Your Tax Dollars : The Larger Picture

Courtesy of The Daily Heretic:

How bad will this get?

Paul Craig Roberts, the former Reagan official, writes that Bush turned his back on the U.S. establishment and has thrown his lot in with the Israeli Neocons. He has crossed the Rubicon. This means that the U.S. will now attack the Shiites in Iraq and/or Iran. This will lead to a slaughter of U.S. forces that will spark calls for revenge by the U.S. public. Revenge on whom, though? Will the U.S. public blame Iran or Israel? This explains the defensiveness of the Israel lobby with respect to Jimmy Carter's book. According to Roberts, the plan by the neocons is to commit genocide against the Arabs, having the U.S. do the dirty work for Israel.

...When word leaked that Bush was inclined toward the "surge option" of committing more troops by keeping existing troops deployed in Iraq after their replacements had arrived, NBC News reported that an administration official "admitted to us today that this surge option is more of a political decision than a military one." It is a clear sign of exasperation with Bush when an administration official admits that Bush is willing to sacrifice American troops and Iraqi civilians in order to protect his own delusions.

The American establishment, concerned by Bush's egregious mismanagement, moved to take control of Iraq policy away from him. However, recent news reports and analysis suggest that Bush has turned his back to the American establishment and his military advisers and is throwing in his lot with the neoconservatives and the Israeli lobby. This will further isolate Bush and make him more vulnerable to impeachment.

...Raed Jarrar (CounterPunch, January 4) suggests that the Shi'ite militias, such as the one led by Al-Sadr, are the intended targets of the "surge option." There seems no surer way to escalate the conflict in Iraq than to attack the Shi'ite militias. For longer than the US fought Germany in WW II, 150,000 US troops in Iraq have been thwarted by a small insurgency drawn from Iraq's minority population of Sunnis. It hardly seems feasible that 30,000 additional US troops, demoralized by extended deployment, can succeed in a surge against the Shi'ite militias when 150,000 US troops cannot succeed against the minority Sunnis.

The reason the US has not been driven out of Iraq is that the majority Shi'ites have not been part of the insurgency. The Shi'ites are attacking the Sunnis, who are forced to fight a two-front war against US troops and Shi'ite militias and death squads.The US owes its presence in Iraq, just as the colonial powers always owed their presence in the Middle East, to the disunity of Arabs. Western domination of the Muslim world succeeded by not picking a fight with all of the disunited Arabs at the same time.

Attacking the Shi'ite militias while fighting a Sunni insurgency would violate this rule. If Bush ignores US military commanders and expert opinion and accepts the surge option advanced by the delusional neocon allies of Israel's right-wing Likud Party, US troops will be engulfed in general insurgency. This is why General John Abizaid resigned on January 5. He wants no part of the Republican Party's sacrifice of US soldiers to sectarian conflict.

...Bush is like Hitler. He blames defeats on his military commanders, not on his own insane policy. Like Hitler, he protects himself from reality with delusion. In his last hours, Hitler was ordering non-existent German armies to drive the Russians from Berlin.

By manipulating Bush and provoking a military crisis in which the US stands to lose its army in Iraq, the neoconservatives hope to revive the implementation of their plan for US conquest of the Middle East. They believe they can use fear, "honor," and the aversion of macho Americans to ignoble defeat to expand the conflict in response to military disaster. The neocons believe that the loss of an American army would be met with the electorate's demand for revenge. The barriers to the draft would fall, as would the barriers to the use of nuclear weapons.

Neocon godfather Norman Podhoretz set out the plan for Middle East conquest several years ago in Commentary Magazine. It is a plan for Muslim genocide. In place of physical extermination of Muslims, Podhoretz advocates their cultural destruction by deracination. Islam is to be torn out by the roots and reduced to a purely formal shell devoid of any real beliefs.

Podhoretz disguises the neoconservative attack against diversity with contrived arguments, but its real purpose is to use the US military to subdue Arabs and to create space for Israel to expand.

Not enough Americans are aware that this is what the "war on terror" is all about.

This is unprecedented. White House sources leaked that Bush insisted on the escalation option against the unanimous opposition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff! Then General Abizaid resigns.

Here is Xymphora:

If the full Baker plan is followed, it is the death of Israeli colonialism, and the end of Wurmser’s Zionist Plan for the Middle East. The surge – a completely ridiculous, completely Vietnam-esque, plan of doing more of the same thing which has caused all the problems in the first place – is intended to slow up American withdrawal until it has been ensured that Iraq will have to break up (if American troops withdraw now, the danger is that Iraq will stay intact under Iraqi control, or – shudder – under radical Iranian control). The surge is presented as a workable alternative to the Baker plan, and is intended to replace the other dangerous Baker ideas, including settling the Palestinian problem and making nice with Syria and Iran, all in a last-ditch effort to protect the interests of the American Establishment in the Middle East. The stakes are thus extremely high – the death of the American Empire versus the death of the dream of an Israeli Empire. If Bush opts for a surge, it will prove that the American Establishment is so weak and decadent that it no longer deserves its empire.

Two powers, the United States and Israel with deadly weapons and ruthless spies, in a fight to the death. This does not bode well.

Mutinies in the field, coups in the capitol, detention of top administration officials, even civil war. It doesn't sound so far-fetched any more.

COINTELPRO
"surge option"
Jimmy Carter
Israeli Neocons
Shi'ite / Sunni
Pathocrat
Norman Podhoretz

Your Tax Dollars at Work, Part Deux

Kudos to Jimmy for telling the truth about the parasitical nature of Zionism. Here is a former president willing to use his standing to bring focus to crucial issues. (Why didn't Ford speak up about Iraq??) Kudos to the righteous, right-thinking Jews who support Carter's speaking the truth against the smears of AIPAC. Here, courtesy of Jimmy Carter, is an understanding of where a good chunk of the funds you send into the eternally sucking maw of the IRS end up. Angry yet?

Order your copy today!

Blue Ibis

P.S. All the bracketed footnotes (#) are linked at the bottom of the article. We aren't making this stuff up, folks!

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Will Jimmy Carter's Book Liberate the Palestinians?

by William Hughes
4 Jan 07

"Nothing else in the world...is so powerful as an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo

Let's face it! The year 2006 was another hell on earth for the Palestinians. Since 1967, they have been suffering under the heel of the Zionist Death, Mayhem & Occupation Machine. Earlier this summer, as the situation grew desperate in Gaza, where 1.4 million people are trapped, Israel's Far Right Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, wisecracked: "Nobody dies from being uncomfortable." He lied! Six hundred and sixty Palestinians perished from the 24/7 siege by the Israeli Occupation Army (IOF). Of that number, 141 were children. (1) Enter ex-President Jimmy Carter and his best selling book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid." (2) Will this good and decent man from Georgia do for the Palestinians, what Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" did for African-Americans, who were then languishing under the crime of slavery? Can Carter light the fuse that leads to the liberation of the Palestinians from their cruel oppressors?

Meanwhile, America is in deep spiritual decline. I don't mean that in a religious sense. I do, however, mean it with respect to so many people not being in touch with their own humanity--their own souls. One of the ways this shows up is how we have historically subsidized, with little or no objections, the evildoings of the Zionist state of Israel. (1) According to the prestigious "Harvard Study," over $140 billion of our tax dollars have ended up there since 1967. (3) Three to four billion dollars is added each year to that total. (4) Now, Jimmy Carter is saying: "Stop!" The Israelis don't deserve our support because they have built a racist Apartheid-like enclave, symbolized by an Annexation Wall, on the backs of the indigenous people--the Palestinians. (1)

What is interesting to note in the Jimmy Carter/Zionist Israel brouhaha is how the former President, like so many others before him, is being subjected to an intense campaign of vilification by Israeli apologists in this country. (5) But surprise--the ubiquitous smear artists are falling on their collective faces! With every mean spirited insult, Carter sells another book. What his critics don't understand is this: Carter belongs to America. He is one of us! They, the Carter bashers, are not only deeply resented, but are being seen by growing numbers as arrogant, spiteful and shameless shills for a foreign power. Israel is the same two-faced foreign power who slaughtered Americans on the USS Liberty, bulldozed to death peace activist Rachel Corrie, and directed the traitor Jonathan Pollard to steal our military secrets. (6) Carter is not only helping Americans see what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians, he is also opening up the eyes of many here, to what the "Harvard Study" clearly documents: The Israel Lobby has exercised "unmatched power" over U.S. foreign policy, which hasn't been in "the national interest" of our country. (3) The hawkish Neocons are part, too, of the powerful Israel Lobby.

