Billy Ayers and the weathergirl

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Eric Verlo

It may have suited the corporate media to paint 60s radical Bill Ayers as an aging, bespectacled hippie, but in his day, student movement leader turned anti-imperialist bomber Billy Ayers had the magnetism of James Dean. And the street cred of John Dillinger.

A less off-base criminal analogy might be Bonny and Clyde, because Bill Ayers had partners in the Weather Underground, and more specifically one he married, and with whom he still lives. She’s the unsung participant in the Barack Obama terrorist connection, and I think it’s a telling omission.

Bernardine Dohrn was the ringleader of the breakaway SDS. It was Dohrn who led the putsch at the divisive 1969 Chicago meeting, and it was she who delivered the press conferences. After the Bring the War Home cataclysm, it was Dorhn’s name on the Weathermen manifestos and publications. And when they went underground, it was Dohrn’s voice on the recorded communiques when a bomb was set to go off.

After ten years underground Dohrn and Ayers gave themselves up. The early eighties movie Running On Empty gave a fictional account of their ordeal. It made an interesting assertion through Christine Lahti’s role, at who might have been the moral center of the revolutionary duo.

Today Ayers and Dohrn are respected professors and political activists. They live in Chicago, have raised two sons, and fostered another, whose parents, also of the Weather Underground, remained incarcerated. Father David Gilbert is still in prison.

When Barack Obama kicked off his congressional campaign with the now infamous fund raiser at the Chicago home of Professor Ayers, it was also the home of Law Professor Dohrn. That’s a bit like saying you were at Guy Richie’s house, without mentioning Madonna.

Not to take any credit away from Bill Ayers, but perhaps Bernardine Dohrn made too attractive a “domestic terrorist.” No doubt an intelligent, decisive woman does not fit the evildoer stereotype.

I think a spotlight on Bernardine Dohrn’s idealogical leadership of the Weathermen might have given the American public pause to consider the arguments behind stopping the Vietnam war “by any means necessary.”

What do you do when the electoral process does not offer a moral recourse? What do you do when your elected representatives refuse to respond the outcry of the people? How do you stop the ongoing indiscriminate murder of millions of southeast Asians, when your government demonstrates an interminable patience for deliberating “staying the course?”

Whether the path they chose was wise or unwise, the students of the 60s were up against a monstrous military industrial complex which looms even larger today. Bernardine Dohrn’s war against our homicidal empire might have humanized the struggle and brought it home.

Barack Obama resembles Gerald Ford more than he does Lincoln

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Tony Logan

Today’s Denver Post print edition headline reads U.S. closes door on Guantanamo, torture. Of interest is how their internet version of this headline has changed the verb tense from ‘closes’ to ‘closing’. Yes, well it amounts to about the same thing, kind of? Well but is it a closed book, or not? That question has to be asked because Gerald Ford supposedly closed the book on Watergate, which was where a President acted in a criminal manner but was left entirely free from facing any criminal charges! The President will be stopped (after his criminal acts become just too obvious and exposed) but is simply above the law, was how the message was left later to be read by the likes of Dubya Bush and Dick Cheney.

Yes, Barack Obama wants to clean America’s image up and closing Guantanamo’s detention unit down is key to that. But he also wants to sweep the dirt under the rug and get on with it, so to speak. There is no evidence that he plans to prosecute anybody for the crimes they committed by running this Federal torture camp, and this is what makes us look on these seemingly positive moves with a huge amount of scepticism.

Eisenhower, too, eventually stopped the McCarthyite witch hunt from going further forward, but then continued to wage the Korean War that resulted in millions going to their deaths. He kept the Cold War going full tilt, and much of the world worried that the ‘cold’ would become a hot war with nuclear weapons begin launched. In fact, Eisenhower’s military command thought long and hard about nuking China. So looking at the edicts coming out from Barack Obama on his first day about supposedly moving to end the torture regime of the Bush Administration should not be looked at with rose tinged glasses on.

Suspected U.S. missile attacks kill 18 in Pakistan At the same time as Barack is supposedly ending US government torture of POWs, his Administration is continuing the bombing of targets that hit civilians in Pakistan as often as not. Further, the bombing raids are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, same as the continued now Barack Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are, too.

While nobody can expect Barack Obama to reverse all that Bush’s Klan instituted with DP loyal assistance in just one or two days, let alone one or two weeks, there still is really no reason to assume that Barack has any plan to do so… EVER. In this sense, Barack Obama resembles Gerald Ford much more than he resembles Abraham Lincoln. Eventually this will become rather obvious but for now the liberal euphoria continues. They are being led around on their leashes by the corporate media and Barack, but what we are actually seeing so far is Barack Obama pardoning Bush and his gang for crimes committed.

Will ”closing down Guantanamo’ be like ‘pulling British troops out of Iraq’?

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Tony Logan

Gordon Brown came to power in the United Kingdom in June 2007 and became known for announcing that Britain would be pulling its troops out of Iraq. Many think that the British have actually done so, but the troops are still there. (British) Troops ‘in need of longer breaks’ is this weeks news about those British troops in Iraq. The question now is whether Barack Obama’s announcement that the US …will be… closing down Guantanamo is of the same nature as the announcement that British troops were leaving Iraq?

One other thing to note about the British troops in Iraq, is that the British are planning to follow Barack Obama’s planned surge of troops to Afghanistan. When these troops arrive, they will torture more POWs ala Guantanamo style and worse, bomb more civilian areas, and destroy any possible future stability for Afghanistan yet even more. The British and American liberal governments are liberal governments only in corporate media constructed image only, and will continues to terrorize the world, Afghanistan and Iraq included. Guantanamo is seen as a major blemish in maintaining a good image for Britain and the US in the world, but the governments continue to want to take the same foreign policies of their predatory predecessors. We are getting yet more of the con game as both countries continue to push for more world wide war.

Most likely is that Barack Obama will move to make US use of torture more clandestine and retreat from the public embracing of it, all for having a better image for the government more than for any other reason. Most of the world will hardly be that fooled by this ‘change’. Sorry to say, that most liberal voting DP types will be conned though.

Barack will put blatant torture use into the closet so that later on a new Republican Administration may better pull it back out to publicly embrace once again. Is this really ‘change’ that you can want, happily endorse, and celebrate? Do you want troop withdrawals that are not really troop withdrawals? Will you be satisfied with just a new return to the old form of Clintonite political doublespeak like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama now are engaging in? Time will tell?

Barack Obama headed to becoming America’s most disappointing President

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Tony Logan

accident-ahead OK, excuse time is now over as Barack Obama takes office, so what does the future actually hold for us? The Democrats can now no longer hide behind the Bush Administration and even though most Americans believe that the Republicans and not the Democrats are responsible for the economic crash, they will now expect results from this new president. He can talk, but can he walk the walk?

But here is the sad state of affairs per Global Insight which is the world’s largest economics organization. The American economy is sinking fast. See New York to lead U.S. in job losses for Global Insight’s analysis of the situation.

Hundreds of thousands of people’s jobs will now go under according to this forecast, and yet Barack Obama’s plan for action looks like a total disaster in the making. Soon enough, even Democratic Party voters will get upset at the disaster unfolding as they watch the Democratic Party give trillions to corrupted and bankrupt businesses while all the while cutting social services needed for the common good. They may well see the US government itself declining into bankruptcy?

Add to this, the Barack Obama plan to continue fighting wars all around the globe as the economy tanks and just keeps on tanking. There is no new game plan from the Democrats and eventually more and more people will begin to catch on. Plus, the novelty of having a Black man as president will hold off criticism only just so long, and then resentment of the Democrats will build up just as it did with Bush. Add to this, people may actually begin to see the relationship between the country’s militarism and the country’s bankruptcy in the making? Yes, I think they will. A bad economy opens people’s eyes.

