Saturday September 29th 2007 - links page

No blogs today - mpg

Friday September 28th 2007 - links page

Hillary Clinton Votes for War Again---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bromwich/hillary-clinton-votes-for_b_66174.html
A quote...."The original draft of Kyl-Lieberman had asked U.S. forces to "combat, contain, and roll back" the Iranian menace within Iraq. But the words "roll back" were all too plainly a coded endorsement of hot pursuit into Iran; and the senators did not want to go quite so far. To assure a larger majority the language was accordingly trimmed and blurred to say "that it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies." - "The inclusion of Hezbollah deserves some notice. It is part of a larger attempt, already apparent in the Lebanon war of 2006, to manufacture an "amalgam" of all the enemies of Israel and the United States throughout the region, and to treat them all as one enemy. Those who believe in the amalgam will come to agree that many more wars by the United States and Israel are needed to crush this enemy." - bold/italics/underline by website author

This is a VERY good observation. It appears the PNAC plan is still on track with the FULL support of the DemoRepubs.- mpg
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The Depravity of Empire  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/09/depravity-of-empire.html
A quote...."Because an empire must, by definition, rely on coercion and murder, any given day in the rule of empire is immoral and detestable for those who genuinely value liberty and peace. But certain days are worse than others. In terms of what it bodes for our future -- and for the future of the world -- yesterday was a particularly awful day in the United States Senate, now controlled and led by the imperial Democrats. If there are any people who still believed that the Democrats would represent a fundamental shift in U.S. foreign policy, they have no reason to believe it any longer."

Lost in the Roar: War Alarms Drowned by Beltway Bloodlust  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1297/135/
A quote...."I got my hammer ringin', baby, but the nails ain't goin' down." -- Bob Dylan

"Hammerblows of truth keep falling on the Bush Regime's propaganda campaign for war against Iran, which has been built up out of allegations so specious and shoddy that they make the manifold deceits of the Attack Iraq carnival look like gospel truth. But far from doing any damage to the engine of death now rolling toward Persia, the hammers are not even being heard above the roar."

Ellsberg Calls for Actions to Prevent War with Iran - posted at Common Dreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/28/4163/
A quote...."Ellsberg said he has been called a traitor numerous times for breaking a “vow of secrecy” when he released the Pentagon Papers. But Ellsberg said he took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution - the same oath all military and public servants are required to take. - “It is not an oath to the president, Ellsberg said. And it's not an oath to keep secrets. And it's not an oath to the commander in chief, or the Fuhrer or Caesar or to the flag. “It is an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. - italics by website author

Six key nations agree to delay talks on Iran sanctions until November  ---  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/907981.html
A quote...."Six key nations agreed Friday to delay until November a new United Nations resolution that would toughen sanctions against Iran in efforts to prevent the Islamic republic from enriching uranium."

Congress Quietly Approves Billions More for Iraq War - posted at Common Dreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/28/4163/
A quote...."The Senate agreed on Thursday to increase the federal debt limit by $850 billion -- from $8.965 trillion to $9.815 trillion -- and then proceeded to approve a stop-gap spending bill that gives the Bush White House at least $9 billion in new funding for its war in Iraq." - bold/italics by website author

Democratic presidential candidates: US troops could stay in Iraq until 2013  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/sep2007/iraq-s28.shtml
A quote...."The Democratic Party's pretense of opposing the war in Iraq has largely collapsed following a series of defeats in the US Senate last week of Democratic-sponsored legislation proposing timetables for partial redeployment of the more than 160,000 troops currently occupying the country. - Nothing could make clearer the real position of the party, however, than the Democratic debate Wednesday night in New Hampshire, in which all three of the party's leading presidential candidates ”Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Senator John Edward ”refused to commit themselves, if elected, to withdrawing all American troops from Iraq by the beginning of their second term—in 2013. - bold/italics by website author

Got the point yet America?  A vote for one of these creeps is as bad as voting for Bush....all over again. - mpg
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See No Evil - The Teflon Alliance with Israel  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/christison09272007.html
A quote...."Two recent offhand comments, both widely publicized, have seriously undermined whatever progress might have been made in exposing the fact that the Iraq war was initiated at least in large part to guarantee Israel's safety and regional dominance in the Middle East."

Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, Guantanamo Forever  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174842
A quote...."As the presidential election season heats up, Republican candidates have opted for "Guantanamo-forever" policy positions. Retiring Republican Senator Chuck Hagel recently complained that the notorious detention facility -- once the proud public face of the President's attempt to move incarceration and mistreatment offshore and beyond the reach of American courts -- has bizarrely enough become "a Republican litmus test." At the same time, at Guantanamo itself, anger and factionalism are on the rise, not among prisoners but warders, while the attempt to set up what Wall Street Journal reporter Jess Bravin calls "a free-standing court system to try alleged foreign terrorists" founders for the nine hundredth time. More than five years after being inaugurated, the prison complex has so far adjudicated exactly one case to the point of conviction -- a simple plea bargain (essentially negotiated between President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard) that transferred small-fry Taliban follower David Hicks back to Australia where he is to be freed at the end of this year." - bold/italics/underline by website author

Unbelievable. - mpg
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School Guards Break Child's Arm And Arrest Her For Dropping Cake  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/280907Cake.htm
Must View - Must Read - Some quotes...."School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up."  -  "The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process. - Pleajhai also says that the security guard in the picture yelled "hold still nappy-head" at her, which at the time she did not know was a racist comment."

Epidemic Of Police Brutality & Harassment Sweeps America & UK  ---  http://prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/210907_b_brutality.htm
Related Article - A quote...."An epidemic of violence and harassment is sweeping the country. Police are being trained that the general public are the enemy and that they can engage in outright brutality without recourse. Taser deaths are skyrocketing because the police have been ordered to use "pain compliance", otherwise known as torture, to subdue and oppress the citizenry. Police are also increasingly completely unaware of the laws they are supposed to enforce and have resolved to invent offences out of thin air as an excuse to harass people. It is time for police to remember that their duty is to protect the general public from criminals and not act as enforcers for a tyrannical police state."
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Shocking New Revelations On 9/11 Ground Zero Cover-Up  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/280907_new_revelations.htm
A quote...."A 9/11 first responder has shed new light on how he heard a countdown before the demolition of Building 7, how he was told to "shut up" by superiors when he tried to report secondary explosions and why "vicious security" measures were enacted to prevent people from accessing certain areas of ground zero."

The Military Drills of September 11th: Why a New Investigation is Needed  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6906
Must Read - A quote...."We bring to the attention of our readers this carefully researched analysis.  

"Given the warnings of incipient terrorist attacks that had been repeatedly received by the Administration and the FBI, why would anyone coordinate two major annual air training exercises at this time, and divert key resources to the North Pole on an outdated mission? Who was in a position to do this?" 

"The 911 Commission carefully overlooked these considerations. "It ignored the issue of the drills and continuously pointed to FAA incompetence.  Thus the the mock live hijackings which were apparently in progress on the morning of September 11th should be investigated as a plausible explanation for why the national defense was such an abysmal failure."
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9/11 - From The History File...9/11 War Games by the US military and CIA
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Dozens in Mexican city ill with suspected avian flu  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6928
A quote...."Dozens of people in a Mexican city are gravely ill with what is being treated as a possible outbreak of avian flu, according to a new report from a Spanish-language website. - According to El Universal, authorities in a neighborhood in Guanajuato say 45 patients have been given medical attention at the area's hospital after they reported symptoms including extreme headaches, stomachaches, vomiting and diarrhea."

Thursday September 27th 2007 - links page

'A Coup Has Occurred'   ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18456.htm
 Must Read - 09/26/07 "ICH" -- -- September 26, 2007 (Text of a speech delivered September 20, 2007) -- - - I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there's another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.
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B-52 Nukes Headed for Iran: Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6909
Must Read - WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. - However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community."

For more on this issue see....Puts and Nukes  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-091507-092207#Puts_and_Nukes
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Iran leader visits Venezuela, Bolivia  ---  http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-27-iran-south-america_N.htm?csp=34
A quote...."LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Iran's president opened his nation's wallet to Bolivia on Thursday and then visited Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, declaring "no one can defeat us" during a trip aimed at strengthening ties with Latin American leftists and countering U.S. influence."

CFR's Hart Suggests False Flag Event For Iran War  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/270907Hart.htm
Must Read - Related article - A quote..."Council on Foreign Relations member Gary Hart, famed for stating that Americans will die en- mass on home soil this century, and for declaring 48 hours after 9/11 that it should be used "to carry out a new world order", has written a scathing letter to the leaders of Iran clearly warning that the U.S. government has a history of staging provocations in order to initiate conflict with other nations and that Iran could be next."

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Being “Guarded” by Israel  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/270907Weapons.htm
Related article - A quote...."American supporters of Israel were delighted to learn that an Israeli company, Magal Security Systems-owned in part by the government of Israel-is in charge of security for the most sensitive nuclear power and weapons storage facilities in the United States."

Of Hamster Wheels and Men  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18468.htm
Must Read - A quote...." 09/27/07 "ICH  " -- - It is evident that the US or Israel is going to launch an unprovoked attack on Iran in the near future, just as it did against Iraq and countless other defenseless nations within recent memory. As a result, untold numbers of innocent people will die and huge sums of money will change hands. Both the U.S. and Israel will consolidate their power in the Middle East and injustice and death will follow in their wake."

