NEIL YOUNG 9/11 ATTACK & HIS SONG "LET'S ROLL"

9/11 attack on World Trade Center
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Before I forget check out review of Neil Young's " Living With War "also check out review at
http://freethoughtguy.blogspot.com/
FreeThought by a FreeThinker

Freethinker: "One who forms opinions on the basis of reason independent of authority; especially one who doubts or denies religious dogma."
Monday, May 15, 2006
Living With War

Living With WarWar! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing ... except for inspiring creative sparks like Living With War. Neil Young's new song collection (a self-described "metal folk protest") is a passionate call-to-arms against the Iraq War and its excesses (soldiers coming home in boxes, lying leaders, telephone taps, etc.).


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Anyway back to Neil Young’s new recording “ Living With War “

http://homepage.mac.com/chadhermann/iblog
NEIL YOUNG & 9/11
LIVING WITH WAR AND STUPID QUESTIONS
Posted: Sat - April 22, 2006 at 05:57 PM Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman. Tunes
impeach the correspondent.

" Sibila Vargas on CNN interviews Neil :
Ms. Vargas unleashed what may be the single worst and stupidest question in the history of television interviews:

VARGAS: This music, right, is already causing a stir, actually. You've got one song that's called "Let's Impeach the President." What is this song about? "


YOUNG, on people will dismiss or belittle his opinion because he's originally from Canada: I'm proud to be a Canadian. I'm proud to be living in the United States. I'm proud to be paying taxes here for 40 years. I'm proud of my three American children, my lovely American wife, my American family, and all of the people who have supported me here for 40 years. It just so happens that I came down here because I'm an artist, and I came down here because, in Los Angeles, I could get things happening and so I could make it so people could hear me. That's why I came down here. This is a great country, and I believe in this. But I think there's a conscience in the country, and I don`t think it's being spoken. Only part of it is being spoken. It's a full thing. Everybody needs to get into it; everybody needs a chance to say what they think.

YOUNG, on possible backlash: I'm not in the least bit concerned. I expect it. I respect other people's opinions. That's part of what makes the United States and Canada and all free countries great, is the fact that you can differ with your friend and you can still sit down at the same table and break bread with your friend.


See:
News Hounds
We watch FOX so you don't have to.
John Gibson Condemns Neil Young's Patriotism
Reported by Deborah - April 28, 2006
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/04/28

Neil Young's LIVING WITH WAR: 'It may just be the Fahrenheit 9/11 of rock'
BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger Jim Cirile Gets an Exclusive Pre-Release Listen to Neil Young's Groundbreaking New Protest Album…

Neil Young wants to keep on rockin' the free world.
His new record, Living With War, makes very clear that if the Bush regime is allowed to continue, there may not be a free world to rock for much longer.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002720.htm

And as to whether Neil Young appreciates the enormity of the attack on 9/11 , here is an article from Media Matters .org :

MEDIAMATTERS
www.mediamatters.org
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605020006

Tue, May 2, 2006 2:43pm EST
Gibson suggested "forgetful" Neil Young watch United 93 to refresh memory of 9-11 -- but Young wrote a song about Flight 93


On the April 28 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson alleged that singer/songwriter Neil Young's latest album, Living With War (Reprise, May 2006), which is critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq, indicates that Young is "forgetful" and has "amnesia," and that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are "a distant memory" for him. Gibson suggested Young go see the newly released movie, United 93 (Universal, April 2006), a fictionalized account of events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Gibson even questioned whether Young "would accept free tickets from me" to see the movie. But far from "forget[ing]" about Flight 93, Young wrote a song in 2001 titled "Let's Roll," "[i]nspired by a Newsweek story recounting the fatal flight," as The Washington Post noted at the time.

The title and refrain of "Let's Roll" refer to the words reportedly spoken by passenger Todd Beamer before he and several other passengers attempted to storm the aircraft's cockpit and regain control of the aircraft. From "Let's Roll" (Are You Passionate? Reprise, April 2002):
I know I said I love you,

I know you know it's true,

I got to put the phone down,

And do what we gotta do.

One's standing in the aisleway,

Two more at the door,

We got to get inside there,

Before they kill some more.

Time is runnin' out ... let's roll.

Time is runnin' out ... let's roll.


And for more reviews & comments about Neil Young see:

A news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat
Friday, April 14, 2006
New Neil Young Album: "Life in War"
http://www.thrasherswheat.org/2006/04/new-neil-young-album-life-in-war.html
with lots of info & links

CNN.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Neil Young: 'Let's Impeach the President'
Rocker records protest album, 'Living with War'
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/18/leisure.young.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

beepbeepitsme
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Neil Young urges Bush impeachment on protest album
http://beepbeepitsme.blogspot.com/2006/04/neil-young-urges-bush-impeachment-on.html

Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman. > Tunes >
LIVING WITH WAR AND STUPID QUESTIONS
impeach the correspondent.
http://homepage.mac.com/chadhermann/iblog/C212657653/E20060422085708/

And from The Guardian Unlimited
The Observer Blog
Friday April 28 2006
Living With War
By Susan Smillie / Music 11:57am
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2006/04/28/living_with_war_1.html

By ryan irelan
Neil Young - Living with War
http://www.ryanirelan.com/past/2006/04/29/neil-young-living-with-war-3/

Washingtonpost.com.
Recordings
Neil Young's Antiwar Howl

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
( the review is mostly negative noting Neil Young is a Canadian & much of what his songs refer to is old news ??? but the war in Iraq continues as do the renditions & torture & the lies & the Propaganda - the Washington Post I guess needs to vent out of a sense of guilt & shame since it has for the most part become part of the Bush Regime’s Propaganda Machine like CNN & CBS etc. Its hard to believe this was the newspaper which broke the Watergate Story & the Pentagon Papers but oh how the Times have changed but not for the better as Dylan had hoped as we move backwards to the fifties & the Good Old Cold War Era !!! )


COUNTERPUNCH
Weekend Edition
April 29 / 30, 2006
A Call to Arms
Neil Young Kicks Out the Jams
By RON JACOBS
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs04292006.html

BELLACIAO
May Monday 1st 2006 (02h12) :
Neil Young’s Songs of Impeachment
by Jan Frel
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=11796
LET’S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT / by Neil Young

Anyway that's all for now,
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

NEIL YOUNG'S SONG " OHIO" & THE KENT STATE MASSACRE , MAY 4, 1970

FOUR DEAD IN OHIO : KENT STATE MAY 4, 1970
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Tin soldiers and nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in ohio.


neil young lyrics
http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/ohio.htm




PICTURE POSTED BY PICASA

STUDENT SHOT BY NATIONAL GUARD DURING PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION : KENT STATE MAY 4, 1970 IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine and then taking a walk in the woods. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings. Soon, the lyrics "Four dead in Ohio" became an anthem to a generation. In some parts of the country, the song was banned from playlists because of it's "anti-war" and "anti-Nixon" sentiments.
Four Dead in Ohio - allison krause,william schroeder, jeffrey miller, sandra scheuer-

NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING AT STUDENT ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATERS


AND AS MICHAEL CORCORAN IN " WHY KENT STATE IS IMPORTANT TODAY " SAYS: The students were unarmed, and the closest was more than 60 feet away from the Guard at the time of the shooting. There was no warning shot; the National Guard never issued an apology; and no one ever spent a day in jail for the killings despite the fact that the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, appointed by President Nixon in 1970, found the shootings to be ''unwarranted and inexcusable."
http://www.boston.com/
By Michael Corcoran | May 4, 2006





In a speech made in April of 1970, Agnew advised police to ". . . just imagine they (students) are wearing brown shirts or white sheets and act accordingly." VICE PRESIDENT SPIRO T. AGNEW
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Note I AM HAVING TROUBLE POSTING PICTURES , SORRY ABOUT THAT.

