Did the Bushies snooker the American people again by leading them to believe that George W. was serving up turkey to the troops in Baghdad in a time period one would normally eat Thanksgiving dinner? Or were the troops rousted from their beds, as Wayne Madsen reports in Wag the Turkey, to serve as pawns in the greatest P.R. stunt since Bush landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln beneath a banner that declared, "Mission Accomplished?"
In a story datedlined Baghdad, Nov. 27, which appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The Telegraph of Calcutta, India, Post reporter Mike Allen wrote that Bush landed in Iraq's capital at approximately 5:20 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Yet, in today's International Herald Tribune, New York Times reporters Jacques Steinberg and Jim Rutenberg wrote, "By 9:35 a.m. Eastern Standard time the following day [Thanksgiving Day], the journalists, including writers from The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Reuters, as well as a camera crew from Fox News, would touch down with the president in Iraq." That would have made it 5:35 p.m. in Baghdad.
So which was it? Were the troops forced to down a turkey dinner for breakfast in order to provide Bush with another bloody photo-op at taxpayer expense or did Allen get the time wrong in his article? After all what is 12 hours one way or another, eh?
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Sunday, November 23, 2003
AARP cheerleaders embrace GOP's poison pill prescription for seniors
The Bushies and the Republicans keep showing us time and time again that there is nothing they won't stoop to or lie about. Now, with one of their own, William D. Novelli, ensconced as chairman of AARP, they are on the path to their wet dream of destroying Medicare under the guise of providing prescription drug benefits to senior citizens.
By this time, most people are aware that this bill is nothing but another gift to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Yet, AARP, which is spending $7 million of its members' money on TV and newspaper ads, says it ain't perfect, but "we can't wait for perfect." Right, so you cut seniors' throats by prohibiting them from buying prescription drugs at much lower costs from Canada, require them to kick out an average of $35 a month, plus an annual deductible of $275, in exchange for getting up to 75 percent of their costs picked up by Medicare until they reach $2,200 in drug costs, after that they get nothing until they have paid $3,600 out of pocket to trigger the next phase that will pay 95 percent of their costs. Oh yes, this madness doesn't begin until 2006, so in the meantime poor seniors can continue choosing between buying food or prescription drugs, unless they want to buy, in 2004 and 2005, a discount card that will save them a whole 15 percent on their prescription costs, because the bill also makes buying prescription drugs from foreign sources illegal. Such a deal not!
Then there is the part to force seniors -- except it's called giving them a "choice" -- out of the Medicare program and into private HMOs. So the healthiest will get picked off by the private insurers and the sickest will have to rely on what is left of the Medicare program. In both cases, premiums will continue to rise as nothing will be done to rein in costs. As a matter of fact, $12 billion of your tax dollars will be given, as a gift (called subsidies), to private insurers that offer basic health insurance.
And these are just some of the horrors in this bill, which include increases in the Medicare deductible, premiums based on income, and cuts in payments to home health care services.
Of course, a universal health care system for all is too simple for Republicans to contemplate. Never mind that it would save billions. Can't have that when it would deprive their biggest campaign donors -- the pharmaceutical and insurance industries -- of obscene profits. So, rather than these sham bills, why not just shoot everyone over 65 who suffers a costly illness? That later could be expanded to anyone who can't afford to pay for medical care or prescription drugs. It would be a hell of a lot kinder and help the overpopulation problem, too.
By this time, most people are aware that this bill is nothing but another gift to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Yet, AARP, which is spending $7 million of its members' money on TV and newspaper ads, says it ain't perfect, but "we can't wait for perfect." Right, so you cut seniors' throats by prohibiting them from buying prescription drugs at much lower costs from Canada, require them to kick out an average of $35 a month, plus an annual deductible of $275, in exchange for getting up to 75 percent of their costs picked up by Medicare until they reach $2,200 in drug costs, after that they get nothing until they have paid $3,600 out of pocket to trigger the next phase that will pay 95 percent of their costs. Oh yes, this madness doesn't begin until 2006, so in the meantime poor seniors can continue choosing between buying food or prescription drugs, unless they want to buy, in 2004 and 2005, a discount card that will save them a whole 15 percent on their prescription costs, because the bill also makes buying prescription drugs from foreign sources illegal. Such a deal not!
Then there is the part to force seniors -- except it's called giving them a "choice" -- out of the Medicare program and into private HMOs. So the healthiest will get picked off by the private insurers and the sickest will have to rely on what is left of the Medicare program. In both cases, premiums will continue to rise as nothing will be done to rein in costs. As a matter of fact, $12 billion of your tax dollars will be given, as a gift (called subsidies), to private insurers that offer basic health insurance.
And these are just some of the horrors in this bill, which include increases in the Medicare deductible, premiums based on income, and cuts in payments to home health care services.
Of course, a universal health care system for all is too simple for Republicans to contemplate. Never mind that it would save billions. Can't have that when it would deprive their biggest campaign donors -- the pharmaceutical and insurance industries -- of obscene profits. So, rather than these sham bills, why not just shoot everyone over 65 who suffers a costly illness? That later could be expanded to anyone who can't afford to pay for medical care or prescription drugs. It would be a hell of a lot kinder and help the overpopulation problem, too.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
A warm fuzzy for Veterans' Day
The Bushies who keep telling us how we must support our troops, while George tries to keep cutting their benefits, are now trying to prevent a group of Gulf War I veterans from collecting from Iraqi assests frozen in the US the money a court awarded them for the torture they were subjected to while being held as prisoners of war.