See also.....Two Methods Which Lead to the Same End - 08-25-07 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/thetwomethods-essay-mpg-082507
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Bush-Aznar Transcript: The War Crime of the Century  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2007/09/bush-aznar-transcript-war-crime-of.html
A quote...."By refusing to allow Saddam to flee with guarantees, Bush ensured that a land war would have to be fought. This is one of the greatest crimes any US president ever committed, and it is all the more contemptible for being rooted in mere pride and petulance."

Joe’s Borrowed Idea: Split Iraq into Three Pieces  ---  http://adereview.com/blog/?p=59
A quote...."It is, to say the least, a predictable outcome, one that dovetails nicely with the neocon master plan. US lawmakers voted Wednesday to split Iraq into a loose federation of sectarian-based regions and urged President George W Bush to press Iraqi leaders to agree, reports Monsters and Critics."

For more on this see....Three Easy Pieces  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-092307-092907#Three_Easy_Pieces
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Iran’s Impending Destruction: Is Ahmadinejad Clueless?  ---  http://adereview.com/blog/?p=58#more-58
Must Read - A quote...."Ervand Abrahamian, Iran expert at CUNY, made a few interesting comments to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now in regard to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia. Abrahamian was baffled by Ahmadinejad's lack of response to the increasing tempo of the neocon plan to shock and awe Iran, kill countless grandmothers and toddlers, and usher in “democracy by way of cruise missile and bunker buster."

God, Machiavelli, & Mercenaries  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/27/4159/
A quote...."Armed to the teeth and trained to kill while getting paid for it, Blackwater employees get a little squeamish about the term “mercenary. On Blackwater's Web site under the heading Warriors for Hire it says, Blackwater objects to the use of the m-word for its employees, preferring the term “private military contractors.  -  Oh, my Lord! What kind of sissy-hypocrite opens fire on 20 unarmed people, killing 11 of them, and then can't say the “m-word”?

Blackwater blamed for deaths of reporter, 3 guards  ---  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/20043.html
A quote...."BAGHDAD” The Blackwater incidents cited by Iraq's Interior Ministry as reason for the security firm to be barred from operating in Iraq include the deaths of four people with ties to Iraq's government-funded television network."

Major newspapers, network news still silent on Romney-Blackwater connection  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=42713
A quote...."Summary: On September 22, the Politico reported that Mitt Romney "has remained mum on the alleged killing of 11 Iraqis by a company where one of his top advisers serves as vice chairman, even as the case has led to an uproar in Baghdad and Washington. ... The top counterterrorism and national security adviser to Romney's presidential campaign is Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA." But despite prominent reports by the five major newspapers and the three networks on the Iraqi Interior Ministry revoking Blackwater USA's license, none of those outlets has reported on Romney's connection to Blackwater or his refusal to comment on the matter."

Everyone knows that the mass-faux-media can't talk about our illustrious elites and the "games" they play. - mpg
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Prosecutors defend right to try US soldier for death of Italian agent  ---  http://www.enews.ma/prosecutors-defend_i71150_0.html
A quote...."ROME (AFP) - Prosecutors in the trial of a US soldier for the shooting death of a top Italian military intelligence agent in Iraq rejected Thursday defence arguments that Rome lacks jurisdiction in the case."

For more on this see....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure. - 02-03-07 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307
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Hunt oil deal creating tension in Iraq: US  ---  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXtQstIhz0ZCqIQVOZLiFhqayA8g
A quote...."BAGHDAD (AFP)” A US official on Thursday criticised an oil deal between Texas-based Hunt Oil Company and Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), saying it had "needlessly elevated tensions" in Iraq."

The Credit Crisis Could Be Just Beginning
  ---  http://www.thestreet.com/s/the-credit-crisis-could-be-just-beginning/newsanalysis/investing/10380613.html?puc=_tscana
Some quotes...."One of the world's leading experts on credit derivatives (financial instruments that transfer credit risk from one party to another), Das is the author of a 4,200-page reference work on the subject, among a half-dozen other tomes. As a developer and marketer of the exotic instruments himself over the past 30 years, he seemed like the ideal industry insider to help us get to the bottom of the recent debt crunch -- and I expected him to defend and explain the practice."  --  "Like an ex-mobster turning state's witness, Das has turned his back on his old pals in the derivatives biz to warn anyone who will listen -- mostly banks and hedge funds that pay him consulting fees -- that the jig is up."

