Of course, when it comes to Bushies, they are also found across the pond. George Galloway wiped up the congressional floor a few years ago (hardly even heard on the TV) and now lays out precisely what will happen if Iran is attacked on this video presented by BrassCheckTV this morning.
I am confident that at any given time, in any given country– someone is attempting to assassinate someone. This whole thing brings to mine the Spy vs. Spy in the old Mad Magazines.
Friday, July 18, 2008 - 06:48 AM
By: 680News staff
Jerusalem - Security officials have foiled an alleged plot to assassinate U.S. president George W. Bush.
Six young men were taken into custody and held as suspects by police for the time being.
Four Palestinians and two Arab Israelis have allegedly contacted Al-Qaeda through the Internet to discuss the best way to kill the U.S. president during one of his two visits to Israel earlier this year.
One of the men had taken cell phone pictures of the helipad where Bush was to land, but their plot never got off the ground.
Breaking: Russian Agents Foiled plot by CIA/MI6 to Assassinate Putin..The payback is in pipes!
Moscow AP
March 16, 2008
RUSSIA’S secret service foiled an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin in Red Square on March 2, the day of the presidential election, the Tvoi Den daily reported yesterday. The newspaper did not cite any sources, but gave a detailed account about the arrest of a Tajik national with a sniper rifle in a raid on a rented apartment near Red Square just hours before Mr Putin was due to give a speech there. The Federal Security Service could not immediately comment on the report. Tvoi Den, a popular daily, often prints exclusive reports on Russian politics, citing unnamed officials. An informant told FSB officials a few days before the election that Mr Putin’s assassination was being planned and that an apartment had been rented on the other side of the river from the Kremlin for the purpose, Tvoi Den said. Security officers raided the apartment at 8pm Moscow time on March 2 and detained a 24-year-old Tajik national with a “whole arsenal of firearms” including a sniper rifle and a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the paper continued. About three hours later, Mr Putin and his ally Dmitry Medvedev, who won the March 2 election by a landslide, walked out of the Kremlin onto Red Square and gave victory speeches at a concert there to thousands of screaming fans. FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev gave a briefing last week where he said that Russian security services had foiled “terrorist attacks” during the election campaign and on election day but did not provide further details. TNK-BP raid proved connection between CIA/MI6 and two brit-educated Russian traitors with American citizenship. The payback is in pipes!
A group of gunmen affiliated with Fatah attempted to hit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s convoy as it made its way from Jerusalem to Jericho for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on August 6, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet ministers Sunday morning. Israel learned of the plan from intelligence information received several days before the visit. The attack was eventually thwarted by the Shin Bet and the Palestinian Intelligence Service headed by Tawfik Tirawi. Following the incident, the Palestinians arrested three suspects, who were later released, according to Israeli officials. Two other cell members are being held in Israel. On Sunday, Israel filed an official complaint with the Palestinian Authority following the suspects’ release. Israeli security sources expressed their anger over the release, which took place “after these terrorists’ involvement in the foiled attack was made clear.” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad confirmed Sunday afternoon that the PA arrested a number of suspects after receiving intelligence information from Israel, but that they were released due to lack of evidence. “We are studying the incident and plan to do our best to restore the order in the region,” Fayyad said at the start of a meeting with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. “We will draw all the possible lessons so that a similar incident does not repeat itself in the future.” The meeting between Fayyad and Itzik was originally scheduled to take place in Jericho. Itzik explained why she decided to go ahead with the meeting after consulting the Shin Bet. There are elements who are trying to sabotage the diplomatic process. This is not something new. We believe that the Palestinian prime minister and Abu-Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and the group of moderates in the PA wish to advance a process with the State of Israel. Therefore, despite the severe incident we were informed about this morning, we shall go ahead with our meeting.” The Knesset speaker added that “the prime minister himself decided to continue with the talks. We must not halt the talks due to the incident, although I view it as extremely severe, and I imagine that the State of Israel will demand an explanation.” Olmert’s visit to Jericho on August 6 marked the first official visit in seven years by an Israeli prime minister to the Palestinian Authority. “I feel great discomfort over the Palestinian pattern of behavior in this case,” Prime Minister Olmert said Sunday before leaving on an official visit to Europe. “We shall not ignore this. The inappropriate way in which the suspects were handled is part of a pattern which must change.” The prime minister made it clear, however, that he was determined to continue the negotiations with the Palestinians and had no intention of cancelling his participation in the Annapolis peace conference. Shortly after the initial report on the foiled attack, Ynet learned that the plot to assassinate Olmert was originally planned for June 6, when the prime minister was first scheduled to meet with the Palestinian president in the PA territories. The cell included five members who were involved in terror attacks and previous failed attacks in the West Bank. The information was disclosed to the PA, which arrested three of the cell members. The other two were detained by the IDF and the Shin Bet. Israeli officials claimed Sunday that the PA released the three suspects, whom Israel claims are members of the Palestinian security organizations, on September 26. The three, Ynet was told, admitted to the plot before they were released.
