Great way to start off a May Day holiday!

image - committee to unsell the war

"Time to Take it Back!"

Neil Young's "Living with War" album is blazing across this country and you can hear it NOW for FREE!

Go to: http://tinyurl.com/nwhzo

Have a listen and consider signing up with this recent campaign on the web site, express some kind of resistance, send your senators a message!

Controversial Peak Oil analyst
Michael Ruppert's most recent speech

He called it his most recent "important" speech, delivered at this week's Peak Oil NYC conference.

It is filled with quite a few facts that are hard to avoid &/or deny.

Scary stuff, if you aren't seriously doing anything about it.

I'm not sure about the "paradigm" talk, but it is worth some serious reading.

Available free, in it's entire version, from his subscriber driven site.

Click here - http://tinyurl.com/nr9my

Wichita's Koch family, plutocrats riding high!

Free Markets and Property Rights Trump Humanity and the Environment!

By JASON MILLER, Kansas City Metro Region, Kansas

So long as the markets are free and the rich stay that way, human suffering and environmental devastation are irrelevant. Beneath the “feel good” facade of baseball, apple-pie, mom, and Chevrolet lurks this sinister reality of the American Way.

Much of humanity is shackled by poverty and besieged by the violence of war. Earth is experiencing a slow, agonizing death. Animal and plant species are disappearing at an alarming rate. Despite these tragic and inevitable consequences, the United States persists in spreading the cancers of Americanized Capitalism and Democracy.

Here's to Saint Charles

America’s wealthiest owe a significant debt of gratitude to their patron saint, Charles G. Koch. Mr. Koch’s Herculean efforts have virtually ensured that the United States’ plutocracy and its complementary corporatocracy will continue their reign in America’s highly dysfunctional democracy. Blessed with a significant number of Americans still rendered somnambulant by a mass media machine, Koch and his fellow patricians are riding high.

Mr. Koch has virtually endless resources at his disposal to keep “his people” in power. Charles owns 40% of the shares of the largest privately held company in the world. Koch Enterprises generated revenues of $40 billion in 2004. Koch recently acquired gargantuan lumber and paper producer Georgia Pacific, which significantly expands his empire of oil, pipeline, fiber, and chemical enterprises. By shunning public sale of Koch Enterprise stock, Charles Koch has maintained a tight-fisted grip on his company while cloaking its finances behind a veil of secrecy.

Read the rest of this important essay at Jason’s site at: http://tinyurl.com/z9dcu

Hijacking Catastrophe, a review and a hot link!

Hijacking Catastrophe

by Karen Kwiatkowski (Lt. Col. USAF retired)

Better than anyone to date, the Media Education Foundation has quietly and accurately documented the most important history of 21st century thus far in their recent video and DVD release, Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire.

Hijacking Catastrophe is powerful, understated, straightforward and educational. In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence and analysis, viewers are treated to a thoughtful explanation of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administration, and something I have not seen before, a real economic analysis of what is driving some of our current "global war on terror."

The film examines the Bush Administration’s investment in neo-conservatism, and the early, and already horrific, results. While past performance is no guarantee of future earnings, Hijacking Catastrophe shows exactly why America’s "new conservatism" is a pyramid scheme of inhumane proportions.

The film examines eight aspects of the current situation of American foreign policy. The film provides an explanation for the obvious continuity between Cold War policies and those of the present. It examines long-term neoconservative thinking and how this peculiar version of Jacobin utopianism ascended from its rather inauspicious political roots. The film explores the dangerous territory of how the post 9-11 national shock was carefully cultivated by neoconservatives in Washington to support their own long-held objectives in the Middle East.
Hijacking Catastrophe then documents the Pentagon and White House process of disinformation, exaggeration, and media-supported propaganda between 9-11 and America’s March 2003 invasion of Iraq. It describes the neoconservative vision of military dominance over a supine, energy-rich Middle East, not only for its own sake, but as a warning to other potential international rivals.

Hijacking Catastrophe describes the cost of empire in a way so comprehensive that it becomes clear that neo-conservatism, as a foreign policy guide, comes with a very real moral, political and financial garnishment of every American, and of American children yet unborn. The cost is shown not only as a current financial outlay or in lives unlived on the part of soldiers and marines, but in terms of an alarming debt burden, loss of domestic freedom, the growing and invasive state, a permanent tattering of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/6vsf4 to watch this incredible 2004 documentary!

Kansas "backwards" with those reporters wearing blinders.

“Is Kansas going backwards?”

If you are a reporter, columnist or newspaper publisher who looks back in obvious pain at living as a teenager in Kansas it would make sense to pose the above question. Look deeper and see how prominent writers put the blinders on when it comes to even acknowledging dissent and resistance here.

But she doesn’t check her on – line media resources, well, because apparently it’s a “column” not a news piece. She would have better served her readers by citing a counter from one of the few brave organizations in Kansas that is fighting for reproductive rights, ProKanDo

Take a look at how this editorialist at the largest daily newspaper in N. E. Kansas treated the issue of sex and education in Kansas. Kansas City Star editorial writer, Laura Scott asks the obvious. Read her interesting, but incomplete piece at: http://tinyurl.com/qgfoy.


Taking it to the streets, down south.
And, people are getting ready in Stillwater, Oklahoma to confront President Bush at his first (and probably only) visit to a college campus in that state. Wichita Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas is mobilizing for a trip there after they report 125 in a march during the recent anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Get contact information from the Oklahoma organizer of the protest event at: http://tinyurl.com/o7fr9

Did you know that the company Vice President Cheney served on the Board of Directors, Halliburton, was based in Oklahoma? Well here is a short burst of information provided by Horace at the Wichita peace center linked above:

“On March 16, the Halliburton Corporation announced that its 2006 shareholders’ meeting will be held in founder, Erle P. Halliburton’s hometown of Duncan, Oklahoma. Traditionally held in Houston, Texas Halliburton’s annual shareholders’ meeting has become a lightning rod community’s outrage and protest.”

And the “protest and outrage” is following the happy shareholders to Duncan, Oklahoma.

