Obama's " Bitter Comment " & Hillary's Inappropriate & Misguided Attack

Anyway this week everyone is so concerned and upset by Obama's comments that some Americans are " bitter ". Like his speech a few weeks ago on " Race " Obama began playing a dangerous game it seems by talking to the American electorate as if they had brains or as some put it " talking to Americans as if they were adults ". The assumption Barack Obama makes is that many Americans are more in the know and are more sophisticated than Fox News or the Republicans think they are . That is, he believes one can actually cut through the Media crap and the political " talking Points" and Spin delivered on a daily basis to the Media who believe everything must be " DUMBED-DOWN " for the American people.

So it is assumed that Americans cannot have a serious civilized discussion on race relations and on systemic racism. Nor can one talk about how certain groups target segments of the population on single issues in order to distract Americans from the wide range of issues that should be discussed in a political campaign whether it is gun control or prayer in the schools or or abortion or immigration and national security or even the environment or global warming . Such tactics are at times used by both the right and left. And many of these issues are very complex and come with a lot of historical precedents or tradition or prejudices which one needs to take into account. But I think and hope that McCain and the Clintons are wrong and that the electorate is beginning to catch onto these old once tried and true political tactics . And maybe Americans are getting tired of this Dumbing -Down process and reducing everything to a " Talking Point " or a one-liner Some of the participants seem to think they are applying for the job of a " Comic Headliner "or " Top Banana " rather than President of the one and only Super-Power.

It seems to me that there's something gone wrong with Hillary's campaign when even CNN attacks her and McCain over their criticism of Obama. Hillary Clinton die-hard supporters should realize how similar she and John McCain are . Its like the choice between Twiddly Dumb and Twiddly Dee. As a Canadian, American politics almost always looks like this . But this time even to many outsiders Obama sounds like he might just be able to change the traditional way things are done in America. Maybe for instance he might try diplomacy rather than bombs or doing things not just for the rich but also for the poor or even ensure that American soldiers and American veterans are treated properly and not just patted on the back or given medals and then sent on their way to struggle on their own or maybe he'll insist that all of America's children are entitled to a high quality education no matter their color , their religion, their family's economic situation or where they just happen to live etc. Hillary is not going to insist on getting rid of the built in inequalities in America's institutions or its society. She like McCain and the Neocons believes in a natural hierarchy in which they believe that some have wealth and therefore certain entitlements and that those who are poor are not deserving of these entitlement . Why should a two year old or five year old or seventeen year old be given fewer opportunities just because he or she is born into a particular set of circumstances which are beyond the child's control.

CNN:Obama's Bitter Comment Misrepresented By Hillary & McCain



Hillary who made fun of Obama's campaign of Change & optimism now claims he is elitist and defeatist.First he was too positive now he's too negative.

But it appears she either did not understand or is deliberately misrepresenting Obama's remark about people feeling " bitter ".The point Obama was making was that t people who feel they have been neglected for decades often begin to feel bitter. But once again Hillary use the remark to attack Obama in her now typical fashion of old style gutter politics in which anything goes. Or if you throw enough mud at someone some of it is bound to stick , at least, in the minds of Fox News and some members of the electorate.

She earlier claimed that few changes can be made in American society or government so get used to it so she told the American electorate. She characterized Obama and his easily led followers as being idealistic and therefore naive .
She claimed that because in her view Obama does not have enough experience that he doesn't understand how governments and the world works which in her view is that very little can ever be accomplished and so to dream of a better society or a better world is just down right stupid. If it had been up to people like Hillary there would never have been any improvements in American society . For instance the Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement would have made no progress if she had been in charge in the 1960s or 1970s.


Obama " bitter " comment, Hillary Clinton Attacks
Heir's a video which gets at the main issue here and why Hillary's attack is not quite accurate to say the least.
Obama talks about the legacy of some 25 years of indifference on the part of the leaders and politicians in Washington. Including the Bush family and the Clintons etc.

About this video from sjl45:
" Hillary Clinton uses equivocation, an illogical informal fallacy, to unjustly attack Barack Obama's character."



And here's Obama further explaining what he meant in his " Bitter Comment "
Obama : " What we need is a government that is paying attention."
This would also suggest that the American people should be paying attention to what their government , what their president and what their politicians are actually doing.
Of course Hillary prefers to tell people she like George W. Bush will be the decider so the American people need not pay attention or actually think seriously about what their government is up to.



Anyway before continuing let's take a reality check as they say whoever they are . Bill Clinton seems to have made similar remarks about some Americans who were bitter back in 1991. As Nico Pitney reminds us in an article Bill Clinton Flashback: "All These Economically Insecure White People...Are Scared To Death" at the Huffington Post April 13, 2008

As the rumination continues over Barack Obama's comments about economically-depressed small town voters, statements made by Bill Clinton on the same topic -- uttered while he was running for president in 1991 -- have now surfaced.

"The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death," Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991.

A couple months later, Joe Klein, writing for the Sunday Times, reported that Clinton made the following remarks:

"You know, he [Bush] wants to divide us over race. I'm from the South. I understand this. This quota deal they're gonna pull in the next election is the same old scam they've been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade. When their economic policies fail, when the country's coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, 'What happened to everybody's job? What happened to everybody's income? What ... have ... you ... done ... to ... our ... country?'"

--
And as Jayne Lyn Stahl in an article entitled Pouncer -in-Chief at Huffington Post points out what are these new found values which Hillary Clinton supports. She is now it appears against any sort of " Gun Control " and is open to debate on the Separation of Church and State. How far to the Right is she willing to go to win the next election. She has already convinced many of her followers that Obama is not sincere and is only good at making speeches and besides she sort of hints that as a black man his chances of winning against McCain are not as good as her chances. But as time goes by one sees less and less difference between her and McCain and the Republicans. Maybe the Republicans should have drafted her to run for their party. At least then her and many of her rather conservative followers would be forced to show their true colors . She also questions his patriotism and his Christian Faith. This also raises the ghost of Joseph McCarthy . But this I think has been around since the beginning of this campaign since a year ago when Fox News and others were discussing Barack Obama's middle and last name and whether or not he was raised a Muslim or went to a Madrassa and then later the Reverend Wright scandal imagine a minister who also has political views this shocked the Media if not the American people. Of course then they bring on various right wing evangelicals and right wing Catholics to denounce reverend wright.

