Monday, April 30, 2007

UPDATE BILL MOYER'S " BUYING THE WAR " & THE FAILURE OF THE MEDIA & BILL O'REILLEY & HANNITY & COLMES

UPDATE:

Anyway here are some more reviews & articles on Bill Moyers & the documentary " BUYING THE WAR" which aired last week on PBS " Bill Moyer's Journal "

Video of Moyer's documentary " BUYING THE WAR" can be seen divided up into segments at YOUTUBE.

or in part with the written transcript at TRUTHOUT

Also see Alternet
Moyers on Media's War Pt 1 [VIDEO]

full video of " BUYING THE WAR" at alternet:
ALTERNET VIDEO OF MOYER's Documentary"

also see Interview of Moyers by Amy Goodman at DEMOCRACY NOW!" posted 25/04/07 discussing "BUYING the War" [VIDEO]

And see article by Evan Derkacz on April 29/07 at ALTERNET:
" Bill Moyers on Why the Press Bought the Iraq War "

" The media took the Bush admin's Iraq claims at face value, but it didn't have to.
The marketing of the war in Iraq by the administration has been much examined, but a critical question remains: How and why did the press buy it? The new Bill Moyers Journal documentary from PBS explores these very questions.

Bill Moyers and his team piece together the reporting that shows how the media were complicit in shaping the "public mind" toward the war, and ask what's happened to the press' role as skeptical "watchdog" over government power. This segment features the work of some intrepid journalists who didn't take the government's word at face value, including the team of reporters at Knight Ridder news service whose reporting turned up evidence at odds with the official view of reality."


Also see David Sirota's article at Alternet 27/04/07 on Moyer's documentary :

" After Moyers Iraq Documentary -DC Reporters in Damage Control Mode "
In the lead up to and wake of Bill Moyers' much-anticipated mega-dunk on the Washington press corps this week, we are seeing the ugliest side of Beltway culture -- the meltdown, damage-control freak out. Only what's new is that instead of politicians melting down, it's reporters themselves. And never underestimate the desperation that comes when Establishment Washington unifies to try to defend itself.
Over here we have professional power-worshiper Chris "It Doesn't Matter Where Political Money Comes From" Cillizza attempting to defend Tim Russert, and in the process insulting the recently deceased journalistic hero David Halberstam.

Yes, Cillizza -- clearly begging for an invite on a Meet the Press panel -- is out there saying that "modern journalists are doing their very best to emulate that sort of reporting" that came from Halberstam, and that "Tim Russert is one of the best examples of that kind of accountability journalism." I guess turning over NBC's airwaves to a Vice President spewing lies, ignoring the solid reporting of Knight Ridder that debunked those lies, and having panel discussions laughing hysterically with fellow pundit friends over predictions for when the war would start is, under Cillizza's warped Beltway definition, "accountability journalism" from Russert (who, I'm sure, Cillizza would also have us believe is just a "blue collar guy from Buffalo," despite Russert's multi-million-dollar salary and quaint Nantucket summers).

Moyers piece is important not just because it has exposed the entire sham that was pre-war Beltway journalism, but also because he has finally exacted a price -- in this case, humiliation -- from the reporters whose power-worshiping, must-stay-on-the-cocktail-party-circuit tendencies led them to aggressively push this country into war. And we can hope that fear of future humiliation will help prevent another gross abdication of responsibility next time around.


and more on Moyers:

and from Bloger at " Happy Jihad's House Of Pancakes ":posted 26/04/07

Is it too late to give Knight-Ridder a Pulitzer?

I totally want to kiss every last son-of-a-bitch at Knight-Ridder personally on the mouth. I am disgusted with the Times and the cable news networks.

This peculiarly Happy Jihad-esque mixture of rage and erotic passion for journalists that I have never met comes from watching the debut episode of Bill Moyers' new weekly show, Journal on PBS last night. Last night's episode was "Buying the War." It was supurb and depressing. He held back no punches, and it was simply delightful to watch Tim "I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing" Russert dance like a monkey. With the exception of Knight-Ridder, just about every major media outlet failed us. Bill O'Reilly, you jerk, if I ever hear another flip quip from you about the "liberal media," I will wet myself with impotent annoyance. I was depressed to see my two favorite new sources complicit and cowed by the Administration: Frontline and the NewsHour. Damnit.

We need a skeptical bulldog press, one that is looking out for the audience. Part of the problem is the principle of "balance" which, when reporting on political issues, has very little to do with the "truth" of the matter.



And From Indystar.com posted 27/04/07 we get this glowing review:

" Moyers 'un-retires' with new 'Journal' : Veteran journalist plans 99 hours of public affairs programming on PBS "
NEW YORK -- He's coming back, and viewers will be the richer for it.
Self-proclaimed "citizen journalist" Bill Moyers, who tore himself away from the TV grind a little more than two years ago, is returning to weekly television.
"Bill Moyers Journal"

To describe the overarching mission of "Bill Moyers Journal," he paraphrased Benjamin Harris, editor of America's first newspaper in the 1690s: "To give an account of such considerable things as have come to my attention."
On Saturday's edition, he'll focus on such things as the Justice Department's questionable firing of eight federal prosecutors and the role of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The program also will mark the fourth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" -- President Bush's landing on the banner-sporting aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and his pronouncement that "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." In a commentary, Moyers will assess the war's crushing cost.

"Week in and week out, it's Moyers & Friends on politics, culture, religion, books, media and money," he declares.

This veteran journalist has always been at home with a range of subjects. His humanist advocacy has been honored with more than 30 Emmys and 10 Peabody awards.


Anyway will the media finally smarten up & do their job of being a " WATCH-DOG PRESS or just continue to be lackey's fro the Bush Regime , The Neocons & the Religious Right & by doing so help to destroy America's democratic values.

It is more likely the press will attack someone like Bill Moyers as can be seen in opinion pieces by Bill O'Reilly & his NEOCON clones. as illustrated in the following clip from Bill O'Reilley in which he makes the dubious claim that the documentary quoted him out of context :

Bill O'Reilley :


What's the difference between a "Bad American " & being called " Unpatriotic " or protesting & dissenting legally when in the present conditions & climate of fear & paranoia in the United States The Bush Regime has the power to designate anyone at their discretion as being a threat to National Security.

And from FOX NEWS on HANNITY & COLMES with David Hanson of the organization " Afterdowningstreet" & Brent Bozell of the Neoconservative organization Media Research Center...who says "I WANT ALLAN COLMES TO... DENOUNCE BILL MOYERS..." The neocons are upset that anyone dare question the Bush Regime or the Neocons & the American Press which did not do the job it should have.



So the NEOCONS are " mad as hell & are not going to take it anymore" (from the film "NETWORK ") are tired of being victimized by the " LIBERAL BIASED ANTI-BUSH MEDIA" but it seems to me & many others that the media if it is biased it is biased in favor of right-wing radical Neoconservatives & tends to fuel the fires of hatred , fear & bigotry .

For more on the power of the Neoconservatives & their plan for America see : THE GUARDIAN: FASCIST AMERICA IN 10 EASY STEPS by Naomi Wolf posted 28/04/07


TAKE CARE,
GORD.

BUSH IS OVER - SPRINGTIME

Here's a somewhat optimistic song & video to start off another monday with something ligt or even "lite"so enjoy ...
It was provided by Afterdowningstreet.org - link at side bar.




And here's one for the not so political as it were or just for the hell of it by THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS - a birdhouse in your soul




take care ,
GORD.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

BILL MOYERS DOCUMENTARY " BUYING THE WAR" BUSH, NEOCONS & THE MEDIA & JON STEWART INTERVIEW TO FOLLOW.....

Anyway Bill Moyers on PBS in anew documentary " BUYING THE WAR " explores the relationship between the Mainstream Media & the Bush Regime & the Nocons & how they got Bamboozled & taken in by the administrations Propaganda Machine & how they became part of that machine which once rolling was almost impossible to stop.

Documentary on Bush & the media & the Iraqi War:

" BUYING THE WAR"
As the intro to the film puts the question:


" Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier
USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit and delivered a speech in front of a giant
"Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking"
example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound
questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the
increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's
claim that the war was won. MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neo-cons
now;" NPR's Bob Edwards said, "The war in Iraq is essentially over;" and Fortune
magazine's Jeff Birnbaum said, "It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq
really was in the broadest context."

How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence
disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between
Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? "What the conservative
media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House
from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the
President — no questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended skepticism
and scrutiny remains an issue of significance that the media has not
satisfactorily explored," says Moyers. "How the administration marketed the war
to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How
and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists
in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?"
This is an incredible documentary showing how the media bought into the lies & half-truths The Bush/Neocon propaganda to convince the American people & the world of the urgency & necessity of invading Iraq & thereby becoming as culpable as
the administration for this unnecessary & mismanaged & bungled war which
has become a damaging blow to America's reputation & integrity.

As the blurb from PBS explains:


" How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well
covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and
what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out
fact from propaganda?....watch "Buying the War," a 90-minute documentary that
explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, which
includes interviews with Dan Rather, formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of Meet the
Press; Bob Simon of 60 Minutes; Walter Isaacson, former president of CNN; and
John Walcott, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers
(now McClatchy). "

The following video is a promo for the documentary:


and here is another clip from the documentary:



And on " the absurdity of connecting AlQaeda/ 9/11 & Saddam Hussein " why only a few in the Media questioned the Bush/Neocon assumptions:



And the following are some of the responses to this documentary & the welcome news that Bill Moyers is back & may bring some integrity back to network journalism which is so lacking the last five years or so as various mainstream journalist have become " Mouth Pieces" for the Bush Regime & the Neocons...


The Cincinnati Post , April27, 2007
Moyers returns with scathing report
By Rick BirdPost staff reporter

He's back and with a journalistic vengeance. This is good news for those who
bemoan the loss of in-depth, tell-it-like-it-is broadcast journalism.
Bill Moyers returned to PBS Wednesday night with a special looking at the Bush
marketing scheme that led up to the war in Iraq. It was a special report that
preceded the debut tonight at 9 (CET, KET2) of the "Bill Moyers Journal" (the
title of his first PBS news series in the early '70's).


Wednesday night's show was one of the most hard-hitting and incisive documentaries in memory, showing Moyers is at the top of his pull-no-punches game. The piece was a scathing attack on the Bush Administration, exposing a flimsy public relations charade to justify the war in Iraq. It also was an equally relentless attack on American broadcast and print media for giving Bush a free ride. Moyers
returned with barely a mention of his new series, plowing right into the night's
topic. His crisp, tightly written opening lines left no doubt what was
coming:


"Four years ago this spring the Bush Administration took leave of
reality and plunged our country into a war so poorly planned it soon turned into
a disaster. The story of how high officials misled the country has been told.
But they couldn't have done it on their own. They need a compliant press to pass
on their propaganda as news and cheer them on."


What followed was a riveted piece where Moyers had the likes of former CBS anchor Dan Rather and NBC's Tim Russert squirming over why they never challenged the war drums of the Bush Administration. Moyers shamed cable networks and some of the most respected newspapers and columnists in the country, concluding this is what happens "when a free press surrenders its independence and skepticism."
Moyers teased tonight's show saying he will talk to Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" and explore how "faking the news can reveal more of the truth than all of the Sunday morning talk shows put together."


and from Varity.com april 20,2007 :

Bill Moyers Journal: Buying the War
(Documentary -- PBS, Wed. April 25, 9 P.M.)
By BRIAN LOWRY


Bill Moyers launches his new PBS series with a methodical, devastating,
pull-no-punches recap of mainstream journalism's collective failure to challenge
the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, thus marrying two of the
long-time liberal advocate's favorite themes -- the lackey-ism of big media and
failings of modern conservatism. Critics on the right will doubtless howl about
providing Moyers this forum, but the intelligence that infuses his work and
persuasiveness of his arguments have surely been missed as public TV has cowered
against charges of liberal bias.


Moyers doesn't soft-peddle his take on the situation, summing it up near the end of this pointed project by noting that four years after the war began, "The press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush administration to go to war on false pretenses."


Administration defenders would dispute the latter half of that point, but if
nothing else, Moyers puts the lie to the assertion that everyone assumed Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, meticulously documenting a series of
prewar articles by the Knight Ridder newspapers with headlines like "No Sign of
Iraq Threat" and "Terrorism Experts Say they Don't See Iraq Link." Nevertheless, conservative pundits repeatedly sounded the drumbeat for war, and Iraqi defectors carefully leaked horror stories to both headline-hungry news outlets and a Bush administration that would then confirm those accounts --
creating, as Moyers puts it, "a circular, self-confirming leak."


..At the same time, those who dared question the case for war were, as Moyers says,
"denounced by the partisan press and largely ignored by the mainstream press" --
scrutinized by what former CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson calls the "patriotism
police" and buffeted by what Dan Rather dubs "a very effective slam machine."
.
Although Rather and CBS News' Bob Simon are among those who participate, the laundry list of luminaries who Moyers says would not be interviewed is more striking. They include former New York Times reporter Judith Miller as well as Times columnists Thomas Friedman and William Safire, Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes and such pundits as William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, who frequently serve as talking heads in friendlier venues.
In
the final analysis, it's hard to dispute that journalists not only bought the
war, to paraphrase Moyers' title, but either through acts of omission or
commission, helped the administration sell it.


And from today's Blog at Huffington Post
What The Hell Happened To Tom Friedman?
April 28, 2007

Eric J. Weiner in his article What The Hell Happened To Tom Friedman?April 28, 2007 criticizes jounalist like TomFriedman for selling the war in Iraq to the American people based on false information & encouraged by the Bush Regime...

...Moyers's 90-minute prosecution of all facets of the media obliterated the
myth that the reporters and columnists who supported the march to war in 2002
and 2003 were simply working from the facts that the Bush administration
provided. The reality of the administration's lying charade and the accompanying
looming potential for disaster were readily available to any enterprising
journalist on the story who was willing to pick up the damn phone. Instead,
ignorance, political ideology, and a paralyzing fear of being attacked as
unpatriotic by partisan Republicans resulted in the Washington press corps'
almost universally fawning coverage of the administration's war plans.


For example, Moyers spoke to Bob Simon of 60 Minutes, who in December 2002 reported one of the few major skeptical stories during the run-up to war, exposing as hype the administration's claims that Saddam Hussein was close to acquiring
nuclear weapons.


....Simon wasn't the only heavy hitter Moyers spoke to.
Others included Tim Russert, Dan Rather, Walter Isaacson, and many more. Russert in particular looked horribly uncomfortable answering questions about how the administration used his Sunday morning roundtable, Meet the Press, as a marketing vehicle for the war. But at least he was willing to explain his journalistic thought process. I'm no Russert fan. But it took balls to sit for that interview, and history will thank him for it.

Which brings me to Friedman. If you look back at his foreign policy columns starting in late 2002, Friedman regularly provided intellectual heft to utopian neoconservative points of view. He was especially forceful in arguing that picking a fight with Iraq and diverting our attention from Al Qaeda in Afghanistan would give the U.S. the historic chance of remaking an oppressive Middle Eastern dictatorship into a flowering democracy. Then, once the war started to spiral out of control, he
refused to backtrack, regularly positing that "the next six months" would be
essential to determining if we'd be able to have a decent outcome in Iraq. Of
course, on Friedman's calendar six months apparently can last nearly three
years, because in more than a dozen instances from December 2003 through May
2006 Friedman floated his "six months" theory. (Check the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting for the entire list.)

That's all for now,

Take care,

GORD.

Bill Moyers Journal | Guest: Jon Stewart | PBS

Jon Stewart on Gonzales' testimony compared to the film "GOOD FELLAS "

watch interview at PBS.COM--
Take care,
GORD.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

BUSH & GEORGE GROSZ & FANATICAL PATRIOTS

But first a little musical interlude to appease & amuse & just for the hell of it...
Here is the group " THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS " performing Phil Och's protest song
" ONE MORE PARADE "




BELOW: REPUBLIC AUTOMATONS: GEORGE GROSZ (1893-1959)

GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST & DADAIST...CHRONICLING
GERMANY'S DESCENT INTO MADNESS























"GREY DAY" BY GEORGE GROSZ
SOLDIER, WORKER, MIDDLE CLASS
PLAYING THEIR ROLES...

"THE AGITATOR " BY GEORGE GROSZ ...
APPEALING TO THE WORSE INSTINCTS
RACISM, XENOPHOBIA ,FEAR OF THE OTHER...
OF ALL WHO ARE DIFFERENT & FEAR OF PENDING DOOM &
OF COURSE
FANATICAL NATIONALISM
FUELED BY RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY





ABOVE: GEORGE GROSZ SELF-PORTRAIT... " A WARNING "

He described the 1920's in Germany as :
"Everywhere, hymns of hatred were struck up. Everyone was hated: the Jews, the capitalists, the Junkers, the Communists, the army, the property owners, the workers, the unemployed, the black Reichwehr, the control commissions, the politicians, the department stores, and the Jews again. It was an orgy of incitement, and the republic itself was a weak thing, scarcely perceptible. … It was a completely negative world, topped with colorful froth that many imagined to be true, happy Germany before the onset of the new barbarism."

And later in a calculating cynical manner distanced himself from Politics & Social Criticism as he wrote..." To have character generally means that one is distinctly inflexible, not necessarily for reasons of age. Anyone who plans to get ahead and make money would do well to have no character at all. The second rule for fitting in is to think everything beautiful! Everything – that is to say, including things that are not beautiful in reality."
Find more on George Grosz at Olga's Gallery for example . Link in side-bar.
Posted by Picasa ( ALL IMAGES CARE OF PICASA)
NEXT POST BUSH REGIME UNDER SEIGE....
TAKE CARE,
GORD.

SUBPOENAS FLYING--- IS IT THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE BUSH REGIME & THE NEOCONS

And so it goes:

"For over four years, the president has been waging a war without end and a war without accountability and oversight. No longer will this Congress and the American people continue to give the president a blank check in order to continue a failed policy. Accountability is desperately needed..."

A Salvo across the bow by--Congressman John Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense 25/04/07. Chairman Murtha to Bush: Sign the Iraq Accountability Act TRUTHOUT MURTHA TO BUSH

ISTHIS THE BEGINNIG OF THE END FOR BUSH & HIS CRONIES & THE NEOCONS-- Are their halos slipping a bit or is their armour no longer impregnable but why does most of the media keep defending them or playdown stories which portray this REGIME in a negative light ...

and on the other-hand from the blogger WONKETTE we get this gleeful tid bit: Congress Subpoenas Condi Over IRAQ WAR From Wonkettedcgossip


Now it’s starting to get good. To hell with this FiringOfUSAttorneysGate — sure, if it hangs Gonzo it’s useful, if ever so boring. But with the official House oversight committee’s subpoena of Condi Rice specifically over the faked pre-invasion "intelligence" on Saddam’s mythical WMDs, we are quickly turning in the direction of actual war trials. Huzzah for the incredibly slow Demon of Justice! And what will Condi wear to her hanging?

(Oh, and dimwitted Pat Robertson School of Fundamentalist Criminals’ grad
Monica Goodling got immunity from Judiciary, so she can sink Gonzo like a stone. Double Huzzah!)

But Condi says as reported by ABC NEWS & elsewhere...

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a congressional committee" and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order. "I am more than happy to answer them again in a letter," she told reporters ...

As Marty Kaplan explains in his article in The Huffington Post 26/04/07...that...

" These are the Final Days "... of The Bush Regime if the Media would just accept it & go for the Jugular... not just to get Bush & his cronies but to save the country from slipping further into an authoritarian style government if not a dictatorship & the damage it is doing to America's reputation ...

as Kaplan argues:

" ...there's currently a wildfire raging in our democracy that's being covered like a political chess game, not a five-alarm disaster. Each week brings new reasons for the press not to wait for tomorrow to nail what's happening today. Dick Cheney calls the Democrats "cynical," on the same day that Jessica Lynch, and Pat Tillman's brother and colleagues, provide the textbook example of actual cynicism. Bush declares that the 2006 vote gave him a mandate for escalation, that failure to achieve victory in Iraq will be the Democrats' fault, on the same day that the Iraqis demand the US "gated-community" walls be torn down, that the death rate in Iraq approaches a nauseating new record, and that the number of Americans who want an orderly withdrawal from Iraq to begin now, and not wait until 2009, escalates toward everyone but his dog Barney.

The issue isn't competence (though incompetence has had devastating consequences, from FEMA to the Coalition Provisional Authority); the issue is ideology. The issue isn't corruption (though corruption, from DeLay and Abramoff to Halliburton and Enron, has ravaged lives and pillaged treasure); the issue is the constitution. Alberto Gonzales, whose honesty W praised this week, isn't (just) an inept, detached Attorney General; he's the perfect tool to politicize the Justice Department and make the third branch of government the handmaiden of Republican Party as run from the West Wing via Karl Rove's RNC email account. Paul Wolfowitz isn't (just) an arrogant unreconstructed neocon enjoying absolute power and a tax-free salary; he's the servant of the religious right, imposing Robertson-Falwell-Dobson abstinence-only insanity on the AIDS-ravaged young people of the developing world... "

(which he ends with) " These are definitely not the good old days, but they are surely, already, the incomparably awful final days. "

And other headlines of the day indicating serious problems within the Bush administration as it almost teeters on the brink ...but don't worry public indifference & apathy & the corrupted media will once again " save the day " claiming the Bush regime is being treated unfairly :

House Passes Iraq Pullout Timetable
By Jonathan WeismanWashington Post Staff Writer April 26, 2007

" The House last night brushed aside weeks of angry White House rhetoric and veto threats to narrowly approve a $124 billion war spending bill that requires troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin by Oct. 1, with a goal of ending U.S. combat operations there by next March.


The Senate is expected to follow the House's 218 to 208 vote with final passage today, completing work on the rarest of bills: legislation to try to end a major war as fighting still rages. Democrats hope to send the measure to the White House on Monday, almost exactly four years after
President Bush declared an end to major combat in a speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. That would be a particularly pungent political anniversary for Bush to deliver only the second veto of his presidency. "


...How bad can it get you might wonder well even what seemed to be positive stories about military operations in Iraq were in fact merely invented pieces of propaganda which have come back to bite the Bush Regime on the ass as it were :

Rupert Cornwell: Secrets and Lies- how war heroes returned to haunt Pentagon:

" Truth, it is famously said, is the first casualty of war. And thus it has been for two of the most celebrated official heroes of America's campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. One was Pat Tillman, the pro-football star who gave up the NFL's riches to serve, and ultimately die for, his country. The other was a young woman from West Virginia whose capture and rescue in the early days of the Iraq conflict inspired the TV drama-documentary Saving Jessica Lynch. Now, however, the two stories have returned to haunt the Pentagon. Both stand revealed as propaganda operations in which the truth was deliberately distorted to inspire a country and allay public doubts about the righteousness of the cause. For the US military they have become a colossal embarrassment; for gleeful Democrats they are another stick with which to beat an already battered administration.

On Tuesday, the two cases converged in a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by the California congressman Henry Waxman, an especially harsh tormentor of the Bush White House since the Democrats recaptured Congress last November. Mr Waxman promises to follow both affairs wherever they lead in the Tillman case, he hints, perhaps to a cover-up involving Donald Rumsfeld, the former defence secretary, in person..."

anyway there's more & the hits don't stop coming... but more of the hits next time...



Take care,

GORD.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

UPDATE: ANTI-CASTRO TERRORIST CHAMPIONED BY BUSH REGIME " ALL CUBANS ARE LEGITIMATE TARGETS "


Posted by Picasa

AND HERE IS A VIDEO SHOWING POSADA IS A TERRORIST:

A clip from "638 Ways To Kill Castro", where Enrique Encinosa, anti-Castro radio host of Miami based Radio Mambi, and associate of anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada, essentially confirms that Posada was behind the hotel bombings in Havana in 1997, saying that he thinks it is an acceptable method to make it clear that Cuba "is not a healthy place for tourists". Needles to say that the only reason why Cuba would not be a healthy place for tourists is because it is made unhealthy for tourists by anti-Castro terrorists who want Cuba to be an unhealthy place for tourists...






Anyway here is an editorial in today's MIAMI HERALD defending Posada Carrelis '
activities as an anti-Castro hero even if he did help to murder a number of civilians but it was in the name of Capitalism & the American Way & therefore " TRUE WESTERN VALUES" & therefore justifiable. The headline itself would be laughable if the matters being discussed wer not so serious- "U.S. RULE OF LAW" - tell that to the thousands kidnaped, arrested, renditioned, tortured, abused , denied basic legal rights & then told if released they are not to talk about what happened to them or where they were held just like the Good Old Days when General Pinochet ruled Chile with an iron fist & lots of Christian Style torture to teach all those " liberals" & human rights activists a lesson & backed by the Americans.

Miami Herald
Posted on Wed, Apr. 25, 2007
EDITORIALS
Posada benefits from U.S. rule of law
OUR OPINION: SUSPICIONS ALONE CAN'T JUSTIFY INDEFINITE DETENTION



The release of Luis Posada Carriles, after nearly two years of detention, is affirmation that under U.S. democracy, the law is supreme. Mr. Posada is no saint. He has been accused, but not convicted, of terrorism. The United States doesn't -- and shouldn't -- convict people on suspicion alone. Mr. Posada, 79, has never been convicted of a terrorist charge, here or abroad. Thus, a federal judge in El Paso ordered him released and set a very high bond. That was the right call.


The U.S. Justice Department called him ''an admitted mastermind
of terrorist plots.'' But the actual charges against Mr. Posada are for fraud. He is accused of lying in an attempt to gain U.S. citizenship. The Justice Department argued that he was a flight risk and should be imprisoned pending his criminal trial on May 11. But U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone didn't buy it.


Detained past limit


Mind you, before prosecutors charged Mr. Posada with a crime, he already had been in immigration detention for 20 months, well beyond the six-month limit set by the U.S. Supreme Court for releasing a
foreigner who hasn't been deported. An immigration judge had barred the government from deporting him to Cuba or Venezuela because he might be tortured.


Moreover, the feds haven't found another country willing take him.
Now, after paying $350,000 bond, Mr. Posada wears an ankle bracelet and is under 24-hour house arrest in Kendall, a far cry from the four decades he spent trying to topple Fidel Castro and working as an intelligence operative

So it is ok to murder civilians if you are anti-Castro ; well this shouldn't surprise anyone. The Bush regime as has been pointed out numerous times tends to make it up as they go along . On the other hand is this just business as usual in AMERICA . It's ok to kill, kidnap, torture & murder those whom the American government & the Bush Regime disapprove of .

And check out this article now found at WALTERLIPPMAN.COM:


The United States admits for the first time that Posada Carriles is a terrorist
(Washington DC, March 31, 2006.- Embassy of Venezuela).-

In a document entitled Interim Decision to Continue Detention dated March 28, 2006 and sent to Mr. Luis Posada Carriles, the United States admitted for the first time that Posada Carriles is a terrorist. According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) decision, Posada Carriles has a "long history of criminal activity and violence in which innocent civilians were killed." His release from detention concludes ICE in its letter to Posada, "would pose a danger to both the community and the national security of the United States."

In support of its decision, ICE cites Venezuela’s pending extradition case against Posada and the fact that Posada fled from a Venezuelan prison while his trial for the downing of a passenger plane in 1976 was pending. "Your past also includes your escape from a Venezuelan prison which was accomplished after several attempts utilizing threats of force, explosives and subterfuge," says ICE in its Decision. ICE goes on to cite Posada’s own statements to link him to the "planning and coordination of a series of hotel and restaurant bombings that
occurred in Cuba . . . in 1997."

These bombings resulted in the murder of an Italian tourist and the wounding of several others. ICE also cites Posada’s conviction in Panama for "crimes against national security," in reference to his
attempt to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000 with C- 4 explosives as President Castro was to speak to an auditorium with full of students. The attorney that represents Venezuela in the Posada case, José Pertierra expressed that "this is something that the government of the United States should have said and done since Posada was detained in Florida in May of 2005. The government has always had the evidence to conclude that Posada is a terrorist. It is in recently declassified documents from the CIA and the FBI, and it is also in the documentation presented by the government of Venezuela as part of
its extradition request."

However, Pertierra explains, "Washington has always tried to avoid using the term terrorism in relation to Posada Carriles and has
instead treated him as a simple undocumented immigrant. However, the truth and the immigration laws now require that the U.S. face up to the truth: its "detainee" is not an innocent undocumented immigrant, but is instead a terrorist.¨ "If he were not a terrorist," Pertierra adds, "ICE would have to release him." Pertierra pointed out that "although ICE avoids using the specific term "terrorism" in its Decision, the actions it attributes to Posada represent the very essence of terrorism."



FOR MORE DETAILED INFO ON POSADA CASE CHECK OUT:


WALTERLIPPMAN : POSADA
WALTERLIPPMAN:DOCUMENTS ON POSADA
WALTERLIPPMAN.COM


TAKE CARE,
GORD.

TERRORIST LUIS PASADA CARRELIS



















LT. LUIS POSADA CARRELIS
MILITANT ANTI-CASTRO TERRORIST
WHO WORKED FOR CIA
PLANNED SUCCESSFUL BOMBING OF CIVILIAN PLANE
CUBANA 455 KILLING 73 PEOPLE


Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

BUSH TO RELEASE CUBAN TERRORIST POSADA CARRILES " OUR TERRORISTS ARE THE GOOD TERRORISTS "

"One who shelters a terrorist, is a terrorist" – President George W. Bush.

Anyway , it seems the Bush administration & the mass media in the US & Canada etc. are all in favor of someone blowing up a plane with 73 civilians aboard if the civilians are CUBAN -which by definition according to the NEOCON's & CIA perverse logic means they are pro-communism & anti-capitalism & anti-Christian & of course evil & EXPENDIBLE since if someone hasn't been BORN-AGAIN then they are agents of the Anti-Christ or ,at least, not pro-American ...

And what is worse is that American Intelligence knew about the attept to bomb the plane but didn't tell anyone about it & so the plane blew up with American approval or complicity but I guess when you have GOD ON YOUR SIDE all means to achieve your goals is permissible.

Anyway here's the news clip from NBC on the Cuban Terrorist who's not really a terrorist since he once worked with the CIA & is anti-Castro & therefore on America's side & so is being unfairly persecuted by liberals, leftists, human rights groups & other disloyal Americans...



Note: the reporter uses phrases like " accused" &" allegedly " & " they believe " in order to water down the story & act as if there , maybe a big difference between Posada Carriles blowing up a plane with civilians on it & the same thing being done by others like Osama Bin Laden

thanks to youtube user:scottoslab




"Luis Posada Carriles, an agent for Chile's Secret Police known as DINA as well as a CIA agent involved in Nixon's Operation 40 was released On April 19, 2007. Carriles was involved in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in October of 1976, as well as other terrorist activities against the Cuban Government. During the time of the 455 bombing the CIA director was George H W Bush. "


AND FROM THE YOUNG TURKS AT AIR AMERICA found at YOUTUBE discussing the case of Luis Posada Carriles :


And here's an article from Information Clearing House:


Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Bush
04/22/07 "ICH" By Robert Parry
Consortiumnews.com


George W. Bush
likes to present the “war on terror” as a clear-cut moral crusade in which
evildoers who kill innocent civilians must be brought harshly to justice, along with the leaders of countries that harbor terrorists. There are no grays, only blacks and whites.


But evenhanded justice is not the true core principle of
the Bush Doctrine. The real consistency is hypocrisy: violence which Bush favors – no matter how wanton the slaughter of innocents – is justifiable, while violence that goes against Bush’s interests – even an insurgency against a foreign military occupation – must be punished without remorse as “terrorism.”


In other words, if Bush hates the perpetrators, they are locked up
indefinitely without charge and, at his discretion, can be subjected to
“alternative interrogation techniques,” what most of the world considers
torture. The rule of law is out the window. Wild West hangin' justice is in.
Even the ancient fair trial right of habeas corpus is discarded.


However, when the killers of civilians are on Bush’s side, they get the full panoply of legal protections – and every benefit of the doubt. Under this Bush double standard, therefore, right-wing Cuban terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, though implicated in a string of murderous attacks on civilians, get the see-no-evil treatment ...


On April 19, the 79-year-old Posada was released on bail from federal custody for an immigration violation and allowed to fly to Miami where he will live at home while his case winds its way through the U.S. courts. Bosch, too, has been allowed to live out his golden years in south Florida with the help and protection of the Bush family.


But the evidence in U.S. government files is overwhelming that Posada and Bosch were the architects of the 1976 mid-air bombing of a civilian Cubana airliner, killing 73 people, including young members of the Cuban national fencing team.


Since the conspiracy was hatched in Caracas, Venezuela, where Posada worked as a Venezuelan intelligence officer, the Venezuelan government has sought Posada’s extradition. However, when a Posada friend testified at Posada’s immigration hearing that Venezuela practices torture, Bush administration lawyers let the unverified claim go unchallenged, leading the judge to forbid Posada’s deportation there... "


So here we go again protecting terrorists whom we like while hunting down those we do not like.The Bush administration & even Stehen Harper doesn't mind handing detainees over to countries who practice torture unlees a big fuss is made about it but when it comes to terrorists who work for the Americans, or Canadians or British or French etc. these people must have their basic " HUMAN RIGHTS " protected. It is just part of the Hypocricy of the Western interests.

and for official US government historical documentation on the case see :

The National Security ARCHIVE
NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE
POSADA FILE PART II
JUNE 9,2005

In the following article we get a glimpse into the mind of cold calculating terrorists who believes his cause is right & therefore he is allowed to use whatever means necessary to defeat his " Godless" enemies:



A GLIMPSE INTO THE MIND OF A TERRORIST
CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch And the Downing
of Cubana Flight 455
By JOSÉ PERTIERRA
11/04/06,

Last week in
Miami, Luis Posada Carriles´s accomplice in the downing of the Cuban passenger plane that was blown out of the sky with 73 innocent people on board on October 6, 1976 was interviewed by Juan Manuel Cao of Channel 41 in Miami. His name is Orlando Bosch.

I quote verbatim excerpts from the television interview ...


Juan Manuel Cao: Did you down that plane in 1976?


Orlando Bosch: If I tell you that I was involved, I will be inculpating myself . . . . and if I tell you that did not participate in that action, you would say that I am lying. I am therefore not going to answer one thing or the other.

Juan Manuel Cao: In that action 76 persons were killed (the correct figure is 73, including a pregnant passenger)?


Orlando Bosch: No chico, in a war such as us cubans who love liberty wage against the tyrant, you have to down planes, you have to sink ships, you have to be prepared to attack anything that is within your reach.

Juan Manuel Cao: But don´t you feel a little bit for those who were killed
there, for their families?


Orlando Bosch: . . . Who was on board that plane?
Four members of the Communist Party, five north Koreans, five Guyanese, (JP: there were really 11 Guyanese passengers) . . . concho chico, four member of the Communist Party chico!!! Who was there? Our enemies . . .

Juan Manuel Cao:
And the fencers? The young people on board?

Orlando Bosch: I was in Caracas. I saw the young girls on television. There were six of them. After the end of the competition, the leader of the six dedicated their triumph to the tyrant etc etc. She gave a speech filled with praise for the tyrant. We had already agreed in Santo Domingo, that every one who comes from Cuba to glorify the tyrant had to run the same risks as those men and women that fight alongside the tyranny.


Juan Manuel Cao: If you ran into the family members who were killed in that plane, wouldn't you think it difficult . . . ?

Orlando Bosch: No, because in
the end those who were there had to know that they were cooperating with the tyranny in Cuba

..... JP: Bosch´s answers to those five questions give us a glimpse into the mind of the kind of terrorist that the United States government harbors and protects in Miami: terrorists that for the last forty-seven years have waged a bloody and ruthless war against the Cuban people.
What happened to Cubana de Aviación 455 almost thirty years ago is no secret. We need simply examine the CIA's own declassified cables. At the time, this was the worst act of aviation terrorism in history, and the first time that a civilian airliner was blown up by terrorists.


More than three months before CU-455 was blown out of the sky over Barbados on that sunny Wednesday afternoon of October 6, 1976, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informed Washington that a Cuban
exile extremist group planned to place a bomb on a Cubana de Aviación flight.


The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research reported to
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that a CIA source had overheard Luis Posada Carriles say less than a month prior to the bombing that "we are going hit a Cuban airliner."


Neither Washington nor the CIA alerted Cuban authorities to
the terrorist threat against their planes...



and from:


North Texas Independent Media Center www.ntimc.org
Posada Carriles: Washington and Miami’s Preferred Terrorist
by F Espinoza Tuesday, Jan 16 2007, 11:36am
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
Press Releases, Cuba, Front Page



“One who shelters a terrorist, is a terrorist” – President George W. Bush

The Bush Administration is harboring perhaps the Western Hemisphere’s
most insidious terrorist, whose application for U.S. citizenship is presently on the docket and if granted, would represent an effrontery to this nation’s bona fides, as well as the legitimacy of its worldwide anti-terrorist crusade and what remains of its good name abroad

The White House feverishly searches for a country willing to receive Posada in order to spare it from having to cross swords with the Miami leadership by either extraditing him to Cuba or Venezuela, or trying him here

The Posada case as well as the Cuban Five represents perhaps a defining moment in which the Bush administration’s ideological passions have snuffed out a proper application of justice – an unacceptable sense of ethical values and public rectitude

or check out :
UPSIDEDOWNWORLD



Terrorist Up For U.S. Citizenship: The Strange Case of Luis Posada Carriles
Adam Elkus
13 /06/06
The release of United 93 has brought renewed
attention to the tragic events of 9/11. Yet Americans are less familiar with the story of another jet full of innocent people destroyed by terrorists:

Cubana Flight 455.


On October 6, 1976, it was scheduled to take off from Barbados
to Kingston, Jamaica. Nine minutes after takeoff, a bomb in the aircraft’s rear lavatory exploded. The captain radioed to the control tower: "We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately!" A second bomb exploded, causing the plane to crash into the water. All 73 people on board died, including all 24 members of the Cuban national fencing team, many of them teenagers. Until 9/11, Cubana Flight 455 was the worst act of terrorism aboard a commercial airline in the Americas. One of the men responsible for the planning of this incident currently lives within the United States, and is currently applying for citizenship. His name is Luis Posada Carriles.


A fanatical anti-Castro Cuban exile, Posada has left a bloody swath of terror and destruction across the Gulf of Mexico. By his own admission, the CIA-trained and Miami-funded Posada has planned bombings of Cuban hotels, cafes, and dancehalls.


Although he has denied involvement, strong evidence exists that Posada was
involved in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455. CIA and FBI documents unearthed by George Washington University’s National Security Archive place Posada among the conspirators at two planning meetings for the bombing.


Ah well it is a messy business building an Empire & then holding onto it & as before them the British or even The Romans were not to be questioned about their motives or their methods as they too were appointed by the GODS or GOD or Natural Law to rule the world.

Take care,
GORD.


Monday, April 23, 2007

Gords Poetry Factory: HANS ARP DADA TO SURREALISM HIS POEM " THE PLAIN" & MY POEM " A NEW DANSE MACABRE"

Gords Poetry Factory: HANS ARP DADA TO SURREALISM HIS POEM " THE PLAIN" & MY POEM " A NEW DANSE MACABRE"

Gords Poetry Factory: MARC CHAGALL HANS ARP 'S POEM " KASPAR IS DEAD " & MY POEM " MANIFESTOES "

Gords Poetry Factory: MARC CHAGALL HANS ARP 'S POEM " KASPAR IS DEAD " & MY POEM " MANIFESTOES "

MARC CHAGALL - REVISITED

Here's a fun bit to start your day. The video features the beautiful, humorous & fantastical paintings of Marc Chagall backed by Klesmer style musical romp...thanks to Youtube user " haroldlambeth ".



and here is a longer piece on Chagall with the music of MOBY 's musical bit of furniture entitled "Porcelain". Thanks to youtube user brendfohio.




Take care,
GORD.

SURREALIST MANIFESTO

THE ART OF BEING HUMAN







PAINTING OF SURREALISTS REUNION 1922 BY MAX ERNST.




"AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT"
BY RENE MAGRITTE




" SKULL WITH CIGARETTE "
BY VINCENT VAN GOGH.



( IMAGES PROVIDED BY PICASA )
A Surrealist Manifesto:
The Declaration of January 27, 1925

With regard to a false interpretation of our enterprise, stupidly
circulated among the public, We declare as follows to the entire braying
literary, dramatic, philosophical, exegetical and even theological body of
contemporary criticism:

1. We have nothing to do with literature; But we are quite
capable, when necessary, of making use of it like anyone
else,

2. Surrealism is not a new means or expression, or an easier one,
nor even a metaphysic of poetry. It is a means of total liberation of the mind
and of all that resembles it.

3. We are determined to make a Revolution.

4. We have joined the word surrealism to the word revolution
solely to show the disinterested, detached, and even entirely desperate
character of this revolution.

5. We make no claim to change the mores of mankind, but we intend
to show the fragility of thought, and on what shifting foundations, what caverns
we have built our trembling houses.

6. We hurl this formal warning to Society; Beware of your
deviations and faux-pas, we shall not miss a single one.

7. At each turn of its thought, Society will find us
waiting.

8. We are specialists in Revolt. There is no means of action
which we are not capable, when necessary, of employing.

9. We say in particular to the Western world: surrealism exists.
And what is this new ism that is fastened to us? Surrealism is not a poetic
form. It is a cry of the mind turning back on itself, and it is determined to
break apart its fetters, even if it must be by material hammers!
Bureaus de
Recherches Surréalistes,
15, Rue de Grenelle

Signed: Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, Jacques Baron, Joë
Bousquet, J.-A. Boiffard, André Breton, Jean Carrive, René Crevel, Robert
Desnos, Paul Élaurd, Max Ernst, et al.
Source: Maurice Nadeau, The History
of Surrealism, Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1989, pp.240-41.

Take care,
GORD.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

BANNING SCI-FI NOVEL " FAHRENHEIT 451" WHICH IS ABOUT BANNING BOOKS--- IRONY LOST ON RELIGIOUS RIGHT

I just came across this video which is the ultimate in irony banning an anti-book banning book " Fahrenheit 451 " It is also ironic in light of the death of Kurt Vonnegut who feared our ignorance & our stupidity would continue on & that our better selves or angels would never win over the darker sides of our nature... & this fits in well with Fox News proclaiming that much of the work of Vonnegut was & is in their view irrelevant so what can you say....Hello & Goodbye...




Take care,
GORD.

DEATH OF KURT VONNEGUT - TRIBUTES POUR IN WHILE FOX NEWS TRASHES HIS IMPORTANCE

Anyway even the death of Kurt Vonnegut is a signal for the Neocons to attack someone who they see as the enemy of so called American Values-

KICKING A MAN AFTER HIS DEATH : Part of the Fox News Channels attempts at propaganda & the rewriting of American history - Vonnegut as a failure instead of one of the Great American satirists , if not the greatest, of the twentieth century...



These myopic conservatives are creating their own " Memory Hole " like the one found in the book 1984 & they are deadly serious about it as every day they continue to rewrite the history of the last century or the malleable history of yesterday...
as they rewite the history of the Vietnam War & the McCarthy Era & the Iran -Contra-Scandal , or its well documented history of racism towards african-Americans, aboriginal peoples, Jewish Americans & Japanese Americans & Irish immigrants & Catholics etc. ( see for instance Ann Coulter's book " GODLESS" in which she claims America to have always been a country of Justice & fairplay for it is only those who hate America who are critical of its history in her view ) & now the American Occupation of Iraq is being re-written on a daily basis...

Here is a more fitting tribute called " SO IT GOES..." to a literary giant & a wonderful human being... who saw too much of " Man's Inhumanity to Man"...



And here is a longer piece from PBS NOW :



Take care,
" HI HO " & " SO IT GOES "
GORD.

Friday, April 20, 2007

US ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES & " DON'T REMEMBERITIS " & VIDEO OF WILLIAM BLAKE'S TYGER

THE SPREAD OF DEBILITATING DISEASE " DON'T REMEMBERITIS"
THEY NEED YOUR SYMPATHY & HELP NOW !!!
FROM YOUTUBE USER lovuian



Sen. Charles SCHUMER blasts Alberto Gonzales & demands Gonzales step down- will he throw himself on the sword for Bush & Karl Rove & other High Priests of The Bush Regime which is corrupt to the core .

From YOUTUBE user aravella





It seems Attorney General Alberto Gonzales when asked about meetings there were discussions about firing attorneys he claims he cannot remeber such incidents . So he takes the route others like Coni Rice who also claimed she could not remeber various memos or meetings ie a memo which said in bold letters Al Qeda plans imminent attack onAmerican soil. This is just a tactic or ploy used by Lawyers & bureaucrats so that they don't have to lie. It seems odd that a lawyer who would rise to such a high position would be afflicted with a bad memory. I always thaought that most people who manage to get through Law School tend to have better than average memories except when it suits their purposes.



But maybe the disease begins progressing in Law SchoolOr Business school or while graduate work in Political Science where people are taught to throw personal integrity or any sense of ethics or common decency & notions of justice & fair-play on the ash-heap of history & are taught how to lie & obscure the truth in favor of winning at all costs - Integrity, Ethics, truth , justice & other such lofty unobtainable ideals are for the suckers , for those who are not part of the Legal/ Bureaucratic elite of " true believing Neocons ".



If Gonzales & Condi Rice & others have such remarkably poor memories it seems odd they would have been appointed to such lofty imperial offices . So we could conclude that most of those people appointed to high positions in the Bush Regime was not based on abilities or memory but upon Ideological grounds ie Neoconservativism & loyalty to Bush as the Chancellor or dictator or Most High Religious leader.



If we see the positon of Bush within the Neocon / Religious Right Matrix as fulfilling the role as Pope who is Like the Pope in Rome Infallible then to question him or his most loyal supporters is to question providence & the Will of God as Martin Luther in his day questioned the Authority of the Church & the Pope. So what we have is a Fundamentalist Evangelical Chritian style Papacy that belongs more to the Middle-Ages than to our Modernist period. The neocons like the Religious Right reject to a greater or lesser extent the underlying principles of Modernity ie a belief in egalitarianism & justice for All & the Rights of Man & the separation of Church & State & other beliefs which wer espoused by America's Founding Fathers.



If we extend the metaphor then one has to wonder how to get to Neocon Heaven... by obedience, loyalty, by good works proving one's loyalty & belief in those at the top .... willingness to be a " scape goat " for the Greater Good of the Neocon Regime or Neocon Church of Saint Leo Strauss & Saint Karl Rove , to invest time & energy & money in Neocon supported corporations & multinationals & support for any actions which help to make the Neocon Church even stronger & more entrenched within the Government & the World of Business... & the Spread of American Imperialism & hegemony .

On the lighter side here is a video which explores how Neocon thinking has taken over our society & we being the dopes we are we just take it & accept it because these people have some mysterious mystical knowledge & wisdom of how the world works cause they got lots of degrees or are rich & powerful - " TO THE MANOR BORN" & we are merely the hapless peasants who should be greatful for some crumbs & scraps from their tables...

THE ART OF DEMOTIVATION



It 's not that you have a crappy job
It's not that your wages are too low
It's not that your working conditions are lousy
It's not that you have no job security
It's not that you have no benefits
It's just that you don't realize it could be worse
you could get laid off
It's just your attitude ...

This is bizarre but it is scary the Yuppie-Neocons are doing well for themselves so get used to it that's there's nothing left for you
There are winners & losers & you are one of the losers-

And now for a little musical interlude with the poetry of William Blake & music & animation etc.
( "An absolutely magical short by Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil, based on a William Blake poem.
Tyger blends puppetry, illustration, photography and CGI. Dreamy, mesmerizing, brilliant..." user jbarahona comments)



POEM:
THE TYGER by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the Night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart,
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?



Take care,
GORD.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

RACISM IN AMERICA , " FOR THE UNION DEAD " ROBERT LOWELL & MOVIE "GLORY" REVISTITED

PART III: ART & SOCIAL COMMENTARY & POLITICS

Anyway , I was thinking about art & politics so I thought of Robert Lowell & his poem The Union Dead & the film " GLORY " which is about Colonel Shaw who led the first all Black / Afro-American regiment in The American Civil War. So below is the poem & clips from the film " GLORY ".

It seems odd that at the time when supposedly the Union was fighting the South over the question of Slavery that many in the North opposed using African Americans to fight in the war . Many believed that blacks were not dependable or untrustworthy or according to the racist view of too little intelligence to take part in the military . And many white soldiers refused to fight along blacks whom they saw as inferior . This continued as the prevalent attitude in America through the First & Second World Wars to Korea & to Vietnam.

Even today in 2007 Americans do not like to spend any time examining what racism still exists in American society . They sometimes talk as if there were no longer any wide spread racism in America & that racism died long ago or that what occurred from after The Civil War were only isolated incidents of racism. Yet the "Jim Crow Laws" of the Southern States were still in effect until the passage of the Civil Rights legislation of 1967.

It is only recently that the US Senate has apologised for not passing anti-lynching laws so that thousands of blacks & those who associted with them were murdered by mobs from the end of the Civil War til 1950 & that there were no laws to ensure that those who took part in these lynchings could be brought to justice.

We have been reminded again & again how deep racism flows through the American Culture as we saw after the Hurricane Katrina part ,at least, of the failed response of the Federal Government was due to racist attitudes . And if one doubts this just listen to Neocon spokespersons like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter & a host of others when talking about New Orleans after Katrina or what they have to say on the issue of Immigration in the United States whether legal or illegal & their distrust & hatred of all Arabs & Arab Americans & all Muslims including American Muslims for instance Michelle Malkin & Tony Blakeley have argued in favor of setting up internment camps for Muslim & Arab Americans as they did to Japanese Americans in WWII without just cause.

For further cause of concern over racism in America is the disproportionate numbers of Blacks & Hispanics arrested & jailed for crimes & that they get longer sentences than whites who commit similar crimes & that there are a disproportionate number of Blacks & Hispanics on death row in the United States.

& on the other hand the US military up til the Iraq war had been taking steps screening recruits to keep white Supremacists of whatever sort & other racists out of the military ...but now in part because of the problems the US Military is having in getting enough recruits the Military has lowered its standards & accepts more recruits who have been convicted of Felons & those who are racists & white Supremacists & those who are known to be mentally unstable or your garden variety sociopaths. This creates not only problems within the ranks but with such racists soldiers & those who are mentally unfit being permitted to take part in military operations in a War Zone complicates ,at the least, the delicate relationship of the American occupying forces with the Arab- Iraqi People.

Music video of film GLORY- see bottom of this post for more on the film -
video from youtube user BuddyBoy1991





ending of film GLORY
from YOUTUBE USER AmericanCrusader






Unfortunately this poem " FOR THE UNION DEAD " is still relevant today as Blacks or some other minority groups are not respected & are treated unfairly in American society & are often used as Scape Goats for whatever is wrong in America.

Robert Lowell ( 1917-1977)
For The Union Dead

The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
The airy tanks are dry.
Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
my hand tingled to burst the bubbles
drifting from the noses of the crowded, compliant fish.

My hand draws back. I often sign still
for the dark downward and vegetating kingdom
of the fish and reptile. One morning last March,
I pressed against the new barbed and galvanized

fence on the Boston Common. Behind their cage,
yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting
as they cropped up tons of mush and grass
to gouge their underworld garage.

Parking spaces luxuriate like civic
sandpiles in the heart of Boston.
a girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
braces the tingling Statehouse,

shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
propped by a plank splint against the garage's earthquake.

Two months after marching through Boston,
half of the regiment was dead;
at the dedication,
William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.

Their monument sticks like a fishbone
in the city's throat.
Its Colonel is a lean
as a compass-needle.

He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
a greyhound's gentle tautness;
he seems to wince at pleasure,
and suffocate for privacy.

He is out of bounds now. He rejoices in man's lovely,
peculiar power to choose life and die-
when he leads his black soldiers to death,
he cannot bend his back.

On a thousand small town New England greens
the old white churches hold their air
of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags
quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic

The stone statutes of the abstract Union Soldier
grow slimmer and younger each year-
wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
and muse through their sideburns…

Shaw's father wanted no monument
except the ditch,
where his son's body was thrown
and lost with his "niggers."

The ditch is nearer.
There are no statutes for the last war here;
on Boylston Street, a commercial photograph
shows Hiroshima boiling

over a Mosler Safe, the "Rock of Ages"
that survived the blast. Space is nearer.
when I crouch to my television set,
the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.

Colonel Shaw
is riding on his bubble,
he waits
for the blessed break.

The Aquarium is gone. Everywhere,
giant finned cars nose forward like fish;
a savage servility
slides by on grease.



For more on Robert Lowell for example see :
POETS.ORG The Academy of American Poets
& POEMHUNTER.COM ROBERT LOWELL

And here is a brief description of the film " GLORY ":

Glory
1989-USA-Historical Epic
N.Y. Times Review by Vincent Canby
PLOT DESCRIPTION

Glory is a celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved have been ignored by history due to racism. Those heroes were the all-black members of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, headed by Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of an influential abolitionist (played by an uncredited Jane Alexander).

Despite the fact that the Civil War is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is matter of course for their white counterparts; as in armies past and future, they are given the most menial and demeaning of tasks. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance. The unofficial leaders of the group are gravedigger John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and fugitive slave Trip (Denzel Washington), respectively representing the brains and heart of the organization. The 54th acquit themselves valiantly at Fort Wagner, SC, charging a fortification manned by some 1,000 Confederates. Glory was based on Lincoln Kirstein's Lay This Laurel and Peter Burchard's One Gallant Rush; the latter book was founded on the letters of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the real-life character played by Matthew Broderick.

The film won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for co-star Denzel Washington, and additional statuettes for Best Cinematography (Freddie Francis) and Sound Recording. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide


So take care,
love you too,
GORD.