For that reason it is quite sensible to have real cynicism about the fanfare and media show we will see tomorrow night. The same corporate media that did all they could to make us fans of the Republican show of the last 8 years will be screaming at us to embrace ‘The Change’… ‘The Change’ that is no change. They will try to dazzle us and awe us with superfluities of all sorts of stuff, but the new show looks quite still born at this point though it may take a while for most to realize that? Hope will fizzle quite quick as the whole world sinks into economic depression, America leading the pack. Barack Obama will most likely become America’s most disappointing President, though through the fireworks display little of that future will be foreseen by most during his Inauguration Day ceremonies tomorrow

Barack just cannot deliver the goods (nor has the desire to) to actually bring about this change that is, and will be, absolutely necessary. Yes, though Bush is now truly despised by so many, it may well be that Barack becomes not just disappointing but despised as well? When there are no jobs around, people want to know why? And the answer to that WHY will be…. Barack just did not deliver.

I see sadness and despair, hate and anger ahead. I see people growing fed up with empty promises while the rats continue to get fed.

Strip Gaza bare to put down a prison riot

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Eric Verlo

ISRAEL IS READY TO DECLARE A CESSATION OF ITS MOP UP OF GAZA? Israel moved its troops into Gaza under the pretext that Palestinians imprisoned there had rioted. As if tanks can stop the rocket fire with brute force. What society has eradicated crime by threatening collective punishment of its subjects? As jailer of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel intends to strip the Palestinians of everything: food, shelter, dignity, even their children, but then Israel will have to throw away the key.

The world won’t stand idly by, but America, Israel’s lone supporter, and financier, is being kept in the dark by a corporate media which doesn’t want to interrupt the lucrative military contracts which depend upon unrest in the Middle East.

While Israel bombs hospitals and UN shelters, and blocks every effort to bring aid to the besieged civilians, Israeli pundits divert attention to envoys purportedly trying to discuss a ceasefire. Bombing the UN headquarters, full of food supplies, not to mention 700 refugees, with no less than the chemical weapon white phosphorous, and the leading news headline on US networks, including BBC World, is a casualty-free plane crash and, by the way, Israeli envoys waving a white flag while its soldiers continue to attack even the journalists who are trying to document their heavy handed repression?!

Peace or Rest In Peace.

Why else have Israeli soldiers been targeting hospitals, food supplies and aid providers? Why won’t Israel permit aid agencies to bring relief to the Gazans? Does Israel accuse the U.N. of smuggling rockets?

The Qassam rockets fired by Hamas were in response to Israel failing to lift its 18 month blockade of the Gaza borders, in default of their previous ceasefire agreement.

Here’s what the prisoners of Attica were rioting about:

“We are not beasts, and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such…. What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed.”

Shell Oil’s Green shell game

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Tony Logan

shell game Shell Oil claims to be Green, Green, Green! Corporate Green is more like it though, yet that did not stop the oil company from running advertisements in recent years that included a picture of an oil refinery, with chimneys producing flowers and a headline that read “Don’t throw anything away — there is no away”.

See Shell Recycling Adverts “Misleading” -Watchdog about that nonsense.

But there is yet more to the Shell Oil Green Shell game it is playing with the public. Let’s visit Nigeria where Shell Oil is a big player in energy production there , shall we? There we find Shell Oil wasting billions upon billions of dollars of the world’s precious and declining energy supplies, all in a way that brings back personal memories of Mobil Exxon for me!

My dad worked for Mobil Oil and living in Texas as a kid, I remember all those gas flares from the refineries and oil fields. Nigeria’s gas profits ‘up in smoke’ Yep! In Nigeria Shell Oil has gas flares going big time, all without seemingly much of a care in the world about it, too. It’s a Hell of a way to be playing ‘Green’ company, is it not?

Shell Oil is almost as Green as the US military is! Hey, the two of them go together even! Shell Oil and the Pentagon both playing a shell game with the public about supposedly being Green! Don’t buy it. Don’t buy any of the corporate wave of pretending to be Green. They just simply or not and never will be either. And neither will the Pentagon ever be Green either…

US government slide rule of accounting

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Tony Logan

bunny suit The US government and its talking head corporate media clowns are real good at not ever admitting anything about anything. Smile, Smile, Smile! However, this is what the French press group Reuters has to say about the American economy and they do not use or put much faith in the standard US government slide rule to measure unemployment. Great Depression jobs parallel may not be far flung Notice how the statistics and data are now altered by the government. The US government has slid the data right on down from what its previous more honest accounting measured, to give all of us a falser sense of security.

How much unemployment will be seen in the next years ahead? The government and both capitalist parties want everybody to believe that throwing money at the rich who own the big enterprises will ‘stimulate’ the economy. Things don’t work that way though, since to revive the economy the ordinary people themselves are needed and not just the top governing and owning hacks of our society. It is not about ‘investment’ but work and the workers who do it. Work is what makes society move, not investment.

Capitalist society does not value work or workers though, and the elites consider those who work morons. Unfortunately many workers imitate the elites and consider themselves and those around them to be morons, too, for not being part of the owning class elite. Many workers actually begin to believe that they are worthless elements of society, and not the backbone of it!

There is certainly all kinds of work that needs to be done, but capitalist society does not pay for most necessary work but instead keeps it from happening. The only work that gets done mainly is work that can make profit for the owning elite, and not the work that should be done. Workers simply get turned away when they want to work, need to work, and could work if allowed to do so. Owners usually do not allow that unless forced to do so by the workers themselves to allow it to happen. That is always a nasty battle since this is a society run by capitalist owners, and not one that counters them.

Sadly most workers today do not think they have any power or could ever have such power, and their first reaction to increased unemployment is most likely be despair, depression, and increased self disrespect. Many families will begin to disintegrate and abuse will arise all around. Add to that the lies of the elites about what is really happening, and many will turn to violence and against all the wrong targets. The Left has a tough road ahead to try to counter the trend to come.

The US Union Movement is in total disarray and retreat and must be rebuilt from ground up. Everywhere the battle will be to get the Democratic Party lovers out of their positions where they brake rebellion, and then channel it into useless and unresponsive channels. We are in a period where it will not be the Republican Right that are the major enemies of organization, but instead the Democratic Party liberal centrists who are everywhere in positions funded from the top. There is a lot of work ahead, and it will be done only through dedicated and tough volunteers often working against paid staffers of supposedly do-good organizations that in fact do no good at all. This is true nowhere more than in the established but now utterly dysfunctional unions that exist.

Unemployment will go up, and capitalism does not automatically right itself like a sturdy boat in a strong sea might. Capitalism is more like a rotten vessel that will sink all onboard without a struggle to keep it from happening. These are just a few thoughts to measure against the corporate efforts to put a happy face on the current realities, when really there is little to be happy about.

Is Roland Burris a GOP Senate ringer?

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Eric Verlo

Is there more to senator-aspirant Roland Burris being turned away in DC, than political theater? Illinois governor Blagojevich was caught asking for payola to decide the appointment. Did he get the money? Without asking, the DC Dems are acting like the unassuming Mr. Burris is the pay-to-play golden ticket holder. I suspect the undistinguishing features which allay our suspicions about the septuagenarian may be the very traits which interest his sponsors.

In boxing, it’s called a ringer.

While some Democrats are content to ask the would-be junior senator if he’d consent to be a modest placeholder until the 2010 election, I think that’s exactly what he’s intended to be, but not for the Dems. Burris is a placeholder for the GOP. The uncharismatic Burris, regular-loser of elections, is meant to remove any incumbent advantage the Democrats would hope to cultivate in the next two years. Burris would waste that opportunity, then face a Republican challenger in the next election and lose.

Who did you think was offering big bucks for the senate seat? Was someone going to pay multi-millions to put Jesse Jackson in Washington? If the Dems had dibs on the party affiliation of Barack Obama’s old office anyway, why was Blagojevich expecting that an ally would pay millions to install one particular Democrat over another?

Who would have been offering the millions, except bidders dismayed at Blagojevich’s nonpartisan disloyalty. Maybe the Democratic Party’s insufficient coffers, and the projected Republican gained foothold, is what drew colleagues to unleash investigators to nail the turncoat sumbitch politician.

Though no one’s asking such questions, Burris cuts short the proforma inquiries, about his links to the governor’s alleged graft, with mock surprise that his personal record might invite suspicion. Except, what is Burris’s public record but a trail of failed elections? He has no accomplishments other than the elections in which he played straw man or spoiler and he lost every one. Perhaps he has always been an innocent pawn. It would seem pretty damn racist to suggest the diminutive black man has never been accomplice to the scheme, even now.