ANYWAY GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK ,
GORD.

NEIL YOUNG " LIVING WITH WAR " & NEOCONS ON THE WARPATH

NEIL YOUNG ACCEPTS INDUCTION INTO ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME 1995.
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" We don't all have to believe in what our president believes to be patriotic. And we also -- you know, this talk about a 9/11 mentality. No one, George Bush or anyone else, owns the 9/11 mentality. It belongs to the United States of America; it belongs to every one who was sitting there with their family watching TV, watching those buildings get hit by those jets; it belongs to George Bush and his family; it belongs to John Kerry and his family; it belongs to me and my family, my American family. So I have a post-9/11 mentality. It's just not the same as George Bush's."
NEIL YOUNG




NEIL'S GARAGE NEIL YOUNG'S HOMEPAGE INCLUDES FREE -STREAMING OF " LIVING WITH WAR " & FORUM ON THE GREAT DEBATE http://www.neilyoung.com/
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NEIL YOUNG 'S " LIVING WITH WAR " CANADIAN ROCK & ROLL LEGEND SHARES HIS ANGER & OUTRAGE AGAINST THE WARMONGERING BUSH REGIME

"I raise my hand in peace ... I never bow to the laws of the thought police ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again ...

"In the big hotels ... in the mosques and the doors of the old museum ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again." Neil Young from new album LIVING WITH WAR
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Finally there is a positive sign for all of us who are against the dirty war in Iraq & who have lamented that so few seem willing to take on the Bush Regime . Neil Young has somewhat reluctantly taken up the challenge in his new album “ Living With War “. Hopefully this will send a message to other Rock & Pop musicians & song writers especially those of the younger generation to express their anger & dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs in the United States & around the world. By our continued silence the shameful atrocities in Iraq & elsewhere will continue . With our continued silence Death Squads & torturers will continue their immoral & illegal activities with impunity all in the name of protecting our freedom & preserving our Democratic way of life but at such an awful & horrendous costs. Finally Neil Young for one is saying “ Enough is Enough ".

Neil Young is expressing our collective outrage & anger & feelings of helplessness & frustration that the world has gone mad & there is nothing we can do about it . By speaking out Neil Young is helping to renew our hope that maybe it is possible for us to have an impact on how our society is to be shaped.

Neil Young - Living With War

I'm living with war everyday
I'm living with war in my heart everyday
I'm living with war right now

And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man
And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again
And when the night falls, I pray for peace
Try to remember peace (visualize)

I join the multitudes
I raise my hand in peace
I never bow to the laws of the thought police
I take a holy vow
To never kill again
To never kill again

I'm living with war in my heart
I'm living with war in my heart in my mind
I'm living with war right now

Don't take no tidal wave
Don't take no mass grave
Don't take no smokin' gun
To show how the west was won
But when the curtain falls, I pray for peace
Try to remember peace (visualize)

In the crowded streets
In the big hotels
In the mosques and the doors of the old museum
I take a holy vow
To never kill again
Try to remember peace

The rocket's red glare
Bombs bursting in air
Give proof through the night,
That our flag is still there
I'm living with war everyday
I'm living with war in my heart everyday
I'm living with war right now

Neil Young

As Jan Frel comments in his article “ NEIL YOUNG’S SONGS OF IMPEACHMENT”

“ With Neil Young and Pearl Jam releasing devastating anti-Bush albums in the coming weeks, it looks like rock has rejuvenated its protest past.” And goes on to add:

“ Where have lyrics like that been the past five years? Young himself wondered the same question. "I was waiting for someone to come along, some young singer 18 to 22 years old, to write these songs and stand up," Young told the L.A. Times. "I waited a long time. Then I decided that maybe the generation that has to do this is still the ’60s generation. We’re still here." All 10 of the songs on Living with War directly address the issues of our political era...

May Monday 1st 2006 (02h12) :
Neil Young’s Songs of Impeachment
http://bellaciao.org

And John Strauber in his article “ NEIL YOUNG CLOBBERS THE THOUGHT POLICE “ gives an enthusiastic review of “ Living With War “ and explains :

“ I'm listening to Neil Young's new album, Living With War. It's not my first time; I was lucky enough to be at a private listening last week in California. But now, along with millions of others connected to the Internet, I'm hearing it free of charge through my computer speakers, courtesy of Mr. Young and his absolutely brilliant bunch of guerrilla marketers and movement builders.


Shock and Awe is one the best rock anthems Neil has ever penned or played: "Back in the days of shock and awe.... history was a cruel judge of overconfidence ... Back in the days of mission accomplished our chief was landing on the deck. The sun was setting on the golden photo op. Thousands of bodies in the ground brought home in boxes to a trumpet sound. No one sees them coming home that way.... We had a chance to change our mind, but somehow wisdom was hard to find..."

As he ends his article:

“ Living With War closes appropriately with America the Beautiful, the hundred-voice choir providing the perfect closure to one of the strongest and certainly the most-brilliantly released calls for peace and justice ever from a musician of Young's stature. In releasing Living With War as he has, Young is clearly challenging his artistic peers, fellow patriots and all of us. The challenge is to amp it up and take the movements for peace and justice to a new level, riding again the wave of unity and love of country that went up in toxic smoke after Bush and Cheney hijacked post-9/11 sentiment and flew America into the lies, damned lies and mess of Iraq.”

AlterNet: blog
www.alternet.org/bloggers/frel/archive/
Neil Young Clobbers the Thought Police
John Stauber on Fri, 04/28/2006

And here from Rolling Stone is a sampling from a review of “ Living With War” by David Fricke:
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/

“ In a time of crisis, subtlety is not an option, and speed is essential. Neil Young recorded the nine original songs on this album in six days, just a month ago. He wrote four of those songs on the day he cut them. And in all nine, Young charges the current president and his administration with, among other things, lying, spying, waging war with no right or reason and dereliction of duty to the nation's founding ideals. He then calls for the most extreme judgment available to the American people in "Let's Impeach the President," with rusty-fuzz guitar, the righteous muscle of a hundred-strong choir, a trumpet playing "Taps" and the self-incriminating voice of Bush himself.

Living With War is one man's opinion: Young reports, you decide. But it is an indictment of the sorry state of open debate in this country -- and its rock & roll -- that the most direct, public and inspiring challenge to the Bush presidency this year has been made by a sixty-year-old Canadian-born singer-songwriter who, even at his most apoplectic, can't resist a line like "trippin' down the old hippie highway" ("Roger and Out"). It is also an impressive measure of Young's refusal to burn out or fade away that he states his case with clarity as well as dirty garage-trio momentum. For me, the most damning lines in "Let's Impeach the President" have nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with Washington's shameful delinquency at home: "What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees?/Would New Orleans have been safer that way/Sheltered by our government's protection?" “

to listen to “ Living With War” check out Neil Young’s Homepage NEIL’s GARAGE at http://www.neilyoung.com/
And : http://livingwithwar.blogspot.com/
the purpose of which is as Neil says:

NEIL YOUNG - Living With War

"...this is about exchanging ideas... it's about getting a message out. It's about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say is what they think. But like I said before.. ya know.. red and blue is not black and white. We're all together. It's a record about unification." -Neil Young (4/18/06)
This Blog contains links & hundreds of comments positive & negative. It is worth some serious attention.

