Archive for June, 2007

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14
Jun

Bush League Road Trips

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: CJO'S OpEds and Imperial Policy

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BY ERNEST STEWART, Editor, Issues & Alibis

“On the road again. I just can’t wait to get on the road again.”
On The Road Again ~~~ Willie Nelson

“Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!” ~~~ Senator Joseph Lieberman

Our national embarrassment has hit the road again and spent the week in Europe enraging and boring half a billion people. Some of the highlights of this latest State Department fiasco include…

The many brownie points that Putin scored ending Bush’s cold war stalemate by offering to build the “BMD” system for Bush and placing it in Azerbaijan. It made Putin seem magnanimous and compromising next to our little brain-dead. As Conan O’Brien said about Bush… “There was an awkward moment when Bush said, ‘I believe the correct pronunciation is Abracadabra.’”

Bush did miss a few meetings after he got loaded on beer and caught the hangover from hell. At least while he was retching into the commode he wasn’t doing worse things at the G-8 where as usual the rich got richer and the poor got screwed. Meanwhile outside the people fought a running battle with the German Gestapo while our rulers were protected from the people they enslave by thousands of miles of fences and Constantina wire. This time George didn’t molest the German Chancellor, or if he did at least not on camera. Continue reading ‘Bush League Road Trips’

14
Jun

Imperial America?

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Academic Battlefields, The Contemptible Media, Obstinate History and Imperial Policy

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Richard Perle, Israeli agent by any standard, deeply embedded in the US foreign policy/media/political establishment, and bald-faced pusher for imperialist designs across the map, principally the Middle East. A Nuremberg-class war criminal to keep in mind.

BY BRYN LLOYD-BOLLARD

In an age in which the democratic mask is essential to legitimate plutocratic power with the benighted masses of the Anglo-American empire, the manner in which imperial designs are carried out today may be less obvious than in ancient times, but the results are practically the same.

It is common to hear talk of the Roman Empire, the British Empire, or the Soviet Empire, yet comparatively little is said about an American Empire. The reason is that it is often taken for granted that the era of imperialism ended with the collapse of communism, and that the near-universal extension of economic and political liberalism precludes any chance that Empire will again rear its ugly head. Empire is considered an outdated concept of little use for explaining the dynamics of a world increasingly integrated and globalized. Thus, Francis Fukuyama argues that we are witnessing the “end of history,” “the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” (Fukuyama, 39). The age of ideology is over, capitalism’s victory is absolute. Implicit in his view is the assumption that the free market is antithetical to Empire, and that imperialism cannot exist when liberal values are widely acknowledged as sacrosanct. Considerably less attention is therefore paid to the ways in which contemporary American power, as exercised on a global level, mirrors that of history’s greatest imperialist states. Continue reading ‘Imperial America?’

14
Jun

Beyond PTSD Part 2: The Moral Casualties of War, Programming Our Children to Kill

By Bica 1 Comment
Categories: Imperial Policy

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BY CAMILLO “MAC” BICA

 In Beyond PTSD: The Moral Casualties of War, Part One I argued that the readjustment difficulties suffered by active duty military and veterans because of their experiences in Iraq are not exhausted by references to trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. To correctly diagnose and adequately treat our returning servicemen and women, we must appreciate the relevancy of moral values and norms to the war experience and recognize that soldiers suffer not only the effects of trauma – PTSD – but what I termed “moral injuries.”  Continue reading ‘Beyond PTSD Part 2: The Moral Casualties of War, Programming Our Children to Kill’

13
Jun

The US Media’s Double Standard: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: The Contemptible Media, Obstinate History and Imperial Policy

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Jose Maria Aznar, the smiling fascist. All the cosmeticization of such “elegant reactionaries” by the media whores cannot hide their despicable impact on modern politics.

BY VICENTE NAVARRO || Dateline: August 21, 2003

Can you imagine the response of the U.S. media if the president of the governing party of Poland were to say that Stalin was the former Soviet Union’s greatest leader? Or if the president of the German government had never condemned the Hitler regime, or if a founder of the governing party in Germany was a person who had written a prologue to a book denying the existence of the Holocaust? Surely the media would hit the ceiling immediately and call for these person’s resignations.