While the Bush regime is trying to keep this move quiet, its lawyers, who so far are winning, thanks to an executive order Bush signed prior to illegally invading Iraq last March confiscating the Iraqi assests and converting them to assets of the US government, are arguing that the funds are needed to help rebuild Iraq.
Last May, Bush signed a declaration that removed Iraq from the list of countries liable to court judgments for rights abuses and links to terrorism..
So much for supporting our troops, past and present, eh?
While the Bush regime is trying to keep this move quiet, its lawyers, who so far are winning, thanks to an executive order Bush signed prior to illegally invading Iraq last March confiscating the Iraqi assests and converting them to assets of the US government, are arguing that the funds are needed to help rebuild Iraq.
Last May, Bush signed a declaration that removed Iraq from the list of countries liable to court judgments for rights abuses and links to terrorism..
So much for supporting our troops, past and present, eh?
Credit reporting bureaus are preparing to outsource your credit history to foreigners
It's not enough that identity theft is soaring at home, now Equifax and Trans Union, with Experian soon to follow, are going to send your credit files to foreign vendors who will deal with credit disputes.
Equifax has contracted with a vendor in Jamaica. Trans Union apparently is in negotiations with a vendor in India.
Despite their claims about safeguarding all your sensitive personal information, it soon will be in the hands of foreigners in countries where US laws, as bad as they are when it comes to identity theft, cannot be enforced.
To hear Trans Union tell it, the move was prompted in part by Congress amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require the credit reporting agencies to provide those who request them with free copies of their credit reports, something which Trans Union says will cost the agenices as much as $350 million a year.
Immediate pressure needs to be applied to Congress to halt this worldwide invitation to stealing our identities before it is too late and to deal harshly with domestic identity thieves, as well.
Source:
Credit agencies sending our files abroad
Equifax has contracted with a vendor in Jamaica. Trans Union apparently is in negotiations with a vendor in India.
Despite their claims about safeguarding all your sensitive personal information, it soon will be in the hands of foreigners in countries where US laws, as bad as they are when it comes to identity theft, cannot be enforced.
To hear Trans Union tell it, the move was prompted in part by Congress amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require the credit reporting agencies to provide those who request them with free copies of their credit reports, something which Trans Union says will cost the agenices as much as $350 million a year.
Immediate pressure needs to be applied to Congress to halt this worldwide invitation to stealing our identities before it is too late and to deal harshly with domestic identity thieves, as well.
Source:
Credit agencies sending our files abroad
White House decrees that it will answer no more questions from Democrats
According to Dana Millbank in last Friday's Washington Post, King George's director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an email to the majority and minority staffs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees that all embarrassing questions from Democrats, regarding what the Bushies are doing with the people's money, will henceforth be submitted to the committee chairmen -- all Republicans, of course -- who then can decide whether to submit them in writing from the committee(s) or file them in the trash.
Millbank said the wording of Campen's email suggested "the policy may extend to other inquiries about the functioning of the Executive Office of the President, but the immediate targets were the spending committees."
Thomas Mann, a Brooking Institution government scholar, told Millbank that while this latest tactic (can you say flipping the bird?) to hide the Bushies' evil doings "violates long-standing norms," there is nothing the Democrats can do about it except "carp."
Impeachment, anyone? How much more of the lies, the 9/11s, the bogus war on terrorism, the illegal invasions that are killing our troops and innocent civilians is Congress going to take? Surely there must be some sane Republicans on the Hill and some Democrats who can find their spines.
Millbank said the wording of Campen's email suggested "the policy may extend to other inquiries about the functioning of the Executive Office of the President, but the immediate targets were the spending committees."
Thomas Mann, a Brooking Institution government scholar, told Millbank that while this latest tactic (can you say flipping the bird?) to hide the Bushies' evil doings "violates long-standing norms," there is nothing the Democrats can do about it except "carp."
Impeachment, anyone? How much more of the lies, the 9/11s, the bogus war on terrorism, the illegal invasions that are killing our troops and innocent civilians is Congress going to take? Surely there must be some sane Republicans on the Hill and some Democrats who can find their spines.
Iraqi resistance fighters are to no longer be called 'resistance fighters' by reporters for the LA Times
George W.'s complaint about "media filters" has gotten through to the editors at the Los Angeles Times, as well as the network newsies who, since Bush expressed his displeasure, have been playing up the "good" things happening in Iraq.
Talk about self-censorship, the latest of which, according to the Nov. 7 Sydney Morning Herald (you thought you would read about this in US newspapers?), is the Times' declaration, in an email to the staff, that calling Iraqi resistance fighters just that romanticizes them and "evokes World War II-era heroism." From now on the Iraqi resistance fighters will be referred to as insurgents or guerillas. Hey, how about calling them "leftist guerillas?" The media used to love to label armed groups that fought against oppressive governments favored and propped up by Washington "leftist guerillas."
Talk about self-censorship, the latest of which, according to the Nov. 7 Sydney Morning Herald (you thought you would read about this in US newspapers?), is the Times' declaration, in an email to the staff, that calling Iraqi resistance fighters just that romanticizes them and "evokes World War II-era heroism." From now on the Iraqi resistance fighters will be referred to as insurgents or guerillas. Hey, how about calling them "leftist guerillas?" The media used to love to label armed groups that fought against oppressive governments favored and propped up by Washington "leftist guerillas."
Monday, November 10, 2003
Is Rumsfeld suffering from early Alzheimer's?
How to explain Donald Rumsfeld vehement denial of things he previously said on camera and before congressional committees? Has George W. Bush's Strangelovian war secretary gone over the edge? Does this devious war-monger who is so full of himself think he can get away with anything he pleases? If his brain isn't being attacked by Alzheimer's disease might he have cooked it by ingesting toxic aspartame that he is responsible for getting the Federal Food and Administration to approve for human consumption?
