Dirty Wars

Here's a good essay by Kelley Vlahos about Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars:

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2013/04/29/jeremy-scahills-dirty-work/

I think we need to go beyond "nothing justifies the killing of innocent people" to "nothing justifies what the US  is doing to people around the world".

Chief Seattle's Speech

The words that follow allegedly came, in one form or another, from a speech delivered by Seattle, chief of the Suquamish, Duwamish, and other tribes around Puget Sound, in 1854 or 1855. In that oration, so the story goes, Seattle agreed to sell two million acres of the tribes’ land to the United States government. Others have claimed that the words we now have actually came from the text of a letter that the chief sent to President Franklin W. Pierce. And, finally, the most generally-accepted of the many versions of Chief Seattle’s speech was actually crafted by a screenwriter for a documentary in the 1970s. About all we know for certain is that the chief’s real name was ”Sealth,” not Seattle, and that the land ended up in the government’s possession.

A thorough historical analysis of the speech (or letter) may be found in the National Archives, but the writer concludes that because we cannot prove who said them, the words are meaningless.

We disagree. This speech, in all of its versions, has been accepted by Native Americans everywhere as truth. For it accurately and eloquently represents their feelings about our government and our Mother Earth. Buckminster Fuller calls it ”one of the most profound environmental statements ever made.”

The version that follows can be found on the website of the Suquamish tribe, and we have chosen it for that reason. So please read these words with the understanding that their truth has perhaps transcended historical considerations. And listen with your heart.

(from http://spiritofmaat.com/magazine/april-2013-the-firewalk-issue/chief-seattles-speech/)

The Speech

Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon our fathers for centuries untold, and which to us looks eternal, may change. Today is fair, tomorrow may be overcast with clouds.

My words are like the stars that never set. What Seattle says the Great Chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as our paleface brothers can rely upon the return of the seasons.

The son of the White Chief says his father sends us greetings of friendship and good will. This is kind, for we know he has little need of our friendship in return because his people are many. They are like the grass that covers the vast prairies, while my people are few and resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain.

The Great, and I presume, also good, White Chief sends us word that he wants to buy our lands but is willing to allow us to reserve enough to live on comfortably. This indeed appears generous, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also for we are no longer in need of a great country.

There was a time when our people covered the whole land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea covers its shell-paved floor. But that time has long since passed away with the greatness of tribes now almost forgotten. I will not mourn over our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers for hastening it, for we, too, may have been somewhat to blame.

When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, their hearts, also, are disfigured and turn black, and then their cruelty is relentless and knows no bounds, and our old men are not able to restrain them.

But let us hope that hostilities between the Red Man and his paleface brothers may never return. We would have everything to lose and nothing to gain.

True it is, that revenge, with our young braves is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.

Our great father Washington, for I presume he is now our father as well as yours, since George has moved his boundaries to the North – our great and good father, I say, sends us word by his son, who, no doubt, is a great chief among his people that if we do as he desires he will protect us.

His brave armies will be to us a bristling wall of strength, and his great ships of war will fill our harbors so that our ancient enemies far to the northward – the Simsiams and Hyas, will no longer frighten our women and old men. Then he will be our father and we will be his children.

But can that ever be? Your God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine! He folds His strong arms lovingly around the white man and leads him as a father leads his infant son – but He has forsaken his red children, He makes your people wax strong every day and soon they will fill all the land; while my people are ebbing away like a fast receding tide that will never flow again. The white man’s God cannot love his red children or He would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help.

How, then, can we become brothers? How can your Father become our Father and bring us prosperity, and awaken in us dreams of returning greatness?

Your God seems to us to be partial. He came to the white man. We never saw Him, never heard His voice. He gave the white man laws, but had no word for His red children whose teeming millions once filled this vast continent as the stars fill the firmament.

No. We are two distinct races, and must remain ever so, there is little in common between us.

The ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their final resting place is hallowed ground, while you wander away from the tombs of your fathers seemingly without regrets.

Your religion was written on tablets of stone by the iron finger of an angry God, lest you might forget it. The Red Man could never remember nor comprehend it.

Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors – the dreams of our old men, given to them by the Great Spirit, and the visions of our Sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.

Your dead cease to love you and the homes of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb. They wander far away beyond the stars, are soon forgotten and never return.

Our dead never forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its winding rivers, its great mountains and its sequestered vales, and they ever yearn in tenderest affection over the lonely-hearted living, and often return to visit and comfort them.

Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the white man, as the changing mist on the mountain side flees before the blazing morning sun.

However, your proposition seems a just one, and I think that my folks will accept it and will retire to the reservation you offer them, and we will dwell apart and in peace, for the words of the Great White Chief seem to be the voice of Nature speaking to my people out of the thick darkness that is fast gathering around them like a dense fog floating inward from a midnight sea.

It matters little where we pass the remainder of our days. They are not many. The Indian’s night promises to be dark. No bright star hovers above his horizon. Sad-voiced winds moan in the distance. Some grim Nemesis of our race is on the Red Man’s trail, and wherever he goes he will still hear the sure approaching footsteps of the fell destroyer and prepare to meet his doom, as does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter.

A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of all the mighty hosts that once filled this broad land or that now roam in fragmentary bands through these vast solitudes or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to weep over the graves of a people once as powerful and as hopeful as your own!

But why should I repine? Why should I murmur at the fate of my people? Tribes are made up of individuals and are no better than they. Men come and go like the waves of a sea. A tear, a tamanamus, a dirge and they are gone from our longing eyes forever. Even the white man, whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, is not exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see.

We will ponder your proposition, and when we have decided we will tell you. But should we accept it, I here and now make this first condition, that we will not be denied the privilege, without molestation, of visiting the graves of our ancestors and friends.

Every part of this country is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hallowed by some fond memory or some sad experience of my tribe. Even the rocks, which seem to lie dumb as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore in solemn grandeur thrill with memories of past events connected with the fate of my people, the very dust under your feet responds more lovingly to our footsteps than to yours, because it is the ashes of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch, for the soil is rich with the life of our kindred.

The sable braves, and fond mothers, and glad-hearted maidens, and the little children who lived and rejoiced here and whose very names are now forgotten, still love these solitudes and their deep fastnesses at eventide grow shadowy with the presence of dusky spirits.

And when the last Red Man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among white men shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe and when your children’s children shall think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude.

At night, when the streets of your cities and villages shall be silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land.

The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.

Maybe I Should Just Pack Up and Go Home. Golly.

Were Obama ad-Dajjal to pack up and go home (to Kenya?), many of us would not complain:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-maybe-i-should-just-pack-and-go-home-golly_720259.html

But if you do, please take Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid with you. Y'all give me the creeps.

GAO investigating DHS ammo purchases

It's about time!

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/04/29/gao-now-investigating-dhs-ammo-purchases

[Make sure you watch the "Lionel Commentary" video at the bottom of the article, it's very thought provoking.]

I can save them the trouble. The bullets will be used to shoot the American people. If you don't agree, please show me the evidence.

To once again paraphrase Patrick Henry:

What means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has [The United States] any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of [guns and ammunition]? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the [ruling class] have been so long forging.

For background on this topic, see the following post:

http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-is-government-stockpiling-guns-and.html

By the way, did you know that Patrick Henry, one of the most fervent advocates of the American Revolution, was dead set against adoption of the US Constitution?

Do you know why? Just look all around you. He knew it would eventually lead to the reestablishment of tyranny, and he was right.

So, tell me again, why did you vote for Obama ad-Dajjal? Because he gave you a free phone?

Insulting us from the White House

Anyone who puts his feet up on the desk like this is insulting his employer:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/04/barack-obama-laid-back

Any Muslim should know that sticking the soles of your shoes in someone's face is a grave insult.

America, this man hates you. Should you believe otherwise, please show me the evidence.

Squeezing blood from a stone

Clever ruling class essay about how "working during retirement may be the new normal":

http://www.bankrate.com/financing/retirement/over-the-hill-but-on-the-job/

Here's a translation:

• the one percent stole your retirement funds
• now they're gonna curtail your social security
• they don't want to pay you for your seniority
• so they expect you to step and fetch it for peanuts

Thanks, but no thanks. I'll find another way.

Any old excuse will do

Another Israeli assassination:

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20130430/0a45003a-3da5-4e87-9b99-fb3fbc9011f5

What, pray tell, is a "shadowy al-Qaida-influenced group"? Is that something real, or just a phrase inserted into the story to arouse US emotions?

I guess the Israelis gotta do what they gotta do, but I am not a fan of their (or our) assassinations.

Three cheers for the CIA

Alright! The CIA can afford to give "bags of cash" to bribe Afghan leaders, while much of the US population is homeless, hungry, and lacking medical care:

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/04/28/cias-bags-of-cash-fueled-afghan-corruption-bought-little-influence/

Way to go, CIA!

U-S-A !!!

U-S-A !!!

U-S-A !!!

I come to praise the FBI

FBI: Still disconnecting all the dots

Friends, Americans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to praise the FBI, not to bury them.

The good that men do lives after them;

The evil is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with the FBI.

Dear FBI,

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, some people have been attacking your credibility. This is bad for your agency, and bad for the nation, too. I’d like to suggest you answer honestly a few questions in the interest of clearing things up for us.

I know it’s been a long time, but what really happened in the Judi Bari bombing in 1990? Why did Judi say all those bad things about you? Why did she claim that you and/or the Oakland police had put the bomb in her car? You definitely owe us an explanation, especially because a jury apparently agreed with her allegations. You guys don’t have a history of setting people up, do you? I certainly hope not.

More recently, what really happened during the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995? Was there a John Doe No. 2, or not? Why do the surveillance tapes you released that might have shown Tim McVeigh and any accomplice(s) getting out of the truck all go blank at that exact time? You didn’t erase them, did you? And why were two people fitting the description of John Doe No. 2 killed while in federal custody? Wouldn’t it have been better to conduct a useful interrogation of the two to discover whether or not Tim had any help? And why is Terry Nichols saying that an FBI operative provided the Kine-Stick detonators used to explode the OKC bomb? Is it okay with you if we ask Terry a few more questions to put such lingering issues to rest? I sure hope so, and it would be nice if nobody killed him before we got there.

And what’s up with that first World Trade Center bombing in 1993? If an FBI informant knew about the bomb, why didn’t you jump in and foil the plot? Some people are claiming you wanted the bomb to go off, but that’s not what happened, is it?

9/11 is the one that really has me stumped. Why didn’t you listen to Coleen Rowley and others who saw the attack coming and tried to warn you? In spite of such pointed warnings, the public actually believed that you knew nothing at all prior to the attacks. How then did you within a day or two recover from your apparent incompetence to discover so quickly who all the perpetrators were and how and why they did it? That seems really strange. But the part I really don’t get is why you didn’t stop the burying of physical evidence from the World Trade Center in landfills and the shipping it off to China and India to be melted down before it could be examined. Was it because people like Mayor Bloomberg said, “Just looking at a piece of metal generally doesn't tell you anything”? Is that the official position of the FBI crime lab? I’ve also always wondered about that video of what happened at the Pentagon. Just what is that crashing into the building? It could be an alien spaceship for all we know. Do you have any better videos, or do they all go blank just as the UFO approaches the building? You didn’t erase those too, did you?

That brings us up to the Boston Marathon bombing. If one or both of the brothers were on the watch lists, why weren’t you watching them? Isn’t that what “watch lists” are for? And why didn’t you heed the warnings you got from the Russians? That part makes it seem like you haven’t learned a damn thing from the tragedy of 9/11. I can understand if you haven’t; institutional change is a difficult thing to achieve. But do you really want to have a reputation of still disconnecting all the dots?

Whatever the case, there’s at least one more crucially important question you have to answer, and you better get this one right. Who provided the explosive material used in the Boston bombings? The brothers sure as hell didn’t bring anything back from Chechnya. If they did it would mean the sexually suggestive pat downs, porno x-ray machines, and bomb detectors at our airports are a colossal waste of money. I think you should keep pushing the idea that there’s a Muslim sleeper cell around here somewhere and that they provided the explosives. Just blaming it again on some dumb militia slobs you ensnared in Operation PATCON probably won’t cut it this time, and it better NOT get out that one of your operatives or informants provided the explosives or helped assemble the bombs. You definitely have to find some jihadist rag heads to take the fall on this one.

After all, the American people may be naïve, but they’re not stupid, are they?

The O Legacy

What will be the legacy of Obama ad-Dajjal's presidency? Here's what the Black Agenda Report has to say:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obama-legacy-pt-1-many-top-ten-things-black-america-will-have-show-8-years-president-obama

A Marine veteran on the bombing

He went to Afghanistan to fight terrorists there so we wouldn't have to fight them here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-could-justify-fighting-in-afghanistan--until-the-boston-bombing/2013/04/26/e483321c-ad26-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html

But it didn't work. Now they're here, partly because he went there.

Mother of the bombers

Here's a story from The Moscow Times about the mother of the accused Boston Marathon bombers:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/mother-of-bomb-suspects-found-deeper-spirituality/479397.html

Kinda sounds like it was written in the US, no? It was (from the AP).

There's something being left out of all these stories: the Russian apartment bombings in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings

The official story is that the bombings were conducted by Chechen terrorists. Putin came to power in the wake of the bombings and then started a bloody reprisal war with Chechnya.

However, as was reported in the book Blowing Up Russia, the Russian Security Service (FSB) itself was accused of carrying out the bombings. Interestingly (reminiscent of the Boston Marathon bombing and 9/11), at least one of them occurred during what later was called a "training exercise".

One of the accusers, Alexander Litvinenko, was later murdered by someone who gave him radioactive polonium-210. Since this is a material available only to a few governments, it suggests that he may have been assassinated by his own government for this and other revelations.

Whether or not the FSB was complicit in the 1999 bombings, they cannot be considered an unbiased source for intelligence concerning Chechnya. The animosity (hatred?) caused in Russia by those bombings, by the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002 (during which the Russian police shot or fatally gassed everyone in the theater, including the hostages), and the Beslan school hostage crisis in 2004 (which ended with the death of over 380 people, including 186 children) has no doubt led to a powerful anti-Chechen mentality in Russia.

Strange how no one is mentioning that. Blowback ... not just a US phenomenon.

Fearing gov't more than terror

This poll suggests that we fear our government more than we fear "terrorists":

http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/americans-fear-government-more-than-terror/

Uncle Sam, it's your own damn fault.

Locked down at Gitmo

Now the hunger-striking prisoners at Gitmo have been locked down:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/27/3368658/life-under-lockdown-at-americas.html

Obama ad-Dajjal could stop this by merely keeping one of his many broken promises: shut 'er down!

Why can he find all kinds of ways to subvert the Constitution and get around Congress for things HE wants, but can find no way to keep this promise (a.k.a. "lie")?

John Pilger and the real Australia

Here's an essay by John Pilger describing how the Aussies treat their native population:

http://johnpilger.com/articles/new-john-pilger-film-utopia-to-be-broadcast-on-itv-and-released-worldwide

Sound familiar?

Recovery for the 7 percent, recession for the rest

A revealing analysis by Paul Craig Roberts:

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/04/28/recovery-for-the-7-percent-paul-craig-roberts/

The recession may be over, but only for the fortunate few.

Will they shed any tears when DHS starts shooting food rioters?

Ron Paul on the bombing

Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston

Apr 28th, 2013 @ 11:00 pm

by Rep. Ron Paul

Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.

These were not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes just over a week ago in Boston as the United States got a taste of martial law. The ostensible reason for the military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that the accused perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.

What has been sadly forgotten in all the celebration of the capture of one suspect and the killing of his older brother is that the police state tactics in Boston did absolutely nothing to catch them. While the media crowed that the apprehension of the suspects was a triumph of the new surveillance state – and, predictably, many talking heads and Members of Congress called for even more government cameras pointed at the rest of us – the fact is none of this caught the suspect. Actually, it very nearly gave the suspect a chance to make a getaway.

The “shelter in place” command imposed by the governor of Massachusetts was lifted before the suspect was caught. Only after this police state move was ended did the owner of the boat go outside to check on his property, and in so doing discover the suspect.

No, the suspect was not discovered by the paramilitary troops terrorizing the public. He was discovered by a private citizen, who then placed a call to the police. And he was identified not by government surveillance cameras, but by private citizens who willingly shared their photographs with the police.

As journalist Tim Carney wrote last week:

“Law enforcement in Boston used cameras to ID the bombing suspects, but not police cameras. Instead, authorities asked the public to submit all photos and videos of the finish-line area to the FBI, just in case any of them had relevant images. The surveillance videos the FBI posted online of the suspects came from private businesses that use surveillance to punish and deter crime on their property.”

