Our Leaders Are Feeding Us Propaganda

Another wonderful piece by one of the only sane ones in Texas.
BB
by Molly Ivins

We live in interesting times, we do, we do. We can read in our daily newspapers that our government is about to launch a three-day propaganda blitz to convince us all that its secret program to spy on us is something we really want and need. "A campaign of high-profile national security events," reports the New York Times, follows "Karl Rove's blistering speech to national Republicans" about what a swell political issue this is.

The question for journalists is how to report this. President Bush says it's a great idea and he's proud of the secret spy program? Attorney General Gonzales explains breaking the law is no problem? Dick Cheney says accept spying, or Osama bin Laden will get you?

'Suicide Seeds' Could Spell Death of Peasant Agriculture, UN Meeting Told

by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS - Groups fighting for the rights of peasant communities are stepping up pressure on governments to ban the use of genetically modified ''suicide seeds'' at UN-sponsored talks on biodiversity in Spain this week.

...genetically modified crops...offer the promise of fat profits for their developers, marketers, and political supporters while threatening farmers with lean times and consumers with ill-health.

''This technology is an assault on the traditional knowledge, innovation, and practices of local and indigenous communities,'' said Debra Harry, executive director of the U.S.-based Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism.

Ethical shopping: The Red Revolution

Consumer conscience goes mainstream.
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Irish rock star Bono has persuaded some of the world's biggest companies to back his new weapon in the fight against poverty: a consumer brand with a conscience. Cahal Milmo reports
From John Paul II to George W Bush, few have escaped Bono's campaign to charm and bully the world's powerbrokers into lending their support to his fight against global poverty and disease. Such has been the success of the Irish rock star's assault on A-list opinion-formers, ranging from Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, to the billionaire currency dealer George Soros, that he was touted last year as a serious candidate for the presidency of the World Bank.

But now the U2 frontman with a taste for wrap-around shades, turned voice of global conscience, set his sights on an altogether more intractable constituency, the developed world's hard-boiled, price-conscious consumers and the conglomerates that seek their cash.

The Patriotic Bully Card

In a column unambiguously titled "Not. Backing. Hillary.", Ivins lets loose on a Democratic Party mired in equivocation and political calculation. She takes the party to task for yielding to the Bush administration's tactic of "playing the patriotic bully card" on the war. It's refreshing spleen-venting in a week where Harry Reid apologized for telling the truth and two leading Democrats—Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh—tried to out-hawk the White House by calling for a tougher stance on Iran.

While the Democrats' spinelessness—did I mention the refusal to filibuster Alito?—leaves most of us sputtering in frustration, it leads Ivins to articulate fury:

The Hastert Lobbying Reform Plan: A Tough Truffle to Swallow

by Arianna Huffington

Great news. The GOP has decided to clean up Washington. This week, Denny Hastert released the Republican plan to reform lobbying rules. As soon as he did, the naysayers began jumping all over it. For instance, there was this description from the Washington Post:

"According to lobbyists and ethics experts, even if Hastert's proposal is enacted, members of Congress and their staffs could still travel the world on an interest group's expense and eat steak on a lobbyist's account at the priciest restaurants in Washington.

"The only requirement would be that whenever a lobbyist pays the bill, he or she must also hand the lawmaker a campaign contribution. Then the transaction would be perfectly okay."

NO CHILD'S BEHIND LEFT: THE TEST

Tuesday Jan 10, 2006
by Greg Palast

New York -- Today and tomorrow every 8-year-old in the state of New York will take a test. It's part of George Bush's No Child Left Behind program. The losers will be left behind to repeat the third grade. Try it yourself. This is from the state's actual practice test. Ready, class?

"The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year."

And here's one of the four questions:

"The story says that in 1999, the sisters could not seem to lose at doubles tennis. This probably means when they played

A two matches in one day
B against each other
C with two balls at once
D as partners"

OK, class, do you know the answer? (By the way, I didn't cheat: there's nothing else about "doubles" in the text.)

My kids go to a New York City school in which more than half the students live below the poverty line. There is no tennis court.