Again, according to Horace, “Protesters plan to make their presence known in Duncan, Oklahoma on May 17, 2006 and are encouraged by the fact that Halliburton is so afraid of public scrutiny that it would relocate a major meeting to a remote small town in the middle of Oklahoma. The move certainly calls their community leadership, business acumen and investment value into question.”

A list of contacts to attend the “peaceful demonstration” is available at one of the best community center web sites in Kansas at: Wichita Peace .

This ain't Nepal, is it?

People Power strikes at Stanford University during Bush meetings with pro – war think tank


Read the fast version at this location.
http://tinyurl.com/pzoq5



Read the local newspaper version of the impact the hastily assembled protest had at this location.
http://tinyurl.com/zlc2d


Here is what a Stanford peace organization researched:

--THE WAR AT STANFORD--
8 Hoover Fellows are members of the Defense Policy Board, which helped Bush decide to invade Iraq. (Stanford Daily, 10/8/03; )

Condoleeza Rice, former Stanford Provost and Hoover Fellow, has been an assistant to Bush on National Security Affairs during the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan.

(http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/rice.html)

Bechtel received $680 million contract for rebuilding of Iraq

Read more at:
Stanford Community for Peace and Justice

Kansans may need to initiate some “peoples’ power” when our Native Sons from DC come home – read here.

"No comment subject to an on-going investigation."

Mad King George’s fat Rat Terrier to stop yip – yapping to WH press pool.

(FCF FLASH) An understanding has been reached within the mucho divided White House! The Decider – in – Chief has accepted the rushed resignation of poor boy Press Secretary Scotty McClellan.

His parents were heralded as former fixtures at ye olde Bush Texas BBQs Scotty is according to Sidney Blumenthal “a flea on the windshield of history.”

He returns to Texas and his mom’s on – going campaign for governor according to this Guardian report.

King’s “Turd Blossom” – to die as noble warrior
Meanwhile cue ball Karl Rove, about to be pursued and charged with multiple counts by a Chicago prosecutor has decided to go out fighting in the 2006 elections.

Read Blumenthal’s latest at: http://tinyurl.com/s45tw

But, then again.

He might be crazy.
John Dean, the lawyer turned gov't witness of Nixon's Watergate days, makes a pretty credible analysis that he is crazy.

Click below.

http://tinyurl.com/rwjvl

New Hit!

Paul Hipp ditty rates the Huffington Post!
Yes, our Commander Decider gets the treatment.

“I am the egghead, I am the commander, I am the decider …”
“Koo – koo – kah – chooo !”

Study the lyrics and get ready for the music to start – sing – a – long with Paul!

Click I'm The Decider and go musical.

Peak Oil, Terror & Venezuelan Resistance

Peak Oil And The Political Economy Of Terrorism
By Mathew Maavak


04/21/06 "ICH" -- -- Crude oil has breached the $70 psychological barrier again. This time, however, it will not be a one-day seduction by the stormy Katrina.
The causative culprits are aplenty.

Terrorist have taken out 25 per cent of Nigeria's sweet crude since late February and the daily joust between Washington and Tehran is providing splendid returns to those who had invested in oil stocks. For these savvy investors, there will be enough gas in the tank during the peak summer driving season.

Than there is that 10.2 per cent growth registered by China, announced very conveniently before President Hu Jintao's scheduled meeting with his US counterpart George W. Bush. China's booming growth can only be greased by a harder-to-pump oil. The alternatives are stark. If the Chinese bubble gets pricked, the global economy suffers, US corporations may need higher tax cuts - or even subsidies - and Americans will finally need to trim their bellies.

Read the complete article here.

Also, in other oil news

Venezuela’s President Chavez predicts $100 / barrel crude if Bush attacks Iran, promises to destroy own fields if invaded.

http://tinyurl.com/n3ke6

On End - Timers, Debt & the Busheviks

Buzzflash Interview with Kevin Phillips on “American Theocracy”

http://tinyurl.com/jps3n

We're all anti - semites now!

Radical Zionists in High Places?

Juan Cole writes of the smear against academics’ paper on Israelis lobby.

“Breaking the silence”

http://tinyurl.com/msse6

TWO HOT LINKS TO LISTEN TO TODAY

TWO HOT LINKS TO “PEAK OIL” ARE AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FROM NPR TODAY!

TODAY on Steve Kraske’s “Up to Date” program out of Kansas City’s NPR affiliate, KCUR – FM 89.3 at 11am CDT, an interview with James Howard Kunstler author of The Long Emergency subtitled “Surviving the converging catastrophes of the Twentieth First Century.” If you are at work, don’t worry, it will be archived at Steve’s web site, but if possible listen live this morning at: Up To Date with Steve Kraske.

ALSO, on NPR’s “The Long View” today was long – time Republican strategist, Kevin Phillips (turned political independent) with perspectives from his latest book, American Theocracy, discusses the influence of Big Oil, Southern GOP politics during the last 40 years and the coming political crisis ahead. You can listen to it now where it is archived from this morning - NPR : Kevin Phillips: America Under the Influence of Oil.

Press repairs, again.

Nuke war crimes ahead?

New Yorker Reporter, writes the nuke Iran article that stirs the muck bucket!

Sy Hersh writes of a congressional source talking about the secret meetings going on with Congress and the Bush administration on bombing Iran.

“The House member said that no one in the meetings "is really objecting" to the talk of war. "The people they're briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?" (Iran is building facilities underground.) "There's no pressure from Congress" not to take military action, the House member added. "The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it." Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, "The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision."”

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT:

http://tinyurl.com/zgp3e


AND EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT!
William Rivers Pitts asks:
“How crazy are they?”
http://tinyurl.com/j4n77

Pretty crazy, folks.

AND WHAT IS ONE OF THE BEST LINES WRITTEN ABOUT IT?
Jim Kunstler writes:

“A new meme twanging around the chatscape this week says that the only political group with the will to conceive of having to do something other than nothing about Iran are the fundamentalist rednecks who would like to get their beloved Armageddon underway.”
http://tinyurl.com/zvaje

It’s hilarious, then horrifying, Jim.