Thankfully, more Americans, daily, do know what is going on in the Israeli Occupied Territories. During 2006, I was privileged to cover events dealing with that issue and also Israel's unjust invasion of Lebanon. (7) I also heard human rights experts denounce the Israeli conduct in those two areas of combat as "War Crimes." (8) This includes the IOF's blood stained attack on the village of Qana and its dropping of over one million cluster bombs on the civilian population of Lebanon. (9) I also got a chance to interview some of the demonstrators at these spirited protest actions, and to put on the public record their strong moral and legal objections to Israel's serial wrongdoing. (10) At the same time, I had an opportunity to witness, close up, the nobility of the Palestinians. Ms. Laila El- Haddad and Mohammed Omer spoke volumes via their personal accounts of oppression by the IOF in Occupied Gaza.

Ms. El-Haddad, a Gaza resident, on June 23, 2006, at a forum on Capitol Hill sponsored by the Council for the National Interest, warned that the humanitarian outlook facing the people there was "extremely bleak." She spoke of the barbaric home demolitions by the IOF, the lack of access to food, and the fact that over 9,000 Palestinians are presently languishing in Israeli dungeons, many without any charges pending against them. (11) Mohammed Omer, a Gaza- based journalist, gave a talk at the Palestine Center on Nov. 28, 2006. He spoke of how his late brother, Hussam, was shot to death by an Israeli sniper. Omer knew Rachel Corrie. He related how the children of the Rafah refugee camp, who had grown to love her, "couldn't believe she was dead." (12)

On a related topic, when Professor William Fletcher lectured at the Palestine Center, on Dec. 1, 2006, he shared how the present state of Israel could easily be compared with the Apartheid-era South African regime. He labeled Israel a "rabid state," which was capable of a maniacal act, like "unleashing a nuclear weapon." (13) Now, that Israel's Olmert has admitted that Israel possesses Nukes, Professor Fletcher's concern becomes even more relevant.

When "Esquire" magazine ran a cover story (Jan. 2007) showing an Iraqi War vet, Sgt. Bryan Anderson, a triple amputee, I couldn't help but think of the Neocon, Richard Perle. (14). The last time I spotted him he was filling his mouth with chocolate chip cookies. He had just attended a memorial service for a fellow Iraqi War junkie, Philip Merrill Levine. (15) Perle is also the same hard core Zionist, who co- authored the hawkish "The Clean Break" document for Israel's Likud honcho--Benjamin Netanyahu. (16)

Neocons, like Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, et al, all knee jerk supporters of Israel, deserve strong censure for pushing our country into the war with Iraq. (17) As I write, over 3,000 American troops have died in that conflict, about 60 of them were from my home state of Maryland. And, despite the horror story that is the Iraqi War, with 655,000 Iraqis also reported dead, Netanyahu, is calling for a U.S. led war with Iran. (18) I couldn't help but reflect: The cunning Neocons urged sending our sons and daughters to die in Iraq based on a pack of rotten lies. Now, they, and their cronies, like Netanyahu, are looking for a war with Iran. Do these shameless war hucksters have any limits?

Getting back to Israel's Olmert and his crude remark: "Nobody dies from being uncomfortable." When you tie his callous comment to the significant loss of human life suffered in both Gaza and Lebanon this last summer, you need to be alarmed. Add this fact: His regime was charged with engaging in "collective punishment" tactics in those two campaigns. (8) To me, Olmert reflects a troubled man whose psyche has been unduly influenced by those vindictive Storm Gods of the ancient Canaanites. Like those deities, he too, acts like he is all powerful and omniscient, and without a conscience. Might, of course, excuses nothing. Olmert appears from his recent conduct incapable of reflecting on the morality of his own wrongdoing. He lacks wisdom, too. Is this why characters, like Olmert, are so ultra sensitive to any criticism? When you consider that this zealot has his finger on the trigger of a nuclear weapon, the world itself should shudder in fear. (19)

In any event, there is little chance that an authoritarian ideologue, like Olmert, will change on his own. What is important, however, is that ex-President Jimmy Carter's courageous voice condemning the endemic evil that is a racist, Israeli-dominated Apartheid Palestine, is being heard. If enough Americans change their attitudes towards Israel, then there can be some real hope that the occupation of Palestine might, mercifully, end soon.


Notes:

1. pchrgaza
2. normanfinkelstein.com
3. harvard.edu/Research and atlasbooks.com
4. http://www.wrmea.com/
5. "They Dare to Speak Out" by Paul Findley.
6. baltimore.indymedia.org
7. californiachronicle.com , thepeoplesvoice.org, usa.mediamonitors.net, indymedia.org
8. sf.indymedia.org
9. miami.indymedia.org
10. youtube.com
11. baltimore.indymedia.org
12. dailyscare.com journalist_mohammed_omer_on_the_hell_that_is_gaza
13. baltimore.indymedia.org
14. batr.net
15. thepeoplesvoice.org
16. irmep.org
17. pbs.org and baltimore.indymedia.org
18. whatreallyhappened
19. apnews.myway.com and see, "Answer to Job" by Carl G. Jung.

William Hughes 2007.

William Hughes is the author of "Saying 'No' to the War Party" (Amazon.com).

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Gathered by the folks at the "new and improved" Signs of the Times. Check it out!!

Since everyone is probably starting to drag themselves slowly towards the inevitable task, it behooves us to think about the uses our yearly "contribution" to the PTB are put to. It ain't all roads and medicare. Remember that not only did it take tax dollars to produce the following situations, it took tax dollars to gather the information that proved these horrible things weren't just "bad apple" rumours. Angry yet?

Blue Ibis
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FBI files detail Guantanamo torture tactics

Mark Tran
Wednesday January 3, 2007
Guardian Unlimited



A detainee's arm hangs outside his cell at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay.
Photograph: Mike Brown/EPA

In the 2004 inquiry, the FBI asked nearly 500 employees who had served at Guantanamo Bay to report possible mistreatment by law enforcement or military personnel. Twenty-six incidents were reported, some of which had emerged in earlier document releases.

Besides being shackled to the floor, detainees were subjected to extremes of temperature. One witness said he saw a barefoot detainee shaking with cold because the air conditioning had bought the temperature close to freezing.

On another occasion, the air conditioning was off in an unventilated room, making the temperature over 38C (100F) and a detainee lay almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been pulling out his hair throughout the night.

In October 2002, one interrogator squatted over a copy of the Qur'an during intensive questioning of a Muslim prisoner, who was "incensed" by the tactic, according to an FBI agent.

On another occasion, an agent was asked by a "civilian contractor" to come and see something.

"There was an unknown bearded longhaired d (detainee) gagged w/duct tape that had covered much of his head," the FBI document said.

When the FBI officer asked if the detainee had spit at interrogators, the "contractor laughingly replied that d had been chanting the Qur'an non-stop. No answer how they planned to remove the duct tape," the report said.

After an erroneous report of Qur'an abuse prompted deadly protests overseas in 2005, the US military conducted an investigation that confirmed five incidents of intentional and unintentional mishandling of the book at the detention facility.

