Propaganda?

Wanting it Both Ways

Politics is sad. Or maybe, American politics is sad. Our citizens continue to elect total nimcompoops who are only self-interested. Yes, there are always exceptions but for the most part they are all full of shit.
One day I thought about making a list of right wing rhetoric and how they want "it both ways". Take the "sanctity of life" and the bombs we drop. The bullshit from Bush about not wanting to take human life to save other human life but that was the exact purpose of our invasion of Iraq.
So I thought maybe some others out there could help me fill up a good list that we all can use against right wing nonsense.

First off there is Democracy. The RW, NeoCOns and Bush speak glowingly about the spread of Democracy and its great benefits. While at the same time supporting autocrats and dictators world wide. Hugo Chavez is a dictator and the Sauds are our moderate allies.
They claim to be the ones who truly love the country and the left is treasonous yet they do everything in their power to not to pay taxes to fund the country they purport to love.
They are fiscally more responsible then the Democrats. This one I don't need to even expand on.
Reagan gets the credit for bankrupting the Soviets but the Democrats were in control of Congress yet when you bring up the huge deficits created by Reagan then it becomes the Democratic Controlled Congress's fault.
Claim to be for the "Free Market" but they are for subsidizing industry, allowing tax dollars to be spent on pollution clean-up left by industry, want to protect certain American industries, and on.....
They want us to believe that supercomputers and 1500 scientists can't predict future weather patterns but want us to believe their predictions for Social Security.
Republicans were whining about giving Bush nominees for Federal Judges an "up or down vote" but refused to allow Clinton nominees the chance to get a vote at all.
The Right claims to be against regulations unless it is regulating sex, euthanasia, drug use, reproduction, art and on and on...
Tout adoption as the alternative to abortion unless you are a gay couple.
They claim to be strong on defense but always show so much fear and weakness by being "terrified" by weak tin pot dictators without weapons.
They say people should be held responsible for their actions unless it is something like Abu Ghraib, "bad intelligence", after war planning, Sept. 11 etc
Claim the UN is useless until it is needed.
They tell us that the Treasury Bonds backing Social Security are just "pieces of paper" but they wouldn't say that to Japan, Saudi Arabia or China.
Criticism is unpatriotic unless they are the ones criticizing.
They continue to spew nonsense about "our dependence on foreign oil" yet don't fund real alternatives.
One standard right wing complaint is that Government is intruding into our lives but they did everything in their power to try keep Terry Schiavo alive.
Against special treatment for certain groups in regards to college admission unless they are the rich white kids of Alum.
For State's Rights unless they control the Federal Government.
The pretend to be champions of the Constitution but don't believe a jury of ones peers is capable of hearing malpractice cases.
For open markets for American products only.
Claim the Democrats are a hazard to our safety all the while they outted a CIA agent.
Claim to support Religious peoples abd family values unless of course you are a mexican immigrant.
Claim market forces rule except when it comes to labor following capital.
That is my incomplete list. I'm sorry if it isn't the easiest read, I have drank way too much coffee this morning so there may be some typos. I look forward to everyones additions.

