Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Pacifica Commentary For October 11, 2006
Let's Not Cut and Run!
Let's not cut and run, O.K.? Tell that to someone who is going the wrong way on a one-way street. Stay the course, march over the cliff, surf the tsunami, picnic at an erupting Mount St. Helen's.
And, by the way, just order others to do this while you are at a safe distance from the action.
Please pay attention to your intelligence agencies. They are trying to tell you that al Qaeda is in favor of our continued occupation of Iraq. Al Qaeda believes our staying the course is essential for them to have a successful future? Our intelligence people certainly must have the statement of the al Qaeda official who said, "Prolonging the war is in our interest."
Have you listened to your intelligence agencies as they tell you that most Iraqi insurgents were never previously involved in violence? On the contrary, they say it was the occupation itself which drove the Iraqis into armed resistance. The prognosis of our intelligence agencies is that the insurgency in Iraq will grow rapidly in the years to come.
Are you not aware that the isolated "Green Zone" government of Iraq is seen by most Iraqis as completely subservient to the military of the United States?
Just think of the brilliance of our leaders as they attempt to define a reality of their own making. Our Secretary of Defense predicted that the war could last six days or six weeks. Our commercial media is equally flawed. The Latest NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE states that there have been 45,000 civilian casualties in Iraq. But Johns Hopkins University identifies over 600,000 Iraqi dead.
And we know that imitation is the highest form of praise, so now we see the Taliban in Afghanistan adopting the tactics of the Iraqi insurgents as they grow in number and influence to the point where, after visiting Afghanistan, Senator Bill Frist recommends the Taliban be accepted into the government we have created.
The policy of George Bush and the hopes of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are quite similar. Both of them want us to stay the course. Neither wants us to cut and run.
Perhaps this is a clear demonstration of how fundamentalists think. They do not take advice, they do not change their minds when they have been proven wrong. They have only their fractured truth which is a lie.
Pacifica Commentary For October 4, 2006
The Constitution Dies
Will our children living in the new police state understand that the Constitution of the United States died in 2006?
Yes, they will look to this as the year that our government determined we could be held indefinitely in a secret detention facility, that we could be put on trial based on unseen evidence and sentenced to death on hearsay statements or even testimony gleaned from torture.
Certainly the charges against Congressman Mark Foley are serious and should not be ignored. But to have such charges receive more coverage than the demise of the Constitution of the United States demands an explanation. The marriage between commercial media and the warfare state is obvious. Clinton was bombing Iraq and choking its people with a brutal embargo while Lewinsky held full time media attention.
And now it seems that the Mark Foley matter is overshadowing the loss of the document we have sworn to defend from enemies foreign and domestic.
This is simply one more reason to participate in tomorrow's National Day of Resistance to drive out the Bush Regime. Silence in the face of legalized torture is complicity.
Can you imagine that practically every picture you witnessed at the horror of Abu Ghraib Prison has now been made legal by your Congress?
Thursday, October 5th there will be a convergence at Pershing Square at Noon. This is at the corner of 5th and Olive in downtown Los Angeles. This will be followed by a rally at
the downtown Federal Building at 300 North Los Angeles Street at 5:00 PM. Speakers at the 5:00 PM rally include Edward Asner, Bob Watada (the father of Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first officer to refuse to fight in Iraq) Steve Rohde, civil rights lawyer, Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace and Jesse Diaz, Jr., the co-founder of the March 25th Coalition for Immigrants Rights.
This National Day of Resistance is called by THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT, DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME. These demonstrations will take place in 170 cities of the United States. Full page ads in the New York Times and USA Today have announced this day of resistance. Tomorrow, Thursday, October 5th is set aside to protest the loss of habeas corpus, to protest the loss of the Constitution, to protest the on-going violations of the Geneva Conventions. And in the shadows of this destruction of our civil and legal rights is a nefarious plan to attack Iran.
It seems to me that some of the feigned shock expressed by our Congress regarding Mr. Foley is actually a cover for an even greater crime which the Congress itself has approved.