For instance, last Feb 20, a month before Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, he said on PBS' The News Hour, in response to a question from host Jim Lehrer about whether the Iraqis would welcome the invaders, "There is no question but that they would be welcomed." Yet on Sept. 25, when a reporter brought up his pre-invasion comments to Lehrer, Rumsfeld said, "Never said that. Never did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said."
In Sept. 18, 2002, testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld that Saddam Hussein "has amassed large clandestine stocks of biological weapons." Those weapons included "anthrax and botulism toxin and possibly smallpox. His regime has amassed large clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX and sarin and mustard gas," he said.
He repeated those charges the next day before the Senate Armed Services Committee and kept hammering away in the weeks leading up to the invasion.
Now Rumsfeld denies he made those statements. He is also weasling on comments he made in a March 30 ABC News interview when he emphatically said, regarding Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." During a Sept. 10 appearance before the National Press Club, he said, "I said, 'We know they're in that area.I should have said, 'I believe we're in that area. Our intelligence tells us they're in that area,' and that was our best judgment."
Is this guy playing with a full deck or does he think the people are that stupid? We haven't quite gotten to the Memory Hole stage yet, but be assured that Rummy's Propaganda Ministry is working on it.
Sources:
Rumsfeld Denies He Ever Made Several Pre-war Statements
How Aspartame Became Legal - The Timeline
For more information on aspartame and Rumsfeld, go to Google and enter: Rumsfeld, aspartame, Searle.
For instance, last Feb 20, a month before Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, he said on PBS' The News Hour, in response to a question from host Jim Lehrer about whether the Iraqis would welcome the invaders, "There is no question but that they would be welcomed." Yet on Sept. 25, when a reporter brought up his pre-invasion comments to Lehrer, Rumsfeld said, "Never said that. Never did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said."
In Sept. 18, 2002, testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld that Saddam Hussein "has amassed large clandestine stocks of biological weapons." Those weapons included "anthrax and botulism toxin and possibly smallpox. His regime has amassed large clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX and sarin and mustard gas," he said.
He repeated those charges the next day before the Senate Armed Services Committee and kept hammering away in the weeks leading up to the invasion.
Now Rumsfeld denies he made those statements. He is also weasling on comments he made in a March 30 ABC News interview when he emphatically said, regarding Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." During a Sept. 10 appearance before the National Press Club, he said, "I said, 'We know they're in that area.I should have said, 'I believe we're in that area. Our intelligence tells us they're in that area,' and that was our best judgment."
Is this guy playing with a full deck or does he think the people are that stupid? We haven't quite gotten to the Memory Hole stage yet, but be assured that Rummy's Propaganda Ministry is working on it.
Sources:
Rumsfeld Denies He Ever Made Several Pre-war Statements
How Aspartame Became Legal - The Timeline
For more information on aspartame and Rumsfeld, go to Google and enter: Rumsfeld, aspartame, Searle.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
The Cowardly Broadcasting System (CBS)
In cancelling the Reagan miniseries, CBS wants us to believe that pressure from right-winger Brent Bozell's Media Research Center, which was pressuring major advertisers not to buy commercial time, or Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie had nothing to do with the decision. Nope, not a thing.
CBS's sorry excuse is that the program wasn't balanced enough. In other words, Uncle Ronnie was shown to have some flaws and we all know he was a saint. Think Grenada. Think Lebanon. Think Iran-contra. And those are just for openers. Remember, Ronald Reagan told us trees pollute (not to worry, though, George W. Bush is going to fix that problem under his Healthy Forests Initiative -- it's called chopping them down), ketchup is a vegetable as he cut funding for school lunches and welfare recipients, in their limos, picked up their benefit checks on the way to the liquor store.
So, rather than upset its right-wing infantile, but oh so powerful, constituency, CBS is handing the film over to Showtime that happens to be owned by CBS's parent corporation Viacom. Apparently CBS and Viacom think Showtime is what the grownups watch while the unwashed revel in the network's bogus reality shows.
Today's New York Times quotes the former president's son, Michael, as saying on ABC's Good Morning America that he wanted CBS "to show Ronald Reagan for what he is." Are you sure about that, Michael?
CBS's sorry excuse is that the program wasn't balanced enough. In other words, Uncle Ronnie was shown to have some flaws and we all know he was a saint. Think Grenada. Think Lebanon. Think Iran-contra. And those are just for openers. Remember, Ronald Reagan told us trees pollute (not to worry, though, George W. Bush is going to fix that problem under his Healthy Forests Initiative -- it's called chopping them down), ketchup is a vegetable as he cut funding for school lunches and welfare recipients, in their limos, picked up their benefit checks on the way to the liquor store.
So, rather than upset its right-wing infantile, but oh so powerful, constituency, CBS is handing the film over to Showtime that happens to be owned by CBS's parent corporation Viacom. Apparently CBS and Viacom think Showtime is what the grownups watch while the unwashed revel in the network's bogus reality shows.
Today's New York Times quotes the former president's son, Michael, as saying on ABC's Good Morning America that he wanted CBS "to show Ronald Reagan for what he is." Are you sure about that, Michael?
Friday, October 31, 2003
Figures don't lie, but liars figure
Whee . . . the recession, the depression, the whatever is over! Why the gross national product grew by 7.2 percent in the last quarter. Who says Bushnomics don't work? Cut taxes, pile up deficits, cut taxes, eliminate jobs, pile up more deficits, cut taxes eliminate more jobs and all is well, according to Bushmath and the TV newsies who yesterday were gushing over this miracle that, to hear them tell it, was brought about the by Bushies' economic policies and higher productivity, which means fewer were working longer and harder for less -- that is if there is any truth to the 7.2 percent figure and even if there isn't, you can bet that fewer were working longer and harder for less.