But as expected the Neocons & the militant supporters of the Bush Regime are not pleased by Neil Young’s songs of protest & are up in arms that a Canadian would have the audacity to criticize the Bush Regime’s War in Iraq & challenge its attempt to create a “ Police State” . Here is an example of the Neocons opinion from The National Review:


LIVING WITH WAR
National Review
May 5, 2006
The Week
by the Editors

“ -- You can't get away from the topic of immigration nowadays. Here comes aging falsetto folk-rock singer Neil Young with a ditty in which he urges us to impeach President Bush. Sample: "Let's impeach the president for lying, / And leading our country into war; / Abusing all the power that we gave him, / And shipping all our money out the door . . ." You get the idea.

What's this got to do with immigration? Well, Neil Young is not a U.S. citizen. He's Canadian. He can't even vote. He's been in America for 40 years, and has never bothered to take out citizenship. And this interloper from the land of moose and Mounties is telling us to impeach our president! For goodness' sake. If it's not Mexican fence-jumpers trying to dictate legislation to us, it's fur trappers from the wilds of Ontario insulting our head of state. America's business is everyone's business, it seems.

Here, perhaps, at last, is useful work for some enterprising American leftist to do: record a song calling for the impeachment of Neil Young's head of state, which would be Her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. Britain's fighting in Iraq too, after all. “


It is true that Neil young is a Canadian but what has that got to do with anything. Americas internal politics & its international policies have an affect on much of the world - America is the only remaining Superpower & has one of the largest militaries in the world & has some tens of thousands nuclear weapons enough that is to turn the whole world into rubble. Neoconservatives believing that their country has the duty & the right to decide what is best for the world & to take whatever actions necessary to interfere with the internal politics of countries whose policies & Regimes are not to their liking.

Since the Bush Regime believes its role is to create a “ New World Order ” & thereby increasing its influence around the world; it is therefore the duty of not just Americans but also people from other countries to speak out if they disagree with the policies of the present regime in the United States.

It is somewhat disturbing how the Editors of The National Review have such disdain for Canada describing our country as a “ land of moose & Mounties “ & describes our citizens as “ fur-trappers from the wilds of Ontario” & a lot worse such as being a leftist country ruled by Marxists or as a third rate country etc. if you care to read the comments posted on various websites & blogs .
This also shows the ignorance of the so called educated Neoconservatives who seem to believe Canada is still ruled by the Queen of England.

Anyway this could be a good thing if at the very least this controversy would be a “ Wake-Up Call “ to Stephen Harper & his band of Neocons who seem to resent the fact that they themselves are not real Americans. They are American wannabes who want to make over our country into a carbon-copy of the United States as it has been & is being transformed by the Current Bush Regime which slavishly puts into practice the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss & Neocon True Believers & their allies in the Christian Right movement.

Maybe the tide is finally turning in our favor...one can only hope ?

Anyway that’s all for now
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

Also see:
conservativeblogtherapy.blogspot.com/2006/04
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Neil Young and Pink are wrong...

And see:
CENSORSHIP
Ten-year-Old Forbidden from Singing Pink’s Anti-Bush Song at School Talent Show
By Matthew Rothschild
May 9, 2006

LEO STRAUSS & NEOCONS & THE RULE OF THE ELITE

BUSH , STRAUSS & "THE NOBLE LIE "
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"... It behooves us to remember that Hitler had the utmost contempt for parliamentary democracy. He was impatient with debate and dispute, on the grounds that they were a waste of time for the great genius who knew instinctively the right choices and policies that the people need.
Hitler had a profound contempt for the masses - the same contempt that is readily observed in Strauss and his cohorts."
SHADIA DRURY commenting on the political philosophy of Leo Strauss

"There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work."
William Kristol

...one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.
Irving Kristol

“ Leo Strauss was a great believer in the efficacy and usefulness of lies in politics. Public support for the Iraq war rested on lies about Iraq posing an imminent threat to the United States – the business about weapons of mass destruction and a fictitious alliance between al-Qaida and the Iraqi regime. Now that the lies have been exposed, Paul Wolfowitz and others in the war party are denying that these were the real reasons for the war. ”
SHADIA DRURY

The idea that Strauss was a great defender of liberal democracy is laughable. I suppose that Strauss’s disciples consider it a noble lie. Yet many in the media have been gullible enough to believe it.”
SHADIA DRURY

AND as Robert Locke says about the influence of Leo Strauss on Neoconservatives including himself :

“ IN CONTEMPORARY American intellectual life, there is only one school of conservative intellectuals that has taken root in academia as a movement. They are the Straussians, followers of the late Leo Strauss (1899-1973)... he is essential to the conservative revival of our time and he offers the intellectual depth we are so desperately in need of.

...consider the following list of his students or students of his students: Justice Clarence Thomas; Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; former Assistant Secretary of State Alan Keyes; former Secretary of Education William Bennett; Weekly Standard editor and former Quayle Chief of Staff William Kristol; Allan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind; former New York Post editorials editor John Podhoretz; former National Endowment for the Humanities Deputy Chairman John T. Agresto; and, not meaning to class myself with this August company but in the interests of full disclosure, myself.

The great significance of Strauss for mainstream conservatives is that his is the deepest philosophical analysis of what is wrong with liberalism. ..”

Leo Strauss, Conservative Mastermind
By Robert Locke
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 31, 2002

(Note my comments are in Italic)

Anyway, I want to present some bits & pieces about the German philosopher , Leo Strauss who emigrated to the United States just before World War II . As a result of his experience in Germany with the fall of the Weimar Republic & the rise of Adolph Hitler & the NAZI Party he became convinced that the rise of Hitler was a direct result of the unwise & somewhat foolish & silly philosophy of “ modern liberalism ”which he believed was based in relativism but his solution is anti-democratic & is really steeped in Nietzsche’s notion of “The Will to Power ”.

The Mind-Set or belief system as it were of the Bush Regime & its Neo-Conservative supporters is rooted primarily in the philosophy of Leo Strauss . It is therefore helpful to understand the political thinking of Leo Strauss & his followers in order to fathom the twisted logic of Neo-Conservatism & its influence on the Bush administration . This is not really an easy task as the ideas of Strauss & his followers often seem to be based on perverted & twisted & convoluted logic if it can be called logic .
Just listen to Rumsfeld or Bush trying to explain their actions or beliefs & when caught in a contradiction they explain it away with a bit of verbal gymnastics or how they were misunderstood or not heard correctly ,or maybe it wasn’t even them that was filmed saying whatever it was since who knows since all is relative etc. Part of the problem is there is the version they tell to their Straussian Fellow-Travelers & that which is tailored to specific groups like the Christian Religious Right or other special interest groups & that which they reveal to the Media & the Public & there are things they might say on some right-wing radio show but they wouldn’t say on CNN or CBS etc.


It should be noted that the current administration or Regime in Canada is led by Stephen Harper who is also a neoconservative who has surrounded himself with like-minded people who are far more radical than traditional Canadian conservatives in their views on social issues & the role of government & Canada’s relationship with the United States & with the United Nations. Harper like Bush & co. wants to bring about radical changes in the way that our present system of government works to bring it more in line with the Bush Regime which has been consolidating more & more power into the Executive branch & the “ Oval Office ” as it were and reshape the relationship between the federal government & the provinces.
( I wonder if he has considered moving the Capital to Calgary where he feels more at home -just a thought )



As Michael Enright says in his CBC radio interview with Shadia Drury:

Since his death in 1973, Leo Strauss has become arguably the most important political philosopher of our age. Shadia Drury discusses how his ideas of promoting fear, elitism, secrecy, and lying have helped to undermine democracy and build a world where violent pre-emption is becoming the norm.