Livni: Assassination attempt extremely severe
”We view the assassination attempt as extremely severe,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said during Sunday’s cabinet meeting. “We have made this clear both to (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice and to the Palestinians.” Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter was not surprised by the incident. “The plot to assassinate the prime minister is a classic example of the Palestinian Authority’s ’so-called’ policy of fighting terror. The Palestinians arrested Fatah members who were questioned and admitted that they had planned to target the Israeli prime minister, but released them anyway,” he said. Shas officials praised the Shin Bet for thwarting the attack. “We have received more proof that the Annapolis conference should be turned into an economic meeting. With such a temporary feeling of security we cannot advance on the diplomatic channel,” they said. “A thousand workplaces are worth more than a thousand guns. Workplaces will create security, compared to guns which will stress the lack of security.” Right-wing politicians said that “the moderate leader” Abbas revealed his true colors. The Yesha Council responded, “The release of Fatah terrorist who attempted to assassinate the prime minister from the Palestinian prison, shortly after their arrest, proves that Abu-Mazen (Abbas) is implementing the ‘revolving door’ policy in the PA, which leads to arrest of murderers and terrorists for several days, followed by their release and return to terrorism. “It has once again been proven that Abu-Mazen is Abu-bluff. Letting him control the Judea and Samaria hills is like handing over the territory to Hamas. This will blow up in our faces.”
Palestinian official rejects claims
“We view with severity the fact that the Palestinian Authority released the cell members it had arrested,” a source in the Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday morning. A Palestinian security source told Ynet that as far as he knew, the plot did not develop into a real assassination attempt. “These were at the most talks by an activist or a group of activists,” he said. The same source noted that the territory was under full Israeli security control, and therefore the Israelis did not need the Palestinians in order to arrest the cell members. The Israelis detain people in Jericho almost every week, the source added. The incident did not disrupt the Olmert-Abbas summit in Jericho, as well as the meeting which followed. Although the incident was kept a secret until now, it appears to have prevented additional visits to Jericho by Israeli officials. Israel’s claims that the PA released the terrorists involved in the assassination attempt may now harm the relationship between the two sides ahead of the US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Members of Shas and right-wing parties called on Olmert to reconsider taking part in the Annapolis conference following the incident. Ali Waked, Amnon Meranda, Attila Somfalvi, Efrat Weiss and Neta Sela contributed to this report
B’Man: How many times have we heard our own lying government officials say that when the Iraqis wanted us out, we would go?
I’m sure the excuses will come any moment now, suggesting that now the Iraqi government and people are too stupid to figure out when we should go, or somehow we can decide for ourselves that they really don’t want us to leave… or…
Bush’s fools will come up with some excuse to thumb our noses at the Maliki government and stay just as damn long as there is oil to be pulled from their land.
jperryam has another poignant video up, with associated information and a clip from W, himself, saying that if they asked us to leave, we would. (he then said they wouldn’t do it).
As usual and is the case in every instance, this dumb asshole is wrong. Sorry, not wrong. Just caught in another lie like all the others.
Iraq is now demanding a firm date for complete withdrawal of all foreign troops before they will sign a security agreement with the Bush administration. Bushco is refusing, of course, because they truly don’t care about anybody’s objectives but their own. But what did the Pretender-in-Chief say back in April of 2007 during an Interview with Charlie Rose?
Just more Bushco propaganda, no doubt.