Dunno about you, folks, but I cringe when I hear the word productivity. It has become a dirty word to me when I think of what it means for the average wage slave.
Assuming that the figure holds and doesn't get quietly downsized as previous ones have, the Bush economic miracle is as phony as the dot.com bubble. Soon the bubble will burst, because there is no there there.
Sure Bush putting some extra bucks in the pockets of financially strapped parents with children helped. Helped with paying for all that back-to-school stuff. But that was a one-time boost for struggling parents. There might even have been a few bucks left over to buy some other necessities. But the third quarter also happens to be the time for big savings on 2003 model vehicles -- leftovers, as the car makers call them -- so you would expect an upsurge in car sales, especially with a zero interest rate or fat rebates. Add into that those who refinanced their mortgages to get lower interest rates plus some extra bucks to spend by cashing in their home equity, also first-time home buyers lured by rock bottom interest rates even though they could lose their jobs tomorrow. And let us not leave out of the equation the sales of war toys and other supplies needed to keep Bush's lovely wars going in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some economic miracle, eh?
Abraham Lincoln said, "You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time." Since Mr. Lincoln did not live in our age of public relations and advertising propagandists that may have to be revised to "you may fool nearly all the people all the time," especially if you have a talent for playing with figures and cooking the books.
The great test in how much you can fool the people will come this holiday season. The propagandists are already beating the drum for you to buy, buy, buy, in order to fulfill their prophecy that this will be the best holiday sales season in eons. If that happens, I say it will be for one of two reasons: People realize we're headed for economic collapse and they are going to grab what they can while they can or you can fool nearly all the people all the time.
Dunno about you, folks, but I cringe when I hear the word productivity. It has become a dirty word to me when I think of what it means for the average wage slave.
Assuming that the figure holds and doesn't get quietly downsized as previous ones have, the Bush economic miracle is as phony as the dot.com bubble. Soon the bubble will burst, because there is no there there.
Sure Bush putting some extra bucks in the pockets of financially strapped parents with children helped. Helped with paying for all that back-to-school stuff. But that was a one-time boost for struggling parents. There might even have been a few bucks left over to buy some other necessities. But the third quarter also happens to be the time for big savings on 2003 model vehicles -- leftovers, as the car makers call them -- so you would expect an upsurge in car sales, especially with a zero interest rate or fat rebates. Add into that those who refinanced their mortgages to get lower interest rates plus some extra bucks to spend by cashing in their home equity, also first-time home buyers lured by rock bottom interest rates even though they could lose their jobs tomorrow. And let us not leave out of the equation the sales of war toys and other supplies needed to keep Bush's lovely wars going in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some economic miracle, eh?
Abraham Lincoln said, "You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time." Since Mr. Lincoln did not live in our age of public relations and advertising propagandists that may have to be revised to "you may fool nearly all the people all the time," especially if you have a talent for playing with figures and cooking the books.
The great test in how much you can fool the people will come this holiday season. The propagandists are already beating the drum for you to buy, buy, buy, in order to fulfill their prophecy that this will be the best holiday sales season in eons. If that happens, I say it will be for one of two reasons: People realize we're headed for economic collapse and they are going to grab what they can while they can or you can fool nearly all the people all the time.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
US troops using Israeli military's brutal tactics
It has been 18 days since Patrick Cockburn of the UK's Independent reported that US troops in Iraq bulldozed "ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops."
This comes on top of all the other humiliations Iraqis have been subjected to at the hands of soldiers who neither understand their language or customs, but occupy their country. None of which are being reported on US television network news.
It is estimated that some 50 families in Dhuluaya, 50 miles north of Baghdad, lost their livelihoods.
Cockburn wrote, "'They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees,' said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as 'a punishment of local people because "you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us."' What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added."
Is this George W. Bush's way of getting Iraqis to love their American liberators?
This comes on top of all the other humiliations Iraqis have been subjected to at the hands of soldiers who neither understand their language or customs, but occupy their country. None of which are being reported on US television network news.
It is estimated that some 50 families in Dhuluaya, 50 miles north of Baghdad, lost their livelihoods.
Cockburn wrote, "'They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees,' said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as 'a punishment of local people because "you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us."' What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added."
Is this George W. Bush's way of getting Iraqis to love their American liberators?
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Greenpeace is a target of Ashcroft's prosecutors
In Attorney General John Ashcroft's America, dissent will not be tolerated. Now his zealous prosecutors are dusting off obscure laws to use in their assault on civil liberties.
Some three miles off the Florida coast in April 2002, two Greenpeace activists were grabbed as they boarded a cargo ship to protest what they believed was an illegal shipment of mahogany from Brazil. The pair spent the weekend in custody. They got their day in court two months later and were sentenced to time served.
End of case? By no means. Now federal prosecutors in Miami are going after the whole Greenpeace organization and have obtained an indictment on the basis of an 1872 law that "forbids the unauthorized boarding of 'any vessel about to arrive at the place of her destination,''' according to The New York Times.
The law was intended to make it illegal for boarding house operators to board ships without authorization to lure sailors to their establishments. According to the Times, the last time a court ruled on the law was in 1890. The court said the law was "meant to prevent 'sailor-mongers' from luring crews to boarding houses 'by the help of intoxicants and the use of other means, often savoring of violence.'"
In court papers defending the indictment, prosecutors wrote, "The heart of Greenpeace's mission is the violation of the law."