It acknowledged that soldiers and interrogators had kicked the Qur'an, had stood on it and, in one case, had inadvertently sprayed urine on a copy.

An FBI agent called W also heard that female interrogators would sometimes wet their hands and touch detainees' faces in order to disrupt their prayers. Such actions would make some Muslims consider themselves unclean so they would stop praying.

The detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay has been strongly criticised by human rights groups. In a rebuff for the Bush administration, the US supreme court last year rejected its claims that detainees at the facility were not entitled to the protection under the Geneva convention.

The department of defence consequently issued a memo stating that prisoners would in the future be entitled to such protection. As of November 2006, out of 775 detainees who have been brought to Guantanamo, approximately 340 had been released, leaving 435 detainees.

Of those 435, 110 have been labelled as ready for release. Of the other 325, only about 70 will face trial by military commissions, criminal courts run by the US armed forces. That leaves about 250 who may be held indefinitely.

Guantanamo Bay, CIA Torture, Habeas Corpus, Geneva Convention, Ponerology, Military Tribunals, Pathocrat

You Can Fight for Free Speech, But You Can't Have it Yourself

Found this on the SOTT Forum, where some of the world's smartest, most plugged-in people gather. Come discuss the stories that CNN ignores.

Why I Object to Testifying Against Lt. Watada

By Sarah Olson

Published: December 30, 2006 1:50 PM ET

OAKLAND (Commentary) In May of this year, I conducted an interview with Ehren Watada while working as a freelance journalist. Watada is a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse orders to deploy to Iraq.

In the interview, Lieutenant Watada asserted that he had a duty as an officer to evaluate the legality of his orders and conduct himself accordingly. He said that he could not participate in the Iraq War because it was “manifestly illegal” and that his participation would make him a party to war crimes.

In June, Lieutenant Watada made national headlines when he refused to deploy to Iraq.

Lieutenant Watada continues to report for duty at Fort Lewis in the state of Washington while awaiting a February 2007 court-martial on one charge of “missing movement” and four charges of “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” Each of the latter four charges is based entirely on political speech. If convicted on all charges, Lieutenant Watada could spend up to six years in prison.

The U.S. Army has cobbled together portions of my interview with Lieutenant Watada and these statements comprise the foundation of one charge of conduct unbecoming an officer. To substantiate this alleged crime, the Army has subpoenaed me to testify on behalf of their prosecution.

The dynamics of the situation are clear. When the military chooses to prosecute a soldier for expressing dissenting political positions to a member of the press, that journalist is unwittingly and inevitably forced into the middle of the conflict.

Among multiple issues this raises, it begs one central question: Doesn’t it fly in the face of the First Amendment to compel a journalist to participate in a government prosecution against a source, particularly in matters related to personal political speech?

It is my job as a professional journalist to report the news, not to act as the eyes and ears of the government. I am repelled by this approach that jeopardizes my credibility and seeks to compel my participation in muting public speech and dissenting personal opinion.

Further, it is stunningly ironic that the Army seeks my testimony – the testimony of a journalist – in a case against free speech itself. What could be more hostile to the idea of a free press than a journalist participating in the suppression of newsworthy speech?

When journalists are subpoenaed to confirm the veracity of their reporting, they typically agree to this limited request. What makes this case different is that the thing in question is the political nature of Lieutenant Watada’s speech. Participating in the U.S. Army’s court-martial forces me to build the case against my source and contribute to an act of suppression against the media’s ability to report the news.

As a journalist, I cannot support or criticize the thoughts of an interview subject. My job is to record those thoughts accurately and provide a public forum for debate. If the Army succeeds in turning me into an arm of their investigation, it will chill not only press freedom but also free speech. This is a slippery slope that bears watching and requires vigilance.

It seems clear that the U.S. Army is attempting to redefine the parameters of acceptable speech and to classify dissent as a punishable offense. Subpoenaing journalists in this case unequivocally sends the message that dissent is neither tolerated nor permitted. Utilize your constitutionally guaranteed speech rights and go to prison. What rational soldier would agree to speak with me or any other member of the media if jail was a likely result?

When the press cannot or does not reflect the vibrant and varied perspectives within our society, it is reduced to a simple transcriber of government press releases. The record of existing dissent is erased, and a dumbed-down, homogenized version of “The American Experience” is all that’s left in its place.

I stand firmly by a conviction I share with many: a member of the press should never be placed in the position of aiding a government prosecution of political speech. This goes against the grain of even the most basic understanding of the First Amendment’s free press guarantees and the expectation of a democracy that relies on a free flow of information and perspectives without fear of censor or retribution.

You may ask: Do I want to be sent to prison by the U.S. Army for not cooperating with their prosecution of Lieutenant Watada? My answer: Absolutely not. You may also ask: Would I rather contribute to the prosecution of a news source for sharing newsworthy perspectives on an affair of national concern? That is the question I wholly object to having before me in the first place.

***
Ed. Note: According to press reports, the trial of Lt. Watada is expected to begin in February. Some accounts suggest that the charges filed against him mark the first time since the Vietnam war and the case of Lt. Henry Howe that the military has made the charge of "conduct unbecoming an officer" to prosecute an officer's public statements. One site that has written about Olson, truthout.org, has declared that this is the first time the Army has sought testimony of a professional journalist to prove one of its own officers violated military law by publicly questioning the rationale for war.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sarah Olson is an independent journalist and radio producer based in Oakland, CA. She can be reached at solson75@yahoo.com.

First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Lieutenant Ehren Watada, US War Crimes in Iraq, Ponerology, Pyschopaths in Politics, Pathocrat

Another Neocon Critic Offs Himself?

It is pretty amazing how considerate the opponents of the Neocon agenda are. Senator Paul Wellstone (against the Iraq war) obligingly dies in a plane crash, putting the balance of power in Dick Cheneys' hands. Dr. David Kelly offs himself in a English wood, thereby letting the Blair government out of some really sticky WMD questions. Quite a few folks investigating the Washington establishments' various sexual peccadellos seem to suddenly suffer from terminal depressions. And now, the latest of Karl Rove's annoyances has followed suit. What a guy!

Blue Ibis

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Signs of the Times for Fri, 29 Dec 2006

Lawyer Ends Up Dead After Taking On Rove

December 27th 2006
Kurt Nimmo

It's fishy as hell.

Paul Sanford, a prominent Aptos, California, attorney, who accused Karl Rove of treason in the Plame outing case, took a leap from the Embassy Suites Hotel in Monterey Bay on Christmas Eve. Police describe it as "probable" suicide, even though it appears Sanford was not depressed.

"Friends and associates expressed disbelief at the news of Sanford's death and that it was ruled a suicide, saying Sanford seemed happy and had made many plans for this week and in coming months. [Business associate and friend Shawn Mills] said he and Sanford recently decided to open a shared law office to serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, something Sanford was looking forward to doing," reports the Monterey Herald. "Mills said he had spoken to Sanford's wife, Paula, and that she also was in shock. He said Sanford, a father of two, was a devoted family man." Sanford "would never have intentionally put his family through that trauma. Something's not right, it doesn't make sense."

On July 25, 2005, in the James S. Brady Briefing Room at the White House, Sanford asked then press secretary Scott McClellan about Karl Rove, accused at the time by Joseph Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame, of outing his wife as a CIA employee in retaliation for Wilson's op-ed published in the New York Times. Wilson criticized the citation of bogus yellowcake documents used as flimsy justification for invading Iraq and murdering more than 650,000 Iraqis.

McClellan was flummoxed by Sanford's question:

McClellan: Go ahead.

Sanford: Yes, thank you. There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove. The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?

McClellan: I think that in terms of decisions regarding the investigation, those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide.