Go here for the full video interview with Charlie Rose: http://www.charlierose.com
Enter “George W. Bush” in the search box. Scroll 11 minutes into the video for the quote about leaving Iraq.
This afternoon, at approximately 5 p.m. (EDT), the Clerk of the House of Representatives will give the first reading of the Article of Impeachment of President George Bush. Article One charges the President with deceiving Congress with fabricated threats of Iraq WMDs to fraudulently obtain support for an authorization of the use of military force against Iraq.
Once the Clerk reads the bill, I will move to refer the bill to the Judiciary Committee for hearings. I believe the American people have a right to an open airing of the charges against this President. Did he or did he not lie to take us into a war? I believe the evidence is overwhelming that President Bush knew that Iraq was not an imminent threat, was not in possession of WMDs at the time, and had nothing to do with 911 or with al Queda’s role in 911. And yet, despite having facts to the contrary, he took the U.S. into war with devastating consequences for our troops, our nation, and the people of Iraq. Congress must hold hearings.
There can be no greater offense of a President or a Commander in Chief than to conjure a war based on lies to Congress, to the troops, and to the people of America.
I love our country with all my heart and I intend to persist until America is America again.
Please contact your friends and neighbors and ask them to go to our website at www.Kucinich.us and sign the impeachment petition. Thank you for your continuing support and for your love of our country and its people.
I received a video from BrassCheckTV (you should check them out). In about half the cases, I have already seen the video, but many times they surprise me by sharing something that I WISHED that I had seen already.
BrassCheckTV has the entire 45 minute Google video up, but erkd1 has it broken down into smaller chunks on his YouTube Channel (he has many really good videos there… worth a check). I have made a playlist at my BuelahMan YouTube Channel with this list to go by or start with this one:
Laugh and learn!
The brilliant Robert Newman comes to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, places oil at the center stage of all the cause of all commotion
Robert points out that from the year 2000 ~ 2002 each of the “Axis of Evil” decided (evilly, apparently) to stop trading their oil in American Dollars and move to the Euro. One by one they did it and became our enemy. But the problem is much deeper than “defiance”, as is portrayed by Bush, et al (including complicit media). You should really watch the entire series, but if nothing else, watch the first 3 clips which explains how even WWI was about Britain’s invasion of Iraq for oil and how we have been meddling in their oil affairs ever since.
TheRealNews has a video where Rep Conyers was addressed for his ‘indecision’, which I simply call ‘cover-up’ of war crimes and criminals. Conyers made money from his book which inspired a few to think that he was different. That he would actually hold this criminal-in-chief accountable to the law and the Constitution. He is full of bullshit when he says he hasn’t made a decision yet. He decided NOT to impeach, or it would have been done already. He is a part of the problem, for no sane person can see what has been done and still think it is legal and warranted.
Adam Kokesh is a hero in many ways, but his direct, open and honest evaluation to Rep Conyer’s face is awe inspiring. How he did it without more anger and a couple of “lapdogs” and “spineless dems”, I don’t know.
Veterans for Peace in a dramatic confrontation with Chairman Conyers over his indecision on impeachment
B’Man: From Gorilla’s Guides, we have an editorial that expresses (from an Iraqi perspective) the rationale for our invasion and continued occupation of Iraq (and the intense possibility of going into Iran). Although I disagree with the final association with “Americans” and what we can do to change what is happening to them, I cannot disagree with the rationale assessment for “why” we are doing it.
I do have an alternative solution, but it means ridding ourselves of the dependence on oil (which means Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al) will fight my solution with every fiber of their body.
Our country has been hijacked and in many ways, Americans don’t “seem” to care. This is where I believe the editors get the overall thing incorrect. Americans, by and large, disagree with what is happening. It is only a very select few who speak for us (and I want to take them out for what they say does not represent my feelings and desires).
Have you noticed that the US anti-war debate has begun to resemble Congress’s attitude to Iraq and Iran? There’s mild criticism of the Bush administration’s devastation of Iraq but the president does whatever he wants in Iraq and makes absurd accusations against Iran unchallenged. Debate concentrates on mistakes made rather than asking why such immense costs are being expended in the first instance. More than most Americans, the anti-war movement examines the Iraq war in detail and it is realizing consciously what the US political class already know. There are no mistakes. The US is staring over a cliff and is going to go over. It cannot leave Iraq. If he can find a plausible reason, President Bush will be allowed to invade Iran as well. Everyone will then pretend that it’s all another tragic mistake.