Article launches investigation into U.S. mining company's pay-offs to Indonesian military

In a statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the New Orleans-based mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold confirmed that it has received informal inquiries from governmental agencies about revelations by The New York Times that the company paid almost $20 million to Indonesian military officers and units between 1998 and 2004. The military benefactors were stationed near the massive Freeport mine in Indonesia’s Papua province. The late December Times report also detailed the environmental consequences of the company’s dumping mine tailings into a nearby river system. In a letter to the editor [PDF], Freeport President and CEO Richard C. Adkerson defended the company’s operations and stressed its commitment to corporate social responsibility. However, he did not comment on Freeport’s work with Indonesian military intelligence officers to monitor the email and phone calls of environmental activists.

Source: The New York Times, January 19, 2006

Yes, the Pentagon Murders Journalists

EXCERPT:
The official Bush administration line, however, was that the assault was a campaign to “liberate” the city and free its people. American corporate media pundits celebrated the destruction, explaining that the Fallujah operation would set a new tempo for the Iraq war by pacifying the resistance. In the end, however, the operation didn’t pacify the resistance. To the contrary, it exposed the U.S. as a rogue outlaw state, executing one of the worst attacks on a civilian population target since Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds. And for many in the region, it justified the resistance—with recent polls showing increasing numbers of Iraqis supporting violence as a means to oust the occupation forces.

If the Bush administration had its way, the whole criminal siege of Fallujah, with its depraved indifference to human life, would have gone unnoticed. The corporate media’s Pentagon-spun propaganda stories about liberation would have gone unchallenged by any unseemly intrusions of reality. Toward that end, the Pentagon declared Fallujah a no-reporting zone, barring all un-embedded journalists from the city. In short, the Pentagon hoped to control all images coming out of the massacre. And they would have pulled it off, had it not been for one independent freelance journalist from Alaska, Dahr Jamail, and an Al-Jazeera TV crew.

Sea Shepherd Prepares to Attack the Japanese Whaling fleet in Antarctic Whale Sanctuary

by Captain Paul Watson Friday December 23, 2005 at 09:46 PM

A Message from Captain Paul Watson onboard the Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat
December 23rd, 2005

I am sending this e-mail from our ship the Farley Mowat to a small list of friends and supporters.

We are down off the coast of Antarctica about 180 miles off the Mertz Glacier and the Adelie coast. We are about five hours from interception of the Japanese whaling fleet. We are presently on an interception course. I am anticipating a confrontation with the Japanese whalers in a few hours.

Activists clash with Japanese Whaling Fleet

For those who think it is a thing of the past, Whaling is, unfortunately, alive and well.
BB

In the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica anti-whaling activists in three ships, the Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise from Greenpeace, and the Farley Mowat from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are shadowing a five ship Japanese Whaling fleet in an attempt to stop illegal whaling activities. Greenpeace activists on the 21 and 22 December clashed with the Japanese whaling fleet.

Impeach the Prick!!!

www.VoteToImpeach.org

Subscribe:
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=e5wD_v1vQTI3l4p3CySprA..

*********************

WE CAN MAKE IMPEACHMENT A REALITY IN 2006
IMPEACHMENT MOVEMENT ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE ACTION PLAN
HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE JANUARY 6TH-9TH LOBBY DAYS FOR IMPEACHMENT

Dear J.B.,

In 2005, the Impeachment movement spread like wildfire. With your energy, time, commitment, and donations, the movement to remove the criminal regime in the White House has reached a new threshold. Make a difference at this critical juncture in support of the movement by donating your time and money today.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=T8-VtC7Z4ldEjL_MlT8C4A..

MORE IMPEACHABLE CRIMES REVEALED

Attempting to appear earnest and sincere, George W. Bush told an American people anguished by the criminal war in Iraq and the White House's trashing of the Bill of Rights that, "Anytime you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, a wiretap requires a court order." Bush, the incorrigible liar, spoke those words in Buffalo, New York in 2004, well over two years into a super-secret spying and wiretap program authorized by the President himself. The vast program launched on the American people was designed precisely to avoid judicial oversight - the need to obtain a court order before the wiretapping of countless citizens and non-citizens alike. You need not be the subject of any criminal investigation to have been targeted by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's regime.

