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The Memory Hole of Democrats and Republicans

Ronald Reagan legalized abortion in California, ran up the biggest deficit in US history until that time, and legalized millions of immigrants.

It doesn't matter. Americans vote Republican because they believe in their hearts that Republicans will criminalize abortion, balance the budget and deport all illegal immigrants.

Before you scoff at their ignorance and gullibility, look at Democrats. After Republican Nixon abolished the draft, Democrat Carter reinstated draft registration. Clinton bombed Iraq AND Yugoslavia. Clinton pushed NAFTA and the WTO, abolished the CAFE standards (enacted into law under Republican Ford), and sent Al Gore to sabotage the Kyoto negotiations.

It doesn't matter. Democrats believe in their hearts that when they vote for Clinton or Obama they will get peace, prosperity and environmental protection.

John Mitchell, attorney general for Nixon had the nerve to say, "Watch what we do, not what we say". Apparently, they'd already figured out that the American people don't pay attention to what happens, only what is said by the talking heads, no matter how out of touch with reality. So 30 years after Mitchell, someone in the Bush administration (they no longer speak on the record) openly announced that they are creating their own reality, and Americans paid no more attention to that than they did to the earlier boast.

Big News! John McCain sells favors for sex, not money

Corporate media is in an uproar. The New York Times printed an article claiming that John McCain sold himself for sex instead of money. This is a disgrace! Senator McCain had to give a news conference denying these allegations. Other corporate media criticize the NYT for its inflammatory accusations.

Senator McCain has been in trouble before for selling favors. He was part of the Keating Five, five senators who tried to protect anti-pornography, pro-looting Charles Keating, whose Lincoln Savings and Loan cost 21,000 mostly elderly savers millions of dollars when it collapsed in 1989. Alan Greenspan and Mother Teresa also tried to protect Keating, who had no shame and later tried to regain control over the bank!

Those were the days when public officials were supposed to represent the public interest, and bribery was considered shameful. John McCain did express shame, and somehow managed to both keep his job and come out smelling like a rose, getting a reputation for supporting campaign finance reform.

Of course, since then the number of lobbyists in Washington, DC has increased to almost 35,000! It is now accepted that congress members take money from them. The Jack Abramoff scandal came and went, and you almost got the impression that the most scandalous behavior that his cronies performed was that they only bribed Republicans.

Article 2, Section 4 of the US Constitution calls for impeachment for "treason, BRIBERY, and other high crimes and misdemeanors".

Apparently, our Founding Fathers took bribery very seriously. Even expressing shame wasn't enough for them. They thought that public officials who took bribes should be thrown out of office! Too bad we've fallen so far.

Kidnapping and Enslaving Your Children

Americans have been whipped into hysterical fear of stranger kidnapping, although it is rare. As I pointed out on another post, if a stranger kills your child, it is overwhelmingly liable to be with a car. But there is a new stranger danger rearing its ugly head.

The ruling class of America has chosen to try to conquer the world. So far, so good (for them). They have Iraq split and bleeding, enabling them to move in for the kill - the oil law. But some want more.

Iran was America's puppet from 1953 to 1979, when the people rose up and overthrew our tyrant, the Shah, and put Muslim tyrants in instead. There are always people in the US ruling class with eyes bigger than their Army, and they have their eye on Iran. They want it back!

Iran has a lot of oil, but it also has a lot of people, and many of them don't want the US to return and take their oil. How can the US attack Iran with, as Rumsfield put it, "The Army we have". They can't. The Army they have is overextended.

Listen to the drumbeats in the corporate media. Starting out low, and then increasing, they are pushing for a return of the draft. Just the thought of millions of young Americans to spend for oil makes them salivate!

They have unlimited funds for war. They just create more money when they run low. The US is trillions in debt. But actual cannon fodder is limited. The all-volunteer military limits the military to those who are poor, or gung ho for imperialism, or both.

So they want to kidnap and enslave our children and turn them into murderers and torturers. And everyone knows this. Although the military is marketed as a job opportunity, with college benefits, when a war starts and reluctant soldiers announce that they only joined for the benefits, the right wing in this country screams bloody murder. "They knew when they signed up that they might have to kill people!!"

So let's not let these same people claim that the Army is not about killing, it's about helping children grow up and become responsible. Bullshit!

The point of boot camp is to take decent kids and overcome their moral training to desensitize them to kill.

It's bad enough when they do it to volunteers.
But to take our children and force them to learn how to kill, when we have spent their first years teaching them to be kind and loving people, cannot be considered anything but kidnapping, slavery, and brainwashing.

All Americans should be outraged that this is even being considered or proposed. People who microchip their children to "protect" them from predators should pay attention as the biggest predator of all sharpens its claws and prepares to attack.

Katrina Victims and Their "Toxic" Trailers

Suddenly, the Bush junta is showing concern for the health of Katrina victims. FEMA has announced that trailers are dangerous! The residents must move immediately for their health's sake!

