to be stuck in traffic and may have been trying to use the riot-control agent as a way to clear a path. |
Pentagon won't probe KBR rape charges| |
Excerpt: In letters to lawmakers, DoD Inspector General Claude Kicklighter said that because the Justice Department still considers the investigation into Jones' case open, there is no need for him to look into the matter.
Comment: Of course, that's the whole purpose of the Justice Department's (phony) investigation: "Sorry, we can't comment on an ongoing investigation ..." so I'm sure it'll remain an ongoing investigation for as long as Bush & Cheney cling to power. Mark E. PERMANENT LINK
Release of rape evidence to KBR raises questions
Excerpt: The Defense Department's Inspector General is trying to learn why Army hospital personnel in Iraq who examined a former KBR worker after an alleged gang rape apparently turned the physical evidence over to KBR security officials.
Comment: Is everyone working for the US in Iraq corrupt? Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK |
Blackwater repairs to vehicles effectively destroyed evidence| |
Excerpt: Blackwater Worldwide repaired and repainted its trucks immediately after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad, making it difficult to determine whether enemy gunfire provoked the attack, according to people familiar with the government's investigation of the incident. |
2 Blackwater workers get probation for gunrunning| |
Excerpt: Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide, the beleaguered contractor whose practices in Iraq are under federal scrutiny, were sentenced to probation Thursday on gunrunning charges. |
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Judge: US can't deport immigrant to country that will torture him| |
Excerpt: The US government cannot deport an Egyptian man accused of murder in his homeland because of the risk he would be tortured if he were returned, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
Vanaskie said the government was "misplaced" in its reliance on a 1948 case to argue that the judiciary may not intervene when the President is exercising his authority to conduct foreign relations.
"Not even the President of the United States has the authority to sacrifice on the altar of foreign relations the right to be free from torture," the judge wrote. |
The melting economy
Taxpayers foot the bill for BofA's $4B buyout of Countrywide| |
Excerpt: Bank of America, which is solidly profitable, will be able to use some of Countrywide's losses to offset its own taxable income. The tax break could total about half a billion dollars over the first five years, according to an estimate by tax guru Robert Willens, who left Lehman Brothers Friday after a 20-year run and will be in business as Robert Willens LLC starting next week. The losses could be worth considerably more to Bank of America starting in the sixth year, depending on how big Countrywide's losses are when Bank of America formally acquires it. |
US economy awful, getting worse| |
Excerpt: In economic news, more signs are emerging indicating the country might be heading toward a recession. The reported unemployment rate hit 5 percent in December -- it was the biggest jump in unemployment since a month after the Sept. 11 attacks. The price of oil briefly topped one hundred dollars a barrel for the first time ever last week.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst start to a new year since 1904. The NASDAQ composite index dropped over five percent last week -- its worst start to a new year ever. And the Times of London reports the living standards in Britain are set to rise above those in the United States for the first time since the 19th century. |
States probe banks' role in risky loans| |
Excerpt: Authorities in New York and Connecticut are investigating whether Wall Street banks hid crucial information about high-risk loans bundled into securities that were sold to investors, Connecticut's Attorney General said Saturday. |
Baltimore sues Wells Fargo for predatory lending| |
Excerpt: The city of Baltimore is suing Wells Fargo Bank, contending that its lending practices discriminated against African American borrowers and led to a wave of foreclosures that has reduced city tax revenues and increased its costs.
According to the lawsuit, in 2006, Wells Fargo made high-cost loans to 65 percent of its black customers in Baltimore but to only 15 percent of its white customers in the area.
Cleveland sues 21 banks over foreclosures
Comment: So states and even cities seem to have noticed the obvious malfeasance -- it's been in all the papers -- while federal regulators remain silent and uninterested. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
UK living standard surpasses USA for first time in a century
Average Americans' wealth, compared to Presidential candidates
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Members of Congress get $4,100 raise, now paid $169,300| |
Excerpt: Lawmakers in 2008 will receive salaries of $169,300, a boost of $4,100 over the pay they have lived with since January 2006. |
New Jersey apologizes for slavery| |
Excerpt: New Jersey became the first Northern state to apologize for slavery, as legislators approved a resolution Monday expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in the practice.