They all seem to forget the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist for Civil Rights but also was critical of American society for its racism and in justices and inequalities. Rev. King went further and spoke out against the Vietnam War for which at the time he was attacked relentlessly by the White House and the American Media and by a large portion of the American people. Many White Americans and the White Media were willing to permit Black people to sit wherever they wished on a bus but they weren't going to have to go to school with them or have to fight in Vietnam beside them or have to attend colleges with them if they could help it. That's why there was an increase in the number of private schools and colleges in America where Black students could by law be excluded. This also helped the Home School movement to flourish as White parents took their kids out of desegregated schools.

Here's the crux of Jayne Stahl' argument:

But, what was it exactly that Barack Obama said that has Hillary agitated, and showing off her newly cleaned fangs? Clinton assailed Obama for having said that working class voters, out of bitterness, "cling to guns or religion." Obama later elaborated that his focus was on how guns and religion are often security blankets for those who have no other way to deal with their frustration, a frustration that is virtually guaranteed to continue if either Clinton or McCain occupy the Oval Office come January, 2009.

What fascinates most is how conveniently, and readily, both Clinton and McCain channel another senator, Joe McCarthy, when challenging whether or not Obama is "American" enough. It's not so much her insistence that the Illinois senator is "demeaning," but that he is arrogant and, more importantly, that his remarks "are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans." But, the question is, which American's values does Hillary reflect?

How convenient now for her to invoke what she calls her "Midwestern values and an unshakable faith in America and its policies." Are we to infer from this attack, as was the case with Reverend Wright, that she thinks Obama's faith in America is shakable? And, if so, how can we sit idly by and allow yet another politician to challenge the "patriotism" af another in order to accrue political advantage? It's terrifying to think that anyone running for office, in 2008, can be allowed to swoop down, and play the Joe McCarthy card against their opponent, without being called on it.

Again, specifically, which American values are the former First Lady endorsing, those, as she says, of "Americans who believe in the Second Amendment because it's a matter of constitutional right. Americans who believe in God because it's a matter of personal faith" and, if so, what about the First and Fifth Amendment separation of church and state? Does Mrs. Clinton support those, too, or just the amendment most likely to push her lead, in both Pennsylvania and Indiana, back to the double-digit range?

Her newfound love affair with the Second Amendment, and big thumbs-up to those folks who think they have a divine right to bear arms, is her way to reassure the gun guys that, if elected, she won't take their toys away at a time when the Supreme Court is, for the first time in 70 years, deciding whether or not to let the Washington, D.C. ban on handguns stand. Her support of the gun lobby puts her squarely in McCain's lap, and in his camp.

This latest Second Amendment posturing of hers is egregiously ironic in light of the fact that her husband, while president, attempted to get serious gun legislation through Congress a decade ago in response to the school shooting in Flint, Michigan of Kayla Rolland, by her six year old classmate.

Yes, indeed, it was Hillary's husband, Bill Clinton, who appeared on primetime TV, nine years ago, to say that "every single day there are 13 children who die from guns." Imagine how many more children die today from guns. Notably, Clinton 's gun control legislation stalled because he faced a Republican Congress. Now, nearly a decade later, were she to be elected president, gun control legislation would stall not because of a Republican Congress, but because of a Democratic president. What next? A campaign ad showing Hillary Clinton lighting up a Virginia Slim, and pledging her support of the tobacco lobby?

And so it goes,
GORD.

Betrayed Again By General Petraeus Thousands More To Die in Iraq And Rape as an Occupational Hazard

Iconic Industralist Henry Ford
An enemy of " Liberalism " & Democracy & Pluralism .
Henri Ford's Newspaper The Dearborn Independent published a series of some 91 anti-Semitic articles in the 1920s. The Jews Ford believed were responsible for all that was in his view wrong with society. Like other anti-Semites he believed the Jews were working behind the scenes supporting Marxism , socialism , liberalism , labor unions and all those agitating for equal rights and justice for all etc. Anti-Semitism was at that time as American as apple pie. But of course so was racism in general at that time and continued, at least, legally as such up to the mid 1960s. And even today in America racism continues in various ways as in police harassment of Blacks, Hispanics and other visible minorities . Racism continues to play a part in the courts and the Justice system , in employment and the schools and universities and in immigration policies . So Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and John McCain may act as if there is no racism in America but they are either deluded , ill-informed or are indifferent since they are more interested in the American white middle class and the Professional class . If in doubt just take note of the attacks on Barack Obama by the other presidential hopefuls and the media and the Fascist Neocons and the Christian Religious Right in America .
Henri Ford Receiving the German/Nazi Golden Eagle of the Iron Cross for his anti-Semitic writings & for his financial contributions to Hitler and the Nazi party.

" WAR " BY Henri Rousseau

Note : update 3:23 pm.

Anyway the Iraq War those in power tell us must continue for years if not decades to come. There is a greater chance as time goes by that America will next attack Iran. Since now we are told the reason America is in Iraq is to fight Iranian forces that have infiltrated Iraq. So next stop Iran.

And once again General Petraeus Betrays the American people and sentences thousands of innocent Iraqis to be slaughtered in their HOMELAND. Americans seem to forget that the Iraqi people consider their country as their Homeland . The Iraqis like any people are willing to fight anyone who invades and occupies their country and who refuses to allow them to govern themselves. The Iraqis are also willing to fight to regain their individual and collective rights such as the Right to free speech, the right of a free-press , the right to free association, the right to peaceful assembly or to peacefully demonstrate in the streets of the cities of " their country" as well as their right to Justice and fair trials and freedom from arbitrary search and seizure and/or detention. According to the Bush Regime and many Americans only Americans are to be guarnteed these rights.