No one dares be seen critical of Burris, who would be the only African American in the Senate. And the media is not about to spoil the GOP fix. Burris is in, and apparently it’s all legal. And inevitable. The best legal opinions the media want to parade before us explain that because the governor is still in office, his appointment of Burris is legitimate. Even though the crime is the very act which installed Burris.

Does that make sense to you? A bank robber gets to keep the bank’s money until he’s faced a jury of his peers? A court order could secure the monies for the bank, lest the accused gamble it all in Vegas, or score big, and return with a better legal team.

An injunction could prevent Blagojevich and partners from enjoying the fruits of their crime, until the mess is untangled. But the corporate media and the GOP have put the Democrats in the difficult position of turning Burris away.

Dr Sanjay Gupta the US Quack General?

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Eric Verlo

CNN is leaking inside information that its own TV health care pundit Sanjay Gupta is being tapped for US Surgeon General. What do you suppose Barack Obama would have in mind, to chose a Big Pharma / medical industry / insurance interest / media shill to be the American people’s health care ombudsman?

Were you among those hoping that Candidate Obama was going to bring health care reform, instead of seeking out a second opinion to say we’re all doing just fine?

In 2003 Sanjay Gupta was an embed in Iraq for Chrissakes, reassuring American viewers that our boys were receiving celebrity care and that Hippocratic attentions were being paid to Iraqi wounded too. Did that turn out to be true? CNN embed Gupta was a propagandist! It requires what scruples to do that? Maybe Obama should pick Geraldo for FCC chair. How about Ollie North for Military Industry Czar?

More recently Gupta was the chief critic of Michael Moore’s health care documentary SICKO. Gupta led the corporate media charge to discredit Moore’s scathing assessment of the corrupt US medical system. Ask yourself, pray tell with what arguments could Gupta raise to redeem today’s pitiable state of affairs?

No surprise, Pricko Gupta has also proven to be an outspoken advocate of Gardasil, the tragically flawed inoculation being foisted upon our nation’s young girls.

To call Dr. Sanjay Gupta a quack would do disservice to chiropractors. He’s in a league with Republican Bill Frist. Take two bitter pills and call me an asshole in the morning.

Maybe being a CNN talking head comes with having to shill for whoever are your advertisers. At CNN, that would be the pharmaceutical advertisers, the HMOs and the insurance companies.

If Gupta indeed goes to Washington, will he feel the same obligation to represent his sponsors? It won’t be a matter of changed allegiances, they are the same corporate interests who fund both major parties. This time ’round that would be the Dems, including Barack Obama.

Anyone who had hope that Obama would bring change to America’s health care system, say hello to the brick wall’s new face. It’s the same face.

Arab dictator allies of US line up in support of Israeli terrorism against Gaza

Posted on December 28, 2008 by Tony Logan

Silence. Or worse yet even, efforts to blame Hamas instead of Israel for the new slaughter in Gaza. That’s what the US allied Arab dictatorships imposed on the Arab world offer their people. Complicity. Many of these Sunni Arab elites (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, et cetera) are eager for the US to hammer the Shiite led Iranians, and have no solidarity at all with their own poor let alone the Palestinian poor of Gaza…. or Palestinians elsewhere for that matter. This is the opening battle of the war to bring about regime change in Iran for the Washington, D.C. rat class, and the Arab dictatorships controlled by the US government are fully behind the effort.

Meanwhile the corporate media in the US and Britain keep a tight lid on the spin of the actual news, all in support of their own imperialist ruling cabals. At least, the European Union and the United Nations have had the decency to tokenly oppose this slaughter by this Jewish/ Christian Corporate Alliance centered in the US, Great Britain, and Israel. Everybody around the globe pretty much knows who holds the big guns, and it is the US government and its immediate side kicks that do. Everybody realizes that there is always the big price to pay if one gets too out of line with what these gangsters want from them.

The US antiwar community, dominated by phony ‘Peace’crat types, are immobilized. It seems that the script promised by the ‘Peace’crats with an Obama victory were as false as they come. They all voted for Obama and now don’t know what exactly to do? Really going out and protesting against their rulers is something that might make them embarrassed and scares them no end. Locally, not a word from the office clowns of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace De-Commission, with them only wanting to turn the other cheek from reality, though reality just keeps on beating them about their public face.

So now we know why the Arab World hates us so? It has to do with their own gang of thugs kept in power by the US government. The US and Israel have even turned the Arabs into hating the PLO, now that the leader of the PLO, Abbas, is totally controlled by our sorry leaders in Washington, D.C. What a mess! And the world keeps on just getting more and more dangerous, more and more messed up, day after day. Nobody has any ‘national security’ these days, thinks to the Democratic and Republican gangsters that almost all voting Americans backed in the last election.

This Israeli bombing of mainly children Arab youngsters living in the most horrible poverty and isolation in Gaza, is their work. Aren’t you proud you voted for this, if in fact you did? Haven’t heard a word from Obama, have you? What does he care if a community of overwhelmingly young children is shut off, starved to death, and then bombed? He’s not for change at all. He’s simply for allowing the Jewish community of Israel to be allowed to steal yet more land from the Arabs that owned it.

‘Change’ that isn’t change: Cronyism trumps empty rhetoric of Obama

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Tony Logan

change Promises of ‘change’ empty of all real content followed by cronyist selections of long time Democratic Party hacks to replace the Republican hacks of the last 8 years. Yes, it is change of a sort.

We will no longer have the direct thuggishness of the likes of Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, and Cheney in high office to focus on as targets against America’s ruling class viciousness. It’s back to the Slick Willie model of reactionary policies and talking heads. But is back to the Clintonist model of imperial rule ‘CHANGE’?

The latest empty rhetoric of Obama is focused on the promise of a ‘jobs program’, and is designed to take our minds off the hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars of give-aways to the biggest corporations the Democratic Party is underwriting with government funds. Obama will introduce his new economic leadership team Monday, a key step toward enacting a huge new economic recovery plan that aims to save or create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years Truth be told, this ‘jobs program’ sounds and looks like more of the Republican Party same, just couched in a different sales pitch.

Obama’s earliest measures have been to load the new Administration with long term Illinois political hacks and tag alongs of Obama, pairing them up with old Clinton regime standbys. It’s not a pretty picture, and when the inevitable failures of the DP Big Federal Government give-aways fail to revive the Pentagon welfare based US capitalist model, the populace of our country will certainly be turned back towards the Republicans who will become labeled by the corporate media as being the future ‘change’. vehicles Meanwhile… the Obama game is starting! It’s the change without change team at work!

Somali pirates make black Blackbeards

Posted on November 22, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Gilbert and Sullivan pointed it out: One man’s captain of industry is another man’s pirate. Which is the pirate depends on who’s making the law.

The global corporate media is up in arms about the Somali pirates, in actuality a militia mounted by Somalia’s fishermen to protect their fisheries from international predators. Elsewhere, illegal commercial fishing ships are considered “pirates.” The Somali protectors are called the
Central Regional Coast Guard.

Elsewhere in the world, when national fisheries are threatened by lawless fishing, privateers can capture illegal fishing ships and earn bounties of approximately one million dollars per ship. What a coincidence that’s the figure we’re given about the ransoms demanded by the Somali “pirates” who are seizing international ships off their coast.

Setting aside of course the opportunistic actions by the Somali renegade entrepreneurs to prey upon ANY international vessel, on the pretext that NONE are licensed in Somali waters, since even the temporary US-backed government there is unlicensed, here’s the reason Western warships can’t just blow them out of the water.

Setting aside too, that even as Somalia is lawless, the waters inside Somali’s maritime boarder are sovereign. A foreign navy may declare its helpful intentions, but it has no jurisdiction to order Somalian boaters about.

I’ve seen many varieties of fishermen skiffs. So I puzzled at the uniformity of the pirate raiders in their long white open boats. Have you? Because the pirate enterprise is a uniform flotilla of 100 of such boats. It’s how they can tell each other from would be interloping privateers, and it also gives them their cover of legitimacy.