Leo Strauss was a political scientist at the University of Chicago, who specialized in ancient philosophy. He died in 1973, but the German-born professor is widely credited with influence far beyond the ivory tower. That his ideas govern the government of the United States, particularly its foreign policy and so-called "war on terror."

Shadia Drury is both a scholar and a critic of Strauss, and has written several books and articles about the man and his ideas. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice at the University of Regina, where she teaches political science and philosophy.

CBC SCHEDULE
THE SUNDAY EDITION DATE: 10/4/05. BROADCAST INFORMATION . .www.cbc.ca/insite/THE_SUNDAY_EDITION/2005/4/10.html
also at ICH.com

And in an interview by Danny Postel for OPENDEMOCRACY 10/18/03 he begins with these remarks about Shadia Drury :

Perhaps no scholar has done as much to illuminate the Strauss phenomenon as Shadia Drury. For fifteen years she has been shining a heat lamp on the Straussians with such books as The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (1988) and Leo Strauss and the American Right (1997

And here is a long excerpt from an article on Strauss by Shadia Drury:

Saving America
Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives
Evatt Foundation: Publication: Saving America - 10 September 2003
By Shadia B. Drury

Shadia Drury gets to the bottom of neoconservatism.

“There is a growing awareness that a reclusive German émigré philosopher is the inspiration behind the reigning neoconservative ideology of the Republican Party. Leo Strauss has long been a cult figure within the North American academy. And even though he had a profound antipathy to both liberalism and democracy, his disciples have gone to great lengths to conceal the fact. ..This picture of Strauss as the great American patriot, who was a lover of freedom and democracy is pure fabrication. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Strauss's disciples have inherited a superiority complex as well as a persecution complex. They are convinced that they are the superior few who know the truth and are entitled to rule...They are afraid to reveal that Strauss was a critic of liberalism and democracy, lest he be regarded as an enemy of America. So, they wrap him in the American flag and pretend that he is a champion of liberal democracy for political reasons - their own quest for power. The result is that they run roughshod over truth as well as democracy.

...Strauss's American disciples continue to complain that they are oppressed, beleaguered, and ostracized by the liberal academy, and the equally liberal media.

The Straussians are the most powerful, the most organized, and the best-funded scholars in Canada and the United States. They are the unequaled masters of right-wing think tanks, foundations, and corporate funding. And now they have the ear of the powerful in the White House...

According to Strauss, ancient philosophers (such as Plato) were wise and wily, but modern philosophers (such as Locke and other liberals) were foolish and vulgar. The wise ancients thought that the unwashed masses were not fit for either truth or liberty; and giving them these sublime treasures was like throwing pearls before swine. Accordingly, they believed that society needs an elite of philosophers or intellectuals to manufacture "noble lies" for the consumption of the masses...

In contrast to the ancients, the moderns were the foolish lovers of truth and liberty; they believed in the natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They believed that human beings were born free and could be legitimately ruled only by their own consent.

The ancients denied that there is any natural right to liberty. Human beings are born neither free nor equal. The natural human condition is not one of freedom, but of subordination. And in Strauss's estimation, they were right in thinking that there is only one natural right - the right of the superior to rule over the inferior - the master over the slave, the husband over the wife, and the wise few over the vulgar many.

...Strauss referred to the right of the superior to rule as "the tyrannical teaching" of the ancients which must be kept secret. ..for two reasons - to spare the people's feelings and to protect the elite from possible reprisals. After all, the people are not likely to be favourably disposed to the fact that they are intended for subordination.

...Only weeping, worshiping, and sacrificing could ennoble the masses. Religion and war - perpetual war - would lift the masses from the animality of bourgeois consumption and the pre-occupation with "creature comforts." Instead of personal happiness, they would live their lives in perpetual sacrifice to God and the nation.”

Anyway I hope this gives the reader some idea of what a strange & shadowy world these neocons like Wolfowitz & Rumsfeld & Harper occupy as they traverse their inner labyrinth world of duplicity, deception & lies . And so it goes as Vonnegut says or even HI HO !
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

Here are websites refer to or related to Leo Strauss & the Neocons:

Leo Strauss, Conservative Mastermind
By Robert Locke
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 31, 2002

And from the perspective of Neo-Conservative see articles carried in FRONTPAGE MAG. COM
http://www.frontpagemag.com

also check out for the real deal on neoconservative commentary at
THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY
The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.

The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.

William Kristol, Chairman
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

LEO STRAUSS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF PHILOSOPHY.
http://www.questia.com
by STANLEY ROSEN

THE WEEKLY STANDARD
The Neoconservative Persuasion
From the August 25, 2003 issue: What it was, and what it is.
by Irving Kristol
08/25/2003, Volume 008, Issue 47
http://www.weeklystandard.com/

COUNTERPUNCH
November 2, 2005
Lies of the Neocons: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
The Philosophy of Mendacity
http://www.counterpunch.org
By JOHN WALSH

June 2, 2003
The Strategist and the Philosopher
Leo Strauss and Albert Wohlstetter
By ALAIN FRACHON and DANIEL VERNET
Translated for CounterPunch by Norman Madarasz
COUNTERPUNCH.COM

AND:
Leo Strauss
by Milo Clark
http://www.swans.com
July 5, 2004
(Swans - July 5, 2004) It is time to do Leo Strauss some more.

Leo Strauss' Philosophy of Deception
By Jim Lobe, AlterNet. Posted May 19, 2003.

Many neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz are disciples of a philosopher who believed that the elite should use deception, religious fervor and perpetual war to control the ignorant masses...

The Ambivalence of Classic Natural Right: Leo Strauss on Philosophy, Morality, and Statesmanship
MARC D. GUERRA
http://www.questia.com/

JUDEO-CHRISTIAN DECADENCE
AT THE FOUNT OF POWER

By: Al Cronkrite
http://www.etherzone.com/

POP OCCULTURE
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
The Secret Kingdom of Leo Strauss
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2004/11/secret-kingdom-of-leo-strauss.html

AMERICAN CONQUEST OF THE MIDDLE EAST , IRAN & NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS , U.S. BUILDING MORE NUKES

HITLER DIDN'T LIKE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS OR MEDIA EITHER
Posted by Picasa

Rumsfeld TELLS RUSH LIMBAUGH : War Critics Being Manipulated By Zarqawi and Bin Laden's Media Committees�
Posted by Picasa

BUSH KING OF AMERICA & MONARCH OF THE WORLD
Posted by Picasa

DICK CHENEY ASLEEP AS THE EMPIRE IMPLODES
Posted by Picasa

The United States is preparing to attack Iran claiming Iran is close to building nuclear weapons while experts argue Iran is five to ten years away from producing its first nuclear weapon & Iran argues it only wants to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses which it is permitted to do according to international law .
But none of this matters to the Bush administration because if they believe Iran is a threat to the United States or the world then this must be so since belief & faith matter more than any other means of knowing something for certain.
And if it is discovered later on that they were wrong it is better to act than to hesitate or dither over the various possibilities & reactions i.e. intelligence reports & the public’s opinion or to debate the morality of one’s actions .

Anyway here is the pertinent sections of the International Non-Proliferation Treaty:

THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION
OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (NPT)
www.un.org/events/npt2005/npt

Article IV

1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.

2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.
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And so it goes ...Well it does appear that the United States with the help of Great Britain & Israel & possibly with Canada’s moral support will attack Iran . Unless this is just some sort of propaganda ploy to get the world’s attention away from the mess in Iraq & Afghanistan . But in order for it to work it would be better to do at least a little bombing of Iran. Going ahead with some so called precision bombing of Iran would create a greater diversion & would help with the Bush’s regime belief in Perpetual War & its belief that what is happening is a great Clash of Civilizations comparable to the First & Second World Wars & all in the name of peace & security .