Prosecutors, while admitting a conviction could have tax consequences for the non-profit Greenpeace and "a chilling effect on First Amendment rights," are even attempting to deny Greenpeace a jury trial.
The Times reported, "The potential loss of constitutional rights, prosecutors wrote, does not require a jury. They cited a misdemeanor domestic violence prosecution in which the defendant was denied a jury trial although he faced losing his license to carry a gun. In contrast to speculation about the impact of a conviction on Greenpeace's First Amendment rights, prosecutors wrote, the defendant in the gun case 'was not entitled to a jury trial even though he was definitely faced with loss of his Second Amendment rights.'"
Some three miles off the Florida coast in April 2002, two Greenpeace activists were grabbed as they boarded a cargo ship to protest what they believed was an illegal shipment of mahogany from Brazil. The pair spent the weekend in custody. They got their day in court two months later and were sentenced to time served.
End of case? By no means. Now federal prosecutors in Miami are going after the whole Greenpeace organization and have obtained an indictment on the basis of an 1872 law that "forbids the unauthorized boarding of 'any vessel about to arrive at the place of her destination,''' according to The New York Times.
The law was intended to make it illegal for boarding house operators to board ships without authorization to lure sailors to their establishments. According to the Times, the last time a court ruled on the law was in 1890. The court said the law was "meant to prevent 'sailor-mongers' from luring crews to boarding houses 'by the help of intoxicants and the use of other means, often savoring of violence.'"
In court papers defending the indictment, prosecutors wrote, "The heart of Greenpeace's mission is the violation of the law."
Prosecutors, while admitting a conviction could have tax consequences for the non-profit Greenpeace and "a chilling effect on First Amendment rights," are even attempting to deny Greenpeace a jury trial.
The Times reported, "The potential loss of constitutional rights, prosecutors wrote, does not require a jury. They cited a misdemeanor domestic violence prosecution in which the defendant was denied a jury trial although he faced losing his license to carry a gun. In contrast to speculation about the impact of a conviction on Greenpeace's First Amendment rights, prosecutors wrote, the defendant in the gun case 'was not entitled to a jury trial even though he was definitely faced with loss of his Second Amendment rights.'"
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Have the powers behind the curtain had enough of Bush?
Yours truly has predicted for months that if the corporate globalists have had enough of George W. Bush that they will replace him with someone who appears kinder, gentler and more diplomatic in his approach to the US and the world.
Bush has delivered everything his corporate masters wanted, from negating treaties that destroy their profits to invading Afghanistan and Iraq for the benefit of the energy companies, the weapons manufacturers and the construction firms, plus all the tax breaks he has given both business and his rich patrons.
Now with more mounting scandals -- the criminal outing of former Amabassador Joseph Wilson's wife as a CIA operative being the latest and the one that could finally result in Bush's long overdue impeachment -- growing unrest at home over the still sinking economy and the historic level of debt Bush has piled up, and the way he has turned world opinion against the US, the powers behind the curtain are sending subtle signals that Bush has become a liability.
Headlines such as this one in the Sunday, Oct. 5, Contra Costa Times, Republicans unsure of Bush's chances for 2004 election, are starting to show up in a number of newspapers.
Since private corporations now control the voting systems in 37 states -- and that number is growing -- and in the wake of the stolen 2000 presidential election, replacing Bush is easy.
While any of the Democrats, with the exception of Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton, will do, retired General Wesley Clark may be their man.
You have been warned.
Bush has delivered everything his corporate masters wanted, from negating treaties that destroy their profits to invading Afghanistan and Iraq for the benefit of the energy companies, the weapons manufacturers and the construction firms, plus all the tax breaks he has given both business and his rich patrons.
Now with more mounting scandals -- the criminal outing of former Amabassador Joseph Wilson's wife as a CIA operative being the latest and the one that could finally result in Bush's long overdue impeachment -- growing unrest at home over the still sinking economy and the historic level of debt Bush has piled up, and the way he has turned world opinion against the US, the powers behind the curtain are sending subtle signals that Bush has become a liability.
Headlines such as this one in the Sunday, Oct. 5, Contra Costa Times, Republicans unsure of Bush's chances for 2004 election, are starting to show up in a number of newspapers.
Since private corporations now control the voting systems in 37 states -- and that number is growing -- and in the wake of the stolen 2000 presidential election, replacing Bush is easy.
While any of the Democrats, with the exception of Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton, will do, retired General Wesley Clark may be their man.
You have been warned.
Monday, September 22, 2003
Back from the dead or . . . ?
Absent any way of verifying the administration's latest tale that has the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, singing like a canary, how quickly the corporate media have forgotten that Mohammed was reportedly killed on Sept. 11. 2002,in a shootout with police at his Karachi, Pakistan, apartment.
The corporate media also failed to remember that Mohammed was allegedly dead when the New York Times reported last March 2 that Mohammed had been detained by Pakistani authorities and turned over to American officials. Reuters on the same day claimed that Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat denied Mohammed had been handed over to the Americans. But Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, claimed he was being interrogated by both Pakistani and American agents.
So a man reportedly dead was now reportedly alive and in the hands of the Pakistanis or the Americans or being shared by interrogators for both countries, or . . .
After a brief flurry of "news" reports about the "grand capture" of a man supposedly dead, that was the last we heard of Mohammed until now.
Confused? Credit the Bush administration and its eager corporate media helpers. They can confuse, infer, obfuscate and lie without having to say they are sorry. Remember, these are the same people who led nearly 70 percent of your fellow Americans to believe that Iraq had ties to al Qaeda and, therefore, bore responsibility for 9/11. The more they muddy the waters, with the aid of progressives in denial about what their government would or would not do to its own people, the more difficult it becomes to get to the truth about who was behind the 9/11 attacks.
The corporate media also failed to remember that Mohammed was allegedly dead when the New York Times reported last March 2 that Mohammed had been detained by Pakistani authorities and turned over to American officials. Reuters on the same day claimed that Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat denied Mohammed had been handed over to the Americans. But Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, claimed he was being interrogated by both Pakistani and American agents.
So a man reportedly dead was now reportedly alive and in the hands of the Pakistanis or the Americans or being shared by interrogators for both countries, or . . .
After a brief flurry of "news" reports about the "grand capture" of a man supposedly dead, that was the last we heard of Mohammed until now.
Confused? Credit the Bush administration and its eager corporate media helpers. They can confuse, infer, obfuscate and lie without having to say they are sorry. Remember, these are the same people who led nearly 70 percent of your fellow Americans to believe that Iraq had ties to al Qaeda and, therefore, bore responsibility for 9/11. The more they muddy the waters, with the aid of progressives in denial about what their government would or would not do to its own people, the more difficult it becomes to get to the truth about who was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Monday, September 01, 2003
Ashcroft locks print reporters out of news conference
In Philadelphia, the city where the Declaration of Independence was crafted, the United States Constitution was written and the Bill of Rights drawn, Attorney General John Ashcroft decided only television newsfakers would be admitted to his so-called news conference at the National Constitution Center, no less, as part of his mission to get the American people to swallow the benefits of losing their freedoms to the USA PATRIOT Act* and PATRIOT Act II renamed -- make that misnamed -- the VICTORY Act**. No print reporters allowed!
Of course, the irony of this would escape Reichsfuehrer-SS Ashcroft, or as Howard Altman of the Philadelphia City News wrote, "Pens may no longer be as mighty as the camera, but apparently they make Ashcroft and his guardians squeamish." Right, TV will convey (report would also be a misnomer) only the 20 or so seconds approved by Ashcroft's goons. That eliminates worries about some print reporter pointing out all the apples on the cart are rotten, even if that story were buried in the back pages.
Altman, who was trotting behind a "flock of television reporters" was blocked by a Secret Service agent who told him, "You can't go in there."
When he protested, he received an apology of sorts from a bespectacled female guardian in a black dress (an appropriate color): "'I am sorry,' she says as the last of the camera crews whiz by. 'But he is not talking to print. Only talking to television.'"
Read the rest of Altman's article and weep.
*USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. It has nothing to do with patriots or patriotism.
**VICTORY Act is an acronym for Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act. The only victory in the VICTORY Act, should it become law, is in the Bush administration's further erosion of our liberties.
Of course, the irony of this would escape Reichsfuehrer-SS Ashcroft, or as Howard Altman of the Philadelphia City News wrote, "Pens may no longer be as mighty as the camera, but apparently they make Ashcroft and his guardians squeamish." Right, TV will convey (report would also be a misnomer) only the 20 or so seconds approved by Ashcroft's goons. That eliminates worries about some print reporter pointing out all the apples on the cart are rotten, even if that story were buried in the back pages.
Altman, who was trotting behind a "flock of television reporters" was blocked by a Secret Service agent who told him, "You can't go in there."
When he protested, he received an apology of sorts from a bespectacled female guardian in a black dress (an appropriate color): "'I am sorry,' she says as the last of the camera crews whiz by. 'But he is not talking to print. Only talking to television.'"
Read the rest of Altman's article and weep.
*USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. It has nothing to do with patriots or patriotism.
**VICTORY Act is an acronym for Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act. The only victory in the VICTORY Act, should it become law, is in the Bush administration's further erosion of our liberties.
Saturday, August 30, 2003
Matrix, the privatized version of Poindexter's TIA
Congress may have cut funding for and be on the verge of totally shutting down
John Poindexter's Total (later renamed Terrorism) Information Awareness (TIA) program, and the Iran-contra felon may have departed Donald Rumsfeld's War Department, but that hasn't stopped police in Florida from "creating a counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans," according to the Washington Post.
Dubbed Matrix, which is short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, the system "enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults. It would let authorities, for instance, instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup truck in a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event."
Matrix was developed by Hank Asher, the Seisint Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida, who donated it to the state. The database, according to the Post, has been in operation for more than a year and some 135 state police departments have signed up for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's service. In addition, the Post reported, "At least a dozen states -- including Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan -- said they want to add their records."
Asher has an interesting history, according to the Post: "In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI suspended information service contracts with an earlier Asher-run company because of concerns about his past, according to law enforcement sources. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1987 that court documents in a federal drug case said defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who identified Asher as a pilot and onetime smuggler, offered him as an informant."
James "Tim" Moore, former Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner, told the Post that the department was aware of Asher's background, but "we were also aware he had never been arrested or charged."
Seisint's coffers will be swelled by $1.6 million from the Florida legislature. In addition, the US Justice Department has kicked in $4 million to expand Matrix nationally and the Department of Homeland Security has pledged $8 million to the project of tracking your every move.
Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who is seeking the Democrats' nomination for president, apparently backs the program. The Post reported that Graham, while chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, met several times with Matrix "organizers" to discuss "the system's development."
John Poindexter's Total (later renamed Terrorism) Information Awareness (TIA) program, and the Iran-contra felon may have departed Donald Rumsfeld's War Department, but that hasn't stopped police in Florida from "creating a counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans," according to the Washington Post.
Dubbed Matrix, which is short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, the system "enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults. It would let authorities, for instance, instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup truck in a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event."
Matrix was developed by Hank Asher, the Seisint Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida, who donated it to the state. The database, according to the Post, has been in operation for more than a year and some 135 state police departments have signed up for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's service. In addition, the Post reported, "At least a dozen states -- including Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan -- said they want to add their records."
Asher has an interesting history, according to the Post: "In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI suspended information service contracts with an earlier Asher-run company because of concerns about his past, according to law enforcement sources. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1987 that court documents in a federal drug case said defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who identified Asher as a pilot and onetime smuggler, offered him as an informant."
James "Tim" Moore, former Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner, told the Post that the department was aware of Asher's background, but "we were also aware he had never been arrested or charged."
Seisint's coffers will be swelled by $1.6 million from the Florida legislature. In addition, the US Justice Department has kicked in $4 million to expand Matrix nationally and the Department of Homeland Security has pledged $8 million to the project of tracking your every move.
Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who is seeking the Democrats' nomination for president, apparently backs the program. The Post reported that Graham, while chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, met several times with Matrix "organizers" to discuss "the system's development."
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Is Bush getting apocalyptic advice?
That's the question Jeannette Wall Of MSNBC's The Scoop is asking.
In her Aug. 13 column, Wall wrote, "Is the Bush administration turning to a televangelist doomsayer for political predictions? Apocalyptic preacher Jack Van Impe is claiming that he was contacted by Condoleezza Rice’s office and the White House Office of Public Liaison for an 'outline' of his take on world events."
The author of such books as “Israel’s Final Holocaust” and “The Great Escape: Preparing for the Rapture, the Next Event on God’s Prophetic Clock,” Van Impe, according to Wall, "has predicted that the end of the world will strike somewhere between 2003 and 2012 and one reviewer has called his TV preaching show with wife Rexella 'a fantastically loopy apocalyptic take on the week’s news.'"
Wall said the disclosure of the alleged involvement between Van Impe and the Bushies came in a response to someone who asked on his website, "Do you think that President Bush, apparently a Christian man, believes and knows he is involved in prophetic events concerning the Middle East and final battle between good and evil?"
Van Impe reportedly responded, "I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I’ve spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it’s in his hands. He will know exactly what is going to happen in the Middle East and what part he will have under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. So, it’s a tremendous time to be alive."
Wall said NSC spokesman Sean McCormack contended his "investigation" into Van Impe's claim showed "that there’s no truth to it, but I’m continuing to look into it."
It would behoove Wall to ask if McCormack's investigation showed there is no truth to it, what is he continuing to look into.
In her Aug. 13 column, Wall wrote, "Is the Bush administration turning to a televangelist doomsayer for political predictions? Apocalyptic preacher Jack Van Impe is claiming that he was contacted by Condoleezza Rice’s office and the White House Office of Public Liaison for an 'outline' of his take on world events."
The author of such books as “Israel’s Final Holocaust” and “The Great Escape: Preparing for the Rapture, the Next Event on God’s Prophetic Clock,” Van Impe, according to Wall, "has predicted that the end of the world will strike somewhere between 2003 and 2012 and one reviewer has called his TV preaching show with wife Rexella 'a fantastically loopy apocalyptic take on the week’s news.'"
Wall said the disclosure of the alleged involvement between Van Impe and the Bushies came in a response to someone who asked on his website, "Do you think that President Bush, apparently a Christian man, believes and knows he is involved in prophetic events concerning the Middle East and final battle between good and evil?"
Van Impe reportedly responded, "I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I’ve spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it’s in his hands. He will know exactly what is going to happen in the Middle East and what part he will have under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. So, it’s a tremendous time to be alive."
Wall said NSC spokesman Sean McCormack contended his "investigation" into Van Impe's claim showed "that there’s no truth to it, but I’m continuing to look into it."
It would behoove Wall to ask if McCormack's investigation showed there is no truth to it, what is he continuing to look into.
Friday, August 15, 2003
Which way to Brooklyn?
That is what a New York City straphanger, who was planning to hoof it home during yesterday's power blackout, asked a CNN reporter.
Do we chalk this up to a failure of the schools to teach geography or the possibility that the underground tunnels suck all sense of direction out of subway riders?
If a New Yorker doesn't know where Brooklyn is in relationship to where he or she happens to be in Manhattan, how can we expect him or her to know where Iraq or North Korea or even Peoria is?
We once encountered a teacher who thought Chicago was a state, but that's another story -- a rather sad one.
Do we chalk this up to a failure of the schools to teach geography or the possibility that the underground tunnels suck all sense of direction out of subway riders?
If a New Yorker doesn't know where Brooklyn is in relationship to where he or she happens to be in Manhattan, how can we expect him or her to know where Iraq or North Korea or even Peoria is?
We once encountered a teacher who thought Chicago was a state, but that's another story -- a rather sad one.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Bush Gestapo to human shields: Pay fines for going to Iraq or go to prison
At Leona Helmsley's 1992 tax evasion trial, her housekeeper testified that Helmsley told her, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." While Helmsley drew a four-year prison sentence, one can almost hear the Bushies and their friends tittering, "Only the little people have to obey the law."
And a group of "little people," who put their lives on the line by going to Iraq to act as human shields in the effort to prevent George Dubya's illegal invasion and destruction of that country, are being told by the Bush Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to pay fines of $10,000 or face 10 years in prison for "violating U.S. sanctions that forbade most travel to Iraq and commerce with Saddam Hussein's regime," according to the Washington Post.
The Post doesn't mention whether Treasury spokesman Taylor Griffin had a straight face when he said that there is no political motivation in enforcing the "prewwar sanctions."
If trying to stop a criminal invasion of a sovereign country can get you a 10-year stay in a prison cell, what must George W., Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz and the corporate crooks be facing for all ttheir crimes? Oops, only the little people have to obey the law.
And a group of "little people," who put their lives on the line by going to Iraq to act as human shields in the effort to prevent George Dubya's illegal invasion and destruction of that country, are being told by the Bush Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to pay fines of $10,000 or face 10 years in prison for "violating U.S. sanctions that forbade most travel to Iraq and commerce with Saddam Hussein's regime," according to the Washington Post.
The Post doesn't mention whether Treasury spokesman Taylor Griffin had a straight face when he said that there is no political motivation in enforcing the "prewwar sanctions."
If trying to stop a criminal invasion of a sovereign country can get you a 10-year stay in a prison cell, what must George W., Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz and the corporate crooks be facing for all ttheir crimes? Oops, only the little people have to obey the law.
Monday, August 11, 2003
A fairy tale from The Washington Times?
After tucking her kids in bed, The Washington Times' Neil Doyle would have us believe that an American housewife and mother, known to her "spy masters only as 'Mrs. Galt,'" spends her nights traveling the "secret world of Internet chat rooms and Web sites populated by some of the most dangerous people on earth" to track down "al Qaeda and other terror groups."
If that isn't enough hyperbole for you, Doyle goes on to claim that "Mrs. Galt" (might she fantasize that she is the wife of John Galt from Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged?) "sweet-talks her interlocutors into revealing their plans, often with fatal consequences for the terrorists."
It gets better . . . or more bizarre, depending on your point of view: "They have no idea that their supportive new 'sister' is a terrorist hunter reporting every word they say to a variety of intelligence agencies," Doyle wrote.
"She is so trusted by her unsuspecting targets that they often send her pictures of themselves displaying heavy machine guns and other weapons. She has even been sent pictures of men proudly displaying severed human heads," said Doyle, who claims to have interviewed "Mrs. Galt," whose age he lists as 42, by email.
And would you believe that "Mrs. Galt" uses "a crib sheet" with "Islamic sayings and customs" to ingratiate herself with her targets and even flirt with them? Flirt with Muslim men whose religious beliefs place a heavy emphasis on modesty?
You have to admit this story gets better by the paragraph.
According to Doyle, this one woman CIA/FBI/MI6, "Over a period of weeks and even months, . . .slowly teases out details of coming operations, locations of bases and movements of personnel." Whee!
What does this spook extraordinaire do with all the information she allegedly extracts from the unsuspecting "terrorists?" Doyle claimed, "She reports to London-based private intelligence consultant Glen Jenvey, who makes his research available to government services, including the FBI and the military intelligence agencies of Russia and India."
This sounds like a plot from the old TV show, Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Do you suppose "Mrs. Galt" might resemble Kate Jackson who played "Mrs. King?"
If that isn't enough hyperbole for you, Doyle goes on to claim that "Mrs. Galt" (might she fantasize that she is the wife of John Galt from Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged?) "sweet-talks her interlocutors into revealing their plans, often with fatal consequences for the terrorists."
It gets better . . . or more bizarre, depending on your point of view: "They have no idea that their supportive new 'sister' is a terrorist hunter reporting every word they say to a variety of intelligence agencies," Doyle wrote.
"She is so trusted by her unsuspecting targets that they often send her pictures of themselves displaying heavy machine guns and other weapons. She has even been sent pictures of men proudly displaying severed human heads," said Doyle, who claims to have interviewed "Mrs. Galt," whose age he lists as 42, by email.
And would you believe that "Mrs. Galt" uses "a crib sheet" with "Islamic sayings and customs" to ingratiate herself with her targets and even flirt with them? Flirt with Muslim men whose religious beliefs place a heavy emphasis on modesty?
You have to admit this story gets better by the paragraph.
According to Doyle, this one woman CIA/FBI/MI6, "Over a period of weeks and even months, . . .slowly teases out details of coming operations, locations of bases and movements of personnel." Whee!
What does this spook extraordinaire do with all the information she allegedly extracts from the unsuspecting "terrorists?" Doyle claimed, "She reports to London-based private intelligence consultant Glen Jenvey, who makes his research available to government services, including the FBI and the military intelligence agencies of Russia and India."
This sounds like a plot from the old TV show, Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Do you suppose "Mrs. Galt" might resemble Kate Jackson who played "Mrs. King?"
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Playing the terrorism card
The advocates of implanting radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in consumer products have come up with a new twist to force them on a reluctant public: get the Department of Homeland Security to mandate their use as "antiterrorism technology," according to Wired News.
Wire reported, " With Ridge's approval for RFID, the food and drug companies and retailers hope to win over a wary public. They also may get legal protection under the Safety Act of 2002 -- a tort-reform law that offers blanket lawsuit protections to makers of antiterrorism devices, should those devices fail during a terrorist attack."
The Auto-ID Center, an industry consortium, is hoping to recruit Sens. John McCain and Patrick Leahy, and Reps. Charles Dingell and Billy Tauzin to its cause.
"But not all legislators on Capitol Hill are buying into RFID tags, especially when they see companies playing the terrorism card to gain acceptance for the technology," Wired said.
Wire reported, " With Ridge's approval for RFID, the food and drug companies and retailers hope to win over a wary public. They also may get legal protection under the Safety Act of 2002 -- a tort-reform law that offers blanket lawsuit protections to makers of antiterrorism devices, should those devices fail during a terrorist attack."
The Auto-ID Center, an industry consortium, is hoping to recruit Sens. John McCain and Patrick Leahy, and Reps. Charles Dingell and Billy Tauzin to its cause.
"But not all legislators on Capitol Hill are buying into RFID tags, especially when they see companies playing the terrorism card to gain acceptance for the technology," Wired said.
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