Two factors make up the cliff that America nears:
Simple supply and demand: the depletion of oil reserves, the necessity for the oil producers to conserve supplies and the inevitable effects of oil price rises on the world’s most intensive oil user (see What the US Congress knows about Iraq and Iran).
The US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. This requires some explanation.
A reserve currency is one that all countries will accept for trade purposes. It is really a substitute for gold because there is not enough gold to underpin the world’s currencies. It is particularly useful for trading oil, which is normally priced in dollars. Most countries also hold much of their foreign currency reserves in dollars both for this purpose and because the US has been regarded as a politically and financially stable country.
Unhappily, the US is running a trade and current account deficit, that is, it pays other countries more dollars in trade and services than it receives. The US is essentially a business running at a loss. You might wonder where it gets the dollars to pay for the difference between cash received and cash paid. Firstly, it uses the capital inflows from foreign investors. This is like spending borrowed money because investors are entitled to take their money back. Secondly, it can print money. That’s right. To get a billion dollars cash, the government simply prints the banknotes or interest bearing treasury notes for any amount it needs. These are purchased both within the US and by foreign investors and governments who can use them for trade generally, not necessarily with the US.
Now, it is not always a bad thing to print money; indeed, in an expanding economy it is essential to increase the “money supply”. Unfortunately, the US economy is not expanding. The money supply increase is to support increased borrowing, both domestic and foreign. It is of concern to many that in March 2006 the US Federal Reserve Bank ceased publishing M3 data, which is the broad measure of money supply. The fear is that this was to hide an inflationary borrowing.
Inflation in a reserve currency is a bad thing. Other governments’ reserves are devalued – they need more dollars to buy the same amount of oil and anything else priced in dollars. They might think it better to keep their foreign exchange reserves in euros, yen or a basket that corresponds more to their trade pattern. Investors don’t like inflation because both their capital investment and earnings are worth less. They will look for a more stable home for their investments.
There are particular concerns in the case of the USA:
The level of government debt is now 9.5 trillion dollars with interest payable of about 450 billion dollars per year. This can only come from taxation (depressing the economy) or printing more money (fuelling inflation).
The US economy is arguably contracting. Figures for jobs and GNP do not necessarily provide an accurate picture. The types of jobs and distribution of income, for example, need to be taken into account.
Much US manufacturing has shifted off-shore or closed down. The industrial base is weak; industry is increasingly uncompetitive against China, India and other Asian countries. US financial and other services are highly vulnerable to European and Asian competition.
The recent sub-prime mortgage problems, crash in house prices and massive increase in liquidity in response from the Federal Reserve bring into question the Federal Reserve’s monetary competence (money supply and interest rate policy).
Government borrowing against present and future expenditure commitments is unsustainable. The USA is living beyond its means, according to David Walker, recently retired US Comptroller-General who is the government’s top accountant (see video at the end of this article). This calls into question the US government’s fiscal competence (taxation and government spending policy).
Due to increasing competition for a diminishing supply, oil is being bartered or direct access agreements are being made between states. This undermines the petrodollar (dollars reserved for or involved in oil transactions).
Oil is being priced in currencies other than the US dollar and large-scale oil barter schemes are being established between Venezuela-South America and Iran-China/Japan, also undermining the petrodollar.
There is plenty here to worry international investors and holders of dollar reserves – and they are worried. The change in the dollar’s value demonstrates this:
1 April 2002: = 1.14 euro
1 April 2008: = 0.64 euro
Over this period, foreign governments and international investors have seen their dollar reserves, US investments and earnings lose 43 per cent against the euro, 33 per cent against the yen and 18 per cent against the rupee. This means that a manufacturer holding euros at present has an oil-buying advantage of 43 per cent over an American manufacturer, compared with their positions in 2002. The same is true of other commodities priced in dollars. This is why some governments are selling their dollar reserves.