Under Bush, the people have lost the sacred right to due process, to the presumption of innocence, the right to be confronted by evidence in open court, the right to legal counsel, the right to make phone calls and send emails or participate in political protest without becoming the focus of intrusive government wiretaps and spying. While routinely spying on a large but still unknown number of Americans, the Bush White House has set up secret prisons around the world, has systematically engaged in secret and open torture practices and has engaged in a worldwide campaign of secret assassinations. (NY Times, December 28, 2005)

NIXON TOO THOUGHT HE WAS ABOVE THE LAW

The people must not and will not stand for this criminal conduct. This President and Vice-President, upon their election (or selection) into office, believed that they were given a special waiver exempting them from adhering to the Constitution and the laws of the land forbidding such a massive spy program. In fact, these high officials took an oath of office to uphold, not subvert, the Constitution and the cherished freedoms that belong to the people.

Bush and Cheney are acting with the same imperial arrogance as Richard Nixon. Twenty months after he was re-elected (in a landslide, no less), Nixon resigned rather than be impeached. Bush's impeachment can and will happen now because people are supporting this movement with great enthusiasm and with great commitment.

Today, millions of people in this country passionately support the ImpeachBush.org movement. In 2006, we will do everything in our power to make impeachment a reality. The naysayers never make history. We do not wait for timid politicians to lead. Throughout our own history it has been the grassroots peoples movements that took the lead and the politicians that followed. In the case of Nixon's impeachment and resignation, "official history" only records the congressional hearings that led to Nixon's demise, but those hearings were the culmination, not the beginning, of a grassroots people's movement that spread coast-to-coast.

KEEP THE HEAT ON! JOIN THE JANUARY 6TH-9TH MASSIVE PEOPLE'S LOBBY FOR IMPEACHMENT

Between January 6-9, tens of thousands of people will use the ImpeachBush.org/VoteToImpeach.org web site to send an email or fax to their elected official demanding that Bush and Cheney be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.

On these days, there will be an easy-to-use email mechanism on the web site that will allow you to send an email letter to your elected official telling them to uphold the Constitution by supporting impeachment. Even if your Senators or congressional representative are unsympathetic to impeachment, let them know what you think. If you think that they are potentially sympathetic, tell them to stop waiting and act now! We owe it to ourselves and to our children to speak up, loud and clear.

On January 7, impeachment will be the focus of town hall meetings and rallies in communities around the country. Send us an email and tell us how the event went in your area so that we can post it on the ImpeachBush.org web site.

The January 6-9 Peoples Lobby for Impeachment will be just the first steps of the Impeachment Action Plan to force impeachment in 2006.

NEW YORK TIMES AD IN JANUARY

Shortly after the January 6-9 Peoples Lobby for Impeachment, the full page newspaper ads in the New York Times and other newspapers will be published. Radio spots and other advertising will start to run. The ImpeachBush/ VoteToImpeach.org movement will organize or form contingents in hundreds of anti-war activities in cities and towns throughout the United States on March 18-20 - the third anniversary of the criminal war in Iraq. In April and May, there will be a huge impeachment presence in the streets of this country.

We are succeeding in building this movement from the bottom up. Congresspeople including John Conyers, John Lewis, Senator Barbara Boxer and a few others are beginning to speak about impeachment. But the elected officials are some of the most timid opponents of Bush. If you consider for a moment that the Zogby poll of a few months ago reported that 53% of the people support impeachment if Bush lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq -- and everybody knows he did - you would expect a wave of impeachment resolutions in congress. But the truth is that in the United States, we must create a tidal wave for impeachment from the grassroots before the politicians finally act (it is the toxic side effect of corporate campaign contributions polluting real democracy and the Constitution.)

If you believe Bush and his regime should be impeached, please make a much-needed donation.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=ms4OIDotWvVU7IENu7t0CQ..

The NY Times and other newspaper ads, radio spots, printing of posters, leaflets, organizing demonstrations and rallies all of this happens because of the generosity and commitment of people who believe in upholding the Constitution.

Hundreds of people volunteer countless hours for this movement, others help by making a donation and some do both. By making a contribution for impeachment we build a movement that insists that the current and future leaders of this country be held accountable for their actions. If Bush can succeed in shredding the Constitution, a dangerous precedent has been set. Please support the impeachment movement today. We are at a truly critical moment in the history of this country and the time to act is now. Click here to make a donation.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=uasiqZX_Pjgq0EUQbwJCdg..

