Now that the dust has settled from Glenn Beck’s weekend revival at the Lincoln Memorial, two messages need to be delivered loud and clear.
First: the United States of America has NEVER been a Christian nation, but there are those who would make it so, past and future.
And second: do not discount Glenn Beck becoming president of the United States.
I say these things after having sat through nearly all of the 17-part video rendering of Beck’s rally this past weekend, and having read as many critiques of it---left and right---as I could find.
As combat operations officially end in Iraq, nearly seven and a half years after the Bush administration’s illegal invasion, it is difficult to know how to summarize succinctly the tragic cost of the enterprise.
I retain nothing but disdain — and a desire for accountability — for those who initiated this criminal, and criminally ill-conceived attempt at nation-building — primarily, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
On Tuesday night, Barack Obama gave a speech from the Oval Office on Iraq that was almost as full of hideous, murderous lies as the speech on Iraq his predecessor gave in the same location more than seven years ago.
After mendaciously declaring an "end to the combat mission in Iraq" -- where almost 50,000 regular troops and a similar number of mercenaries still remain, carrying out the same missions they have been doing for years -- Obama delivered what was perhaps the most egregious, bitterly painful lie of the night:
"Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility."
Iraq vet: "I'm here because I think I can give some hope to these soldiers, especially if they want to resist... You don't have to go and murder people if you don't want to. You can stand up. These feelings and these doubts that you're having, they are legitimate feelings. And don't ever let those feelings go away. Because that's when you lose your humanity. Hopefully we can change some minds today."
We hear a lot about barbarism and backwardness and bloodthirstiness among the nations of the Middle East, where violent religious extremists are praised and supported -- and often hold state power. A lot of this is hype and misinformation, of course, but sometimes it's all too true.
From the Guardian: "An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday..."
"Find, fix, finish, and follow-up" is the way the Pentagon describes the mission of secret military teams in Afghanistan which have been given a mandate to pursue alleged members of the Taliban or al-Qaeda wherever they may be found.
Some call these “manhunting” operations and the units assigned to them “capture/kill” teams.
Press release from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today filed a lawsuit challenging the government's asserted authority to carry out “targeted killings” of U.S. citizens located far from any armed conflict zone.
The authority contemplated by the Obama administration is far broader than what the Constitution and international law allow, the groups charge.
Obama is scheduled to speak tomorrow night announcing the "end" of the war in Iraq, only one week after thousands of troops deployed from Ft. Hood to Iraq to continue the occupation. Re-branding war and empire is not change; but the story doesn't end there...
By Scott Trent
A friend posted an article today about the "Eight things Obama has done to make the world a more peaceful place." Check out that article here.
It turns out that the article is a year old, and even less true today than it was then. I took the liberty of responding to all eight of the points. As much as we might want these things to be true, there is actually nothing true on that list. It's all deceptive PR from the Obama government intended to silence and placate the people who criticized the Bush regime for these same practices.
There is no justice in the outrageous conviction of Gregory Koger on charges of trespass, resisting arrest, and battery for the “crime” of videotaping a statement I gave at the “Ethical” Humanist Society of Chicago after they dis-invited me from a long scheduled presentation I was to give on November 1st, 2009.
Gregory Koger is not only innocent of all charges he has now been convicted of, he is a righteous and beautiful human being who all people seeking to live an ethical life should support as well as learn deeply from.
The Peace Laureate and his apologists – along with all the well-wadded neoconmen and their strange bedfellows, the liberal interventionists – may like to proclaim that the Iraq War is over (and we won!), but those actually fighting the war know that – as Cab Calloway liked to say of the stories you’re liable to read in the Bible – it ain’t necessarily so.
From the Army Times: Combat brigades in Iraq under different name. As the final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., entered Kuwait early Thursday, a different Stryker brigade remained in Iraq.
After 9 months of vengeful and unrelenting pursuit of a conviction by the Cook County (Illinois) State’s Attorney and the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago (EHSC), videographer Gregory Koger was found guilty today of trespass, resisting a police officer, and battery for the “crime” of videotaping a brief but newsworthy statement by Sunsara Taylor at the EHSC.
Gregory was maced and brutalized during the arrest, and this was acknowledged by police at trial, yet he was the one charged and now found guilty.
In a disturbing report in the Miami Herald, the ever-vigilant Carol Rosenberg reports that an unknown number of hunger strikers at Guantánamo are being force-fed between dusk and dawn — a mixture of cruelty (force-feeding) and respect (for Ramadan) that is sadly typical of the surreal, otherworldly reality of Guantánamo, over eight and a half years after the prison first opened.
The controversy generated by the so-called “ground zero mosque” is both illuminating and terrifying.
In case there were any doubts, it proves that America is still a vast wasteland of ignorance created by racism and the belief that white Americans must be dominant and measured by standards that apply to no one else.
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal Obama administration officials “believe al Qaeda in Yemen is now collaborating more closely with allies in Pakistan and Somalia.” The story states that this belief increases “the prospect that the administration will mount a more intense targeted killing program in Yemen.”
The following are statements from four of the people who participated in the Fort Hood troop deployment blockade in Killeen, Texas.
Matthis Chiroux:
I am a former Army sergeant and war resister. I was press-ganged into the Army by the Alabama Juvenile "Justice" System in 2002. While in the military, I occupied the nations of Japan and Germany for more than four years, with shorter tours in the Philippines and Afghanistan.
I was a Public Affairs noncommissioned officer specializing in strategic communications. In reality, I was a propaganda artist. I was discharged honorably to the Individual Ready Reserve in 2007.
Sunday, the Associated Press reported "BAGHDAD - An American solider was killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said, marking the first American fatality since the last combat unit in Iraq pulled out of the country."
As the "last" combat brigade left Iraq, President Obama prepares to give a major speech next week. He probably won't claim victory; that would be laughable. He will claim that the U.S. is taking responsible action, now that the Iraqis are ready to "step up" and run "their own" country. This is the same plan the Bush regime had, but framed and re-branded, Obama-style, to cover a thoroughly illegitimate occupation.
Here it comes: with the bizarre "rape-no rape" charges against Julian Assange, the War Machine's assault against Wikileaks has now begun in earnest.
These days, the powers-that-be don't go straight to the shiv in the back or the poison in the drink or the faked suicide or the tragic car accident on a dark road; no, today we are a bit more circumspect in taking down high-profile irritants of empire. The modern way is to begin the takedown with a smear campaign -- preferably some sort of ""moral turpitude" to sully their public image and discredit their entire cause.
When I think of the Supreme Court ruling that came down on June 21st in the Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, case No. 08-1498, Tom Morello’s song The Iron Wheel comes to mind.
Sometimes they'll tell you to just sit still
When you know that it's time to run
Sometimes they'll tell you it's all over
When you're sure that it's just begun
Over the past few years, Glenn Beck has called the overwhelmingly poor and Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina locked down in the Superdome—in his words—"scumbags." He has ranted that progressives are a "cancer" that have to be "eradicated" from America.
Aug. 23, 2010 (KILLEEN, TX) - Five peace activists successfully blockaded six buses carrying Fort Hood Soldiers deploying to Iraq outside Fort Hood’s Clarke gate this morning at around 4 a.m.
While the activists took the width of Clarke Rd. and slowed the buses to a halt, police made no arrests, but instead beat the activists out of the streets using automatic weapons and police dogs so the deploying Soldiers could proceed.
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Press release from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights
Obama is scheduled to speak tomorrow night announcing the "end" of the war in Iraq, only one week after thousands of troops deployed from Ft. Hood to Iraq to continue the occupation. Re-branding war and empire is not change; but the story doesn't end there....jpg)
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Aug. 23, 2010 (KILLEEN, TX) - Five peace activists successfully blockaded six buses carrying Fort Hood Soldiers deploying to Iraq outside Fort Hood’s Clarke gate this morning at around 4 a.m.