Comments for Bush Says We're 'Winning' In Afghanistan, State Dept. Says Not! »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 1 year, 8 months ago in NewsThe State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism. The opening lines of the report are a stark rebuke of Bush's claim only the day before that we are winning in Afghanistan. The State Department reports al Qaeda now has "greater mobility" in the region.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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FTA-Last year, which was the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since 2001. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, who commands U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said last week, "This year won't be different." instability, coupled with the Islamabad brokered cease-fire agreement in effect for the first half of 2007 along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, appeared to have provided AQ leadership greater mobility and ability to conduct training and operational planning, particularly that targeting Western Europe and the United States. AQ leaders continued to plot attacks and to cultivate stronger operational connections that radiated outward from Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
Who was it that said the Iraq Fallacy detracted from legitimate efforts to combat terror in Afghanistan?
Well here's a hint- It wasn't Bush. Or any self proclaimed experienced candidate.
Bush is on camera here spinning like a top.
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gamahuche1 year, 8 months ago
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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You can view his tale directly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccYpf11AzJ8
The quotes are in the article though, it's a short clip.
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OnionHeadComment removed: Retracted by user18 Replies
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Blackacereturn1 year, 8 months ago
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I think someone in the White House is having a little fun with Mr. Bush, He made this statement days after an attempt was made on the life of the president of that countries life. I can see someone or all of the White House Press core sitting in a corner giggling while he made this speech!
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Dionys1 year, 8 months ago
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Surefire way to understand what's really going on:
Take Bush's statements regarding the fact.
The stronger he insists something is going "great," the stronger the reality is that it's going poorly.
Just take what he insists upon, reverse it to the same degree he pushes it and you have the truth behind the truthiness.
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getreal11 year, 8 months ago
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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That was not always the case, lost opportunities and mismanagement by the Bush-neoclowns who apparently changed their mind about Bin Laden and AQ. (If going after him was ever really what they intended). Focused on their bogus Iraq story instead of securing this operation.
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Endoscopy1 year, 8 months ago
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getreal1
The Viet Nam generals have admitted that after the last offensive they had they were busted. Nothing much left to fight with. Then the Libs kept up the drumbeat about we lost and can't win. Cronkite came out and said it. We then pulled out of a won war and our returning troops were reviled. Kennedy killed the money to have the south have arms and ammunition. Then the killing fields started and millions died.
That same scenario is likely in Iraq.
You libs seem to like to see millions die. Why is that?
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tkyrchncs1 year, 8 months ago
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We have won exactly what we set out for: and entrenched military presence in the Middle East. This was the goal. The verbiage is just another tool to achieve the goal. You cannot tell me that Washington has no international political analysts that could see that sending an army to Afghanistan or Iran would bog us down for decades, or generations. McCain right now uses Japan and Korea as examples of extended military presence, as if some state in the Middle East might become an ally, or even a democracy because of our presence. Since our executive and his likely successors see a need for this, we need Congress to defund military operations in the Middle East. It is the last hope we have of any control over this situation.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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baddad has said it better than anyone I've ever heard say it.
The troops serving in Viet Nam were essentially scapegoated by the politicians. Ironically Viet Nam is doing quite fine now aren't they? The story the public got was that if we didn't fight the Chinese communists there we'd be fighting them on Mainstreet too. The same organizations that brought you the Viet Nam war are bringing you the Iraq war, under far flimsier pretenses. Did the Chinese war on Mainstreet? No. But the politicos who told you they would sold them mainstreet and everything else they could get their greedy claws on. Now we have sacrificed our industries, jobs, and the well being - wealth of the middle class to the altar of so called "globalism", another term cloaking the relentless pursuit of cheap labor...slaves. But in this satanic obsession with exploitation and subjugation of human beings
the wealth of the U.S. is being sucked dry by myopic vampires for short term gain.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Perhaps inadvertently, perhaps by design, the long term effect is the Communist Chinese regime is profiting beyond their wildest dreams. Talk about surrender monkeys! The great robber barons hiding behind their corporate masks demand that you lay down your life for their profits, then they sell your country out to the regime they had you lay down your life protecting said country from. Greed this intense is impossible to rationalize.
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rdy2rckComment removed: Hard Banned18 Replies
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Maybe the heroin trade was what they wanted a piece of? Maybe that Enron pipeline they kissed the Taliban's azzs for? (but didn't get, for all their brown lipstick...)
