Loyalty without truth
is a trail to tyranny.
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a middle-aged George Washington
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Tuesday, 15 July 2008 at 15h 18m 24s | Interoggation video | Lawyers for Canadian Omar Khadr have released a video that shows 2 minutes at the end of an interrogation. Mr.
Khadr is
crying, proclaiming his innocence, saying "You don't care about me". Although the tape does not show any torture, the way in
which Mr. Khadr responds is heart-rending. He is an innocent man caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, being accussed of
things he did not do, and was also tortured by US officials while in captivity before this interrogation took place.
Click here for a post of the video by the BBC.
Click here for a direct link to the 2
minute
BBC video.
Click here
for a link to a 3 minute 24 second video provided by the French newspaper LeMonde.
The video was being filmed secretly through an air duct
| Monday, 14 July 2008 at 16h 49m 55s | Another closeted Gay Republican | This is too insane. Remember Troy King, the Alabama Attorney General that mentioned possible voter fraud in Alabama ...
Troy King just got caught in bed with another man, by his wife.
And he was vocally anti-gay too. He's also the Alabama chair of the John McCain campaign.
Quick Troy, dig up a voter fraud scandal while there's still time to distract the public.
[SOURCE: Crooks and Liars | | 11 July 2008]
| Monday, 14 July 2008 at 16h 42m 38s | Cash for access | In order to circumvent the law, GW Bush is using cash donations to his presidential library as a means test for access -- kind of
like what disgraced ex-Congress critter Texan Tom DeLay did with a non-profit Children's fund that got siphoned into various
Republican war chests.
A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush’s administration in return for six-
figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.
Stephen Payne, who claims to have raised more than $1m for the president’s Republican party in recent years, said he would
arrange meetings with Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and other senior officials in
return for a payment of $250,000 (£126,000) towards the library in Texas.
Payne, who has accompanied Bush and Cheney on several foreign trips, also said he would try to secure a meeting with the
president himself.
[...]
Unlike campaign donations, there is no requirement to disclose the donors to the libraries, no limit on the amount that can be
pledged and no restrictions on foreigners contributing.
During an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times, Payne was asked to arrange meetings in Washington for an exiled
former central Asian president. He outlined the cost of facilitating such access.
“The exact budget I will come up with, but it will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going
directly to the Bush library,” said Payne, who sits on the US homeland security advisory council.
He said initially that the “family” of the Asian politician should make the donation. He later added that if all the money was paid
to him he would make the payment to the Bush library. Publicly, it would appear to have been made in the politician’s name
“unless he wants to be anonymous for some reason”.
Payne said the balance of the $750,000 would go to his own lobbying company, Worldwide Strategic Partners (WSP).
Asked by an undercover reporter who the politician would be able to meet for that price, Payne said: “Cheney’s possible,
definitely the national security adviser [Stephen Hadley], definitely either Dr Rice or . . . I think a meeting with Dr Rice or the
deputy secretary [John Negroponte] is possible . . .
[SOURCE: Daniel Foggo | London Times | 13 July 13
2008]
Okay then stupid people, do you now see how this game is played? What did you think "lobbyists" do? They are merely the
consiglieri go-betweens, the monetary bag persons for the corruption.
| Monday, 14 July 2008 at 17h 9m 12s | Our Great Nation | As I was traveling up Interstate 5 to Seattle, somewhere in the Southern part of Washington State, I noticed a huge sign
erected by
one of the landowners. The sign: "We live in a great nation ... why change?"
Now I thought about that comment all the way on the drive to Seattle. I imagined going to the front door and speaking with that
landowner, asking him what he thought was going to change. If our country changed, would that imply that we would no longer
be great? Would he be opposed to all change, regardless of the need? Was he resentful of the Bill of Rights and all the
amendments and laws passed since the initial Constitution was written in 1787 ? Indeed, would he have preferred the Articles of
Confederation, since the Constitution itself was a "change" necessitated by the ineffectiveness of the original document of
government.
