Bahrain's human rights violations are ignored by President Obama while he condemns similar actions taken by the Iranian government.
U.S. Renews Military Sales to Bahrain Amid Crackdown
U.S. Renews Military Sales to Bahrain Amid Crackdown | Common Dreams, May 14, 2012
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Revolutions take time. The American Revolution began with protests against the Stamp Act of 1765 but did not erupt until a decade later. The 1917 revolution in Russia started with a dress rehearsal in 1905. The most effective revolutions, including the Russian Revolution, have been largely nonviolent. There are always violent radicals who carry out bombings and assassinations, but they hinder, especially in the early stages, more than help revolutions. The anarchist Peter Kropotkin during the Russian Revolution condemned the radical terrorists, asserting that they only demoralized and frightened away the movement’s followers and discredited authentic anarchism.
Quote by Chris hedges Colonized by Corporations by Chris hedges , Truthdig.com, May 14, 2012
The Obama Regime's solution to the economic disparity between the 1% and the 99% is to use unmanned Drones to spy on the Occupy Movement or any other similar protests held or to be held in the USA.
And maybe the Drones could pepper-spray or mace the protesters from the sky thereby needing fewer police or do as the Americans do in other countries deploy Drones carrying White Phosphorus or mini cluster bombs.Some days I feel like nothing would surprise me. Obama unfortunately is either just out of touch with the 99% or is not concerned so much with political, economic justice as much as he is concerned over looking like a tough guy so he can ensure his re-election. So the question is how many bombs does he need to drop in foreign countries to appear like a real Commander in Chief. And how many legitimate protesters in the US need to be clubbed, gassed, pepper=sprayed, beaten up and incarcerated by local police forces before Obama cries enough -well don't bank on it . As Chris Hedges and others argue what America needs is an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats since in many ways they both represent the 1% and not the 99%.
It is unfortunate that the sycophantic followers of President Obama refuse to believe or accept that the Obama regime is operating in the same way the Bush Regime did. That is anyone overly critical of the White House , the military, the Pentagon , the intelligence security community or the Global War on Terrorism are branded as disloyal citizens who should be spied upon arrested and kept in indefinite detention where Obama's police, CIA or soldiers can torture them. Bush did it and Obama can't see why he shouldn't carry on this tradition of ignoring the rights of American citizens who are branded as traitors.
U.S. Drones to watch OWS. .
The citizenry of Spain and other European Nations march in protest against economic austerity policy.
Meanwhile neo-cons and their friends the Neo-liberals prefer austerity and bailing out the banks, Wall Street and big corporations and these governments including the USA condemn and demonize all who dare object. Even most of the Mainstream Media is on the side of the 1% and help to demonize the 99%.
In other words these days critiquing the powerful and wealthy elite is akin to previous eras in which the people , the masses dared to criticize the Monarchy and its sycophantic Nobles and other hanger-ons.
What is frustrating and startling is that there are so many people who still accept as the gospel truth whatever they are told by their corrupt leaders in government or the corporate owned and run media.
Massive Protests Fill the Streets of Madrid-Real News Network
President Obama continues the cynical hypocritical American foreign policy of defending US friendly oppressive regimes which deny their people their basic human and civil rights while condemning not so US friendly regimes guilty of the same sort of oppression.
Obama has continued this American tradition of hypocrisy and duplicity. In their view some nations or at least their citizenry deserve and are worthy of reform and the enshrining and protection of human and civil rights. But other peoples in other nations are not so worthy of reform or democratic ideals based mainly upon America's geo-political needs and ultimate agenda.
So Bahrain, Saudi Arabia et al get free passes on human rights violations because this is some how in America's interests. So the preaching about human rights and reform is just more BS from another self-interested American regime. The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have crushed any populace reform movement by using force through their police and military. Whereas Qaddafi was condemned and savagely murdered for similar crimes supposedly committed against his own citizenry the Obama regime rewards Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for their brutal crack down on their respective reform movements.
When the authorities in Iran take action against its citizenry calling for reform the USA and its allies raise the alarm and demonize the Iranian leaders.
In the case of Bahrain the USA under the leadership of President Obama demonizes the protesters and claim it is an internal sectarian fued. This is what the Bahraini authorities have sold them on because most of the protesters are Shia Muslims and the rulers are Sunni Muslims. But the reason for this is that the Shia are a majority of the Bahraini people. In Bahrain only Sunnis are permitted to hold substantive positions of power. But a large number of Sunnis are not part of the privileged Sunni minority. So these Sunnis are not treated as equals or fairly by the Sunni Regime. The Shia in Bahrain are treated as second class citizens and because they make up a majority of the population it is natural that they would make up the majority of those protestin for reform in Bahrain. But a substantial number of Sunnis are also part of this legitimate pro-democracy reform movement.
Long Live 'Our' Gulf Bastards By Pepe Escobar Via Information Clearing House, may 14, 2012
Life is a golden gift from Allah if you're a certified member of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can torture, kill, repress and demonize their own subjects - in full confidence the "master" will let you get away with it.