Great Political Commercial

Hurricane Hugo

Why does Washington fear the Venezuelan President so much? Why is Washington working so hard, actually bribing and threatening nations, to get other countries to vote with them to put Guatemala on the UN Security Council instead of Venezuela. It isn't as if the Venezuelans would have veto power like the world's rulers deserve. In fact they would have very little power since the world has decided that the US, Russia, England, China and France are the only important countries of the world and has granted them veto power. What’s even more wonderous are the attacks against Hugo Chavez by Democrats like Chuck Rangel and Nancy Pelosi. Is it the man we fear or his message? This is the real question.
As we speak the US is bullying countries into voting with them to put Guatemala on the Security Council. John, I can't get confirmed to the UN, Bolton is telling Venezuela to back down and give up on their attempt to get a seat on the Security Council. Never you mind that Guatemala, the lesser of two evils in our Empire's eyes, is systematically slaughtering street kids. Also forget that like most of the Third World, Guatemala's elites are enriching themselves at the expense of the poor in their nation. As usual, these are all good things in Washington's eyes.
The easily elected leader of Venezuela is a dictator our sheepish media tell us. He is a "thug" according to Nancy Pelosi. Christ, Nancy Pelosi wouldn't ever call our President a thug even though the description fits him much better. Both Bush and Chavez came to power around the same time and guess who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Not Hugo. Yet it is Hugo who is the thug. Even though our President has just been given the power, by Congress, to indefinitely hold prisoners without the right to a trial yet it is Hugo who is becoming Authoritarian.
There are two main reasons our Empire is fearful of Hugo. Today I will only address one of the two. The main reason that Washington, both parties, fears the Venezuelan President is because he offers a different view of the world. One that is not supposed to be voiced and when it is, in our country, we can count on the obiedient media to refer to those suggestions as crackpot or utopian. National healthcare is some pie in the sky idea that isn't feasible unless of course you are one of those uncompetitive utopian nations like Canada, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Austria, or Switzerland. When was the last time you bought something from Sweden(Erickson phones) or Finland(Nokia). Better yet, we are told how much better our for-profit healthcare system is. Still where is the political movement in any European country to institute for-profit American style healthcare? It doesn't exist because the concept is so widely popular that only a fool would advocate some change.
Just imagine if Venezuela had been on the Security Council during the lead up to our invasion and occupation of Iraq. They would have had the lap dog, Mexico's, seat. If my memory serves me right the Mexicans didn't support our illegal and immoral invasion but they weren't vocal critics and did nothing to stave off the tragedy. Had the Venezuelans been on the Council we would have seen the them using the forum to show how illegal and unnecessary this war was. They may have even sponsored envoys which would have really pissed of our Empire.
If anyone had the chance to see Hugo Chavez's over the top performance at the UN last month, they can understand why the US is scared of their message, "Another world is possible." My main disappointment about the speech was Chavez's reference to Bush being the devil. I had really hoped that Chavez would have turned out to be an atheist but oh well. I can overlook it though, since he follows Christ's teachings teachings far closer than our holier than thou born again fake. Still it was a little disappointing to see him use such infantile, Bush-esque, rhetoric.
I agree that his rhetoric was over the top and may have done himself more damage than good but why, one must ask, does he have such strong feelings. It could be that the CIA attempted to overthrow him in April 2002. The CIA involvement was obvious, to anyone who knows even a basic history of Latin America, because the only country in the Western Hemisphere that didn't condemn the coup was the US. While the rest of the Americas were calling for the Democratic will of the Venezuelans to be respected the Bush Administration called for the opposite but with the same terminology. The outrageous level of rhetoric that goes unchallenged by our media should be frightening to any and all American whom are not members of the ruling elite. It doesn't matter what the facts are because the media create the true facts. Remember how Saddam was responsible for 9/11.
Again this shows how weak our country really is. Greedy oligarchs who are terrified of ideas entering the lexicon of the world hold up our whole society. They do not want to be removed from their undeserving position of world rulers. They understand that their hold is flimsy once exposed to light so they send out faithful Democrats to use harsher words for a populist than that of a man who is responsible for the deaths of 655,000 people. Who the fuck are the real thugs? Us!

At least some newsman cares.

