image - committee to unsell the warSaturday, April 29, 2006
Great way to start off a May Day holiday!
image - committee to unsell the war
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
Friday, April 28, 2006
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
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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!
Monday, April 24, 2006
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 .
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 .
Sunday, April 23, 2006
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.
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.
Bechtel received $680 million contract for rebuilding of Iraq
Kansans may need to initiate some “peoples’ power” when our Native Sons from DC come home – read here.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
"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
Friday, April 21, 2006
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
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
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
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
Monday, April 17, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
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.
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
“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
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
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.
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.
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.
Monday, April 10, 2006
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.
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