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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
He's just the guy who got pushed to the front of the mob.
It's amazing how stupid many democratically elected leaders are when reacting to terror attacks by abandoning legal and constitutional rights -- since that reaction is one of the strategic goals of the terrorists.
As for the US-sponsored coup attampt against Chavez, is there any wonder why US-Venezuelan relations are now "strained"? I remember the M$M's jingoistic support for the failed coup -- no different from Hearst's "Remember the Maine" in Cuba.
Disgraceful.
I'll shut off after this thought. coo, crickets, and many natural medicines, IMHO.
Indeed, and the presenters seem to extemporize from 'notes' anything they wish.
They can twist, or distort. They do thee boogie, Ay, whine against a truer Patriots.
Rarely does a pro-lie folk deliver a full-fledged HONEST scrips. I say:`'Um Naked.
Sean O' Faolain would write. An attentive reader would have greater clear insights.
Let's recall a thought? O, this is today my favorite. Personally, and I'd best be quiet.
hushed.
~
King and Hermit-Old Irish trans. Kuno Meyer.
*
I have chosen a hut in the wood
Because nobody sees it but God,
Between a hazel and a ash,
With a tall pine over it.
The kindly colored summer
Pours into my (winter) dish.
Pignuts, leeks and marjoram,
Morning sweet fresh.
My music is the humming
Of tiny bees and chafers,
Or the woodcock and the geese
Drumming through the rain.
When the winter wails
Through the woven wood,
And the cloud waterfalls
Dull the drooping swans.
Here, free from strife and fighting
I can praise the King, my God,
Who fills my wood
With everything that's good.
~
Out/over. Good UT reads. cow dung, fertility,
and so much blends into many remembrances.
Laugh, cries, and to laugh, and cry, with friends.
Good post.
The problem with Bush's foreign policy -- one of the many -- was that he played into the terrorists hands when he went into Iraq. Bush was clearly in over his head as president and he completely panicked after 9/11. (This may well be what the Mumbai attacks are hoping to precipitate, either by Bush himself or, more likely, the Indians against the Pakistanis.) The Iraq War was a gross overreaction to 9/11.
We had the entire world with us after the 9/11 attacks, and we had sweeping support for our war in Afghanistan. If we had stayed in Afghanistan we could have destroyed al Qaeda and the Taliban, and we could have done so with most of the civilized world working together with us. Instead, we did what we did, drove up terrorist recruitment and engendered anti-U.S. sentiment around the world. Now, our options are much more limited. But I think -- I hope anyway -- that with Bush leaving many other nations will once again give the U.S. a chance to work within the world community to combat terrorism. It can still be done. The terrorists offer nothing most people want. We just have to stop being so damn stupid.
"The book" has been unpopular across the board, in popular culture at least, for some time. It's now settled opinion on the right, for example, that laws merely hold us back from engaging in free enterprise. And after Dirty Harry, the disaffected cop who bends the law became a cliche, completely absorbed by Hollywood and never quite given up. It's part backlash and part propaganda, and it's time to roll it back.
It's as though most of America now believes "the rules were made to be broken." But it's not just a belief that one can profit from deregulation or federal interference. A companion belief is that "government is broken"---and plenty of non-rightwingers believe this too. It dates back at least to the Carter administration and came to full flower with Ross Perot. It's more than a belief in "smaller government."
Consider the following disparate domains in which the rules or standard procedures are commonly perceived to be the problem rather than an inadequate solution: the financial markets, environmental regulation, military practice (shooting at journalists and ambulances), the Geneva Conventions, diplomatic traditions, and on and on.
Even policies like No Child Left Behind and mandatory minimum/three strikes sentencing guidelines interfere, by definition, with the way things are normally handled by existing institutions that were never really broken but were perceived to be by many.
Glenn - I felt exactly the same way in reading this recent column by Freidman - the globalization cheerleader - who now expresses disgust about breakdowns in responsibility and ethics in the economic meltdown:
"Why? Because in searing detail it exposed — using Citigroup as Exhibit A — how some of our country’s best-paid bankers were overrated dopes who had no idea what they were selling, or greedy cynics who did know and turned a blind eye. But it wasn’t only the bankers. This financial meltdown involved a broad national breakdown in personal responsibility, government regulation and financial ethics."
All Fall Down
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26friedman.html?_r=1
Truer words can not be spoken.
Bush II was a disaster and deserves to be put in the dock as was done to Saddam. However, both parties and the influential mainstream media egged him on and are partners in the crimes. If I recall correctly, we put to death some German media people after WWII for cheer leading Hitler and the war.
Does freedom of the press mean that no one can be held liable for participating in war crimes via offering aid, comfort, support and being a propaganda outlet for the current administration?
They can just f'ing walk?
Tariq Ali has been a good source for readers how wish to understand what may be going on in India and Pakistan. His initial take on the Mumbai terrorist assaults can be found at CounterPunch.org and is well worth reading.
Venezuela has been the canonical example of the US media's Orwellian penchant. I have never read anything intelligent about Venezuela in any US mainstream media. The few snippets of thoughtful reporting in this country on Venezuela have been on fringe media like ZMag, and sometimes The Nation (though not always). How can we see clearly when we so willfully blind ourselves? What makes Venezuela even more fascinating and instructive is that prior to Chavez it had what we define as "democracy": A two-party system with both parties agreeing more with each-other and the ruling and commercial elites than with the general populace. Sound familiar?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