Foreign would-be sheriffs can’t target the Central Regional Coast Guard because it is basically a militia mounted by the local fishermen, to enforce their claim to their home waters.

Fisheries the world over are regulated. Wherever a government is not capable of enforcing its laws, predatory opportunities arise. Since Somalia fell to war and lawlessness, foreign fishing boats have been poaching the Somali coast without limit. Local fishermen complain that the fisheries are being depleted, but there is no authority to save them.

Dying Planet

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Tony Logan

Even as the corporate media brags about how our ‘civilization’ can now visualize planets in other solar systems, the real news is at home on our Dying Planet. butterfly Even the bugs are dying off, along with the mammals, fish, plants, and everything. Insecticide! An ecological disaster that will affect us all. Nobody seems much to care as we have a society that has now embraced suicide as norm. And everybody says they are so happy!

Common Dreams? Or is it censorship in common with the corporate media?

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Tony Logan

124

The biggest liberal website out there online, Common Dreams, informs us with its headline today that ‘OBAMA’S PROGRESSIVES: HOLDING, PUSHING, TUGGING’. Common Dreams has become a major resource for the US Left and liberal community in the last couple of years through its posting of many important commentaries by Leftists and liberals plus its convenient links that many of us use quite often. Unfortunately there is a big weakness of the site, and that is their censorship of commentaries, writers, and readers who are not completely 100% on board with their ‘support the lesser of two evils’, pro-Democratic Party point of view.

As a result, when I go to read their headline, I today get the message that THE WEBSITE DECLINED TO SHOW THIS WEBPAGE (to me) HTTP 403 FORBIDDEN. What is Common Dreams scared of from me?

The exact post I made to one of their commentaries that got me blacklisted from their site was made on election night and was linked the following day to a commentary at Common Dreams, from the one I made here on Not My Tribe titled Sadly, Barack Obama will probably get us OUT of Iraq by getting us INTO Iran. Many people who read Common Dreams material link to other commentaries that back up their opinions and beliefs, and I merely did the same.

But this belief that Obama’s election will lead to yet more war ran counter to their cheeleading for the Democratic Party, and earned me their shunning. And you know what? I still think it is most probable that attacking Iran is a most possible final result, post national arrival of Obama into the White House. How will the Common Dreams’ censor feel if this actually happens? Will he/ she remember the decision to put me permanentl offline from their site, for simply making this observation? Probably not.

I certainly do not feel all alone at all in being treated so shabbily by the Common Dreams Democratic Party cheerleading censor on their site. The site shuns many others, too, including the Libertarian site ANTIWAR.COM that it has never chosen to link to and acts as if the site does not exist. ANTIWAR.COM, you see, is a major resource for those who oppose what they call one of the War Parties, the Democrats? Can’t do that per play book of Common Dreams censorship. Not at all if you want publication there.

Also of note, is that Common Dreams likes anarchists somewhat, linking to the giant academician anarchist site, Znet, but has no links to overt Marxist links. Major antiwar activists (and presidential candidates) like Gloria La Riva will never see any comment of theirs allowed the Common Dreams site. CENSORED by the CD group-ling of ‘OBAMA’S PROGRESSIVES:HOLDING, PUSHING, TUGGING’. More like BLOCKING, I would say, and Common Dreams doesn’t like people that are aware of that, and will comment to that effect on their pro-Democratic Party site.

I could list many people whose comments will never appear at Common Dreams, merely because they are activist Marxists. Many academic anarchists act at election time though as Social Democrats, and Social Democrats can be easily herded into voting Democratic Party in the US. ALLOWED.

The thing about Common Dreams is that they are not real honest, and pretend often to have no bias for the Democrat Party even as they push them with countless articles praising people like Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, et al. With the final days to push to get Barack Obama elected though, they seem to have dropped much of their camouflage and subterfuge and the long time effects will be to make their site less attractive to people who actually do want uncensored Left opinion, and not just cheerleading for the new DP executives in power. The CD approach to activism is to try to herd all ‘Progressives’ into voting the Democratic Party. It really is about that plain and simple, but it would be much better for activism if this major Left resource in the US had a less sectarian and less Democratic Party partisan approach.

So to the question is it Common Dreams, or is it censorship in common with the corporate media? I leave you to contemplate that question? For me, I just know that I can no longer read the site on my home computer, let alone comment on their posted articles, all because I do not share their ‘common dream’, which seems narrowly limited to getting the Democratic Party politicians into office, and propagandizing for them. That’s why I see them as being so like the corporate media itself, which will only endorse one of the two corporate parties, and will censor those who want a different world.

As to those whose commentaries are promoted by Common Dreams? I will be writing to at least one of them, Ira Chernus who lives here in Colorado, and asking him what it feels like to have article after article of his promoting the idea of voting Democratic Party this last election published on the Common Dreams site, and then finding out how Common Dreams has censors who keep opposing ideas to his own offline at their Common Dreams site? I don’t think that Ira, or many of the other nice liberal Democratic Party voting writers, have given this censorship much thought. It reflects poorly on them though, when Common Dreams publishes their commentaries and then keeps ‘Progressives’ from actually being able to challenge their POV. Ira, that is censorship. Have you anything much to say about this?

PS.. That picture above is of Ira Chernus, whose multiple articles framed the Common Dreams site the last weeks of the election. He is a professor who happens to live in The Democratic Party Peoples Republic of Boulder.

Yes Men suggest another NYT is possible

Posted on November 13, 2008 by NMT

The YES MEN strike again! Yesterday a fake edition of the New York Times was distributed around the city. IRAQ WAR ENDS, Troops to Return Immediately, Ex-Secretary Apologizes for W.M.D. Scare, Court Indicts Bush on High Treason Charge. While this issue was post-dated to July 4, 2009, there’s a headline which the corporate media is already misreporting: Pressure Ushers Recent Progressive Tilt.

Imagine what an admission of the public’s repudiation of the “center” could mean in terms of news headlines? The special edition NYT featured headlines which the media should be reporting if Barack Obama is going to bring change: Nationalized Oil To Fund Climate Change Efforts, USA Patriot Act Repealed, National Health Insurance Act Passes, Maximum Wage Law Passes Congress, All Public Universities To Be Free, Education Department Plans National Tax Base for Schools, and Popular Big Boxes Appeal Eviction from Low-Income Neighborhoods. See the full edition at nytimes-se.com.

Tibetans forced to pass Monarchy to son of old King

Posted on November 9, 2008 by Tony Logan

namgyel wangch ‘In a massive, whitewashed fort-cum-monastery, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel had the crown, mounted with a raven and adorned with skulls, placed on his head by his retiring father.’ Coronation in the Dragon Kingdom Yes, those Buddhists sure have grand respect for the dignity of human life (an ALL life, it is said by many), do they not? Nothing else quite like using human skulls in your political ceremonies!

OK, I know that with all of the Hollywood style entertainment, and the liberal State Department enlightenment here in our noble USA, most Americans are absolutely totally unaware of the reality that Tibetans already have their own country, Bhutan, and are not merely a ‘nation’ stolen by China. If you go to the link to the news report of the coronation of the new king their, you will briefly be given some small tidbit of information about the Tibetans, and how they have genocidally acted towards the Nepalese in their feudal country. Not a pretty story, and one that runs counter to the doggerel passed on about Tibet as US disinformation and antiChinese propaganda.

We wish all the peoples there in Tibet, China, Nepal, and Bhutan the best, and the best would be if India, Britain, and the US were kept completely out of their region altogether. Certainly that will not happen with the Dalai Lama, Tibetan God King, misinforming the world population about Tibet by way of the international corporate media. However, with a healthy dose of scepticism, one can get more info than that being spoon-fed to the naive and not so innocent.

Just another meaningless election day

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Tony Logan

exciting day Expect the cheers of delight to begin tonight, as many Americans begin to celebrate what the corporate media tomorrow will call a historic event. However, they will be wrong. There will have been no major change in America at all.