Well, the U.S. government and the U.S. media have been welcoming a man who has done something similar, a man they have referred to as “a great friend of the U.S.” and “a representative of the New Europe” (in Rumsfeld’s narrative), and a man that leading Democrats (not to be perceived as less welcoming) have referred to in equally laudatory terms. Even the Democratic-controlled California Assembly gave him a standing ovation. His man’s is Mr. Jose Maria Aznar; he is the president of the Spanish government and leader of the governing party, the Popular Party (PP). More critical media would have made some inquiries about the PP and about Mr. Aznar. Let’s start with the Party. Continue reading ‘The US Media’s Double Standard: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush’

13
Jun

Recovering Historic Memory in Spain

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Obstinate History and Imperial Policy

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Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco. Before there was a Pinochet, there was this brutal creep to set the reactionary standard for treason and bloodthirstyness.

DEMOCRACY NOW! WITH AMY GOODMAN | an wbai special radio show
Grandson of Man Killed by Franco Finds Remains in Mass Grave |
Dateline: Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

We look at the legacy of Francisco Franco - the dictator who in 1936 launched a bloody civil war and then ruled Spain for 40 years - and one man’s quest to find his grandfather who was killed by Franco’s troops decades ago. [includes rush transcript]

When I ask people here about the legacy of Francisco Franco, the dictator who in 1936 launched a bloody civil war and then ruled Spain for 40 years, many of them say this: he was the man who divided Spain forever into two sides.
Over one million Spaniards were killed in the war and in the brutal repression that followed. Many victims were summarily shot and buried in mass graves. Entire villages were wiped out. Many people were imprisoned and tortured. But unlike other countries that have tried to bring justice to victims through truth commissions, Spain never closed this traumatic chapter. No-one was ever tried or jailed for these crimes after Franco died and Spain transitioned into a democracy. In fact, Franco’s longtime Minister of the Interior, Manuel Fraga, still holds a powerful political post as the head of the Autonomous Region of Galicia. Continue reading ‘Recovering Historic Memory in Spain’

11
Jun

Bush Proposal on Global Warming Designed to Undercut United Nations

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Animals & Environment and Imperial Policy

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Between the Lines Q&A
A weekly column featuring progressive viewpoints
on national and international issues under-reported in mainstream media for release June 12, 2007

Distributed by Squeaky Wheel Productions
http://www.squeakywheel.net
=====================================

Interview with Ross Gelbspan,
journalist and author,
conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Listen in RealAudio:
http://www.btlonline.org/gelbspan061507.ram

On May 31, President George Bush proposed for the first time during his administration setting “a long-term global goal” for reducing carbon emissions, after six years of ignoring the problem or calling for more studies. The president’s proposal calls for a set of international talks to discuss voluntary, not mandatory, compliance, focusing on reducing emissions 50 years and more into the future, rather than on what can be done right now. Continue reading ‘Bush Proposal on Global Warming Designed to Undercut United Nations’

11
Jun

What I Admire Most About Cindy Sheehan

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: The Contemptible Media and Imperial Policy

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WORN DOWN BY SAD REALIZATIONS, BUT PERHAPS STRONGER BECAUSE THE WISER
BY CAROLYN BAKER

Corporate media—and even some alternative websites, are blaring with headlines about Cindy Sheehan “quitting” the anti-war movement. It is true that Sheehan has stepped down as the consummate symbol of the ordinary, salt-of-the-earth American mother crusading against the empire for the end of the war that brought about her son’s meaningless death. But it is not true that Cindy is “quitting.” After years of sacrifice, incomprehensible losses, and several hundred stages of burnout, she has walked away from a role and the symbolism inherent within it, but even more significantly in my opinion, and reverberating through her article “Letter To The Democratic Congress,” she has rejected the Democratic Party and its pretense of offering an alternative to the politics of empire.

Last night I watched Keith Olbermann begin his “Countdown” show with the story of Sheehan’s “quitting” the anti-war movement, even including some quotes from her, but mentioning nothing about her leaving the Democratic Party. How could he do otherwise when he devoted the next twenty minutes of the program to interviewing Al Gore and communicating unmistakably to the viewers that the former Vice-President is unequivocally our “savior”? What else could we expect from corporate media? Continue reading ‘What I Admire Most About Cindy Sheehan’

11
Jun

DePaul Rejects Finkelstein

By Greanville 1 Comment
Categories: Academic Battlefields, Toxic Culture and Imperial Policy

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The embattled Finkelstein was foolish or courageous enough to defy the Zionist lobby.
BY SCOTT JASCHIK
DATELINE: Inside Higher Education June 11, 2007

DePaul University on Friday formally denied tenure to Norman G. Finkelstein, who has taught political science there while attracting an international following — of both fans and critics — for his attacks on Israeli policies and the “Holocaust industry.”