I supposed that like most pithy aphorisms, this one is stated without reflection. It reflects a conservative mindset which wants
nothing to change, even when change and transitions are inescapable realities of life. The greatness that is our nation, is just a
misunderstood anachronism in the mind's eye. Making a mistake does not give reason for reflection, because the mistake is
simply never
admitted. The initial reasoning which justified the creation of the mistake are repeated endlessly. Events are interpreted in ways
that
construe a continuation of the mistake, rather than provide an impetus to reassess and modify, since change implies weakening
that which
makes us great.
I doubt I will speak with this landowner. He (or she) represents a whole mass of well-intended persons who form their
philosophical positions by mixing fear and ignorance. More specifically, the fear of change commingles with a lack of knowledge
on how the change occurred. If you don't remember how you arrived, how will you know where to go next.
Instead, the flag is waved faster, and singing "God Bless America" defines patriotism in absentia. Myths of history form moral
narratives
carried on the backs of righteous leaders who mouth the words that appeal to self-interest, while these leaders chose sides with
elite economic forces that stab the masses in the back. And when the economic decay becomes painful, blame can misdirect
attention from the source of the trouble -- as when Japan and China are blamed when American financiers and CEO's downsized
and expatriated American jobs in the interests of more profit extraction for themselves.
| Friday, 11 July 2008 at 17h 44m 30s | Why Bush is awful | Oh, gosh, I know if you criticize the worst president, then you are just a bush-basher.
Click
here for the interview with the worst president in the history of the United States. This was an interview with President Bush
on Irish television that caused a bit of a storm in 2004. The interview conducted by the tenacious Carol Coleman of Radio
Television Ireland was not aired on American television, and Bush's press officers apparently complained vociferously about
the rigorous questioning.
In other words, media censorship in America is real. But we had to go through 4 more years of this disaster because of the
refusal by some to admit they made a mistake, and the denial by the media conglomerates to let Americans see all sides of the
issue.
Click here for the YouTube interview.
The interview took place almost four years ago, but is the perfect illustration of a man elected purely on name recognition, dirty
money, and no discernible talent. Four years ago, there were still enough Americans who believed Bush's infantile bluster was
charming and direct. Now, even Republicans do not waste their time with him, quietly wishing he would disappear and stop
embarrassing their party.
The interview with Coleman should go down on record as definitive proof of Bush's utter incompetence, a priceless picture of a
madman who had no business occupying the highest office of the land.
[SOURCE: Ben Cohen | Huffington Post | 10 July
2008]
| Friday, 11 July 2008 at 17h 32m 52s | The media treats McCain with kid's gloves | Click
here for an excellent
analysis of how the media lets McCain get away with craven political posturing and outright lying.
During this past week: McCain called the most import entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called
the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked
about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday!
Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least
Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.
| Thursday, 10 July 2008 at 21h 53m 55s | Voter fraud tactics | Today the New York Times reports about allegations of voter fraud with anecdotal evidence. Click here for the New York Times story by Adam Nossiter.
Click here for a summary of the history
of Republican voter fraud tactics over the last few years
Note first that the title to the NY Times story is "Officials Investigate 3 Alabama Counties in Voter Fraud Accusations".
Accusations are being investigated by Officials. This does not mean the accusations are true or even
have any validity. The story further calls a Republican political front group a "local citizens group", and says this "local" group
gathered affidavits, without saying how many affidavits, only saying that these affidavits "detailed several cases in which a
least
one Democratic party official paid citizens for their votes, or encouraged them to vote multiple times."
Three individuals are quoted in the article as attesting to the "payments". Only one of them signed an affidavit however, and this
man is a 23 year old unemployed man who said he had been paid by "local officials" (which local officials?). The other two
"sources" were not said to have signed affidavits, but were quoted as saying they have seen the selling of votes and that it is a
common practice.
The Perry County district attorney, Michael W. Jackson (a Democrat) said he thought the volume of absentee ballots was odd,
stating that "When you get the absentee ballots, it’s a lot easier to pull that off, forge their names, vote for them".
The Republican Secretary of State Beth Chapman "raised questions" ... since
a quarter of the voters here, 1,114, cast absentee ballots, a percentage that is six times the state average and a figure that Ms.
Chapman called “astronomical.” In Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham and has 60 times Perry County’s population of
10,600, there were 365 absentee ballots.
However, the rate of absentee ballots is expected to increase in rural counties which long distances to polling places are more
common. So the reasoning used by Mrs. Chapman has very little merit.