In July 2000 I was in Mexico, and got to see the jubilation as Mexicans were celebrating what they thought would be the final end of the world’s longest running dictatorship over them. They believed that all Mexico’s problems had been merely the product of having this one capitalist ruling party in place, and that by implementing 2 capitalist ruling parties that all would soon turn into a rainbow road ahead for Mexico. Wrong they were, and it should have been self evident to them at the time. However, the corporate media of that country began to bombard all Mexicans with nonstop commentaries that all had the same refrain… Mexico had now become a new country! Wrong they were.

Similarly today we will see the same delusions spread by corporate media talking dead heads and Democratic Party voting delusionary souls alike, who often like to call themselves ‘Progressives’. Wrong. They simply are not that at all, and can only marginally be called much improvement over the typical Republican voting clowns they always oppose so fanatically. And just like the Mexicans who were taken in by the believe that Mexico had turned some sort of corner in the year 2000, so too will they initially spread that very same false optimism throughout the general population. A crescendo of optimism will be built up between now and January as the Republican President is allowed to do his final corrupt actions in virtual silence from this new ‘hero’, Barack Obama.

Like Mexicans today, 8 years later from their election of 2000, we in the US will soon see how meaningless this meaningless election day actually will be for the US. Real Change must come from the furious anger of people down below and not from the manipulations of rich people up high, as certainly will be the case with Barack Obama’s cruise into power. We’re getting Obama because the US super rich finally begin to just get fed up with the poor results of what continuing to keep Dubya-like clowns in the White House for all of another 4 years would actually bring to them.

Now for a completely different poll result

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Some polls says the race is neck and neck, others show an Obama lead. Baseball experts FiveThirtyEight.com, who poll the pollsters, adjusting like they do for sports as if their prediction has got to matter, (and who, by the way, predicted the Rays would make the Series), give Obama a breakaway victory. The factors which I’ve been polling indicate something completely different.

You’ve noticed them too I’m sure.

1. Who’s showing the respect?
How many politicians and newscasters begin every mention of John McCain with how much they respect the veteran Senator? My unofficial poll says: 100% OF THEM. I’m sure that even if reports came out about McCain squelching POW/MIA efforts, they would begin with reverential references to his reputation. Why is everyone on TV so concerned to say how much they love, respect, admire, etc, John McCain, even as they offer criticism of what he’s saying? Most of McCain’s personal history is really damning. All of his political maneuvers are opportunistic and wrong-headed. Yet everyone always makes sure to show their deference.

Would that be your inclination, if you had to talk about the little creep? McCain stands for nothing but false accusations against Obama, praise for Sarah Palin’s qualifications, and he speaks in sound bites which only add to his incoherence. The mini-hothead accomplished squat in Congress except to support Bush, protect Keating, and sandbag against Vietnam vets. Still everyone is careful to sing his praises?

If you want to argue that it’s just being polite. Consider that the chorus is offering no such formality to Barack Obama. You don’t hear them saying what a fine fellow Obama is before they tell you how they disagree with what latest action he’s taken.

So that’s a prediction, with a consensus of 100% of the Beltway, with a margin or error of nobody, that “gotta love him.” You wanna bet they know John McCain is going to come out of this race in a more influential position than he is now?

2. Who’s fixed the election?
And let’s poll the swing states with GOP-affiliated state-employed election officials who have prepared the voter rolls with a mind to suppress the Obama vote. Also 100%. What does this mean?

Barack Obama may be anticipated to have more votes than John McCain. But investigations into election tampering already perpetrated by Republican election officials show the number of disenfranchised Democratic voters is bigger than Obama’s hopeful margin. So where does that leave the election? And why would those working to rig the election take the risk, if they anticipate an Obama landslide?

Most of the voter registration purges have already happened, and from early voting experiences we’re reliving the suspicious equipment malfunctions of 2004.

No. The polls that matter are already braced for McCain.

3. Who has your friends’ vote?
Now try an informal poll of how the people around you are going to vote. Your personal poll results may vary, but I’d be interested to know if they vary by much.

A positive predominance of our neighbors are for McCain. Ditto, our extended families. I can’t explain it, honestly. We’re talking people with wealth, with education, with some sense. For McCain. It’s unscientific, it’s wide open, it’s a terribly embarrassing phenomenon, but is it so unlikely? The American people have a reputation which precedes them. Why imagine that you and I don’t know a representative sample of them?

How are the numbers looking from your vantage point? America is going to get the candidate they deserve.

Untrusty democrat to win by a landslide!

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Eric Verlo

I KNOW THIS FEELING. We’ve all had this premonition before. Democrat Expected to Win by a Landslide. The candidates don’t even compare: one, tall, erudite and commanding, the other an idiot pre-adolescent runt. You couldn’t even conceive the loser getting voted bat boy unless his dad owned the franchise. Smart dude to win by a landslide! In 2004.

Or was that 2000, which turned out to have been the identically-themed prequel to 2004?

But 2000 and 2004 was before we’d learned about electronic vote rigging, about disenfranchised voters, and about imposing barriers to drive away lower class participation. Work all those into the mix, combined with media scare tactics whch included psych-out tactics to misrepresent the authentic public leanings, and you ended up with no landslide at all. In fact, alas and alack actually, the results gave a small lead to… the retard. In the end, a frightened America went for the safe-bet, best pick for a drinking companion, “right man for the job,” in-the-flesh zit.

P.T. Barnum’s adage could never account for this measure of public foolishness. Even when coached by a remote debate-aid prompter hidden under his suit, the incumbent came off as a moron, and won the election.

Barack Obama is now being spun by the GOP as untrustworthy, as had been John Kerry. Back then, the corporate media slander of Kerry looked to amount to a hill of nonsense, until, THE DAY AFTER.

Sure enough, as the 2004 election results emerged to be in contradiction to the exit polls, as voter groups were prepared to challenge Black Box voting, and as plump election officials did their grubby finger-work behind closed doors, John Kerry mounted the stage and… capitulated! Thus confirming what Democrats didn’t want to believe: Kerry turned out to be… untrustworthy! The imposing, if stiff, politician betraying his supporters should have led to the firing of all the party heads, in my opinion, but progressives are such forgiving dupes. In any event, did the media slander turn out to be prophetic?

Now. What are they saying about the not-to-be-trusted Barack Obama? He’s going to win by a landslide?

The Scamble for Africa- Darfur, Intervention, and the USA

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Tony Logan

Those interested in Darfur might want to check this book, ‘The Scramble for Africa’, out some when it comes out? Especially with the Biden, Obama gang headed towards the White House soon. Certainly this is a timely release for this book.

*** Book of the Month for** **October 2008*

*THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA*

*Darfur — Intervention and the USA*

*Steven Fake and Kevin Funk*

*As massive human suffering continues to engulf the Darfur region of
Sudan, the crisis has garnered a rhetorical circus of saber-rattling and
hand wringing from Western politicians, media, and activists. Yet such
bluster has not halted the violence.*

*In a careful yet scathing indictment of this constellation of
holier-than-thou government leaders, corporate media outlets, and spoon-fed
NGOs, Steven Fake and Kevin Funk reveal the myriad ways in which the West
has failed Darfur.*

*Praise for Scramble for Africa:*

*”A devastating critique of the ‘humanitarian’ response of the United
States to the Darfur crisis. Well-researched, easy to read, and utterly
convincing, a crucial book for anyone concerned about achieving a morally
and politically acceptable U.S. foreign policy.”
–Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of Law Emeritus, Princeton University*

*”Sudan has been a nightmare for many. It still is. The outside world is
responsible as well. This book shows why. The authors avoid easy answers,
and provide a quality analysis with compelling arguments to revise Western
policies.”
–Jan Pronk, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of
Mission for the United Nations Mission in Sudan, 2004-06 *

*”Explosive, masterful, and impeccably fair. Consider it the thinking
person’s guide to Darfur.”
-John Ghazvinian, author of **Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil*

*STEVEN FAKE and KEVIN FUNK are activists and political commentators whose
writings have been published in such media as **Foreign Policy in Focus,
Common Dreams, CounterPunch, ZNet**, and **Black Commentator**.*