It is extremely disturbing to try to digest the possibility of another declared war by the Bush administration on another sovereign country under some disputable rationale, at this time . And then we find that the American government is putting great pressure on The Hamas regime in Palestine ; do they intend to starve the people of Palestine to make their point. Will they invade Palestine or is the Bush Regime of the New World Order merely preparing the ground work for an all out attack on Palestine by the Israeli Regime . This might be more practical as the US forces are getting spread rather thin . And so far Bush has not insisted as yet to bring back the draft. This is also why the Bush Regime needs more allies who can provide them with large numbers of soldiers & equipment .

These issues, of course , could be resolved if the US can convince the International Community that in the case of Iran or Palestine or any other nation they designate as a threat to America or to Israel or Western Civilization that it would be permissible to use “ Nuclear Weapons” to eliminate such countries & their regimes as a threat .
A hell of a lot easier then claiming that they want to win the peoples’ hearts & minds especially when you don’t really care because all the Bush regime wants is to neutralize any regime it does not like .

All such moves in the end are for the “ GOOD ” because they help to extend American influence & hegemony , at least, that is according to the Neoconservative way of thinking . Though it is not really “ thinking ” but actually a matter of believing . From the Neoconservative point of view the problem is that many people in the West have not awakened to the fact that America is the best there is to be offered in the world & that all other nations must show the right sort of respect for the United States & a willingness to believe that whatever policies the US develops are by their very nature what is best for the world .

Of course in the nineteenth-century up until India won her Independence Great Britain believed it had been given the Divine Right to rule most of the world especially since God after all was an Englishmen. Now God is a Born Again Evangelical American Businessman who believes in the necessity of war .

There are those who are speaking up & protesting against the Bush Regime’s suggestion that it would be justifiable to use Nuclear Weapons against Iran. For instance the physicists Jorge Hirsch & others have sent a letter of protest to George W. Bush . But I don’t see how this would have any affect on a regime that sees most scientists as the enemy since many scientist deny the literal truth of the Bible & try to discredit “ Scientific Creationism” or its bastard child “ Intelligent Design ” & go around promoting Evolution & even “ Global Warming ” & other nonsense which Neoconservatives refer to as “ Junk Science” or “ Voodoo Science” & is to them as credible as astrology .


Prominent U.S. Physicists Send Warning Letter to President Bush
By Newswise

04/18/06 "Newswise" — Thirteen of the nation’s most prominent physicists have written a letter to President Bush, calling U.S. plans to reportedly use nuclear weapons against Iran “gravely irresponsible” and warning that such action would have “disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world.”

The physicists include five Nobel laureates, a recipient of the National Medal of Science and three past presidents of the American Physical Society, the nation’s preeminent professional society for physicists.

The letter was initiated by Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, who last fall put together a petition signed by more than 1,800 physicists that repudiated new U.S. nuclear weapons policies that include preemptive use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear adversaries (http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/). Hirsch has also published 15 articles in recent months (http://antiwar.com/hirsch/) documenting the dangers associated with a potential U.S. nuclear strike on Iran.

...“Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten the probability that others will too,” the physicists write. “In a world with many more nuclear nations and no longer a ‘taboo’ against the use of nuclear weapons, there will be a greatly enhanced risk that regional conflicts could expand into global nuclear war, with the potential to destroy our civilization.”
Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego Protesting President Bush’s plan to use Nuclear weapons on Iran.

And as for consensus on what the Bush Regime is planning ; here are a couple of articles:

New York Times
www.newyorktimes.com
Bombs That Would Backfire
By RICHARD CLARKE and STEVEN SIMON
April 16, 2006

WHITE HOUSE spokesmen have played down press reports that the Pentagon has accelerated planning to bomb Iran. We would like to believe that the administration is not intent on starting another war, because a conflict with Iran could be even more damaging to our interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. A brief look at history shows why.

Reports by the journalist Seymour Hersh and others suggest that the United States is contemplating bombing a dozen or more nuclear sites, many of them buried, around Iran. In the event, scores of air bases, radar installations and land missiles would also be hit to suppress air defenses. Navy bases and coastal missile sites would be struck to prevent Iranian retaliation against the American fleet and Persian Gulf shipping. Iran's long-range missile installations could also be targets of the initial American air campaign.

These contingencies seem familiar to us because we faced a similar situation as National Security Council staff members in the mid-1990's. American frustrations with Iran were growing, and in early 1996 the House speaker, Newt Gingrich, publicly called for the overthrow of the Iranian government. He and the C.I.A. put together an $18 million package to undertake it.

The president assures us he will seek a diplomatic solution to the Iranian crisis. And there is a role for threats of force to back up diplomacy and help concentrate the minds of our allies. But the current level of activity in the Pentagon suggests more than just standard contingency planning or tactical saber-rattling.

The parallels to the run-up to war with Iraq are all too striking: remember that in May 2002 President Bush declared that there was "no war plan on my desk" despite having actually spent months working on detailed plans for the Iraq invasion. Congress did not ask the hard questions then. It must not permit the administration to launch another war whose outcome cannot be known, or worse, known all too well.

Richard Clarke and Steven Simon were, respectively, national coordinator for security and counterterrorism and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

And also see:

care of ICH
Countdown Over Iran
By Eric Margolis

04/18/06 "Foreign Correspondent" -- -- NEW YORK – It’s both fascinating and dismaying watching the manufactured `crisis’ over Iran reach new intensity each week.

What we are seeing is a rerun of the administration’s massive propaganda offensive that led to the invasion of Iraq. There is also no doubt that the Bush Administration has been planning a major air war against Iraq.

On the list for possible US – and likely Israeli – air and missile strikes: more than twenty Iranian nuclear facilities, including the Bushehr reactor; airfields, missile and naval bases; communications nodes; military and intelligence headquarters; military factories; power plants and oil terminals.

...Respected international experts say that it if Iran wanted to produce nuclear warheads, it would take 5-10 years. UN nuclear inspectors report no signs Iran is working on nuclear weapons.
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Anyway as we are told over & over America is a righteous country that always obeys International Laws & Treaties but this is not, in fact , the case. We have seen it in the case of torture, renditions, kid-napping, death squads, indiscriminate bombings of towns & cities of Mosques, schools & hospitals and so we shouldn’t be too surprised if they break International agreements on Nuclear Weapons.
And so meanwhile back at the ranch we are told that the U.S. is going ahead with plans to manufacture a few thousand more Nuclear Warheads over the next five or six years to replace aging nukes . But these plans are in direct violation of International Agreements on Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty . At the same time the U.S. is threatening to attack Iran for trying to develop Nuclear Power Plants which Iran is permitted to do under International Law .
But as usual there is one law for the United States & a different standard or law for other countries.

SEE article in The Washington Post:
U.S. Prepares to Overhaul Arsenal of Nuclear Warheads
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 15, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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And further that the development of “ Bunker Buster ” bombs by the United States is in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) & the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty both of which the United States agreed to but as usual the present administration believes it should not be constrained by such treaties if they believe it is in their best interest to break such treaties. Of course if this is so shouldn’t any other country be permitted the same latitude when it comes to these treaties or any other international treaties & agreements .

But the American Neoconservatives believe that America is morally superiour to all other nations & therefore the decisions it makes concerning treaties or ignoring the sovereignty of other nations is justified by being the protector of the “ FREE WORLD ”. This also means that the American government is the sole arbitrator of what is or is not permissible & how “ FREEDOM ” is to be defined .

