The Game in a Nutshell

Bailouts put the private debts onto the public (tax payer) balance sheet. Now Congress and the White House are poised to finish the job by putting that debt onto the backs of America's most vulnerable people.

For Your Convenience:

• Contact the Broadcast Media
• Contact the Newspapers
• Contact the US Senate
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Refrigerator Child Poetry in Late 2010

I found the following written in refrigerator magnets on our fridge. I'm pretty sure it was written solely by our 10-year old daughter.

American peace harass apparatus influence death bomb against argue triumph knife enlist war chief president oppose law blood

Fortunately, she's a happy, intelligent, creative kid who, like most her age, doesn't listen very well.

Oh. Don't forget to contact your representatives and tell them to bargain harder on the tax legislation that Obama caved on.

• Contact the US Senate
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Iraq? Rings a Bell...

Yes, it's true. Billions of deflating US Dollars continue to pour into The Iraq Occupation Project. It even made Yahoo! headlines today:

Iraq wants US forces out of Mosul on time

GLH Blog had a good "Remember Iraq" post a couple days ago, tho it was actually titled What About Iraq? complete with fine art.... and I've thought of doing a segment on the next forgotten war on GDAE Podcast... but with the US Empire crashing, and swine flu breaking out... and the Iraqi ethnic cleansing complete...

Hopefully yesterday's headline is indicative of where things are going in Iraq, tho hearing Secretary of State Clinton recently tell Iraqis, and the consuming American public, "We won't abandon you," we might want to have our diplomat-speak antenne up.

Sources:

Art Credit: Wood burning, Tsalagi.

Associated Press, Iraq wants US forces out of Mosul on time, April 27, 2009.

War Slave

Click on the image and look more closely.

Sources: Art by Myztico

Iraq Veterans Send a Message to Obama

You can too. Watch this 30-sec. video and post where you can.




You can also promote it through the Digg.com page too.

Here's the Code to Paste:

<object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UWKXJmIJpTM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UWKXJmIJpTM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="364" width="445"></embed></object>

Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Israel's Two-Front War?

Initial corporate media accounts are down-playing the significance of rockets fired from Lebanon as being isolated. But give Israel's gross violations of legal and ethical norms, an uncontrolled escalation is a risk.

Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Reuters, Rockets from Lebanon hit Israel amid Gaza offensive, Haim Shafir, January 8, 2008.

Don't Worry, They're Just Trainers

Today we hear:

Thousands of U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities at local security stations after the summer deadline to have combat troops out of the urban areas, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday.

The report continues,

Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters that the troops would serve as training and mentoring teams, and thus would not be included in the mandate to pull combat troops from the cities. That mandate is included in the recently approved U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

My first thought was "in your face Iraqi scum," as in the USA! USA! shouters saying, "the US doesn't really have to adhere to its agreements... because we're the superior USA!"

My second thought was, these little security stations will be sitting ducks. It's only a matter of time before one is over run and every American in it is liquidated. Then we'll have a big step backwards; we're all familiar with such events. (Hopefully I'm wrong).

My final thought drifted back to the prediction I made back, coincidentally as I check the date, two years ago today in a piece entitled Iraqization and Predicted Length of Iraq War.

Vietnamization was a term used to describe the training and mentoring of South Vietnamese soldiers by US trainers so that war could be "vietnamized."


Psssst... Do Something

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the Newspapers
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Associated Press, Commander: Troops to stay in cities past deadline, December 13, 2008.

Honor Smedley Butler on Veteran's Day

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC,

• 1881 - 1940
  
• Two-time recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor

"I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force--the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it." -- Smedley. D. Butler

How to Stop Wars of Empire:

"A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war." -- Smedley. D. Butler

It is for this reason that the US Congress must investigate, without immunity, war profiteering during the Bush years. The findings must be prosecuted. The ill-begotten profits, tax-payer dollars, must be clawed back and returned to the US Treasury. I urge veterans to join the broad-based movement to make this happen.

Famous Butler Essay: War is a Racket

Post Script: Smedley Butler also exposed a group of wealthy industrialists who plotted a military coup to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 [1].

Sources:

History Today, An American coup d'etat? (plot against Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1934) November 1, 1995, vol.45, Issue 11, Clayton Cramer.

Presidential Candidates: What a Let Down

OK. It's true. Obama has told us that it's up to the people to demand change. So, we better start making noise.

The President is a tool of which ever elite faction gains control. When I say "elite" I mean the wealthy and powerful, not intellectuals who ponder big issues.

LibHom recently tallied a sickening number of examples of Obama selling out. They're sickening, because that's the way your stomach will feel when you read them.

I was reminded of the recent interviews I've heard with Andrew Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Rightly, Bacevich holds both parties accountable for the pending demise of the country:

There’s a lot in the book that tries to hold the Bush administration accountable for recent events, but I would not for a second want to suggest that the crisis in which we find ourselves today ought to be laid simply at the foot of the Bush administration or the Republican Party, because it’s been a long time coming.

[both political parties,] over the last twenty years or so, [have had] an increasing willingness to use military force to cause the world to look the way we want it to look. And I think that that expression of American exceptionalism is one that’s not only utterly false, but is greatly at odds with own interests as a country.

However, it's not at odds with the goals of transnational corporations that make windfall profits from "opening foreign markets." In short, both Republicans and Democrats have used military force to prop up unpopular dictators so that the natural resources and labor of foreign countries can be exploited. They take advantage of the grains of truth in "fighting communism" and now "the war on terrorism," to bully their way into massive profits for a few people, including pay-offs to the political elite in both parties.

It's a scam that no-one has exposed better than Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler in his essay "War is a Racket."

A sample:

I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force--the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it. -- S. D. Butler

Sources:

Democracy Now, "The Limits of Power: Andrew Bacevich on the End of American Exceptionalism", August 20, 2008.

Winter Soldier 2008 Overview

Winter Soldier 2008
Unauthorized Trailer

In wars too dangerous for corporate news reporters, personal accounts are provided by US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, active service members and civilians. The reality these wars is captured for you in the March 2008 "Winter Soldier Hearings".

This short video features Iraq war veteran Kelly Daugherty being interviewed by Nation Radio Laura Flanders. Daugherty provides an overview of the weekend Winter Soldier Hearings with compelling video footage as a backdrop.

For full coverage of Winter Soldier 2008 see:
WWW.IVAW.ORG

Sources:

Audio: The Nation Radio with Laura Flanders.

Video: Various sources compiled by GDAEman Productions.

Americans: Target of Military Psychological Warfare

[This blog entry is still under development]

It's more than a scandal. It's military psychological operations (psyops) illegally directed at American citizens. The Pentagon's use of biased retired military officers on television is a deliberate effort to undermine civilian rule, which constitutes a threat to our democracy. (MORE).

Below are brief profiles and photos of the participants in this military propaganda campaign. They include the so-called the "military analysts," bush administration officials, and media executives.

Thanks to the liberal newspaper, the New York Times, we now know many details about what we already knew was happening. Former military officers were hand-picked by the White House to attend invitation-only briefings. Afterwards they knowingly spread Bush administration talking points via the corporate media, and continue to do so:

From the start, interviews show, the White House took a keen interest in which analysts had been identified by the Pentagon, requesting lists of potential recruits, and suggesting names. [Pentagon assistant secretary of defense for public affairs] Victoria Clarke's team wrote summaries describing their backgrounds, business affiliations and where they stood on the war.

The hand-picked TV "military analysts" were invited to take Pentagon-funded trips, following which they echoed Pentagon talking points on TV as paid "experts." The success of this domestic propaganda operation is exemplified in the following correspondence:

“We’re hitting a home run on this trip,” a senior Pentagon official wrote in an e-mail message to Richard B. Myers and Peter Pace, then chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Rumsfeld ultimately cleared off on all invitees,” said senior Clarke aide Brent Krueger, who left the Pentagon in 2004.

As exemplified in the personal narratives below, the vast majority of the hand-picked Pentagon pundits often had conflicting business interests profiting from the war.

Beyond the miss-conduct of many of these these analysts as individuals, Pentagon officials might have violated fundamental laws. US laws prohibit the use of US military propaganda on Americans. The rationale for these laws rests on the basic democratic principle of ensuring civilian primacy over the military.