Truth seeps thru the Fox censors

Vice – President Cheney throws the first pitch!





25 Thousand DC baseball fans BOO, HISS & WHISTLE!

Short FOX network “news” video from the dugout fails to censor mass disgust at war criminal. The camera swarm of “photo – journalists” filming this “historic” moment is disgusting. A more honest depiction of imperial Rome’s “bread and circus” moments before the fall. A visceral account would be better having Saddam Hussein (or name any hated Islamic) on the pitcher’s mound ready to be eaten by a pack of lions.

The site is getting innumerable “hits” so as the British officers say before firing a volley of gunfire into the onrushing native hordes, “wait for it.”

Watch it here.

More "Pro-Life" Christian Hypocrisy

A TEXAS WOMAN WHO IS NOT BORING WRITES FROM AUSTIN:

“SO LONG, TOM, YOU HYPOCRITE”

“…In 1996 and 1997, Abramoff billed the Marianas for 187 contacts with DeLay's office, including 16 meetings with DeLay. In December 1997, DeLay, his wife and their daughter went on an Abramoff-arranged jaunt to the Marianas. DeLay brunched with the Marianas' largest private employer, textile magnate Willie Tan.
Tan had to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging workplace violations. According to the book "The Hammer" by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid, among the violations common on the islands is forbidding women to work when they are pregnant, thus leading to a high abortion rate. …”

READ HER COMPLETE ESSAY AT:
http://tinyurl.com/m6nkl

Fallujah, April 2004, Americans Must See.

Here is some of the “mouse” journalism Robert Fisk described

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12665.htm

Warning - graphic images.
Fallujah video, April, 2004. 55 minutes. Windows media format.

MIT - Chomsky & Fisk Lecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Discussions with Robert Fisk, introduced by Noam Chomsky.

Here Robert Fisk describes the actual gathering of news “on the ground” in one of the most astounding discussions I’ve ever heard in recent times on Iraq. He discusses the differences between “mouse” journalism and “hotel” journalism. These are perspectives and eyewitness anecdotes of “the darker side” of corporate journalism.

Fisk throws a no – holds barred critique at journalism and the history of western military (British and American) Middle East wars and invasions. He describes the "boring" compulsion of imperialist countries to make news fit for a spoiled and ignorant public.

“Finger print historical parallels” that will really open any American’s eyes to the war in Iraq.

Go to:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12661.htm
and listen in while it’s available on line.

Important Notice.
The download link operates at the site listed above, while the Real audio window function does not. I noticed reading through the comments sections that another link is operable. Google has been accused by one of the commentators of censoring the event.

Our recent favorite interviews

Baghdad Burning Blog Awarded

Read one of the first interviews to be published with RiverBend and her three-year-old blog from occupied Iraq. Her new book and nomination is discussed Click here.

And one of our favorite writers, William Blum was recently interviewed here.

OUTFOXED in the NETHERLANDS

“OUTFOXED”

Dutch Bootleg Brain Candy

News programming spotlighting government policy decisions and watched by more having a “confused” and incorrect understanding of geo – political events, particularly about the Middle East wars.

Produced in the United States 2005 and recently aired on Dutch Television it is a popular internet classic.

Are you a “fair and balanced” person about where you get your information?

This show is worth the time.

A 50-minute documentary on “journalists” implementing political censorship, character assassination, spreading mass fear and hysteria, while supporting the Republican’s war strategies.

(The first minute is in Dutch. The remainder in English.)

http://tinyurl.com/b2zzl

Dutch Pretext for U. S. Invasion of Venezuela

President Chavez is right about the Dutch Danger

“WAR GAME” BY NATO INVOLVED ASSASSINATION OF CHAVEZ

by Henk Ruyssenaars, Senior Editor, Foreign Press Foundation (FPF)

Amsterdam - April 3d - 2006 Last night in his weekly radio program !Aló Presidente!, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was totally correct in calling the Dutch minister of war Henk Kamp 'a Washington stooge'.

Chavez, like other observers is totally right. Kamp - who like the other war criminals should have been jailed a long time ago - is one of the creepy creatures 'fronting' for the 'managers' of The Netherlands, and totally committed to the present US genocides.

Like the rest of the Dutch Quislings; openly and with all means fully support the illegal US invasions, the fake 'war on terror' which they foment themselves, torture, rendering and further crimes against humanity. No official protests are heard in Holland, by none of the so-called 'moral leaders' against the US massacres. They rather have their own belied people killed.*

And there's no doubt that the Dutch “stooges” also will support an attack on Venezuela when ordered to do so.No official protests are heard in Holland, the megaphones keep silent and none of the so-called 'moral leaders' against the US massacres has officially spoken in protest. They rather have their own belied people wounded and killed on the PNAC's battlefields.*

That's why this former lousy salesman 'Henk Kamp' by intelligent observers is referred to as Henk 'Mein Kampf' - after Hitler's book concerning the Nazi's war for a 'Thousand Years' lasting empire, the 'Reich'.

And there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever, that the brainwashed Dutch armed forces are totally at the despicable disposal of the US warmongers, which also run NATO via another 'National Shame' for The Netherlands: the brain- and spineless failed politician Jaap de Hoop Scheffer; the 'US straw man' who fronts for NATO. A slave if you've ever seen one.At present de Hoop Scheffer and Henk 'Mein Kampf' are among the worst cowards alive, together with the slavish dutch PM - the with Bush 'crusading christian' Crime Minister Balkenende, right now for some days visiting his 'brother in war crimes' CM Howard in Australia to further destroy Afghanistan and human being's lives. – http://tinyurl.com/kcg9r

And there is no doubt that Belgian and Dutch marines and other troops were at least partly involved in the coup d'état that took place in Venezuela on April 12, 13 and 14, 2002. And their slogan to do so?: "We are guarding Uncle Sam's backdoor while he is out home-jacking his annoying neighbor." http://tinyurl.com/jd2ms

COLLABORATING DUTCH ARMY, NAVY AND AIR FORCE GET ORDERS FROM WASHINGTON

Based on my life long experience as a foreign correspondent and research in The Netherlands, I can absolutely assure that the very second the collaborating Dutch army, navy and air force get the order from Washington, they will take part in a new invasion of Venezuela, or any other country in the world. Like they have done for decades. And like they do now in Iraq, Afghanistan etc. - not saying a word about the illegality nor radiation risks.*

DUTCH 'JOURNALISTS': NINETY-FIVE PERCENT HAS LET DOWN THE PEOPLE

The horrendous thing is that the main part of the 16 million inhabitants of the SHELL's Holland - which also is #6 on the global list of malignant weapon merchants - those people nearly all abhor war and the inhuman PNAC criminality, but for the past 2 decades have been dumbed down via the media of which all major channels are in the hands of the foreign warmongers.