*344 pages, bibliography, index
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55164-322-9 $19.99
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-55164-323-6 $39.99*

*For more information on **The Scramble For Africa**, our October Book of
the Month selection, including additional testimonials and Table of
Contents, see **http://www.blackrosebooks.net/darfur.htm*
* *

*The Scramble For Africa will be launched in the Boston area on October
28th. For more information see http://www.blackrosebooks.net/events.htm*

*To Order This Book, Call Toll Free 1-800-565-9523*

*Independent Publishing for Independent Minds*

*What others are saying about Scramble for Africa*

“Kevin Funk and Steven Fake have written a devastating critique of the
‘humanitarian’ response of the United States to the Darfur crisis, while
offering a genuine humane alternative that would lessen the ordeal, if not
bring it to an end. Well-researched, easy to read, and utterly convincing, a
crucial book for anyone concerned about achieving a morally and politically
acceptable U.S. foreign policy.”
*–Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of Law Emeritus, Princeton University, and
since 2002, Visiting Distinguished Professor, Global Studies, UCSB*

“Sudan has been a nightmare for many. It still is. The outside world is
responsible as well. This book shows why. The authors avoid easy answers,
and provide a quality analysis with compelling arguments to revise Western
policies.”
*–Jan Pronk, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of
Mission for the United Nations Mission in Sudan, 2004-06*

“At a time when everyone from George Clooney to George Bush is an instant
expert on Darfur, Kevin Funk and Steven Fake have given us what we so
urgently need: a clear, sober assessment of the conflict and how it fits
into the foreign policy of the United States. With neither fear nor favour,
they take us back stage, show us our blind spots, and come up with some
troubling conclusions. Explosive, masterful, and impeccably fair. Consider
it the thinking person’s guide to Darfur.”
*–John Ghazvinian, author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil*

“A commanding exposé of the duplicitous and damaging role played by US
leaders and others in a dark drama. Well-written, well focused, deeply
informed—an excellent corrective for the many who cannot tell the difference
between humanitarian assistance and imperial aggrandizement.”
*–Michael Parenti, author of ‘Contrary Notions’ and ‘Against Empire’*

“Elegantly written, erudite without being academic, and with a forceful yet
sensible political argument, Scramble for Africa is a must read for anyone
concerned with making sense of one of the most haunting crises of our time.”
*–Stephen Eric Bronner, Rutgers University*

“Scramble for Africa: Darfur Intervention and the USA is the book we’ve all
been waiting for. Clearly written, and scholarly without losing its
skeptical edge, this new work takes on the U.S. Government and the Save
Darfur coalition alike, offering a fresh analysis of Darfur in its larger
geopolitical context. Scramble for Africa belongs on every Darfur activist’s
bookshelf.”
*–David Morse, Darfur activist and journalist*

“So much of what has been written on Darfur is either expression of
humanitarian concern without awareness of the imperial context, or
denunciation of Western perfidy without appreciation of the horrible human
tragedy that has been unfolding. In this extremely well-documented study,
Steve Fake and Kevin Funk combine deep compassion with a keen critical
analysis to show how we might best support the suffering people of Darfur.
This is a book for all those interested in working for a more just world.”
*–Stephen R. Shalom, Professor of Political Science at William Paterson
University in New Jersey and author of, among other works, Imperial Alibis:
Rationalizing US Intervention After the Cold War*

“This extremely well-researched analysis reveals the real goals of US
foreign policy in one of the greatest horrors of our generation. The authors
have produced an essential book for analysts and activists everywhere,
together with a call to action which no-one should ignore.”
*–Mark Curtis, author, Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World*

“One of the few works to tackle honestly the vexing question of what is to
be done about Darfur. Cheerleaders for intervention and humanitarians who
persist in rosy fantasies about the U.S. role in the world have had no
trouble advocating “solutions,” but for others on the left the question has
been much more difficult. Not content, like so many, to simply wash their
hands of the question, the authors have constructed a deeply informed and
carefully reasoned argument that addresses seriously the possibilities for
constructive humanitarian interventions in an imperfect world vitiated by
great power interests and political posturing. For the cruise-missile left
and the hard-core anti-interventionist left alike, Darfur is not about
Darfur but about their own self-image; Fake and Funk rightly bring the focus
back to what is best for the people on the ground.”
*–Rahul Mahajan, activist and author of Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power
in Iraq and Beyond*

“At last there is a book on Darfur that places the conflict in the context
of the new ‘scramble for Africa,’ the contest between the old imperialism of
England and its successors, the US and China. Fake and Funk’s analysis
unmasks the propagandistic deploying of powerful language alleging
‘genocide’ and the ‘world’s worst humanitarian crisis’ in Sudan for its
political advantages to the US and its neglect of the suffering of Darfur’s
victims. When analyzing the politics of the ‘Save Darfur Coalition’ the
journalists-authors work with a scalpel in a refreshing and penetrating
analysis of why the Darfur conflict became the ’cause célèbre,’ when it
should have been the war in Iraq. Activists and astute observers of the
contemporary global political scene will find this scrupulously researched
volume a must read, virtually unique among available works on the subject.”
*–Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Professor of Anthropology, Rhode Island College,
veteran Sudan researcher*

“For those, like myself, who have long felt both revulsion and confusion by
the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and wished to know more, this is the
perfect handbook. …an objective, dispassionate, meticulously researched
account of the conflict… The authors of Scramble for Africa… startle us with
their documentation of the little known but equally sordid role our own
government has played in Sudan for the past thirty years – suggesting that
our present official “humanitarian concerns” are merely crocodile tears
masking another agenda.”
*–Timothy Kendall, Ph. D., Senior Research Scholar, Dept. of
African-American Studies, Northeastern University and Director of
Archaeological Mission, Jebel Barkal (Karima), Sudan, Sudan Dept. of
Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), Khartoum, Sudan*

“The Scramble for Africa stands against the muck of neo-liberal ideology,
taking us through the Darfur conflict, putting it into history and allowing
us to think of a non-imperialist way to bring peace to a tormented region.
Save Darfur, surely; but as much from Washington as Khartoum, as much from
fantasies of humanitarian intervention as the brutalities of
IMFundamentalism and Islamism.”
*–Vijay Prashad, author, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third
World*

“The Darfur conflict has proven to be intractable, at terrible cost to the
people of that region. There is a crying need for on-going international
activism based on a thorough analysis of Sudan and the role of the US, China
and other states. The Scramble for Africa by Kevin Funk and Steven Fake is a
well-researched, important and progressive contribution in this regard. It
should be widely read, from the White House to the grassroots.”
*–Laurie Nathan, research fellow at the London School of Economics and
member of the African Union mediation team for Darfur in 2005/6*

“This excellent book presents the basic information on the political and
military aspects of the conflict, examines the options from a clear and
transparent ethical position, and presents ways forward with a concern for
broad international implications and concern for the hundreds of thousands
of victims. It is is exactly what is needed and I hope it is very widely
read. I will recommend it to everyone.”
*–Justin Podur, writer and activist*

Election canvassing trick or treat?

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Eric Verlo

In our neighborhood, we don’t have to think twice about opening our front door. Most days we leave it open. On the rare occasion that someone comes by, it’s a neighbor or a delivery man. At the extreme it might be a Jehovah’s Witness or small urban youth on a candy drive. So we found ourselves challenged this weekend at the sight of a grown black male in threatening urban attire on our doorstep at dusk. Behind him, a middle-aged white woman stood like a parent escorting a trick-or-treater. Much as I would have liked to know what their visit was about, we didn’t open the door.

I can admit I came late to the decision process, but I wouldn’t have advised any different. We have an African-American neighbor, but otherwise everyone outside in our neighborhood is white and dressed appropriate to what they are doing. This visitor wasn’t suitably dressed to deliver a pizza. Who had time to divine whether he had along a parole officer or a hostage? Answer the door? Not by the hair of our chiny-chin chins. Doesn’t that adage look very strange after all these years? See how far we’ve come.