So for example from Huffington Post we get this article by Robert Scheer
Petraeus' Testimony: Everything His President Wants to Hear /April 9, 2008

General Betray Us? Of course he has. MoveOn.org can hardly be expected to recycle its slogan from last September, when Gen. David Petraeus testified in support of escalating the U.S. war in Iraq, given the hysterical denunciations that worthy group received at the time. But it was right then -- as it would be to repeat the charge now.

By undercutting the widespread support for getting out of Iraq, Petraeus did indeed betray the American public, siding with an enormously unpopular president who wants to stay the course in Iraq for personal and political reasons that run contrary to genuine national security interests. Once again, the president is passing the buck to the uniformed military to justify continuing a ludicrous imperial adventure, and the good general has dutifully performed.

...We have had many other examples of retired military officers asserting the need for informed and rational public decision making as to matters of war and peace. Republican presidential candidate John McCain was one of those voices when, as a senator, he led the fight, along with fellow Vietnam War veteran John Kerry, to normalize relations with the same Communist leadership in Hanoi that had once been our enemy. Does anyone, McCain included, now think we were wrong to bring the troops home from Vietnam -- and just why are the dire consequences that McCain now predicts for a withdrawal from Iraq any more plausible?

McCain says we have to back the president and his generals, even though he concedes that "four years of mismanaged war had brought us almost to the point of no return." Who mismanaged that war if not Bush and the generals he picked for the task? But don't blame the generals, for as long as a president demands victory, they will pretend to deliver it. If they demur, they will be replaced, as recently occurred with the sudden retirement of Petraeus' boss, Admiral William Fallon, for his suggestion in Esquire magazine that he might favor a more restrained approach in a conflict with Iran.

No such dissension from Petraeus -- his faithful testimony, at least to the president if not the truth, on Tuesday was a particularly painful performance. Civilian deaths in March were 50 percent higher than in February, and there were a score of recent American deaths, and there is no evidence of political progress to support Petraeus' stab at optimism over the "fragile" situation in Iraq. Most absurd was the suggestion that the problem would all go away if Iran would only behave, when in fact American troops are being sacrificed on the pro-Iranian side of an internal Shiite power dispute. The Shiites in charge of "our" government in Iraq are exiles trained for decades in Iran.

-----------
And again we get reports of women working with contracors in Iraq being sexually assaulted and then told not to talk about it or make waves. It is argued by the companies involved that according to the contacts these women signed such matters as sexual assault are to be handled by the company and not the Criminal courts . As Karen Houppert points out in a recent article in The Nation Another Brutal Rape Cover-Up at KBR Karen Houppert, The Nation. April 4, 2008.

Another female KBR employee has come forward with allegations of sexual assault in Iraq

Most of these complaints never see the light of day, thanks to the fine print in employee contracts that compels employees into binding arbitration instead of allowing their complaints to be tried in a public courtroom. Criminal prosecutions are practically nonexistent, as the U.S. Justice Department has turned a blind eye to these cases.

...Even more appalling, the Justice Department, which can and should prosecute most of these cases, has declined to do so. "There is no rational explanation for this," says Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School who specializes in the law of armed conflict. Prosecutorial jurisdiction for crimes like Jones' alleged rape is easily established under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Patriot Act's special maritime and territorial jurisdiction provisions. But somebody has to want to prosecute the cases.

Horton wonders what the 200 Justice Department employees and contractors stationed in Iraq do all day, noting that there has not been a single completed criminal conviction against a U.S. contractor implicated in a violent crime anywhere in Iraq since the invasion.

"We have a complete process in place for solving military criminal violations when soldiers commit crimes, but for the 180,000 employees of private contractors over there, there is nothing," says Horton. "It's like Texas west of the Pecos in 1890 over there!" It's just common sense that you're going to have some violent crimes when you throw this many people together, he says. "Think about it. You have 180,000 people over there, you're going to have a few crimes. I don't know how anybody could fairly view this as a partisan issue. Crimes happen when you bring people together anywhere, and in a war setting, without adult supervision, crimes are going to increase. That is just a fact. And if you eliminate law enforcement, the crimes are going to get worse because people will quickly learn they can get away with it."

And from Truthout we get this story from ABC NEWS:Military Mom Says She Was Brutally Raped in Iraq

By Maddy Sauer ABC News

Wednesday 09 April 2008

Dawn Leamon, who alleges she was raped by two men, will tell her story on Capitol Hill.

Yet another woman has come forward saying she was brutally raped in Iraq while working for the U.S. contractor Kellogg Brown Root (KBR).

Dawn Leamon, who has two sons on active duty, says she was raped earlier this year by a U.S. soldier and a KBR colleague.

She will tell her horrific story to members of Congress today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Leamon says that following her rape, she spoke with a woman at the KBR Employee Assistance Program. "She discouraged me from reporting, saying, 'You know what will happen if you do,'" Leamon said.

Leamon says KBR then assigned full-time security guards to her which gave her no privacy to talk about the incident, and her movements around camp were restricted, yet her attackers' movements were unrestricted.

"KBR did little or nothing to restore my sense of safety after I reported being raped," said Leamon.

KBR released the following statement to ABC News this morning. "First and foremost, KBR in no way condones or tolerates sexual harassment. Each employee is expected to adhere to the Company's Code of Business Conduct, and when violations occur, appropriate action is taken. Any reported allegation of sexual harassment or sexual assault is taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. KBR's top priority is the safety and security of all employees, and our commitment in that regard is unwavering."

Also at today's hearing, for the first time the Department of Justice is slated to answer questions on the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one has yet been charged in Leamon's case.