Quick Rant

I was going to apologize for not writing lately, due to my working on the third shift, but I realized that there is no one there.
Two things
First why can't North Korea build nuclear weapons? WHy do we, America, have the right to keep tens of thousands of nuclear weapons but North Korea is not allowed to have one? When was the last time North Korea used a Weapon of Mass Destruction? When was the last time Americans did? Some could argue that the sanctions applied to Iraq by both Bush I and the great liberal Clinton were form of weapons of mass destruction. Sure it wasn't all spectacular with big explosions but nontheless the sanctions killed at least half a million children alone. When Madeleine Albright was asked by Leslie Stahl, on 60 minutes, about the half a million dead kids, she didn't deny it, instead she said that they thought the price was worth it. How fucking sick. Here we have all these fake liberals crying about the war in Iraq yet where were they when Clinton was slaughtering them? They didn't care, plain and simple. It wasn't until lives that count, American lives, began to be lost that these pseudo-liberals began to talk about how bad Bush is.
When Clinton was forced to stop the "genocide" in Kosovo, many of us argued that invading non-nuclear states would increase the need for them to acquire the weapons. Of course, we were wrong. Genocide was being committed. Sure if you go and look at the numbers that claim doesn't stand up to the scrutiny. First off 2000 dead rebels is not genocide any more than Israel's overreaction to the Hizzbollah was genocide. If we look at the numbers, the Israelis are more guilty of genocide in Palestine then the Serbs were. Yet when will any American administration stand up to the "Israeli Lobby". We would rather piss of the entire Arab world then make the Israelis play nice. Nobody wants to be called an antisemite do they?
The second bit is that our Dear Leader has signed into law the suspension of Habeus Crpus and the right to torture people. Finally we can ram metal rods, retroactively, into the rectums of our prisoners. It is sick that Americans want to torture other humans so bad they split hairs when it comes to the Geneva Conventions. They say things like, "Well they aren't fighting for a foreign army so therefore the ban on torture shouldn't apply." THis shows the immense desire to attach electrical currents to mens testicles. We are truly a sick nation. 3000 people die and we instantly start to figure out how to legally force our captors to perform oral sex on other inmates. If you don't believe that we have, I will send you the photos, not to mention the raping of women. This is all legal now, in retrospect. We have given immunity to torturers because we are so terrified of a scattered group of Arabs who have killed less Americans then our roads have in the last month. Yet there is no war on car accidents. Americans have a, what many see as, a legimate racism towards Muslims. SO now it just makes sense that we smear human feces on them.
For all the weapons we have, we are a bunch of pussies. It is amazing. We have slaughtered millions over the last few decades and know we are led to believe that there is no legitimate right to fight back even though that is exactly what we would do. We actually invaded an entire country without a single piece of evidence and now we are torturing people under the guise of a threat for which they can not present a piece of evidence. Hey but at least the masochistic can get there kicks.

Noam

Holy Shit!

New figures have come out from the Johns Hopkins University about the numbers of Iraqis that have died as a result of our illegal invasion and continued occupation of Iraq. In our attempt to rid Saddam of Weapons of Mass Destruction, or wait to liberate Iraq, no, I mean bring Democracy to the Middle East, over 650,000 Iraqis have died. In three years the actions of our government have killed 655,000 people. In about one years time from now the number will top one million. We are truly a sick country.
As soon as this study came out our science friendly president said it was flawed. Remember that this is printed in the Lancet Medical Journal, Europe’s most prestigious medical magazine, which is peer reviewed. Also remember too, that Bush was a C student who has said he doesn’t read. Bush, who is nothing but an enemy of science, is going to tell us that this survey is flawed? C’mon you have got to be kidding me. The man is an idiot plain and simple and the people who he is surrounded by are a bunch of idiots as well. These are the same people who told us that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators. They were so certain that this would be the case that Cheney refused to answer a hypothetical question posed to him by Tim Russert about what may happen if we are viewed as occupiers and not liberators. Cheney told him that simply wasn’t going to be the case so there was no reason to even answer the hypothetical. This asshole is going to tell us that the Doctors at Johns Hopkins have a flawed study.
George Bush says that the survey is flawed. This is the same guy who stood on an Air Craft Carrier and told us that major combat operations in Iraq are over and he removed an ally of Al Queda. Yet the vast majority of all of the US causalities have resulted after Bush’s staged photo op. Did you know the Navy had to turn the ship around so the cameras wouldn’t be able to see San Diego on the Horizon? As far as an ally of Al Queda being removed, even he now claims that he never said Saddam was in cahoots with Saddam. Yet he is going to tell us that this study is flawed.
The great thing about our totally worthless media is that this number and this story will be sent down the memory hole. Bush doesn’t need to explain how the study is flawed because, one, he can’t and two, it couldn’t be explained away with a ten second sound bite in between the really important stuff, the commercials. What is truly scary is that many Americans will take Bush at his word not because he is intelligent or has a grasp of science but because they are sheep. They really believe that our government is always acting with the bests intentions and not malicious or evil, to use the fairy tale terminology so favored by Bush and his little mind. “We didn’t kill 655,000 people just so we could control the Middle East’s oil. We were trying to help people.” Luckily for the ruling elite the American public’s attention span is about as long as a ten second sound bite or a thirty second commercial. You ever wonder why the commercials are only thirty seconds?
So lets review, Johns Hopkins puts out a study in a peer reviewed medical journal after surveying thousands of households across Iraq. They interview people and are shown death certificates by most of the interviewees. They use the same techniques that they used in Kosovo and the People’s Republic of Congo that were widely accepted by the Western World, England and America included.
George Bush and his moronic crew told us so many fanciful stories. They told us of tens of thousands of gallons of mustard gas. They told us of mobile weapons labs, which were actually given to them by the British to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. They told us that Saddam was a grave threat to our existence. Rumsfeld told a press conference that he knew where the weapons were. Cheney refused to even toy with the idea that the Iraqis would resist American occupation because it wasn’t going to happen he reassured us. He also told us half a year ago that the insurgency, I believe he referred to them as terrorists, were in their last throes. So who are the ones that are flawed?