I came on the scene after the third or fourth time our dark visitor rapped on the door. The decision already made to decline this particular solicitation, I listened as he tried to stuff some literature under our storm door before he walked back to a car. Only when I heard a motor start did I look to see a sporty black Infiniti pulling out of our driveway. When the coast was clear, I retrieved what he’d left under our door, finding two brochures promoting Barack Obama for president. This of course left me completely intrigued, and growing more so as the opportunity escaped to catch up with that car to ask what it was they had wanted.

I would not have been eager to explain our racist timidity, nor I suppose did I want to be faced with having to decline a solicitation for a campaign contribution. I would have had no qualms asking what the gentleman hoped to project with the knit cap and jacket getup. Was he armed too?

Our address isn’t listed as being Democrat, or even possibly receptive I think, so were they attracted by our yard sign?

We have an Obama sign on our lawn, entirely out of desire to show solidarity with the too few Progressives in our neighborhood, as well to encourage the election enthusiasm of our kids. The sign may have been the only reason our would-be canvassers picked our house. In these parts, Obama signs are few and far enough between that election canvassing requires a car.

It turns out the literature our visitors left was generic information about how to use mail-in ballots, and something else equally insignificant to voters presumably already in their camp. This afternoon I’m going to check with the regional Obama headquarters to ask after what we missed.

Really, what might have been their thinking? We’re not deterred about supporting a black candidate (Cynthia McKinney!), but was that an inadvertent aim? The racial divide has certainly come to the forefront of our minds. Now I’m hearing it formalized on the news as “the Bradley Effect.” The tendency of voters to say they will vote for a non-white California governor when later they will change their mind. Those media bastards! It’s really the corporate media auto-suggestion of a so-called effect that we have to worry about. And strange twilight dissonance canvassers.

Naturally my thoughts immediately run to Rovean schemes of bogeyman Obama surrogates sent into suburban neighborhoods to spook the white folk. Is that improbably despicable?

Do Americans want a president in the White House who they would not even be comfortable to see at their front door? I’m sure we can all open our door to a half-black lawyer in a cashmere coat. Some may need to hold out until they recognize the elaborate entourage that marks a dignitary. But such a distinguished visitor would be an honor for even the whitest cracker.

These days I have a feeling that just a uniform from a bonded company is the authorization an African-American male needs to be appreciated for his expertise in your hour of need. And that’s a far cry from wearing a dark knit cap accompanied by his social service officer.

I mentioned that our African American visitor knocked several times to try to get our attention, but we had neither television nor reading light visible. I’m not sure our visitor had any telltale indication we were home. It’s possible of course that nobody in our part of town was showing receptivity on his round. This persistence, loud knocks across our quiet dark house, was the incongruous element I could not reconcile with a friendly campaign call. Hence my suspicion that somebody was playing Big Bad Wolf.

World news and the everyday teenager

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Eric Verlo

There wasn’t any conversation to speak of on the drive to school today, so I turned on the news. From the back a teen immediately interjected “Is that completely necessary?”

I muted the sound and turned around, completely incredulous. “What?”

“Is that completely necessary?” she repeated without a hint of what I hoped to have been mischievous insolence.

“Not really.” Is all I could muster as I turned the volume back up and refocused my attention. I can’t say that listening to corporate propaganda is necessary, or even a good idea. But I am at an equal loss for how else to stay tuned to what’s happening around us. It’s a good thing my honest ambivalence tripped up the teaching moment I might have offered.

There are probably far too many ways to get entangled in current affairs, but for children with school, sports, video games, television, play, music and the odd meal, there is no break for non-academic reality. One might argue that kids could be spared the complications of the world outside. I can hardly see the merit to that school of unthought. Especially as domestic politics have certainly invaded their education, the piss-poor vocational experience few are willing to admit that American schools have become.

This drive-time comment came after an evening spent not being forced to attend a journalist’s lecture last night. It was off-putting enough to have to wait in the atrium apparently. Although, as dense as the economic principles might have been, I sorely regretted that all of the kids, especially the girls, had not witnessed Naomi Klein, about as apt a role model as any young woman could dream.

So what if much would be above their head? Won’t they grow into it? Are there realities too shocking for children? Shouldn’t our challenge be to address those horrors, sooner than shield ourselves by pretending they do not exist? What a luxury that our children have even the choice to know how they are impacted.

It’s one thing to expose kids to pictures of highway accidents, or television programs about serial killers, quite another in my opinion to complicate their understanding of societal malevolence. Can they not gleam from parental example that such obstacles do not render life hopeless? We cope. We blot out certain realities to pamper our own delusions. Is that a difficulty level beyond young people?

There’s no doubt a fine line about forcing experiences on children, the morning news for example, but isn’t that to pretend that almost all their indoctrination isn’t involuntary? Can you think of any accomplished person who wasn’t pushed?

We can be thankful our children aren’t experiencing household raids, aerial bombings, and marketplace bombers which take the lives of their friends and relatives. How sheltered do children need to be? Even if their Social Studies will eventually teach them Zinn or Chomsky, aren’t the lessons sabotaged by the context of isolation? How are children really to learn that they aren’t working in factories but for blood spilled by labor unions; that their grandparents aren’t destitute or dead owing to collective efforts which demanded more from their government? Pop culture has already lulled kids to the politics of nothing matters. Is there any wrong time to try to right that lie? Or do YOU believe that individuals have no power to participate in the global community?

Not Sons of Bitches, Dems are bitches

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Eric Verlo

When the Democrats were the minority they seemed so weak. Now in the Majority they’re positively wimps. Pundits tell us it’s a lack of leadership. Why would the corporate media overlook who’s at the whip? It would seem clear that the corporations writing the legislation, funding the campaigns, and paying for the free lunch, are driving the agenda. The GOP is paid to play the white hats, and when a bill is unpopular, the Dems are pushed forward to play the creeps.

On the proposed bailout ripoff, the Dems were not the sons of bitches, they’re just the bitches. I heard a Dem scare-mongeree explain that in spite of loathing the idea of a solution which benefited the wrong people, the bailout was our only option. “All economists agree we have to do this” he said, ignoring quite a few who have urged the opposite. The interviewer interrupted to announce, this just in, the vote had failed and as a result the DOW had plunged by 700 points. She wanted his response: “Oh. My. God.”

As Bush and his GOP team stand in the shadows, the Democrats are thrust forward to “lead” the support for this criminal legislation. Whether the bill won or lost, either way the Democrats would come out looking like shits.

I’m reminded about how an invading army flushes out defenders still hiding. Send your captives into the buildings to spring the booby-traps. Make them open the doors to draw the fire. Among thugs in prison the dirty work is done by the bitches.

Except for Democracy Now, the media won’t report the authentic Democratic efforts to lead. Here’s Dennis Kucinich on the floor of Congress speaking against the bailout and asking: why, why why:

“The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered.

Why aren’t we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren’t we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers’ money?

Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren’t we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess?

Why aren’t we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren’t we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

“Why aren’t we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren’t we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren’t we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street?

Isn’t it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks?

Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.”

Michael Moore is more charitable about the Democrats’ actions yesterday. Here’s his update:

Friends,

Everyone said the bill would pass. The masters of the universe were already making celebratory dinner reservations at Manhattan’s finest restaurants. Personal shoppers in Dallas and Atlanta were dispatched to do the early Christmas gifting. Mad Men of Chicago and Miami were popping corks and toasting each other long before the morning latte run.

But what they didn’t know was that hundreds of thousands of Americans woke up yesterday morning and decided it was time for revolt. The politicians never saw it coming. Millions of phone calls and emails hit Congress so hard it was as if Marshall Dillon, Elliot Ness and Dog the Bounty Hunter had descended on D.C. to stop the looting and arrest the thieves.

The Corporate Crime of the Century was halted by a vote of 228 to 205. It was rare and historic; no one could remember a time when a bill supported by the president and the leadership of both parties went down in defeat. That just never happens.

A lot of people are wondering why the right wing of the Republican Party joined with the left wing of the Democratic Party in voting down the thievery. Forty percent of Democrats and two-thirds of Republicans voted against the bill.

Here’s what happened:

The presidential race may still be close in the polls, but the Congressional races are pointing toward a landslide for the Democrats. Few dispute the prediction that the Republicans are in for a whoopin’ on November 4th. Up to 30 Republican House seats could be lost in what would be a stunning repudiation of their agenda.

The Republican reps are so scared of losing their seats, when this “financial crisis” reared its head two weeks ago, they realized they had just been handed their one and only chance to separate themselves from Bush before the election, while doing something that would make them look like they were on the side of “the people.”

Watching C-Span yesterday morning was one of the best comedy shows I’d seen in ages. There they were, one Republican after another who had backed the war and sunk the country into record debt, who had voted to kill every regulation that would have kept Wall Street in check — there they were, now crying foul and standing up for the little guy! One after another, they stood at the microphone on the House floor and threw Bush under the bus, under the train (even though they had voted to kill off our nation’s trains, too), heck, they would’ve thrown him under the rising waters of the Lower Ninth Ward if they could’ve conjured up another hurricane. You know how your dog acts when sprayed by a skunk? He howls and runs around trying to shake it off, rubbing and rolling himself on every piece of your carpet, trying to get rid of the stench. That’s what it looked like on the Republican side of the aisle yesterday, and it was a sight to behold.

The 95 brave Dems who broke with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were the real heroes, just like those few who stood up and voted against the war in October of 2002. Watch the remarks from yesterday of Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Dennis Kucinich. They spoke the truth.

The Dems who voted for the giveaway did so mostly because they were scared by the threats of Wall Street, that if the rich didn’t get their handout, the market would go nuts and then it’s bye-bye stock-based pension and retirement funds.

And guess what? That’s exactly what Wall Street did! The largest, single-day drop in the Dow in the history of the New York Stock exchange. The news anchors last night screamed it out: Americans just lost 1.2 trillion dollars in the stock market!! It’s a financial Pearl Harbor! The sky is falling! Bird flu! Killer Bees!

Of course, sane people know that nobody “lost” anything yesterday, that stocks go up and down and this too shall pass because the rich will now buy low, hold, then sell off, then buy low again.

But for now, Wall Street and its propaganda arm (the networks and media it owns) will continue to try and scare the bejesus out of you. It will be harder to get a loan. Some people will lose their jobs. A weak nation of wimps won’t last long under this torture. Or will we? Is this our line in the sand?

Here’s my guess: The Democratic leadership in the House secretly hoped all along that this lousy bill would go down. With Bush’s proposals shredded, the Dems knew they could then write their own bill that favors the average American, not the upper 10% who were hoping for another kegger of gold.

So the ball is in the Democrats’ hands. The gun from Wall Street remains at their head. Before they make their next move, let me tell you what the media kept silent about while this bill was being debated:

1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called oversight group that was going to monitor Wall Street’s spending of the $700 billion;

2. It had NO penalties, fines or imprisonment for any executive who might steal any of the people’s money;

3. It did NOTHING to force banks and lenders to rewrite people’s mortgages to avoid foreclosures — this bill would not have stopped ONE foreclosure!;

4. It had NO teeth anywhere in the entire piece of legislation, using words like “suggested” when referring to the government being paid back for the bailout;

5. Over 200 economists wrote to Congress and said this bill might actually WORSEN the “financial crisis” and cause even MORE of a meltdown.

Put a fork in this slab of pork. It’s over. Now it is time for our side to state very clearly the laws WE want passed. I will send you my proposals later today. We’ve bought ourselves less than 72 hours.

Yours,
Michael Moore

Sarah Palin Church Lady for President!

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Eric Verlo

I may be too impressionable, but I’ve warmed up to Sarah Palin. For President! The American two-party delusion needs a coup-de-grace, and doesn’t Palin have just authenticity enough to pull the trigger? Assail this logic if you can.

The Democratic Party is already out of the picture. Since reclaiming Congress in 2006 the Dems have shown Americans what they can do. Nothing. Name the issue, whatever their constituents want, the Democrats won’t deliver it. They can’t even commandeer a lead in the polls against the most despised political machine in recent memory. They’ve got a charismatic candidate who can run pirouettes around his opponent, a corrupt, desperate, lying geriatric. But the Dems can’t sway the corporate media from allegiance to the GOP.

How many rotten eggs do you need hatched? The Democrats are already rolling over for 2008 election irregularities. They will give in to Wall Street’s trillion-plus dollar extortion. And they won’t end the war, or stop torture, or defend the Constitution, or impeach genocidal bastards, regardless the public’s outrage. The Democratic Party is a dead lost cause. Dead.

The Republican Party is still kicking -the shit out of us- and they’ve no doubt got plenty left in them. We learned in just the space of a week that the GOP financiers must get their money or they’ll break the economy’s kneecaps. What kind of odds do you want the goons won’t be back for more?

We used to imagine that asset-stripping capitalists knew enough not to kill the golden goose, but maybe we underestimate the standard of living (ours) left to strangle from her.

Republican journeymen such as McCain, Lieberman, Graham, and cronies Paulson et Cheney, won’t stop at extracting your gold fillings. But novitiate Sarah Palin just may have a less developed depth of greed.

I’ve made this mistake before, when I imagined George W. Bush too simple to know that absolute power was his to corrupt. But don’t you have the sense Sarah Palin is the real deal? There’s no Prescott Bush in her bloodline. Palin will loot only as much as she can stash in a Winnebago. Then she’ll apply herself to her spiritual calling. She’s no Tammy Faye. To my mind, Palin’s religiosity is sufficiently extreme to appear genuine.

There may of course remain Halliburton machinations behind Palin’s flirty church lady. But the oligarchs’ growing mendacity, combined with Sarah Palin’s small-minded zealotry, could bring Fascist America beyond the pale. I think the GOP legacy could finally close the book on our nation’s Democracy fable. If we survive it, the Republicans will be gone for good.

I’m with Jacques‘ election 2008 slogan:

GOP IN 2008, GONE FOREVER IN 2012, WORTH THE RISK.

CC newspaper can misreport like a pro

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Eric Verlo

While I’m picking on Colorado College, have a look at what passes for journalism at the Catalyst:

The McCain/Palin RNC speeches had already been exposed for lies by the time the two visited Colorado Springs. But the candidates repeat their earmarks/reform misrepresentations which reporters parrot without so much as a raised eyebrow. Even now the corporate media won’t call the GOP on their doublespeak. I guess neither will CC journalism students.

What kind of cheerleading did the students feel had been left out of the Gazette and Denver Post coverage? The reporter described the Colorado Springs streets lined on both sides with McCain supporters, without a mention of the prominent presence of the protesters. What a shame/sham.

No doubt a Communications Major now requires a class in UNETHICS. Who am I to judge students trying to qualify for jobs in today’s corporate state? Once more Colorado College students confirm their school’s common function as purveyor of Neo-liberal Arts.

I’d actually like to draw your attention to the article at the upper right of the front page, about the campus NEW ALCOHOL POLICY. While the drinking age in Colorado remains 21, Colorado College is relaxing its enforcement of underage drinking. This would be applicable to two thirds of the CC student body. Apparently being able to drink is a benefit the college would like to provide, regardless the laws of Colorado.

Colorado College has had its share of drinking fatalities, and neighborhood disturbances, but I guess having a campus conducive to partying would be too important to infringe upon. Especially as CC’s academic successes warrant their students being able to kick back.

Really, the college does have a stellar faculty, but even their assessment of the caliber of today’s students has perhaps become myopic. Unless the quality of America’s students as a whole has degraded to this untenable uneducable extreme.

Wake up CC alums, your campus is gone to the dogs. Drunken wet ignorant dogs. I can’t think of what could smell worse.

	LL on Owl City writes lyrics most fo…
	lizzie on The ‘success maker…
	gary cummings on Common Dreams? Or is it censor…
	kennetha on The Stiles Unit of Beaumont
	Cristian on Shlomo Sand and shattering a n…
	Vic Currier on Why should you attend the Denv…
	Vic Currier on Sovereign constitutional oath…
	Robyn KenyaStar Prui… on White Native Americans
	Debra Gill on The Stiles Unit of Beaumont
	Xaldyn on The ‘success maker…

Not My Tribe

The Myth of Middle Ground

Tag Archives: corporate media