Who really knows? But they sure didn't take this operation seriously if their expressed goals were ever really their goals at all.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Just about all media have ties to the pentagon. Most are military suppliers- G.E., Westinghouse, come to mind. Of course as pointed out in an article a few days back, just about everything is connected to the military today. From toothbrushes to baby food.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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tchef,
I take Bush at his word. He's a fairly simple man. He actually believes if we can just get "democracy" going, it will ultimately turn things around.
Of course, the U.S. is a democratic republic, not a strict democracy, and even with the built-in checks and balances, sometimes an ideological group successfully sweeps the branches of government, in direct opposition to the founders' ideal of separation of powers.
It seems like leaders always ignore and/or cherry pick from history. It's useful to examine what's happening in the other countries where we introduced "democracy?"
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rightfromwrong1 year, 8 months ago
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we all know this war on terror is all B.S anyway. Most people that have seen movies like "911 Mysteries and Loose Change" realize that their government was at least complicit in the attack and that it served their agenda to go to Iraq for their oil. There were no WMD and no Saddam affiliation with Al Qaeda. More drugs are coming from Afghanistan than ever and like the Russians, the American effort is turning out to be a nightmare. But the right wing media has to play Bush's game of being their puppet!!!!! Nothing will change if Hillary gets the nod and America will be worse if McCain wins!!!!
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ecotourusa1 year, 8 months ago
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Sorry eco the more I learn about Paul, the less I want him in the race. David Duke, Nazi fringe groups, KKK have been supporting him for many years. His views are known locally in Texas. Scratch below the surface, look at the agenda, it's very unrealistic. Doing away with public education? Do we need more stupid people? Dumb people brought us BUSH, I'd rather see more emphasis on education. I like my National parks thankyou, I don't want them given to Oil companies and coal mining concerns. Though his views on international relations are good, the rest of the package is awful. Though there is no constitutional validity to the Fed, if you removed it now, the teetering economy would certainly crash.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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You can't convert to the gold standard now, it would be like buying stocks when they are high and selling low. There are much better libertarians to vote for. Michael Badnarik will likely be the libertarian nominee. His positions are worth looking into. Eco, I saw you had commented on another thread something to the effect - why should he return the money he recieved from the KKK and Nazi groups?-
I only hope you know why he should. Sorry, I can't go for this fellow. And a vote for him will certainly help McCain.
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miklkit1 year, 8 months ago
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Thanks mikkit, I'm not looking to make enemies here, but I call them as I see them. I think the vast majority of support he has recieved is from people who don't understand or are not aware of the rest of his agenda, the more publicly known issues are in fact good, the other stuff is off the wall.
My apologies to those who disagree, just being honest here, this is not about gamesmanship in any shape or form to me.
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DeadXXXManXXXTalkin1 year, 8 months ago
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he's radical, sure, but I wish others in government were 'loony' like Paul, and actually payed attention the way he does and did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLV7zDhKzDY&feat...
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DeadXXXManXXXTalkin1 year, 8 months ago
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This stuff is obvious in hindsight.
but hindsight does nothing for the beetle after he decides to step into the pitcher plant
for him to understand these things and say them THEN when so many of his brethren were oblivious...well it speaks for itself
in the light of what would have been if congress was peopled by Ron Pauls in 2002, compared with accepting money from fringe groups...
which would you choose?
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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His congressional record is good, I hope he continues there as that is where he shines, as a president, his domestic agenda tears the entire federal government down to nothing. Now I don't want to go that far, I want government to perform some functions, more efficiently and more in keeping with what the people want. I'd level K street. Get rid of all lobbys and PACs. I'd look for ways to conduct business more effectively and get rid of all elitist perks the Senate and the House have voted for themselves over the years. I would not close public schools, shut down all research, shut down the national parks and sell them for fossil fuel, close down the consumer protection agency, or the FCC though I would want them staffed with competent people. (these are only a handful of the agencies Paul would remove if president.) I understand the approach, but it sounds better in theory than it would ever be in reality.
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DeadXXXManXXXTalkin1 year, 8 months ago
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RFE I read your many posts above, now that it's the next day
the more 'extreme' views of Paul would be held in check for the most part, I think
I actually feel an extreme change is needed. this country is f-ed up. as you say we have amoral profiteers running the show. the very election process is mostly about money.