Special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, decided not to charge Rove in the case, even though the former Donald Segretti dirty trickster understudy raised enough suspicion to warrant being called before a grand jury five times. Neocon Lewis "Scooter" Libby was charged with obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to the FBI. A few weeks later, on July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil suit against Cheney, Libby, Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials, for their alleged roles in the public disclosure of her classified CIA employment.

In addition, Sanford was "a champion of the downtrodden, he represented homeless people in Santa Cruz, and fought for free speech," according to Mills. As well, he hosted a radio talk show at KOMY, an Air America affiliate, although he was not associated with the bankrupt network. Sanford and Mills also hosted the "Paul and Shawn Show" on Saturdays at the Seaside, California, radio station KRXA.

Of course, there is no evidence Paul Sanford was pushed from "at least nine floors" above the large ventilation grate where he met his fate. As well, there is no evidence he committed suicide, or did he fit the profile of a suicide. However, there is plenty of evidence Sanford was a thorn in the side of the neocons, committing the ultimate sin of accusing one particularly nasty top drawer neocon, Karl Rove, of treason.

Paul Sanford
Karl Rove
Scott McClellan
NEOCONS
Ponerology
NSA
Air America Radio

Thoughts for the New Year

I've been off for the last little while with family concerns. When one loses a parent, it seems the concern for the future becomes even more acute. It becomes screamingly apparent that there is NO ONE to look to for improving this world exceptt ones self. Laura Knight-Jadczyk knows this better than anyone. Her blog is testament to spreading the ideas that could be the tipping point between a creating a sane world for our children and careening into the abyss. Here is just such a post.

Blue Ibis

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The Truth is Public Property


As the information about psychopathy in high places - Political Ponerology - spreads, I am frequently asked: what do we do now? This is something that has been exercising me to no end. This morning I received an email from 9/11 Researcher, Dick Eastman, who wrote:

We now must move to the next step - bringing to justice the mass-murdering criminals responsible for all of the false-flag killing that has been done and is still being done around the world since September 11, 2001 -- taking down from positions of power in our government and key institutions those who have had a knowing part in the murderous misdirection of American armed forces against innocent people in countries that have done us no harm and bore us no ill will. This includes Congressmen who held their hands to their ears. This Includes newspaper editors and publishers and radio producers and television networks -- all complicit -- all knowingly obstructing justice. (They knew too well what voices to silence not to know what it was that they were silencing.) We must confront, overpower and disarm the monsters who are in control of the coercive apparatus of the government, rendering them harmless, taking away their ill-gotten gains, restoring a people's government, and bringing them to justice (life in prison if not hanging).

Every nation must be decapitated of its stooges and replaced by people who have not been prostitutes of the globalist money power. This must be done or it is better to do nothing at all -- the criminal ruling elites -- the billionaires and trillionaires (more of these than you think) must be taken down, their god-like power of wealth taken from their hands.

Of course since these people are the merchant bankers who own the world's debt -- they must be made to give all that wealth back to the people of the world from whom they have been stealing for for three centuries. We cannot beat them until we disarm them financially. The world needs a grand settlement -- all who benefit from having the yoke of these monsters lifted must join in seeing that the job of getting justice is achieved all around the world at the same time. Otherwise the Merchant Bankers will use one debt-slave nation to subdue another , will hire mercenaries from one continent to crush the anti-corruption forces of another continent.

Now who is ready to advance to "square two" and who is not?

Notice that Dick has written above: "This Includes newspaper editors and publishers and radio producers and television networks -- all complicit -- all knowingly obstructing justice."

This is, in fact, the key to everything: the Media. The first thing that has to be done before anything else can be done is to take back the media. The media is the wall between the elite pathocrats and the public. It is the tool used to control and manipulate. In Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and other totalitarian states down through history, the control of information was/is the means of control of the people. After all, the masses of people that are needed to support any kind of movement are in that part of the bell curve that indicates that they are just "average" and "followers" and "want to be left alone" and can only be moved by moving "en masse." They are the ones that must be reached. And that can only be done via mass media. We do not own the mass media. I think that less than half of the people in the U.S., and a smaller percentage than that in other places, get their news via the internet. And we all know how much disinformation is on the net. Now, let's back up and get some perspective here. People need to really think about who's running the U.S. (and other countries on the planet), and get it firmly in mind that it is big business: oil companies and the arms industry. Now, think of the term: "RUTHLESS MEN". Ponder it long and carefully. Even if you can't believe that clinically diagnosible psychopaths are in power, just consider that big businesses are invariably headed by RUTHLESS MEN. The term "Establishment" refers to all those wealthy people across the country who own most of the country. And, as the news has recently reported, it is a very small percentage of the total population. Some people will do anything for money and to protect their interests and their wealth; that is usually how they get to be wealthy in the first place. In my opinion, many of the "industrial barons" of American history were criminals. They are extremists, radical, and most often use religion to justify this extremism and the oppression of others.

It is par for the course for such radicals to label anyone a little toward the center, or even in the center, as "Leftists". In a country where the largest majority are in the center, neither Left nor Right, they are the ones that are hurt the most.

There are Leftists in the 9/11 Research Community that would like to blame everything on capitalism in general. Well, it's true that Capitalism - as it is practiced in the U.S. - is selective for psychopaths to rise to the top. But Capitalism, the right to work hard and improve your lot thereby, is not the cause of radical ruthlessness.

At the same time, there are many radical Rightists who have invaded 9/11 Research. You could even say that the majority of them are of that ilk. Their presence is, basically, to support the Right by sowing confusion and dissension, to demolish the evidence of conspiracy, and certainly to herd people into various camps, usually religious or armed. Stirring up the Indians, then fighting them and taking their land and possessions, is an old game: Interventionism and Adventurism - the "American Way." Throughout history, Indians, Blacks, the poor, have always understood this at some level. But most Middle-class, average Americans do not. Due to their upbringing, education, socialization - basically brainwashing - we are taught to separate reality between what we believe versus what actually happens. For the most part, we don't want to know the truth because if we knew it, we would have to do something about it. We just want problems to go away, so we like very much to have a patsy - a scapegoat - to blame so we can get back to the business of trying to survive in a country where everyone is oppressed while they are told that they are better off than anybody else on earth.

The fact is that societies are split between the forces of Good and Evil. Decent people - people who have lines in their consciences that they will not cross - live side by side with people who would do anything to get what they want. And so it is that RUTHLESS MEN - however you wish to describe them - control America. They either control or install the U.S. government, and have done so for a very long time. It doesn't matter whether they are Jews or Gentiles or Hottentots. They are ruthless, and many of them are psychopaths or related deviants. The oil companies and arms industries control governments and policy; they control the military and political parties across the board; republicans AND democrats. They own nearly everyone. They have the power to make and break people. It is important to remember that behind the office of the President, there are ruthless men who will do anything at all to maintain and increase their power and to attain their ends. The history of the White House is the history of puppets who do what they are told to do. It is oil companies and arms industries that want war. They need to control the masses of people so that they can get what they want. Doing "anything at all" means killing people who get in the way and killing people to create conditions so that they can stampede populations in the way they want them to go, generally to war. Nobody with that kind of power is going to give it up easily. And there is nothing they will not do if they see it as essential: they assassinated John F. Kennedy in broad daylight because he threatened that power. People sometimes ask how such conspiracies as the JFK assassination and 9/11 could be "covered up without someone from the inside talking." As Harrison Livingstone points out, this is a naive question. If someone is a witness to a murder done by professionals, do you really think they are going to go around blabbing about it? And if the victim is a president, or the people in the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and 4 airliners, it is clear to even the most pedestrian thinker that the crime has been committed by those with great power. Anybody with two firing neurons can figure out that such perpetrators are in such a strong position that protesting or seriously trying to blow the whistle on such an event puts the whistle-blower in the gravest of danger - particularly if they have an audience. (That's why they work so hard to make sure that those who tell the truth do not have an audience.) Further, if we consider the element of the "Establishment" mentioned above, it is unlikely that exposing the crime would even result in justice being done. Who would they turn to? Who would protect them?

