tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83566014054694341112024-03-13T08:28:30.776-07:00The VigilVigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.comBlogger951125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-46918126694017779142015-10-25T22:49:00.003-07:002015-10-25T22:49:29.914-07:00Tony Blair Finally Confesses<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">
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Yes, the<a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tony-blair-finally-apologises-for-war-in-iraq/ar-BBmpyKs" target="_blank"> invasion and occupation of Iraq </a>was a mistake.</div>
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Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-7071815721325251742014-06-21T08:35:00.001-07:002014-06-21T08:35:10.130-07:00Time to Partition Iraq<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ayub-nuri/iraq-split-three-countries_b_5508207.html" target="_blank">Split Iraq into Three Parts</a></div>
Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-12722862512186229602014-05-01T08:36:00.000-07:002014-06-21T08:36:33.305-07:00Truth<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CKCvf8E7V1g" width="560"></iframe>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-34646847939178793572013-10-18T13:50:00.003-07:002013-10-18T13:51:51.997-07:00Caption, Please<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"> </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-44320838046844268742013-09-09T07:57:00.002-07:002013-09-09T15:43:33.453-07:00Syria & Kosova<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">I voted for Barack because he was the right man for President. And I have Obama's back on Syria.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoc08y5-1_I/Ui3ioMiV26I/AAAAAAAAGh8/4i3wYMi5P8E/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoc08y5-1_I/Ui3ioMiV26I/AAAAAAAAGh8/4i3wYMi5P8E/s1600/Capture.JPG" /></a><br />
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Where is the outrage? This recent use of the known Syrian stockpiles of sarin/mustard (or whatever) gas is just the last straw. It demands, at long last, some kind of international reaction to syrian crimes against humanity.<br />
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Remember the Wars of Yugoslavian Dissolution? In the 1990's, after interminal agonizing and hand wringing, the USA bombed Serbian army to smithereens. That eventually resulted in regime change and alone enabled the eventual arrest and prosecution of Slobodan Miloševic. Bosnia and Kosova are today far from perfect. But the flood of refugees was interrupted before it de-stabilized surrounding states. No American boots were on the ground and no American blood was lost.<br />
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Now Syria: 80,033 have been killed to keep this killer & and his family in power. The 2 million refugees that the U.N. now documents, which includes more than 1 million children, is placing a huge strain on the countries hosting them. At the end of August, some 716,000 Syrian refugees were registered or in the process of being registered in Lebanon, 515,000 in Jordan, 460,000 in Turkey, 168,000 in Iraq and 110,000 in Egypt. This is ethnic cleansing at its worse. <br />
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General Wesley Clark, who led the NATO campaign against Serbia forces in Kosova also <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/08/29/syria-wesley-clark-kosovo-nato/2726733/">has Obama's back</a>:</span></span><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7-K1L9kXlU8/Ui3mBnygqWI/AAAAAAAAGiI/KkKYLRTBjMc/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7-K1L9kXlU8/Ui3mBnygqWI/AAAAAAAAGiI/KkKYLRTBjMc/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a><blockquote>
But President Obama has rightly drawn a line at the use of chemical weapons. Some weapons are simply too inhuman to be used. And, as many of us learned during 1990s, in the words of President Clinton, "Where we can make a difference, we must act."</blockquote>
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Interestingly, General Clark also points out:</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
As in the case of Syria today, there was no United Nations resolution explicitly authorizing NATO to bomb Serbia. But NATO nations found other ways, including an earlier U.N. Security Council Resolutionpage 105, to legally justify what had to be done. In Syria, the violation of the 1925 Geneva prohibition against the use of chemical weapons is probably sufficient justification. (The <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000284013.pdf">fact that Russia used chemical weapons in Afghanistan in the 1980s</a> should be used to undercut Russian objections to strikes against Syria today.)</blockquote>
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">I opposed the war in Vietnam, and the invasion of Iraq. In the streets. But I am in favor of killing or ousting this hereditary dictator in Damascus by any means short of putting American boots on the ground. Drones, missiles, bombs. He's propped up by the Russians, Iranians, and Hezbollah. Bashar al-Assad is, at the moment, the world's bloodiest terrorist. Some people just need killing. If he can be disappeared, the Syrians can sort Al-Qaeda out w/o our assistance.</span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-63620921045407819832013-05-01T07:45:00.002-07:002013-05-01T07:58:50.288-07:00News Item: Mission Accomplished<b><u>The George W Bush Presidential Library Is Open to the Public</u></b><br />
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<b><u>Iraq on edge after raid fuels deadly unrest.</u></b><br />
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(Reuters)<br />
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More than 30 people were killed in gun battles between Iraqi forces and militants on Wednesday, a day after a raid on a Sunni protest ignited the fiercest clashes since American troops left the country.<br />
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The second day of fighting threatens to deepen sectarian rifts in Iraq where relations between Shia and Sunni Muslims are still very tense just a few years after inter-communal slaughter pushed the country close to civil war.<br />
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The clashes between gunmen and troops were the bloodiest since thousands of Sunni Muslims started protests in December to demand an end to what they see as marginalisation of their sect by Shia Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki.<br />
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On Tuesday, troops stormed one of the Sunni protest camps and more than 50 people were killed in the ensuing clashes which spread beyond the town of Hawija near Kirkuk, 170 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, to other areas.<br />