Of the formerly existing Dutch journalists - misguided by their 'association' NVJ in PNAC hands - ninety-five percent has let down the people, sold out and bowed to the 'leaders'. Most have become megaphones and propaganda stenographers, and for years those Judas's have been producing propaganda for warmongers like Kamp c.s.

All journalists which have been critical of the sinister system and inhuman development have been silenced. Last November 15th investigating journalist Louis Seveke in Holland was liquidated, 300 meters from where this is written. In his last article he wrote that the Dutch 'authorities' should be 'more open about their own terrorism'.

Two weeks later he was killed by a professional who has not been caught. - http://tinyurl.com/8agrg

THE DUTCH ARE NOT INFORMED about the illegal and war criminal role their armed forces played and plays with the US war makers. They don't even know how many of their tax billions via NATO are misused for the 'Project for a New American Century' (PNAC)* - which involves the theft of all natural resources, like oil in Venezuela too. And most Dutch don't know either that - contrary to all law and human decency - secret US warmonger's nuclear weapons for decades have been stored in Holland too, making everybody a target in an armed conflict. - http://tinyurl.com/de78q

HOW THE PNAC GROUP'S NATO HAS PREPARED - and they are at it again - the next invasion of Venezuela, was published in VHeadline.com last year, May 27, 2004, in an article by Vannessa Carolina del Valle Marcano, who quoted General Melvin Lopez Hidalgo, secretary of the Venezuelan National Defense & Security Council: “War Game” by NATO involved assassination of Chavez - http://tinyurl.com/hf9qh

Last March 9th, Washington's and NATO stooge Kamp - in the fake Dutch 'House of Parliament' - parrotting the PNAC's 'Pentagonese' - called President Chavez 'an unbearable populist' - and declared that the people on the 'Dutch' Antilles, 30 miles of the coast of Venezuela* - the by the Dutch colonialized islands: 'Do not need to be afraid of Chavez or an invasion by his armed forces, even if he keeps looking in their direction as if he wants the islands'. Faking another 'threat' as a possible reason to 'avert the danger'. Exactly as his masters in Washington and London want him to say. - http://tinyurl.com/z4lx9

KAMP, IN HIS OVERWHELMING COWARDICE - COMBINED WITH HIS MONSTROUS STUPIDITY - is indeed dangerous and should be jailed as soon as is possible for his crimes against humanity. As well as the group of really bad geniuses behind all this, and especially the 'propaganda spreaders' in the PNAC's media, without whom all massacres and invasions not would have been possible.

In a BBC 'Newsnight' program tonight - Monday - President Chavez will advocate to keep the price of oil at $50 a barrel, and refers to Venezuela: "Seven years ago Venezuela was a US oil colony," he says. - As far as the present PNAC group in charge of the Netherlands and it's armed forces is concerned, Venezuela should return to that status, which was more profitable to them.

The Dutch are experienced: in the middle of 1973 at a reception in the Netherlands embassy in Santiago de Chile, a representative of the Dutch shipping company KNSM - later renamed Nedlloyd Hollandia - http://tinyurl.com/j5jsd - told me ''KNSM and many others of the Dutch multinationals backed the country wide strike against president Salvador Allende who was suicided' by the CIA later on in September. The KNSM ships were 'on strike' in the harbor of Valparaiso etc. backing the US coup plans.

Like those doing the dirty work for the greedy PNAC gringos in The Netherlands will do again in Venezuela or wherever. Whether the price is one, or one million lives of 'others' - that doesn't matter to the creatures dreaming of the 'PNAC Empire' - where Latin America is a big blank to them.

THEY'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND HUMAN BEINGS, ONLY PROFIT, AND MUST ABSOLUTELY BE STOPPED.

HR

* Dutch participation: ''US Navy prepares aircraft carrier strike group for "major training exercise"
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=52038

* Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger writes: ''While in Washington they elaborate and refine the Asymmetric War Doctrine against Venezuela, here in Venezuela, infiltration and sabotage within the revolution increases.'' - http://www.vheadline.com/printer_news.asp?id=50308

* The secret military support of the Dutch government to Bush's war in Iraq - http://tinyurl.com/h3ggw

* PNAC media: Throwing Stones at Venezuela http://tinyurl.com/qmgjy

* Official PNAC site with Latin America 'blank'
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

* Venezuela's President Chavez rejects recent attacks by the US administration http://tinyurl.com/qf6s9

* Henk 'Mein Kampf': 'We're not afraid of a Venezuelan invasion' - [in Dutch] http://tinyurl.com/odo6h

* Dutch Antilles and Venezuela - map
http://tinyurl.com/zfx9a

RELATED - CONCERNING THE PNAC'S 'GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY' WHICH KAMP c.s. SUPPORTS:

* THIS IS WHAT WAR IS LIKE, THIS IS WHAT ALSO IN THE NETHERLANDS THE WAR CRIMINAL PNAC COLLABORATORS SUPPORT! AND FORCE PEOPLE TO PAY FOR! - "No Bravery - A nation blind to their disgrace" - A 4 minute video with music by James Blunt - Produced by GlobalFreePress.com

http://tinyurl.com/orhwg

* Former U.S. PNAC-Secr. of State Madeleine Albright-Korbel, in her comment on the at least HALF A MILLION dead children in Iraq: "WE THINK THE PRICE IS WORTH IT" - On CBS '60 Minutes'
http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* PNAC HOLOCAUST: UNICEF reports that the under-5 infant mortality for 2003 was 110,000 in occupied Iraq, 292,000 in occupied Afghanistan. Gideon Polya: 'Non-reportage of US-linked infant mass mortality' - December 23, 2004 -http://tinyurl.com/rb3rx

* HOLOCAUSTING TODDLERS: Children Continue To Be the Main Victims Of the U.S. War Crimes - By Dr. César Chelala
http://tinyurl.com/oys87

* NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST for you too - Depleted Uranium for Dummies - Url.: http://www.notinkansas.us/

* ANOTHER HOLOCAUST: THIS IS ONE OF MANY BY THEIR CIA: John Stockwell, former CIA Station Chief in Angola in 1976, working for then Director of the CIA, George Bush. ''How 6 million People Were killed in CIA secret wars against Third World countries'' - Before 1986!
http://tinyurl.com/gpcg

* Who - for centuries already - has been doing this to the rest of us, the world's population? - The Global Elite: Who are they?
http://tinyurl.com/c5xv5

* Who's financing and profiting from all the wars and the killing of millions of people in wars based on lies and greed? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. –
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* "Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - George Bush Senior speaking in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December 1992. - And here's why: 'George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography' - by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin - Chapter - II - The Hitler Project –
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/57qxk

* Global Predators - ŒFrauds-R-Us¹ - The Bush Family Saga –
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/elarx

* The 9/11 drama was the 'trigger' used by the PNAC Group, killing Americans to further their inhuman goals: Anybody who after seeing this video - '9/11 revisited' - still believes the version from the 'PNAC pack' - the Washington cabal - is beyond all professional help - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/r5sx4

* LIKE THE 'HATE MEDIA' IN VENEZUELA: FOX: Video 49 min. - The example how viewers are brainwashed and 'outfoxed' –
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b2zzl

* 'Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one' A.J. Liebling - The infamous US 'Lie Factory' –
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* MSNBC - Live Vote - Concerning the "Project for a Nefarious American Century" (PNAC) - ''Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?'' - YES: 86% - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/

*Read the Fightin' Cock Flyer - Url.: http://fightincockflyer.blogspot.com/

* THE ONLY SOLUTION? - Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE ARE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION

http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/

Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars

http://tinyurl.com/amn3q

The Netherlands

fpf@chello.nl

-0-

Enron Tape Tells All

Big Texas Film Premiering in Court soon!

Jason Leopold drops this bomb about upcoming evidence yet to be presented in the Enron trials. He claims a 1997 dated 30 – minute company videotape biding farewell to then departing executive Rich Kinder contains:

“Enron executives parody songs and act in ridiculous skits in the video, which also features testimonials by President Bush, who was then governor of Texas, and his father, George H.W. Bush, both of whom thanked Kinder and Enron for helping Bush get to the governor's mansion.”

But wait, there’s more! Click Enron's Kazillion Dollar Bash for more.

Epiphanies among The Chosen

He’s finished with government, after a lot of prayer at the “War on Christianity Conference” he’s made up his mind and now he’s going to really enjoy himself. Presenting for your vision quest Hot Tub Tom. Cheers!

The “War on Christians” is booming with the dire warnings of Christians under seige on all sides, by the many forces of Evil – all to some sweet ‘n’ tangy Chain Store muzak. Shoppers, look for the Blue Light Specials at the end of the aisles!

Courtesy Randi Rhodes at Air America Radio.

"Getting off the grid." - A Simple Act of Subversion?

Seccessionist Plots, Race and Class controversies?


“THE ART OF WAR FOR THE ANTI – WAR MOVEMENT.”

Scott Ritter opens up a big can of worms on the left and the anti – war movement. Conservatives want to join, feel out of place.
http://tinyurl.com/kn4l8


And here is a really interesting American viewpoint that is more subversive than most. It originally appeared at: http://tinyurl.com/gyvhb


The Musings of A Simple Country Man

"Let The Revolution Begin...."

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.

-Henry David Thoreau

The eagle is a powerful bird. He flies alone. He rises up with authority into the sky. He is master of all he surveys. He is an individualist and was selected in the old days to be our symbol.

-Norman Vincent Peale, How to be Your Best

By Hobie Morris

04/01/06 "ICH" -- For over 25 years my wife and I have lived on Thoreau's "pumpkin" here in rural, sparsely populated central New York. We live a simple, frugal and uncluttered life without electricity, running water, inside plumbing (we use a privy) in a small uninsulated house heated with firewood that I cut and split by hand.

In many ways our lifestyle is more primitive than that of the Amish people.

How we have managed--as we have slipped into seniorhood--without life's "essentials" may be of some passing interest in future "musings.

"We need a new generation of young people, and older people too, who will be their own fine, good, honest dedicated selves, who will be so different from the commonherd that everyone will look at them in astonishment.

- Norman Vincent Peale

Many people apparently do look at us with astonishment. Wondering how we have survived such a rigorous and at times very difficult and dangerous lifestyle. The Welsh have an old proverb: A ddioddefodd a orfu--who has endured has overcome. By the grace of God--and a great deal of hard work by the both of us--we have miraculously "endured" and in the process "overcome."

Living simply has allowed us the time and opportunity to pursue many meaningful and stimulating interests. Among them classical music, reading, writing and corresponding with an incredibly diverse number of men and women throughout the world. My lovely wife of 40 years Lois has corrected and typed many thousands of my letters and articles throughout our wonderful marriage.

A truly beautiful woman descended from the hardy upper Midwest Norwegian stock. She is an amazing person. A 21st century "pioneer" woman well versed in all the talents necessary to live without the generally accepted necessities.

If my musings contain some redeeming value it is largely thanks to Lois' editorial expertise--although knowing her as well as I do she would no doubt disagree with my laudatory assessment of her many contributions.

