The Guerrilla Campaign

by Mary Pitt February 28, 2010　 "I've got yer clean sheet of paper right here!" This is the message that should be sent to the Senate Republicans by everyone who wants and needs the passage of the Health Reform measure which the House and Senate have proposed and it's a message that we can afford. We get appeals daily for contributions of money on behalf of one political agenda or another and we do not respond because we have no money to send. This is a simple request and one that is well within our means. It would cost only a US postage stamp. With or without a letter of explanation, the point would be made that the donation is exactly what they asked for in their "summit" with representatives of the two parties. Further, it is highly appropriate for their stated purpose. Their suggestions for health care "reform" consist of only two measures: Tort Reform: This is merely another Republican pay-off to the insurance companies and perpetrators of ma...

Bush takes shot at Carter for accusing him of torture By Agence France-Presse Saturday, February 27th, 2010 -- 3:49 pm http://rawstory.com/2010/02/bush-takes-shot-carter-accusing-torture/ Former US president George W. Bush told a group of his White House aides at a breakfast Friday that he is "trying to regain a sense of anonymity," an event attendee confirmed to AFP. Bush also told the group that he was pleased former vice president Dick Cheney had taken a lead role in defending their national security policies, declaring: "I'm glad Cheney is out there." The former president, who also touted his administration's domestic agenda, said he was resolved to keep a low profile and indicated he did not want to be a thorn in the side of President Barack Obama. "I have no desire to see myself on television. I don't want to be on a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do. I'm trying to regain a sense of anonymity," Bush said. "I...

by Mary Pitt February 14, 2010 When we read reports of polls, we find that the "Independents" in the United States outnumber the declarents for either of the established political parties. In discussing this, the pundits assume that this indicates that most voters are in the "middle of the road" between the Democrats and the Republicans. This is not the case. The number includes members of small established groups that have been with us for years and their views are all over the map. There are the Libertarians who are far to the right, the Green Party with their ecological agenda, and now, the Tea Party whose views are more anti-government. Buried and out of sight are the Progressives who have no party affiliations at present but who know what they want and need. There is a Progressive wing of the Democratic Party but they are not necessarily representative of those who advocate for progress but are not yet convinced that the party, as it exists today, are truly com...

Jack Straw, Colin Powell and the Smoking Guns of War Crime Written by Chris Floyd Tuesday, 09 February 2010 16:20 http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1922-the-carp-of-truth-jack-straw-colin-powell-and-the-smoking-guns-of-war-crime.html Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth: And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out. -- Shakespeare, Hamlet Britain's "Chilcot Inquiry" into the origins of the invasion of Iraq has largely faded from the headlines, following Tony Blair's bravura display of pious bluster before the panel of Establishment worthies last month. And in truth, it has been a rather toothless affair, with the already deferential worthies further constrained by the narrow confines placed upon their investigation by the government: chiefly, the cloak of secrecy wrapped around the many documents that detail the deceptions and manipulations of ...

Obama Surge Driving Thousands From Their Homes Written by Chris Floyd Saturday, 06 February 2010 18:32 http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1921-annals-of-liberation-obama-surge-driving-thousands-from-their-homes.html Barack Obama's Bush-like "surge" in Afghanistan has not even reached its full strength yet, but it is already driving tens of thousands of Afghan civilians from their homes, as they flee an upcoming massive attack in Helmand province. The attack -- which the Americans have been trumpeting far in advance -- is designed, we're told, to "protect" the people of the key town of Marjah from the twin scourges of Taliban nogoodniks and drug traffickers. Yet the primary effect of the much-publicized preparations has been to send the residents of the town running for their lives to escape becoming part of the "collateral damage" that always attends these protective, humanitarian endeavors. Indeed, the re...

By Sheila Samples February 6, 2010 I know you need your sleep now, I know your life's been hard. But many men are falling, where you promised to stand guard. - Leonard Cohen My friend Bernie says he's suffering from Afghanistan information exhaustion. "During all those months that Obama was dragging his feet about escalating the war in Afghanistan, did you ever get the impression," he asked, "that foxes were in the hen house, chickens were squawking and running around crazily, wolves were tearing the foxes to pieces, and farmers were shooting wildly into the coop with no regard for the innocent?" I stared at him, mouth agape, my mind trying to shore up all that activity. "Well ... I --" "And that's just the generals -- David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal -- and their boss, or cohort, defense secretary Robert Gates. They were everywhere -- everywhere!" Bernie said, rolling his eyes. "And still are. Turn on the TV, pick up a n...

The sports media's love affair with Tim Tebow's "courage" is excusing propaganda for a right-wing organization with creepy connections. February 5, 2010 Dave Zirin http://socialistworker.org/2010/02/05/super-bowl-ad-hypocrisy IN OUR 5,000-channel, tweeting, shouting culture of constant distraction, there are precious few annual events that unite the national gaze. In fact, there is really only one: the Super Bowl. Over the last two decades, ratings for everything from the World Series to the Olympics have stumbled--but the NFL championship gets stronger with age, with Super Bowl Sunday becoming a de facto national holiday. The cultural power of the big game cannot be overstated, and that's exactly why CBS's decision to air an anti-abortion ad funded by Focus on the Family was so terribly wrongheaded. The ad features Heisman award-winning Florida quarterback and staunch evangelical Christian Tim Tebow alongside his mother, Pam, speaking out against abortion. Pa...

By Sheila Samples November 24, 2009 If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. - Thomas S. Szasz, The Second Sin Several months ago, CNN published the results of a couple of disturbing polls about Americans and their religious beliefs. The first found that more Americans are rejecting religion and thus, according to CNN, America is becoming "less Christian." The second, a Pew survey of only 742 mostly white evangelical Protestants, revealed that more than six in 10 of them believe that torture is often or sometimes justified. More than six in 10? What this says about those claiming to be God's own is that perhaps they should use their Bibles for more than "thumping." Because not one in 10 -- not one in 10 thousand -- not one in 10 million -- Christians believes that torture can ever be justified. Ever. Anyone who has paid attention to the growing number of evangelical zealots over the past couple of decades must be aware...

By Sheila Samples November 1, 2009 Is there anything scarier than the New York Times' Halloween treat entitled, "Documents Detail Conditions Found at Secret C.I.A. Jails"? Pardon my Palinese, but -- You betcha! You damnbetcha! For starters, the "conditions" the Times mentions only briefly are, in reality, depraved, corrupt, immoral, inhumane torture. According to the Times... "F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners “manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock,” and a C.I.A. official wrote a list of questions for interrogators including “How close is each technique to the ‘rack and screw'. . ." What is more frightening -- that the C.I.A. got its jollies by torturing, even murdering human beings in its secret sodomy frat-houses -- or that the F.B.I. took one look, fled the scene and remained silent for years? Perhaps it's the two-page memo President George Bush ha...

October 27, 2009 Mack answers questions about Obama visit news-press.com http://www.news-press.com/article/20091027/OBAMA/91027025/1075 Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, held a phone conference this morning to answer questions about his position on President Obama’s visit to the DeSoto County solar power plant. He said the president is on a sales pitch to increase his popularity on the taxpayer’s dime. “Once again we see the president take a tour of the country in what appears to be a PR swing to move legislation and policies that the American people don’t want, don’t need — hurting the American people.” He specifically mentioned the bailout and stimulus laws, health care reform bills and cap and trade legislation, as examples. Mack said “liberal ideas” are destroying the “fabric of America.” On the issue of alternative and renewable energy, Mack said the issue is about encouraging more energy products. He is against a “tax and spend” philosophy and prefers “government getting out of the...

by Mary Pitt October 25, 2009　 The Democrats are terribly worried about their ability to gain the sixty votes required for cloture in order to vote for passage of their health plan in the Senate. There are many of us, particularly on the Progressive side who see the benefits of bringing the bill to the floor regardless of the pre-vote count and let the speeches begin! The Republicans are griping that the discussions regarding the content of the bill have not been open and transparent as promised by Candidate Obama. Committees have had meetings and administration officials have consulted experts in closed door sessions. Now it is time for the "transparency" for which they pine. Those bills should be brought to the floor in the state prepared by the respective committees and then allow the floor debates to be aired on C-Span. The benefits for the American people will be enormous. There in all their splendor will stand various and assorted "statesmen" in the very act o...

By Sheila Samples October 12, 2009 I didn't know Van Jones. I didn't know Van Jones was a friend of mine -- at least not until the stench billowing from the Fox Hate Channel became so foul I was forced to take a closer look at this terrifying creature. No -- not Jones, whom President Obama wisely had hired as Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality -- but the sobbing, lying, deliriously insane Glenn Beck. According to Beck, who began his assault on Jones in a July 23 disjointed rant, wherein he claimed Jones is not only "a communist-anarchist radical," but a former black nationalist, avowed communist-anarchist radical. Or something. Anyway, according to Beck, Jones is really really dangerous -- a racist just like Obama, who has a "deep-seated hatred for white folks" and whose entire agenda is restructuring America into a land of reparations, social justice and jobs for minorities. The appalling thing about the intellectually ...

Dry Heaves and Sucker Ploys: Written by Chris Floyd Tuesday, 29 September 2009 00:03 http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1847-dry-heaves-and-sucker-ploys-the-great-new-iran-qcrisisq.html The new "Iran crisis" is such a sickening concoction of stupidity and lies that it almost defies comment. It certainly defies contemplation; even to think about it for thirty seconds is enough to bring on a bout of the dry heaves. Fortunately, several other writers -- with iron-clad innards, no doubt -- have boldly waded in and dismantled the deception behind the manufactured hissy fit over Iran's "secret nuclear facility." Jason Ditz at Antiwar.com gives a good overview of the case, which, shucked of all the warmongering frenzy, boils down to this little nubbin of reality: Iran was building a new nuclear enrichment facility, as it is allowed to do by international treaty. The United States and several other Western countries knew about the fa...

[…] We are living through a profound global financial crisis. That crisis has many proximate causes in the governance and deregulation of Wall Street. We have seen the astounding bailout of Bear Stearns using $30 billion plus in public money—Bear Stearns – an investment bank, an enterprise that prided itself on being in the business of cowboy capitalism, business without a safety net. But the real roots of the crisis do not lie on Wall Street. The cause of the crisis can be found in the long-term weakening of the real American economy in an era of globalization—in closed factories, outsourced high tech jobs and low wage jobs with no benefits, and in the unsustainable effort to maintain middle class living standards through borrowing. It is to be found in the reality of lives like that of Kimberly Somsel of Westland Michigan, a member of the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America, an unemployed single mother of two battling breast cancer and facing foreclosure due to a ballooning...

by Mary Pitt July 29, 2009 While the Congressional "elephants" are straining at the gnat of Obama's health care plan, the Blue Dogs are busily gorging on the poisonous fat being spread before them by the voracious and monopolistic insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the citizens for whom they were chosen to protect are continuing to be victimized and destroyed. The handwriting is on the wall to tell us that nothing good is going to come of the enthusiasm with which the American people voted for the longed-for "change". Neither of these mythical creatures sounded an alarm about the trillions of American dollars that were simply strewn to the wind in the misguided effort to "bring democracy to Iraq". There was then no outcry about the state of the national debt, no discussion of deficit financing, only great glee at the prospect of all the pork that would be rained upon their constituents and campaign donors. There was no mention of anything resembli...