Let's not cut and run, O.K.? Tell that to someone who is going the wrong way on a one-way street. Stay the course, march over the cliff, surf the tsunami, picnic at an erupting Mount St. Helen's.
And, by the way, just order others to do this while you are at a safe distance from the action.
Please pay attention to your intelligence agencies. They are trying to tell you that al Qaeda is in favor of our continued occupation of Iraq. Al Qaeda believes our staying the course is essential for them to have a successful future? Our intelligence people certainly must have the statement of the al Qaeda official who said, "Prolonging the war is in our interest."
Have you listened to your intelligence agencies as they tell you that most Iraqi insurgents were never previously involved in violence? On the contrary, they say it was the occupation itself which drove the Iraqis into armed resistance. The prognosis of our intelligence agencies is that the insurgency in Iraq will grow rapidly in the years to come.
Are you not aware that the isolated "Green Zone" government of Iraq is seen by most Iraqis as completely subservient to the military of the United States?
Just think of the brilliance of our leaders as they attempt to define a reality of their own making. Our Secretary of Defense predicted that the war could last six days or six weeks. Our commercial media is equally flawed. The Latest NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE states that there have been 45,000 civilian casualties in Iraq. But Johns Hopkins University identifies over 600,000 Iraqi dead.
And we know that imitation is the highest form of praise, so now we see the Taliban in Afghanistan adopting the tactics of the Iraqi insurgents as they grow in number and influence to the point where, after visiting Afghanistan, Senator Bill Frist recommends the Taliban be accepted into the government we have created.
The policy of George Bush and the hopes of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are quite similar. Both of them want us to stay the course. Neither wants us to cut and run.
Perhaps this is a clear demonstration of how fundamentalists think. They do not take advice, they do not change their minds when they have been proven wrong. They have only their fractured truth which is a lie.
Pacifica Commentary For October 4, 2006
The Constitution Dies
Will our children living in the new police state understand that the Constitution of the United States died in 2006?
Yes, they will look to this as the year that our government determined we could be held indefinitely in a secret detention facility, that we could be put on trial based on unseen evidence and sentenced to death on hearsay statements or even testimony gleaned from torture.
Certainly the charges against Congressman Mark Foley are serious and should not be ignored. But to have such charges receive more coverage than the demise of the Constitution of the United States demands an explanation. The marriage between commercial media and the warfare state is obvious. Clinton was bombing Iraq and choking its people with a brutal embargo while Lewinsky held full time media attention.
And now it seems that the Mark Foley matter is overshadowing the loss of the document we have sworn to defend from enemies foreign and domestic.
This is simply one more reason to participate in tomorrow's National Day of Resistance to drive out the Bush Regime. Silence in the face of legalized torture is complicity.
Can you imagine that practically every picture you witnessed at the horror of Abu Ghraib Prison has now been made legal by your Congress?
Thursday, October 5th there will be a convergence at Pershing Square at Noon. This is at the corner of 5th and Olive in downtown Los Angeles. This will be followed by a rally at
the downtown Federal Building at 300 North Los Angeles Street at 5:00 PM. Speakers at the 5:00 PM rally include Edward Asner, Bob Watada (the father of Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first officer to refuse to fight in Iraq) Steve Rohde, civil rights lawyer, Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace and Jesse Diaz, Jr., the co-founder of the March 25th Coalition for Immigrants Rights.
This National Day of Resistance is called by THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT, DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME. These demonstrations will take place in 170 cities of the United States. Full page ads in the New York Times and USA Today have announced this day of resistance. Tomorrow, Thursday, October 5th is set aside to protest the loss of habeas corpus, to protest the loss of the Constitution, to protest the on-going violations of the Geneva Conventions. And in the shadows of this destruction of our civil and legal rights is a nefarious plan to attack Iran.
It seems to me that some of the feigned shock expressed by our Congress regarding Mr. Foley is actually a cover for an even greater crime which the Congress itself has approved.