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Sporadic battles continued on Wednesday and hardline tribal leaders warned that protests could turn into open revolt against the Baghdad government even as Sunni moderates and foreign diplomats called for restraint.<br />
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Militants briefly took over a police station and an army base and burned a small Shia mosque in Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, before army helicopters drove gunmen out of the town.<br />
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At least 18 were killed, including 10 gunmen and five soldiers, officials said.<br />
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An ambush on an army convoy near Tikrit with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades killed three more soldiers. Three more troops were killed in an attack in Diyala province.<br />
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Later on Wednesday, clashes erupted in the northern city of Mosul, where gunmen launched an attack after using a mosque loudspeaker to call Sunnis to join their fight. At least three police and four soldiers died in the assault, officials said.<br />
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In a separate attack, at least eight people were also killed and 23 more wounded when a car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, police and medical sources said.<br />
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A surge in Sunni militant unrest has accompanied growing turmoil among the Shia , Sunni and Kurdish parties that make up Maliki’s power-sharing government.<br />
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A decade after the U.S.-led invasion, sectarian wounds are still raw in Iraq, where just a few a years ago violence between Shia militias and Sunni insurgents killed tens of thousands of people.<br />
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Sectarian bloodshed reached its height in Iraq in 2006-2007 after Al Qaeda bombed the Shia Askari shrine in Samarra, triggering a cycle of retaliation.<br />
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Thousands of Sunnis have been protesting since December, venting frustrations building up since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the empowerment of Iraq’s Shia majority through the ballot box.<br />
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‘We are staying restrained so far, but if government forces keep targeting us, no one can know what will happen in the future, and things could spin out of control,’ said Abdul Aziz Al Faris, a Sunni tribal leader in Hawija.<br />
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The two main Shia militias, Asaib Al Haq and Kataeb Hizbullah, appear to have stayed out of the latest violence. But former fighters said they could take up arms again if needed.<br />
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Maliki has set up a committee headed by a senior Sunni leader to investigate the violence at the Hawija camp, which left 23 people dead. He has promised to punish any excessive use of force and provide for victims’ families.<br />
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The prime minister has offered some concessions to Sunni protesters, including proposed reforms to tough anti-terrorism laws, but most Sunni leaders say they will not be enough to appease the demonstrators.<br />
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The Shia premier may also seek to consolidate his position before 2014 parliamentary elections by taking a tough stance against hardline Sunni.<br />
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That may be a risk which could further alienate Sunnis.<br />
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‘What we are now likely to see in western Iraq is a deteriorating cycle of confrontation between the central government and protesters that will benefit extremist groups,’ said Crispin Hawes at Eurasia Group.<br />
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Iraq’s Sunni community is deeply divided between moderates more keen to work within Maliki’s government and those who see resistance as the only way to confront Baghdad.<br />
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‘The Maliki government’s aggression against our people in Hawija has forced us to take our uprising on another course,’ said Shaikh Qusai Al Zain, a protest leader in Anbar province.<br />
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‘We call upon all tribes and armed groups to begin supporting our brothers in Hawija.’<br />
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</span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-21461110377808257112013-03-19T07:30:00.001-07:002013-03-19T07:31:07.672-07:00Ten Years? It's Really Recent History. . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-38270383392791360682012-12-27T09:48:00.001-08:002012-12-27T10:02:44.507-08:00Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense!<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Tom Friedman <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/opinion/friedman-give-chuck-a-chance.html#h[]">Give Chuck a Chance</a>:</span></span></br></br><blockquote><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DDjzvzk_nDc/UNyNDdCG3-I/AAAAAAAAADY/_WvzegdH4sM/s1600/Hagel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DDjzvzk_nDc/UNyNDdCG3-I/AAAAAAAAADY/_WvzegdH4sM/s400/Hagel.JPG" width="266" /></a>In case you haven’t heard, President Obama is considering appointing Chuck Hagel, a former United States senator from Nebraska and a Purple Heart winner, as the next secretary of defense — and this has triggered a minifirefight among Hagel critics and supporters. I am a Hagel supporter. I think he would make a fine secretary of defense — precisely because some of his views are not “mainstream.” I find the opposition to him falling into two baskets: the disgusting and the philosophical. It is vital to look at both to appreciate why Hagel would be a good fit for Defense at this time.</br></br>The disgusting is the fact that because Hagel once described the Israel lobby as the “Jewish lobby” (it also contains some Christians). And because he has rather bluntly stated that his job as a U.S. senator was not to take orders from the Israel lobby but to advance U.S. interests, he is smeared as an Israel-hater at best and an anti-Semite at worst. If ever Israel needed a U.S. defense secretary who was committed to Israel’s survival, as Hagel has repeatedly stated — but who was convinced that ensuring that survival didn’t mean having America go along with Israel’s self-destructive drift into settling the West Bank and obviating a two-state solution — it is now.</br></br>I am certain that the vast majority of U.S. senators and policy makers quietly believe exactly what Hagel believes on Israel — that it is surrounded by more implacable enemies than ever and needs and deserves America’s backing. But, at the same time, this Israeli government is so spoiled and has shifted so far to the right that it makes no effort to take U.S. interests into account by slowing its self-isolating settlement adventure. And it’s going to get worse. Israel’s friends need to understand that the center-left in Israel is dying. The Israeli election in January will bring to power Israeli rightists who never spoke at your local Israel Bonds dinner. These are people who want to annex the West Bank. Bibi Netanyahu is a dove in this crowd. The only thing standing between Israel and national suicide any more is America and its willingness to tell Israel the truth. But most U.S. senators, policy makers and Jews prefer to stick their heads in the sand, because confronting Israel is so unpleasant and politically dangerous. Hagel at least cares enough about Israel to be an exception.</br></br>No one captured the despair in Israel better than Bradley Burston, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who wrote the other day: “This year, for Hanukkah, I want one person running this country, this Israel, to show me one scrap of light. One move — any move — for freedom, for all the peoples who live here. One step — no matter how slight — in the direction of a better future. What makes this Hanukkah different from all others? It’s the dark. It’s the sense that this country — beset by enemies, beset by itself — has locked down every single door against the future, and sealed shut every last window against hope. ... This country has begun to feel like a lamp whose body is cracked and whose light seems all but spent. On these long nights, we can make out little but an occupation growing ever more permanent, and a democracy growing ever more temporary.”</br></br>So, yes, put me in the camp of those who think that a few more bluntly outspoken friends of Israel in the U.S. cabinet would be a good thing.</br></br>The legitimate philosophical criticism of Hagel concerns his stated preferences for finding a negotiated solution to Iran’s nuclear program, his willingness to engage Hamas to see if it can be moved from its extremism, his belief that the Pentagon budget must be cut, and his aversion to going to war again in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, because he has been to war and knows how much can go wrong. Whether you agree with these views or not, it would be nothing but healthy to have them included in the president’s national security debates.</br></br>For instance, it’s impossible for me to see how America can secure its interests in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and Lebanon without ending the U.S.-Iran cold war in the Middle East. I’m skeptical that it’s possible. I think the Iranian regime needs hostility with America to justify its hold on power. But with sanctions really biting Iran, I’d like to test and test again whether a diplomatic deal is possible before any military strike. I think Hamas is dedicated to Israel’s destruction and has been a disaster for the Palestinians. But it is a deeply rooted organization. It controls Gaza. It is not going away. I don’t think America or Israel have anything to lose by engaging Hamas to see if a different future is possible. I think the world needs a strong America to maintain global stability. But the “fiscal cliff” tells you that our defense budget is coming down and we need to cut with a smart strategic plan. I think it would be useful to have a defense secretary who starts with that view and does not have to be bludgeoned into it.</br></br>So, yes, Hagel is out of the mainstream. That is exactly why his voice would be valuable right now.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Obama should grow a pair and quit letting McCain having a veto over the cabinet.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-30271624058006962792012-10-09T07:35:00.001-07:002012-10-09T07:40:13.215-07:00Top Romney Advisor Supports Negotiating With Terrorists<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">A top advisor to the Romney campaign has argues that the United States must at times negotiate with some of the world's most objectionable actors, including terrorists, rogue states, and even the Taliban.<br />
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In his new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-Evil-When-Terrorists-ebook/dp/B003MZ14OQ">Negotiating with Evil</a> (2010), former U. S. diplomat named Mitchell Reiss praises the Obama administration for opening up channels of communication with the Taliban in 2009. However Reiss is critical of the Obama team for fumbling those interactions.</span></span>
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<blockquote><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YT-5ZGD1Rhw/UHQ24ZUPZGI/AAAAAAAAGYk/BVjihXCnG_4/s1600/book.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YT-5ZGD1Rhw/UHQ24ZUPZGI/AAAAAAAAGYk/BVjihXCnG_4/s200/book.jpeg" width="133" /></a>. . . . . .The president appeared to recognize that the United States could not kill or capture every Taliban member. Some would have to be co-opted, accommodated, or bargained with in order for Washington to accomplish its mission. . . . .<br />
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. . . . .The United States has numerous examples of leaders engaging with terrorists and rogue regimes. . . . .<br />
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. . . . .American presidents have negotiated with terrorists and rogue regimes to secure the release of hostages, to arrange temporary ceasefires, and to explore whether a more permanent truce might be possible, although they have sometimes gone to great lengths to disguise their direct involvement. . . . .<br />
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. . . . The most powerful reason not to engage with certain enemies is the judgment that no amount of concessions will pacify their hostile behavior. Attempts to do so are usually termed ‘appeasement' and may result in disaster. . . .</blockquote><br />
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Reiss argues that the Taliban is not a monolithic adversary, and that it does not have territorial ambitions that extend beyond Afghanistan.</span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-31062878986346693812012-08-23T18:24:00.001-07:002012-08-23T19:11:07.176-07:00White Entitlement and White Rage<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sTIYT8rgUPQ/UDbYNNdPfyI/AAAAAAAAGX0/yWNw0ITEq1s/s1600/1st+Lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sTIYT8rgUPQ/UDbYNNdPfyI/AAAAAAAAGX0/yWNw0ITEq1s/s320/1st+Lady.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">I have been much enraged of late. As usual the culprit has been the idiocy of my fellow Americans. But my mature mind is easily dissuaded from giving expression to my outrage. 'Have the wisdom', it says to me, 'to see what little you can change'.