Good-Bye, Habeas corpus!

Our government has finally rid them of that little inconvenience that is the right to challenge one’s detention. It goes back to 1215 and was a check on the power of the English King John. Yet today, after those 3000 people died, we now must throw it out in our attempt to create our own King. “We live in dangerous times unlike any time since 1215. These are different times.” Talk about a bunch of bullshit. We are slowly creating an elected Emperor who can do as he so chooses. If the President wants to use a Mexican-American to distract attention from his own failed policy and hold him indefinitely that’s fine. We can’t have that pesky Supreme Court deciding what is legal or not. We are now led to believe that Bush is so extremely competent, except on 9/11, that he can read the Geneva Conventions and interpret them, when I doubt he can find Geneva on a map.
Here are two good pieces of bullshit rhetoric.
The first is the idea that the Democrats can’t stand up to the President for fear of being labeled weak and losing the election. This latest law should have been filibustered but the Democrats are more concerned about being re-elected to Congress, because they have the easiest job in the world with automatic pay increases, then protecting the Constitution they vowed to uphold. Instead we are told that this election is too important which sounds very familiar.
During the 2004 election, us Nader voters were told the election was far too important to vote for someone who stands with you. Instead we were told we must vote for a guy who wants to increase troop levels and escalate an immoral and illegal war. This was a life or death situation we were told. Yet when numerous Democrats knew, prior to the election, that the President was secretly listening to our telephone calls, they said nothing. Sure maybe disclosing that information could have swung the election towards the Democrats but they, knowing how extremely important this election was, chose to do nothing. So was the election really that important?
Now we have the Democrats voting to get rid of Habeas Corpus under the guise that they must not lose the next election because abortion on demand is far more important than the right to challenge one’s detention by the State. All of our elected rulers are tools especially the Democrats. I hold the Democrats to task because Republicans are only concerned about not paying taxes. When one falls for the root of all evil, even when their supposed holy book warns them, why should we expect them to have morals. If this election, or any other, truly mattered then the Democrats would fight accordingly. Instead, all they do is remind us of how important this election is. Refusing to mention that it is important only for them.
The next piece of bullshit rhetoric is the one being spewed by Bush and his posse. They keep claiming that we must win this war otherwise we are all screwed. Of course they need to tie the illegal aggressive war, the crimes of Nuremberg, to the war against resistance towards our Empire. Instead of forcing the Israelis out of the Palestinian Occupied Territories, which is the moral thing to do, they invade and occupy another Muslim nation. Neither parties want to force Israel to get out of the Occupied Territories because they are beholden to the "Israeli Lobby and fear being labeled an Anti-Semite.
So if this aggressive war is necessary for the Empire to win then why not fight it as if you wanted to win. Why not call a draft in order to have enough troops to win? Why not get rid of the tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, since they are the ones reaping the benefits of the Empire and its illegal war? Why not? Because this war is in no way important to America, outside of the ruling classes and the oil barons. The Empire doesn’t want to steal the oil but control it. If you don’t believe me, wait, I will be writing a column like this in a decade when a Democratic leader tells us we need to send troops to Columbia or Central Asia to fight drugs. I’m certain, if this administration wasn’t filled with people who have a dual loyalty to the state of Israel we would be in Venezuela right now.
Habeas Corpus has been the basis for humane law for centuries and we have now rid ourselves of it. Three thousand people die, the same amount that die every month on the roads, and we decide to give the President powers that he should never have. To all those who think that, “Well when we get a Democrat in office they will reverse this.” When in history has a ruler given up their power? We shouldn’t believe any of their bullshit rhetoric because there is no truth in it. If we do fall for it we have only ourselves to blame. Unfortunately, since 9/11, we have become complete dipshits, from the conspiracy that Bush, the genius, orchestrated 9/11 to the idea that terrorists hate our freedoms shows that many have drank the kool-aid.