I agree with some of what you said. public education, space, etc, can stay. I like the parks the way the are, thank you
kind of all a moot point, as I will vote for Paul fatalistically, but he has already been kicked to the curb and won't win
if McCain wins or somehow Obama is edged by Hillary, a near impossibility, but possible, then well...
but anyway too early for such gloomy thoughts
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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Ron Paul is not in the race. I like a lot of his views on major issues, but if we scrap the public schools, the U.S. will become more balkanized than it already is. We already have kids disappearing into the home-schooling black hole where abuse and extreme indoctrination are hidden from public view (and I'm not bashing home-schooling). So many end up in extreme ideological colleges that it's frightening.
And if we criminalize abortion, it will just slink back into the black market, which is why it was legalized in the first place, and we'll have desperate young women joining drug users in prisons or dying from being subjected to butchers.
And it's great to attack institutions, but you can't just send a wrecking ball and expect something good to pop up in its place.
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Lurch1 year, 8 months ago
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ecotourusa,
We know McCain, Hillary, and Huckabee are out to lunch. But you forgot about Obama.
He is our change agent. That is why the establishments on both the left and the right are attacking him.
As a Paul supporter, you should be able to see through the msm BS.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Not only is this man an embarrassment. His "selection" has done so much damage nationally and internationally, whoever gets the next 5 presidencies will be dealing with Bush Fallout. The Organization that put him there to do their bidding has gone nowhere. Oh - shouldn't Fox news be mentioning That Rove (who reports on the democratic nomination on Fox) is involved with the McCain campaign. How disingenious can you be?
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miklkit1 year, 8 months ago
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Fox and rove deserve each other. They are both professional liars.
http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Oh yeah, I remember that well. It surprised me a little that Murdoch would go to court and claim Fox had the right to lie.
But when the rest of the networks joined in to help him I was aghast. Then the fact that they won??? Florida courts...
nightmares... Jefferson, Franklin are reaching out from their graves to strangle these bast***s .
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koranagirl1 year, 8 months ago
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And on the same day, articles came out that Afghanistan has one of the highest infant and maternal death rates in the world. There are almost no women doctors or nurses there. Women routinely bleed to death during or after childbirth. They die in agony. Most women of child bearing years there are already anemic (60%), and so they die. And when the mother dies, 75% of the time the baby dies also because there is no one to feed it or keep it warm.
The average Afghani has almost no health care, no doctors, no hospitals, few teachers, few books, but we send them millions and millions of dollars in munitions.
For the average person in Afghanistan, the war does not work. Humanitarian aide and education does and this works on a permanents basis.
Imagine if we sent them millions of dollars in books, teachers, health care providers, satellite TV for every community so people oculd get an education to understand that democracy and not war lording is the way to go.
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bubba21 year, 8 months ago
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It is not just a health care issue for women in Afghanistan. They have basically NO rights whatsoever.
The media in recent years has tried to portray that women's rights are advancing there, but it is not true.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/ri...
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koranagirl1 year, 8 months ago
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You're absolutely right, and in fact, study after study shows that if you can give women and girls just basic education, reading, writing and arithmetic, the income levels of that family will rise in the succeeding years and generations. If you only educate the men and boys, this does not happen, it continues poverty in the area.
The key is education for all, and especially those that are working and taking care of their children.
We have to stop spending money on munitions, and start spending it on basic education, health care and housing for poverty stricken areas. They are a breeding zone for hate and violence, the same as we see in areas of our own country where we allow this to fester.
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koranagirl1 year, 8 months ago
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And I know how hard this is for all of you to envision. We have hate and violence movies, video games, computer games, hand held games, cell phone games, you name it, you turn around and some group of red pixels is spattering all over the place.
We have let ourselves become a society steeped in violence, despair, hate and nastiness. We have it in our electronics and our relationships.
Peace every day starts with each of us, and we have to start teaching it in order to make the world a better place. It is one hard thing to be poor, but to be poor and live in a hate filled, violent culture is entirely another story.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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Although, some of us were raised on Elliot Ness, cowboys and indians in endless conflict, and other violence and didn't turn to it. So it's the socialization/enculturation process that has changed.
Actually, I think kids were better off when they were free to play army and draw pictures of army equipment in school. It was natural and cathartic. Now we deny them the freedom to process the cognitive dissonance of being taught ethics on the one hand and seeing endless war on the other.
