GDAE Podcast - Episode 36

October 31, 2010 - Released

Left / Right Populism - Part VII


Can genuine conservatives and progressives clean up our democratic institutions?

• Motivation for Reaching out to the Political Right on Issues of Common Concern: Preventing the Drift toward "Barbarism".


• Right-Wing TV/Radio Incitement: The case of Byron Williams who attempted to murder eleven people in San Francisco after listening to Glenn Beck and others.


• Walden Bello: A historical perspective on the Drift toward "Barbarism" and its relation to the Movtiation to reach out to genuine conservatives.


• 2006 Conservative Essay: "Now Is the Time for a Left-Right Alliance: A rebel alliance already exists that could stop Bush administration attacks on the Constitution."


• Prosecution of Bush Officials: Beating the drum with the help of revelations from WikiLeaks of US complicity with abuse and torture.


• Iraqi Blogger Raed Jarrar: Personal experience with WikiLeaks revelations.

Start with Episode 29 for Full Series on Left/Right Populist Alliance
or
Start with Episode 30 for Quick 20-minute Kickoff

Play Episode 36 from this page:


Click to Download Episode 36.

Play Episode 35 from this page:


Click to Download Episode 35.

Listen to Part V in the series, Episode 34:


Listen to Part IV in the series, Episode 33:


Listen to Part III in the series, Episode 32:


Listen to Part II in the series, Episode 31:


Listen to Part I in the series, Episode 30, (20-minute abridged version):


Previous Episodes & 60-Sec Promo:
GDAE Podcast 60-Second Promo

GDAE Podcast Episode 30 April 30, 2010 - Common Interests on the Right & Left
GDAE Podcast Episode 29 March 31, 2010 - Right Left Populist Unity?
GDAE Podcast Episode 28 March 7, 2010
GDAE Podcast Episode 27 February 21, 2010
GDAE Podcast Episode 26 February 7, 2010
GDAE Podcast Episode 25 January 19, 2010
GDAE Podcast Episode 24 December 31, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 23 November 29, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 22 November 11, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 21 October 18, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 20 October 9, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 19 September 27, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 18 September 16, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 17 August 31, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 16 July 30, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 15 June 17, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 14 June 10, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 13 May 22, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 12May 5, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 11 April 24, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 10 April 9, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 9March 28, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 8 March 15, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 7 March 1, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 6 February 17, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 5 February 6, 2009
GDAE Podcast Episode 4 January 24, 2009

Sources:

GDAEman.Com

Hammer Fox

It's easy to raise your voice against Faux News Corp.

Step 1: Watch the following to get your blood boiling. If you don't care about Michelle Obama, imagine the subject is you.

Faux News Propaganda on Michelle Obama

Step 2: Sign the petition a small, easy gesture... one you can be sure the right-wing ditto-heads are taking in the opposite direction (Push Back!).

Step 3: Contact Faux News and give them a piece of your mind.

Faux News Channel
1211 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 301-3000
Fax: (212) 301-4229
comments@foxnews.com

List of Email addresses for all Fox News Channel programs

Special Report with Brit Hume: Special@foxnews.com
FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com
The O'Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com
Hannity & Colmes: Hannity@foxnews.com, Colmes@foxnews.com
On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com

Step 4: Tell your friends to beat the drum on Faux.

Democrats Reject Fox as Illegitimate

The story reads that "the Nevada State Democratic Party is pulling out of a controversial presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 14 in Reno." But the story should read that a grassroots movement pressured the National Democratic Party to reject Fox.

This rejection goes far beyond a "snubbing" of FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, though Nevada Democratic party chairman Tom Collins and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) didn't pass on the opportunity. No. This rejection is far deeper in the minds of many people. It is a challenge to the legitimacy of Faux News.

John Edwards deserves significant credit for taking a principled stand early on that led to the unraveling. MoveOn.org collected more than 265,000 petition signatures sent to the Nevada State Democratic Party. MoveOn.org also deserves credit for laying the groundwork with their distribution campaign of Glenn Greenwald's documentary "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism."