Sadly, we have been conditioned to believe that the job of the government is to keep us safe, but in reality the job of the government is to protect our liberties. Once the government decides that its role is to keep us safe, whether economically or physically, they can only do so by taking away our liberties. That is what happened in Boston.

Three people were killed in Boston and that is tragic. But what of the fact that over 40 persons are killed in the United States each day, and sometimes ten persons can be killed in one city on any given weekend? These cities are not locked-down by paramilitary police riding in tanks and pointing automatic weapons at innocent citizens.

This is unprecedented and is very dangerous. We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.

(see the original @ http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2013/04/28/liberty-was-also-attacked-in-boston/)

The War on Terror is a scam. Can anyone prove otherwise?

By the way, American people, you failed to elect Ron Paul; instead returning Obama ad-Dajjal to the White House. Are you happy now? I sure hope so.

Group Beats Man Unconscious While Witnesses Laugh

Patton Oswalt claimed that people ran toward the danger during the Boston Marathon bombing. Apparently they don't always want to get involved:

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/04/27/wjz-exclusive-group-caught-on-camera-assaulting-man-outside-windsor-inn/

America is a scary place. Stay clear if possible.

Stronger action in Syria?

Is stronger action in Syria really necessary?

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/lawmakers-call-for-stronger-u-s-action-in-syria/

Just what the hell does the Syrian civil war have to do with us (other than the fact that we're the ones who caused it)? How about some stronger action here in the US to fix OUR problems?

Either the people in DC have gone completely bonkers, or someone is holding them hostage.

It's somewhat strange that Obama ad-Dajjal is following W's agenda. It's almost as if he isn't really President, and someone else is calling the shots.

Was there a coup? It's getting more and more difficult to believe that the Pentagon and the CIA haven't taken over all the major decisions.

Methane outbreak alert

Very interesting climate change essay from "Dissident Voice":

http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/04/methane-outbreak-alert/

Believe (or disbelieve) what you want about climate change, if the methane under the ocean floor enters our atmosphere we are toast.

Have you ever noticed how no one talks about how the methane got there and why it hasn't bubbled up until now?

My theory? The methane hydrate is cometary in origin, from extremely long-term comets in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Every now and then <<BANG>> we get hit by a huge comet swarm. The material rams itself into the ocean floor and is covered by the sediment. Atmospheric disturbances caused by the swarm causes the earth to cool, keeping the newly arrived methane trapped in the sediments. Eons later, as the planet heats up the methane starts to bubble out and eventually caused runaway warming of the type we are about to see.

More of less like what's predicted in the Book of Revelation:

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Revelation 16:21 KJV

Tom Brokaw - Too little, too late

So Tom Brokaw has finally admitted that his fellow "journalists" are a bunch of clowns:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/tom-brokaw-white-house-correspondents-dinner-90427.html

Hey, Tom! Why didn't you express concern BEFORE you and your fellow clowns helped this jackass get elected and then reelected?

The maturity of an adolescent

Is it just me, or do you agree that Obama ad-Dajjal and his minions are the most arrogant, immature jackasses to have ever been "in charge" of this country?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/26/congress-tells-obama-stop-faa-furloughs/

The man has the maturity of a pre-teen, if that. Maybe all the MJ he smoked back then retarded his development.

Or something like that.

I suppose I should add in his defense that many so-called "adults" in the US are fixated on issues like the one fed to them in this story from Yahoo! News:

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/amanda-bynes-shaves-half-her-head-love-150641010.html

The world's partly in flames, the economy is about to crash down around our ankles, and most people would rather hear about head-shaving starlets (or whatever she is).

What's with that?

Continuing revelations about the bombers

It seems that everyone was worried about these guys EXCEPT the FBI:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/26/bost-a26.html

When are we finally going to get tired of this shit and demand some accountability from the government agencies that have been stealing our money for the past twelve years and doing LITTLE OR NOTHING to improve our security?

Open borders?

If this article is correct, the population of the US is going to increase by about 10% in a fairly short time:

http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/26/anti-immigration-group-immigration-bill-to-bring-in-at-least-33-million-people/

Is this a good idea for a country that is already reeling from economic disaster?

Obama ad-Dajjal and Congress are gonna do what they're gonna do, but I don't think any other country in the world would even consider doing something like this.

Can you spell "national suicide"?

The False Mantra of 9/11 (redux)

Please read my latest essay "The False Mantra of 9/11" at Dissident Voice:

http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/04/the-false-mantra-of-911-3/

Unfortunately, the formatting got a bit screwed up between my computer and theirs, so here is what I originally sent to them. It may be a bit more legible:

The false mantra of 9/11

As I watched the events of the Boston Marathon bombing unfold, I was reminded of something we all said following the tragedy of 9/11:

Nothing justifies the killing of innocent people.

That phrase is acknowledged as a universal human principle. When spoken by the people of the United States, however, it is more than a bit disingenuous. An accurate version for US voices might be the following:

Nothing justifies the killing of innocent people, except …

• the institution of slavery (not only did at least one million slaves die during the Middle Passage to America, many more died here before and after slavery was abolished in the US)[1][2]
• the imposition of economic sanctions (at least 500,000 Iraqi children died from US-sponsored, UN-imposed economic sanctions)[3]
• a woman’s right to choose (over one million abortions are performed each year in the US)[4]
• the right to keep and bear arms (over 30,000 firearm-related deaths occur each year in the US)[5]
• following proper police procedure (numerous innocent people have been killed by US police; valid statistics are difficult if not impossible to find – surprise, surprise!)[6]
• military necessity (an estimated four million civilians were killed during the Vietnam War, mostly by US forces)[7]
• the doctrine of discovery (an estimated twelve million Indians died during our physical and economic takeover of North America)[8]
• the moral imperative of free trade (nearly 300,000 Indian farmers have died as a result of neoliberal economics and the introduction of GM crops from the US)[9]
• the war on terror (a disputed but growing number of civilians, certainly in the hundreds, has been killed by US drone strikes)[10]

I’m sure you can think of other exceptions which could be added to this list. If none immediately come to mind, please ponder these three basic justifications for America’s murders:

• The dead were not “innocent”, or
• The dead were not “people”, or
• We didn’t kill them (someone else did, they killed themselves, or they were killed by a concept or an institution).

Our past and present crimes in no way justify anyone’s attacks on America. And I agree that our leaders should not give in to the demands of terrorists. But there are two things which have yet to be tried as strategies in our on-going war against terror: telling the truth, and practicing what we preach.

I suggest we open a new phase in the war against terror by doing the following:

• Stop using food as a weapon,
• Stop threatening sovereign nations,
• Stop supporting dictators and oppressive regimes,
• Scrupulously follow all domestic and international laws,
• Arrest and prosecute America’s torturers and war criminals, and
• Start acting as if we really believe that “nothing justifies the killing of innocent people”.

Or we could continue militarizing our police, installing more spy cameras, violating more civil liberties, and torturing or force feeding more detainees in the vain hope that the rest of the world will once again acknowledge our fundamental goodness.

Which would you prefer?

[1] The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces

[2] How the End of Slavery Led to Starvation and Death for Millions of Black Americans http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war

[3] UN Says Sanctions Have Killed Some 500,000 Iraqi Children http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/072100-03.htm

[4] The 2012 US Statistical Abstract http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/births_deaths_marriages_divorces/family_planning_abortions.html

[5] Total Gun Deaths http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states

[6] Innocent Down http://www.innocentdown.org/the-victims/

[7] Vietnam War History, Introduction http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/05/vietnam_war/html/introduction.stm

[8] Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide? http://hnn.us/articles/7302.html

[9] Dirty White Gold http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/201212575935285501.html

[10] Counting Deaths from Drone Strikes http://web.law.columbia.edu/human-rights-institute/counterterrorism/drone-strikes/counting-drone-strike-deaths

(All articles accessed 4/25/2013)

What we used to be - Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation were the initial charter of The United States of America. Article III reads as follows:

The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.

Please take note that "religion" was the first thing on their minds, before sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.

How things have changed! The devil followed them here, invented TV, movies, and the Internet; and eventually stole their souls.

Or something like that.

The forgotten Fourteen Points

Anyone remember Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech to the US Congress? I have no particular love for WW, but if these points had been adopted the world would be a different place than it is today.

Many of them will be arcane to today's readers, but some are still pertinent. For example, take a look at Point I. Our diplomacy SHOULD be conducted in the open, and I'm certain that Julian Assange would agree that would be better than what governments are currently doing. In fact, Point I is something that liars like Obama ad-Dajjal and Hillary the Harpy Clinton might demand of others but never do themselves.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secure once for all against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.

V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all.

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.

XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.

XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.

XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

Are warrantless searches the new normal?

You better read this, because things are changing fast:

http://cnsnews.com/blog/bob-parks/has-watertown-made-warrantless-searches-new-normal

The powers that be are suspending the US Constitution as they please, and We The People are letting them get away with whatever they want to do.

Please note that this is being done by President Obama ad-Dajjal, who was supposed to be THE SAVIOR.

What the hell happened?

Widespread hunger at Gitmo

Every time we hear about Gitmo, more prisoners are on hunger strike:

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/04/24/pentagon-most-gitmo-detainees-now-on-hunger-strike/

Didn't Obama ad-Dajjal promise to close this facility ... over four years ago? What's the problem?

Good news! The Depression is over! (Just kidding!)

Guess what?

"Americans have recouped entirely the $16 trillion in household wealth that they lost since the Great Recession," says Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at The Economic Outlook Group. "That's one of the two main drivers of consumer confidence."

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/consumer-index/americans-anxiety-with-savings-and-stocks-lingers.aspx

I don't know whom Mr. Baumohl has been talking to, but the value of my house is $30,000 less than when I bought it (and still going down). If this is the kind of dumbass "thinking" that is running the world's economy, it's no wonder it's so fucked up.

Why should we be the targets of "mock" attacks?

Many of you may have read this news story about a plan to release gas in the NYC subway system to "study" the effects:

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/22065673/nypd-teams-with-us-lab-to-study-airborne-weapons

You may or may not know that similar tests were run in American cities from the 1940s through the 1960s:

http://rense.com/general15/ofMicrobesandmock.htm

(Please note the article on Rense.com initially was published by the Wall Street Journal. Copies are still available on the Internet.)

Were the tests safe then? Will they be safe now? How will we know? What's our recourse if they are not safe?

Human experimentation requires the informed consent of the subject(s). Did anyone ask us if we wanted to be lab rats again?

http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/archive/nurcode.html

Or is the government going to suspend the Nuremberg Code along with the Constitution because we're so scared?

All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

-Hermann Goering

US training AND protecting torturers?

The School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) openly trained torturers. And they apparently wanted to protect future graduates from being identified:

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/04/23/court-pentagon-must-name-school-of-the-americas-grads/

Fortunately, the courts are compelling them to release the list of names.

Suppose they'll comply? We'll see.

How can shit like this even HAPPEN in America?

The Boston bombings and the roots of terror

Please read this very good essay which summarizes what is known about the Boston Marathon bombings:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/24/pers-a24.html

Clearly, one of two things happened:

• The FBI dropped the ball again, or
• The FBI was complicit in the bombings.

On the basis of the evidence, I think Option 2 is the more likely scenario.

Whatever the case, it's time to FIRE these people. They are clearly NOT protecting us.

America the Cargo Cult

Please read my latest essay "America the Cargo Cult" at Dissident Voice:

http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/04/america-the-cargo-cult/

Hope you enjoy!

Words of Wisdom from Charley Reese

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. (The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.)

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? (John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.) If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. [The House has passed a budget but the Senate has not approved a budget in over three years. The President's proposed budgets have gotten almost unanimous rejections in the Senate in that time.]

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ..

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

Tax his land,

Tax his bed,

Tax the table,

At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,

Tax his mule,

Teach him taxes

Are the rule.

Tax his work,

Tax his pay,

He works for

peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,

Tax his goat,

Tax his pants,

Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,

Tax his shirt,

Tax his work,

Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,

Tax his drink,

Tax him if he

Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,

Tax his beers,

If he cries

Tax his tears.

Tax his car,

Tax his gas,

Find other ways

To tax his ass.

Tax all he has

Then let him know

That you won't be done

Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;

Then tax him some more,

Tax him till

He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,

Tax his grave,

Tax the sod in

Which he's laid...

Put these words

Upon his tomb,

'Taxes drove me

to my doom...'

When he's gone,

Do not relax,

Its time to apply

The inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

CDL license Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Excise Taxes

Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)

Gross Receipts Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Taxes

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Personal Property Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service Charge Tax

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax

Recreational Vehicle Tax

Sales Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Taxes

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened?