It is amazing and funny if it wasn't so tragic that the Republicans under Bush & McCain are uping the ante on a war against Iran. America it appears is hooked on war. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war and the American people rise up to yell in unison as the Marx Brothers did in Duck Soup - To War! To War !
9/11 Tribute Video shown at the Republican National Convention Links Iran to 9/11 attack . It also seems that somehow the taking of hostages by Iranians in 1979 led directly to 9/11 and so there is ample reason to attack Iran. Of course there's no mention of the reason for the Iranian people to overthrow the Shaw who had an iron-grip on Iran as he suspended one right after another as he filled his prisons with anyone who dared criticize his government. The Shaw did evil deeds imprisoning innocent people, torturing detainees all with America's blessing and aid. So the Iranians developed over a period of some twenty years or so a special dislike for America. But let's not let facts get in the way of the Republicans and Americans in general rewriting history to bolster their myth that they have never done anything wrong.
And here's a new piece of Republican Bush/McCain /Palin Karl Rove Outrageous Inflammatory Propaganda against Iran and all Muslims in the World.
Is Tom Brokaw now pimping for the Republicans & McCain. Has he no shame. Keith Olbermann on the otherhand having not sold out completely is outraged by the video which was he believes inappropriate and merely a means to manipulate American citizens.
From Huffington Post by Jeffrey Feldman : McCain RNC Video 'Tribute to 9/11
Last night, while Americans sat quietly expecting to watch a video 'tribute' to victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001--John McCain took advantage of America's good will to showed a video falsely linking Iran to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
At 9:11pm (CST), the MSNBC coverage cut to a video being projected onto the main screen at the RNC. At that point, Tom Brokaw introduced the video as follows:
Tom Brokaw: OK, let's go now, Keith, if we can, down to the floor. We want to share with our viewers the 'Tribute To The Victims of 9/11.'
So, that was the introduction the networks gave to the video--no doubt lifted from a press release given to them by the RNC. Normal practice, I suppose. But here is the astoundingly immoral thing that happened next, rather than show a video 'tribute' to the victims of 9/11, the McCain team showed a video 'history' of 9/11 that began like this:
and the article concludes after presenting major talking-points and spin of the video:
Never before had a major broadcast video so blatantly attempted to connect the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 to the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Never before John McCain's night at the Republican National Convention.
Interestingly, Keith Olbermann responded to the imagery in the McCain video immediately after it was shown by apologizing to MSNBC viewers for imagery that could be construed as a political exploitation of the emotions of 9/11.
No doubt, showing a 9/11 video at a political convention was emotional exploitation. But it was also something much worse: it was blatant historical revisionism. It was a cynical attempt to claim attacks on Americans--1979 and 2001--were carried out by the same 'enemy.'
What Olbermann should have apologized for was MSNBC accidental transformation of their network into a mechanism of the most cynical kind of Orwellian propaganda.
John McCain did not make the link between 9/11 and Iran in his RNC speech, but we can be certain that the video 'tribute' is a sign of what is to come on the campaign trail between now and November.
The media's responsibility from this point forward is clear: either they can sit back and let McCain's historical revisionism stand or they can move quickly to debunk it.
Either way, it seems apparent that major broadcast outlets need to take a more proactive role in pre-screening for blatant historical inaccuracies any video a political party plans to show during a national broadcast--or at least preparing to immediately debunk politically motivated inaccuracies.
John McCain will no doubt continue to exploit the pain of 9/11 in some vain hope of political gain, and will continue to push historical revisionism about the links between Iran and 9/11. The media, if it does its job, can be a crucial counterweight that prevents false and militaristic propaganda from flowing freely on our public airwaves.
In case you missed it:
also check out this video of Keith Olbermann on the Bush administrations lies about the connection between Iran and Iraq insurgents & uprisings in Iraq.
and here's the Republican Neocon Bush McCain network beating the war drums for bombing the shit out of Iran to teach them a lesson.
More propaganda and lies about Iran. Bush's Footsoldiers at FOX NEWS
from Brave New Films
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And now for some bits on corruption at Cheney's corporation Halliburton.
So are Cheney's former Friends taking the fall for his corruption at Halliburton. As a Neocon there is no reason for Cheney to take the fall himself. That's what friends are for in the Straussian/ Neocon / Machiavellian world.
And the corruption continues so where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him. Oh I forgot according to Republicans he was some sort of Marxist-Anarchist because he believed there ought to be rules governing how corporations do business or how they treat their stockholders and their workers.
From Huffington Post : Former Halliburton CEO to Get Jailtime For Cheney Era Corruption Sptember, 4, 2008 by Marcy Gordon
WASHINGTON — A former chief executive of construction firm KBR Inc. has pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in connection with the company's natural gas operations in Nigeria from 1995 to 2004.
The Justice Department said Albert "Jack" Stanley entered a guilty plea Wednesday in federal court in Houston to conspiring in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials in return for engineering and construction contracts.
As CEO of Houston-based KBR, Stanley headed a subsidiary within Halliburton Co., the oilfield services conglomerate whose chief executive from 1995 to 2000 was Vice President Dick Cheney.
Stanley also pleaded guilty to a separate count of conspiring to defraud KBR and others, admitting to receiving $10.8 million in kickbacks from a consultant hired by the company at his behest.
Under his plea agreement, Stanley, 65, faces a sentence of seven years and payment of $10.8 million in restitution.
The government said the seven-year term is the longest sentence to date against an individual in a case involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it unlawful to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to obtain or retain business.
A number of U.S. and foreign companies have been charged with violating the law in recent years, in cases involving payments to officials in Nigeria, Ecuador, Iraq, China, Iran and Kazakhstan.
"Today's plea demonstrates that corporate executives who bribe foreign government officials in return for lucrative business deals can expect to face prosecution," acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich said in a statement.
also from Huffington Post :
Frances Moore Lappe: Send This to Your Republican In-laws. September 3, 2008.
For too long Democrats have been derided as economically clueless tax-and-spenders. No wonder Americans so often vote against their own common interests.
We should know better. And now we do.
Alan S. Blinder, in The New York Times, drew recently (9.30.08) from Unequal Democracy, a new book by Princeton political science professor Larry M. Bartels. His takeaway could be a game-changer:
Over the last six decades, whether rich or poor, everyone has done better with Democrats in the White House.
And that is just the non-divisive, universal note that Barack Obama needs to hit and keep hitting, in response to the RNC, and in debates and in the press. So let's tell our McCain-leaning friends and family about this -- and also encourage the Obama campaign to make sure this message gets heard. It's easy; just fill out this form. (See below for the note I myself sent, which you can use as you wish.)
Among the most striking points:
( which the author concludes with this shocking but true statistic:)
> Income inequality in the United States has been rising for about three decades, especially in recent years. Over the entire 60-year period, writes Blinder, "income inequality trended substantially upward under Republican presidents but slightly downward under Democrats, thus accounting for the widening income gaps over all."
and:
From Huffington Post Jobless Rate Jumps to 5 year high of 6.1 Percent by Jeannine Aversa September 5, 2008.
WASHINGTON — The nation's unemployment rate zoomed to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August as employers slashed 84,000 jobs, dramatic proof of the mounting damage a deeply troubled economy is inflicting on workers and businesses alike.
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, showed the increasing toll the housing, credit and financial crises are taking on the economy.
The report rattled Wall Street again. The Dow Jones industrial average was down about 40 points in midday trading. All the major stock indexes tumbled into bear territory Thursday as investors lost hope of a late-year recovery. With the employment situation deteriorating, there's growing worry that consumers will recoil, throwing the economy into a tailspin later this year or early next year.
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