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.





Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret, is one of the Fox News participants who is speaking out against the Pentagon's domestic propaganda operation. “It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.’ ” More: Bevelacqua comments on WMD.



James T. Conway, then director of operations for the Joint Chiefs, presided over a conference call with analysts following the death of 14 Marines on August 3, 2005. He urged them, a transcript shows, not to let the marines’ deaths further erode support for the war.

“The strategic target remains our population,” General Conway said. “We can lose people day in and day out, but they’re never going to beat our military. What they can and will do if they can is strip away our support. And you guys can help us not let that happen.”

William V. Cowan, a Fox analyst and retired Marine colonel, was the chief executive of a new military firm, the wvc3 Group (More). At the time, the company was seeking contracts worth tens of millions to supply body a
armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq. (See Carlton Sherwood)


Wayne A. Downing (deceased), one of NBC’s most prominent analysts, was on the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group created with White House encouragement in 2002 to help make the case for ousting Saddam Hussein. He also had his own consulting firms and sat on the boards of major military contractors.

Timur J. Eads, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Fox analyst who is vice president of government relations for Blackbird Technologies, a fast-growing military contractor. Mr. Eads said he had at times held his tongue on television for fear that “some four-star could call up and say, ‘Kill that contract.’ ” For example, he believed Pentagon officials misled the analysts about the progress of Iraq’s security forces. “I know a snow job when I see one,” he said. He did not share this on TV.

John C. Garrett is a retired Marine colonel and unpaid analyst for Fox News TV and radio. He is also a lobbyist at Patton Boggs who helps firms win Pentagon contracts, including in Iraq. His promotional materials state he “is privy to weekly access and briefings with the secretary of defense, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other high level policy makers in the administration.” Mr. Garrett displayed an eagerness to be supportive with his television and radio commentary. “Please let me know if you have any specific points you want covered or that you would prefer to downplay,”

David L. Grange, a retired Army general and CNN analyst.










Robert L. Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who works in the Pentagon for a military contractor, recalled feeling “very disappointed” after being shown satellite photographs purporting to show bunkers associated with a hidden weapons program. Mr. Maginnis said he concluded that the analysts were being “manipulated” to convey a false sense of certainty about the evidence of the weapons.

James Marks, a retired Army general and analyst for CNN from 2004 to 2007, pursued military and intelligence contracts as a senior executive with McNeil Technologies.

Barry R. McCaffrey, one of NBC’s most prominent analysts, was on the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group created with White House encouragement in 2002 to help make the case for ousting Saddam Hussein. He also had his own consulting firms and sat on the boards of major military contractors. He was also involved with the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.


Jeffrey D. McCausland, appears on CBS TV and radio. He is a defense industry lobbyist. He has been a frequent commentator on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for CBS since 2003. In this capacity he has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Christian Science Monitor. He has appeared on the CBS Evening News, Morning Show, and Up to the Minute. He has also appeared on CNN Morning Show, CSPAN Booknotes, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera. [1]

“Good work,” Thomas G. McInerney, a retired Air Force general, consultant and Fox News analyst, wrote to the Pentagon after receiving fresh talking points in late 2006. “We will use it.”







Montgomery Meigs, a retired Army general and NBC analyst, appeared on “Today” after being flown to Guantanemo by the Pentagon. “There’s been over $100 million of new construction,” he reported. “The place is very professionally run.”






William L. Nash, a retired Army general and ABC analyst, with no defense industry ties, and no fondness for the administration, was reluctant to be critical of military leaders, many of whom were friends. “It is very hard for me to criticize the United States Army,” he said. “It is my life.” However, in April 2006, after an emergency briefing of seventeen analysts with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the midst of the "Generals' Revolt," Nash was repulsed. “I walked away from that session having total disrespect for my fellow commentators, with perhaps one or two exceptions."

Joseph W. Ralston is a retired Air Force general. Soon after signing on with CBS, General Ralston was named vice chairman of the Cohen Group, a consulting firm headed by former defense secretary William Cohen.






Carlton A. Sherwood executive vice president the wvc3 Group. At the time, the company was seeking contracts worth tens of millions to supply body armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq. (See William Cowan)





Robert H. Scales Jr., a retired Army general and analyst for Fox News and National Public Radio, heads a consulting company that advises several military firms on weapons and tactics used in Iraq. He exchanged e-mail messages with the Pentagon that reveal an implicit trade of privileged access for favorable coverage. “Recall the stuff I did after my last visit,” he wrote. “I will do the same this time.”

Donald W. Shepperd, a retired Air Force general, was flown to Guantanamo Cuba to tour the prison after abuse claims were raised. He reported live on CNN by phone from Guantánamo stating that “The impressions that you’re getting from the media and from the various pronouncements being made by people who have not been here in my opinion are totally false.”






Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare. “We lost the [Vietnam] war — not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,” he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars — taking aim at not just foreign adversaries but domestic audiences, too. He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.” (At least he's willing to admit we lost the Vietnam War.)



... and on the Government Side

Victoria (Torie) Clarke, the former public relations executive who oversaw the Pentagon’s dealings with the analysts as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, had come to her job with distinct ideas about achieving what she called “information dominance.”




Lawrence Di Rita, one of Mr. Rumsfeld’s closest aides, said in an interview that a “conscious decision” was made to rely on the military analysts to counteract “the increasingly negative view of the war” coming from journalists in Iraq.




Brent T. Krueger, a senior aide to Victoria Clarke, was the point person for a small group of political appointees analysts who catered to they analysts. He indicated he was well aware that some analysts viewed their special access as a business advantage. “Of course we realized that,” Mr. Krueger said. “We weren’t naïve about that.” “They have taken lobbying and the search for contracts to a far higher level,” Mr. Krueger said. “This has been highly honed.”

Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war. Journalists were secondary. “We didn’t want to rely on them to be our primary vehicle to get information out,” Mr. Meyer said. (So compliant corporate journalists were a secondary way for the Pentagon to use push propaganda onto American citizens).

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.






Active Military Officers involved in the propaganda operation:

Richard B. Myers

Peter Pace

Update:

Pentagon, House to Investigate Propaganda Program:

The Pentagon’s inspector general office has announced an internal probe into the military’s domestic propaganda program. Last month, the New York Times revealed the Pentagon has used retired military officers to generate positive news coverage and push for the war in Iraq. The move comes one day after the House approved a measure ordering investigations by both the inspector general and the congressional investigative body, the Government Accountability Office. The House probe will focus on whether the program violates laws barring government funding of domestic propaganda.

Ooops! Pakistani Outpost Liquidated?

A Pakistani outpost was recently overrun. Was the outpost of two-dozen troops liquidated, were prisoners taken or did surviving Pakistani troops switch sides?

The Knight report, er..., reports on January 16, 2008

Inside Pakistan today, there were more side effects of the US-directed military offensive against militants in the country's northwestern provinces when two dozen Pakistani troops turned up missing after rocket-armed Islamic militants overran a military outpost near the Afghan boarder.

Army spokesperson Atar Abass claimed that, "About two hundred militants charged they fort from four sides, and hey broke through the forts walls with rockets."

He also claimed that the army killed forty militants.

The annihilation of an army post is considered a landmark event in military terms. The disaster, which Afghanistan is becoming, is further evidenced by the more widely reported US troop surge reported on by Robert Knight:

President Bush is sending 3,200 more US marines to Afghanistan, ostensibly for training the US-led NATO army of occupation there. The Pentagon claims the deployment is a, "one-time extraordinary measure," but knowlegible observers are saying that the move is in anticipation of a spring offensive by militant Islamic nationalists ... 2,200 of those marines... will indeed comprise a combat unit available for sudden operations in Southern Afghanistan and near the boarder with Pakistan.

So goes the forgotten war in Afghanistan.

Sources:

The Knight Report, with Robert Knight, January 16, 2008, on Flashpoints Radio.

Ouch!

Sometimes the establishment media slips through a poke in the eye of authority:

The president's speech marked only the latest shift in direction — and rationale and packaging — for a war that has lasted 4 1/2 years and cost a half trillion dollars and nearly 3,800 American lives.

- JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press

This indicates that a significant fraction of the establishment have had enough of the Iraq war.

Source:

Associated Press, "Bush preserves big troop level in Iraq," JENNIFER LOVEN, September 14, 2007.

The Iraq Quagmire is NOT an Accident

I recently blogged, again, on the question: Is the Chaos in Iraq on Purpose?

One highlight comes from Pulitzer prize writer Seymour Hersh who concludes:

The US is "... in the business of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia." "... in the business of creating ... sectarian violence."

The chaos in Iraq is not an accident. It's as if we're supposed to believe they didn't know the egg would break when they threw it on the ground. Evidence that the US has knowingly created a state of chaos in Iraq abounds. The following 1994 video clip is a smoking gun:

1994: Dick Cheney says invading Baghdad would be a "quagmire"

We are witnessing the take-over of the US by what Henry Kissinger called a "Revolutionary Power." The Bush regime is putting us on a permanent war footing to justify consolidation of executive power. The Judicial and Legislative branches can't or won't stop it. The fourth branch, establishment media, is corrupted by commercialism. Only the people we see in the mirror can stop it.

Get to Petraeus

In five weeks, General Petraeus will report to Congress on the status of the Iraq war. We can also presume that he will give his recommendations on future steps.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, describes General Petraeus as having, "First, absolute integrity ... and second, (being) smart as a whip."

OK then. We can appeal to General Petraeus' capacity to reason, and rely on his integrity to respond appropriately.

General Petraeus will agree that the US military does not establish policy, but instead conducts military actions to achieve policies set by civilians.

General Petraeus will agree that the US Congress has the Constitutional power to declare or stop the the Nation from engaging in war. James Madison said that the Constitution was written with the intent to give Congress the power to "chain the dogs of war."

Thus, because General Petraeus does not set policy, he should ask the Democratic leadership of Congress to clarify its objectives regarding Iraq before offering recommendations on military actions. Only then should he offer recommendations relative to the stated objectives of Congress.

If the objectives of Congress differ from those of the President, then we should expect Petraeus to offer alternative recommendations to the President that differ from those offered to Congress. If Congress does not initiate a process to end the war, or in some other way take clear command of the US military, it must concede to the will of the Executive Branch.

This is the only logical and honest way General Petraeus can provide recommendations. Otherwise, he risks setting policy, which would represent a subtle form of military coup.

CLICK to Contact General Petraeus:

CLICK to Contact Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Phone or FAX Senate Leader Harry Reid:

Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327

Sources:

Associated Press, ROBERT BURNS, Gen. Petraeus readies Iraq war report, August 8, 2007.

Iraq War Plan Delivered to Bush

On August 7, 2002, President George Bush received the Iraq war plan from General Tommy Franks.

Although general contingency plans exist for many places around the globe, it takes a long time to develop an operational war plan. Bush had his in hand seven months before invading Iraq. According to the National Security Archives, Bush sought an update on the status of Iraq war planning from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld in November 2001, suggesting that he had ordered the development of an operational plan prior to September 11, 2001.

Source:

Mother Jones Magazine, Lie by Lie, How Our Leaders Used Fear and Falsehood to Dupe us Into a Mideast Quagmire: A Timeline.

Top Secret Polo Step, National Security Archive.

August 2002: White House Iraq Group

August 2002: White House Iraq Group created to market war. Members include Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Condoleezza Rice as well as spinmeisters Karen Huges and Mary Matalin. It was only on August 10, 2003 that the public became aware of the Iraq Group.

Source:

Mother Jones Magazine, Lie by Lie, How Our Leaders Used Fear and Falsehood to Dupe us Into a Mideast Quagmire: A Timeline.

GOP Support for War Crumbling

GOP support for Bush's Iraq war is crumbling, Associated Press.

Last week, GOP Senators Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the U.S. should reduce its military presence in Iraq. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., had already said the same prior to that. Now Sen. Pete Domenici has withdrawn his support of President Bush's Iraq war policy and embraced a proposal to bring home most troops by March. They don't want to get caught in the pressure that the White House will mount this September.

I wouldn't be surprised if the GOP support for Bush and Cheney's jobs starts to crumble next, particularly after Olbermann's recent broad-side. It's time to hammer at the cracks developing in Bush and Cheney's armor.

