destruction
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Here is something I googled from another board. I thought I bring it here.
Don't you hate it when the ignorant Americans are blindly convinced that America is the best country?"We know our country isn't perfect, but it's closest."
"Even though Bush won, we are still the best country... Because we are America."
Sorry, United Statesians, but your arrogance and ignorance only reinforce the "American idiot" stereotype in this forum.
Please try to justify your belief that America is the best country.
We have a democracy!
Actually, you have a representative democracy, but so does Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and other countries. As of 2003, the majority of the world's people live in representative democracies [1].
India is the largest democracy (democratic republic) in the world [7], and Switzerland is the strongest example of a direct democracy [8].
We have the Freedom of Speech!!!
It is true that the United States has the most liberal freedom of speech. However, other countries such as Canada, Germany, and the European Union also have the freedom of speech; generally, the only restrictions are for preventing hate speech.
Outlawing hate speech does not cause the downfall of democracy, as these countries also have a representative democracy, which I mentioned above.
The United States tied at 22nd or 23rd in the worldwide Freedom of the Press index in 2004, while eight countries tied for first place [9].
We are the most intellectually advanced!
No.
In general, America is backwards and conservative compared to other developed countries. [2]
This study compared the United States to the countries of Northern Ireland, Philippines, Ireland, Poland, Italy, New Zealand, Austria, Norway, Great Britain, Netherlands, West Germany, Russia, Slovenia, Hungary, and East Germany.
When asked to answer yes or no to, "The Bible is the actual word of God and it is to be taken literally, word for word," the third highest group (in terms of percentage) that answered yes was the United States (33.5%), compared to all the other countries listed above. In comparison, the percentage of Great Britain that answered yes was 7.0%. [3]
The United States ranked the highest for the following questions (compared to all the other countries listed above) [3]:
I definitely believe in "life after death" (55.0%)
I definitely believe in "the Devil." (45.4%)
I definitely believe in "Hell." (49.6%)
I definitely believe in "religious miracles." (45.6%)
In a survey that asked, "In your opinion, how true is this? Human beings developed from earlier species of animals," the percentage of people who answered yes was the lowest in the United States (<35.4%). In comparison, the percentage of Great Britain that answered yes was 76.7%. [3]
A study of mathematics and science literacy of 15-year-olds in developed countries was assessed in 2000. The United States ranked 18th in mathematical literacy, the top 8 mathematically-literate countries being Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Finland, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, respectively. The United States ranked 14th in science literacy, the top 7 scientifically-literate countries being Korea, Japan, Finland, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, respectively. [4]
The illiterate n00bs of Gaia may also be explained by the population of Americans. The number of Americans compared to non-Americans in ED is about half, while the number of Americans in the Chatterbox are greater than the number of non-Americans [5].
This is likely due to the poor literacy levels of Americans, as shown in a 2000 comparison of reading literacy of 15-year-olds in developed countries. The United States ranked 15th in the combined literacy score, the top 3 countries being Finland, Canada, and New Zealand, respectively. For "retrieving information", the United States ranked 15th, the top 5 countries being Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Korea, respectively. For "interpreting results", the US ranked 15th, the top 2 countries being Finland and Canada, respectively. For "reflecting on texts", the US ranked 11th, the top 4 countries being Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Finland, respectively. [6]
This may explain the inability of most EDers to recognize satire (No, this thread isn't a satire thread) or think critically.
We have the best social equality!
Hah!
The top three countries with the greatest income equalities are Slovak Republic, Belarus, and Hungary, respectively. The United States is not even in the top 30. The Gini index (a measure of inequality) of Slovak Republic, the country with the greatest equality, is 19.5; the Gini index of Sierra Leone, the country with the worst equality, is 62.9. The United States has a Gini index of 40.8, where the poorest 20% of its population receive 5.2% of the income and the richest 20% receive 46.4%. [10]
We have the best standard of living!
According to the 2004 UN quality-of-life index, the top 3 countries were Norway, Sweden, and Australia, respectively. The US ranked 8th in quality of life [11]. According to the 2005 Economist quality-of-life index, the USA ranked 13th in quality of life, the top countries being Ireland, Switzerland, and Norway, respectively [14]. The country with the highest life expectancy is Andorra (83.47), and the US is not even in the top 20 [12].
Interestingly, you are more likely to die in the USA compared to many, many countries, among them Canada, Australia, Cuba, North Korea, China, Israel, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait! [13]
We are the most multicultural country!
The most multicultural country in the world is arguably Canada or Australia.
Then why does everyone want to immigrate to the USA?
More people are immigrating to Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia than the United States. Canada has a net migration rate of 5.96, while the US has a net migration rate of 3.41. [15] (A positive number means people are migrating into the country, while a negative number means people are migrating out of the country.)
WE CAN NUKE YOUR COUNTRY AND DESTROY YOU!!!!!!11
Does the power to destroy people make you the best country? If you use that argument, you are just reinforcing the violent, arrogant, jingoist American stereotype.
There are many more obvious reasons why America is not the best country, but the points I brought up are the non-obvious ones... at least for most Americans.
Obviously, I am not saying all Americans are idiots. I am merely saying that America is not the best country.
References
2. Beliefs of the U.S. Public about Evolution
3. Comparing Christian beliefs in U.S. with those of other countries
4. Mathematics and science literacy average scores of 15-year-olds, buy country: 2000
7. India
9. Freedom of the Press rating by country
10. Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality - Thanks, Aolga
11. UN quality-of-life index, top countries, 2004
12. Countries with the Highest Life Expectancies in the World
13. CIA The World Factbook: Rank Order - Death rate (2005)
14. Economist world-wide quality of life index, 2005
15. Net Migration Rate (Top 25)
Further Reading:
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"Shoot to kill" ordered by Bush.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia, We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.â€http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php
September 02, 2005Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans
By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back†in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,†Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.â€Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.
“We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,†Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.â€
While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.
Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and police helicopters filled the city sky Friday morning. Most had armed soldiers manning the doors. According to Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeremy Grishamn, a spokesman for the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the vessel kept its helicopters at sea Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.
Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any servicemen being wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome Wednesday night.
“I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,†said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.â€
Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he knows there are plenty of decent people in New Orleans, but he said it is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.
“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.†Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.â€
* It is a crime for the Government to allow people to die because of their race and class.
* to treat people like they are the enemy because they are black and poor.
* to spend billions on war and cut budgets at home, resulting in death and destruction.
By now it is clear who is dying on the streets of New Orleans and throughout the area hit by Hurricane Katrina. Those with the money and resources were able to flee the city in plenty of time, while the poor were left behind to face flooding, and lack of water, food, and medicine. Now they are facing the prospect of being shot down in the street by troops sent in by the government to "restore order."
The difference between those who got out and those who were abandoned to die is a difference of class and race.
Hurricane Katrina is not the cause of the thousands of deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The system that says poor people and black people are expendable is responsible. The government refused to prepare for the hurricane they knew was coming. They made no provision to evacuate to poor, the elderly, and the handicapped, knowing that more than 100,000 would be left behind. They made no effort to get food, water, or medicine to survivors, while dead bodies piled up on the streets on New Orleans. FEMA actually turned back aid trucks as they attempted to get into New Orleans.
Rather than mobilizing to provide the aid that should have been in place a week ago, the Bush Administration has sent troops into the streets with orders to "shoot to kill."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/2/104216.shtml
Brigadier General Gary Jones told the Army times, that "[New Orleans] is going to look like Little Somalia, We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.â€
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Dude, I agree with your posting. I am no fan of Bush and I don't like any of the right wing pundit extremists that are always screaming that if you don't agree with them then you're nothing but a treasonous communist.
Or a terrorist.... It's plain stupidity baked in ignorance as well as arrogance. It's how they (jingoists) try to stifle free speech, debate and the free exchange of ideas. They talk the talk when they say you have freedom of speech but look out the minute you question authority then it's (obnoxiously) "Shut the fuck up! You hate America! You hate our troops! You're a Communist (or terrorist)! Get the fuck out of the country and join Osama!" The usual tired old rhetoric. It's immature.
Look no furhter than igloo. Of course we BOTH know of his insults against anyone who disagrees with him. No surprise there.
The way I see it, the jingoists who say we hate America because we don't fall in line, obey, agree with them (by proxy of course) and do as we're told are the same ones who hate the right to free speech because WE disagree with them.
If everyone blindly followed despite our views, we'd be a dictatorship. Not a democracy.
But what's the deal with the upside down flag? Please explain. If you're trying to criticize the government then more power to you but the flag represents all of us, including conservatives, liberals, straights, gays, black and white, etc.Upside-down flag = This country is in distress. A part of flag ettiquette. It is true that this flag represents all americans but it is a free speech right to fly it inversed when you feel this country is in distress. This is how I feel and I express it symbolicly.
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Now Playing! The Conservative Meltdown
September 4 2005
Counterbias.com
by W. David Jenkins III
My, what a busy summer it’s been! I’ve been away for awhile enjoying time with the family and, during my travels, I’ve noticed something very odd happening out there. People are talking about Iraq instead of “American Idol.†They’re bitching about gas prices instead of bitching about the wrong person being “fired†by The Donald. There are more and more people expressing outrage about what they’re reading and seeing on the media rather than being outraged with the media itself. There seems to be a tsunami of buyer’s remorse sweeping over the land and the size and nature of this phenomenon prohibits the lazy media from engaging in their usual practice of ignoring what’s really going on.
Bush is scheduled to emerge from his western hidey hole soon and quite honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to extend his vacation just a bit longer. Really, who could blame him? Even with the controlled settings of his last two public appearances in Utah and Idaho, Bush came across as a guy who is just not well. After my time off, I’m feeling pretty rested and all but Bush looks and sounds tired, irritated, pale, thin and – well just plain sick. One might speculate that the bubble Bush’s people have tried to keep him in is beginning to burst and I’d think they’d be right. After all, it’s been a busy summer.