Why the concern now for Katrina victims? This is the same FEMA that refused to let the Red Cross into the Superdome to feed the people there. The same FEMA that stopped Amtrak from evacuating people, that stopped the US Fish and Wildlife Service from rescuing people, that set up roadblocks to stop people from going to New Orleans to help. Now they care about the people of New Orleans?

There are millions of people living in trailers across the USA. Should they all be immediately evacuated for their own good? Why do none of the news reports mention the millions of ordinary Americans who live in trailers? FEMA actually sold some of the unused trailers at a discount to other Americans.

Plus, the formaldehyde fumes dissipate after a while. Two years after the storm, most of the damage is over. There is no reason to suddenly kick people out of these homes.

I am suspicious of the junta's actions. They haven't done anything to benefit the American people in seven years, so why would they start now?

Bush Incompetence in Iraq - Enabling Genocide

Appalled Americans who are incapable of believing the depths of imperialist depravity tend to believe that the Bush administration is "incompetent".

No military response on 9-11, despite numerous warnings? Incompetent. Refusing to evacuate poor people from New Orleans, including telling Amtrak that the trains they had ready were not to be used? Incompetent.

And refusing to guard the weapons depots in Iraq post invasion, and the firing of the Iraqi Army, complete with their weapons? Having Bush taunt insurgents "Bring 'em on!" The inability after 5 years to fix the water and sewer systems, rebuild hospitals and bring electricity back online? The provocations of breaking into people's homes, terrorizing their families, imprisoning their men, humiliating their women and killing their children? Driving their military vehicles at top speed, running over children? Shooting people at random at checkpoints and on the streets? Killing people's dogs, chickens and goats and bulldozing their date palms and crops? Incompetent.

But what if it isn't? After all, 9-11 was turned into a triumph for Bush! The corporate media twisted the attack into a symbol of Republican homeland security strength! The Patriot Act, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Military Commissions Act, Homeland Security itself, all came on the coattails of 9-11. That's not incompetent.

A week after Katrina, the city was emptied of its poor and black population, and they were dispersed around the country. They still aren't back. That's not incompetent. Think about it. If they hadn't been locked inside those stifling hot buildings without food or water, would they have gotten on those buses so willingly?

Remember that the invasion of Iraq was billed as self defense to protect America from weapons of mass destruction. Hundreds of millions of informed people around the world knew this was bullshit long before the invasion. US officials admitted it shortly after. Bush joked about it in 2003. He thought it was funny.

Now the US has an enormous embassy in Iraq and massive permanent bases. They have electricity and water and sewer, so we know that the US is capable of building such things.
Enron is about to be handed a contract to pump Iraq's oil. What is incompetent about this?

Think about it. If the Iraqis had not fought back, what reason could the US give for staying there and establishing permanent beachheads? Once the weapons were not found, the US should have gotten out.

But, the provocations to the Iraqi people, coupled with the arming of the Iraqi people, ensured that a resistance would develop, and it did. Of course, at first, the Iraqis were united against the US occupation. That changed when John Negroponte, veteran of the dirty wars in Central America in the 1980s, became ambassador, along with his partner in crime, James Steele. The US openly discussed the "Salvadorean Option".

All of a sudden, there were death squads and sectarian violence. Now we're told that we entered a civil war, and must stay to supervise it.

In the meantime, Iraqis are dying not just from the war, but from cholera and diseases. They are malnourished from the US cutting off their food rations. 3,000,000 of them have left the country (out of 25,000,000). Soon there won't be many to fight against the US occupation and looting.

This is genocide. But it's not incompetent, if the goal was always to take over Iraq.

Tornadoes and Praying.

We had tornadoes rip through many states, including mine, Tuesday, with great loss of life and property. Luckily, our fearful leader is on the case.

US President George W. Bush on Wednesday offered prayers and disaster relief to the victims of dozens of tornadoes that killed at least 48 people and injured hundreds more in southern US states.

“Prayers can help, and so can the government,” Bush said. “I do want the people in those states that the American people are standing with them.”

Twenty-four people were killed in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, and seven in Kentucky, officials in the three states said.

US media reported hundreds injured, and CNN said four people were killed in Alabama. Local authorities were not immediately available to confirm that death toll.

“I’ve just called the governors of the affected states,” said Bush. “I wanted them to know that this government will help them, but more importantly I wanted them to be able to tell the people in their states that the American people hold those who suffer up in prayer.”

Unfortunately, I think he's serious. Rational people can only shake their heads in disbelief. Of course, we're used to disbelieving, but it's worse to have a President who thinks that prayers are more important than disaster funds.

We do know by now that Bush's irrationality can be taken as an article of faith. Did you know there is such thing as a Presidential Prayer Team? Check it out.