---


Is this a case of another one of those great values cherished by Americans that of ' Boys will be Boys ' and women who want to work with men have to accept the risks of being sexually harrased or even assaulted and raped. Maybe the idea is that when women realize that when it comes to working in Iraq they will not be protected by the American Military or by American Contractors in Iraq or by the American Justice system and therefore they should not apply for such jobs. Given the dangers of being a woman in the military not from the enemy so much but from their male counterparts it would be best for women not to insist on working alongside their male counterparts doing similar jobs. The military as Ann Coulter and other Neocons point out is not a proper place for women to be. So maybe when enough women are abused women will give up any such notions as being in the military as equals to the men in the military or to work for private contracors doing what are essentilly and traditionaly men's jobs.. So the role of women in a Theatre of War should be that of nurses , doctors, and secretaries or if necessary working in armament factories in the Homeland as they did in past conflicts.

Is this all just part of America's militaristic Macho Society . Women accordingly should be at home having more babies who can become future soldiers or the soldiers wives . In their attitudes regarding the role and rights of women more and more the American Military and The Bush Regime and their Neoconservative supporters seem to have more in common with The Taliban and other Islamic extremists . They see such notions as equality between men and women as just another wrong-headed belief of the evil 'liberals ' or Secular -Humanists. Women in their view are just fundamentally different from men and have a different contribution to make to society.

Or is the message simply that the role ogf government should be limited and that whatever happens on the job should be dealt with by the employer in whatever way they see fit. This is just typical " Laissez-Faire " capitalism. And as I have argued before those who favor this form of capitalism resent all the government regulations which they believe are an unnecessary burden on corporations . So I guess if an employer wants to hire six year old then he should be allowed to. Though it is from their point of view wrong to put the matter as if the government needs to give permission to an employer. It is they believe the God- Given right of an employer to do as he pleases. Whatever will increase his profits is therefore permissible. The Neocons see all these rules about occupational safety or the rights of the worker and regulations dealing with environmental concerns or product safety etc. as a load of crap. They see these regulations as just part of an " anti-capitalist mind-set ". Or as part of a Pinko Commie Liberal plot as Archie Bunker might put it. The only God Given Right Neocons believe in is the Rights of Property and the Right to make Profits. And if an employer doesn't want to hire women or gays or Hispanics or Blacks or anyone else that's their right. Just like the good old days.



and so it goes,
GORD.

Max Mosley: Imperialism & Capitalism Exposed : Fast Cars Fast Women & Fascism

MAX MOSLEY LIKES IT ROUGH !
Is he a Nazi like his dear old dad ???
or like his hero Henry Ford ???

Max Mosley Nazi Sex Video at 23/6
Formula 1 Racing president Max Mosely was caught engaging in Nazi-themed sex with hookers.


FIA President Refuses To Resign Over Nazi-Inspired Orgy /Times/ Edward Gorman/ April 8, 2008

Check out the original News of the World report, which states:

Formula One motor racing chief Max Mosley is today exposed as a secret sado-masochist sex pervert.

The son of infamous British wartime fascist leader Oswald Mosley is filmed romping with five hookers at a depraved NAZI-STYLE orgy in a torture dungeon. Mosley-- a friend to F1 big names like Bernie Ecclestone and Lewis Hamilton-- barks ORDERS in GERMAN as he lashes girls wearing mock DEATH CAMP uniforms and enjoys being whipped until he BLEEDS.

The multi-millionaire son of Sir Oswald, who was a pal of Adolf Hitler, plays a concentration camp commandant in a FIVE-HOUR torture chamber video.

At one point the wrinkled 67-year-old--who publicly likes to give the impression he has put his father's evil legacy behind him--yells "she needs more of ze punishment!" while brandishing a LEATHER STRAP over a brunette's naked bottom.

So Max Mosley is into Sado-masochism big deal.
The real problem here is that he agreed to have this video taped and that it has this Nazis theme to it .It is odd that the hookers are dressed as if they were in a Nazi Death Camp . Does Mosley get off on the idea of a few million Jews being brutalized and then gassed. He also doesn't just play the victim but is also a victimizer. He gets to play a Nazi that is like any good capitalist a Nazi or something akin to it.

Does Mosley like his father think the Nazis were in fact the good guys. This is not surprising since there are probably a large proportion of rich white people who think the British and Americans should have allied with Hitler.

We know for instance that George Bush's grandfather and the Iconic Industrialist Henry Ford were supporters of Hitler . Henry Ford wrote letters to Hitler supporting him and gave Hitler and his Nazi Party financial help. But Ford went further by using his newspaper the Dearborn Press to spread the lies of the notorious anti-semitic forgery " The Protocols of the Elders of Zion " .

Henry Ford ( see note below ) was in fact fanatically anti-Semitic. Besides financing Hitler and the Nazis in Germany he also helped the fanatical anti-Semitic popular radio personality Father Coughlin **(see Note #2)who used his radio-program in the 1930s to spread the most vicious lies against the Jewish people . But the history books in America or Canada do not mention such facts about the likes of Henry Ford who is seen as quintessentially American. If he is then according to logic Anti-Semitism must also be quintessentially American. I believe at that time it was: though it may not be today.

For most people in Western Civilization Anti-Semitism up to recent times was just part of one's upbringing it came with their mother's milk as it were. To not be anti-Semitic at least to some extent was seen as odd. In the same way racism of all sorts and sexism and homophobia etc. were just part and parcel of our so-called enlightened civilized society.

What our civilization cherished was tradition and conformity and the belief that the White Man was superior to all other peoples . This was and is an arrogant view of a narrow minded people. Yet even today we hear similar views being promulgated by our so called leaders and by the media and academics who stereotype all Muslims as being backward and fanatical . Or we are told that the people of Iraq are too primitive , too tribalistic and ignorant to appreciate what America did for the Iraqi people by ousting Saddam.