-All of us at ImpeachBush/VoteToImpeach.org

Stop the DeLay

If you missed any of the latest evidence because of the
holidays, here it is:

*DeLay spent $1 million in donations to his various committees
and charities for "48 visits to golf clubs and resorts with lush
fairways; 100 flights aboard company planes; 200 stays at
hotels, many world-class; and 500 meals at restaurants, some
averaging nearly $200 for a dinner for two." (Associated Press,
12/21/05)

*A group connected to DeLay took $1 million from Russian
tycoons "specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation."
(Washington Post, 12/29/05)

*The guilty plea by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff "appears
to be drawing an ever-tighter ring of evidence around the former
House Republican majority leader, Tom DeLay, and other senior
Congressional Republicans." (New York Times, 1/04/06)

It's time for DeLay to resign. Amplify your voice by passing
this petition onto others. Go to

Campaign Action Fund to forward this
message along.

More than 40,000 people have already signed this petition--we
need more to turn up the heat.

Amazingly, the "Hammer" is still sending out his spokesman to
tell the press, "Mr. DeLay believes his support in the
conference is strong," said Kevin Madden, referring to his House
Republican colleagues. He dares to say this in the wake of two
guilty pleas by his longtime pal Jack Abramoff, whose dalliances
with DeLay include, we just learned, his paying a top DeLay
aide's wife $50,000 for helping to kill anti-gambling
legislation!

"He doesn't back down when there are stories manufactured that
attack him politically with charges that have no basis in fact."

That was Tom DeLay's spokesman, yesterday!

Super News: Davos

OK, so I just checked this out and it was pretty funny.
Animated politcal satire from Current TV. You remember them. The new network, backed by Vice President Gore that we were all hoping to lite a fire under the asses of the rest of the fucking media.
Give it a view

BB

Secret Surveillance May Have Occurred Before Authorization

Are you telling me that the U.S. Government has been vioulating peoples civil liberties?!! And under a Republican administration!!!!

"I'm shocked and appalled!"
B. Simpson

Summary:
No one seems to want to say the date that the president authorized the secret surveillance program. A letter written by Nancy Pelosi in early October of 2001, portions of which were declassified January 3 (2006), indicates that the House Intelligence Committee was informed in a briefing by then-NSA director Gen. Michael V. Hayden that the NSA had been operating since Sept. 11, 2001 in an expanded capacity.

Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home

Remember, in the movie Catch 22 when they offer Joserian a ticket home if they "like us. Go home and tell everybody what a great job were doing over here. Say nice things about us."
That was based in WWII. Does fiction follow reality or is it the other way around.
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Summary:
According to reporting by Capitol Hill Blue, the U.S. military is engaging in a propaganda campaign at home, encouraging soldiers returning from Iraq to present a positive image of the war effort. However, there are certainly consequences for doing the exact opposite.
”’I’ve been promised an early release if I do a good job promoting the war,’ says one reservist who asked not to be identified.”

A Forensic Anatomy of the Strategy for “Victory”

By Col. Daniel Smith, U.S. Army (Ret.)
An analysis of Bush's recent rhetorical offensive
The MO, method of operation or, more formally, modus operandi – is clear from even the most cursory look at the externals. Put Commander-in-Chief George Bush in front of an audience that is sure to be friendly (like military cadets), test the themes, wait for the inevitable applause, and depart right after the speech. Progressively move on to fora less hand-picked but sure to contain a number of individuals sympathetic to the White House line. Above all, sound resolute (like Churchill), stand tall, and be assured that there’s no such thing as too much repetition.

Cronies At The FEC

James Sample
January 05, 2006



James Sample is Associate Counsel in the Democracy Program of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. The Brennan Center was part of the legal team that defended BCRA at both the District Court and Supreme Court levels.

Last night, with lobbyist Jack Abramoff having entered his second guilty plea in as many days, was a moment begging for integrity in government. Instead, Congress and the White House colluded to deny the American people a public confirmation process for the individuals charged with regulating federal elections. Their action was shameless and straightforward: they used the president’s recess appointment power to sneak through a slate of politically cozy Federal Election Commissioners who will further weaken the already toothless FEC.