If oil ceases to be traded in dollars, an important reason for the dollar’s reserve currency status will have disappeared and if it should lose reserve status, the US will find few foreign buyers for its paper debt. If foreign investors disinvest in the US as well, its economy could well collapse.
It does not increase international confidence in the US government’s financial policies and regulatory systems that the US has in the last few years exported to other countries many billions of dollars in worthless sub-prime mortgage “securities”. Nor does it help that debt supports its high profile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the threatened war against Iran.
Here we come to the imperative for the US to seize the Iraqi and Iranian oilfields. With its own oil nearing exhaustion, it cannot in future afford to purchase the enormous proportion of the world’s oil production on which its living standards are based. Its industrial production is uncompetitive, currency depreciating, finances supported by debt and, recently, its banks and investment houses have been supported by printed money in defiance of its much vaunted free market principles. The US needs an alternative philosophy and finds that it does not have one. It needs to change but cannot bring itself to change.
If the US fails to put its economy and finances into a fit state for world competition it could be paying 500 dollars per barrel, perhaps 1,000 dollars per barrel for oil in five or 10 years time. This is why it cannot leave Iraq and why direct control of the Iranian oilfields are also desirable. Of course its actions in Iraq are themselves creating instability.
I have previously suggested from circumstantial evidence that the US is stealing Iraqi oil and falsifying the statistics. In fact, no statistics for the past five years of US occupation exist. The Iraqi oil fields and export terminals have been unmetered for this period. (See the 2007 report of the International and Advisory Monitoring Board (IAMB) on Iraq, operating under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483. The published production and export statistics have no validity whatever. One may reasonably conjecture that the trading records are of similar quality. The IAMB also reports that barter agreements for oil are not accounted for by the Development Fund for Iraq as required by UN Security Council Resolution 1483. In terms of even the most basic standards of accounting and accountability this can only be called scandalous and criminal. It makes a mockery of the US government’s claims to be developing Iraq and reveals the simple truth behind the invasion of Iraq. The invasion was a strategic plan to seize oil supplies that the US government will soon be in no position to purchase.
We have tended to think that the American people have been deceived by the Bush administration’s lies. It appears that, although initially this was the case, America has realized the truth but cannot admit its complicity. It cares about its high living standards and American deaths, not Iraqi or Afghan poverty and deaths. The American people do not recognize themselves in the mirror. They evidently see only fantasy images, unrelated to reality, derived from films. The reality that others see is horrific. If President Bush can engineer an excuse and a plan involving low American casualties, America will permit him to invade Iran as well – and pretend that it did not know the truth.
David Walker, recently-retired US Comptroller-General, totalled up the US government’s income, liabilities and future obligations. He concluded the numbers don’t add up. Courtesy: CBS, 8 July 2007
But what are we independent from? Are we independent from Big Oil and Big Money control? No. Are we independent from a fascist state that cares little for personal freedoms and liberties? No. Are we independent from the fear the neocons have used against an unsuspecting and gullible public? No. Are we independent from the very kind of power structure that we decided to rebel from? No.
We live in a false grandeur… a self-assigned and brainwashed thought that we are morally better than the rest of the world and just because we have been lied to to convince us otherwise (it was easy to do) we forget that and do not want to hold those liars accountable, for we don’t hold our representatives accountable for anything they do, unless it is have a gay person suck them off.
We pretend that we are flag-waving, true patriots, yet we allow our government to attack and ruin other’s lives in search for oil and its control.
How soon we forget what our first true hero and president said about this. How quickly we turn our back on what is important and honorable. How quickly we allow these assholes to lie to us and us believe them. Mr Washington said in his farewell address:
“In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive ofsome partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. …”
We are drowning in the “impostures of pretended patriotism,” used to cover the lies that got us into Iraq, the defense of torture and the violation of our basic liberties. In the name of patriotism, we presume a God-given American right to reorder the world to our liking, masking the vice of unfettered greed as an obligation of national security.
Any doubts as to this later governing impulse of our imperial ambitions were shattered with the recent news that U.S. advisers to our puppet government in the Green Zone of occupied Iraq have worked out agreements for American oil companies to gain control of Iraqi oil fields. But, then again, what did we expect when we elected a Texas oil hustler, and a failed one at that, to be our president?