Here is where we return to the subject of the Media. If the witness goes to the media of today, they might as well jump off a cliff and be done with it. Because, most certainly, the impression that the media gives of "truth seeking" is only window dressing. Now and again they expose the truth on some matter that doesn't really matter, but that is only to shore up the illusion of a democracy and a free press; to keep the herd satisfied. The media is, in fact, under the same control as politicians and politics. In short, the media is under the control of the perpetrators of the crime. So, with no media to form an opposing power base, who ya gonna tell?

And without the Media to back you up, who's going to believe you? Further, in the case of crimes of state, which the JFK assassination and 9/11 certainly were, enough other people are killed to insure the silence of everyone in the conspiracy. The additional deaths (or character assassinations) send a loud and clear message to everyone who might know something: keep your mouth shut! And so it is, we come to the crux of the matter: we must take back the media.

That's the first order of business.

When you think about it, where does any private group or individual get off thinking that they "own" information, facts, data about events that happen in our world that affect everyone? The Truth is public property: it belongs to ALL.

After thinking about this for some time, I have come to the realization that all public media should be publicly owned and overseen by public commissions that are not in any way related to politics - neither elected nor appointed, but selected by random lottery from pools of qualified citizens. Only in this way can we guarantee to ourselves the support that is needed to accomplish everything else that must be done to clean up the mess that Ruthless, Greedy Men have made of our planet. But in order to even approach that goal peacefully, we need to find ways to bypass the currently existing media - to become our own media. That is the task before us.

Signs of the Times, Psychopath, MSM, Conspiracy, Ponerology, Red Pill Press, Pathocrat

Pearl Harbor - Worth Remembering, But Not For the Public Reasons

Signs of the Times Remembers:

Pearl Harbor - A Lesson Lost On The People Of The World

Signs of the Times 08/12/2006

Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the day when President Roosevelt gave the American people and the world conclusive proof that, as a general rule, war doesn't just happen but is deliberately created by politicians.

From Douglas Reed's Controversy of Zion:

In the First [World] War President Wilson, re-elected on the promise to keep his country out of war, immediately after his re-inauguration declared that "a state of war exists". In the Second War President Roosevelt was re-elected in 1940 on the repeated promise that "your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars". His electoral programme, however, included a five-word proviso: "We will not send our armies, navies or air forces to fight in foreign lands outside the Americas except in case of attack". These five words were added (says one of Mr. Bernard Baruch's approved biographers, Mr. Rosenbloom) "by Senator James F. Byrnes, who was so close to Baruch that it was sometimes impossible to tell which of the two originated the view that both expressed".

The importance of the proviso was shown on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. Twelve days earlier Mr. Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary for War, after a cabinet meeting on November 25, 1941, had noted in his diary: "The question was how we should manoeuvre them" (the Japanese) "into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves; it was a difficult proposition".

The pre-history of this notation, again, is that on January 27, 1941 the United States Ambassador in Tokyo had advised his government that "in the event of trouble breaking out between the United States and Japan, the Japanese intended to make a surprise attack against Pearl Harbour"; that the Soviet spy in Tokyo, Dr. Richard Sorge, informed the Soviet Government in October 1941 that "the Japs intended to attack Pearl Harbour within sixty days" and was advised by the Soviet Government that his information had been transmitted to President Roosevelt (according to Sorge's confession, New York Daily News, May 17, 1951); that the Roosevelt government delivered a virtual ultimatum to Japan on November 26, 1941; that secret Japanese messages, from September 1941 up to the very moment of the attack, which were intercepted and decoded by United States intelligence units, gave unmistakable evidence of a coming attack on Pearl Harbour but were not transmitted to the American commanders there; that on December 1 the Head of Naval Intelligence, Far Eastern Section, drafted a dispatch to the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet saying "war between Japan and the United States is imminent", which was cancelled by superior authority; that on December 5 Colonel Sadtler of the U.S. Signal Corps, on information received, drafted a dispatch to commanders, "War with Japan imminent; eliminate all possibility of another Port Arthur" (an allusion to the similar "surprise attack" that began the Russo-Japanese war), which was similarly suppressed; that a Japanese reply, obviously tantamount to a declaration of war, to the Roosevelt ultimatum was received in Washington on December 6, 1941 but no word was sent to the Pearl Harbour defenders. A message stating that "the Japanese are presenting at one p.m., eastern time today what amounts to an ultimatum. . . be on the alert" was at last dispatched about noon on December 7, 1941, and reached the commanders at Pearl Harbour between six and eight hours after the Japanese attack.

The record now available suggests that the Americans on Hawaii alone were left without knowledge of the imminent onslaught which cost two battleships and two destroyers (apart from many vessels put out of action), 177 aircraft and 4575 dead, wounded or missing. A direct and immediate consequence was also the disaster suffered by the British navy off Malaya, when the battleships Prince of Wales and Renown were sunk with great loss of life.

Political leaders who are ready to obtain their country's entry into war by facilitating an enemy attack on it cannot be depended on to wage it in the national interest. The American people as a whole still is unaware of the truth of Pearl Harbour, an ominous beginning which led in unbroken line to the ominous end.

Eight investigations were held, seven naval or military ones during wartime and one Congressional one at the war's end. Thus wartime secrecy enshrouded them all and none of them was truly public or exhaustive; moreover, all were conducted under the aegis of the political party whose man was president at the time of Pearl Harbour. The vital facts (that the president knew at the latest eight weeks earlier, from an intercepted Japanese dispatch, that "a surprise attack was being planned and that these intercepted messages were withheld from the Pearl Harbour commanders over a long period) were burked throughout. The Secretary of War's diary (with the significant entry above quoted) was not admitted in evidence and Mr. Stimson himself was not called, being in ill health. Control of the press enabled the long proceedings (six months) to be presented to the public in bewildering and confusing form.

However, the three naval commanders chiefly concerned have published their accounts. Rear Admiral Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet at the time, says of another admiral's belief that "President Roosevelt's plans required that no word be sent to alert the fleet in Hawaii", that "the individuals in high position in Washington who willfully refrained from alerting our forces at Pearl Harbour should never be excused. The Commanders at Pearl Harbour Were never informed of. . . the American note delivered to the Japanese Ambassadors on November 26, 1941, which effectually ended the possibility of further negotiations and thus made the Pacific war inevitable . . . No hint of vital intercepts received, decoded and delivered to responsible officials in Washington on December 6 and 7, 1941, was sent to the Navy and Army Commanders in the Hawaiian area".

Fleet Admiral Halsey, who at that time was one of Admiral Kimmel's three senior commanders, says, "All our intelligence pointed to an attack by Japan against the Philippines or the southern areas in Malaya or the Dutch East Indies. While Pearl Harbour was considered and not ruled out, the mass of the evidence made available to us pointed in another direction. Had we known of Japan's minute and continued interest in the exact location and movement of our ships in Pearl Harbour" (indicated by the withheld message) "it is only logical that we would have concentrated our thought on meeting the practical certainty of an attack on Pearl Harbour".

Rear Admiral Theobald, commanding destroyers of the Battle Force at Pearl Harbour, writing in 1954 says, "Dictates of patriotism requiring secrecy regarding a line of national conduct in order to preserve it for possible future repetition do not apply in this case because, in this atomic age, facilitating an enemy's surprise attack, as a method of initiating a war, is unthinkable".

(The admiral presumably means that he hopes a repetition is "unthinkable"). He adds. "The recurrent fact of the true Pearl Harbour story has been the repeated withholding of information from Admiral Kimmel and General Short" (the naval and military commanders at Pearl Harbour, who were made scapegoats) ". . . never before in recorded history had a field commander been denied information that his country would be at war in a matter of hours, and that everything pointed to a surprise attack upon his forces shortly after sunrise".