Marcus Aurelius has written "our life is what our thoughts make it." Many of my thoughts have been influenced by the musings of others.

I'm a devotee of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Scott and Helen Nearing, and my good friend Wendell Berry, among others. Each in his way has been a highly individualistic, independent, self reliant, free thinking and freedom loving "eagle."

I've also been inspired by the writings of Thomas A. Kempis. In a 1989 translation of The Imitation of Christ I found this meaningful nugget.



My friend, there are many things in life that you must simply pass by...you must not allow yourself to be caught up in the workings of the world; you must find time alone, away from noise and confusion, away from the allure of power and wealth. You must turn a deaf ear to many things and think instead on those things that contribute to your peace.



God only knows for what reason I've been marching to the beat of a drum that only I can hear ever since my earthly journey began the year World War II started in Europe.

I guess this has led me to be an "unreasonable" sort of person throughout my life.

The best definition of this "unreasonableness" was once penned by George Bernard Shaw. Shaw wrote "the reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

As a life long student (and one time teacher) of history I'm convinced that America reached its greatest apogee during the years that I've personally witnessed.

America's rapid decline has also taken place during this time. A decline so swift and shockingly steep that it's left many of us gasping for breath. We search for anchors to halt this descent--but so far in vain.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said it clearly.

Must one point out that from ancient time a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?

Courage, compassion and truthfulness!

I believe that millions of Americans can personally relate to the one time famous circus hobo clown (who never smiled) "Weary Willie" (in real life Emmett Kelly).

"Willie" is a sad and ragged little guy who is very serious about everything no matter how futile or foolish it appears to be.

In "Willie's" unspoken words he might say: "I am the hobo who found out the hard way that the deck is stacked, the dice 'frozen,' the race fixed, and the wheel crooked." But I suspect that like Willie there is present in all of us a tiny forlorn spark of hope - which keeps us trying and pressing on.

Do you feel like Willie? I know I do.

New York State for instance was once widely known for good reason as the "Empire State." It was the envy of other states and nations. Today this state, in my opinion, is a pathetic imitation of its past glory.

What we have now in over abundance is burdensome and oppressive taxes, a bloated and inefficient governmental bureaucracy, corruption, powerful special intersts, entrenched and unresponsive political leaders--the list goes on and on. In total they painfullly and sadly remind us just how badly we are governed. It's especially sad for this simple country man because so far the electorate has not demonstrated the courage to make the necessary changes to improve these conditions.

Dr. Warren Bennes has observed that "the status quo will not help us march ahead; that I can guarantee."

Conditions I've attempted to describe here in New York State I believe accurately mirror those in our Federal government. A ruling body increasingly out of touch with reality, the needs of the citizens; fueled and beholden to powerful special interests etc. that in total make a mockery of the lofty democratic goals of our Founding Fathers--slowly perfected over 200 years.

Today we find many of our officials morally and ethically corrupt.

Their masters seemingly are special interest profiteers who are the power brokers behind the governmental throne. America is paying a terrible price for this demise of democracy as we mortgage our future and unnecessarily shed the blood of our young people in ill advised disastrous foreign adventures.American democracy - that ironically we want to impose by force elsewhere in the world - has become in many important ways a hollow, weakening sham.

A cleverly orchestrated con job where the "herd" (most Americans I'm sad to say) are kept appeased and satisfied by just enough "scraps" thrown to them by the plutocracy who are gorging themselves at the table of economic plenty. The rich are getting richer while the "Weary Willies" of society sink deeper and deeper into debt, despair and hopelessness.

Is there "a tiny spark of hope" anywhere in this discouraging picture? Yes there is.

I believe the "spark" will come from the innovative, resourceful and courageous "eagles" (I personally know several of them) who perch, ready to fly all across America.

Ralph W. Emerson and M. Ghandi expressed similar thoughts in different words.

Emerson wrote that "every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind."

Ghandi: "we must be the change we wish to see in the world."

To this simple country man these courageous, unconventionally thinking men and women are not only eagles but they are the 21st century's reincarnation of the 1776 patriots/revolutionaries.

People who are fearless and determined to change the status quo and unresponsive governmental system that has among other nefarious things shredded many of our sacred freedoms.

If America is to reclaim its greatness, revolutionary, far sweeping changes are inevitable and mandatory. I believe America's most dangerous threat is not from terrorists but from within. If these implosive forces are neglected they will eventually blow this once great and proud country apart. America Balkanized? I don't believe it's impossible!

Warning. The winds of change will be in for some very dangerous and difficult weather.

Resistance will be powerful and probably repressive (a condition already in evidence).

The "eagles" must and will be resolute because from their minds and in their actions is the future of democracy.

If democracy lives the eagles must fly high....

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

- Ralph W. Emerson, Concord Hymn

For this simple country man my plea is simple:

Let the revolution begin!

READER FORWARDS HOT LINKS!

EXCLUSIVE...

Noam Chomsky on his new book "Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy" released.

AUDIO CLIPS
http://tinyurl.com/r3859

How the United States is beginning to resemble a failed state that cannot protect its citizens from violence and has a government that regards itself as beyond the reach of domestic or international law.

Noam Chomsky on Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Haiti, Democracy in Latin America and the Israeli Elections
http://tinyurl.com/oa8yy

Subjects traversed: Iraq troop withdrawal, Haiti, democracy in Latin America and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Chomsky's latest book is titled Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy.

[The remarks on Bolivia and Venezuela should be put in front of every editor in the country.]

Also of interest: Part 2 of the interview with Chomsky, concluding from above.

Friday, March 31st, 2006
"A Silent People Will Never be Heard"

Tens of Thousands March for Immigrant Rights in New York
http://tinyurl.com/lh63t

Part of what's interesting here is the analysis of the interests and forces behind the two immigration policies to which discussion in Congress is confined at the moment.

The connection with NAFTA is one subtopic.

FreeThought Solidarity Bulletin #3

 

FREETHOUGHT SOLIDARITY BULLETIN #3

 

April 3, 2006

 

This Bulletin, edited and produced by Fred Whitehead, Kansas City, Kansas, USA for the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers (ICPF) is FREE.  If you do not wish to continue to receive this, see instructions at the end of this message.

 

Items:

 

#1: The Muhammed Cartoon Controversy

 

#2: A New Manifesto

 

#3: Apostasy cases in Afghanistan and Elsewhere

 

#4: Update on Lafif Lakhdar Case

 

#5: Strategy and Tactics

 

#6: Quotation of the Day

 

#7: Resources

 

 

 

#1: The MUHAMMED CARTOON CONTROVERSY

 

The series of cartoons satirizing the Prophet of Islam appeared in a Danish newspaper, the Jyllands-Posten, last autumn.  However, they attracted little attention until an imam living in Denmark took them to an Islamic conference in Cairo, quietly adding two obscene cartoons which were NOT published in the Danish newspaper, one of them depicting Muhammed being sodomized by a dog (considered an unclean animal in Islam). 

 

Subsequently, riots broke out in many cities; the Danish embassy in Damascus was burned, and a boycott of Danish products was instituted.

 

Elsewhere, in Paris, and in various U.S. college newspapers, editors who published the cartoons lost their jobs.

 

However, the entire series (excluding the obscene ones), has been published in the latest issue of the ICPF journal Brave Minds, with a lengthy commentary by editor Marvin F. Zayed and related documents.  For details, see the “Resources” section below.

 

In terms of solidarity, one thing ordinary citizens can easily do is buy Danish products.  Denmark exports high quality dairy products of all kinds, especially cheese, but also furniture, etc.  For details, go to www.supportdenmark.com. 

 

#2: A NEW MANIFESTO

 

From the Internetavisen Jyllands-Posten, February 28, 2006

 

MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism

 

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

 

 

#3: APOSTASY CASES IN AFGHANISTAN AND ELSEWHERE

 

In March 2006, Abdul Rahman, an Afghan citizen who years ago had converted to Christianity while living in Germany, was charged in an Afghan court with the crime of Apostasy from Islam, a capital offense.  The case was soon reported in major newspapers world-wide.  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to seek Rahman’s release.  Demonstrators in Afghanistan called for the death sentence. 

 

This is the result of “compromise” with Sharia law under the Afghan Constitution, which also endorses the right of all persons to choose their religion under the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.  When the Constitution was adopted a fEw years ago, the potential for sharp conflict was widely noted by liberal commentators, and now the conflict has erupted into public view.

 

As a result of protests, Rahman was released, in part because of allegations of mental instability, and he has now found refuge in Italy.  However, as Paul Marshall of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House has pointed out, there are numerous cases of judicial punishment of “infidels” all around the Islamic nations.  The penalties vary from imprisonment to death.

 

We urge readers to send letters to President Hamid Karzai, Gulkhana Palace, ARG Kabul, Afghanistan, calling on his government to respect fundamental freedoms of thought and religion.

 

#4: UPDATE ON LAFIF LAKHDAR CASE

 

In our Bulletin #2 we reported on the case of this Tunisian educator now living in exile in France, who has been threatened by an Islamic leader in Britain.  As of this date, he is still safe, but for an update on his situation, including a review of his intellectual life and contributions over many decades, go to www.metransparent.net, and see “The roots of jihad” by Ehud Ein-Gil. 

 

#5: STRATEGY AND TACTICS

 

Generally our messages will deal with immediate tactical matters, especially the defense of Freethinkers, our explicit purpose and reason for existence.  We will continue to provide information on specific cases, urge letters to government officials, and the like.  However, the persistence of chaotic conditions at the level of basic social functioning on what seems to be a world-wide basis, has led me to propose a broader approach as well, one that is difficult, and by its nature long-term.

 

At the very moment when our consciousness is becoming international, or “global” as the current word has it, we are facing movements of religious violence and extremism, often based on territorial considerations.  And while “Islamism” represents a real threat, simple honesty should lead us to acknowledge that there are plenty of Christian and other fanatics as work as well.  There are Generals at high positions in the U.S. military who believe that the Apocalypse is near and should be hastened along.  Furthermore, while the tragedy of September 11, 2001 is imprinted on our minds forever, how many, just to speak of the people of the United States, are much concerned, really, about the appalling record of abuse and torture of Muslims in our secret jails?  Certainly, the kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, etc. are terrible, but do we care about our own crimes?

 

What, therefore, seems needed is an extensive, activist effort to study, learn, and apply the fundamental rights of free expression and thought, including speech and press, guaranteed by the U. N. Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in most (though not all) countries of the world, via the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  (See “Resources” below for source of relevant texts.)  This should not be limited to the usual liberal, humanist and Freethought circles, but should include leaders and rank-and-file people from all religions and systems of belief. 

 

Discussions should be carried out in communities, schools, colleges and universities, and labor unions.  In women’s groups, and all the myriad institutions of civil society.  Unless we can deepen people’s understanding of these principles, our societies are going to continue to face the possibility if not the inevitability of complete breakdown.  More positively, we need to create networks of interaction that can sustain a decent future for us all.

 

It will require patience, and also real listening to others.  Many Muslims feel deeply about any defamation of their Prophet; we cannot just ignore such feelings.  In Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, there will be on April 8, a meeting called “A Clash of Civilizations: The Muslim Perspective.”  I plan to attend, and listen.  From this meeting I hope to develop some kind of connection and future opportunity for dialog with Muslims in this metropolitan area.

 

We would welcome reports of similar efforts, events and initiatives from our readers, for future publication in this Bulletin.

 

 

#6: QUOTATION OF THE DAY

 

“All power is but an unabated nuisance, a barbarous assumption, an aggravated injustice, that is not directed to the common good: all grandeur that has not something corresponding to it in personal merit and heroic acts, is a deliberate burlesque, and an insult on common sense and human nature.  That which is true, the understanding ratifies: that which is good, the heart owns; all other claims are spurious, vitiated, mischievous, false—fit only for those who are sunk below contempt, or raised above opinion.  We hold in scorn all right-lined pretensions but those of rectitude.  If there is offense in this, we are ready to abide by it.  If there is shame, we take it upon ourselves: and we hope and hold that the time will come, when all other idols but those which represent pure truth and real good, will be looked upon with the same feelings of pity and wonder that we now look back to the images of Thor and Woden!”—from “On the Spirit of Monarchy” by William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

 

 

#7: RESOURCES

 

Issue #10/11 of Brave Minds, the chronicle of the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers (ICPF) has now been published.  A substantial journal of 116 pages, it includes the now famous series of Muhammed cartoons, with lengthy commentary by editor Marvin F. Zayed, with additional documents from Islamic authorities, humanist and press freedom organizations, and others.  Also a Call for a Mohammed Seminar, similar to the Jesus Seminar; an essay by Fred Whitehead, “Why We Need Offensive Art and Satirical Literature”; a report on Ireland and Religion by Ann James; an intellectual biography of Dr. Ahmed Sharif by Nehal Karim; a review of the recently published book by Robert Spencer, entitled The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades, etc.  There is now a section of the journal in Arabic as well.  For details on the cost of the issue and of subscriptions, e-mail diahumanism-institute@sympatico.ca. 

 

Essential documents on civil and human rights are available in a publication entitled How to Use “New” Civil Rights Laws after 9/11,” edited by Ann Fagan Ginger of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Berkeley, California.  This includes the complete texts of the Declaration of Independence, the U.N. Charter, the Nuremberg Principles, The Genocide Convention, and particularly relevant, the International Convention on Civil & Political Rights.  A noted attorney and activist, Ginger emphasizes the legal application of all these documents, not only for U.S. law, but for all countries of the world which have endorsed them.  This is a 324 page book, a reference we need to have readily at hand in our daily work!  For details go to www.mcli.org.

 

The Bank of Wisdom has issued two new CDs of classic Freethought texts now available on easy to use digitalized formats.  These are An Introduction to Reality, and Evolution A Fact.  For more go to www.bank-of-wisdom.com.

 

Imaginative literature is a significant part of our cause.  For several years, Robert Edwards published a print magazine of poetry called Pemmican.  Now he is continuing it as a website, with the addition of reviews, commentaries, as well as poetry.  For stimulating reading, go to www.pemmicanpress.com.

 

One of the longest-running magazines in America is called The Human Quest.  Founded as The Churchman in 1804, it is “an independent journal of religious humanism.”  For many years, it was chaired by Professor John Swomley, who has recently become Chair Emeritus.  Now, we learn from the latest issue, there is to be a slight shift in emphasis for its content, to focus on “congregationally based community organizing.”    The current issue features a provocative essay by Micahel Lerner, editor of the progressive Jewish journal Tikkun, entitled “Why America needs a spiritual Left.”  For more information, go to www.thehumanquest.org.

 

IF you do not wish to continue receiving this Bulletin, send a message to fredwh@swbell.net, with FSB UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject box.   

 

U.S. Suffers if Dissent is Considered 'a Bad Thing'

Published on Sunday, April 2, 2006 by Clarion-Ledger (Mississippi)

U.S. Suffers if Dissent is Considered 'a Bad Thing'

by Marc M. Harrold

Ours is not an era that values dissent. The current political landscape is one of deeply entrenched partisan alliances instead of deeply held personal or political beliefs and ideologies. Gone is the day where we can even loosely ascribe classically liberal views to mainstream Democrats or classic conservatism to Republicans. When did dissent become a bad thing? The "if you aren't with us, you are against us" mantra seems to now be applicable not only to those nations we fear might harbor and assist our terrorist enemies, but also to those within our nation's borders who are out of step with the current administration's dictates; in many cases seeking the same "end" yet espousing far different "means." Bumper Stickers Abound Thomas Jefferson once stated: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." On a recent road-trip, I encountered many cars with bumper stickers all over the political and social spectrum. Although my respect for the presidential office causes me to immensely dislike the simple "F--- the President" stickers, I still traveled our land with pride that any citizen could display one without fear of direct governmental reprisal. I had to laugh out loud at the "Somewhere in Texas a Village is Missing its Idiot" sticker, and admire the creativity of numerous others, regardless of the esteem with which I held their message. And, of course, there were a plethora of the "We Support the Troops" ribbon-magnets and stickers in a variety of colors, sizes and shapes. I wondered how many of the people who displayed this sentiment did so because they actively advocate the return of the troops and the immediate end of the war, or some other plan of action that differs from that of the Bush administration? Dissent is not an annoyance. It is a vital part of our democratic republic, one that is more, not less, crucial for a superpower such as the United States, where the stakes are so high should extreme nationalism pervade. While there is great value in many forms to the expression of dissent, and the rejection of "popular" ideas, within American political and social culture, one that is often overlooked is that dissent is one of the major forces that has kept the United States from falling into the same type of super or extreme nationalism (fascism being the most potent example) that has caused many of the great struggles in world history. Ideas 'Test' Constants The Constitution, through its checks and balances, and by way of the Bill of Rights, was ingenuous in the manner that power was de-centralized, between the federal government and the states generally and between the branches of government specifically. We must also preserve "de-centralized" power, access and attention to dissent and unpopular speech and expression. If America is a democratic experiment, as I believe it is, ideas are the variables that must "test" any constants set forth by the Constitution and our political processes and traditions. Jefferson was right. Dissent is not only a form of patriotism; it is, in many cases, the highest form. This controversy is not new. Slightly before my time, the "America: Love it or Leave It" sentiment was prevalent. Just as an individual who is fervently against the war could "Support the Troops" by wanting to bring them home, a person could "love" their country by staying and fighting for change. Nothing is more American or more patriotic. We should remember Mark Twain's words: "What luck for rulers that men do not think." Marc Harrold is counsel for national programs and a visiting professor at the National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law. He is a regular contributing columnist to The Clarion Ledger. His e-mail address is: mharrold@olemiss.edu. Visit the Web site http://www.ncjrl.org/