Consortiumnews.com

"Does anyone on the Left seriously believe that a President John McCain or a President Hillary Clinton would have promoted peace as much as Obama has?

"And when it comes to a country as powerful as the United States, gradations matter; they can be the difference between untold numbers of people living or dying, as Election 2000 should have made clear, when some on the Left said there was "not a dime's worth of difference" between Bush and Al Gore. "
Robert Parry

Consortiumnews.com

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"America the Great ... Police State"--Gore Vidal

For those of us who had hoped that the Obama administration would present us with a rebirth of the old republic that was so rudely erased a few years ago by that team of judicial wreckers, Bush and Gonzales, which led, in turn, to a recent incident in Cambridge, Mass. that inspired a degree of alarm in many Americans. But what was most alarming was the plain fact that neither the president nor a “stupid” local policeman seemed to understand the rules of behavior in a new America, where we find ourselves marooned as well as guarded (is that the verb?) by armed police who have been instructed that they are indeed, once armed, the law and may not be criticized verbally or in any other way and are certainly not subject to any restrictions as to whom they arrest or otherwise torment.

This is rather worse than anyone might have predicted, even though the signs have been clear for some years that ours is now a proto-fascist nation and there appears to be no turning back; nor, indeed, much awareness on the part of our ever-alert media. Forgive me if you find my irony heavy, but I too get tired of carrying it about in “the greatest nation in the country,” as Spiro Agnew liked to say.

(--snip--)
But the true meaning of the mess in Cambridge has been carefully avoided by a media incapable of getting the point to anything if they can excitingly change the subject to something else. So here we now have a cast of characters that includes the president himself, a distinguished scholar and a feckless young policeman who on the radio said, when asked why he had behaved so rudely to the “old” scholar, he said because the old guy had been rude about his mother. I haven’t heard this excuse since the playground of St. Alban’s in 1935.

(--snip--)
What the police in their ignorance have not figured out is that they have lost all credibility since World War II. They are sort of parasites on the fringe of society and do no particular good for anyone except possibly themselves. Certainly to hear them complain—you’ve never heard such whines as from a policeman who feels he’s been wronged! Apparently, all Earth owes him a living, and he’s the bravest man on any block.

You can read the essay in its entirety at TruthDig.com

Michael Moore's new film trailer

YouTube: "If I Were A Terrorist"

Robert Perry: Bush and bin Laden as Sylvester and Tweety Bird

Robert Perry, the premire commentator on the Web today, writes:

Just as Sylvester and Tweety Bird achieved lasting Hollywood fame from their comical cartoon chases, the less amusing duo of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden continue to benefit each other by reviving their long-distance rivalry, one posturing against the other in a way that helps them both.
ConsortiumNews.com

One without the other would be mere footnotes in history.

And it is beyond interesting coincident that when President Clinton decided to "snatch" bin Laden out of Sudan in 1993 (see Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies pp 144-145) the Pentagon put the kibosh on the operation.

Perry also notes:

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity offered a taste of how the new bin Laden tape will be used against both Democrats and the American Left.

“One of the things that also struck me is the language specifically that he [bin Laden] used,” Hannity said. “He seemed to adopt the very same language that is being used by the hard Left in this country, as he describes what’s going on in Iraq as a ‘civil war’; he actually used the word ‘neocons’; he talked about global warming; he denounces capitalism and corporations.”

Giggling house conservative David Brooks, as if reading from Hannity's script, said of the new bin Laden tape on the September 7, 2007 edition of PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer:

But you read this thing, and it's like he's been sitting around reading lefty blogs, and he's one of these childish people posting rants at the bottom the page, you know, Noam Chomsky and all this stuff.

You can't help read it and not laugh at it, occasionally, because it is just absurd. It's flying this way, and that way, weird conspiracy theories, and mortgages, global warming. He throws it all in there.

...I mean, a lot of the worst ideas from the West have permeated in, and he's picked up Noam Chomsky, and he's picked up some of the anti-globalization stuff. And that's what infuses this.

So now the scourge of the Western World has now become the darling of America's left. Jesus, how can you not begin to wonder if this whole thing hasn't been scripted from the beginning. It always seems a little more than coincidential that just when George W. Bush gets his political ass in a sling, up pops Osama to bail him out. So now it looks like Osama is helping the Bush boy, the Mainstream Media and our centerist political parties, from Hillary to Rudy, paint anyone in the United States who disagrees with the current administration's policy in Iraq, globalization and corporate agenda in general as a conspiracy nut, a leftwing moonbat or Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul!

Concludes Perry

In other words, any similarity in language between bin Laden and what many Americans say in common conversations will be used to discredit them. They will become bin Laden’s fellow travelers.

All the better to get Bush and bin Laden what they both really want: a prolonged war in Iraq – and possibly a U.S. attack on the Shiite government of Iran.

Paul Craig Roberts: "Impeach Now"

Heed Paul Craig Roberts' warning:

Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Read the rest of his column at CounterPunch.com

The Incomparable Frank Rich

Frank Rich brings the dots into focus, at Welcome to Pottersville

Of Paris Hilton and George W. Bush

Thanks to BuzzFlash.com for linking to a excellent essay by A. Alexander at The Progressive Daily Beacon.com, America's Lords and Masters: The Trust-Fund Babies.

Neither Paris Hilton nor George W. Bush has any clue whatsoever what life is like for the average person. And, don't think for a moment these mollycoddled brats give a damn either.

Is it really any wonder America has come so completely undone, so quickly? The very first time someone actually dared to hold Paris Hilton to account and she dissolved into a tearful, bed-wetting temper tantrum. And, George W. Bush is no better. Whenever Congress or a reporter makes an attempt at holding him to account for his many failures, the man's demeanor changes completely...and he pitches a little two-year-old-like temper tantrum.

Everyday and in everyway every working-class American stares down more pressure and trouble than Paris Hilton could ever dream of facing for one second in her meaningless, filled-to-the-brim with everything and yet, completely empty life.

The American aristocracy: the parasites living within the intestines of America's democracy, sucking it dry of all its vital life forces. They are America's would-be-rulers-by-birthright --- the trust-fund Lords and Masters(emphasis added.)

Not all Iowa vets are Neanderthals*

A letter in this morning's Des Moines Register speaks for itself.

Regarding Larry Disney's Feb. 25 letter to the editor, "Iraq Will Be Like Vietnam If Lefties Have Their Way": As a lefty, I will gladly accept blame for getting out of Iraq, if righties will accept blame for going into Iraq based on lies.

As a veteran of Vietnam, I recall that it was not just Democrats and the "left," but the American people who withdrew their support for that war. Funny how some on the "right" seem to leave that part out, just like their selective memory on how we got into the mess in Iraq.

I would also like to remind Disney that the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) was already operating in division-sized units in South Vietnam, despite the best efforts of the U.S. Air Force to stop the infiltration via the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos and Cambodia.

Disney's closing point changes the parameters of his letter to the whole Middle East. If the whole Middle East explodes into violence, I hope that those of Disney's political persuasion have the courage to stand up and say we have reaped what we have sown.

- Mark D. Brooks,

master sgt. retired,

Carlisle.

We need to hear from more veterans like Mark Brooks. It's too bad we don't. I know they are out there.

*My sincerest apologies to any real Homo neanderthalensis who many yet be lurging in the mountains of southern France.