Bush’s poll numbers are so bad right now that you need the toilet plunger just to get a look at them. Richard Nixon at the height of Watergate had better numbers than Bush does right now. Bill Clinton’s numbers at the same point in his second term were going up – largely due to the public’s support of him during the obsessive right wing witch hunt. Maybe Bush should get himself an intern to help his numbers? Okay, sorry. That grossed me out too.
Bush can take some solace in the knowledge that he still has the support of his base but these folks seem to be losing it too. From the super-patriots in Texas firing shotguns and driving their pick ‘em up trucks over makeshift memorials to the war dead (Bush’s war dead) to the wacko right wing televangelists calling for the assassination of democratically elected leaders, Bush’s base is starting to cause the administration to “distance itself†from their most staunch supporters.
Then we have Ann Coulter calling New Yorkers “cowards,†Paul Harvey advocating nuclear war in the Middle East, Jerry Falwell supporting “bombing terrorists in the name of the Lord,†and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman accusing Democrats of being the “party of fearâ€. If you listen real close, you can hear the sound of millions of foreheads being slapped in disbelief. Seriously, would you want to come out of hiding after a season of this kind of behavior done on your behalf in a crippled attempt to somehow defend you? And that’s not the worst of it.
There are turncoats in the Republican Party now. Bush must attack the credibility of his fellow conservatives in order to defend his failures. Vietnam vet, Chuck Hagel, has come out and stated that Iraq is beginning to resemble Vietnam on many levels. You have Trent Lott hawking his book while spilling the beans about pre-Iraq invasion meetings with Bush and how predetermined he was to invade days after 9/11. There is also the nuisance of Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) and his determination to get to the bottom of what happened to Operation Able Danger. Then there’s Pat and Bay Buchanan blasting Bush on his Iraq policy while giving Cindy Sheehan a wink and a nod. Oh yes, what about that Sheehan woman?
In the tradition of Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Colleen Rowley, Sibel Edmonds, Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse and other remarkable American women, Gold Star Mother, Cindy Sheehan, has done more to irritate the Bush status quo in her quest for honesty and accountability than anyone would have thought possible. What started as a personal desire for answers from the man responsible for the lies that led to her son’s murder, Sheehan’s vigil has blossomed into a national movement so enormous that the mainstream media was forced to take notice. What’s more, her steadfast nature and her visibility have brought out the absolute worst behavior of her detractors, otherwise known as the “patri-idiots.†You know - the Bush people.
Bush neighbor, Larry Mattlage, fired off his shotgun in the vicinity of the vigil because he was “getting ready for dove season.†Mattlage told reporters to “figure it out.†Aw, how positively clever, Larry.
Of course, we can’t forget Larry Northern of Waco (or is that Wacko) who felt the need to destroy over 500 crosses and 40 American flags which had been set up by Sheehan supporters as a makeshift memorial to American lives lost in Iraq. Really, exactly how does this translate into “patriotism?â€
Then, right on cue, Rush Limbaugh states that the whole Sheehan saga just “isn’t real†and compares her to RatherGate’s Bill Burkett and then denies he said it the next day. Conservative crackpot, Michelle Malkin, wrote that Sheehan and her supporters were “anti-military, anti-American, terrorist sympathizing agitators†as if anyone with two brain cells to rub together actually took her seriously. Bill O’Reilly said that Sheehan’s behavior was “treasonous.†(Oh, shut up, Bill). Conservative radio host Mark Williams stated on Fox that “Cindy Sheehan is on a mission to figuratively urinate on her son's grave and make his death stand for nothing." And, finally, U.S. News & World Report senior writer Michael Barone claimed that the media is currently devoting substantial coverage to Sheehan because "many in the press ... do not want us to win this war and think that we don't deserve to win this war." And therein lies a large part of the problem Bush and Co. is experiencing; fewer and fewer Americans are buying the b.s. these days.
The polls show that most people believe Bush has lied about why we went to Iraq and they don’t support the way he’s handled the subsequent disaster his ideology has produced. Armor is still in short supply while the insurgency is anything but in its “last throes.†The completion of the Iraqi Constitution seems more and more like wishful thinking (not to mention the final draft isn’t what people thought it would be) while the violence in Afghanistan is creeping back into the headlines thus reminding Americans that Bush never finished the job there in the first place. People are tired of staying the course, whatever that means, and they’re tired of Bush constantly getting their hopes up.
Remember the months prior to the invasion? Americans were told that Iraq would be a “cake walk†and the oil revenues would pay for everything. When Baghdad fell in less than two months, Bush did his “mission accomplished†strut and everything was going to be okay. But people soon realized, even if Bush Co. didn’t, that the mission wasn’t accomplished and Americans and Iraqis were paying the ultimate price.
Then there were the string of events that would bring an end to hostilities or at least make things easier over there. The killings of Hussein’s sons, Hussein’s capture, the passing of sovereignty and the elections were all milestones which were supposed to fix everything. But they didn’t and in some cases things got even worse. Now Americans are supposed to believe that the Iraqi Constitution is going to be another “fix all†yet most of them aren’t buying it. And things aren’t helped when you have Safia Taleb al-Suhail (the purple fingered Iraqi woman who hugged the Marine mom at the State of the Union speech) who now worries that women’s rights in Iraq will be a thing of the past due to the influence of Islamic clerics in the draft of the Constitution.
Now, put all this together and throw in the following: Rove and Libby targeted in the CIA leak scandal, the Downing Street Documents, the revelation of Operation Able Danger, John Bolton botching things up at the U.N. already, Social Security reform falling flat on its face, the possible release of more pictures and videos from Abu Ghraib, the steady chipping away in Ohio which continues to expose Republican corruption in high places and to top it all off, Cindy Sheehan is not going away.
Just what is the worst president in the history of the United States supposed to do? How does he preserve any sense of legacy?
That’s simple. You send Karen Hughes to make America’s image better in the eyes of the Arab States, you promote a “Freedom Walk†(do we really have to pay for that?) to celebrate (?) 9/11 and, just to make you feel better, you flip the press the one finger salute. And if that fails, simply stomp your feet and yell “stay the course.â€
You know, it’s got to be tough being a Republican these days.
W. David Jenkins III is a writer from New York. He can be reached at WDavidJenkinsIII@aol.com.
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Republicans are Losing in Iraq—and so is America
August 22 2005
Counterbias.com
by Ted Baiamonte
R E P U B L I C A N V I E W
The number of trained Iraqi troops, the troops who will take the place of ours, is the single most critical number relative to Iraq. It is the number which determines when our troops can come home. To illustrate the variability in the numbers, Condoleeza Rice, at her confirmation hearings in January, said there were 120,000 Iraqi troops trained, while Democrat Joe Biden claimed there were only 3000.
It seemed incredible that there was no agreement at the highest levels of our government on such a basic and absolutely critical piece of data. In the end I assumed Rice was lying when she corroborated her number only by saying, "I have to rely on what I was told," while Biden said he had gone over to Iraq and talked to those who were actually doing the training. Both relied on hearsay but Biden was far closer to the source and seemed far more confident in his number.
The number came up again the other night, eight months later, when I saw two retired Republican Generals, still with extensive contacts in Iraq, on TV. They were there to provide the inside scoop on how many Iraqi troops were actually trained to the point where they could operate independently of American troops.
They both looked sheepishly and sadly into the camera while admitting that only two battalions were actually trained.
At the time it did not mean much to me as I didn't know what a battalion was. It turns out that an Iraqi battalion is only 700 men! This means that thus far we've only trained 1400 of the 200,000 or so men that would be needed to hold the country together in our absence. I assume, if there were 50,000 or even 20,000, the administration would be making it clear, loudly and often, but they are not.
It seems that the Administration has no optimistic numbers floating around. There is talk of the Transition Readiness Assessment. This is the latest methodology by which Iraqi troops are now assessed for readiness. Here is the way it seems to turn out: "of 81 Iraqi army battalions assessed, only three were rated green, able to conduct operations independently." By that estimate there are 2100 troops trained, but that too is almost nothing.
This means almost certainly that we are losing, and that probably we cannot win—ever. The Iraqi people won't fight for us. When Dick Cheney said very recently, "we are witnessing the last throes of the insurgency," when in fact the insurgency looks far stronger than ever, you had to think this is Vietnam all over again.
As much as I love Republican Jeffersonian Libertarian philosophy, it is hard to imagine how such pure delusion can serve that purpose over the long run. When General Casey, once the Pentagon's top man in Iraq, said in January, "we may never be able to train enough Iraqis," he was apparently right.
So what do we do now? For starters, where does the tough talking and proud Bush Administration find the courage to change course? After all, we don't want a badly conceived and poorly executed tactic in the war on terror giving the Democrats, who have nothing to offer but anti-Americanism, an opportunity—if only an opportunity by default.
Ted Baiamonte is a proud Republican and author of "Understanding the Difference Between Democrats and Republicans". His blog is The Dumb Democrat, and he can be reached at bje1000@aol.com.
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Right wing hate media!
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Decorated Iraq War Veteran Challenges Cindy Sheehan
Captain Hiram Lewis IV announces "Meet with Hiram" campaign
CRAWFORD, Texas, August 29 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Hiram Lewis IV, currently a Captain and JAG officer in the West Virginia Army National Guard and a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate from West Virginia, has announced the new "Meet With Hiram" campaign targeting anti-Bush and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
"Together with the conservative activist organization RightMarch.com, I will be traveling to Crawford, Texas, to demand a meeting with Cindy Sheehan," said Lewis. "If she refuses to meet with me there, I will follow her on her bus tour and continue to demand a meeting until she agrees to talk with me face-to-face."
Pledging to "dog her steps" until she meets with him, Lewis stated, "My mission is to persuade Cindy Sheehan to meet with an Iraq War Veteran such as myself and answer my questions about why she is encouraging the terrorists, endangering our men and women in uniform, and lowering troop morale." What's more, he said, " I've been calling on Cindy Sheehan to meet with me for a few weeks now. If she leaves town just as I'm getting there, everyone will know why."