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<br />But two items cause me to set pen to paper.<br />
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<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">The First Lady met with victims of the Sikh Temple Shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
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<br />Readers will recall that last August 5th a gunman with ties to a white supremacist group strode opened fire at the temple. Six Sikhs were killed and three others injured.
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<br />Ms Obama's message was one of condolence and apology.<br />
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The second item was<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LTyilHCGxHM/UDbYOL82_yI/AAAAAAAAGX8/hKydP4vmK9U/s1600/American+Freedom+Defense+Initiative.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LTyilHCGxHM/UDbYOL82_yI/AAAAAAAAGX8/hKydP4vmK9U/s320/American+Freedom+Defense+Initiative.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span><span style="color: #66ffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> reading of these advertisements which </span><span style="color: #66ffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">are posted along the Connecticut commuter lines by Pamela Geller of <a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/" target="_blank">Atlas Shrugs</a>.</span><br />
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These two photos, placed together, represent one of the (there are many) biggest blind spots which afflict American politics.<br />
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A recent article by Priyamvada Gopal in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/14/privilege-blindness-roots-of-terrorism">Manchester Guardian</a>, <u>How Privilege-Blindness Stops Us Understanding The Roots of Terrorism</u> which goes a long way in explaining the origins of this myopia. Here are the money paras:</span></span>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
While mass killing always has a madness to its method, white supremacists are all too often declared to be psychopathic loners, where others are seen as part of organised ideological networks. Instead, there were suggestions that Page had targeted Sikhs "unfairly", alongside irrelevant discussions about Sikhism. Chances are that Representative Peter King will not hold hearings, as he did for Muslims, on the "extent of radicalisation in the American white Christian community and that community's response".<br />
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While black and, more recently, Muslim anger are widely seen as the problematic pathologies of our times, and thus subjected to the full weight of sociological, scriptural, political and even economic analysis, declared white rage is routinely relegated to the fringes, written off as the result of individual psychopathy, and eliciting passing interest only after blood is shed. <br />
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Supremacists warn that there are "thousands of other angry white men like Page out there, the vast majority of them unknown". Yet as former department of homeland security analyst Daryl Johnson points out, an extensive report on rightwing terrorism, including white extremism, was angrily repudiated by Congress in 2009 and the number of security analysts devoted to domestic non-Islamic terrorism slashed to just one.<br />
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This marginalising of the real and present danger of white terrorism at a time when other forms of religious or nationalist militancy are under unprecedented scrutiny has to do with how "whiteness" itself operates.<br />
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Sociologists note that in Europe and America, whiteness and the privileges that have accrued to it historically are reliant on invisibility. To have white privilege is to not identify or be identified as racially specific unlike, say, "black athletes", "Asian entrepreneurs" or just an ethnic minority air passenger.<br />
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White supremacists make it difficult to uphold the individualist axiom that society is now "post-racial" or "colour blind". By asserting racial affiliation and calling for (the perpetuation of) an endangered white domination, they paradoxically undermine a more quotidian white power which, writes scholar Richard Dyer, "secures its dominance" by remaining ostensibly featureless and general. It can sit aloof from "multiculturalism", which is deemed a special pleading thing that only ethnic minorities do.<br />
.....<br />
No murderer represents a community. But all killers, however psychopathic, act in a context, whether of economic deprivation, racism, militarisation, gun proliferation or lack of mental healthcare. To minimise these social realities in favour of individual psychopathy condemns us all to shooting in the dark.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">There is no light at the end of this tunnel.</span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-42644635955611596422012-07-29T07:52:00.001-07:002012-07-29T07:54:08.602-07:00Putin & Assad: Where Is the Outrage?<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">I am baffled as to why there aren't world-wide demonstrations against Putin's Russia. There should be hundreds of thousand marching in Paris, London, NYC, Bonn? Putin has blocked effective U.N. action at every step, because he has a personal & vested interest in keeping whoever is in power, in power. Even in the case of this hereditary dictatorship.</span></span>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1nl8ZwTMTro/UBVN0rHOAGI/AAAAAAAAGXU/r_d-DRmexZs/s1600/Syrian+Blood.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1nl8ZwTMTro/UBVN0rHOAGI/AAAAAAAAGXU/r_d-DRmexZs/s1600/Syrian+Blood.JPG" /></a></div>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-48111459552466480512012-07-27T07:31:00.001-07:002012-07-27T07:33:56.271-07:00Insurgent attacks spike in Afghanistan | The AfPak Channel<a href="http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/27/insurgent_attacks_spike_in_afghanistan#.UBKmHiUOb_Q.blogger">Insurgent attacks spike in Afghanistan | The AfPak Channel</a><br />