Just as the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty in power in Bahrain is vowing, publicly, to keep arresting, tear-gassing, raiding their homes, confiscating their jobs and forcing pro-democracy protesters to live in non-stop fear, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa is being hosted in Washington by the Barack Obama administration.
Prince Salman - who Bahraini propaganda sells as a "moderate" - showed up at the US State Department side-by-side with Secretary of State Hillary "We came, we saw, he died" Clinton. Those who "die" are evil dictators of the Muammar Gaddafi variety; "our" bastards get to party in DC after being extended a red carpet welcome.
Is there any Arab Spring-related repression and killing going in Bahrain? According to Clinton, of course not; these are only "internal issues" - in her own words.
What this means in practice is that Clinton subscribes to the official narrative that the sectarianization of everything happening in Bahrain is to be blamed on the protesters - and not the al-Khalifas, who for a year now have been destroying Shi'ite mosques and investing on all-out demonization of all things Shi'ite (blame it on "evil" Iran).
The al-Khalifas have been way wilier than President Bashar al-Assad in Syria; they have killed only an acceptable number of people. But why is Bahrain substantially "different" from Syria? Because "it hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, helping the US military project its might in the Gulf and contain Iran"; and that's not a neo-conservative talking, but Washington director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski.
A bunch of cowards
Here is Libya conqueror Clinton:
Bahrain is a valued ally of the United States. We partner on many important issues of mutual concern to each of our nations and to the regional and global concerns as well. I'm looking forward to a chance to talk over with His Royal Highness a number of the issues both internally and externally that Bahrain is dealing with and have some better understanding of the ongoing efforts that the government of Bahrain is undertaking. So again, His Royal Highness, welcome to the United States.
Here's a Bahraini government spokesman telling it like it is to Reuters only one day before the Clinton-Crown Prince schmooze:
We are looking into the perpetrators and people who use print, broadcast and social media to encourage illegal protest and violence around the country. If applying the law means tougher action, then so be it.
Translation: we will keep going on a rampage because the masters in Washington have our backs covered.
Not a word from the Obama administration on the arrest of top Bahraini human-rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who Amnesty International declared a "prisoner of conscience", as well as calling for his immediate release. Activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, for his part, has been on a hunger strike for three months, protesting his life imprisonment by the al-Khalifa regime.
R2P, "responsibility to protect", that oh so lovely doctrine espoused by the Three Graces - Clinton, US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and Special Assistant to Obama Samantha Power - does not apply to civilian protesters, the majority of them Shi'ites, in Bahrain. They have been yelling for their basic human rights - of which they don't have much - to be protected for over a year now.
Bahrain's Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa - whose Medieval methods would lead Egyptian Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman to blush with envy, not to mention Prince Nayef from the House of Saud - has been in power for 40 years.
And Bahrain's King Hamad has been oh so generous; after all he commissioned a report on the repression. Needless to say, the report, even highly sanitized, hasn't been implemented.
What makes it even more tragic is that these people are cowards. It would take just a single word from Clinton or Obama for the al-Khalifas to immediately stop their concerted repression, using their hardcore Sunni police force recruited from Pakistan, Syria and Yemen; release the thousands of prisoners; and rehire the thousands of workers who were laid off because they are "subversive". Here's why.
There has been a rumor in Britain that Nasser Bin Hamad, the son of Bahrain's King, might be banned from attending the London Summer Olympic Games this summer. There are graphic reasons for it; he personally threatened many athletes, on top of being accused of torture. So what did he do? In haste, he deleted all his threatening tweets. Expect Nasser to be partying in Mayfair in July.
Obama’s faith-based failure
A troubling hallmark of "compassionate conservatism" -- the faith-based initiative -- persists despite promises
BY SARAH POSNER ,Salon.com,May 4, 2012
...And yet, nearly four years after Obama’s campaign trail pledge to reform the faith-based office, beneficiaries of federally funded faith-based social services — people seeking drug treatment, mental health services, marriage counseling, pregnancy prevention services, prenatal care and more — have insufficient legal guarantees that their constitutional right to be free from government-funded, imposed religion will be protected. Today, your tax dollars can still fund, under a George W. Bush executive order, a religious organization that decides, for example, that it can fire the gay employee because its religion so dictates or that it will only hire people of the same faith. Its supporters call it “co-religionist hiring,” but that’s just a polite term for taxpayer-supported discrimination.
For three years the advocacy groups that make up the Coalition Against Religion Discrimination have prevailed on the administration to change this rule — after all, it would only take a stroke of the pen to undo the Bush executive order — and the president has done nothing. Obama has tried to claim the administration “has struck the right balance” by requiring a nebulous “case-by-case” review of instances of discrimination rather than prohibiting it altogether, an assertion the Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance (a CARD member) has called “misguided and untrue. There is no such thing as balance when it comes to discrimination supported by government funding.”
The European nations one by one are rejecting US backed Austerity policies. Most rational and sane economists do not favor austerity with the current economic crisis. The nations should be running a substantial stimulus package rather than merely bailing out banks , Wall Street and corporations.
Corporate Media and the Austerity Campaign
Published on May 14, 2012 by TheRealNews
Bill Black: Most media treats austerity as a necessary solution, not a means to enforce the interests of finance
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