I fear the far right and the far left are radicalizing our children in different ways today that was much rarer in the past, and is quite damaging. I don't want a fascist right-wing government, nor do I want a leftist totalitarian one.
As soon as Bush was elected, I knew a leftist backlash was inevitable. The right-wing extremism of the 1950s drew the leftist backlash of the 1960s, and it's happening again.
In the meantime, the police state grows across both extremes.
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Dionys1 year, 8 months ago
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" There are almost no women doctors or nurses there."
What does this have to do with the infant and maternal death rate? Last time I checked male nurses and doctors did just fine and last time I was in Afghanistan there were a lot of what people in the states would call midwifes.
The US has an extraordinarily high rate of infant and maternal deaths for such a 'developed' country.
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Dionys1 year, 8 months ago
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Alternative viewpoints are great. Especially from Muslims. It'd be nice to hear in the American media more from actual, real, everday Muslims. Just like it'd be nice to hear from all the moderate Christians in America. Or from your average Joe, rather than all the far right or far left nutters. Unfortunately that's not how it works.
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bubba21 year, 8 months ago
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The even more astounding and mind-boggling aspect of this, is that Bush supporters will actually defend what HE said over what the state department says, and they will say that we are just "haters" and just continue to diss Bush.
Bush IS incompetent - Rove and Cheney - and Rumsfeld - have been telling him what to do for his entire administration. He can't even utter a complete and comprehensible sentence without a script. I have the "George W Bush Out of Office Countdown" calendar for 2008, and the daily quotes PROVE that.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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midleft, of course this is true, and the corporatists like Cheney and the gang are pulling his strings. The problem is, so many nutjobs run countries that Bush isn't all that unusual, except as a recent U.S. president.
Lots of puppet emperors out there. That's one reason we need to hold the U.N. at arm's length, too. Just a different bunch of ideological puppets.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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I've occasionally seen him get angry and the real Bush comes out and he's fairly eloquent (amazingly) and I finally see someone really is home. Or when his daughter called him from a TV show, and he seemed downright human. But most of the time he's just a mouthpiece for his base.
But he's smart like a fox--he knows how to get elected (who to listen to and where to place his loyalty) and when to speak and when to shut up to fool enough people to keep himself top dog.
Michael Moore is just a leftist version of the far right's Rush Limbaugh in many ways (cherry-picking facts to support a bias), but Bush's speech to his base at a fund-raising dinner in the movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" was chilling.
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Spadecaller1 year, 8 months ago
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Texas and Afganistan have quie a few similarities. They are the main centers for dispersing drugs. Interesting how the poppy seed farmers stay in business in Afghanistan and our Southern borders remain porous -- no matter what legistlation is passed. And all this is happening while the new Nafta highway is under construction in Texas. Coindidence? I think not!
I guess we need more guest workers here and in Afghanistan. Rest assured, Bush and Cheney are on the job.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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I believe in the rule of law, it is already against the law to sneak into this or any other country without going through immigration protocols. I am not against immigrants at all, but the businesses who invite this problem. It's a loophole to get around paying minimum wages, social security and payroll taxes. Every single proposal has been stupid, a big fence??? Did these idiots ever hear of a big ladder??? Give us a break.
Want it solved? Fine the companies who hire people not here legally. Fine them enough to pay for the Iraq travesty. If they repeat the offense throw the CEOs and managers in prison.
This is an assault on American workers. Immigration procedures need to be adjusted to be fair, but this is simple exploitation. Put those who hire people at substandard wages behind bars. That will end the problem.
It is not the workers fault, they were invited-nod nod wink wink by the government and the businesses.
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nikkibabe1 year, 8 months ago
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Beeboppin711 year, 8 months ago
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What I really want to know is: Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
On a more serious note, the general populace is too entrenched in the entertainment (dubbed news) that they view on CNN, Fox, MSNBC...The ball is in play. How do you block the play? What's the plan to stop them?