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<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"></span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-40919165510127576862012-07-24T04:49:00.000-07:002012-07-24T04:56:04.057-07:00News Item: Afghan policemen Defect to Taliban in Farah Province<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tLCJhBqptk8/UA6L6Wnx-jI/AAAAAAAAGWY/plJEpf4EG34/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tLCJhBqptk8/UA6L6Wnx-jI/AAAAAAAAGWY/plJEpf4EG34/s200/Capture.JPG" width="200" /></a>An Afghan police commander and 13 junior officers have joined the Taliban in the western Afghan province of Farah, in what correspondents say could be the biggest defection by police.<br /><br />
They say the commander, named as Mirwais, was in charge of a 20-man checkpoint when he defected on Sunday.<br /><br />The men are said to have taken heavy weaponry, radios and police vehicles including US-made armoured Humvees.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18965123" target="_blank">BBC</a></div>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-55550860043836860392012-06-01T07:17:00.001-07:002012-06-01T07:27:55.232-07:00Rumsfeld Is Still Lying<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5QElfEeKd6s/T8jQ-uWGwzI/AAAAAAAAADI/nrSb1Yn_AFE/s1600/000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5QElfEeKd6s/T8jQ-uWGwzI/AAAAAAAAADI/nrSb1Yn_AFE/s320/000.JPG" width="320" /></a>By Glenn Thrush in
<a href="http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/05/rumsfeld-called-off-bin-laden-raid-despite-downplaying-122287.html">Politico 44</a>
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">Mackenzie Weinger <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/75826.html">just posted a comment</a> from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld questioning just how tough a call President Obama made when he gave the kill order to the SEAL team targeting Osama bin Laden.
“You mentioned there was a tough decision,” Rumsfeld said on Tuesday night on Fox News. “I don’t think it was a tough decision. We’ve seen a lot of instances where presidents over the years have had to make decisions like that.”
But six years ago, Rumsfeld himself called off a major raid in Pakistan, citing many of the same factors that Obama administration officials complicated the OBL mission.
In 2007, Mark Mazetti of the Times reported:</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials. </blockquote>
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The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations. </blockquote>
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But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected an 11th-hour appeal by Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Mr. Rumsfeld decided that the operation, which had ballooned from a small number of military personnel and C.I.A. operatives to several hundred, was cumbersome and put too many American lives at risk, the current and former officials said. He was also concerned that it could cause a rift with Pakistan, an often reluctant ally that has barred the American military from operating in its tribal areas, the officials said. </blockquote>
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The decision to halt the planned “snatch and grab” operation frustrated some top intelligence officials and members of the military’s secret Special Operations units, who say the United States missed a significant opportunity to try to capture senior members of Al Qaeda.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-28518172499515668722012-05-21T17:27:00.001-07:002012-05-21T17:42:10.535-07:00Outta Afghanistan Now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"></span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-5312418543514957582012-05-19T11:26:00.003-07:002012-05-19T13:52:57.391-07:00Grover's Grand Ol' Party<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Treasonous Congressional Republicans would rather take down Obama than do their jobs.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BRwYALwSyt8/T7ft6GWcyjI/AAAAAAAAGUw/Cbn10uWhwnY/s1600/GOP+2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BRwYALwSyt8/T7ft6GWcyjI/AAAAAAAAGUw/Cbn10uWhwnY/s1600/GOP+2012.JPG" /></a>Recently, we learned that leaders of the Republican Party gathered together on the evening of January 20th 2009, immediately after Obama was sworn in as our nation's President, to devise their hateful strategies of obstruction, lying, manipulation, distortion, character assassination and demagoguery all in the name of "keeping millions out of work to put one man out of a job."<br />
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Given that the leadership of the Congressional Republicans publicly declared that their only goal is: "... to deny Obama a second term, no matter the cost to the country", shouldn't they be found guilty of lying under oath as well as of attempting to overthrow the legitimate government of the United States of America, and possibly Grand Theft Larceny? After all, they continue to accept their generous salaries, extravagant health care and drug coverage, hefty retirement plans, and all the other "perks" all paid for by we, the tax-paying citizens, while doing everything they can to end the "Grand Experiment that is America".<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hkkqUOi8GAU/T7gHFLCoxAI/AAAAAAAACBA/kZ6l4tZUPhA/s1600/Jobs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hkkqUOi8GAU/T7gHFLCoxAI/AAAAAAAACBA/kZ6l4tZUPhA/s320/Jobs.JPG" width="320" /></a>They have abdicated their oaths of office, instead paying obeisance to Grover Norquist, an unelected arch-conservative who advocates restricting voting rights to "the landed gentry", and who is successfully holding our nation's economic recovery hostage.<br />
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It is shameful and obscene that the Republican Party is so beholden to ideology that it is willing to lie and obfuscate, filibuster and demonize those trying to right our sinking Ship of State that is foundering because of the Bush-created Depression that is the Republican legacy of so-called leadership.<br />
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Americans need to awaken from the toxicity with which the Republican's constant fear-mongering and demonizing of differences has infected our citizenry. We need to awaken to the very real destructive forces within the Republican Party that threaten to destroy the American Dream by returning us to the days of Dickens.<br />
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Pay attention to what Republicans do when in office - remember: their actions are what matters - not their empty promises.<br />
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"Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!"</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-35653074320432505742012-05-01T08:42:00.000-07:002012-05-20T08:47:51.180-07:00May Day 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"></span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-46245184531998009152012-03-21T08:29:00.001-07:002012-03-21T08:29:56.383-07:00A Good Question<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GBPb7rRuR0c/T2nzqDi6_OI/AAAAAAAAGUQ/YQYa-xpHqkU/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="443" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GBPb7rRuR0c/T2nzqDi6_OI/AAAAAAAAGUQ/YQYa-xpHqkU/s640/Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-82427401441792530912012-02-22T08:47:00.002-08:002012-02-26T08:54:48.153-08:00Marie Colvin, R.I.P.<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G3VrQ-1CJa4/T0Ua7C85GeI/AAAAAAAAGUE/4paXCwcE1Xs/s1600/Marie+Colvin-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="371" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G3VrQ-1CJa4/T0Ua7C85GeI/AAAAAAAAGUE/4paXCwcE1Xs/s640/Marie+Colvin-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-90981851406989321102012-01-26T08:47:00.001-08:002012-01-26T08:47:44.679-08:00Timely Debate<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/IC2BirvL44A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-23086762601533082002012-01-03T08:43:00.000-08:002012-01-03T08:43:42.896-08:00What Motivates Republicans<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">Republican voters are divided into two categories: informed and clueless. The latter are pawns for the former.<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EPDVXgvN3Wc/TwMv8Zm0cPI/AAAAAAAAGTo/VQIfPju7MOQ/s1600/Fisher+Inv.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="538" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EPDVXgvN3Wc/TwMv8Zm0cPI/AAAAAAAAGTo/VQIfPju7MOQ/s640/Fisher+Inv.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
This advertisement, which I found in the comment section of another blog this morning, is an iconic symbol of what motivates informed Republican voters. </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-41153472368163680392011-12-28T11:23:00.000-08:002011-12-28T11:40:18.978-08:00Say 'Hello' to the Next (Democratic) Senator from Nebraska!<h1 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1d2875; font-family: Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.15em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/31/309366/former-gop-senator-chuck-hagel-republican-party-has-an-astounding-lack-of-responsible-leadership/" style="color: rgba(29, 40, 117, 0.746094); text-decoration: none;">Former GOP Senator Chuck Hagel: Republican Party Has ‘An Astounding Lack Of Responsible Leadership’</a></h1><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-26-PQG67hPg/Tvts9d6dF_I/AAAAAAAAGTc/H9gd9eu6pOQ/s1600/Hagel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-26-PQG67hPg/Tvts9d6dF_I/AAAAAAAAGTc/H9gd9eu6pOQ/s1600/Hagel.JPG" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">From <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/31/309366/former-gop-senator-chuck-hagel-republican-party-has-an-astounding-lack-of-responsible-leadership/">Think Progress</a> of 31-August 2011:</span></span><blockquote>Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) can’t muster any praise for his Republican colleagues’ behavior in Congress over the past few months. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hagel blasted GOP leadership for their “irresponsible actions” during the debt ceiling debacle, noting that “I think about some of the presidents we’ve had on my side of the aisle — Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., go right through them, Eisenhower — they would be stunned.”<br />
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“Disgusted” with the debt ceiling negotiations, Hagel called it “an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican party, and I say that as a Republican.” “Does anyone not believe what’s happened here the last couple weeks in the market was not a complete, direct result of the lack of confidence that came out of that folly, that embarrassment?” he asked. Watch it:</blockquote><iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1-pCoG6hDY8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<blockquote>Asked about Tea Party influence, Hagel said the Republican party is too captive to a movement that is “very ideological” and “very narrow.” “I’ve never seen so much intolerance as I’ve seen today,” he said. Later surveying the GOP 2012 field, Hagel said the party may need to rebuild, agreeing that Republicans are now “too far to the right.”</blockquote><span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">Come on, Progressive Democrats! Swallow your pride! Just ask this decorated Vietnam veteran and revered ex-Senator to come out of retirement and serve his country for six more years. He's not perfect. But everything that comes out of Nebraska is relative. </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-46920824576725369762011-12-22T09:04:00.000-08:002011-12-22T09:05:49.508-08:00I Don't "Hate" Republicans<span style="color: #66ffff;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">I say that for the record.<br />
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But I love this music </span></span>Vigilantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07640246609540057997noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-38530616844429083142011-12-17T16:19:00.000-08:002011-12-17T16:24:46.429-08:00Standing Up for What Is Reich<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Robert Reich has worked in a lot of big white buildings -- in the Senate, as an intern to Robert F. Kennedy; in the office of then-Solicitor General Robert Bork; in the Ford and Carter administrations; and as labor secretary to President Clinton. He is currently teaching at UC Berkeley. His course is entitled "Wealth and Poverty". Patt Morrison published an interview with professor Reich in todays' <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison-robert-reich-20111217,0,6937665,full.column">Los Angeles Times</a>. His answers rang true to me.</span>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Occupy Wall street has had a huge effect on the national conversation.</span><br />
<blockquote>
President Obama's speech [in Kansas] focused on precisely the themes the Occupiers have been emphasizing: the concentration of income, wealth and political power at the top, the failure of big corporations and Wall Street to keep the economy going for the rest of us. I don't think this sort of speech would have happened had it not been for the Occupy movement and the change in public debate it's created.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Class is becoming less and less a dirty word in our lexicon.</span><br />
<blockquote>
Polls show most Americans today don't believe their children are going to live as well as they do. A large percentage feel the game is rigged against them. Upward mobility is now far more difficult to achieve. So the issue of class has emerged as very real and very tangible. For most of us, the America we knew was one in which anyone could make it with enough gumption and guts and drive. We truly believed that America was a place where there were no class distinctions, although we saw the plight of the poor, particularly poor minorities. What's new is this sense that a relatively small number of people have rigged the game or loaded the dice in such a way that their positions of power and privilege are entrenched.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Many wealthy conservatives equate capitalism with democracy, but in fact they are not related.</span><br />
<blockquote>
We think of ourselves as a nation that practices democratic capitalism, but sometimes capitalism and democracy pull in opposite directions .... Essentially, every time the excesses of capitalism threaten to destroy it, we save capitalism from itself. We did it in the Progressive era, we did it in the New Deal, and hopefully we are at least beginning to do it now. Ironically, it's progressives and Democrats who take the lead in saving capitalism from itself.
The question is how bad things have to get before average people begin mobilizing.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What happened to cross-party relationships like your good friendship with Wyoming Republican Sen. Alan Simpson?</span><br />
<blockquote>
Newt Gingrich. When Gingrich came to town as speaker, he brought in a group of people who were far more ideological and frankly unpleasant. The tone of Washington changed abruptly in January of 1995.
I had never seen anything like it, and remember, I [came] to Washington in 1967. It was as if a dark cloud had descended over Washington and it's still there. I blame Gingrich -- not entirely, but he led the charge.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Will we ever recover economically?</span><br />
<blockquote>
We can't go backward, but the economy of the 1950s, '60s and early '70s was far more equal, and America grew faster in those years on average than it's grown since. If you look at Germany over the last 10 years, until the past year, you see rapid growth combined with a far more equal distribution of [the] gains and very high wages going to average working people. What's the secret? Two things: Germany has focused intensively on public education, particularly skills that are relevant for the new high-tech world economy; and secondly, Germany has a much stronger labor movement than the United States.
There's huge skepticism, if not downright cynicism, about any large institution today. Yet the questions being asked are moral questions about what we Americans owe each other as members of the same society, what we should expect from the major institutions of our society, how to reverse trends that seem to reward the wrong people, often for malfeasance or nonfeasance. These are all moral judgments about how lopsided our economy and our society has become.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Are we entering a "Kumbaya" period like the 1960's?</span><br />
<blockquote>
The anti-Vietnam War movement, the civil rights movement -- those were not "Kumbaya" moments. Those were hard challenges. A friend of mine was murdered in Mississippi for trying to register voters. This was the opposite of "Kumbaya."
Mickey Schwerner. I was always very short for my age and older guys help[ed] protect me from the bullies, and Mickey was one of my protectors. When he was killed by the real bullies, it was a transformative experience for me. It opened my eyes to how important it is to give people the power to stop the bullies. I date my commitment to these issues to that summer of '64.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8356601405469434111.post-71674796513122623642011-12-04T21:05:00.000-08:002011-12-05T07:57:28.162-08:00Notes on Newt<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Hey, Vig: I need help. Perhaps you or your readers can show me the way to solve my longing.<br />
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I want to be able to talk straight with Republicans about the origins of today's nasty political climate. We are, as Chris Hayes recently pointed out, "living in the Age of Newt". I want to see and hear and participate in a dialogue that names without putting the other person on the defensive. I long for a way to truth-tell that might sting, but doesn't drive away the other person who sees our current situation differently.<br />
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The thing I'm struggling with is how can I, and we, talk to our fellow citizens about who is really doing what to whom and why?<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0qCHkFIhsfo/TtxWuVoLkAI/AAAAAAAAGTM/xrCIN4-yygM/s1600/Newt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0qCHkFIhsfo/TtxWuVoLkAI/AAAAAAAAGTM/xrCIN4-yygM/s320/Newt.JPG" width="320" /></a>The Republicans have absorbed Newt Gingrich's strategy for winning politically in America. In the 1980's, Newt used to send out "How to Run Successful Political Campaigns" to his fellow Republican politicians. Newt recommended using positive words to describe oneself: "entrepreneur"; "forward thinking"; "being creative".<br />
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When referring to Democratic opponents, Newt exhorted his fellow politicians to call their opponents "corrupt", to "create a scandal" - whether there was evidence of such behavior, or not. This strategy was supplemented by Newt's daily issuance of the "Daily Talking Points" that were to be repeated throughout the day, preferably into a microphone, eventually imprinting upon one's unconscious, even when it was recognizable as merely empty rhetoric.<br />
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This conscious demonization of members of the "Loyal Opposition", the Democrats in Congress, consists, too often, of scurrilous attributions of wrong-doing that have no factual basis in reality and which the MSM (main stream media) never bothers to fact-check, having long-ago abdicated their responsibility to hold the powerful accountable to the citizenry.<br />
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Because they are never questioned, nor the true facts publicly stated, the Republican Party's Spin Meisters and their constant litany of lies are unchallenged - eventually becoming accepted political history. Worst of all, the incessant repetition of the day's "Talking Points" further cement the new reality.<br />
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Today's pale remnants of the once honorable profession of journalism, instead, focus on the "Titillation Factor" that will sell papers. In this age of "fair and balanced" news, the innuendos and the lies are permitted to stand unchallenged - eventually becoming accepted political history. Worst of all, the incessant repetition of the day's "Talking Points" further cement the new reality.<br />
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The Republicans speak their distortions and lies with one clear, clever voice. Democrats quibble over minutia, cowering on the sidelines of power they refuse, with one or two notable exceptions, to speak of the "elephant in the room".and fearfully avoid calling out the Republicans. The Democrats, still seem shell-shocked at how the Republicans can so glibly spin their fabricated lies and demonization's of them...picture Lucy snatching away the football after Charlie Brown has committed to kicking it.<br />
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Too many Democrats still don't "get it" - the Republican strategists have decided they will send this country into bankruptcy before they will cooperate with Democrats and work together to solve America's pressing problems that are growing worse and more urgently in need of creative and constructive solutions achieved through negotiations and compromising with every passing day.<br />
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Newt, and his cohorts, are poised to steal our Democracy from under our noses. The Republican strategizers have scrupulously followed their plan to destroy our government, because to them, government is the problem, not the solution.<br />
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Elected to Governorships and state offices by promising to create jobs, what have these Republican governors done with their powers? They have systematically attempted to defund any regulatory body that remains at all viable, to deny a woman the right to control her own reproductive rights, to dismantle all unions, and are arduously scheming to deny the right to vote to as many young people, older people, and all others whom they fear might vote democratic, as possible - this after the debacle of the unregulated banks drove America in its knees, and after sending our sons and daughters into two unfunded and unwinnable wars.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HE65l7bvQ6c/TtxWKsBEHBI/AAAAAAAAGTE/PEPzbx_JZ7Y/s1600/Liberty12042011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HE65l7bvQ6c/TtxWKsBEHBI/AAAAAAAAGTE/PEPzbx_JZ7Y/s1600/Liberty12042011.JPG" /></a>Our beloved country is mired down in mistrust and fury at our elected congressional members who do nothing to acknowledge that our country's government is terribly broken. Nothing is getting done - the tea party circuses blame the growing economic gulf on "lazy people who just want us to pay their way through life"; Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell tell the 99% of us to just "eat cake"and get a job because their fat cat contributors need to have ever more tax breaks to salt away in mattresses so the 99% had better pay their taxes; and the Democrats quibble over which song to play as they stand, fiddle in hand but silent, watching our beloved country go down in flames.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5