The Republican Alabama Attorney General Troy King seized records in three Alabama counties. He commented about the
possible voting fraud tactics on Fox news, but declined to answer questions by the New York Times.
Mind you this is the same state which sent ex-Governor , Democrat Don Seigelman to jail on false accusations. It is also curious
that the New York Times was only able to mention one of the supposed "several" affidavits and all three accusations are
extremely vague. You'd think an affidavit would state a name, or be specific about precisely what was done and how. If we
assume that absentee ballots are causing problems, that means that 25% of 1,114 voters (about 270) mentioned by Mrs.
Chapman are
potentially fraudulent. Are all 270 absentee ballots fraudulent? Probably not.
The last time this happened in Missouri, after a 2 year investigation, the authorites were only able to find 2 incidences of actual
voter fraud -- a women who signed her daughter's ballot because she wouldn't be home in time, and another person who used
an address at one of his properties instead of his home address, but only voted once anyway. 2 years of investigating, and that
was all they ever found.
I'm skeptical, but I admit I really don't know. It is odd however that this surfaces now, don't you think.
| Thursday, 10 July 2008 at 15h 32m 38s | The boring news media | CNN is unbelievable. The big story yesterday was the Jesse Jackson flap. Jackson made a remark off-camera that was
disparaging of Obama, and of course the news media went to town, making sure it went the rounds of multi-television coverage.
What was the remark? Obama is talking down on black people. Click here for a decent
perspective from Domenico Montanaro at MSNBC. (NOTE: I usually detest MSNBC, but in this case, the summary analysis is
adequate for the purpose of the uniformed reader.)
But why didn't the news media spend equal time covering McCain's pathetic joke about shipping cigarettes to Iran being a good
thing because "maybe that's a way of killing them." Click here for the Reuters story.
The google news articles list 219 for the McCain joke, and 1,184 for the Obama-Jackson flap.
Now ask yourself, which political flap statement is more revealing of the 2 candidates running for election?
So CNN decides to run with the Jackson comment about Obama. On the Wolf Blitzer show, the segment of Jackson making his
aside remark is played, and then "in order to analyze" the event they bring up 2 pasty white expert "political analysts" to discuss
what one black man said about another. How ridiculous can this be?
Which got me thinking. Why the hell are these news analysts even there? Who cares what they have to say, or what their opinion
is? I mean, isn't the news just about giving the facts and the information, rather than a few selected stories followed by "analysis"
from generic, good looking media people who are getting paid 6 figure salaries to spin the information for the mindless public
that watches this crap. Personally, I find it annoying, especially when the so-called "political" consultants are really just mouth-
pieces for some agenda.
| Thursday, 10 July 2008 at 1h 37m 14s | The problem with Health Insurance | Click here for a New
York
Times article on the topic.
The problem is that private health insurance really only benefits those who are healthy. Those who are not healthy, or who are
seen to have a pre-existing health condition, are effectively priced out of health insurance. Then when these people get sick,
they get very sick and have to go to a hospital that has to legally treat them, and then the astronomical health care bills put them
in the poor house for the rest of their life.
Even those with health insurance discover that their private health insurance company gets to decide what it doesn't want to pay
for, and also forces doctors not to do certain operations because the private health insurance companies are too busy worrying
about spending money. The result is that patients really don't get the health care they need unless they are either fortunate to
never have health problems, or they are wealthy.
Furthermore, those who get slammed by the enormous bills they can't pay, force the private hospital network to raise their rates.
Many times
cancer patients are dropped by their insurance companies, or force those who have insurance to pay some of the bills out of their
retirement savings.
Then there are the bureaucratic games the insurance companies play in the hope that their patients will just give up trying to get
that $1500 bill paid, and just pay it themselves. If you don't get that form in by 15 days, they don't pay. Filling out forms and
unnecessary delays are part of the business model that
large corporate insurers use to pad their bottom line because they expect a certain percentage of their clients to just give up
rather than go through expensive legal proceedings in order to collect on a bill that can be a few thousand dollars.
Private firms are efficient about making money, but this efficiency comes at the expense of the health of the clients, who really
don't have much of a choice. The private insurance companies externalize as many costs as they can get away with, and people
who don't have an elastic budget get stuck with difficult decisions like whether they should buy food or cut back on their
medication.