This also takes us into the murky world of “ REALPOLITIK” as defined by the philosopher Leo Strauss or by Alan Bloom in his influential anti-liberal pro-elitist book “ THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND ”( 1987) Or Samuel P. Huntington’s view of Perpetual War in his heavy -handed book “ THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER” (1996).
Their belief is that since America is the best “ REGIME ” or political system in the world & is based on Christian Beliefs & Pure Capitalism it has the right under “ Natural Law” to impose by force its values & beliefs both political & economic on the rest of the world . If the United States does not do this then other emerging Civilizations or Regimes will by force spread & take over the world.

For instance see article on “ BUNKER-BUSTER ” bombs:
War Is Fun!
http://signs-of-the-times.org
Bush Plans to Use Illegal B61-11
Sunday April 09th 2006, 7:05 pm
Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire

It's said Bush and his bevy of Straussian neocons will nuke Iran (according to research conducted by journalist Seymour Hersh) using nuclear-armed B61-11 "bunker-busters." Bush will do this "to prevent [Iran] acquiring its own atomic warheads," the UK Telegraph summarizes Hersh's conclusion. "Hersh claims that one of the plans, presented to the White House by the Pentagon, entails the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites. One alleged target is Iran's main centrifuge plant, at Natanz, 200 miles south of Teheran."

In Bushzarro world, as we know, up is down, right is left, and violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and international law is legal and within Bush's reading on the Constitution. In fact, under the NPT, Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, although of course the neocons argue Iran is feverishly building nuclear weapons, an assertion made without any credible evidence (essentially a re-run of the weapons of mass destruction argument-lies and fabrications-made in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq). It is interesting to note that the very development of the B61-11 is a violation of the NPT, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and international law dating back to the Clinton administration, thus once again illustrating the fact the neocons don't have a monopoly on criminal renegade behavior.

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Anyway , that’s all for now.
GORD.

From Democracy Now
Monday, April 17th, 2006
Retired Colonel Sam Gardiner on Iran War Plans: "The Issue is Not Whether the Military Option Would Be Used But Who Approved the Start of Operations Already"
http://www.democracynow.org

New York Times
www.newyorktimes.com
Op-Ed Contributors
Bombs That Would Backfire
By RICHARD CLARKE and STEVEN SIMON
Published: April 16, 2006

The US, Iran and the End of the International Order
By Jussi Sinnemaa
04/17/06 "ICH"
INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE

From website http://antiwar.com
War Against Iran, April, 2006
Biological Threat and Executive Order 13292
by Jorge Hirsch

April 17, 2006
New nukes in your own backyard?
by Plutonium Page
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com

by way of Information Clearing House
Busting empty bunkers
By Gordon Prather
04/18/06 "WorldNetDaily" -- -- On April 12, Bloomberg News

Turkish Press .com
Canada's Harper backs US nuclear standoff with Iran
04-18-2006, 23h45
OTTAWA (AFP)

Zarqawi; the Pentagon’s ongoing war of deception
By Mike Whitney
04/17/06 "ICH"

HOCKEY,EH & CIRCUSES ---STEPHEN HARPER & HIS BUDDY GEORGE BUSH : PLAYING ON GOD'S TEAM : HARPER SO FAR...

...OOPS DID I INTERRUPT YOUR HOCKEY GAME,EH ???
Posted by Picasa

"I love my job as prime minister, but if you could be a hockey player, I mean, what could be better than that?" STEPHEN HARPER AND I"M SORRY HE DIDN"T
Posted by Picasa

“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the TRUTH becomes the greatest ENEMY OF THE STATE.”

"Tell a Lie That is Big Enough, and Repeat it Often Enough, and the Whole World Will Believe It. "

— Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister

It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. --Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering

...“Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten the probability that others will too,” the physicists write. “In a world with many more nuclear nations and no longer a ‘taboo’ against the use of nuclear weapons, there will be a greatly enhanced risk that regional conflicts could expand into global nuclear war, with the potential to destroy our civilization.”
Jorge Hirsch, a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego Protesting President Bush’s plan to use Nuclear weapons on Iran.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway I ‘d like to talk about Stephen Harper & his policies & statements regarding Iran & Iraq & Hamas & a couple of other issues as a sort of report card on how he is doing thus far. From the comments he makes it is difficult to distinguish his policies from those of George W. Bush & his administration . But I do feel we should give harper a bit of a break since he & his buddies are so in awe of Bush; note how effusive Peter MacKay was when he met Condoleeza Rice ; it was a bit embarrassing I thought he was about to ask her to the Prom or whatever.

Sorry to interrupt your HOCKEY GAME , eh so what’s new,eh...
NUKES FALLING , Hockey Season goes ahead ,eh!!!
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Iran & Stephen Harper

Turkish Press .com
Canada's Harper backs US nuclear standoff with Iran
04-18-2006, 23h45
OTTAWA (AFP)


Canada's prime minister is backing US-led efforts to halt Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program as Stephen Harper claims :

" that our allies have a very serious concern when you see a regime like Iran with the kind of values it stands for, the kind of human rights abuses we've seen there ... our allies have a completely legitimate case in being concerned about a regime like that gaining access to nuclear weapons."

And so we are told by Stephen Harper that American values are better than Iran’s ? By aligning himself to the Bush Administration’s paranoia about Iran and Bush’s propaganda campaign to boost support for an attack & invasion of Iran & the possible use of Nuclear Weapons to accomplish their goals in Iran , Harper shows his true colours as another “ shoot from the hip cowboy ” & possibly where his loyalty really lies; with his alter-ego George W. Bush ?

And as for us, that is Canadians we have become a country of sheep believing whatever manufactured lies Bush & Harper & their cult of Neocons produce . These so called lies are really “Noble Lies ” told to promote their agenda which they believe is for the general good or, at least, good for the ruling Elite . This is just part of the philosophy of the Neocons who are “ True Believers ” of their Mentor Leo Strauss who believed as the Neocons do that the majority of the citizens of any state are not intelligent enough or wise enough to be able to understand complex political questions & not virtuous enough to be relied on to do the right thing and that which is necessary to protect that state i.e. America . What’s good for America is Good for the World

It is not surprising that Stephen Harper would support the United States in its manufactured crisis over Iran & that he would support bombing & invading Iran & even support the use of Nuclear Weapons against Iran. Besides he’s a good Christian boy & one thing Jesus loved was Blowing Things Up...eh!
He is far from being the moderate or traditionalist conservative he & his party claimed to be during the election.
Maybe he’ll do like Bush & declare himself King & God’s True Messenger???

HAMAS

Stephen Harper was the first world leader to break off Diplomatic ties with Palestine because Hamas won the election thereby echoing the Bush administration’s & Israel’s attitude to the election of Hamas.
( wouldn’t it be more profitable to engage in discussions with Hamas for a period of time to try to gauge what their aims , goals & agenda are since often when an opposition party comes into a position of power its past rhetoric must give way to the realities of actually governing ... ah well that’s not exactly what this is all about is it...

( of course we are not permitted to discuss any policy which directly affects Israel since the NEOCONS see everything in Black & White terms so any critique of Israel is therefore evidence of anti-Semitism-
or to show any sympathy or concern for Palestinians or Arabs or Muslims is also seen as being anti-Israel & therefore Anti-Semitic-
But I have argued before that disagreeing with the policies of a particular Israeli administration is just that & not necessarily proof of Anti-Semitism-
For instance I am against the Wall they are building which reminds me of the Berlin Wall & the Walls built around the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis which seems a little bit ironic -
I am also against the sort of indiscriminate reprisals launched by the Israelis ( in which innocent civilians including children are killed ) in response to a terrorist attack . This does not mean that I want to make excuses for the actions of terrorists who also kill indiscriminately . Two wrongs do not make a right.
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-------Iraq----

Most Cdns. support war, Harper tells U.S. TV
Updated Fri. Apr. 4 2003 10:56 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca

Opposition leader Stephen Harper has told Fox News in the U.S. that most Canadians outside Quebec support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, despite our government's decision not to take part in the war.