New-home sales plunge 8.3% to seven-year low
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-home-sales-plunge-83-seven-year/story.aspx?
  ---  guid=%7B22E1E083%2DBA8B%2D4355%2DAC85%2D57D8B99C1C81%7D&dist=
A quote...."Median sales price down 7.5% in past year, biggest drop in 37 years"

To state the case as mildly as possible....this is not a good sign for existing home sales. - mpg

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Wednesday September 26th 2007 - links page

Iran: The Next Neocon Target  ---  http://democracyrising.us/content/view/1074/165/
Must Read - A blast from the past - A quote...."Hon. Ron Paul of Texas - Before the U.S. House of Representatives  - April 5, 2006  --  It's been three years since the U.S. launched its war against Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.  Of course now almost everybody knows there were no WMDs, and Saddam Hussein posed no threat to the United States.  Though some of our soldiers serving in Iraq still believe they are there because Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, even the administration now acknowledges there was no connection.  Indeed, no one can be absolutely certain why we invaded Iraq."
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NY lawmakers threaten to punish Columbia over speech. & Senate Approves Symbolic Rebuke of Iran
  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/26/4128/
When the powers that be start doing things like this, simply because you gave a speech....it means you SCORED big time!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has REALLY gotten our wealthy elites ticked off....poor little babies, they need a hug. - mpg
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Bush Threatened Nations That Did Not Back Iraq War  ---  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3bV2LfRcSgbK7btDtgfbe2NGt8Q
A quote...."US President George W. Bush threatened nations with retaliation if they did not vote for a UN resolution backing the Iraq war, according to a transcript published Wednesday of a conversation he had with former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar."

See also....U.N. envoy: U.S. spying well known
  ---  http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/13/mexico.iraq.ap/index.html
See also....US tapped ElBaradei calls, claim officials
  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1372409,00.html
See also....Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
  ---  http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,905936,00.html
See also....UN Demands Halt to Spying in Premises
  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/ips/deen.php?articleid=2049
See also....Blair Offers No Denial To UN Spying Allegations
  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/27/1538256
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Q & A with investigative journalist Seymour Hersh  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=42603
Interview - Jewish Journal dot Com interviews Seymour Hersh - A quote...."There is an enormous change taking place in this country in journalism. And it is online. We are eventually -- and I hate to tell this to The New York Times or the Washington Post -- we are going to have online newspapers, and they are going to be spectacular. And they are really going to cut into daily journalism.  -  I've been working for The New Yorker recently since '93. In the beginning, not that long ago, when I had a big story you made a good effort to get the Associated Press and UPI and The New York Times to write little stories about what you are writing about. Couldn't care less now. It doesn't matter, because I'll write a story, and The New Yorker will get hundreds of thousands, if not many more, of hits in the next day. Once it's online, we just get flooded.  -  So, we have a vibrant, new way of communicating in America. We haven't come to terms with it. I don't think much of a lot of the stuff that is out there. But there are a lot of people doing very, very good stuff." -- Seymour Hersh

˜The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27208
Some quotes...."America is about to enter a presidential election year. Although the outcome is of course impossible to predict at this stage, certain features of the campaign are easy to foresee. The candidates will inevitably differ on various domestic issues...."  --  "Yet on one subject, we can be equally confident that the candidates will speak with one voice. In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep personal commitment to one foreign country-Israel-as well as their determination to maintain unyielding U.S. support for the Jewish state....."

Sarkozy Calls For UN Lead New World Order  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=4359
A quote...."New York - The United Nations should avail itself as an instrument for a "new world order of the 21st century," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday in his first address to the General Assembly. Sarkozy, who won the presidency this year on a strong reform platform to modernize France, urged the world body to embark on programmes ranging from equal wealth distribution to fighting corruption in his speech full of references to France's past revolutionary ideals."

"Equal wealth distribution", "fighting corruption"?!?!  Bush and his buddies are going to have to cut way, way, back on....
 Sarkozy's meds.  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/rapsheetarch/mpgrap-091507-092207#Sarkozy_and_his_Meds  ---   mpg
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Pelosi Claims She Has No Power to End Occupation, Promises CNN She'll Never Impeach
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZL8-XQsgiA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eafterdowningstreet%2Eorg%2F%3Fq%3Dnode%2F27168
Must View - (YouTube - 7 min 28 sec - posted 09-25-07) --A contemptible Prissy take-impeachment-off-the-table Pelosi stammers and stumbles her way through an almost incoherent explanation regarding the DemoRepubs complete lack of action against the Bush regime.  The whole thing is a farce.  The DemoRepubs never had any intention of stopping the occupation of Iraq, the upcoming war against Iran or initiating any serious action against the Neocons in the executive branch.