Legislators in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have issued formal apologies for slavery. |
US stops granting amnesty for immigrant wives with abusive husbands| |
Excerpt: More than a decade ago, Congress passed a law providing a path to citizenship for certain married immigrants who were victims of domestic violence. The hope was to keep them from suffering in silence, too afraid to report the crime because they might risk being forced from their new home.
Those concerns have taken on new urgency in recent months -- and lawmakers are calling for answers -- as immigration officials have either rejected or indefinitely put on hold several applications for permanent residency. |
Yes, Trent Lott resigned to start lobbying firm| |
Excerpt: If you recall, [Senator Trent Lott] said that he had no health problems and wanted to leave Congress to spend more time with his family and "pursue other options." But he did not say what those options were. The former Republican Senate majority leader and then-whip said he had "no commitments lined up."
Well, now, he and former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., have opened a lobbying firm about a block from the White House. |
Bush begins preparations for nation's final year| |
Excerpt: "Our great nation will be a shining, then blinking, then slowly fading beacon to the world," Bush said. "As our time as a sovereign country with borders and currency comes to a close, let us hope we will be remembered for all the great things we accomplished, and not for the 1960s."
"We sure did have some good times, didn't we?" Bush added.
To help the members of Congress pass the time until both houses are a jagged shell of concrete and marble, looted of valuables by roving bands of nomadic warlords to sell for spears and kerosene, Bush submitted to the Senate a short list of what he called "Dream Projects" to be carried out in the tenuous weeks following Dec. 9, 2008. The nation's last acts include approving one final all-encompassing tax break, launching a nationwide skydiving initiative, reducing carbon emissions by 1 percent over the next decade, and writing his memoirs. ...
The Democrats, who will hold a majority in the House and Senate until the rule of law is supplanted by an especially savage series of blood feuds, have promised to work with the president for whatever it's worth.
Comment: It's sadder than funny, but this is one of The Onion's all-time most poignant pieces. If President Bush was capable of introspection or honesty, these are basically the things he'd be saying... Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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This week's commentary
There's big money in poverty
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We seem to be (as a nation) suffering a collective case of misplaced hostility. It isn't the poor taking your money. It isn't the immigrant family down the street taking your job. Your jobs were sent abroad by the people representing you in Washington. Your taxes are torturing and killing people the world over. Your hard-earned money is funding the building of more prisons to house petty criminals, and for the police helicopter looking for God only knows what. The people who are making you work longer hours for less pay aren't the poor asking for change on a street corner. The poor didn't jack up your credit card rates to what any other country in the world would consider usury. The guy sitting on the park bench with everything he owns in the world stuffed into a paper bag, with maggot-infested unhealed flesh wounds -- that guy didn't sell you the interest-only mortgage. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for walking past him as though he didn't exist and make you feel better by mumbling about "services being available." |
Weird events in Wendover, Utah
by Don Nash, Unknown News
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Excerpt: Okay, so the scoop as explained to me is that the freaking spooks are training in populated urban areas and using civilians and civilian traffic as targets. The spookies are laser washing selected trucks, cars, civilians, and then they're calling in air strikes. On United States citizens! Holy freaking mother of god and Mary in the very early morning! The goddamned United States military is using us as their freaking subjects in their twisted and barbaric war gaming. |
I'm afraid of writing this
by Chris D., Unknown News
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Excerpt: Security will be tightened at US bases abroad in ways that disregard or even threaten local governments and international law, followed by the outright annexation of the countries that contain them. The UN at that point will have had enough and launch economic sanctions against the US for the first time. The US will respond militarily and open war will break out. A reign of unbridled and incomparable terror will encompass the globe not at the hands of Islamic extremists but at the hands of the one true rogue nation. (Sorry, I call 'em as I see 'em.) |
The ides of idolatry, or ... A song for Huckabee!
by Don Nash, Unknown News
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Excerpt: "People of planet earth, you've got it all wrong! You're not supposed to hate one another. You're not supposed to kill one another. You're not supposed to spread lies as gospel and you're sure as hell not supposed to listen to anyone that would advise you otherwise. The political demagogues that would cloak themselves in religion are worse than the hypocrites that bomb and kill using the name of the Most High. Knock that crap off!" |
The New Hampshire Primary: Proof certain| |
Excerpt: Exit polling has been refined into something approaching an exact science. It had been almost infallibly accurate to within a half percentage point. At least this was true until the current decade when easily hackable electronic voting machines operating on source code that is known only to the commercial vendor providing the machines, and which is forbidden by law from being divulged to any governmental or private entity, began tallying our votes. Then coincidentally exit polling ceased to be accurate and reliable.