In an interview with the American TV network, Harper said he endorsed the war and said he was speaking "for the silent majority" of Canadians. Only in Quebec, with its "pacifist tradition," are most people opposed to the war, Harper said.

"Outside of Quebec, I believe very strongly the silent majority of Canadians is strongly supportive," the Canadian Alliance leader says.

The Canadian Government’s position is explained by the Deputy Prime Minister at the time:

John Manley told the House Canada's "thoughts and prayers" are with the U.S. but said the decision not to go to war is "consistent with decades of Canadian policy."

"It was our hope that by authorizing greater time for inspections that a broader consensus could emerge in the international community that it was necessary for the use of force," Manley said.

"We have stood apart because we believe it is the Security Council of the United Nations that ought to take responsibility for authorizing force."
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Canadian policy for decades has been to support the United Nations but this did not & still does not satisfy Harper since like Bush he puts little faith in the UN & sees nothing wrong with the United States acting unilaterally even if the action contravenes International Law . The Bush administration only uses the UN to promote its agenda & when blocked ; it ignores the UN which is what Americans especially conservatives accused the former Soviet Union of doing- but now the United States does as it pleases & expects other Western Nations to support it or if not to keep their objections to themselves .

Of course we now know that the Invasion of Iraq was not necessary & has turned into a fiasco but if you are a true believer( like Stephen Harper & his gang of made in America Neoconservatives) in George W. Bush then you have faith in him & his friends who surely know what they are doing ??? Besides George Bush says he gets his orders direct from God so who could doubt him.
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Hamas

Canada shuts out Hamas
'No contact, no funds, period'; Relations with Palestinian government cut; aid to flow via humanitarian agencies

The Gazette
JANICE TIBBETTS, CanWest News Service; CP contributed to this report
Published: Thursday, March 30, 2006

Canada became the first country to sever relations and cut tens of millions of dollars in aid to the new Palestinian government yesterday for its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

"There will be no contact and no funds, period," Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said after a meeting with the Conservative caucus. "We cannot send any direct aid to an organization that refuses to renounce terrorist activity, refuses to renounce violence."

The Gazette
Harper slams Liberal over potential opposition to accountability act
Steve Erwin, Canadian Press
Published: Friday, April 21, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Any Liberal threats to the fledgling Conservative government's bill aimed at making Ottawa more accountable and transparent would be "intolerable," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

The proposed federal accountability act, which seeks to restrict the influence of big business, unions and lobbyists on government, is "not a done deal" because the Liberals will "work to defeat it," Harper told a group of about 900 people during a speech to the Empire Club of Canada.

Liberals in the Senate have only indicated they would slow the passage of Harper's accountability bill by returning portions they're concerned about back to the Commons for further consideration.

"I have to say, that's something, even for the Liberal party - unelected political appointees blocking legislation to make Parliament more accountable," Harper said to applause and laughter from a largely partisan crowd.

He accused members of the previous Liberal government of also being "obstructionist" and "particularly vicious" in their criticism of the bill introduced earlier this month.

"After the sponsorship scandal, why am I not surprised?" Harper asked rhetorically.

Recent Harper speeches have taken a similar election-style tone, taunting the Liberal opposition that is still months away from naming a new leader to replace former prime minister Paul Martin. He also included constant reminders in his speeches of the sponsorship scandal and subsequent Gomery inquiry that led to the Conservatives' zeal for a more transparent bureaucracy in Ottawa.
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Day Care

attacking the present system of Daycare by issuing “ Vouchers “ for $1200 per pre-school age child wow what a deal ??? actually not such a deal since private Day Cares charge a lot more than $ 5,200 per year per child... so the $ 1200 from a merely economic point of view is woefully inadequate but hey, maybe much of his constituency can’t crunch big numbers like this or maybe that’s how Stephen Harper sees it.

Anyway his aim is to undermine & scuttle the Day Care programs across Canada which he believes is necessary to help bring down the Evil Secular Humanists Anti-Christian Anti-Family Pro-Feminist Cabal that has taken over our country so Thank God for George Bush ...I mean ahhhh Pat Bucanan or Pat Robertson & oh Yeah Stephen Harper & the Heritage Foundation or Front Inc. Canadian Division.
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CBC & other ATHEISTIC SOCIALISTS infiltrated institutions

In his statements on accountability legislation he made sure he made references to the CBC & the Arts Council & other Liberal artsy-fartsy commie pinko organizations he ‘ll kill them all off by hacking away a bit here & there ... death by audit of course the CTV & other Canadian private networks are absolutely giddy over this & besides once the CBC’s gone there’ll be no more of those commie movies like the one on Tommy Douglas which made Capitalist look bad...so who cares if the poor do without good medical care “ let them die & reduce the surplus population ” as dear old Scrooge or George Bush would say...& you see how he handled a natural disaster like Katrina : Just pretend it’s not really happening...

This always reminds me of people who take fits because of the types of films that were financed by the National Film Board for instance the early rather tasteless horror films of David Cronenberg ( RABID, SHIVERS, The Brood , SCANNERS ) whose success which I now compare to the New Zealand ‘s version of the NFB which also bein an evil organization financed the early rather nasty even mor tasteless & GOREY horror films of Peter Jackson ( DEAD ALIVE , BAD TASTE, MEET THE FEEBLES, & HEAVENLY CREATURES ) who went on to make the outrageously successful LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY now we wouldn’t want that to happen here would we!!!
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The Canadian Veterans & Military

Harper also announced that his Pro-Military government ( like George BUSH ) will be reducing pay-outs to injured or wounded soldiers , or in the case of those killed in some meaningless engineered American War ,to their spouses & family ; if he follows in Bush footsteps the Canadian combat soldiers will have to buy their Body-Armor on EBAY or do a charity drive in their neighborhood to pay for their gear.

IDENTITY CARDS

Harper has also caved in on US proposals for a national Identity card to be used for crossing the border into the US.

ENVIRONMENT & “ JUNK SCIENCE ”

Harper like Bush is also POOH POOHING all that “ JUNK SCIENCE ” about Global Warming & Pollution or that corporations should be held responsible for Environmental damage by oil spills or whatever beside OIL IS NATURAL & NOT HARMFUL so there you go.

MARIJUANA

And to please the Neocons in America he has scuttled any plans to ease up on laws about the use of marijuana which we all know leads its users to become card-carrying Communists or even Terrorists -

And like Bush Harper now ends his statements to the press with “ God Bless um... America ahhh... Canada ”

For a Prime Minister who is running a minority government, it seems to me, that he acts as if he had a majority & therefore a mandate to push forward his Neoconservative Religious Right agenda-

This seems odd on the face of it but as far as he is concerned in my opinion if the opposition parties do not like what he is doing & he appears to be daring them to resist & thereby bring about the conditions which would lead him to call another election which Canadians will not like & will then punish the opposition for making another federal election necessary & therefore give him the majority he craves. But either way in Harper’s view it’s a win/ win situation.

But this seems to be what Canadians want & in our search for our own Identity we or most Canadians have chosen to identify ourselves with the present Bush Administration . And we too may get a piece of the World for ourselves maybe a few small colonies to call our own once the Americans conquer all those nasty evil-intentioned countries.

Anyway that’s all for now,
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK ,EH !
GORD.