They were simply "allowed by our MIOC elites to be selected, provided they continued to support the status quo and not interfere with the US elites never ending ten year cycle  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407  ---  of death and destruction“ mpg

To quote....The Wealthiest One Percent – The Spirit of Liberal Capitalism - 12-15-05 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/thewealthiestonepercent-essay-mpg-121505


For more on this see....Mommy Pelosi and Daddy Bush - 11-18-06 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/mommypelosianddaddybush-blog-mpg-111806
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Bringing Die-hard War Supporters and Feckless War Opponents to Their Knees  ---  http://www.walter-c-uhler.com/Reviews/feckless.html
A quote...."Yet, there are at least two reasons to suspect that MoveOn's ad had merit and critics, like McCain, were wrong. First, we have Gareth Porter's exceptional reporting that General Petraeus' superior, Admiral Fallon, accused Petraeus of being "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" for serving as a "front man" for Bush's surge. Second, we have Alexander Cockburn's CounterPunch Diary report of September 15-16, 2007, in which he claims that Petraeus' testimony had been "freshly vetted and re-written by Vice President Cheney." - If Cockburn's report is accurate, then Petraeus not only lied when he asserted, "I wrote this testimony myself," he also failed to present the independent report he promised. And THAT failure should be considered a betrayal."

Media Worker Death Toll Reaches 200  ---  http://electroniciraq.net/news/themedia/Media_Worker_Death_Toll_Reaches_200-3197.shtml
A quote...." An Iraqi translator for a United States' television network has been found dead in Iraq, bringing the number of journalists and media workers killed in the country since the start of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to 200, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontieres, RSF) reports."

Tracking Political Prosecutions  ---  http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/09/hbc-90001266
A quote...."In the last two weeks, two sources, one of them inside of the Justice Department, have told me that a scheme was hatched in the upper echelons of the Bush Administration shortly after it took office in 2001 or early in 2002. The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward's rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses."

Australia pushes further Web censorship
  ---  http://www.news.com/Australia-pushes-further-Web-censorship/2100-1028_3-6209337.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
A quote...."A bill introduced this week by Australia's Parliament would give the Australian federal police the power to control which sites can and cannot be viewed by Australian Web surfers."

America's Police Brutality Pandemic  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts224.html
Must Read - A quote...."Bush's "war on terror" quickly became Bush's war on Iraqi civilians. So far over one million Iraqi civilians have lost their lives because of Bush's invasion, and four million have been displaced. Iraq's infrastructure is in ruins. Disease is rampart. Normal life has disappeared. - Self-righteous Americans justify these monstrous crimes as necessary to ensure their own safety from terrorist attack. Yet, Americans are in far greater danger from their own police forces than they are from foreign terrorists. Ironically, Bush's "war on terror" has made Americans less safe at home by diminishing US civil liberty and turning an epidemic of US police brutality into a pandemic.

No More Mercenaries  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis88.html
Related article - A quote...."MUNICH“ Private armies have a very sinister reputation in Europe. Memories still linger of Germany's post WWI army veterans, the "Stahlhelm," and Nazi Brownshirts, who battled Communist street toughs here in Munich and Berlin. Europeans remember Italy's fascist Blackshirts and, most recently, Serb neo-fascist gangs like Arkan's "Tigers" and the "White Eagles" who committed some of the worst atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo."

2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful  ---  http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=201188
A quote...."By WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press Writer PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday."

The Bu$h Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time  ---  http://www.bushagenda.net/article.php?list=type&type=42%3Chr%3E
Book Review(s) - A quote...."The Bu$h Agenda exposes the Bush Administration's use of corporate globalization policy as a weapon of war. Juhasz uncovers the history and key role of U.S. corporations in the creation of the Bush agenda, focusing on Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and Halliburton. Presenting the Iraq War as the most brutal application of the Bush agenda, Juhasz reveals the "oil time-line" driving the war, and how the administration has fundamentally transformed Iraq's economy, locking in sweeping advantages to its corporate allies “ including increased access to Iraq's oil. The administration has expanded its target to the whole Middle East through the U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area."

Tuesday September 25th 2007 - links page

When America Went Fascist  ---  http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10121
Must Read - A quote...."It is a truism in the blogosphere that one more terrorist attack will turn America into a fascist state. People speculate about what fascism in America will look like, or how they might fight it. Others boast that they plan to flee the country ahead of the coming fascist takeover of the United States. One cannot read these posts without a sense of bitter irony, because one thing is clear to those who are watching carefully:

The United States of America is already a fascist state.
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Naomi Wolf's Call to Patriots -- Today's Echoes of Goebbels, and the Fragility of Liberty - posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/077
Interview - BuzzFlash interviews Naomi Wolf.

Democracies take nurturing. They're easy to pull down. The Founders understood that. It's a very dangerous time.

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Dan Rather: Tased and Confused  ---  http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-rather-tased-and-confused/
A quote...."New York- Newly unearthed records reveal that, in 2004, when Americans were in the midst of a brutal electoral battle over whether to reelect a president posing as a war hero, a commanding US reporter, Dan Rather, went AWOL.  -  Just three months before the election, Rather had a story that might have changed the outcome of that razor-close race. We now know that Dan cut a back-room deal to shut his mouth, grab his ankles, and let his network retract a story he knew to be absolutely true."

George W Bush- Draft Dodger - (YouTube - 6 min 41 sec - Added:  August 02, 2007)  ---  http://youtube.com/watch?v=gyFdZqWDn3c
Related Video - A quote...."Oh..right..he served in the National guard. This is from "Bush Family Fortunes-The Best Democracy Money Can Buy".
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Hitler' does New York  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II26Ak01.html
Must Read - A quote...."The new "Hitler", at least for a while, has lodged in a prosaic midtown Manhattan hotel. Contrary to a plethora of demonizing myths, this Persian werewolf did not evade his abode to eat kids for breakfast in Central Park. Instead, he turned on a carefully calibrated public relations charm offensive. Whatever his polemical views, for a now-seasoned head of state like Ahmadinejad to turn astonishing US disinformation on Iran, the Middle East and US foreign policy for his own advantage ended up as a string of slam-dunks."

President Ahmadinejad Delivers Remarks at Columbia University
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401042_pf.html
Transcript - A quote...."CQ Transcripts Wire Monday, September 24, 2007; 4:25 PM"

Infantile Nation  ---  http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=11667
Must Read - A quote...."Does this generation possess the gravitas to lead the world?  -  Considering the hysteria that greeted the request of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at Ground Zero, the answer is no."

Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6888
Must Read - A quote...."Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US, Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger's insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses to 10 questions by Iranian academics and intellectuals.  -  The following is the full text of the letter:


Or you can refer to what happened in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 regarding the US's elections. - mpg

Ahmadinejad hailed in Middle East  ---  http://news-buzz.com/a/ahmadinejad-hailed-in-middle-east
A quote..."CAIRO” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a flinty populist in a zip-up jacket whose scathing rhetoric and defiance of Washington are often caricatured in the Western media, has transcended national and religious divides to become a folk hero across the Middle East."

Ahmadinejad calm over prospect of US attack  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2176333,00.html
A quote...."The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today appeared to be unworried about the prospect of a US or Israeli air strike on his country, dismissing talk of war as a propaganda tool."
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The making of Vietnam's oil giant  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/II25Ae02.html
A quote..."HO CHI MINH CITY - PetroVietnam, Vietnam's dominant state oil-and-gas group, is bidding to emerge as a new force in international energy markets. Following the proven model of China's successful state-owned petroleum companies, CNOOC, CNPC-PetroChina and Sinopec, and with an eye on Malaysia's highly profitable state-owned Petronas, PetroVietnam is leveraging off its strong domestic position to develop a growing international portfolio of energy interests and operations."

Oh brother!  Now the US is going to have to re-invade Vietnam.  After all, as the PNAC doctrine states....we can't have any competitors, especially in the oil and gas sector. - mpg

Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan: No Coincidence  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6865
A quote...."If you take the time to read those back-page articles, they all tell you that NATO faces a dilemma: not a moral dilemma” when Westerners kill Afghans, the moral issue does not seem to arise ” but a strategic dilemma. On the one hand, "our boys" have to kill Taliban. That's a given. On the other hand, if we kill too many civilians in the process, we'll alienate the locals and send them over to the Taliban side. All the mainstream reports agree that the string of recent bombings, killing sizeable numbers of civilians, is already creating a growing problem for NATO's effort to win hearts and minds.  -  So what's a poor NATO commander to do? American General Dan McNeill, who took control of all NATO forces in Afghanistan this spring, seems to have an answer: Bombs away, and let hearts and minds fall where they may."

Weapons left by US troops 'used as bait to kill Iraqis'  ---  http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2996115.ece
A quote...."US soldiers are luring Iraqis to their deaths by scattering military equipment on the ground as "bait", and then shooting those who pick them up, it has been alleged at a court martial. The highly controversial tactic, which has hitherto been kept secret, is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of a number of Iraqis who were subsequently classified as enemy combatants and used in statistics to show the "success" of the "surge" in US forces."

The real story of Baghdad's Bloody Sunday  ---  http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984819.ece
A quote...."The eruption of gunfire was sudden and ferocious, round after round mowing down terrified men women and children, slamming into cars as they collided and overturned with drivers frantically trying to escape. Some vehicles were set alight by exploding petrol tanks. A mother and her infant child died in one of them, trapped in the flames."

Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, It's the Oil, Stupid  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174841
A quote...."Before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, discussion of Iraqi oil was largely taboo in the American mainstream, while the "No Blood for Oil" signs that dotted antiwar demonstrations were generally derisively dismissed as too simpleminded for serious debate. American officials rarely even mentioned the word "oil" in the same sentence with "Iraq." When President Bush referred to Iraqi oil, he spoke only of preserving that country's "patrimony" for its people, a sentiment he and Great Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair emphasized in a statement they issued that lacked either the words "oil" or "energy" just as Baghdad fell: "We reaffirm our commitment to protect Iraq's natural resources, as the patrimony of the people of Iraq, which should be used only for their benefit."

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9/11 - From The History File...Did Big Oil participate in planning the invasion of Iraq?
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>>>  Three Easy Pieces  <<<

Senate to vote on Iraq division plan  ---  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPelYAHWcoUR1OqUH97siD1g0_pQ
Related article - A quote...."WASHINGTON (AFP)” The US Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife."

Well it's simple....destroy the national government, break up Iraq into mini sub-states and maybe the MIOC elites of the US really can privatize all that the oil. - mpg


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Let's Make It About You: Can We Stop the Slaughter Now?  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/09/lets-make-it-about-you-can-we-stop.html
Must Read - A quote...." Much of the world now considers us to be a barbarian, pariah nation.
 ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/02/becoming-barbarian-pariah-nation-what.html  ---  From
the Philippines,  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/02/dominion-over-world-vii-mythology-of.html  ---   through
 Vietnam ,  ---  http://thesacredmoment.blogspot.com/2004/08/when%20-demons-come.html  ---  and via many other interventions in Latin America,
 the Middle East  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/02/loss-of-honor-meddling-for-me-but-not.html  ---  and around the world, there is a monumental amount of evidence to prove the claim. We can appeal all we wish to the "principles" and "freedom" for which we allegedly stand -- but, and here is the point that most Americans refuse even to consider: to the extent those principles were once genuinely admirable, important and good, they are not operative with regard to our conduct abroad. That conduct arises from entirely different motives and concerns, as I am documenting in my
Dominion Over the World  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/05/dominion-over-world-ix-elites-who-rule.html  ---  series."
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Lawmaker says Rice interfered with Iraq inquiry  ---  http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2542752620070925
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in congressional inquiries into corruption in Iraq's government and the activities of U.S. security firm Blackwater."

Home prices falling faster, Case-Shiller says
  ---  http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/home-prices-falling-faster-case-shiller/story.aspx?guid
  ---  =%7BC91D4F5D%2DE733%2D4C68%2D86AD%2DE90E781F4658%7D&dist=
Some quotes...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. home prices in major cities are falling at the fastest rate in 16 years, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday."  -  "The last time prices fell so much, it took more than eight years for home prices to return to their peak level."

Arctic sea ice reaches record minimum  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/sep2007/ice-s26.shtml
A quote...."On September 16, the Arctic sea reached its minimum extent for 2007 at 4.13 million square kilometers, breaking the record set on September 21, 2005 of 5.32 million square kilometers. The difference between the previous record and the present one, 1.19 million square kilometers, represents roughly the same area as Texas and California combined. It is a 22 percent loss in extent since 2005."

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Monday September 24th 2007 - links page

Turning Ahmadinejad into public enemy No. 1  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/09/24/ahmadinejad/?source=whitelist
Must Read - Some quotes...."Demonizing the Iranian president and making his visit to New York seem controversial are all part of the neoconservative push for yet another war."  -  "There is, in fact, remarkably little substance to the debates now raging in the United States about Ahmadinejad. His quirky personality, penchant for outrageous one-liners, and combative populism are hardly serious concerns for foreign policy. Taking potshots at a bantam cock of a populist like Ahmadinejad is actually a way of expressing another, deeper anxiety: fear of Iran's rising position as a regional power and its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo. The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state."

Learning About the Iraq [& the upcoming Iran] War from Hannah Arendt - Action-as-Propaganda
  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/keen09242007.html
Must Read - "A quote...."The dubious virtues of action-as-propaganda seem to have been well understood by the Bush administration, with key officials holding that a demonstration of power could be potent propaganda in itself and that 'might' would soon, in effect, be seen to be 'right'. Thus, Bush's close adviser Karl Rove said of the war on terrorism: "Everything will be measured by results. The victor is always right. History ascribes to the victor qualities that may not actually have been there. And similarly to the defeated." (Hitler expressed a similar sentiment: "I shall give a propagandist reason for starting the war, no matter whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterwards whether he told the truth or not. When starting and waging a war it is not right that matters, but victory." ) In relation to the attack on Iraq in 2003, one senior White House adviser commented, "The way to win international acceptance is to win. That's diplomacy: winning....."
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Ten Things Congress Did Instead of Getting Us The Hell Out of Iraq
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__070924_ten_things_congress_.htm
A quote...."Congress had time to do all this…...but they didn't have time to get us the Hell out of Iraq."

"Let's not forget!"
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And this is number eleven

Immunity From War Crimes - (YouTube - 1 min 53 sec - Added:  September 14, 2007) - posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBUkxvfL_eE
Must View - Congress has just pardoned Bush and his entire administration for any war crimes connected with the mistreatment of detainees.

Unbelievable! - mpg
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Japanese PM Abe and His Cabinet Resign
  ---  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JAPAN_POLITICS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-09-24-22-06-28
A quote...."Abe, who stunned the nation when he announced Sept. 12 that he wanted to quit, emerged Tuesday from the hospital where was being treated for stress-related stomach ailments to officially dissolve his Cabinet. - "I want to extend my apologies to the people for not being able to complete my duties," Abe said in a statement that outgoing top government spokesman Kaoru Yosano read to reporters following the Cabinet's final meeting. - Abe, 53, had faced harsh criticism for abruptly resigning amid a parliamentary battle over the extension of the country's naval mission in the Indian Ocean to support international troops in Afghanistan."

Sarkozy (France's President & Bush's newest lapdog) should take note.  What happened to Blair and Abe is what ALWAYS happens when you deal with the US's MIOC elites.  In the end Sarkozy's craven deal for part of the oil contracts will not only bring him and his government down, it may very well do the same for France itself. - mpg
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Blackwater mercenaries resume patrols in wake of Baghdad civilian killings  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/sep2007/blac-s24.shtml
A quote...."Armed guards of Blackwater USA have resumed escorting American officials in Baghdad less than a week after the security company shot and killed at least 11 Iraqi civilians and wounded at least 13 others. - The decision by the US embassy to send the mercenaries back onto the streets of the Iraqi capital came despite calls by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the US State Department sack the company, and a demand by the Iraqi government that security personnel from Blackwater and other security firms be stripped of their immunity from prosecution."

The Neo-Roman thugs are back on the streets of Baghdad. - mpg
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Closing Guantanamo lockup looks increasingly unlikely - posted at BuzzFlash  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/
  ---  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo24sep24,0,3276008.story?coll=la-home-center
A quote...."WASHINGTON” A lightning rod for international criticism, the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, not long ago appeared headed for closure. President Bush and his top advisors said they wanted to shutter the controversial lockup. - But the latest attempt to shut it down is facing collapse: The detention facility has been embraced by many Republicans as a potent political symbol in their quest to seize the terrorism issue ahead of next year's elections."

And the Neo-Romans are going to continue to torture people....many of them innocent. - mpg
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From Woodrow Wilson to Bush's Iraq Debacle - The Deadly Pattern of US Imperialism  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/fantina09222007.html
A quote...."One can expect little action to end U. S. participation in the war before the inauguration of new Congress members and a new president in January of 2009, and would be naive to expect too much even then. The pattern has been set: one president involves the country in a war on the pretext that it will protect U.S. interests from whatever the current threat is perceived to be. In the 1960s and 1970s it was Communism; today it is terrorism. After a time the futility of U.S. involvement will be evident to everyone, but U.S. leaders will 'stay the course' in order to prove America's 'commitment to its allies' and to 'keep America safe.' The death toll of Americans will climb steadily, as the death toll of Iraq's citizens climbs astronomically. The reputation of the U.S. will deteriorate around the world, and the dissatisfaction of U.S. citizens will be manifested ineffectually at the ballot box and in the streets. The economy of the U.S. will be decimated, with its money being spent to achieve nothing. Finally, after a generation of suffering, some president will embrace the inevitable, and will use some incomprehensible logic to say that American goals in Iraq have been met, and will finally withdraw U.S. soldiers. Iraq's now long-term civil war will explode by catastrophic proportions, until some kind of government, or possibly multiple governments, can be cobbled together."

Violent Crime, a Sticky Issue for White House, Shows Steeper Rise
  ---  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092400444.html
Related Article - A quote...."Violent crime in the United States rose more than previously believed in 2006, continuing the most significant increase in more than a decade, according to an FBI report released yesterday. - The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program found that robberies surged by 7.2 percent and homicides rose 1.8 percent from 2005 to 2006. Violent crime overall rose 1.9 percent, substantially more than an increase of 1.3 percent estimated in a preliminary FBI report in June. -  The jump was the second in two years, following a 2.3 percent rise in 2005. Taken together, the two years represent the first steady increase in violent crime since 1993, FBI records show."

For more on this see....Fruits from the Poisonous Tree  12-08-06 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/poisonoustree-mpg-essay-120806