We know with absolute certainty that this is indeed a coincidence because all election analyses, on all mainstream media (MSM) outlets (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, MSNBC, PBS etc.) of all seemingly questionable election results have, without exception, completely omitted discussion of this possibility. Since we have a free and open press, it is, therefore, not possible that using unsecure electronic voting machines can cause any effect whatsoever on the accuracy of the vote tally. Anyone who thinks otherwise is obviously a crackpot conspiracy theorist! If you suffer from such delusions, please stop reading this study NOW and immediately seek professional therapy from your friends at the Department of Homeland Security. ... |
Charlie Wilson's War:
A feel-good distortion of reality
by Andres Kargar, Dissident Voice| |
Excerpt: For starters, the film depicts Pakistan's former dictator General Zia Al-Haq, who murdered the country's president, Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfaqar Ali Bhutto, as an anti-Communist hero dedicated to helping the poor peasants of Afghanistan. This would be stretching the facts quite a bit. In reality, the General was an American-trained dictator whose acts of brutality did not spare even his own fellow countrymen. To Zia, the Afghans were nothing but a tool in his jihad against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
The hero of the movie, Congressman Charles Wilson, as another example of distortions, is shown to be deeply affected by his first visit to an Afghan refugee camp inside Pakistan. In the scene, the sight of mutilated bodies of the victims of the war with the Soviets almost brings tears to Wilson's eyes. This is such a hypocritical scene as there is no mention, that Mr. Wilson himself (and many other US politicians, for that matter) were responsible for torture, mutilation, and murder of thousands of women and children in other trouble spots in the world, such as Nicaragua (at the hands of the US-funded and trained Contra terrorists), Angola (at the hands of UNITA assassins funded by the CIA and the Apartheid regime of South Africa), El Salvador (at the hands of US-sponsored death squads who wouldn't even spare Jesuit priests and nuns), Guatemala, etc. |
The decline of the New York Times
by Ernest Partridge, Smirking Chimp| |
Excerpt: Had you been reading the Times for the past two decades, you would have learned:| |
• That Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in a crooked land deal, dubbed "Whitewater."
• That Chinese-American nuclear scientist, Dr. Wen Ho Lee, was probably spying for the Peoples Republic of China.
• That Al Gore was a "serial liar" who had claimed, among other things, to have "invented the internet" and to have "discovered Love Canal."
• That Bush would have won Florida and the 2000 election, regardless of the Supreme Court decision, Bush v. Gore.
• That Saddam Hussein was importing aluminum tubes to manufacture weapons-grade uranium.
• That Saddam Hussein was stockpiling and prepared to use weapons of mass destruction. | |
All this was published as news, not as opinion. And it was false. All of it! |
Previous commentary
The US is being scuttled
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Unfortunately, in these sorts of situations there cannot be a happy ending. The best we can hope for, in the wake of decades of accepting a false understanding about the politics of our country, is a very painful transition from pride to punishment. |
Surviving the Great Depression of 2008
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Just think of it, the Great Depression of '08 deluxe refrigerator carton will not only keep you and yours dry, but will bring all your family members closer together, just like the old days. ... |
Deconstructing the "brand name" al-Qaeda®
by Marie K., Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Has al-Qaeda® been a label that is useful for the US government and other governments that also use it? First, it aids countries interested in gaining greater control over their own citizens given those governments' claiming to be "protecting" them as they take away their rights. It has also been useful for governments that carry out false flag operations and arrest Muslims worldwide -- perhaps for more "bounty monies" or some other benefit. It could also come in handy if there is a second type of al-Qaeda® made up of CIA/other intelligence agencies' agents who serve as infiltrators and agents sent to entrap people. |
I needs to kill me some more peoples!