When I busted my finger, I couldn't get my insurance company Kaiser-Permanente to do ligament repair work, because in their
mind, it was an expense they didn't feel like paying for. Since the injury isn't life-threatening, the surgery was deemed optional.
Was it worth taking them to court over a period of 2 to 4 years, paying legal fees that I can't afford? Maybe, but like most people
that didn't happen, so now I have a bum middle finger on my right hand.
And I have what is considered very good health insurance.
We are all paying for this atrocious health care system, one way or another, and we don't really get the quality health care
coverage because the system as it is now is just a profit-extraction machine for CEO's and share-holders. It's not about
health care at all.
It would be a whole lot cheaper if everyone was in the same insurance pool, and we taxed ourselves to pay the total bill. People
would get their minor health issues dealt with early before they become major (and expensive) health care issues years later.
Doctors could focus upon caring for their patients instead of worrying whether the insurance companies will pay or when they
will pay. The overhead of 25 to 35 percent profit margins would shrink to 5 percent.
The court system would also not be clogged with the endless legal maneuvers of insurance companies trying to avoid their
contractual obligations. The cost of malpractice insurance would come far down because the insurance companies would be
taken out of the equation. Medical decisions that need to get made are a lot easier to make when doctors and patients don't have
to concern themselves with who pays. Medical decisions would be a cooperative effort to heal the sick and improve the health of
the patient, rather than a cost that might get debated and second-guessed.
Malpractice is also more effectively handled by hospitals and county health commissioners. Hospitals should have to pay
the costs of malpractice suits rather than insurance companies anyway. It is the hospitals who hire bad doctors, or who force
doctors to skim on their health decisions to cut corners because of the stress on the system due to the uninsured patients they
have to treat. Doctors who are outside the hospital system nevertheless have to work with the hospitals, and are also themselves
subject to laws that should get enforced by the legal system, not by the astronomical cost of malpractice insurance.
At one time, it was illegal for hospitals to be run on a for-profit basis. My personal opinion is that health-care is a right, in
addition to being in the best interest of everyone. We only create an unhealthy social system when we ignore the many small
costs of an unhealthy population based on ability to pay. Non-diagnosed mental illnesses alone create a lot of people who
suddenly just blow-up and do crazy things that cause harm to a lot of innocent people, either due to violence, crime, or murder
-- especially when you consider drug-addiction an undiagnosed mental illness.
There isn't a market-based solution in which someone gets to make a lot of money for every aspect of society. However, if we
persist in trying to put this square peg in the circle, we create the dysfunctional, unhealthy society that we currently have.
| Friday, 4 July 2008 at 18h 30m 51s | WTF | I must say that I am astonished at Obama's support for this FISA capitulation that he says is a workable compromise. I
will
however defer to another Constitutional lawyer.
Click here for
Glenn Greenwald's analysis.
Also, did you notice that the LA Times published an opinion From Torture-boy Alberto Gonzalez -- the man who resigned from
Attorney General in disgrace when he blatantly lied to Congress as they were investigating the arbitrary firings of Federal
Attorneys. This man produced memo's which called the torture techniques okay as long as someone didn't die, because the
Geneva Conventions are "quaint" . This is the man who permitted and abetted the creation of partisan hiring practices and
turned the department of justice into a partisan masquerade in which trials were pursued in order to eviscerate the political
opposition : the total lack of evidence or justifiable purpose was irrelevant. There is an overwhelming case that the
issue of voter fraud is miniscule (maybe a total of 5 cases, and less then 10 votes,) but the department of Civil Rights pursued
cases for over 2 years in an effort to foment partisan attacks and reduce the ability of people to vote who happened to be
Democrats.
Yet this man is allowed to publish an opinion in the Los Angeles Times about the importance of the Hispanic vote? Why is this
criminal given any credibility at all? He should be in jail.
Are the editors at the Los Angeles Times completely clueless? Mind you, these are college educated individuals who are
supposed to be professionally aware of contemporary history. And yet torture-boy gets to publish an opinion.
The corporate press is just a public relations arm of the elite agenda. They create issues and then hire corrupt assholes to
promote opinions that serve that agenda.
What other reason can there be?
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