Originally posted at: Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus

Iraq for Sale and the US Powder Keg

I've owned Robert Greenwald's "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers"[1] for half a year. I finally watched it last night having resisted so long because I knew it would be a bummer. Actually, it was energizing in the sense that anger induces motivation.

The movie Sicko, by Michael Moore, thoroughly discredits the US health care system. It also exposes deep and wide corruption that is enriching an elite minority. That same establishment has cornered the US defense and security industries. US government officials are implicated and enriching themselves upon retirement from high office. The Democratic and Republican parties are corrupted by the wealth and power that has been consolidated via government largess.

Our hope lies in common people of all political persuasions who are harmed, even killed, by this corruption. There are more of us than the elite minority, and we live in a democracy where majority rules... at least the majority is supposed to rule.

The US political system that has enabled this corruption has lost nearly all legitimacy. You can be sure that the establishment knows this. In response, the power elite is establishing new laws that anticipate the need to clamp down on domestic dissent in the future. That impending need is summed up in the last segment of the film Iraq for Sale in which a relative of a former Blackwater employee says:

You know, I love my Country.I stand behind it. I'm concerned now in a way that I've probably never been concerned before, because I don't like what I'm seeing. America has become a powder keg I think, and it's just waiting for a match.

Michael Moore explains that the French people actually exercise democracy because they are well organized. He observes a difference in our countries; in the US, the people are afraid of their government. In France, the government is afraid of the people. [2]

The people who have the money, the people making the profit, have a lot of power and a lot of money, and a lot of influence. And, so I think it will really take something big, a big movement here in the United States

The myth of the US democracy is being exposed as a fraud.

How many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free
How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind

- Joan Baez

People now "see" and are grappling with what to do about the fact that American Revolution replaced the British aristocracy with an American aristocracy. The answer lies in one word, "organize."

Click Here for an "Action Guide" associated with Greenwald's film and links to organizations working for positive change. An "action" example of many is provided immediately below:

Take Action (Just one Example):

Army investigations implicated employees from Titan and CACI in the abuses of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. To date, only one civilian contractor has faced charges. Write to the U.S. Department of Justice to act immediately to investigate and prosecute all cases of human rights abuses by civilian and corporate actors operating with seeming impunity in the “war on terror”. You can also write to the companies, like Titan, to express your concern over their human rights policies and practices. For both actions, go to Amnesty USA Action.

Sources:

1. Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, by Robert Greenwald.

2. PBS "NOW" with David Brancaccio, Michael Moore, on French vs Americans, June 29, 2007.

Dubai Ports Deal not "worst" Example of a Security Issue being Used for Political Gain

Guest Contributor: L. Vincent Sebastian

The following short article appeared a few days ago. I started reading it and then said to myself, "you've gotta be kidding". Everything Tom Ridge is quoted saying about the failed Dubai Ports deal applies even more so to, you guessed it, the IRAQ WAR and the run up to it. In spite of a setback last November, the right wing, corporate propaganda machine hasn't stopped, and the bullhorn of doublespeak hasn't been silenced....

May 31, 2007 (Reuters)

"Former U.S. security boss blasts furore over Dubai Ports"

A former top U.S. security official attacked American politicians over their handling of the disputed Dubai Ports World deal last year, saying it was "the worst example" of a security issue being used for political gain.

Dubai Ports, owned by the United Arab Emirates, became the centre of a bitter debate in Congress after buying assets at six U.S. ports within its $6.8 billion purchase of Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The Bush administration approved the purchase of facilities, but lawmakers had security concerns about an Arab state-owned company running U.S. port terminals, and Dubai Ports responded by saying it would sell those U.S. assets.

The uproar "sent the wrong signal to the rest of the world," former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told a group of Hong Kong businessmen and reporters at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on Thursday.

"It was a classic triumph of politics over reason, politics over facts," he said. "It was not about security. It was about politics. Like a bunch of lemmings, everyone went off that cliff."

Ridge was the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which was created by Congress in 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

He is now a business consultant and adviser to Republican Senator John McCain's presidential campaign.