Waterboarding - The Only Torture

Back in November, I presciently asked the question, why is everyone solely focused on waterboarding? Waterboarding is just one form of torture used by the US, but it is the only one focused on by the Congress and the media.

Now we have Mukasey coming out and admitting that the US has used waterboarding (which all aware people already knew), but minimizing it by claiming that it was only used on 3 people, all of them very bad people. All aware people know this is a lie, but the media is going along with the lie.

The US, according to the research of Alfred McCoy, spent a billion dollars in the 50s and 60s to research to most effective forms of torture. As detailed in his book, A Question of Torture, they found that simplest methods were the most devastating. Sensory deprivation and overload, stress positions and isolation can break a person's mind and spirit within a couple of days.

Now the US is claiming that only waterboarding counts as torture. Common sense tells you otherwise. The US holds prisoners shackled and naked in freezing weather. Go outside in the cold, naked, and stand there for 12 hours. Torture? Get someone to keep you awake for 48 hours. Torture? Stand in an uncomfortable position for 10 hours. Torture?

Only inhumane cold hearted unthinking people would support such methods. Unfortunately, most Americans are being brainwashed to be just such people.

Family Values - Huckabee Style - Dog Torturing

A poster on CommonDreams brought up this up. I hadn't heard of it before. Apparently, a son of Governor Huckabee was fired from a job at a Boy Scout camp for hanging a dog from a tree, slitting its throat and then stoning it to death. Governor Huckabee, showing how a parent properly disciplines a child, covered it up and made sure the dog abuser wasn't punished. David, the son, was not expelled from the Boy Scouts. He later made Eagle Scout. There must be a badge in dog torturing.

There was a justifiable uproar when Michael Vick tortured dogs, but this seems to have been covered up.

Perhaps because, as one of the commenters pointed out, the dog actually wasn't tortured. It had enhanced interrogation techniques used on it, and committed suicide to embarrass the young Huckabee.

Fake Elections and Bribery

I had this rant emailed to me. I think it sums up the farce that we are going through today, "Super Tuesday". How long can they distract the American people with the election "news" that we have already gone through for months, horserace style, with 9 months left to go? And how long can they keep us focused on trivial bullshit like haircuts and tears?

I am going to participate today. I am going to take a Green ballot and vote for Cynthia McKinney. Do I think it will do any good? Well, it shows the ruling class that there are a certain number of people, besides the ones who refuse to vote, that don't fall for the hype, and are politically aware enough to vote outside the box, so to speak. Although we no longer have boxes, we have machines, easily hackable and not subject to recounts.

As you read this article, remember that impeachable offenses are: treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. I wonder why the media and Congress members always leave out the word bribery when they recite impeachable offenses!

Psycho Mother American Style

Spoiler Alert! I am going to tell the ending of the 1960 movie, Psycho. This was a horror film in which a psycho killer who the victims believe is an old woman, turns out to be her son dressed as her. He has killed her 10 years before, stuffed her body and killed in her name.

The horror the world is living through now puts Hitchcock's to shame. A psychotic ruling class killed American democracy, but continues its murderous rampage in her name. Millions of people have died in the last 50 years, while the moldering corpse of democracy continues to be propped up for American citizens to gaze upon and declare to themselves, "Well, the old lady's looking kind of peaked, but I'm sure she can be revived if only we vote for the right candidate".

Don't believe that imperialism started and will end with Bush. Many authors have written multiple books documenting the wide swath that the US sword has felled in the name of anti-communism, recently morphed into anti-terrorism. All that Bush has done is taken us down the stairs to behold the old woman in her terrifying state of demise.

We need to turn away from the mass murderers and organize to form a more perfect union. This can't involve US citizens living unsustainable lifestyles on the backs of other peoples of the world. We have to stop guzzling oil siphoned from under the dead bodies of people of other countries. We have to stop importing goods made cheap by the labor of slaves and children.

In Star Wars, when the Death Star obliterates a planet, one of the heroes (I forget who) feels a shudder in the Force. If only humans on this planet had the same connection to their fellow beings. Way back in the 60s, when 500,000 Indonesians were murdered with US support and guidance, or 3,000,000 Vietnamese were killed in their fight for independence, if it had caused Americans psychic pain, could it have continued? For that matter, what about the 1860s, when, after the slaughter of the Civil War, the Army went on to attack the last of the free Native Americans? And I am counting the animals being slaughtered on sped up assembly lines right now. The workers are pushed to kill so fast that many animals are not dead before they are skinned and boiled. And the misery and death that America is inflicting on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan should, in my opinion, cause some amount of misery to the people of the US. As it stands, probably more people were devastated by the outcome of the Super Bowl yesterday than are devastated by the suffering of the people of Iraq.

Remembering the First Gulf Slaughter

For those who are still enraged over the original attack on Iraq and the deliberate destruction of its infrastructure, here is a Holocaust Day memorial to the Iraqi victims of American imperialism.

Global Research.ca