Capt. Hiram Lewis, a decorated veteran of the War in Iraq, will travel to Crawford, Texas, Aug. 31-Sept. 2 seeking a meeting with Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war protester he says is "determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory." Capt. Lewis has three objectives: First, he wants to offer heart-felt condolences for the loss of her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who died as a hero in Baghdad on April 4, 2004. Second, Capt. Lewis wants to make sure Mrs. Sheehan supports what her son wanted to do -- see the job through in Iraq. Finally, Capt. Lewis wants to rally support to our continued success in Operation Iraqi Freedom while helping protesters understand how their efforts lower morale and endanger our troops' lives.
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Thursday, September 1st, 2005
HELP IS ON THE WAY... maybe
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S.O.S.: New Orleans mayor sends out "a desperate SOS." New Orleans newspaper provides first-hand accounts of the chaos as readers seek help and information.
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PAT ROBERTSON: Bush uses the tragedy to push government partnerships with faith-based groups -- "Government agencies are working with faith-based and community groups to find shelters for thousands of displaced person."
And indeed, FEMA is directing people to donate to faith-based groups, and at the top of their list is Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing."
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DEATH TAX: Ken Mehlman, head of the GOP, was busy today crafting an email to Republican activists advocating an end to the death tax.
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DUCK & COVER: W.H. Press Secretary Scott McClellan claims Bush was ahead of the curve in declaring a disaster, thus enabling FEMA "to fully mobilize."
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PREPARATIONS: No one can say they didn't see it coming.
In fact, Popular Mechanics saw it coming on 9/11/01.
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FLIP-FLOP: Dennis Hastert says rebuilding New Orleans makes no sense | Later, takes it back... developing.
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EDITORIAL: The N.H. Union-Leader (not a liberal rag) says:
A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.......
RUMORS: There are rumors that civil unrest and looting has spread to Baton Rouge, but they appear to be just rumors.
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HUMANITARIAN AID: One reader, Michael, sent us the following email:
Several years ago while watching on TV the coverage of the war in war in Afghanistan (a country thousands of miles away), I remember shortly after we bombed the hell out of the country seeing the military dropping bags of food and water from the helicopter to the refugees below. The people in New Orleans have been without food or water for 4 days. Our own people are starving and babies are dying. What in the hell is this ass hole Bush waiting for?In the first few days of the Afghanistan war -- thousands of miles away -- the Pentagon was indeed coupling its bombing raids with humanitarian food drops.
Four days after the hurricane hit, refugees at the New Orleans convention center still have little to no food.
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GASOLINE: Bush tells country: "Don't buy gas if you don't need it."
President will travel to disaster area tomorrow.
In Charlotte, NC: "40 stations of the more than 230 stations in Charlotte and the unincorporated areas of Mecklenburg County were without fuel Thursday morning."
Bush voter: "The President's got to step up to the plate."
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More news... The National Guard debacle...
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Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour (Days 1 and 2)
Tired to the Bone/How Does Scotty McClellan Live with Himself?
-- a message from Cindy Sheehan
Since I was bone tired when I finally got to a bed, I didn't write my blog last night. This will probably be the last time I write for awhile, unless I think of something exciting to say. I am on my way home until the end of next week when I head back for the Bus Tour.
Yesterday, we left Camp Casey and it was very emotional for me. Like I said before, I never thought I would feel so badly about leaving Crawford, Texas behind. But I never counted on the Crawford, Texas experience turning into the Camp Casey experience. We actually walked around most of the time with stupid grins on our faces because being at Camp Casey was such a happy experience. However, we are carrying Camp Casey with us to the nation now.
I left Camp Casey on the same bus I pulled up in: The VFP Impeachment Tour Bus. It was excruciatingly hot as we rolled into Austin in 100 plus degree heat with no air. When we got into Austin and were still on I-35, our bus was greeted by honks, waves, and cheers from our fellow rush hour motorists. I was afraid we would cause an accident in the go sometimes, but mostly stopped traffic. We arrived safely at Congressman Lloyd Doggett's office and spoke to his aide. It was a great meeting and we are 100% behind Lloyd Doggett and he is 100% behind us.
From the Congressman's office, we went to the state's capitol and I received a Texas flag and a proclamation welcoming me to Texas from an Austin state legislator. I thought since I had been in Texas for almost a month it was nice that someone finally welcomed me.
We marched from the state capitol to Austin city hall. It was quite a sight as many hundreds of people followed us down Congress Street behind our "Support our troops, Bring Them Home Now" banner. We sang and chanted as we walked. People were joining us for our march from the sidewalks. It was the most remarkable march I have ever been a part of.
For the rally at City Hall, we were greeted by easily 2,000 plus people, whom I joked with about moving to Austin and running for mayor. Most of the crowd had been to Camp Casey at one time or the other. We had VFP, IVAW, MFSO and GSFP members speak. My friend, David Rovics played a couple of songs, including: Every Mother's Son about Casey. My friend, Jim Hightower also spoke. It is always a treat to hear him.
I spoke and I talked about how George couldn't come out and see me when I was in Crawford, because he didn't have an answer for me: there is no "Noble Cause" so how could he answer me. He admitted the other day that it was for oil. I don't consider that a good enough reason for so many people being dead. Iraq could and would sell us their oil. I really believe immoral criminals are running our country and it is making me even more determined to save it with millions of my fellow citizen's help.
This morning, I was watching Scotty McClellan's press conference and the press corps was asking him about the failure in preparations for the hurricane. He kept on saying: "this is not the time to point fingers, lay blame, or for politics." Of course it isn't, when the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the people he works for. From diverting money to Iraq that was intended to shore up the levees and make New Orleans safer, to sending 70 percent of the National Guard from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to Iraq in a war that never has made sense, George Bush has failed this country. By his actions in the first few days of the Katrina tragedy, he has also demonstrated that he doesn't care about Americans whether they are in Iraq or in America.
We on the Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour really agonized for the last day if we should continue the trip considering what is going on in our country. We came to the conclusion that it is more important for us to "stay the course" and point out the failures of this administration and how this illegal occupation of Iraq is making our country far less safe than it was before. We will "complete the mission" to honor the sacrifices of our fallen heroes. We will strive and not give up until our troops are brought home from Iraq and everyone in both countries are more secure.
P.S. Tom Delay's aide said he probably won't meet with me because I don't "comport" myself properly. I told him that we don't think Tom Delay "comports" himself properly and I could probably get a meeting if Casey had a feeding tube in him instead of being dead for his boss's support of a horrible war.
His aide said he didn't know what I was referring to... When are these people going to stop thinking I am stupid?
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America will come together(as it always does).
Note: America, not rep or dem, lib or conserv,,,but Americans!!!! ANYONE WHO OPTS TO POLITICALLY POSTURE THEMSELVES W/ THIS EVENT IS NOT HELPING! JAMMING A WEDGE BETWEEN AMERICANS AT THIS TIME OF NEED IS REPUGNANT AND I HOPE YOU GUYS SEE IT THAT WAY TOO!
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The Hurricane and Bush’s Criminal Negligence:
Bush Slashed Flood Protection * Bush sent emergency personnel and equipment to Iraq* Bush’s role in global warming * Oil Profiteering * Bush failed to develop an evacuation plan * No emergency relief program, even now
With every hour that passes, we see and hear new stories of the horror and devastation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What makes these images more shocking is the realization that much of the death and destruction could have been prevented.
Almost all of the death and destruction arising from the hurricane is the direct result of criminal neglect by the Bush Administration. This crisis was predicted in numerous reports and news articles and little, if anything, was done.
While natural disasters are beyond our control, the preparation for expected and predicted disasters is something that we can control. Natural disasters do not have to be catastrophes if plans are made in advance to protect people and their homes, but these plans were not made.
We cannot discuss the effects of this catastrophe without noting that those who have suffered most are people of color. Seventy percent of New Orleans’ residents are Black, as are a major part of the population of the surrounding area affected by the hurricane. The fact that absolutely no preparations were made for their evacuation, that no thought was given to meeting their basic emergency needs in the wake of the storm, and that even now they have been abandoned and ignored by the government, lays bare the racism at the core of U.S. society and at the heart of the policies of George W. Bush.
The criminal negligence displayed by all levels of government preceding and during this crisis sends a clear message that, to those in power, the lives of poor people, especially poor Black people, are of absolutely no concern.
President Bush has diverted funds that were needed to prepare for this type of natural disaster to fund a war of conquest in Iraq. He did this despite being warned of the potential for danger by FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) as early as 2001. The Houston Chronicle reported on Dec. 1, 2001: “New Orleans is sinking. And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster. ...So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.â€
The Bush Administration knew of the danger and they knew how to prepare for it. But they chose to do little or nothing – they actually slashed funding for preventative and emergency measures, leaving the people of the region helpless to deal with the inevitable disaster. Now, with the destruction of New Orleans and numerous surrounding communities, tens of thousands of people are without food, water, or electricity. Thousands of homes are destroyed and the death toll continues to climb.
This is a disaster of unprecedented proportion. It is poor and working people, particularly people of color, who are suffering the most from this disaster.
No preparation
It was clear from watching the disaster unfold that no real plans had been made for evacuating the region, even though everyone, including Federal authorities and meteorologists, knew that a hurricane of enormous magnitude was descending on the area.
For the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, there was no provision for evacuation or shelter. It was “everyone for themselves,†and those who didn’t have the ability to flee or the means to finance their own evacuation were left to perish. There were no arrangements for more than 100,000 people in New Orleans - 20 % of the population and overwhelmingly the poorest part of the population. Those with out cars, credit cards, and hotel reservations had few alternatives but to stay home and face the coming deluge. The death toll continues to mount, and it becomes more and more apparent how little the government is concerned for human life, particularly the lives of poor and working people.
There were many obvious things that could have and should have been done if the government were concerned about the lives of the people. Trains, airlines, buses, and other transportation could have been put to use evacuating people. Convention centers, hotels, and college dormitories throughout the region could have been used for shelter. The government uses eminent domain to take working people’s property for the benefit of corporate developers; this would have been an excellent opportunity to use eminent domain in a way that actually benefits people.
Because there was no plan for evacuation, more than 20,000 people were herded into the Superdome without adequate food, shelter, water, or medical care for days. The New York Times said, “By Wednesday, the stench was staggering. Heaps of rotting garbage in bulging white plastic bags baked under a blazing Louisiana sun on the main entry plaza, choking new arrivals as they made their way into the stadium after being plucked off rooftops and balconies. The odor billowing from toilets was even fouler. Trash spilled across corridors and aisles, slippery with smelly mud and scraps of food.â€
Videos of the situation (see below) show just how desperate the situation is—people are without food, water, and medicine. Bodies are piling up on the streets. The people have been absolutely abandoned by the government.
Only massive immediate Federal intervention can relieve the situation. The government has access to stockpiles of food and medicines and it has cargo planes and helicopters to deliver them. Yet the Administration has chosen not to act while people are dying.
Slashing emergency preparations to fund war and tax cuts for the wealthy
Knowing that a hurricane of this strength was eventually inevitable, the Bush Administration slashed the budget of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the area by $71.2 million. This cut eliminated hurricane and flood protection projects as well as a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane. This cut was part of the Bush policy of slashing essential programs to pay for a tax cut for the wealthy and for the occupation of Iraq.
Comparing the cuts of more than $71 million for flood protection to the $1.7 billion taken from the people of Louisiana for the war in Iraq yields one more example of how the Bush policy of endless war endangers the population here.
The Aug. 30 Editor and Publisher revealed that $250 million in crucial projects planned by the Army Corps of Engineers in the delta for shoring up levees and building pumping stations could not be carried out. “The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security—coming at the same time as federal tax cuts—was the reason for the strain.
“The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history.â€
Emergency Specialists and Equipment sent to Iraq
The National Guard, who would normally be deployed to aid in evacuation and disaster relief, is unable to respond adequately because 40% of the Mississippi National Guard 35% of the Louisiana National Guard is in Iraq. So is much of their equipment, including dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators that are essential to dealing with this type of emergency.
According to the Washington Post, "With thousands of their citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty military."
Many of the members of the National Guard are also emergency medical technicians and firefighters. They should be at home helping their neighbors recover from this disaster, not in Iraq maintaining an illegal occupation.
Contempt for Environment exacerbates disaster
The flooding is exacerbated by the elimination of wetlands, which provide a natural buffer. The Bush Administration has removed Federal protection from as much as 20 million acres of wetlands.
The Bush Administration has demonstrated utter disregard for human life and contempt for international law by refusing to abide by the 1997 Kyoto accord, a treaty signed by the United States and 54 other nations. The agreement is designed to limit emissions that cause global warming.
Sir David King, the British Government's chief scientific adviser, says that global warming may be responsible for the devastation reaped by Hurricane Katrina. "The increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming. We have known since 1987 the intensity of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that, over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade. So it is easy to conclude that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming."
Loss of life is avoidable – Cuba a U.N. model
The massive loss of life in Louisiana and Mississippi was avoidable, if those making decisions were interested in funding emergency measures rather than spending money on war and occupation. Cuba lies directly in the path of many hurricanes, and yet the loss of life is usually minimal, because the government has systems in place to aid orderly evacuations, provide emergency shelter, and look after the elderly, the handicapped, and the poor.
In 2001, when Hurricane Michelle, a level-4 storm, hit with sustained 125-mile-per-hour winds and widespread floods, more than 700,000 people were evacuated. Only five Cubans lost their lives in the storm.
In September 2004, Cuba endured Ivan, the fifth-largest hurricane ever to hit the Caribbean, with sustained winds of 124 miles per hour. Cuba evacuated almost 2 million people--more than 15 percent of the total population. One hundred thousand people were evacuated within the first three hours. An incredible 78 percent of those evacuated were welcomed into other people's homes. Children at boarding schools were moved. Animals and birds were moved. No one was killed. The UN declared this to be a model of disaster preparation.
Cuba, a country blockaded and isolated by the U.S. for 45 years has been able to evacuate millions of people in an orderly fashion without loss of life. Natural disasters do not have to be catastrophes.
Oil profiteering
Beyond the horrific loss of life and homes in the region, working people everywhere will suffer as the pay more than $3.00 per gallon for gas, as oil companies rake in record profits. In some places, gas has reached as much as $5.00 per gallon.
Releasing oil from the Strategic Oil Reserves could easily offset the loss of oil refineries in the region. Nearly 700 million barrels of oil are stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. This reserve was established to cushion oil markets during energy disruptions or other emergencies, and sitting on the oil rather than releasing it only keeps the price of gas high and ensures greater profits for the oil companies.
While George W. Bush and his friends at the Big Oil companies are growing rich from escalating oil prices, while working people, who are already suffering from the economic policies of the Bush Administration, have to spend more of their shrinking paychecks to pay for gas to get to work and school.
Venezuela offers to help while Washington refuses to act
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has demonstrated more concern for working and poor people in the U.S. than George Bush has. Chavez has announced that Venezuela will be offering poor people discounted gas through its Citgo chain.
He has also offered to send more than $1 million in oil, food, and and equipment to the region. In addition, the Venezuelan government is offering two mobile hospital units, each capable of assisting 150 people, 120 specialists in rescue operations, 10 water purifying plants, 18 electricity generators of 850 KW each, 20 tons of bottled water, and 50 tons of canned food.
A senior U.S. State Department official said he was not aware of the Venezuelan offer, and then dismissed it as "counterproductive."
The real looting: Bush Administration steals from working people to fund war and corporate greed
Rather than focusing on criminal neglect by the Federal and State governments, the corporate media is reporting that the real danger is looting. In an attempt to shift blame from the policies of the Bush Administration, the news networks are demonizing the victims. In a blatant appeal to racism, those being portrayed as “looters†on the news are without exception black males.
Tens of thousands of poor people have been stranded by a policy of neglect. Many are without food, fresh water, baby formula, and medicine, and the government has refused to provide even basic relief.
The real looters are not the hungry people taking what they need from an abandoned corporate superstore. The real crime is that they were left in this situation by a government that puts war and corporate profits ahead of human needs.
The Bush regime has looted billions of dollars of the people’s money, slashing programs that provide basic necessities and robbing from agencies that are tasked with preparing for natural disasters in order to fund a war of conquest against the people of Iraq. There are dangerous looters, but they are Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, not the poor people of New Orleans trying to feed their families. It is clear that the Bush Administration is increasingly putting the entire population of the country in growing danger by relentlessly slashing every social program, infrastructure maintenance program, and environmental protection program.
Money for Human Needs not War!
It is the Bush Administration, and the Big Corporations it serves, who are directly responsible for the disaster, and they, not the working people of the region, should be responsible for rebuilding and providing relief.
In a speech on Wednesday, President Bush said, “our hearts and prayers are with our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast who have suffered so much from Hurricane Katrina.†But the people of the region need food, clothing, shelter, and jobs, not hearts and prayers.
He grinned as he said, “Recovery will take years,†but offered no plan to assist in that rebuilding. The people of the area need, and are entitled to, more than empty rhetoric and vacant smiles. The crisis demands a massive national mobilization to meet emergency needs and facilitate rebuilding efforts. The disaster is beyond the scope of local authorities or private charities to handle; the Federal government must devote its ample resources, which are now being used to wage war, to provide immediate and long-term relief.
We call on the Bush Administration to:
* Stop funding war and occupation. Use the money instead to fund emergency relief and rebuilding.
* Erase the debts incurred by working people who had to pay for gas and emergency shelter because of the government’s refusal to plan for evacuation.
* Provide emergency unemployment relief to the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs because of the devastation.
* Immediately exercise eminent domain to use all available space to provide emergency and long-term shelter to those left homeless.
* Provide a massive jobs program at union wages for rebuilding. Millions of unemployed workers could be hired to help construct housing, schools, and other public facilities.
* Food, water, clothing, medical supplies, and other necessities should be immediately commandeered for the emergency from agribusiness, supermarket chains, and pharmaceutical companies. Government food storage supplies in warehouses throughout the country should be made available immediately.
Watch a video from the Convention Center in New Orleans: "Desperate Struggle"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612 click on “Launch†under Free Video
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September 10 Emergency Strategy Meeting
organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition
Lang Center at the New School University
55 W. 13th St. in Manhattan
(between 5th & 6th Ave.)
1:30 - 6:00 pm
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Now, more than ever, it is clear that we need a massive people's movement to stop the Bush agenda of endless war and cuts in vital services. Join us on September 10, from 1:30 to 6:00 pm for a National Strategy Meeting to help build a movement to Bring the Troops Home Now and demand "Money for the Gulf States, not for War!"
Topics will include:
Hurricane Katrina : A campaign for emergency action. Help plan national actions to demand Money for Hurricane Relief, Not for War!
Mobilizing for the September 24 National March on Washington DC
Counter-Recruiting Campaign
The Millions More Movement
Dec. 1-3 National Boycott to Shut Down the War
Donate to help organize against endless war.
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Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael Moore
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
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* Hussein's brutality against his own people has been greatly exaggerated by our government, purely for propaganda purposes. Bush officials never tire of repeating the following stories as justification for their policy:
1. Hussein gassed his own people.
2. Hussein tried to assassinate George Bush, Sr.
3. Hussein's soldiers took babies out of incubators during the invasion of Kuwait.
These stories make for great propaganda, but none of them are true, and the Bush administration knows it.
* Saddam Hussein did not gas his own people.
Supposedly Hussein gassed Iraqi Kurds at Halabja in March 1988 during the closing days of the Iran-Iraq war. But it isn't true. In 1990, the U.S. government found that the Kurds died by cyanide gas. It was the Iranians who used cyanide, while the Iraqis used mustard gas. This means it was the Iranians who accidentally killed the Kurds during battle. Hussein had nothing to do with it. (Source: Army War College, Stephen Pelletier & colleague)
In a related lie, Hussein is also said to have committed genocide in August 1988, killing 100,000 Iraqi Kurds with machine guns, then burying them in mass graves. U.S. intelligence services have uniformly dismissed this story. According to Stephen Pelletier of the U.S. Army War College, no such mass graves have ever been found because none exist. The incident never happened. Human Rights Watch, which originally reported the story, has since retracted it, but the lie lives on.
* Saddam Hussein did not try to assassinate George Bush, Sr.
Bush, Jr. loves to tell the story of how Hussein "tried to kill my dad." But it's not true. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh debunked the story in a December 5, 1993 article in The New Yorker titled "A Case Not Closed." The bomb was actually miles away from Bush, Sr. and was likely a set-up by Kuwait to keep Clinton from easing sanctions on Iraq.
* Saddam Hussein's soldiers did not remove babies from incubators in Kuwait.
A New York public relations firm hired by the Kuwaiti government created this story to win American public support for U.S. military action against Iraq. The fiction was based on the tearful testimony of a Kuwaiti woman before the U.S. Senate as it debated war in 1990. The woman claimed to have witnessed the incubator incident with her own eyes, but she was really the daughter of the Kuwaiti Information Minister, and hadn't even been in Kuwait on the day the alleged atrocity took place. (See csmonitor.com/2002/ 0906/p01s02-wosc.html.)
In conclusion, Bush's claim that we should go to war because Hussein (our former client) is a brutal dictator is blatant hypocrisy. Our politicians have been the great creators and patrons of dictatorships around the world. They have…
* Toppled the legitimate government of Iran for the benefit of U.S. oil companies, eventually leading to the Islamic revolution and its related problems,
* Installed dictatorships in Central America for the benefit of the United Fruit Company,
* Installed the current government of Iraq,
* Destabilized a working democracy in Lebanon, leading to decades of civil war,
* Assassinated the elected President of Chile,
* And on and on and on…
(See Endless Enemies by Jonathan Kwitny, The Fifties by David Halberstam, and The Price of Power by Seymour Hersh for details about the above list of CIA interventions.)
If our politicians really want to adopt an anti-dictatorship policy they can start by…
* Renouncing any future use of the CIA to topple or impose governments on other countries,
* Apologize to the people of the world for past such activities,
* Cease propping up existing dictatorships with foreign aid and/or pretending we're putting pressure on them with counterproductive trade sanctions.
* Stop fulminating war against Iraq.
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"We're dealing with one of the worst national disasters in our nation's history"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9132021/
"National disaster"? Isn't that supposed to be natural disaster?
Hurricane Katrina is one of the "worst natural disasters in our nation's history".
Bush is one of the worst NATIONAL DISASTERS in our nation's history.
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Bush gives new reason for Iraq war
Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists
By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press | August 31, 2005
CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.
The president, standing against a backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them, and finance attacks.
''We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. ''We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."
Appearing at Naval Air Station North Island to commemorate the anniversary of the Allies' World War II victory over Japan, Bush compared his resolve to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's in the 1940s and said America's mission in Iraq is to turn it into a democratic ally just as the United States did with Japan after its 1945 surrender. Bush's V-J Day ceremony did not fall on the actual anniversary. Japan announced its surrender on Aug. 15, 1945 -- Aug. 14 in the United States because of the time difference.
Democrats said Bush's leadership falls far short of Roosevelt's.
''Democratic Presidents Roosevelt and Truman led America to victory in World War II because they laid out a clear plan for success to the American people, America's allies, and America's troops," said Howard Dean, Democratic Party chairman. ''President Bush has failed to put together a plan, so despite the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, we are not making the progress that we should be in Iraq. The troops, our allies, and the American people deserve better leadership from our commander in chief."
The speech was Bush's third in just over a week defending his Iraq policies, as the White House scrambles to counter growing public concern about the war. But the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast drew attention away; the White House announced during the president's remarks that he was cutting his August vacation short to return to Washington, D.C., to oversee the federal response effort.
After the speech, Bush hurried back to Texas ahead of schedule to prepare to fly back to the nation's capital today. He was to return to the White House on Friday, after spending more than four weeks operating from his ranch in Crawford.
Bush's August break has been marked by problems in Iraq.
It has been an especially deadly month there for US troops, with the number of those who have died since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 now nearing 1,900.
The growing death toll has become a regular feature of the slightly larger protests that Bush now encounters everywhere he goes -- a movement boosted by a vigil set up in a field down the road from the president's ranch by a mother grieving the loss of her soldier son in Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan arrived in Crawford only days after Bush did, asking for a meeting so he could explain why her son and others are dying in Iraq. The White House refused, and Sheehan's camp turned into a hub of activity for hundreds of activists around the country demanding that troops be brought home.
This week, the administration also had to defend the proposed constitution produced in Iraq at US urging. Critics fear the impact of its rejection by many Sunnis, and say it fails to protect religious freedom and women's rights.
At the naval base, Bush declared, ''We will not rest until victory is America's and our freedom is secure" from Al Qaeda and its forces in Iraq led by Abu Musab alZarqawi.
''If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. ''They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/31/bush_gives_new_reason_for_iraq_war/
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From The Washington Post today:
Slightly more than half of the country says President Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed last year in Iraq, who is leading a protest against the war outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey found that 52 percent of the public says Bush should talk to Sheehan, who has repeatedly asked for a meeting with the president, while 46 percent said he should not. Fifty-three percent support what she is doing while 42 percent oppose her actions, according to the poll.
Sheehan began her protest three weeks ago, four days after Bush began a five-week vacation at his Crawford ranch. She has repeatedly demanded that Bush meet with her to discuss the war. The two met last year at an event for military families, and Bush has repeatedly declined another meeting.
Recently Sheehan announced plans to embark on a bus tour after protesters break camp later this week. The bus tour will end in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24 with a 24-hour vigil.
Like the war and Bush's overall handling of the situation in Iraq, attitudes toward Sheehan divide along sharply partisan lines. Seven in 10 Democrats say they support Sheehan's position on Iraq while an equal proportion of Republicans oppose her.
In the three weeks since she began her protest, Sheehan has quickly become the most visible symbol of the anti-war movement. Fully three in four Americans say they have read or heard about Sheehan and her protest.
The survey also suggests, however, that Sheehan's anti-war vigil has failed to mobilize large numbers of Americans against the war. If anything, her opposition has done as much to drive up support for the war as ignite opponents, the survey found.
Eight in 10 Americans -- including overwhelming majorities of Democrats, Republicans and political independents -- say Sheehan's protest has had no impact on their attitudes toward Iraq. While one in 10 say she has made them less likely to support the war, the same proportion say she has made them more likely to back the conflict.
A total of 1,006 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone Aug. 25 through 28 for this national survey. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083000302_pf.html
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God Bless to anyone who has family and friends in New Orleans, Bama, and Mississippi, and all other affected areas.I bet if these were blue states you wouldn't even care.
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case closed....yet again
Translation:
Support our troops....... Beat up war veterans....... GO BUSH.......I praise and thank these two fine men for a job well done....... Congrautlations........
So, are you going to invite your new friends over for coffee?
Iggypoo, the #1 resident chickenhawk of CP land. Remember this? You posted this on another thread. Well, I thought I trash your propaganda whore's bullshit with something that OWNS what you posted there:
First I am going to display your moronic article from the world's worst law and history student, then below I have posted the rebuttal thrashing the vomit spewed from the cunt of your right wing "useful idiot".
Here you go yellowboy.... Cluck Cluck....
Why the 'Chickenhawk' argument is un-American: Part I
Ben Shapiro (archive)
August 17, 2005 | Print | Recommend to a friend
Who is qualified to speak on matters of national security? According to the American left, only pacifists, military members who have served in combat and direct relatives of those slain in combat or in acts of terrorism. The rest of us -- about 80 percent of voters -- must simply sit by silently. Our opinions do not matter. You want disenfranchisement? Talk to the political left, which seeks to exclude the vast majority of the American populace from the national debate about foreign policy.
The bulk of the left in this country refuses to argue about foreign policy rationally, without resorting to ad hominem attack. The favored ad hominem attack of the left these days is "chickenhawk." The argument goes something like this: If you believe in any of the wars America is currently fighting, you must join the military. If you do not, you must shut up. If, on the other hand, you believe that America should disengage from all foreign wars, you may feel free not to serve in the military.
This is the argument made by hate-America radicals like Michael Moore, who defines "chickenhawk" on his website thus: "A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it; particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person's youth." The "chickenhawk" argument was the implicit centerpiece of John Kerry's presidential campaign -- Kerry hyped his military service and denigrated George W. Bush's military service, all the while focusing on the fact that he, unlike President Bush, was anti-war. Kerry's campaign underling, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, made the argument explicit during April 2004: "They shriek like a hawk, but they have the backbone of the chicken," he said of the Bush Administration. "The lead chickenhawk against Sen. Kerry [is] the vice president of the United States, Vice President Cheney." Not coincidentally, Lautenberg utilized Moore's exact "chickenhawk" definition in making his point.
The "chickenhawk" argument is dishonest. It is dishonest because the principle of republicanism is based on freedom of choice about behavior (as long as that behavior is legal) as well as freedom of speech about political issues. We constantly vote on activities with which we may or may not be intimately involved. We vote on police policy, though few of us are policemen; we vote on welfare policy, though few of us either work in the welfare bureaucracy or have been on welfare; we vote on tax policy, even if some of us don't pay taxes. The list goes on and on. Representative democracy necessarily means that millions of us vote on issues with which we have had little practical experience. The "chickenhawk" argument -- which states that if you haven't served in the military, you can't have an opinion on foreign policy -- explicitly rejects basic principles of representative democracy.
The "chickenhawk" argument also explicitly rejects the Constitution itself. The Constitution provides that civilians control the military. The president of the United States is commander-in-chief, whether or not he has served in the military. Congress controls the purse strings and declares war, no matter whether any of its members have served in the military or not. For foreign policy doves to high-handedly declare that military service is a prerequisite to a hawkish foreign policy mindset is not only dangerous, but directly conflicts with the Constitution itself.
The "chickenhawk" argument proves only one point: The left is incapable of discussing foreign policy in a rational manner. They must resort to purely emotional, base personal attacks in order to forward their agenda. And so, unable or unwilling to counter the arguments of those like Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and President Bush, they label them all "chickenhawks." By the leftist logic, here are some other "chickenhawks": John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton.
American soldiers fight for the right of all Americans, regardless of race, class or past service, to speak out on foreign policy issues. If they fight for the right of pacifist anti-military fifth columnists like Michael Moore to denigrate their honor, they certainly fight for the right of civilian hawks to speak up in favor of the highest level of moral and material support for their heroism.
Chickenhawk in Whine Sauce
Young Ben Shapiro, fondly known to some as America’s Worst Law Student™, has had it, had it, just had it with being called a chickenhawk. So Ben whipped up a new column — “In Praise of Chickenhawkery: Part I†— to defend himself:
The favored ad hominem attack of the left these days is “chickenhawk.†The argument goes something like this: If you believe in any of the wars America is currently fighting, you must join the military. If you do not, you must shut up.Of course, nobody is telling Ben to shut up — least of all people like me who devote a weblog to ridiculing what people like Ben say. We’re just calling Ben a hypocrite. It’s Ben who’s telling people who are calling him a chickenhawk to shut up:
The “chickenhawk†argument is dishonest. It is dishonest because the principle of republicanism is based on freedom of choice about behavior (as long as that behavior is legal). . . .Um, unless of course we’re talking about legal homosexual behavior which Ben thinks is all icky:
The rise of the homosexual movement is a textbook example of societal amorality devolving into societal immorality. The rationale behind societal amorality is the myopic question: “How does my immoral behavior hurt you?†The answer is: It may not, in the short term. But when society sanctions your immoral behavior, that does hurt me.Ben now pulls out what he thinks are his big guns, so to speak:
The “chickenhawk†argument also explicitly rejects the Constitution itself.Go get ‘em, Tiger! Argue that calling you a hypocrite is unconstitutional!! (Now you know why we like to call Ben America’s Worst Law Student™.)
Ben, of course, saves his best argument for last:
By the leftist logic, here are some other “chickenhawksâ€: John Adams [and] Benjamin Franklin . . . .At the time of the Revolutionary War, Adams and Franklin were, respectively 41 and 70, both a bit long in the tooth to be expected to enlist in the army. Ben, however, is 21. I don’t think its unfair to say that Ben may also be America’s Worst History Student.
*...And America's worst chickenhawk next to yourself, yellow boy....*
I don’t know about you, but I just can’t wait for “In Praise of Chickenhawkery, Pt. II.â€
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PWN3D!!11!!!11!1!1111111111!!!!!!!!11111111111
R3515T4NC3 15 FUT1L3!1!!1111!!1111!!!!1!!!!!11111111
So, when are you going to sign up to......
1. Help the war effort with your contribution by helping in fulfilling the required quota recommended of your recruiter who desperately needs people like YOU to enlist since there is a shortage of enlistments, lose your yellowboy chickenhawk status and join your relatives and friends who are already there and...
2. Fight the same unjust and illegal war you happily support??
If you believe in any of the wars America is currently fighting, you must join the military. If you do not, you must shut up.Yes Igloo, Join the fuck up or shut the fuck up! This is YOUR freedom of choice. One or the other! You made the bed, you must sleep in it!
Take this advice literally, yellowboy.
Ba bak, cluck cluck cluck ba BAK..........
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owned...again. You do show remarkable resolve, in getting your ass kicked continously, yet come back for more. Another sign of stupidity.
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Plucked from another board:
Pot, Kettle, Black: State Department Tells Us How to Identify MisinformationSteve Watson | August 31 2005
http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jul/27-595713.html
How can a journalist or a news consumer tell if a story is true or false? There are no exact rules, but the following clues can help indicate if a story or allegation is true.
We all need to be extremely grateful that the State department has it's own advice section on what we should and should not believe. I for one find it incredibly difficult to believe straight facts, even when they put the government in a bad light. Thank goodness that everything the government does and says is accurate. It is important to have a bench mark of truth against which we can formulate our beliefs.
Of course I am being sarcastic. The State Department cites websites such as Rense.com as "MISINFORMATION". The majority of material on Rense.com consists of mainstream media reports which are well written by good journalists, but are simply not seen on the nightly news. The majority of the subject matter on Rense is often also covered on Prison Planet and Infowars, so by attacking Rense as a source of "unreliable information", The State Department is also attacking us.
Let us go back a few months and highlight a story that quickly bloomed into a national scandal. The LA Times and the Boston Globe reported on how the government had spent millions of taxpayers dollars on the production of FAKE NEWS REPORTS. Yes that's right, ILLEGAL FAKE NEWS REPORTS on Medicare. Viewers were duped into believing that what they were seeing was a balanced news report when in actual fact it was covert Propaganda produced by the government.
''You think you are getting a news story but what you are getting is a paid announcement," said Susan Poling, managing associate general counsel at the Government Accountability Office. ''What is objectionable about these is the fact the viewer has no idea their tax dollars are being used to write and produce this video segment."
HOW DARE the government do this and then tell us how to identify unreliable information! The State Department even tell us how they do it:
Extremist groups, such as splinter communist parties, often publish disinformation. This can be especially difficult to identify if the false allegations are published by front groups. Front groups purport to be independent, non-partisan organizations but actually controlled by political parties or groups.
We have also reported on how this kind of activity is also going on in Britain as well as the US. Our so called free press is being paid to spread misinformation that suits the agenda of our governments.
Consider the source: Certain websites, publications, and individuals are known for spreading false stories
Two words - JEFF GANNON.
Earlier this year the story broke that The Bush administration provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website. This story was another national scandal that uncovered the fact that, more so than any other media outlet, it is the government that disseminates misinformation.
Highly controversial issues - AIDS, organ transplantation, international adoption, and the September 11 attacks are all new, frightening or, in some ways, discomforting topics. Such highly controversial issues are natural candidates for the rise of false rumors, unwarranted fears and suspicions.
The State Department cites Organ Transplantation and harvesting as an "Urban Legend", saying there is no evidence for it. Here's a lengthy report on the subject by David J. Rothman, Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine and History at Columbia University. Rothman says "in China officials profitably market organs of executed Chinese prisoners."
Here is a list of every mainstream media source you could think of reporting on the issue http://www.vachss.com/help_text/organ_trafficking.html
Oh and here is the State Department themselves covering the issue.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2001/3792.htm
Remember "consider the source".
In March 1992, then-Russian foreign intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov admitted that the disinformation service of the Soviet KGB intelligence service had concocted the false story that the AIDS virus had been created in a US military laboratory as a biological weapon.
The subject of the creation of the AIDS virus is in the 1969 congressional record House Resolution 15090 where scientists discuss making it. One physician mentions a government-sponsored research project that would create a "synthetic biological agent ... for which no natural immunity would have been acquired."
Dr Boyd Graves has relentlessly researched the synthetic origin of AIDS. Furthermore Nobel peace laureate and ecologist Wangari Maathai has gone on record as asserting that the AIDS virus was a deliberately created biological agent. The "Urban Legend" is the claim that AIDS comes from monkeys. If in doubt use the monkey theory, it works everytime - everything comes from monkeys because they are a bit like us.
Of course, according to the government, any theories that do not match the official line on the 9/11 attacks are a conspiracy. Strange here in this State Department report though how they only cite the most "out there" 9/11 theories such as the missile at the Pentagon and others that are simply meaningless and pointless. We have made it clear that we feel the missile theory does not hold water, yet it is interesting that several times Donald Rumsfeld has mentioned a missile hitting the Pentagon on 9/11. Slip of the tongue or MISINFORMATION?
How about the stand down of NORAD, the drills of flying aircraft into the same targets on the same morning, the admission from the WTC owner that Building 7 was deliberately demolished? How about the key issues on 9/11? Are they all conspiracy theories or Urban legends too or are they provable facts that simply get lumped in with the wacky misinformation? Remember "we must not tolerate any wild conspiracy theories regarding the attacks of 9/11".
Another example of a highly controversial issue is depleted uranium, a relatively new armor-piercing substance that was used by the U.S. military for the first time during the 1991 Gulf War.... most people believe that depleted uranium is much more dangerous than it actually is.
DU remains radioactive longer than the age of the earth (estimated at 4.5 billion years).
Professor Yagasaki a physicist and well-respected nuclear radiation expert, from the
University of the Ryukyus, Okinawahas, calculated that 800 tons of DU is the atomicity equivalent to 83,000 Nagasaki bombs in a paper presented at the World Uranium Weapons Conference in Hamburg in October 2003. The amount of DU used in Iraq in 2003 alone was equivalent to nearly 250,000 Nagasaki bombs.
We have documented how the former head of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, Dr Doug Rokke, asserts that thousands of troops are sick and dying from illegal DU use.
“The VA has determined that 250,000 troops are now permanently disabled, 15,000 troops are dead and over 425,000 are ill and slowly dying from what the Department of Defense still calls a mystery disease. How many more will have to die before action is taken?â€
Further eminent scientific minds such as Dr Keith Baverstock PhD; Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kuopio, KUOPIO, Finland, who presented evidence to the European Parliament in June 2003 have gone public, stating how the evidence on DU is irrefutable and is being ignored.
Dr. James A. Howenstine is a board certified specialist in internal medicine who spent 34 years caring for office and hospital patients. He, among many others has spoken out about how another horrifying consequence of DU exposure is damage to sperm causing many severe deformities in the children born to veterans of the first Gulf War. A group of 251 soldiers from Mississippi, who all had normal babies before service in Iraq, were studied. Sixty seven percent of their post war babies were born with severe birth defects. These children were missing legs, arms, organs or eyes and had immune system and blood diseases. In some Gulf War veterans families the only normal children are those who were born before serving in Iraq. The Department of Defense denies any knowledge of birth defects in Gulf War I veterans.
Just one of the many pictures of the deformities that our governments' use of Depleted Uranium is causing to children. This is a mild example compared to many others that are simply too horrific to post.
Of course, many many Iraqi children continue to be born with deformities due to excessive DU use. The effects are simply horrific and for the Department of State to even suggest the effects are an urban myth is simply SICK.
Does the story claim that vast, powerful, evil forces are secretly manipulating events? If so, this fits the profile of a conspiracy theory. The U.S. military or intelligence community is a favorite villain in many conspiracy theories.
In many cases we do publish stories that suggest the Intelligence communities and the government are manipulating events, covering up information and perpetrating evil acts. That is because, as you have seen here, in the majority of cases THEY ARE.
Why should we take advice on what to believe from a government that LIES continually, over and over again. A government that uses fake weapons dossiers and invented intelligence in order to invade and overthrow sovereign countries to forward their own agenda, whilst killing hundreds of thousands in the process?
Why should we listen to a government that puts out fake news casts and in many cases controls the information we see on our nightly news? More and more people are turning off the TV and coming to us for their news because they know what we report is more accurate and better researched.
This is why they are desperately trying to crack down on the Internet and the free press, passing laws in order that they can deem any anti-government stance as hate speech. It's time to see through THEIR misinformation and turn off their false transmissions. WE are the majority, WE are the mainstream, WE identify the misinformation.
Actual text of Gov't website:
How to Identify MisinformationHow can a journalist or a news consumer tell if a story is true or false? There are no exact rules, but the following clues can help indicate if a story or allegation is true.
* Does the story fit the pattern of a conspiracy theory?
* Does the story fit the pattern of an “urban legend?â€
* Does the story contain a shocking revelation about a highly controversial issue?
* Is the source trustworthy?
* What does further research tell you?
Does the story fit the pattern of a conspiracy theory?
Does the story claim that vast, powerful, evil forces are secretly manipulating events? If so, this fits the profile of a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories are rarely true, even though they have great appeal and are often widely believed. In reality, events usually have much less exciting explanations.
The U.S. military or intelligence community is a favorite villain in many conspiracy theories.
For example, the Soviet disinformation apparatus regularly blamed the U.S. military or intelligence community for a variety of natural disasters as well as political events. In March 1992, then-Russian foreign intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov admitted that the disinformation service of the Soviet KGB intelligence service had concocted the false story that the AIDS virus had been created in a US military laboratory as a biological weapon. When AIDS was first discovered, no one knew how this horrifying new disease had arisen, although scientists have now used DNA analysis to determine that “all HIV-1 strains known to infect man†are closely related to a simian immunodeficiency virus found in a western equatorial African chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes. But the Soviets used widespread suspicions about the U.S. military to blame it for AIDS. (More details on this.)
In his book 9/11: The Big Lie, French author Thierry Meyssan falsely claimed that no plane hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Instead, he claimed that the building had been struck by a cruise missile fired by elements within the U.S. government. No such vast conspiracy existed and many eyewitness accounts and evidence gathered on the scene confirmed that the hijacked airliner had struck the building. But, nevertheless, the book was a best-seller in France and has been translated into 19 languages, demonstrating the power that even the most groundless conspiracy theories can have. (More details on 9/11: The Big Lie.)
Does the story fit the pattern of an “urban legend?â€
Is the story startlingly good, bad, amazing, horrifying, or otherwise seemingly “too good†or “too terrible†to be true? If so, it may be an “urban legend.†Urban legends, which often circulate by word of mouth, e-mail, or the Internet, are false claims that are widely believed because they put a common fear, hope, suspicion, or other powerful emotion into story form.
For example, after the September 11 attacks, a story arose that someone had survived the World Trade Center collapse by “surfing†a piece of building debris from the 82nd floor to the ground. Of course, no one could survive such a fall, but many initially believed this story, out of desperate hope that some people trapped in the towers miraculously survived their collapse. (More details on this.)
Another September 11 urban legend is that an undamaged Bible was found in the midst of the crash site at the Pentagon. In reality, it was a dictionary. But, if a Bible had survived unscathed, that would have seemed much more significant, and been seen by many as a sign of divine intervention. (More details on this.)
Since 1987, the false story that Americans or others are kidnapping or adopting children in order to use them in organ transplants has been widely believed. There is absolutely no evidence that any such event has ever occurred, but such allegations have won the most prestigious journalism prizes in France in 1995 and Spain in 1996. (More details on this.)
This urban legend is based on fears about both organ transplantation and international adoptions, both of which were relatively new practices in the 1980s. As advances in medical science made organ transplantation more widespread, unfounded fears began to spread that people would be murdered for their organs. At the same time, there were also unfounded fears about the fate of infants adopted by foreigners and taken far from their home countries. The so-called “baby parts†rumor combined both these fears in story form, which gave it great credibility even though there was absolutely no evidence for the allegation.
In late 2004, a reporter for Saudi Arabia’s Al Watan newspaper repeated a version of the organ trafficking urban legend, falsely claiming that U.S. forces in Iraq were harvesting organs from dead or wounded Iraqis for sale in the United States. This shows how the details of urban legends can change, to fit different circumstances. (More details in English and Arabic.)
Highly controversial issues
AIDS, organ transplantation, international adoption, and the September 11 attacks are all new, frightening or, in some ways, discomforting topics. Such highly controversial issues are natural candidates for the rise of false rumors, unwarranted fears and suspicions. Another example of a highly controversial issue is depleted uranium, a relatively new armor-piercing substance that was used by the U.S. military for the first time during the 1991 Gulf War.
There are many exaggerated fears about depleted uranium because people associate it with weapons-grade uranium or fuel-grade uranium, which are much more dangerous substances. When most people hear the word uranium, a number of strongly held associations spring to mind, including the atomic bomb, Hiroshima, nuclear reactors, radiation illness, cancer, and birth defects.
Depleted uranium is what is left over when natural uranium is enriched to make weapons-grade or fuel-grade uranium. In the process, the uranium loses, or is depleted, of almost half its radioactivity, which is how depleted uranium gets its name. But facts like this are less important in peoples’ minds than the deeply ingrained associations they have with the world “uranium.†For this reason, most people believe that depleted uranium is much more dangerous than it actually is. (More details on depleted uranium in English and Arabic.)
Another highly controversial issue is that of forbidden weapons, such as chemical or biological weapons. The United States is regularly, and falsely, accused of using these weapons. (More details on this in English and Arabic.)
In the same way, many other highly controversial issues are naturally prone to misunderstanding and false rumors. Any highly controversial issue or taboo behavior is ripe material for false rumors and urban legends.
Consider the source
Certain websites, publications, and individuals are known for spreading false stories, including:
* Aljazeera.com, a deceptive, look-alike website that has sought to fool people into thinking it is run by the Qatari satellite television station Al Jazeera
* Jihad Unspun, a website run by a Canadian woman who converted to Islam after the September 11 attacks when she became convinced that Osama bin Laden was right
* Islam Memo (Mafkarat-al-Islam), which spreads a great deal of disinformation about Iraq.
(More details on Islam Memo and Jihad Unspun in English and Arabic.)
There are many conspiracy theory websites, which contain a great deal of unreliable information. Examples include:
* Rense.com
* Australian “private investigator†Joe Vialls, who died in 2005
* Conspiracy Planet
Extremist groups, such as splinter communist parties, often publish disinformation. This can be especially difficult to identify if the false allegations are published by front groups. Front groups purport to be independent, non-partisan organizations but actually controlled by political parties or groups. Some examples of front groups are:
* The International Action Center, which is a front group for a splinter communist party called the Workers World Party
* The Free Arab Voice, a website that serves as a front for Arab communist Muhammad Abu Nasr and his colleagues.
(More details on Muhammad Abu Nasr in English or Arabic.)
Research the allegations
The only way to determine whether an allegation is true or false is to research it as thoroughly as possible. Of course, this may not always be possible given publication deadlines and time pressures, but there is no substitute for thorough research, going back to the original sources. Using the Internet, many allegations can be fairly thoroughly researched in a matter of hours.
For example, in July 2005, the counter-misinformation team researched the allegation that U.S. soldiers in Iraq had killed innocent Iraqi boys playing football and then “planted†rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) next to them, to make it appear that they were insurgents.
Using a variety of search terms in “Google,†a researcher was able to find the article and photographs upon which the allegations were based. Because weapons did not appear in the initial photographs, but did appear in later photographs, some observers believed this was evidence that the weapons had been planted and that the boys who had been killed were not armed insurgents.
The researcher was also able to find weblog entries (numbered 100 and 333, on June 26 and July 15, 2005) from the commanding officer of the platoon that was involved in the incident and another member of his platoon. The weblog entries made it clear that:
* the teenaged Iraqi boys were armed insurgents;
* after the firefight between U.S. troops and the insurgents was over, the dead, wounded and captured insurgents were initially photographed separated from their weapons because the first priority was to make sure that it was impossible for any of the surviving insurgents to fire them again;
* following medical treatment for the wounded insurgents, they were photographed with the captured weapons displayed, in line with Iraqi government requirements;
* the insurgents were hiding in a dense palm grove, where visibility was limited to 20 meters, not a likely place for a football game, and they were seen carrying the RPGs on their shoulders.
Thus, an hour or two of research on the Internet was sufficient to establish that the suspicions of the bloggers that the weapons had been planted on innocent Iraqi boys playing football were unfounded.
Finally, if the counter-misinformation team can be of help, ask us. We can’t respond to all requests for information, but if a request is reasonable and we have the time, we will do our best to provide accurate, authoritative information.
Government is basically telling us what to believe
And they actually tried to say Depleted uranium wasn't harmuf.
BULLSHIT!
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wow... I really hope the medical authorities find you....being off your medication and out from under professional supervision is really taking its toll on you....please social misfit, turn yourself in before your mental defects cause someone harm.....
I am sure they will let you wear your furry Bunny slippers and play with coloring books if you just turn yoursel in......it is very disturbing to see you out in the wild.
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Your point is.... Oh wait...... You have none.
Funny this rhetoric comes from someone whose agenda is into pro killing for oil.
Funny this comes from the same people like yourself who tell us it's war people die get over it. You know, when one of your own sibs gets killed I'm gonna use that same line you throw at us against you to show you how it feels. Guaranteed you will get pissed and go into a tizzy as much as other parents who lost their kids in this lie based war who used the same line you right wing bootlicking pro killing anti peace warmongers throw around at them.
That mouth of yours is going to get you beat up one of these days assclown and hopefully it does. In fact, I hope that mouth of yours gets you shot and killed.
Our intentions are to get them out and bring them home before Bush continues getting his "revenge" by killing more of our kids to justify the killing of our kids. It's murderous and sick. Especially when it's in a war based on lies. It is also true we intend to push for his impeachment and also have him tried for treason as well as for war crimes. Crimes which he knowingly committed.
It's funny you say you support her and at the same time you post propaganda that bashes her and Casey and then post a fake letter written by one of your propaganda slutting moronic right wing by-products. It only solidifies the fact you are contridicting yourself and only proves that your rants that I don't give a shit about her and the troops is another one of your sick twisted lies especially when my dad was a war veteran. Then you say I did not give a fuck about him either is testimony that you would go as low as bash my own father who so ahppens to be dead. It must be easy for you to bash dead people knowing they can't fight back. It's sick, it's testimony that you have no respect for the dead and because of that you crossed the line.
Bring your Wall Street cowardly ass here and say that to my face.
It's also ironic that you say nothing and not complain about the man in the pickup truck which sported a bumper sticker that says, "Support our Troops" goes running their makeshift memorial is testimony that you support his sickly deed and is testimony that YOU don't give a fuck about the troops and is your testimony you support the war only to support Bush and nothing more only to enrich your sick pro killing agenda.
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Exhaustion
by CindySheehan
Sat Aug 27th, 2005 at 06:51:02 PDT
Exhaustion
Day 20
The Peaceful Occupation of Crawford
I finally figured out George Bush's NEW reason for staying in Iraq. This reason has also been co-opted by the Move America Forward (forward to what: Fascism?) and the poor mothers who would be honored if their sons were killed in George Bush's war for greed and power.
* CindySheehan's diary :: ::
*
Since the Freedom and Democracy thing is not going so well and the Iraqi parliament is having such a hard time writing their constitution. Since violence is mounting against Iraqis and Americans and since his poll numbers are going down everyday, he had to come up with something.
I have continually asked George Bush to quit using Casey's name the name of the other Gold Star Families for Peace loved ones to justify his continued killing. He continues to say this: "We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission." So the mission is now this: WE MUST CONTINUE KILLING AMERICANS BECAUSE AMERICANS HAVE ALREADY BEEN KILLED!!!
How can anyone, anyone in their right minds support this line of reasoning? I have been silent on the Gold Star Moms who still support this man and his war by saying that they deserve the right to their opinions because they are in as much pain as I am. I would challenge them, though, at this point to start thinking for themselves. Iraq DID NOT have WMD's; Iraq WAS NOT linked to Al Qaeda and 9/11; Iraq WAS NOT a threat or danger to America. How can these moms who still support George Bush and his insane war in Iraq want more innocent blood shed just because their sons or daughters have been killed? I don't understand it. I don't understand how any mother could want another mother to feel the pain we feel. I am starting to lose a little compassion for them. I know they have been as brainwashed as the rest of America, but they know the pain and heartache and they should not wish it on another. However, I still feel their pain so acutely and pray for these "continue the murder and mayhem" moms to see the light.
I didn't do my blog last night because I was so exhausted. I am now lying awake at night thinking and worrying about a couple of things. First of all, how can we keep the momentum of Camp Casey going? Our first step is a bus tour consisting of three buses going through 3 different parts of the country, stopping at various places to do rallies and "visit" Congress people's offices. I had a brainstorm during my press conference yesterday...our first stop will be at Mr.Tom Delay's office. I just opened my mouth and the words came out and the Bus Tour organizers re-worked the bus schedule so we could make that happen. But before we even issued the invitation to Tom Delay, his office had released a statement saying that he was "too busy to meet with me." In taking Camp Casey to Congress we are creating problems for the very people who voted to give George the authority to invade an innocent country and cause the deaths of so many people. We will eventually target every Congress person, pro-peace or anti-peace alike, Republican or Democrat, and ask them the same questions we are asking the president. Except with Congress, we are going to add one more thing: "Since there is no Noble Cause, you need to develop a speedy exit strategy and bring our troops home as soon as humanly possible." Check out www. BringThemHomeNowTour.org for more info on our bus tour and how you can be involved.
The second thing that worries the crap out of me is the almost icon status that I have achieved. I never set out to become the "Rosa Parks of the Peace Movement." I ventured out on August 6, 2005 to hold George Bush accountable and to raise awareness about his lies and misuse and abuse of power. I didn't set out to become anyone's hero. I am a regular mom who just wants peace and no one else to be murdered for the deceptions of our government. I love the love and support of America: it is what sustains me through these very difficult times and the reich-wing smear campaign. I am blown away and humbled that people are coming from all over the world to meet me and have their pictures taken with me. I am honored when people ask me for my autograph and I love meeting the little ones. I think we really need to focus our energies on the cause of peace, though...and the message, not the messenger. I am not a perfect person. I am strong and I do have the cajones to tell the world that our "emperor" has no clothes, but it is done out of love of Casey and the others who have died and who are in harm's way and out of the simple fact that at the end of the day I have to look at myself in the mirror. If I didn't do everything in my power to end this monstrosity of an occupation in Iraq, how could I do that? I promised my boy that I would make the world a better place for his unborn nieces and nephews, and I mean to keep that promise.
We are going to have an eventful day at Camp Casey. We are holding a big rally and so are the "pro-continue the killing because Americans have died already" people. I am a little apprehensive about this. We know that the Sheriff's know that the other people are coming to stir up trouble and provoke us into violence. Well, that is not going to happen on the Camp Casey side. We will not resort to the same tactics as their leaders.
Camp Casey is a place of peace and love and we won't let ignorant citizens bring us down. At this point the smears are amusing me, rather than hurting me.
I will keep you all posted about today's events. Please pray for us that everyone keeps a cool head.
Peace!!!!
Right wing jokes
in Useless Blabber
Posted
A first grade teacher explains to her class that she is a liberal Democrat. She asks her students to raise their hands if they were liberal Democrats too. Not really knowing what a liberal Democrat was, but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands flew up into the air. There was, however, one exception. A girl named Lucy had not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different.' Because I'm not a liberal Democrat.''Then,' asks the teacher, 'What are you?''Why I'm a proud conservative Republican,' boasts the little girl.The teacher, a little perturbed and her face slightly red, asked Lucy why sheis a conservative Republican.'Well, I was brought up to trust in myself instead of relying on an intrusive government to care for me and do all of my thinking. My Dad and Mom are conservative Republicans, and I am a conservative Republican too.'The teacher, now angry, loudly says, 'That's no reason! What if your Mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron. What would you be then?'She pauses, and lets out a smile. 'Then,' Lucy says, 'I'd be a liberal Democrat.'
Kerry calls up Bush and says, "Hey, let's settle this Australian Style."
Bush asks, "How's that?"
Kerry says, "First you stand there, and I kick you in the nuts as hard as I can." Then it's your turn. Whoever quits first is the loser.
Bush says, "OK, stands there," and is completely knocked over by Kerry.
After 10 minutes, Bush stands up, and groans, "Alright, my turn."
Kerry then replies, "It's all right, you can be president."
"President Bush spoke with the Amish. He didn't want to, but it was the only group he could find that wasn't upset about the high price of gas." —Jay Leno
Republican Beliefs
Things you have to believe to be a Republican today:
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's drunk driving record and cocaine arrest are none of our business.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.
You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
Clinton's business interests in the 1970s in which he lost money are of vital national interest, but Bush's activities in the 1980s in which he made money under questionable circumstances is un-important.
Republican National Convention Schedule
06:00 pm - Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Jerry Falwell
06:30 pm - Pledge of Allegiance
06:35 pm - Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd amendment)
06:45 pm - Salute to the Coalition of the Willing
06:46 pm - Seminar #1: "Getting your kid a military deferment"
07:30 pm - First Presidential Beer Bash for Bush
07:35 pm - Serve Freedom Fries
07:40 pm - EPA Address #1: "Mercury: how to ignore the 14 states litigating against the U.S. government"
07:50 pm - William Safire on the dangers of non-Protestant religion
08:00 pm - Vote on which country to invade next
08:05 pm - Trent Lott recognizes/salutes the KKK contingent
08:10 pm - Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh
08:15 pm - John Ashcroft Lecture: "The Homos are after your children"
08:30 pm - Roundtable discussion on reproductive rights (MEN only)
08:50 pm - Seminar #2: "Corporations: the government of the future"
09:00 pm - Condi Rice sings "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"
09:05 pm - Second Presidential Beer Bash for Bush
09:10 pm - EPA Address #2:" Trees: the real cause of forest fires"
09:15 pm - Roundtable discussion on the best way to bankrupt the federal government.
09:30 pm - Break for secret meetings
09:35 pm - Dick Cheney on why we must invade Canada and find their weapons of mass destruction.
10:00 pm - Second prayer led by Pat Robertson
10:15 pm - Lecture by Karl Rove: "Doublespeak made easy"
10:30 pm - Rumsfeld demonstration of how to squint and talk macho
10:35 pm - Bush demonstration of his trademark "deer in the headlights" stare
10:40 pm - John Ashcroft demonstrates new mandatory kevlar chastity belt
10:45 pm - Clarence Thomas takes a minute to read the list of black republicans
10:46 pm - Third Presidential Beer Bash for Bush
10:50 pm - Seminar #3: "Education: a drain on our nation's economy"
11:10 pm - Hillary Clinton Piñata
11:20 pm - Second Lecture by John Ashcroft: "Evolutionists -- the dangerous new cult"
11:30 pm - Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh again
11:35 pm - Blame Clinton
11:40 pm - Laura serves milk and cookies
11:45 pm - Pass the hat for the "Kenny Lay Defense Fund"
11:50 pm - Closing Prayer led by Jesus Himself
12:00 am - Nomination of George W. Bush as Holy Supreme Planetary Leader