The American soldiers in Iraq have been trained and taught that all the Iraqis are their enemy and that they the Iraqis are blood-thirsty people who have no respect for human life. So the soldiers refer to the Iraqis as ' Haj' which is equivalent to 'Gook' as in Vietnamese or ' Nigger' for a black person or the British when they had their Empire spreading their own vicious form of racism and imperialism called various people ' wogs ' , ' kafirs ' , ' gyps' , ' nips ' , ' japs ', ' krauts '.
But of course we are not supposed to mention such things . We are told that our society was never really that racist. And we are supposed to tell our children and grandchildren that it was only those few bad-apples who ever preached such hate.

For history is forever being re-edited to suit those in power. Even as we speak history is being re-written again and again to prove how enlightened the Americans have always been and always will be. In the same way many still refer to the British Empire as if it were benevolent and that its purpose was not to plunder but to spread knowledge and to improve the lives of those whom they had conquered. But I'm sure there are those who would defend the various European Empires as being in some way benevolent such as the Dutch, the Spanish the Portuguese , the French , the Germans etc.

They will instead point out the evils for instance of the Ottoman Empire but not the evils of the British Empire . Though the British murdered and enslaved and oppressed a hundred million or more during its hey-day. But that we are told was all for the good. It's like those who think the death of millions of Native Americans was inevitable and all for the good since it meant that Europeans who were superior were able to explore and grow in numbers and bring the ' Word of God ' ( that is their version ) to the so called Heathens. The American Institution of Slavery was also justified because those Africans they claimed were not even capable of human speech or writing or real culture and so had been put on the earth by God for the White Man / White Europeans to use as labor.

The Bush Regime has now convinced a large proportion of the American populace that Iraqis are not like them and so can not be trusted to take care of their own problems . Well if the Americans hadn't bombed the shit out of Iraq forcing over three million Iraqis into exile most of whom are among the most well educated Iraqis maybe they could regroup and start over.
Though the people of Iraq are not permitted to have their own truly independent government , nor are they allowed basic human rights such as freedom of the press or freedom of speech or the right to travel within their own country or be out after curfew or the right to bare arms . This last one is particularly ironic since conservative and neoconservative Americans are always foaming at the mouth over what they see as their basic right which is the right to bare arms. With an armed populace they claim no tyrant can ever take over America. Yet they voted for a tyrant twice while he George W. Bush stole the election and has trampled upon the Constitution and the American Bill of Rights.

Of course according to Bush , Cheney and General Petreaus the whole problem with Iraq now is the government of Iran. And as Bush & co. toss the facts down the memory hole we are told that Iran has always been the problem so we must drop a few nukes on them as soon as possible. Then we are told peace will finally arrive in the Middle East.

Capitalism at its worst : Mercenaries For Hire !!!

State Dept. Renews Blackwater Contract in Iraq PART 1/2Blackwater
Jeremy Scahill Confronts BlackWater Honchos

Posted by Jeremy Scahill, Huffington Post April 8, 2008.

"My question to you is, how many innocent Iraqis has your company killed?"



And here is another revealing article about the use of torture by the American Military and CIA and those they contract such tasks out to and those governments or agencies who are only too glad to torture a few people guilty or not.

"The Blueprint That Led to Abu Ghraib"

The Progress Report. Posted April 8, 2008.

The Department of Justice memo released last week is a chilling -- and revealing -- look at the Bush administration's torture policy.

Last Tuesday, the Defense and Justice Departments released a previously-classified 2003 memo, which claimed that "federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief overrode such statutes." Written by John Yoo, who was then the deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the memo is "similar [to], although much broader" than, the infamous 2002 torture memo, which was co-written by Yoo and redefined torture to be only "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." In the 2003 memo, Yoo also asserted that "many American and international laws would not apply to interrogations overseas" because they "would be unconstitutional as applied in this context." Like its 2002 predecessor, Yoo's 2003 memo was rescinded by Jack Goldsmith when he took over the OLC in December 2003 because of "the unusual lack of care and sobriety in their legal analysis." Even though many legal experts, such as former Army judge advocate general Thomas Romig, find Yoo's argument that "there are no rules in a time of war" to be "downright offensive," Yoo defends his memos as "near boilerplate." Far from seeing it as "boilerplate," former OLC lawyer Martin Lederman argues that Yoo's 2003 memo "is the source of the Nile for the abuse that occurred in Iraq in 2003."

CREATING THE "CULTURE OF ABUSE": According to "some legal experts and advocates" who spoke to The New York Times, Yoo's 2003 memo "adds to evidence that the abuse of prisoners in military custody may have involved signals from higher officials and not just irresponsible actions by low-level personnel." Noting that OLC opinions are "binding on the Defense Department," Scott Silliman, the head of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University and a former Air Force lawyer," says Yoo's memo "effectively sidelined military lawyers who strongly opposed harsh interrogation methods." "The memo helped to build a culture that, in the absence of leadership from the highest ranks of the Pentagon, allowed the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere," Silliman told the Times. Yoo rejects the idea that his legal opinions have any relation to detainee abuses that occurred in Iraq. "The 'culture of abuse' theory has no reliable evidence to support it," Yoo told The New York Times. But Lederman believes that Yoo's 2003 memo is "the blueprint that led to Abu Ghraib and the other abuses within the armed forces in 2003 and early 2004." His thesis is supported by the timeline of events surrounding the administration's deliberations on interrogation policy and the abuses at Abu Ghraib. According to Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba's report on Abu Ghraib, the "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at the prison took place between October 2003 and December 2003, which was after Yoo issued his memo but before it was rescinded by Goldsmith.

FOURTH AMENDMENT FOOTNOTE: The release of Yoo's 2003 memo on interrogation also led to the revelation of another wide-ranging Bush administration legal opinion which claimed the war on terror trumped constitutional protections. A footnote in the 2003 memo states that the OLC "concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations." The footnote is referring to an October 2001 memo written by Yoo that "focused on the rules governing any deployment of U.S. forces inside the country 'in the event of further large-scale terrorist activities' by al-Qaeda."

