By 2003, such was Murdoch’s access to Blair, that he was even able to put a call through to the prime minister on the eve of the Iraq war and advise Blair to join George Bush’s invasion.
(Read more from guardian.co.uk)
Tag Archives: Big Media/Big Tech
SA@TAC – What’s a ‘Neoconservative?’
A CNN commentator discusses the U. S. Constitution
I do agree that the Constitution is flawed, but only because it grants too much power and institutionalized taxation (theft). This idiot probably thinks its antiquated because he wants a glorious tyranny.
Reminds me of celebrated socialist playwright Bernard Shaw:
By the way, Bernard Shaw called for the advent of a “humane gas” to kill useless people:
Best Raputre Commentary I’ve Heard
On Ron Paul’s being Racist
On Osama’s Death
I consider myself fortunate to be in Ukraine on a Fulbright Scholarship. It shelters me from the sensationalism surrounding the announcement that “Osama bin Laden, the terror mastermind killed by Navy SEALs in an intense firefight, was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe.”
The reaction has been impossible to avoid altogether, as Twitter, Facebook, and many of the blogs I read exploded with videos of euphoric celebrations beside the White House and in Times Square, affirmations of America’s greatness, wishes by otherwise nice young women to see the bullet riddled corpse, and praise given to all soldiers and veterans, including praise from President Obama.
I remain bewildered by the changing and contradictory justifications for our many wars: the well being of Iraqis and Afghans (and now, Libyans), preventing the use of weapons of mass destruction, establishing democracies, Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn Rule (We broke it, so we own it). Didn’t President Bush announce in 2006 that the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden was no longer a goal of our war efforts in Afghanistan?
Timing and political expedience seems to have swung our rationale back to the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden.
Should we pause to consider the return on our investment of money, blood and reputation? I am two and half years removed from my last day in the military, and life-times removed from the world view I had when I first commissioned as an infantry officer in March 2000.
My doubts centered on the realization that my membership in the military, though full of adventure and challenge, just like the television commercials promised, did not provide a valuable service. For this reason, I politely decline President Obama’s thanks.
The military, myself included, makes America less safe from terrorism, debt, and tyrrany. I began to consider the ancient and noble institution of the Army a gigantic toy for politicians who, with the thinnest pretenses, went adventuring all over the world.
I no longer consider myself at war with Afghanistan or Al Quaida, though I understand that many Americans do. I consider war to be very much the business of demagogue politicians who pretend to defend Americans from Muslims, and demagogue Islam-o-fascists who pretend to defend Muslims from Americans. I wish we could make them fight one another directly without the involvement of so many others, but this would never happen. They are cowards who work hard to convince better men to do the fighting.
I’d like to point out the difficult fact that Afghans killed by errant artillery strikes or nervous, undisciplined soldiers, or what a friend of mine calls “Nobel Peace drones,” are just as innocent and just as human as the New Yorkers who were killed when three skyscrapers collapsed on September 11, 2001.The tragedy is firstly that many innocent people get killed, and secondly, that so many good people are easily convinced to sacrifice blood and money. It is best to have as little to do with our wars as possible.
In contrast to the revelers on the National Mall, my pride and identity now have little to do with national pride and national identity. I am as sovereign an individual as the tax code allows me to be.
The only aspect of this announcement I find comforting is that now politicians will likely be confronted with meek requests to undo the TSA, warrant-less wiretaps, secret prisons, suspensions of habius corpus, the department of homeland security, and the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere. They will have to again justify these institutions, which they will do very easily. I will take minor comfort when the questions are asked.
I retain hope that America can regains the liberties it lost in the name of our many wars. However as I watched the exuberant masses intoxicated with national pride at the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death, I thought of not of the importance of restoring our lost liberties, but of running away; escaping and hiding from the collectivist madness — somewhere where neither my person nor my wealth nor my pride nor my identity can ever be dragged into such a barbaric enterprise again.
The Osama Situation Room
US military’s history of backtracking on initial reports
Stories told of Private Jessica Lynch, American footballer Pat Tillman and British aid worker Linda Norgrove were all incorrect. (Read more from guardian.co.uk)
The head of the CIA admitted yesterday that there was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound
The head of the CIA admitted yesterday that there was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound as further doubts emerged about the US version of events.
Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, revealed there was a 25 minute blackout during which the live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off.
A photograph released by the White House appeared to show the President and his aides in the situation room watching the action as it unfolded. In fact they had little knowledge of what was happening in the compound.
In an interview with PBS, Mr Panetta said: “Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information.
“We had some observation of the approach there, but we did not have direct flow of information as to the actual conduct of the operation itself as they were going through the compound.”
Mr Panetta also told the network that the US Navy Seals made the final decision to kill bin Laden rather than the president. (Read more from telegraph.co.uk)
Wow, ABC. You totally convinced me that I’m too incompetent to hold a gun. I guess I should rely on government protection after all.
I’ll leave it to my readers to notice the bias of the experiment and its illogical conclusion.
part 1:
First up, Joey Dolan, who loves action movies.
part 2:
Nobel Peace Drones
A U.S. drone attack in Pakistan killed 23 people this morning, and this is how The New York Times described that event in its headline and first paragraph:
When I saw that, I was going to ask how the NYT could possibly know that the people whose lives the U.S. just ended were “militants,” but then I read further in the article and it said this: “A government official in North Waziristan told Pakistani reporters that five children and four women were among the 23 who were killed.” So at least 9 of the 23 people we killed — at least — were presumably not “militants” at all, but rather innocent civilians (contrast how the NYT characterizes Libya’s attacks in its headlines: “Qaddafi Troops Fire Cluster Bombs Into Civilian Areas”).
Can someone who defends these drone attacks please identify the purpose? Is the idea that we’re going to keep dropping them until we kill all the “militants” in that area? We’ve been killing people in that area at a rapid clip for many, many years now, and we don’t seem to be much closer to extinguishing them. How many more do we have to kill before the eradication is complete?
Beyond that, isn’t it painfully obvious that however many “militants” we’re killing, we’re creating more and more all the time? How many family members, friends, neighbors and villagers of the “five children and four women” we just killed are now consumed with new levels of anti-American hatred? How many Pakistani adolescents who hear about these latest killings are now filled with an eagerness to become “militants”?
The NYT article dryly noted: “Friday’s attack could further fuel antidrone sentiment among the Pakistani public”; really, it could? It’s likely to fuel far more than mere “antidrone sentiment”; it’s certain to fuel more anti-American hatred: the primary driver of anti-American Terrorism. (Read more from salon.com)
Tom Woods demolishes Ron Paul critics
Libya and the Obama Cult
If I try to excerpt this fantastic essay, I’ll end up pasting the whole thing. Please check it out:
(Read more from original.antiwar.com)
On second though, here are a couple highlights:
The clueless pawns who imagine themselves “leaders” of the conservative movement are so busy conjuring far-fetched visions of Sharia law taking over America, that they’re caught flat-footed when the real holier-than-thou warriors take up arms in the name of the “responsibility to protect.” Newt Gingrich is so focused selling his updated version of “Red Dawn,” where American women are forced to wear the chador and the President is replaced by a Caliph, that he and his ilk haven’t noticed the progress of our very own secular jihadists, who are conducting a holy war – on an international scale — of political and moral “uplift.” As Rand Paul so cleverly put it the other day:
“I was happy to see that Newt Gingrich has staked out a position on the war, a position, or two, or maybe three. I don’t know. I think he has more war positions than he’s had wives.
“There’s a big debate over there. Fox News can’t decide, what do they love more, bombing the Middle East or bashing the president? It’s like I was over there and there was an anchor going, they were pleading, can’t we do both? Can’t we bomb the Middle East and bash the president at the same time? How are we going to make this work?”
The Clintonian wing of the Democratic party is determined to regain power, and Hillary’s push for war is the spearhead of the Restoration.
Of course Libya is crawling with CIA, as well as British, French, and Italian spooks, and what they’re gathering is a lot more than “intelligence”: they’re out there collecting potential “leaders” among the rebels, choosing up sides, determining who will go on the payroll and who will be quietly sidelined or eliminated.
Businesses flee 42% coorporate tax for 14% coorporate tax.
* 60 minutes special focuses on how heroic government might get their hands on the money.