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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I really feel the need to point out that the overwhelming majority of Jews in America are staunch anti-neocons, that it is the militant right wing of Israel, who have a great deal in common with the militant right wing here in the U.S. And I would point out that the Saudis have a huge roll in this. Rather than pin the tail on a scapegoat, we need to take our government back, return it to the rule of law, and do as much as we can to stop the influence peddling. Lobbys and PACs must go. Our military must ONLY be used for defense of the U.S. We are not world policemen, American people are so disenfranchised from the agenda of their leaders, it's ridiculous.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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Many so-called "grassroots" non-profit groups are just as bad. The Chr*stian Coalition, the Br*dy Campaign, and other seemingly good and innocuous organizations that sell themselves on "values," "public safety," and other seemingly noble causes are really out to destroy our Constitutional rights, and most people don't take a close look and actually think they are doing "Good."
Those groups frighten me more than the ones who are up-front about their motives.
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hdthehn1 year, 8 months ago
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http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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good link- some favorites-
"[Castro] welcomes sex tourism," Bush told a room of law enforcement officials in Florida, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Here's how he bragged about the industry," Bush said. "This is his quote: 'Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world.'"
"As it turns out, Bush had lifted that quotation not from an actual Castro speech but rather from a 2001 essay written by then Dartmouth University undergraduate Charles Trumbull. In the essay, Trumbull did appear to quote a Castro speech about prostitution. Sadly, the student made the quotation up.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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"According to officials, the actual quotation from Castro's 1992 speech reads as follows: 'There are hookers, but prostitution is not allowed in our country. There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist. Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily?. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases.'"
"...And this isn't the first time the Internet has baffled Bush. Back in 2003, the President cited another student's thesis when making a case to go to war. The student's [plagiarized and "sexed up"] work ended up in a government document describing Iraq's weapons capability. Not exactly the kind of hard intelligence needed to justify an attack on another country." The Register, 07.28.04
Ha Ha, But Boohoo... Bush steals his "ideas" from student thesis drafts? GOOD GAWD MAN.
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silvera1 year, 8 months ago
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He can utter the most outrageous fabrications and his ovine disciples can only nod their little pinheads in assent. "Yes master Bush, there were WMDs, Al Quaeda was there, mission accomplished, no permanent presence in Iraq, we don't do torture, there's no recession, the Surge is working, we're winning in Afganistan". And...perhaps the most unbelievable of all..."I'm not really a moronic imbecile".
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mesodude1 year, 8 months ago
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Does Bush know Condi and Gates are still begging our NATO allies for more help?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-EFDCfKyBI
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riverat1 year, 8 months ago
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This is Bush trying to spin and lie his way to a legacy. He'll have a legacy--as the dumbest, most corrupt and incompetent administration ever by anyones measure. Watch out--the next President will have to suffer the neocons howling that all was fine when they made the handoff.
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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This is more involved than just the Bush regime, it has been going on for some time - and is something Americans have seen before. I don't see ANY of the remaining three presidential candidates as likely to do much about the perversion of our foreign policy by zioncons or the perversion of our economy by corrupt crony capitalists. Do You?
The Great Silence
Our Gilded Age and Theirs
... Mark Twain would feel right at home today. Crony capitalism, the main object of his satirical wit in The Gilded Age, is thriving. Incestuous plots as outsized as the one in which the Union Pacific Railroad's chief investors conspired with a wagon-load of government officials, including Ulysses S. Grant's vice president, to loot the federal treasury once again lubricate the machinery of public policy-making.
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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A cronyism that would have been familiar to Twain has made the wheels go round in these terminal years of the Bush administration. Even the invasion and decimation of Iraq was conceived and carried out as an exercise in grand-strategic cronyism; call it cronyism with a vengeance. All of this has been going on since Ronald Reagan brought back morning to America.
Reagan's America was gilded by design. In 1981, when the New Rich and the New Right paraded in their sumptuous threads in Washington to celebrate at the new president's inaugural ball, it was called a "bacchanalia of the haves." Diana Vreeland, style guru (as well as Nancy Reagan confidante), was stylishly blunt: "Everything is power and money and how to use them bothâ;¦ We mustn't be afraid of snobbism and luxury."
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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That's when the division of wealth and income began polarizing so that, by every measure, the country has now exceeded the extremes of inequality achieved during the first Gilded Age; nor are our elites any more embarrassed by their Mammon-worship than were members of the "leisure class" excoriated a century ago by that take-no-prisoners social critic of American capitalism Thorstein Veblen...