---
Update 9:53 pm

* Note : Anyway for those who claim that Henry Ford was such a great role model for their children think again . He was a nast mean-spirited racist nut job. But we are not supposed to speak the truth about him or other so-called American heroes.

Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism THE INTERNATIONAL JEW,
THE WORLD'S FOREMOST PROBLEM /Abridged from the original as published by the world renowned industrial leader,
HENRY FORD, SR.

See article from: Anti-Defamation League about the revival of anti-semitic articles by Henry Ford originally published in his newspaper the Deearborn Press The International Jew/Anti-Semitism from the Roaring Twenties Revived on the Web Ford's articles were based on the forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . The protocols were invented for the most part by the Tsar of Russia's secret police

The Dearborn Independent

The Dearborn Publishing Company published The Dearborn Independent newspaper. At the peak of its popularity, the Dearborn, Michigan paper, owned by auto magnate Henry Ford Sr., boasted a circulation of 700,000. The Dearborn Independent first attacked Jews in its May 22, 1920 issue and continued to do so in 91 subsequent editions.

Many of the paper's anti-Semitic articles were reprinted by the Dearborn Publishing Company in four paper-bound volumes: The International Jew, the World. s Foremost Problem (November, 1920); Jewish Activities in the United States (April, 1921); Jewish Influences in American Life (November, 1921); and Aspects of Jewish Power in the United States (May, 1922). Collectively known as The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, these volumes were later published in a variety of languages and disseminated widely in the United States and abroad.

For decades, The International Jew has been in the public domain. It can be reprinted by anyone who wishes to do so. In the late 1950s, anti-Semite Gerald L.K. Smith edited and published an abridged version of The International Jew culled from the original Dearborn Independent articles. The complete text of Smith's version now is easily found at many hate sites on the World Wide Web.

Update: 1030 PM

**Note #2 Coughlin - Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism/Father Charles Edward Coughlin (1891-1971)

By Richard Sanders, Editor, Press for Conversion!

Father Coughlin, “the Father of Hate Radio,” was born in Hamilton, Ontario. This rabidly right-wing, Catholic priest started with a weekly broadcast on WJR, Detroit’s “Good Will” station. CBS broadcast it nationwide in 1930 and 1931. He started his own radio network that grew to 30 stations. John Spivak, estimated that Coughlin’s broadcasts reached 40 million, said: “Only the President…had a bigger audience… The President spoke only on special occasions, the priest every Sunday…. To me, he was the most dangerous divisive influence in the country” (A Man in His Time, 1967).

Coughlin originally supported FDR, but turned against him in 1934 and created a political party, the National Union of Social Justice. Former Louisiana Governor, Huey Long was supposed to be their candidate, but he was assassinated in 1935. Journalist George Seldes said Long was America’s “first notable Fascist leader,...a very smart demagogue, [who] once said, ‘Sure we’ll have Fascism here, but it will come as an anti-Fascism movement.’” In the late 1930s, Coughlin called for FDR’s impeachment because he was “leaning toward international socialism or sovietism.”

Coughlin’s radio sermons praised Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The Nazi press praised Coughlin as “America’s most powerful radio commentator.” He ranted against Jews, the “Christ-killers and Christ-rejecters.” When a Boston Globe reporter asked him for proof that communists were influencing FDR, Father Coughlin belted the journalist in the face.

Coughlin's weekly paper, Social Justice, reached one million. It was sold in 2,000 churches. In 1938, it reprinted the anti-Semitic forgery “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”


also see my previous posts on anti-Semitism and the forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.


and so it goes ,
GORD.

Gord's Poetry Factory: Anti-Semitism & The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Gord's Poetry Factory: Anti-Semitism & The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

George Bush : Fascism and the Satire of George Grosz

THE SURVIVOR: BY GEORGE GROSZ
















" FOR THE POOR WAR. FOR THE RICH THE BOOTY"
George Grosz

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





THE PIT: GEORGE GROSZ

THE AGITATOR: GEORGE GROSZ
Note: The Agitator is also pictured with drums as Hitler in his early political & violent days was called " The Drummer" ( Compare to Bush or Cheney )


THE PEOPLE ARE BLIND LIKE THE DONKEY: GEORGE GROSZ

REPUBLICAN AUTOMATONS: GEORGE GROSZ 1920Anyway I was once again viewing the art work of George Grosz and the times in which he lived and again I was struck by some of the similarities to our present times. Once again we live in a self-absorbed decadent age surrounded and inundated by the newest gadgets while being blissfully unaware of the outside world . Shutting the world out we hope to keep its horrors far from our pleasant cocoons. War rages , people go hungry and homeless but we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear as those in power encourage us to ignore it all . We are even told not to bother dreaming of a better society since we are told it is impossible so why as Hillary Clinton says why bother ? So here are some of George Grosz's works which I wish to share with you.

Note: The George Grosz drawings below which are From Graphic Witness? George Grosz Abrechnung Folgt! 57 Politische Zeichnungen
Translated as "One Day We'll Get Even" or, "The Day of Reckoning," this collection of 57 political drawings was published in 1923 by Der Malik, in Berlin.

Part of a series titled "Kleine revolutionare Bibliothek," the series comprised a dozen titles, including other works by Grosz: Das Gesicht der Herrschenden Klasse (The Face of the Ruling Class); Ecco Homo, Gott Mit Uns, Im Schatten (In the Shadow) and Die Räuber.

George Grosz (German, 1893-1958): Ecce Homo
"Whoever can, swims, and whoever is weak, goes under" FAMILY IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE NATION: GEORGE GROSZ


MY PENSION : GEORGE GROSZ ( Heroic Wounded War Veteran Left To Beg )" People Of Europe Maintain Your Sacred Values " George Grosz
" CAUTION: DON'T STUMBLE ": GEORGE GROSZ
HITLER IN HELL: GEORGE GROSZ

"Those who eat well


...forget easily"

















My Fatherland, May You Rest In Peace (quiet )















I. The Director --
[Die Räuber, 1922] " I will exterminate everything
around me that restricts me from being master"
-- and his puppets



















2. "They thunder sweetness and light from their clouds and offer human sacrifice to the god of love"
-- from Schiller, act II scene iii




Note: The Master will use religion as a tool to get what he desires much like the attitude of the Neoconservatives who also use religion and Patriotism for their own agenda. But the people are too stupid too know any better.