Admiral Theobald quotes the later statement of Admiral Stark (who in December 1941 was Chief of Naval Operations in Washington and who refused to inform Admiral Kimmel of the Japanese declaration of war message) that all he did was done on the order of higher authority, "which can only mean President Roosevelt.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. If it works, why change tactics? It should be obvious to anyone that is prepared to think logically rather than emotionally or "patriotically" that involving a country in a war that the population doesn't want is easy. In 1941 it happened by way of Pearl Harbor, Vietnam was helped along by the fake Gulf of Tonkin incident, and the current invasion of Iraq absolutely required the events of September 11, 2001.

Pearl Harbor
Franklin Roosevelt
False Flag
Gulf of Tonkin
9-11 Coverup
COINTELPRO
Pentagon Strike

Becoming What We Despise

Another Signs of the Times find. What the New York Times will show but not say the truth about:

New York Times
This still photo from a video obtained by The New York Times shows Jose Padilla’s forced isolation and sensory deprivation, including the use of blinders and sound dampeners as he is moved from his cell.

Robert Scheer: Becoming What We Despise

Posted on Dec 5, 2006
By Robert Scheer

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has been tortured by his own government for the better part of three-and-one-half years, suffering years of systematic sensory deprivation documented in his attorneys' filings and supported by photos of the prisoner published this week by the New York Times.

In that time, Padilla, who has been judged by professionals as mentally ill as a consequence of his brutal treatment, has been denied his Constitutional right to a fair and speedy trial and was permitted no legal representation for 21 months. The Bush administration’s excuse for this betrayal of our legal system was that Padilla was a dangerous al Qaeda agent, a big fish caught in the administration's successful pursuit of its much ballyhooed war on terror. In the words of then-U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft, Padilla was "a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or 'dirty bomb,' in the United States." Those lurid claims were abandoned when the government, faced with a belated U.S. Supreme Court censure, finally charged Padilla with vague and lesser crimes carrying a maximum 15-year sentence.

Were this some isolated case of officially condoned sadism, say in a rural county jail, it could be minimized as an aberration. Instead, it is an all-too-accurate reflection of a presidential policy of dehumanizing anyone even suspected of being an enemy. The Times photos, taken from a government video, give evidence of a heavily manacled prisoner with masked eyes and muffled ears being walked down a corridor within a Navy brig, lending physical evidence to Padilla's lawyer's claims of a pattern of disorienting isolation. "There is nothing comparable in terms of severity of confinement, in terms of how Padilla was held, especially considering that this was pretrial confinement," Philip D. Cave, a former Navy judge advocate general, told the Times.

Obviously, a prisoner who has been deliberately disorientated for so long is no longer in a position to exercise his right to confront his accusers. An examining psychiatrist wrote that "as the result of his experience during his detention and interrogation, Mr. Padilla does not appreciate the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, is unable to render assistance to counsel, and has impairments in reasoning as the result of a mental illness ... complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation."

The excuse for this heinous treatment of a U.S. citizen is the same as that given for an entire orgy of despicable treatment of prisoners held in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and a gulag archipelago of secret military facilities around the world: Our enemies, all linked through sophistry to the 9/11 terror attacks, are so vile and dangerous that the limitations on government power enshrined in our guiding documents and political culture no longer apply. Once the Twin Towers were knocked down, supposedly, we could no longer afford to be "nice guys" - as if the rule of law is an indulgence of only the most secure nations.

By that standard, any tyrant can justify the cruelest of actions by citing enemies, real or imagined, be it King George III blockading Boston Harbor to teach the rebellious colonists a lesson or Saddam Hussein killing Kurdish villagers after an assassination attempt on his life. The very uniqueness of our national experiment was the checks and balances put upon the government to prevent such convenient rationalizations for abuse of the individual. The Founding Fathers won a war, but their true contribution to human history was to tackle head-on the reality that humans and their institutions can so easily become that which they despise.

Even when an American is suspected of a "capital or infamous crime," as was Padilla, the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically says he still cannot "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." That is why the Supreme Court finally forced the Bush administration to give Padilla his day in court.

In the end, the administration has retreated from its hoary claims; Padilla's trial, set to begin on Jan. 22, does not include any reference to dirty bombs, al Qaeda, or any specific plans to attack America. Instead, he faces lesser charges claiming he was the recruit of a "North American support cell," whose interest was in jihad in Bosnia and Chechnya. As if it had no bearing on the disoriented state of mind of the defendant, the Bush administration's lawyers have argued in motions that his treatment as a prisoner should not be presented before the jury.

The more important question now, however, is when will those who, like Ashcroft, used this case to shamelessly exploit our fears for political purposes face their own day of accountability in a court of law?

Jose Padilla
Habaeus Corpus
Fifth Amemdment"
NEOCONS
U.S. Supreme Court
al Qaeda
dirty bombs

JFK: Looking Back

I was 6 years old and just started grade one the year John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered. A nun came onto our bus as all us were leaving for home, and asked us to say a prayer for his soul. I think she was crying. Though we were all so young, somehow I think most of us knew that something truly fateful had happened; catastrophic beyond the loss of a charismatic leader.

So apparently did France. In 1968 a book by "James Hepburn" appeared called Farewell America. From the introduction to the first excerpt:

Farewell America is pretty well accepted to have been authored by the French equivalent of our CIA, and based on hard intelligence gathered from French, Russian, and even American sources. It was originally published in French in 1968, but it was unavailable in the United States for many years. With the coming of the worldwide web, it became available and I truly wish that every American citizen would read it.

Laura Knight-Jadczyk has extracted the most telling sections of this report in a seven-part series on her blog. Interwoven with these quotes are comments and analysis based on the knowledge we have since gained of how psychopathic personalities and ponerized organizations operate. If only Kennedy had had this understanding. Things may have been so different today.

The first post in the series on John F. Kennedy is entitled "The Debris of History."

The second is The Gladiator: John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The third installment discusses the question: Is the Bush family implicated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy? The French Intelligence unit has some interesting answers.

The fourth part discusses JFK's ideas for improving society and the forces working against him: Sim City and John F. Kennedy

Fifth is a discussion of "John F. Kennedy and All Those "isms". How did he really deal with capitalism, communism, socialism, and let's not forget, fascism?

Further illumination of this great man:

John F. Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Organized Crime and the Global Village JFK had a grasp of the concept of the Global Village long before it became a wide-spread idea. Problem was, orgainzed crime liked things the way they were.

John F. Kennedy and the Psychopathology of Politics 'nuff said. The insights we have now regarding pyschopathy could have made a big difference to how Kennedy conducted policy.

"John F. Kennedy and the Pigs of War" discusses John F. Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs invasion. It may be that he was set up by forces within the government in bed with organized crime.

John F. Kennedy and the Titans. His attempt to bring the common people back into the political equation. A choice quote:

To his adversaries, President Kennedy's economic policies appeared to be inspired entirely by a concern for public welfare to which they were fundamentally opposed.

Who since has fought for us? Who can take up his goals but us?

A series to both sadden and inspire.

Blue Ibis

Voted Democrat?? Hope You Didn't Waste the Champagne . . .

Because there's no reason to celebrate. Here in the reality-based world, shifting the balance from the Republicrats to the Demopublicans is going change dick. As the article below puts it, only the names on the lobbyist's cheques will change.

Blue Ibis

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Signs of the Times for Fri, 10 Nov 2006

Field of Screams - The Real 2006 Election Winners and Losers

Joel S. Hirschhorn
http://www.delusionaldemocracy.com/articles
10/11/2006

Forget political correctness. The revolution has NOT arrived! Bush is still president. The corporate state is safe. The Upper Class has little to fear. Lobbyists will be writing different names on checks. Winning Democrats will entertain more than they will produce historic restorative reforms. Did Republicans deserve to lose? Of course!

However, Americans who thought their votes would bring much needed change to our political system also lost. They just don't know or admit it yet. As usual, the third-party movement lost, because the two-party duopoly maintained its stranglehold on our political system. Populists and true progressives lost. Who or what was the biggest winner? The short-term and delusional tactic of lesser-evil voting won big.

On the liberal left, millions of anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war voters held their noses, repressed the truth about cowardly and compromised Democrats. They rationalized why beating Republicans was the most important goal. Fake, neo-progressives, little more than embarrassed Democrats, finally showed their true blue commitment. On the right, millions of fiscal conservative, pro-life, and evangelical voters blocked out many facts, disappointments and scandals, and rationalized why keeping Republicans in power was the most important goal. They wanted to stay the course. Many spiritual libertarians given no Libertarian Party candidates went red. Spiritual greens went blue. Many independents, centrists and moderates unable to vote for None of the Above, went lesser-evil. Self-delusion ran rampant as placebo voting ruled the day.

Mainstream media and Internet sites whipped up sports-like-beat-the-other-team enthusiasm masquerading as civic responsibility and patriotism. Political pundits, negative ads, and bloggers kept us entertained. The recipients of some $2 billion spent on campaigning made out like bandits. The postal system benefited. Landfills filled up faster from all the political junk mail. Despite all the hoopla, however, the majority of eligible voters were not motivated to vote. Do not ignore this sobering fact: It is estimated that national voter turnout was slightly over 40 percent, compared to 39.7 percent in the 2002 midterm. Two-party dominance does not bring out voters, and many Americans reject lesser-evil voting. Low voter turnout defines the opportunity for renewed new third-party efforts.

This much is clear: Voting has become more of a distraction from dealing with real problems confronting ordinary Americans, than a means to solving them. Voting should mean more than helping your side win. When it only comes down to defeating one party so that the other one wins, lesser-evil voting produces a different color of evil.

Two-party partisan change is not about attacking the status quo; it is about preserving the worst status quo of all: two-party control. Transferring power between the two major parties creates the dangerous illusion that our democracy works. The winner gets more money from corporate interests and their turn at pork spending, easier corrupt behavior and self-serving legislation.

Visualize this: Over decades our democracy has been sliding down a cheese grater. Stopping the slide and putting the pieces back together will require a mighty effort. Our wicked, unjust economy now uses consumer spending to destroy working- and middle-class Americans, increase economic inequality, and turn us into a two-class society with Upper and Lower Classes. Our government is an embarrassment, justifying global hatred of the USA. With so many voters unsure that their votes on electronic devices would be accurately counted, our electoral process is a joke. Hypocrisy trumps democracy.

This year, lesser-evil voting vented considerable anger, frustration and despair over the worst presidency in our history. In their hearts, however, the majority of Americans, no matter who they voted for, know that our nation will most likely remain on the wrong track. If political dissent becomes muted, then this election has cost us dearly. If anything, we still have dissent deficit.

In a Jeffersonian sense, we the people lost this election. Our delusional democracy with its delusional prosperity has survived. Our culture of lying and corruption has prevailed. Campaign promises will now be either forgotten or converted into deception and lies. We just heard a disgraced evangelical leader admit he was a "deceiver and a liar." Our winning and losing politicians, especially President Bush, will not make that same confession, though they should.

We should not be surprised that we have a delusional president; he suits a delusional democracy. Some do get the government they deserve, but most of us do not.

Power to the people remains a distant political goal. We now move on to the next cycle of lies and lesser-evil voting - the 2008 presidential campaign, that the Republicans are now more motivated than ever to win. Worse than not admitting the emperor has no clothes is not seeing a whole democracy without trustworthiness, accountability and credibility.

You are thinking "What a cynic he is." But I see it as reality based, anti-delusional thinking. I take small comfort in knowing that I am not alone. Despite being anti-Bush, I could not become an enthusiastic supporter of Democrats. After decades of lesser-evil voting I found my inner conscience and commitment to political dissent, to what I call progressive civil disobedience.

Decades of empirical evidence had shown me that neither Democrats nor Republicans would ever deliver quality to our democracy and justice to our economy. Yes, I went and voted, for third-party candidates that were uniformly more qualified than the major party candidates, and on ballot measures. I asked for a paper ballot, but was told it was not an option.

Long live delusion. May it protect the millions of Americans without good paying jobs or job security, without health insurance, without confidence that they will be able to keep paying their mortgages and credit card debt, without hope that global warming will be effectively addressed, without confidence that social security will be there when they need it; and without hope that their children will have a better, higher quality of life than theirs. And surely few believe that political corruption and scandals are now gone. If all politics are local, so is all corruption.

Lesser-evil voting has brought us here, to a lesser-quality democracy with a lesser-quality government, lesser-quality economy, lesser-quality health care system, and lesser-quality education system.

Under two-party rule, we have arrived at the sorry state where nearly 75 percent of Americans believe the nation faces a leadership crisis, according to a new survey. It also found evidence of an epidemic of self-delusion. People think that among the top 32 industrialized nations the U.S. ranks 10th for citizens' life expectancy, when it really ranks 24th; that is ranks 15th for economic equality and mathematics literacy, when it actually ranks 30th and 25th, respectively. Being the only superpower is one thing. Being the best democracy is something else entirely.

Despite widespread delusion pain seeps through. So the pharmaceutical industry will make bigger profits from even greater demand for anti-depressants, sleeping pills, and new anti-obesity drugs. Shopping, eating, Internet surfing, pornography and gambling will keep feeding distraction. The rich and super-rich will keep finding ways to spend their super-sized wealth, and avoid taxes. American soldiers will keep dying in senseless wars. Globalization, pushed by sycophants like Tom Friedman (who lives in a $9 million house), will keep sucking the lifeblood out of our nation, as will hoards of illegal immigrants. Americans have no nearby richer country to flee to, so we must numb our pain.

Long live delusion. Our new congress will surely keep us entertained. Behind the scenes lobbyists will create new, less visible ways to corrupt our elected MISrepresentatives. There will be much talk about our lame duck president, but not about our lame duck democracy.

Tell me, to begin a Second American Revolution, when will millions of clear-minded dissenters unite behind a new centrist or populist party and take back our nation?

You will decide, through attention or distraction, through truth or delusion, through action or passivity.

Let us not forget that a MAJORITY of Americans did NOT speak with their votes. They rejected both Democrats and Republicans. That only 40 percent bothered to vote, especially this year, shames our nation and confirms that we have a delusional democracy.

And remember this wisdom: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Our behind-the-scenes Ruling Class remains; they will now speed dial more Democrats.

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Election Fraud
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Tom Friedman
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Jefferson

Beit Hanoun, the testimony of a young Palestinian:

"They shoot at anything that moves"

Silvia Cattori
3 November 2006

"Bein Hanoun, with 30,000 inhabitants, has been the target of daily aggressions and air strikes since June 25. It is now besieged by Israeli troops. We have seen the tanks advance and take up their positions. We are now encircled by about 70 tanks and at least 450 soldiers who announce that the city is a "closed military zone". That means that no one can leave. No one can flee. It is an offensive based on those carried out in the West Bank in 2002.

We have no water, no electricity. We hide in the remote corners of our houses. Ambulances are not authorized to enter into this occupied and closed zone. The soldiers have circled the houses they want to invade. They occupied the houses and they shut up the families in one room. Now they are using then as forts. They use explosives to pierce holes in the walls, they blow off doors, and the people are terrified. They shoot anyone that moves.

Yesterday they fired on people that were seeking shelter, who were not armed, who were not in fighting positions. They shot them in the back, and when one was wounded and wanted to flee, they killed him. Those who wanted to collect his body were targets as well. In numerous cases, ambulances couldn't go to the aid of the wounded. Children who slip out from their parent's watch or that look out the windows are killed by Israeli soldiers positioned on the roofs and balconies of the houses they occupy.

They have the green light from Bush to kill us, and those politicians that affirm that Israel "has the right to defend itself". They use arms that transform the dead and wounded into something monstrous. The wounds provoked by the missiles launched from the drones are very impressive. They are like razor cuts; the legs, the feet, the hands all cleanly cut. They are as horrifying as wounds from an M-16. The soldiers have orders to shoot at the upper body. They aim at the chest, near the heart, the head.

The victims are mostly civilians, killed or wounded in the throat, the neck, the chest, the head, even though they were in their houses. They shoot at people running in fear, who are trying to save themselves. We have lost any notion of time; we have no idea how long we have been caught in this war. We feel lost. There are planes that bomb us, drones ready to fire their missiles over our heads. They control the entire zone. With the droning of the drones, we always have the feeling of having a bee buzzing in our ears. It is really disturbing.

There is no one to defend us. We don't have an army. We have only our parents to defend us, knowing that they are going to their deaths and that they cannot defend us. This new aggression is horrible especially for the children who are very numerous here. They are forced to stay couped up inside, they are terrorized, and they cry when there are bombings. At any moment we can learn there are people killed, there are people wounded who are bathed in their own blood, that people don't know how to stop the hemorrhaging, and that the ambulances can't give them any aid without being hampered.

The Israelis say that are waging this offensive to prevent the entry of arms from Egypt. That is false. Nothing can enter. In Gaza, there are only rifles that can do nothing against the Apache helicopters and the Merkawa tanks of the Israeli army. The only arms of war in Gaza are those delivered by Israel and the United States to Dahlan, who is Abu Mazen's man, the most feared man in Gaza. He is at the head of the forces that have, for months now, created the troubles to topple the Hamas government.

Yesterday, through their loud speakers the soldiers summoned all the young men fifteen years and older leave their houses. Then, sector by sector, they searched the houses and brought them out, handcuffed, and took them to a place where they certainly forced them to strip, as they did in Betlaya in June. They leave the men in their underwear. For an Oriential, it is the worst of humiliations. They might as well kill us.

We think that after Beit Hanoun they will attack Betlaya, and then Jabaliya and do what they have done here: search house by house. Beit Hanoun, like Rafah, are very vulnerable zones because they are geographically separated from other inhabited areas. They are therefore easy to isolate from the rest of Gaza.

This morning, the women went out to come to the aid of their sons or husbands threatened by the armored cars that encircled the Mosque. The women defied the Apaches and the armored vehicles. For us, it was a tremendous moment. We felt like we were wrapped up in a veil of humanity. It was very moving to see these women ready to die to save their sons and husbands. They continued on without hesitation, and the soldiers, who hadn't expected this, were disoriented. Because of this effect of surprise, they succeeded, saving the lives of these fighters. They demonstrated that people with empty hands could defeat the largest army in the world. We took it as a message to the men of the Arab countries who remain silent. These women said, by their gesture, "There, in the face of your cowardice, Palestinian women by themselves are in the process of fighting for the release of their men who are besieged by the enemies of the Arabs, Israel." "[End of report.]

They are making war on civilians and the world doesn't know.

This young Palestinian who recounted the above in a low voice breaks our heart. He could render no greater homage to these heroic women. I think that everyone who saw the images of these women was shaken. The women threw themselves down the long avenue, uncovered, empty handed, defying the helicopters and the armored vehicles, in order to protect their men. The soldiers fired on them, but the women continued and arrived at their goal. The soldiers who were firing from the armored vehicles on these harmless women are monsters.

"Israel has the right to defend itself" responded the former ambassador Elie Barnavi to a journalist from France Culture this morning when asked about the meaning of the Israeli offensive in the north of Gaza. The right to defend themselves against what? There is no Palestinian army facing them. There is only a people being massacred day after day by the best equipped army in the world. And the Palestinians don't have the right to defend themselves.

It is to the Palestinian people, the victims of the massacres, that we should be asking what it means to live under the Israeli military offensive, and not to ambassadors of the Jewish State of Israel, ambassadors who will never tell you, when it comes to Arab lives, of the suffering and anxiety of children thrown into the dreadful chaos, of the women who have no idea how to protect them, of the elderly who impotently submit, of babies wailing, of pregnant women who fear for their unborn children, of the wounded, the dead, the mothers who cry for their men, who feel humiliated that they cannot defend their children, the doctors who can no longer support the rivers of blood and the wounded added to the wounded in their poorly equipped hospitals.

These "terrorists", these "activists" that Israel is fighting, these are Palestinians, the authentic residents of the nation that Israel wiped off the map. These are women of all ages who brave the tanks to protect their sons. These are children who die in their beds or playing by the front door. These are fathers, brothers, cousins, and spouses summarily executed because Israel has put them on their "wanted" lists. These are desperate young people who, to defend their dignity, have only rifles and rudimentary rockets, and who know full well that they are going to their deaths when they put their nose outside. Like the child Bara' Riyad Fayyad, 4 years old, killed on Thursday in front of the door of her house. These are normal people who voted democratically against the corrupt authorities of Fatah.

"Where are our Arab brothers?", cries a Palestinian in front of a camera.

Yes, where is the world? The "international community" says nothing say shocked people who watch all of this with horror and don't understand the silence. But the "international community", so often invoked, is only an empty word. The UN, ever since the fall of the USSR, is nothing but an instrument in the hands of the US superpower.

In fact, the "international community" is us, all of us. It is the associations that are unfortunately more attached to protecting the Jewish State of Israel than defending the right of existence of the Palestinians and their right to return to their rightful home. It is the political parties of every tendency, too preoccupied by their electoral success. It is our elected officials who don't dare criticize Israel out of fear of being accused of anti-Semitism. It is the journalists who disinform public opinion and cover up the crimes of state.

Silvia Cattori
3 November 2006

Translation: Signs of the Times

IDF
Palestine Occupation
Bein Hanoun
Silvia Cattori
Gaza Occupation
Pathocracy
Abu Mazen

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

A timely article both for the date it was published (9/11/06) and the date it commemorates. Bonus feature included! The posters and postcards below are given in the name of the freedoms we are rapidly losing. Download and distribute them far and wide.

BE PART OF THE NORMAL MAJORITY.

Blue Ibis

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Give Them a 5th of November They'll Never Forget !

No music, no explosions, no violence - just one huge mass of people standing together and shouting in one thundering voice: ENOUGH!

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will hopefully be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. We know why you did it. We know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you.

Do you remember how the meaning of words began to change? How unfamiliar words like "collateral" and "rendition" became frightening, while things like "pre-emptive war" and Homeland Security became powerful? Let's face it: the mainstream media and their good buddies in the political realm have a LOT of advertising dollars. The leaders say it, the mainstream media propagates it, and before you know it, everyone believes that Saddam is linked to 9/11 and Osama is under your bed!

It works like magic.

Well, we've got a little magic of our own. Words also offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the annunciation of truth. And truth is what we bring you, day in and day out, at Signs of the Times. We at SOTT rely on YOU. If you like what you see, if you're tired of the lies and BS coming out of capitols around the world, if you're tired of being constantly afraid, you CAN DO something about it: Spread the Word!

We encourage you to grab all the following flyers and spread them far and wide:

E-mail them to your friends and family!
Print them out and post them everywhere!
Fill the offices of your "representatives" in government!
Air drop them on entire countries!
Use them as your desktop wallpaper at home and at work!
Invite your friends over for a V for Vendetta party and then show them this page!
Don your figurative mask and cloak and by the 5th of November, Signs of the Times will be a household name, along with words like "psychopathy" and "ponerology".

Together, we can replace the terror in the heart of humanity with HOPE for a different future - a future in which WE ALL count!

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