by Don Nash, Unknown News
The end of a nightmare of delusion
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This episode of species insanity that is coming to an end has been based on the willingness of individuals to remain as children, to forego advancement to adult status, to arrest our intellectual and moral development for the sake of being part of an ever larger collective where only a few individuals are allowed to assume adult roles. What is not growth is death. We have chosen to see to the growth of our dominator cultures by virtue of piling heaps of our own corpses on a bonfire that keeps fewer and fewer of us warm. |
Know that you are being lied to
by Zebra, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: By spreading the manure real thick "they" create the necessary uncertainty in enough peoples' minds to prevent mass action that would destabilize their next scams. |
Eyes wide shut
by Peter Schiff, 321Gold| |
Excerpt: On Monday we learned that Merrill Lynch, having just sold a $4.5 billion stake to the Singapore government, is again passing around the hat, this time wooing the Chinese and Saudi governments for badly needed funds. This of course follows similar moves by U.S. investment houses Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns. These developments should be disconcerting on many levels, yet most seem unperturbed. ...
On Wednesday we learned that the December ISM Manufacturing Index plunged to 47.7, its lowest level in nearly five years. The news sent the dollar swooning, gold and oil soaring, and pushed the Dow Jones to its largest point drop ever on the first trading day of a new year (in percentage terms the second largest drop since 1932). The report amounted to a stunning repudiation of the hope that the U.S. will export its way out of a coming recession. If manufacturing is at a five year low, how can exports be booming? After all, we can not export what we do not make -- unless of course we simply export used goods, which eventually we will be forced to do. However, selling used cars to the Chinese will not create many new jobs here; as all that need be done is load the vehicles on ships and wave goodbye. This is hardly the export boom Wall Street has championed as our economic savior, offsetting the negatives of housing, financials and the consumer.
Comment: Which is not to say that lots of hard work, sacrifice, good fortune and intelligent leadership could not bring USA, Inc. back from the brink of disaster. Theoretically, that is possible. But it is very unlikely because of cowardly, incompetent, corrupt political leadership, and moreover, control of government by corporations and the very rich.
One way or another, the government will bail out the banks. A combination of methods will be used, including simply socializing the bad debts and sticking them up the asses of the public. Inflation, socialized corporate losses, and tax giveaways to the unindicted -- all of these will be done. Eventually the US government will take ownership of at least $1 trillion of real estate, and then they will sell it to connected insiders and friends for $50 billion, and they will even loan their buddies the $50 billion.
And so it goes.
The only good news is that thanks to the ongoing stupidity, we're getting New Bosses. They won't be just the same as the Old Bosses either -- you betcha the US employees of Toyota and Honda are pretty fucking happy, eh? Ja, a few complainers, but mostly very happy to have good jobs run by intelligent overlords :-) Not like those schmoes at GM, Ford and Chrysler who literally destroyed their companies and everyone involved with them. They destroyed the auto industry which was invented in the US -- not easy to fuck up that bad, but they did it... Hazel Burke PERMANENT LINK |
American economy hijacked by corruption
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: The unwillingness of our elected representatives to act upon the coming economic disaster can only be defined as treason, pure and simple. This sellout of the American worker began in earnest with Ronald Reagan firing the air traffic controllers during his term the White House, and it has continued under the subsequent administrations of GHW Bush and Bill Clinton. |
Got hope? Nope.
by Don Nash, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: We've got about one more year of the Bush regime. Scary as the thought might be, the pending presidential election is even more scary. America is offered little choice for leadership. Clinton? McCain? Obama? Romney? Huckabee? Oh, mommy! |
Contemplating a catastrophic future with
a sense of confidence rather than despair
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: So, I would say cheer up, we have nothing to lose in the coming catastrophe but a set of bad habits that the species will have to shake off if it is to survive. |
My Marxist friends always make sense!
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Now they lie again and say they are fight TERRORISM. No, it's more conquest. More stealing other nations resources. It's capitalism with a big jackbooted helping of in your face Fascism. |
Satan himself is preferable to Hillary Clinton
by Pavel C., Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: The Democratic Party sought to trade off our liberties, our Constitution, our national wealth, and our good name in the world for political expediency. They really ought to be punished if they attempt to propel Sen Mrs Clinton into the Oval Office. |
Teach the children, Thou shalt not kill
by Don Nash, Unknown News
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