STICKING IT OUT: GEORGE GROSZ ( Similar I guess to Bush/Cheney staying the course no matter what)


George Grosz political activist, satirist who was accused of being unpatriotic, anti-German as decadent and beyond redemption - the Nazis later condemned , banned and burned his works of art.

The Americans were unable to appreciate his attacks on fascism and Nazism seeing his response as a bit extreme. Little did they know how correct he and other critics of Fascism and Nazism really were. As far as many Americans Brits and other Europeans were concerned Hitler and Moussolini were heroic figures who would re-establish order and the natural hierarchy while fighting the evil communists. In other words the rich and the powerful believed they had more to fear from leftists, liberals and Communists and labor unions and those insisting that everyone poor or rich be treated justly and fairly . So not that much has changed. The rich get richer and the poor are told to have more children and don't make a fuss. The rich decide to go to war and send the working class off to fight.

And as we know most Americans, Canadians and Brits prefer their art to be pretty and empty of all profound meaning or sense of real humanity. We are in the age of Dr. Pangloss and that this is the best of all possible worlds so why bitch and moan and gripe just sit back and become comfortably numb as Pink Floyd would say so there you go,.



After moving to America in 1933 Grosz whole attitude appeared to change as he adapted to his new environment while trying to make a living so he created works with less vigor or passion to appease the American academics and its bourgeios apolitical artistic community.

"My motto was now to give offence to none and be pleasing to all. Assimilation is straightforward once one overcomes the greatly overvalued superstition concerning character. To have character generally means that one is distinctly inflexible, not necessarily for reasons of age. Anyone who plans to get ahead and make money would do well to have no character at all. The second rule for fitting in is to think everything beautiful! Everything – that is to say, including things that are not beautiful in reality." George Grosz



"For the rich, the booty --
for the people, the misery of war"

Art Links:

Olga's Gallery George Grosz

Olga's Gallery Homepage

Virtual Museum Of Art

ARTCYCLOPEDIA

Robin Urton Eyecon Art

Graphic Witness Visual Arts and Social Commentary

Spaightwood Galleries, INC.

WebMuseum,Paris


and so it goes,
GORD.

GEORGE W. BUSH AUTHORIZED WAR CRIMES! U.S. Lawyers, Doctors , Academics & Psychologists Willingly Take Part In Torture of Detainees !!!

Anyway so the CIA and the American military have been studying and perfecting torture techniques for over forty years. Now they have turned it into a science which is often contracted out to academics and scholars to be studied in universities in turn for research money. So much for academics being outside the system or establishment - their hands are as dirty as the ones implementing the torture techniques they researched and found to be useful. Universities long ago gave up any semblance of neutrality and joined with the more oppressive forces in our society. They would probably call it financial realism . Academics need to appease whomever controls the most money. Since most academics hold to one of several convenient ethical theories such as ' relativism' or 'utilitarianism' which have the built in flexibility to approve of almost any action one desires to undertake. They have also like the politicians they admire have come to believe and promulgate the view that the so-called 'conscience ' is just a creation of primitive superstitious peoples .

GEORGE W BUSH AUTHORIZED WAR CRIMES!
April 03, 2008 MSNBC Keith Olbermann

"A sad day for the American Bar (Association)...
Pre-meditated & Carefully orchestrated Torture Program"





and also from Keith Olbermann here is a related piece dealing with the Geneva Conventions & whether or not they apply to America:




Professor McCoy Exposes the History of CIA Interrogation at DemocracyNow!
Thanks to University researchers & psychologists working with the CIA .
American soldiers have become among the best in the use of torture
and the horror continues . The psychologists at these torture centres helped to identify phobias and other ways in which a particular detainee was vulnerable. These psychologists and others assisting in torture are as culpable as the torturers according to the Nuremberg Laws.
But being like any other nation ruling over a vast Empire the American leaders and their administrators and legal staff and their generals see themselves as the makers of laws and therefore not subject to international laws or agreements .



What is disturbing is that torture is being sold to the American and Canadian people as an acceptable technique of interrogation and as a means to terrorize 'detainees' and the enemy populations . The latter part of this is done in more subtle ways and is not as explicit but these experts know that many people consciously or unconsciously find the idea of torturing the enemy as in itself as comforting. This is just part of human nature. And those in power , in government or the military or the CIA or university academics are quite willing to appeal in subtle ways to our baser natures. It is no wonder that Hillary Clinton mocks anyone who actually tries to do the right thing. When confronted by those in power one should merely negotiate to get the best deal possible. The problem with the Hillary Clinton mindset is that if everyone had thought like her women would still not be allowed to vote and racial segregation would still be the law in the Unite States . And there would never be any changes made for the better in our society .The issue for her , I guess, is that she is not going to lose a night's sleep over the torture of one detainee or a thousand detainees or over the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis because of an illegal and immoral war which she thought was best for American Oil Interest and as a way to show the world who's the boss.

This is also why Hillary Clinton attacks Barack Obama for all his talk about diplomacy because she wants to rule America in the same way previous presidents have and that is that American Presidents never approach another country with humility but rather American Presidents are strong and Macho and demand whatever it is they want from another country.In her view to do otherwise is a sign of weakness. She also like Senator McCain and the Religious Right pray to a God of wrath, vengeance and war. Their notion of Jesus is some white middle class guy heaven forbid he be a Semite either Arab or Jewish who was a true believer in capitalism and the Free Market Place and had visions of Mega-Wall Marts in every nation nay every city upon the earth and meanwhile condemned the poor and the meek and instead proclaimed a Gospel of the successful and the rich...That is the I believe the True Americanized Jesus far from meek and mild or humble ...

and so it goes,
GORD.

Tribute to Salvadore Allende with Music by Quilapayun

anyway here's a little video I put together . It is a tribute to Salvadoe ASllende for his life , his idealism, his hopes and dreams and his heroism.
The music is by Chilean folk group Quilapayun.

American Empire : Howard Zinn

I'll Explain Some Things
by Pablo Neruda


Then one morning flames
Came out of the ground
Devouring human beings.
From then on fire,
Gunpowder from then on,
From then on blood.
Bandits with airplanes and Moorish troops
Bandits with gold rings and duchesses
Bandits with black monks giving their blessing
Came across the sky to kill children
And through the streets, the blood of children
Ran simply, like children’s blood does.

Jackals that a jackal would reject
Stones that a dry thistle would bite and spit out
Vipers that vipers would hate!

I have seen the blood
Of Spain rise up against you
To drown you in a single wave
Of pride and knives!

Generals
Traitors
Look at my dead home
Look at broken Spain –
But from each dead house
Burning metal shoots out
Instead of flowers.
From every shell-hole in Spain
Spain will rise.
From every dead child a rifle with
Eyes will rise.
From every crime bullets will be born
Which will one day find a place
In your hearts.

You ask “Why doesn’t your poetry
Speak to us of dreams and leaves
Of the great volcanoes of your native land?”
Come
See the blood along the streets
Come see
The blood along the streets
Come see the blood
Along the Streets!

---------

Once again we are reminded that the so-called Great Society we have built for ourselves comes at a price. The main price seems that we must not think too much ; if we think we may begin to question and to question merely leads to uncovering disturbing facts about our leaders and ourselves and our total disregard for those whom we help day in and day out oppress. So we give our conscience a nice little funeral and then go on with our lives knowing that our lives are far more important in the scheme of things than the lives of those in the countries we invade & conquer & exploit.Besides if we hold the odd Benefit concert and give to charities such as the Red Cross this eases our conscience if we still have one. As the philosopher Leo Strauss has taught our generation Altruism is irrational and self-defeating since it is a dog eat dog world so to hell with those who are suffering its just none of our business.

By Howard Zinn, Tomdispatch.com. April 2, 2008.

Have justifications for empire begun to lose their hold on our minds?

In Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at home, the position of the globe's "sole superpower" is visibly fraying. The country that was once proclaimed an "empire lite" has proven increasingly light-headed. The country once hailed as a power greater than that of imperial Rome or imperial Britain, a dominating force beyond anything ever seen on the planet, now can't seem to make a move in its own interest that isn't a disaster. The Iraq government's recent offensive in Basra is but the latest example with -- we can be sure -- more to come.

In the meantime, the fate of that empire, lite or otherwise, is the subject of Howard Zinn today at Tomdispatch, and of a new addition to his famed People's History of the United States. The new book represents a surprise breakthrough into cartoon format. It's a rollicking graphic history, illustrated by cartoonist Mike Konopacki, that takes us from the Indian Wars to the Iraqi "frontier" (with some striking autobiographical asides from Zinn's own life). It's called A People's History of American Empire. It's a gem and it's being published today.

...You can view an animated video, using some of the book's art, with voiceover by none other than Viggo Mortensen at the link below:

If it doesn't work go to YouTube or the link below.

AlterNet:Howard Zinn: The End of Empire?

And to add insult to injury there are even more things rotten in the American Empire as we discover from documents leaked to Wikileaks which show that the prisons in Iraq are inhumane and are a crime in themselves. Though of course Westerners probably think such conditions are justified to teach the Muslim and Arab masses who their masters are . After all their natural resources and their labor and their very lives belong to us and we will treat them anyway we wish. Most Westerners in fact as Howard Zinn and others point out would just as well not want to know what occurs in the Colonies just as long as the oil keeps flowing.


Unbelievable" Abuse Reigns in Iraqi Jails

by Jeffrey Kaye, Invictus April 1, 2008.

While Bush and his media toadies tout Anbar province as a "success" story for the "surge," conditions in the city jail reveal a different reality.

Released last week by Wikileaks, and seen for the first time

Confidential memo from Maj. Gen. Kelly, commander of US forces in western Iraq (MNF-W, or Multi-National Force -- West), written in late February 2008. Privately verified by Wikileaks staff and not denied or contradicted by MNF-W when questioned by UPI's national security editor, Shaun Waterman.

WIKILEAKS: Classified memo from US Maj. Gen. Kelly confirms Fallujah Gulag

February 18, 2008
The Dungeon of Fallujah by Michael J. Totten

FALLUJAH – Next to the Joint Communications Center in downtown Fallujah is a squalid and war-shattered warehouse for human beings. Most detainees are common criminals. Others are captured insurgents – terrorists, car-bombers, IED makers, and throat-slashers. A few are even innocent family members of Al Qaeda leaders at large. The Iraqi Police call it a jail, but it's nothing like a jail you've ever seen, at least not in any civilized country. It was built to house 120 prisoners. Recently it held 900.

The guard opened the first door and walked right in. He didn’t even slow down. I gingerly stepped inside and found myself surrounded by children. They lounged on the floor. Some stood up when they saw us.

What the hell?

“This is the room for minors,” Sergeant Dehaan said. “They're treated better.”

They are? The cell was the size of my living room. Two dozen children lived in this place. They slept on the floor on blankets and had no personal space whatsoever. The kids were grubby, but they didn't appear beaten down or even in bad spirits necessarily.

“Some of them are related to wanted men,” he said.

150 men were smashed together in a single windowless room the size of my house.

“This is the biggest cell,” Sergeant Dehaan said.

No kidding.

There was no furniture. Most men sat on blankets and carpets. A few near the door cautiously stood up to greet us, but they did not shake our hands. They seemed slightly wary, and had a weird look of innocence on their faces, almost like the kids in the previous room who really were mostly innocent.