Only in an America dumbed down by constant propaganda about our innate moral superiority will anyone any longer believe that we didn’t invade Iraq for the oil, even though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to the Bush administration from the board of directors at Chevron, where they named an oil tanker after her. Like Vice President Dick Cheney with those Halliburton contracts, Rice has stayed true to her corporate sponsors. That’s what the U.S. invasion of Iraq accomplished; for the first time in more than three decades after Iraq joined a worldwide trend of formerly colonized nations gaining control of their own resources, Big Oil is getting its black gold back. It was always about the oil — that’s why “we” invaded Iraq — only “we” aren’t getting any, at least not at a reasonable price. The oil companies are.
“Yeah, but now that we are there, what are we to do?” Or the even harder idiocy, “We went there to give them freedom, they owe us the oil and we should take it.”
Is there any question in a redneck’s mind that this illegal invasion was anything except a way to get control of the Iraqi oil? How stupid does an American have to be to still believe these THUGS like Cheney and Rice (not to mention Bush and the rest of the thieves and liars) when every issue points to their neocon, oil-driven, world-control agenda? I mean, REALLY.
Are you people still so ignorant and stupid that you still believe them? No matter what the evidence is? To me, that is down-right treasonous. If you still support these maniacs, then you are also a traitor, in my opinion… at the very least, the stupidest of the stupid and should get mental help.
Sorry, but that is the way it is. There is no longer any excuse for you people… you Bushie Fools.
As Robert says, it may be impossible for the oil money soaked congress to get the point, but the Oil Companies and the American public are not the same. When Haliburton can screw Americans by moving off shore, they are no longer American. Period.
As they get richer and richer, we are suffering by paying for their ultra-profits. Now, they have “negotiated” some sort of contract to pull the oil from under the sand for the Iraqi government and will reap 75% of the money, leaving 25% for the Iraqis.
Now think about that for a second. Our “war” was to be paid for by their oil money, but the Oil companies get 75% and we are to be repaid or they will finance the rest of our 100 year war with 25% of the oil proceeds. Does any other redneck think the math is screwed? How many other countries do you think would allow this? Saudi Arabia?
What we have done is certainly a humongous rip-off of other people’s resources. Period. And we (all of us Americans) have allowed it and actually chide it along because of our “imposture” of pretended patriotism. “Imposture” is the act or practice of deceiving by means of an assumed character or name. We assume a false patriotism, we pretend that this patriotism is honorable and warranted, but it is simply the catalyst that our leaders have used to brainwash us into believing our superiority to the rest of the world, especially a bunch of sand dwelling rag heads.
We have become precisely what our greatest hero warned us of.
So, today, as I gather signatures for Ralph Nader, don’t put your flag pin up in my face, unless you are ready to sign this thing and get rid of these lying SOB’s who are ruining our country.
Robert finishes with this:
So, take that American flag off your lapel and replace it with a button bearing the Exxon or Chevron logo. C’mon, Dick Cheney and Condi Rice, be straight about what it is you are really pushing here. ‘Fess up — it’s not the good old USA as represented by the sucker taxpayers conned by your patriotic blather. No sirree, what you would have Americans paying homage to is the majesty of the big multinational corporations that exploit American military power to rule the world.
But recognize that you have shamed the legacy of our first president. George Washington, who distinguished the promise of the new world from the corruptions of the old by shunning imperial conquest, said: “Our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing.”
If Barack Obama or John McCain was to offer such words of wisdom this Fourth of July, he would be vilified as “weak,” and that is a fit measure of just how far we have descended from the high hopes of our first president.
And while we’re at it, consider the cost in innocent lives in the ME (not JUST Iran, for the nuclear waste will spread to adjacent countries) when we use bunker-buster bombs (they are nuclear weapons, didn’t you know?). Where IS our sense of decency and commitment to innocent people?
B’Man: Hilarious, until you understand how true this is…
Bremner, Bird, and Fortune: George Parr (Iraq oil)
An interview with ‘George Parr’ (a fictional character stating real facts). Shown in 2007 during Bremner, Bird, and Fortune the interview features Iraq and it’s oil. Taken from the new series of BBF currently on Channel 4 (captured via Channel 4 +1).
