The Guerrilla Campaign

By Sheila Samples March 22, 2010 Change is the process by which the future invades our lives - Alvin Toffler, "Future Shock" Each time it appears that Republicans can't get any nastier, any more bereft of morality, they wrap themselves in the flag, grab their guns and Bibles, and manage once again to hit the bottom of the ethical barrel. A good example is Ben Smith's recent startling revelation in Politico.com, which exposed the dirty tricks Republican National Committee (RNC) operatives were planning to play, not only on Democrats in the upcoming elections -- but on their own donors. Smith writes... "Manipulating donors with crude caricatures and playing on their fears is hardly unique to Republicans or to the RNC -- Democrats raised millions off George W. Bush in similar terms -- but rarely is it practiced in such cartoonish terms." One page, headed “The Evil Empire,” pictures Obama as the Joker from Batman, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate...

By Mary Pitt March 21, 2010 　 The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Toward the end of the reign of the Bush regime, Mr. Bush began to consider the "legacy" of his presidency, setting up a library to hold his papers and to assure that this nation would never forget his term in office. However, there is no way that the real legacy of his two-term rule would ever be memorialized in any facility bought and paid for by his political machine. He has made a mark on our American soul that will remain a very long time; like a large scar from an almost-fatal wound. On September 11, 2001, the whole nation saw the awesome destruction of the World Trade Center. If not actually on the site, we saw it live on television or played and re-played on the news. The actual deed, followed by the speeches by President Bush and his followers and assistants, drove the knife of that legacy deep into the hearts of Americans everywhere. That legacy was a paralyzing fea...

Seven years ago, yesterday, the war criminal bush launched the US invasion of Iraq. Today, there is no doubt, or denying, that his administration knew that there was no justification, in neither US law, or international law, for the invasion. Today, there is no doubt, or denying, that the US war criminals will not be prosecuted for their crimes. In fact, the bushistas are busily rewriting the history, and are being assisted in this by the CCMA*. By giving prominent media exposure to the architects and apologists of the past 10 years is to condone and regularize the crimes they committed. The corporatists are protecting their own. Instead of the ridicule and the contempt that they deserve, they are feted and treated with utmost respect. If we want to retain even a modicum of self-respect and freedom, we need to resist and stop this last attempt to break America to the Corporate Will. Who is suffering in this economy? The corporatistas are doing quite well. It’s not them. We read of scho...

by Mary Pitt March 15, 2010 As the Liberals in Congress struggle against the Party-of-No Republicans and the Blue Dog DINOs, the people in the lower economic level are being picked of the last flesh on their living bones by the circling vultures. After they have lost almost everything they possess by the too-big-to-fail banks and investment companies, bled by the co-payments for essential medical care for their children, and either lost their homes in foreclosure or have trouble paying their rent, the vultures have gathered for the last pickings. One cannot long watch television without the realization of precisely what the aims are of the remaining ghouls that dog their tracks. First and foremost are the "easy credit" advertisements by which they are bombarded. If you get a paycheck, you can get money quick to last until then. It only costs you a "little" more than you borrow, (only an APR of a hundred or two), and you can spend on anything you want. If you own a c...

by Mary Pitt March 10, 2010 　 While our president is involved in dealing with the many emergencies in which our nation is now foundering, he fails to see the most urgent one. The dead numbered 137,000 per year through the years of 2000 to 2006, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and, as the depression continues to worsen, the numbers will climb even higher on an annual basis. The problem? Simply a lack of health insurance and the inability to obtain the needed care on an individual basis! Granted, these people are the working poor and, thus, are "The Others". We all know who "The Others" are. They are the people who are not in "our neighborhood", the unseen people who keep our streets, our clothing, and our children clean, who cook and serve our food, who do the myriad of tasks that we are too busy to do or too comfortable to do for ourselves. They people our back rooms, out of sight, except on the streets where we ha...

to 'Tired Out and Staying Home' by Joseph Palermo Published on Monday, March 8, 2010 by Huffington Post http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/08-4 There's been a lot of commentary about President Barack Obama's failure to construct a winning "narrative" for the elections of 2010. In 2008, there were millions of people "fired up and ready to go." But after a year plus of the Beltway-Rahm Emanuel strategy of never exposing oneself to political risk the grassroots energy of the campaign has been allowed simply to dissipate. Robert Reich argues that "if there was ever a time to connect the dots and make the case for government as a means of protecting the public from [corporate] forces. It is now." But at this point, about seven months before the midterms, transforming Americans' view of government is a tall task, especially when many of the George W. Bush policies have clearly prevailed. The problem with Obama's "narrative...

A Brief Imperial Tour d'Horizon Written By Chris Floyd Tuesday, 02 March 2010 14:24 http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1936-chilly-scenes-of-winter-a-brief-imperial-tour-dhorizon.html 1. Occupational Hazards As'ad AbuKhalil's headline on his brief post says it al l: "Tragic accidents happen – every single day." He is referring to the latest killing of civilians by American occupation troops – not in Afghanistan this time, but in the now-forgotten war in Iraq, where death, corruption, repression and blowback are still raging. 2. Tony Blair: Liar, No. 876 It turns out that Tony Blair was told years before the Iraq invasion – in fact, even before the 9/11 attacks "that changed the world" and "made everything different" – that invading Iraq would be illegal (i.e., a Nuremberg-level war crime), as well as costly, destablizing and ineffective. This is revealed in documents from 2000 which the Independent has obtain...

1 March 2010 Patrick Martin http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pers-m01.shtml Inaction by the US Senate last week will result in the cutoff of extended unemployment benefits and COBRA health care coverage to more than one million workers. The cutoff, which began to take effect Sunday night, demonstrates the unbridgeable social gulf between the working class and the denizens of Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans. The bill to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA coverage was blocked by Republican Senator Jim Bunning, an arch-reactionary from Kentucky who took advantage of a Senate rule requiring unanimous consent to bring the legislation to a vote before the weekend. Bunning, who is not running for reelection, was contemptuous of the suffering that he was helping inflict on more than one million workers, including an estimated 60,000 from his home state. He demanded that Senate Democrats agree to pay for the extended benefits without creating new debt, and declared tha...

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...