BUSH PLANS TO ATTACK IRAN & THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE THE NUCLEAR OPTION FAKE INTEL & PROPAGANDA & FAKE JOURNALISM

MUSHROOM CLOUD OVER IRAN ??? AND GOD BLESS AMERICA & GOD BLESS CANADA !!!
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" WE"LL SQUEEZE & TWIST THE NUTS OFF OF THOSE IRANIAN SAVAGES & TEACH THEM ABOUT FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY AMERICAN STYLE "
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DR. STRANGELOVE MAKING HIS TWISTED DREAMS COME TRUE
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YA HO ! SLIM PICKINS CELEBRATING AMERICAN VICTORY
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HIROSHIMA AUGUST 6, 1945 AFTER THE BOMB
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“ God’s Away on Business ”
Tom Waits


"If there's one thing you can say
About Mankind
There's nothing kind about man "

From the song “ Misery's The River Of The World ”
Tom Waits

“ No, we do not pardon, we demand - Vengeance! ”
Adolph Hitler

“ Extremes must be fought by extremes. ”
Adolph Hitler

" We knew the world could not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
J. Robert Oppenheimer
(After the first successful testing of the Atomic Bomb)

"A single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all of the allied air forces in the Second World War". -President John F. Kennedy - Commencement Address at American University in Washington, 10 June 1963

"A bomb can now be manufactured which will be 25.000 times as powerful as that which destroyed Hiroshima." - Bertrand Russell

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway here we go again as the U.S. prepares to go to war against Iran & so the “ SPIN ” & propaganda begin with almost an unending barrage of negative reporting on Iran by the President & the Neocons & all those Media Personalities who pretend to be “ real journalist”.


The hypocrisy & duplicity of the Bush administration knows no bounds . While criticizing Iran’s government for being ruthless, brutal & inhumane; the Bush administration defends & condones the use of torture, renditions, mass bombings of civilian populations & the use of Death Squads to carry out assassinations & the indiscriminate use of Incendiary bombs to melt the bodies of innocent civilians . Meanwhile they continue to lie to the world & to their own citizens about why they invaded Iraq & claiming that all is going as planned & that everything is just Hunky Dory in Iraq except for a few malcontents .

Meanwhile on the Home Front they justify investigating & wire-tapping & monitoring computer activity of anyone who dares to criticize the Bush administration ‘s policies & labeling all such critics as unpatriotic . Now Rumsfeld characterizes many of the administration’s critics in the Media as being dupes of the massive & sophisticated propaganda manufactured by Al Qeda & America’s other elusive enemies .

But now in their manufactured crisis against Iran the Bush administration is planning to attack & invade Iran & claims that it is justified in using Nuclear Weapons in a pre-emptive strike on a country which has no nuclear weapons. They are trying to soften up the public in order to make “ the Unthinkable ” thinkable and therefore as an acceptable option.

In my last post I discussed the long & credible career of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh & it is to his recent writings that much of the plans & agenda of the Bush administration in regard to Iran have been revealed & he seems to have hit a nerve & stirred up a “hornets’ nest ”.

As Seymour Hersh says, in a recent article in the New Yorker,

“ The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.

And “...that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change. ”


And he goes on to report that:
“ in the event of an attack, the Air Force intended to strike many hundreds of targets in Iran ...“ninety-nine per cent of them have nothing to do with proliferation. There are people who believe it’s the way to operate”.

And further that “ the ( US covert operations) units were also working with minority groups in Iran... to “encourage ethnic tensions” and undermine the regime. ”

But what is also troubling about what’s taking place is that it is another move on the Administration’s part to consolidate more power to the White House as Seymour Hersh says:

“ The new mission for the combat troops is a product of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld ’s long-standing interest in expanding the role of the military in covert operations...Such activities, if conducted by C.I.A. operatives, would need a Presidential Finding and would have to be reported to key members of Congress.

“ ‘Force protection’ is the new buzzword,” the former senior intelligence official ...referring to the Pentagon’s position that clandestine activities that can be broadly classified as preparing the battlefield or protecting troops are military, not intelligence, operations, and are therefore not subject to congressional oversight...”


SEE : the New Yorker
THE IRAN PLANS
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2006-04-17


Other journalists & military insiders have confirmed that there is a lot of credible evidence which supports Hersh’s assertions about the Bush administrations plans for attacking Iran. And the planning of the attack & invasion of Iran has been in the works since 2002 .

For instance :
from the Turkish Press.com
Pentagon declines comment on report of Iran strike plans
Published: 4/17/2006
http://www.turkishpress.com


William Arkin, a well-connected military analyst writing in the Washington Post on Sunday, said the planning has been conducted under the codename TIRANNT, an acronym for Theater Iran Near Term.

It includes a scenario for a land invasion led by the US Marine Corps, a detailed analysis of the Iranian missile force and a global strike plan against any Iranian weapons of mass destruction, Arkin wrote.

Army General John Abizaid, the commander of the US Central Command, was given the task of planning military options for Iran in 2002 and by May 2003 the planning was underway in earnest, according to Arkin.

____________________________________________________________


But the rationale for going to war with Iran is , in fact, questionable & is reminiscent of the accusations that Saddam Hussein had “ Weapons of Mass Destruction ” & was linked to Al Qeda & the 9/11 attack which turned out to be just lies the Bush Administration told to justify attacking Iraq .

As Director General Mohamed Eibaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said that Iran is not a nuclear threat to the world & urges calm & diplomacy in discussing the issue.

As Eibaradei said ,

Iran’s “ nuclear program was not "an imminent threat" and that the time had come to "lower the pitch" of debate.

And he added:

"The issue of [uranium] enrichment right now, as emotional as it is, is not urgent," he said. "So, we have ample time to negotiate a settlement by which, as I said, Iran's need for nuclear power is assured and the concern of the international community is also put to rest."

SEE:
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei speaks during a press conference at the opening of the conference of the IAEA Governors Council in Vienna, 6 Mar. 2006
http://www.iaea.org/

And more recently see:

Calm Is Urged in Iran Debate
Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N. nuclear agency chief, sees no imminent danger from Tehran and asks those discussing the issue to 'lower the pitch.'
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writers
March 31, 2006

That’S All FOR NOW,
GORD.
___________________________________________________________

From Democracy Now
Monday, April 17th, 2006
Retired Colonel Sam Gardiner on Iran War Plans: "The Issue is Not Whether the Military Option Would Be Used But Who Approved the Start of Operations Already"
http://www.democracynow.org

New York Times
www.newyorktimes.com
Op-Ed Contributors
Bombs That Would Backfire
By RICHARD CLARKE and STEVEN SIMON
Published: April 16, 2006

The US, Iran and the End of the International Order
By Jussi Sinnemaa
04/17/06 "ICH"
INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE

From website http://antiwar.com
War Against Iran, April 2006
Biological Threat and Executive Order 13292
by Jorge Hirsch

by way of Information Clearing House
Busting empty bunkers
By Gordon Prather
04/18/06 "WorldNetDaily" -- -- On April 12, Bloomberg News

Turkish Press .com
Canada's Harper backs US nuclear standoff with Iran
04-18-2006, 23h45
OTTAWA (AFP)


Zarqawi; the Pentagon’s ongoing war of deception
By Mike Whitney
04/17/06 "ICH"

And here are some other articles which the reader can check out:

THE NEW YORKER
THE COMING WARS
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17

From DEMOCRACY NOW
Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Seymour Hersh: "We've Been Taken Over by a Cult"
http://www.democracynow.org/article

By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 11 October 2004
Watch the Webcast: Seymour Hersh
UC BERKELEY
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases