The Guerrilla Campaign

by Richard L. Franklin 6/26/07 As of late, I've only rarely seen the death penalty discussed within the framework of traditional theories of democratic social contract. That topic is a book waiting to be written. After all, theories of social contract were discussed at length by the American founders, and the Bill of Rights was assembled with notions of a social contract hovering in the background. The Enlightenment was in full swing back in those times, and rational social contract theories were in the air. We are therefore long overdue in making use of this concept when it comes to discussing the death penalty in America. When a state invests itself with the right to kill its own citizens, it has profound implications for any theory of democracy or the usual notions of a social contract underlying the so-called American 'democracy'. Before I get into the coupling of American theories of democracy and social contract, I hasten to say I see the notions of social contract as...

- by Stephen Lendman 6/25/07 In 1984 (a year of Orwellian significance), activist and media and social critic Edward Herman wrote one of his many important books titled "Demonstration Elections." In it, he analyzed the US-staged elections in the 1960s in the Dominican Republic and Vietnam and the 1982 one in El Salvador. In the book's Orwellian glossary of terms, he defined the process as "A circus held in a client state to assure the population of the home country that their intrusion is well received. The results are guaranteed by an adequate supply of bullets provided in advance (and freely used as necessary to achieve the desired outcome)." This writer calls this ugly business "democracy-engineering, American-style" backed by force to win approval of a rigged process people would never accept another way. Noam Chomsky refers to the notion of "Keeping the Rabble in Line," the title of one of his many books. It can be through soft or h...

have a pretzel.

The Democratic Party and the Infantile Omnipotence of The Ruling Class. by Phil Rockstroh 6/21/07 Why did the Democratic Congress betray the voting public? Betrayal is often a consequence of wishful thinking. It's the world's way of delivering the life lesson that it's time to shed the vanity of one's innocence and grow-the-hell-up. Apropos, here's lesson number one for political innocents: Power serves the perpetuation of power. In an era of runaway corporate capitalism, the political elite exist to serve the corporate elite. It's that simple. Why do the elites lie so brazenly? Ironically, because they believe they're entitled to, by virtue of their superior sense of morality. How did they come to this arrogant conclusion? Because they think they're better than us. If they believe in anything at all, it is this: They view us as a reeking collection of wretched, baseborn rabble, who are, on an individual level, a few billion neurons short of being govern...

I guess one of the dogs got a hold of this one. Really got tore up didn’t he? Well, let me tell you something. This is what you’re letting little georgie bush do with his toy soldiers. The reality though, is that his toy soldiers are your children. Don’t that just give you a warm feeling inside? Whoopee! Let’s send another bunch to the meat grinder. What the hell, they ain’t embryos.

Bush vetoes stem-cell bill http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070620/pl_nm/bush_stemcells_dc_11 "If this legislation became law, it would compel American taxpayers for the first time in our history to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos," Bush said. "I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line." “But, of course, I have no problem killing them after they’re born,” he added with a wink.

I was sitting at the tracks waiting for the train to go by, and I remembered something from my past. Some years back, me and my crew were measuring across the tracks about 200-300 feet from a grade crossing, when the steel tape we were using dropped down across the tracks. Bingo. Bells clang, and the gates go down. That must be how trains let the crossings know they're there. Fortunately, it happened on a back road with little traffic. Can you imagine the disruption if that had happened on a busy main road during rush hour? Well, enough of me prattling on about my past. On to the news. Samarra dam in danger Monday, 18 June 2007 HAQ agency- exclusive http://76news.net/eng/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=295 HAQ news agency received from reliable sources from the city of Samarra that the American occupation forces today expelled all the workers and staff who work at the dam of Samarra. The incoming news that only people exist in the place are the American sol...

- by Stephen Lendman 6/20/07 Dictionaries define "yellow journalism" variously as irresponsible and sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It's misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation and readership or serve a larger purpose like lying for state and corporate interests. The dominant US media excel in it, producing a daily diet of fiction portrayed as real news and information in their role as our national thought-control police gatekeepers. In the lead among the print and electronic corporate-controlled media is the New York Times publishing "All The News That's Fit To Print" by its standards. Others wanting real journalism won't find it on their pages allowing only the fake kind. It's because this paper's primary mission is to be the lead instrument of state propaganda making it the closest thing we have in the country to an official ministry of information and ...

US states are re-evaluating who is unfit to vote By Pam Belluck Published: June 19, 2007 http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/19/news/vote.php [...] New Jersey may put on the November ballot an amendment to the state's constitution to replace language forbidding an "idiot or insane person" to vote.... My question is, how in the hell have republicans been able to vote in NJ all these years?

enjoy the day, you fucks. Millions of desperate Iraqis stream into Syria By Hannah Allam McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Sun, Jun. 17, 2007 http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/world/17380478.htm DAMASCUS, Syria - Nobody used the word "crisis" when the first wave of Iraqis fled the war and settled here. Most came with deep savings accounts and connections to well-placed Damascus businessmen. The word didn't crop up when a second wave ushered in the Christians, whose clergy organized them into a vocal, cohesive bloc. Nor did it come into play with the villagers who were simply absorbed into remote desert communities because their tribes straddle the Syrian-Iraqi border. But the word definitely applies now, as shell-shocked Iraqis of all backgrounds pour into Syria at the rate of nearly 1,000 a day. In fact, "crisis" may not be strong enough, as the flow of Iraqis becomes a torrent. At least 1.4 million are already here, according to the United Nations, ...

- by Stephen Lendman 6/8/07 She's at it again on the Journal's editorial page in her June 4 article called "The Young and the Restless," subtitled "Is this the beginning of the end for Hugo Chavez?" The writer is self-styled Latin American expert Mary Anastasia O'Grady always getting top grades in vilification and disinformation but failing ones on regional knowledge and legitimate journalism. This time she may have overstepped. Her article wreaks with disinformation, outright lies, and most disturbing of all - incendiary commentary straddling the tipping edge of inciting insurrection. She can get away with it because she represents elitist interests and the Journal's editorial view supporting the Bush administration's fixation on ousting Hugo Chavez by any means, including through violence. It doesn't matter that Chavez was just reelected again in December by a near two to one margin or that he's admired and loved by the great majori...

By Charley Reese June 5, 2007 http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese364.html I didn't watch any of the Memorial Day events on television. Memorial Day, it seems to me, should be only for the families of the dead. It's really impossible to remember someone we never knew. Of course, these days Memorial Day gets larded with politics and pseudo-patriotism. It's nauseating to watch a bunch of actors, entertainers and politicians who never heard a gun fired in anger put on a maudlin performance as if they really gave a rat's toenail for the dead. The fact is, war is started by old men who never go near the war, and wars are always fought by the young. The king of Belgium once noted that it takes 20 years of peace to produce a man and 20 seconds of war to destroy him. Think about that. All that a young human being is – intelligence, health, youth, education, knowledge, potential accomplishments – reduced to a bloody pile of broken bones and guts in an instant. They are strange...

- by Stephen Lendman 6/6/07 Near the end of WW II, Franklin Roosevelt met with Saudi King ibn Saud on the USS Quincy. It began a six decade relationship guaranteeing US access to what his State Department called a "stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history" - the region's oil and huge amount of it in Saudi Arabia. Today, the Middle East has two-thirds of the world's proved oil reserves (around 675 billion barrels) and the Caspian basin an estimated 270 billion barrels more plus one-eighth of the world's natural gas reserves. It explains a lot about why we're at war with Iraq and Afghanistan and plan maintaining control over both countries. We want a permanent military presence in them aimed at controlling both regions' proved energy reserves with puppet regimes, masquerading as democracies, beholden to Washington as client states. They're in place to observe what their ousted predecessors ignore...

Ambassador Gerald B. Helman 6/05/2007 http://www.juancole.com/2007/06/helman-guest-op-ed-even-plan-b-doesnt.html There are continuing reports, seemingly based upon authoritative backgrounding out of Baghdad and Washington, suggesting that variations on a "Plan B" are being developed. While support continues to be voiced for the current "surge", doubt is beginning to be expressed even by military and White House officials that a confident evaluation of the surge is unlikely by the promised deadline of September. It may take longer, perhaps to the end of the year. General Odierno was quite forceful in insisting that a serious evaluation cannot be made until January. From the military point of view, the surge is evidently not producing the desired results of improving security in Baghdad, and is unlikely to do so under current plans and force levels. After an initial slight lull, the level of violence is back up to pre-surge levels, and then some in the case of US deat...

Monday, June 04, 2007 http://www.leninology.blogspot.com/ Bush's policy of military tribunals for detainees in Guantanamo - we would be barbaric to say 'suspects', since most of them don't appear to be suspected of anything specific - has hit a welcome legal blockage. The ruling dismissing charges in Omar Ahmad Khadr's case , which stated that the whole procedure is flawed, came from a US army colonel appointed to oversee one of the tribunals. That means it's serious, or so I'd guess. The "flaw" is that "Congress authorized charges only against detainees who had been determined to be unlawful enemy combatant". However, "the military here has determined only that Khadr was an enemy combatant. Military lawyers said the same flaw would affect every other potential war crimes case here." None of the detainees have been found to be "unlawful" enemy combatants. I expect that Camp Delta (née X-Ray) will be wound up at some p...

By Sheila Samples 6/4/07 "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." - Dante Okay. Let's talk about troops. Everybody's doing it. We're bombarded round-the-clock with "support the troops...fund the troops...bring the troops home...surge the troops...use the troops for Commander Guy photo ops ..." Congress is embroiled in a ghoulish "troop" food fight that has gone on far too long. Democrats say Republicans demoralize and dishonor the troops by sending them into an unwinnable war built on lies. Republicans counter that, by suggesting the war is lost, Democrats demoralize and dishonor the troops by calling them "losers." Losers? Oh, yes. Big time. The men and women who wear this nation's uniform are losers every day, in every way. They are not only demoralized and dishonored, but are dehumanized by a diabolical den of dimwits whose eyes never waver from the 2008 priz...

by Mary Pitt 6/3/07 For a hundred years, the children of this nation have gone to bed at night to stories of handsome princes and beautiful princesses, of evil witches, fearsome ogres, and happy endings. They have gone to Saturday matinees depicting good, honest people, laboring under the yoke of greedy oppressors and being saved at the last, crucial moment, by a big man on a white horse. No matter how well-educated, no matter how sophisticated we have become in our everyday lives and outlook on the world, we are still waiting for a big man on a white horse to rise out of the sunrise and save our lives and our possessions. How do we go about finding these modern-day heroes? We elect them, of course! We trot out selected specimens from our leadership like contestants for Miss America and choose them based on appearance, congeniality, performance, and ability to deliver inspiring speeches to the waiting judges. However, on closer inspections, we learn that they are only an array of ordin...