This represents significant evidence of a maturing social movement; MoveOn.org is building on social capital invested over several years. First, they have a legitimate base that is truely mainstream (not extreme) and grassroots (read small-d democratic, not a phony corporate front group).

Second, the MoveOn base and others have been educated by documentaries like Greenwald's, and web sites like News Hounds whose motto is "We Watch Fox So You Don't Have to."

Third, the buzz about Fox's lack of credibility has reached the ears of politicians. The popular discontent is so... popular that politicians are willing to risk giving a major media outlet like Fox the snub. Given the weak knees of politicians toward the media, this is a truly significant shift.

Though Fox Vice President David Rhodes spun it to say, the "Nevada Democratic Caucus... appears to be controlled by radical fringe, out-of-state in interest groups," the fair and balanced version of the news is that the Nation rejected Fox's role in co-hosting a presidential primary debate of national significance. A deeper analysis is that the Nation is rejecting Fox. Media Life Magazine reported a 24% drop between 2005 and 2006.

Fox will need to moderate its abuse of journalism or it will find itself disregarded by the public.
.

Bush Leading the Nation into Another Trap: Iran

A picture is worth... a hell of a lot when you're contemplating a war-of-choice on Iran. See how big Iran is compared to Iraq, where Stratfor's George Friedman has proclaimed that the US military has lost the war? Web LINK

See tiny Lebanon, where Israel used Covert Commandos, a Navel Blockade, surgical airstrikes consisting of about 7,000 bombs, and boots on the ground? Israel failed, but not after sullying its reputation by managing to kill civilians at a ratio of about 75% with a child-kill ratio of about 33%. Israel has also placed itself at risk of war crimes and having to pay to rebuild the infrastructure of Lebanon. See: Hezbollah Clearly the Winner.



Read FauxNews' military experts and you would think that using a couple of the available military option on Iran is a good idea. Fox: Military Options The options sound familiar: Use Covert Commandos, a Naval Blockade, surgical strikes. Even the FauxNews military experts shy away from the "boots-on-the-ground" option, because, "The U.S. military is already stretched thin with its commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq."

In other words, the FauxNews proposal is to attack Iran using at most three of the four options used unsuccessfully by Israel in teeny weeny Lebanon, against an irregular militia of 2,500.

Remember during the first 2004 debate, Bush admitted we fell into a trap, "we thought we'd whip more of them going in. But because Tommy Franks did such a great job in planning the operation, we moved rapidly, and a lot of the Baathists and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms and disappeared. I thought they would stay and fight, but they didn't. And now we're fighting them now. And it's hard work."

Bush led the Nation into a trap in Iraq. Look at the map, and the size of Iran. Bush and FauxNews are leading the Nation into another trap in Iran.

Ignorance of the Law is no Excuse

We've all heard, or experienced, a similar story. Someone commits a traffic violation or other legal infraction. The person honestly didn't know that they were breaking a law. The police officer and court system says, "Sorry. You're guilty. Ignorance of the law is not a legitimate excuse."

Recently, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting the sanctioned torture of detainees by the US Military. AP Article According to the AP article, "A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said the military is reviewing its procedures regarding detainees following a Supreme Court ruling that the Geneva Conventions should apply in the conflict with al-Qaida."

It sounds like the military and political establishment are gearing up to say, "Oh. We didn't know that the Geneva Conventions applied. Now that we know, we'll follow them, but you can't blame us for our past actions."

Sorry, "Ignorantia juris non excusat," latin for ignorance of law is no excuse, is a long standing maxum that applies in this case.

More Information:

Human Rights Watch Press Release

Human Rights Watch 53-page Report by John Sifton, “No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq”

Update:

Once we had laws that made it OK to own slaves. Now Congress has passed a law to make it OK, retrospectively, to violate the Geneva Conventions. (The Military Commissions Act signed into law October 17, 2006.)

I can't understand how they can legislate themselves out of this one. It's like a fox gets caught in the hen house. Then the fox puts on a chicken suit while the farmer is standing there and pretends he isn't a fox.