B’Man: Our illustriously Bush suck-up leadership in Congress is spending your money again. They are taking your hard earned dollars, stealing the “taxed” portion, then spending that money on Iraq and the Military Industrial Complex’s insatiable need for more and MORE.
I wonder if you rednecks could think of a better way to spend our money than on an illegal invasion that you were lied to to accept and endorse? How about health care?
If someone were to ask you how to spend the money you give the government, would you select Iraq as the beneficiary? Would you select any freaking country or military base that wasn’t in America?
Neither would I.
Norman Solomon has an excellent article in which he suggests that our piss-poor health care system, totally dependent upon and financed through profit-driven motives, is a better investment than Iraq. If you disagree, could you take the time to explain why?
Speaking in a time of war, Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Somehow this madness must cease.”
Forty-one years later, young soldiers are returning to the United States from terrifying zones of carnage. The old claims of a justified war have melted away. So have the promises of a humane society back home.
Statistics about the war dead tell us very little about human realities. And familiar downbeat numbers about health care — 47 million Americans with no health insurance, perhaps an equal number woefully under-insured — tell us very little about the actual consequences or other options.
“The shocking facts about health care in the United States are well known,” Yes! Magazine noted in the autumn of 2006. “There’s little argument that the system is broken. What’s not well known is that the dialogue about fixing the health-care system is just as broken.”
That’s an apt description. For all the media focus and political rhetoric on health care, the mainline discourse is stuck in a corporate-friendly rut. But there are signs that a movement for a rational, humanistic health-care system in this country is now gaining strength.
A few hours after writing these words, I’ll be at a large demonstration in San Francisco. The lightning rod for this historic June 19 protest is a national meeting of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an outfit that cheerily pitches itself as “a national trade association representing nearly 1,300 member companies providing health benefits to more than 200 million Americans.”
As it happens, this meeting of America’s Health Insurance Plans got underway just as news broke that the congressional “leadership” has devised a formula to fully fund more war. “Democratic and GOP leaders in the House announced agreement Wednesday on a long-overdue war funding bill they said President Bush would be willing to sign,” the Associated Press reported. The bill would “provide about $165 billion to the Pentagon to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for about a year.”
There’s a lot of profit in death. Under the guise of national security. And under the guise of health care.
Today, across the United States, people are dying because they don’t have access to health care. But policy solutions are available. In Congress, about 90 co-sponsors are backing H.R. 676, a bill to provide “comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States residents.” Call it whatever you like — “single payer” or “improved Medicare for all” or “universal health care with choice of providers and no financial barriers.” What it adds up to is the policy option of treating health care as the human right that it is.
In the latest edition of “Health Care Meltdown,” author C. Rocky White identifies himself as “a conservative Republican who has always held an entrepreneurial ‘pull yourself up by your own bootstraps’ free-market philosophy.” A longtime physician, White describes “the frustration I began to experience while trying to provide compassionate, quality health care in the context of a market in which the accustomed rules of business economics don’t apply.”
Dr. White immersed himself in research on health-care policy and finance. Then he pored through reams of the latest data on the tradeoffs of reform options. “No matter how I turned the cube,” he writes, “the answer never changed. That answer was nearly impossible for me, a free-market Republican, to accept.”
Here are Dr. White’s two key conclusions in his own words:
“Until we remove the motive of profit from the financing of health care, we cannot and we will not resolve our current health care crisis.”
“Any group that proposes reform policy that maintains the use of for-profit insurance companies in a so-called free market is being driven by one single motive — to protect the golden coffers of their share of the $2 trillion cash cow!”
Dr. White adds: “To continue down this road is paramount to suggesting that we privatize our fire and police services and turn them into for-profit organizations. You do that and people will die — just like they are dying now under our current health-care system!”
Grotesquely, the insurance and hospital industries at the center of health care in the United States are, in effect, profiting from priorities that condemn many people to death and many more to avoidable suffering.
Meanwhile, corporate enterprises continue to make a killing from U.S. military expenditures now in the vicinity of $2 billion per day.
During a wartime speech in 1969, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist George Wald said: “Our government has become preoccupied with death, with the business of killing and being killed.”
The preoccupation continues.
“When machines and computers, profit motives and property