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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Then, as now, hypocrisy and self-delusion were the final ingredients in this ideological brew. When it came to practical matters, neither the business elites of the first Gilded Age, nor our own "liquidators," "terminators," and merger and acquisition Machiavellians ever really believed in the free market or the enterprising individual. Then, as now, when push came to shove (and often way earlier), they relied on the government: for political favors, for contracts, for tax advantages, for franchises, for tariffs and subsidies, for public grants of land and natural resources, for financial bail-outs when times were tough (see Bear Stearns), and for muscular protection, including the use of armed force, against all those who might interfere with the rights of private property.
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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So too, while industrial and financial tycoons liked to imagine themselves as stand-alone heroes, daring cowboys on the urban-industrial-financial frontier, as a matter of fact the first Gilded Age gave birth to the modern, bureaucratic corporation -- and did so at the expense of the lone entrepreneur. To this day, that big business behemoth remains the defining institution of commercial life. The reigning melodrama may still be about the free market and the audacious individual, but backstage, directing the players, stands the state and the corporation.
Crony capitalism, inequality, extravagance, Social Darwinian self-justification, blame-the-victim callousness, free-market hypocrisy: thus it was, thus it is again!
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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... However, the wheel turns. The capitalism of the Second Gilded Age now faces a systemic crisis and, under the pressure of impending disaster, may be headed back to the future. Old-fashioned poverty is making a comeback. ..the global economy, including its American branch, is increasingly a sweatshop economy....
...the current break-down of the financial system is portentous. It threatens a general economic implosion more serious than anyone has witnessed for many decades. Depression, if that is what it turns out to be, together with the agonies of a misbegotten and lost war no one believes in any longer, could undermine whatever is left of the threadbare credibility of our Gilded Age elite.
..Today, the myth of "ownership society" confronts the reality of "foreclosure society." The great silence of the second Gilded Age may give way to the great noise of the first.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174922/steve_fr...
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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All true I'm afraid, frankly Americans of intelligence like Twain, have warned of the "eternal vigilance" required to prevent tyranny, in our silence we have failed and are complicit in the rise of corporate-elitist fascism.
I would add this :
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
- Thomas Jefferson
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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Zinn's "People's History of the United States" suggests that, once in a while we the people wake up and take care of business.
Abuses by capitalists during the industrial revolution led to labor bosses being attacked and even killed until capitalists felt compelled to at least offer some basic worker "rights." Most of those have disappeared.
Of course, now they've mostly disarmed ordinary citizens, have standing armies, and have put in place all the tools for a totalitarian regime our founders warned against so we the people have no recourse.
And I don't see any of the 3 presidential candidates seriously examining this--all 3 are still siding with corporatists or totalitarian petty leaders who seek to infringe more rights--they just choose different ones to infringe.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Well the weapons have changed since the revolutionary days quite a bit. What would Jefferson do (aside from throw up)if he were here today? My guess is buy a newspaper. The media is the primary weapon being used against us. An empowered independent media is the most powerful political weapon available. Imagine if there were one independent news channel that investigated and reported on events honestly and freely and pointed out or questioned the Bush supremacies propaganda and lies .
We the people can't fight guys with private armies (blackwater) or have our own fleet of stealth bombers. So armed overthrowing of the government is a losing bet, though that IS the reason for the 2nd amendment. The weapon of choice for me seems to be media.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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Civil disobedience can be powerful, however, and frightening to big business and leaders. Wealthy women got the vote by illegally lying down on the capitol steps and blacks secured more rights through their rioting. Boycotts and walk-outs have produced results.
Asymmetrical warfare is pretty formidable to even the strongest army. I think there might just be another tool in the box that could work if it gets that bad.
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TrueProgressive1 year, 8 months ago
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All I want to add is to note that 4 persons "sunk" this story. Of course the four are part of the usual regressive cabal that routinely pollutes these blogs. What I want to know is, what exactly is it that these clowns are "sinking?" The posting consists of what appears to be an undoctored video of Bush's press conference, coupled with a summarization of a State Department report directly contradicting what Bush said in the conference. How does one "sink" objective, incontestable, verifiable fact? like it or not, the facts are the facts. I know, those in rightwingworld simply erase fact and revise history. But could it be that what these regressives are "sinking" is this society's allowing these stories to be published, and the truth about this government to be made known? If that is the case, then these regressives are truly dangerous people.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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The only way any organism with a brain stem can support the Bush Regime- deny truth.
It's a mere game to these people with some skewed view of right-left, gops-dems, and con-lib slogans. They have less depth than a stick figure cartoon, less integrity than my ***K, and less comprehension of events and their implications than a log. Quite the parade they put on though, look there they go, one following the other over a cliff, "C'mon join the lemming paraaaaaaa...
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Endoscopy1 year, 8 months ago
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Almost as bad as the Democrats hate the average American. The Democrat viewpoint is cut and run leaving devastation behind. Have an incredibly large government taking care of everyone from womb to tomb. Raise taxes to an incredible hight to pay for it.
I love the part of taxing the gas companies because of the price of gas. Any fool can understand when the tax is raised on a manufacturer of something the price of that goes up. Tax is an expense figured into the profit margin. Companies really don't pay taxes, the their customers do.
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joeblowe1 year, 8 months ago
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I must say, I was actually IMPRESSED with GWB here. He actually was able to verbalize a paragraph, make it SEEM sensible, and appeared as though he were emotionally invested in his position. Almost tearing that person a new one. I can ALMOST respect someone simply for tearing into a MSM mouthpiece. As for the CONTENT - well, I suppose he pretty much HAS to act like he thinks we are doing OK over there, otherwise what excuse would he have to offer for STAYING there any longer?
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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The most stunning example of a politico being controlled by a puppetmaster with their hand up the puppet's *** is McCain.
He has reversed himself on every single issue to conform to the exact same role in the show as as Bush. It is absolutely astonishing, the transition of this man.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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True ET, It's so sad to see this broken shell of a man reciting the jingo he so opposed only a few years ago. What have they done to this man??? Perhaps there is a special brain operation that republicans perform. To believe their BS the removal of the frontal lobe helps.
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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I think McCain is desperate and uses the same handlers as Bush and he's after the same voting base. He's trying to get elected. He remembers having his current handlers successfully swiftboat *him* as well as Kerry.
Notice Bush's handlers focused on emotional issues like gay marriage and abortion close to the last election, which resonates with a certain base, and they didn't even mention war that much. But once elected...
I do think age is operating against McCain, too, and he's lost any edge he may have had.
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agentX1 year, 8 months ago
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I actually wasted 20 minutes of my life to watch that stupid Bush press conference.
He says "we're winning", the State dept is basically saying "no". So, he's playing the fiddle while Afghanistan burns!
What's our exit strategy for Afghanistan, again?
What's our objective for victory?
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ETproductions1 year, 8 months ago
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Well look, if Bush says it there's no need to check the facts. They always disagree with him anyway. Stupid, partisan, lying facts. "Who ya gonna believe, GWB or your own lying eyes?"
Significant terrorist attacks are up from 175 in 2003 to 655 in 2007. The death toll is way up also. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
Oh yeah, Bush's management of the "War on Terror" is going at least as well as the War on Poverty (which is way up) and the War on Drugs (the use of which is way up).
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memestryker1 year, 8 months ago
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I think he views his job, in part, as head spinmeister. And it plays well on Main Street, USA or they wouldn't have sent him to the White House twice.
And I agree with him that jihadists will never stop, because it's not about religion, it's about lust for power and wealth and Islam is just a convenient tool, like Catholicism in the Middle Ages, and fundamentalist Christianity in recent U.S. history.
His poll numbers are so low, I suspect it's not just liberals whining.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 8 months ago
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Great Caesars Ghost Man! Bush is contradicting the State Dept. and the generals actually in Afghanistan on camera. Whether it is a lie or he is just an incompetent buffoon doesn't really matter. What does matter is that some people are so thoroughly brainwashed as to deny the truth even when hard evidence proves them wrong.
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dc1cougar1 year, 8 months ago
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I honestly belive that President Bush is doing a great job, the man has been given a very large task in his presidency and has done his best in handling american affairs. I also think that the SPP signed by bush in 2005 will help our econemy. These are exteme times and somtimes extreme messurs are needed to keep our country safe. There is no way that bush is guilty of any crimes. I commend the man for a job well done.
David L Dupont
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thoughtforsale1 year, 8 months ago
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How can president Bush be so ignorant concerning the situation in Afghanistan? Things have developed in a fatal way and are still getting worse. Al-Qa´aida is even more active than ever and the number of terroristic actions rises from month to month. The latest try to assassinate president Karzai make it obvious, how far the US are from having everything under control. One more step in a wrong direction is not a progress at all!
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