Finkelstein’s tenure bid has attracted an unusual degree of outside attention and his research has been much debated by scholars of the Middle East. In evaluating his record, DePaul faculty panels and administrators praised him as a teacher and acknowledged that he has become a prominent public intellectual, with works published by major presses. But first a dean and now the president of DePaul — in rejecting tenure for Finkelstein — have cited the style of his work and intellectual combat. Finkelstein was criticized for violating the Vincentian norms of the Roman Catholic university with writing and statements that were deemed hurtful, that contained ad hominem attacks and that did not show respect for others. Continue reading ‘DePaul Rejects Finkelstein’

11
Jun

Furore over RCTV: US imperialists join the attack against Venezuela

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: The Contemptible Media, Obstinate History and Imperial Policy

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PRESIDENT CHAVEZ EXPLAINING THE PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE REASONS FOR THE REFUSAL TO RENEW RCTV’S LICENSE.

BY ROB SEWELL |
DATELINE: Monday, 11 June 2007

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State last week launched another frontal attack against the Venezuelan Revolution at the start of the general assembly of the Organization of American States in Panama City.

Hypocritically, Ms Rice hit out at the closure of Radio Caracas Television, whose demise drew opposition protests, calling it Hugo Chávez’s “sharpest and most acute” move against democracy.

Together with the rest of the howling pack, she pounced upon the Venezuelan government’s decision not to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, a television channel that was involved up to its neck in the Washington-backed coup against President Chavez in April 2002.

“Freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government”, she declared. “Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy.”

After this lecture in “democracy”, the Secretary of State then called upon the OAS to send Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to Venezuela to investigate the station’s closure.

This attack was followed up by the Big Boss himself, President George W. Bush. While in Prague, Bush declared: “In Venezuela, elected leaders have resorted to shallow populism to dismantle democratic institutions and tighten their grip on power.”

Furthermore, Rice also warned Russia against selling arms to Venezuela, but Moscow immediately rebuffed her criticism, saying a $120 million deal it has signed with Caracas violates no laws or treaties.

This concerted hue and cry by the arch representatives of imperialism against Venezuela was joined by America’s Senate, which passed a motion in support of RCTV. This motion drew the support from the two Democratic presidential front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, keen to prove their “democratic” credentials. Continue reading ‘Furore over RCTV: US imperialists join the attack against Venezuela’

05
Jun

NEED IS A NASTY WORD

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Toxic Culture and CJO'S OpEds

george-prays
THE NEED FOR CONNECTION, FAMILY AND FRIENDS’ TIES WAS DRAMATIZED IN FRANK CAPRA’S CLASSIC “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE,” WITH JAMES STEWART AS THE SUICIDAL GEORGE BAILEY. The film resonated with audiences because it addressed a painful vacuum in American society, almost totally hypnotized with the pursuit of money.

BY SALLY ERICKSON
Dateline: May 28, 2007 | Recommended to CJO by Carolyn Baker, editor of Speaking Truth To Power

Sally Erickson, Producer of the documentary “What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire” writes of the extent to which we need each other in the face of collapse and how our programming for “rugged individualism” is not working and will not sustain us±CB

SAY HELLO to the last throes of America’s collective dementia. No amount of medication in the form of alternative therapy, I mean alternative energy, is going to repair the years of abuse to our collective body and spirit by the machinations of Empire. Antidepressants, I mean anti-inflationary economics, are rapidly losing their effectiveness. We’ve reached peak insanity. We’re sunk. Thank the gods. It’s all downhill from here.

We need help.

I come from a quietly dysfunctional, but highly functioning, middle-class American family. My brother and sister have both had incomes way into six figures for decades. I think. It’s not polite to discuss income so I can only presume.

I never had the guts to go there, to make a lot of money. I never felt I had the right to profit wildly from the abusive and exploitative system we call American capitalism. Well before I understood the nature of the crimes that American wealth is based on, I knew something was very wrong.

I traveled to India briefly during college. On my first day there I faced a tiny child who reached out with pleading fingers, still in her mother’s arms. I felt sick inside. What right did I have to live with privilege? America’s endless appetite left little to be shared. Members of the living community, human and non-human were suffering. Thirty-eight years later that little hand still tugs at my heart. Continue reading ‘NEED IS A NASTY WORD’

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