Monthly Archives: November 2008

The Pusillanimous Mendacity Of Change

The Bush administration used premeditated, fabricated intelligence to start the illegal occupation of Iraq and war with Afghanistan, bizarre legal doctrines alleging that the president is allowed to ignore federal and international law, Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, torture, draconian legislation purposely designed to be used against American citizens in the destruction of civil liberties and rights, illegal wiretapping and spying on American citizens, blackmail and extortion to allow throwing billions of dollars at executives who committed worse financial crimes than Enron at more cost to the U.S. taxpayer and so much more, with Congressional blessings.

Promises of change helped elect Barack Obama to the presidency. Several of the choices he has made while putting together his transition team raise questions as to whether change will actually come to Washington — and if the people responsible for the past eight years of crimes carried out against America as well as the rest of the world will be punished and held accountable — or if a President Obama will prove to be another typical Washington establishment politician.

Obama’s foreign policy team reportedly appears to be an extension of the Clinton Doctrine, filled with 20 hawks, Clintonites and neocons who were top players in creating and implementing foreign policies that paved the way for projects that were eventually carried out by the Bush administration. Obama’s Cabinet is being filled with numerous longtime Washington insiders responsible for a lot of the crises this country is facing today. Obama’s nominee for Attorney General has been a big Bush policy supporter. Other cabinet posts aren’t faring much better.

President Obama will have his hands full when he takes office. It could take years to sweep all the trash left behind by the Bush administration out the door and disenfect the White House. Let’s hope Obama knows what he’s doing. In many ways Obama is your typical Washington establishment politician and unfortunately it appears that he may not vary much from Bush’s political path and we don’t need any more of Bush politics as usual.

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The Price We Pay For Being Played As Fools

For almost 8 years now, Americans have been played for fools — having civil rights and freedoms destroyed in the name of “keeping us safe,” a felonious “global war on terror,” illegally started wars in the Middle East, a Department of Homeland Security that claims to protect Americans while actually endangering them more, numerous deceptive “national security” claims used to cover up massive crimes committed against humanity, a fraudulent bailout used to pay executives on Wall Street whose greed has led to a financial meltdown and depression, etc. — and the cost to Joe the Taxpayer courtesy of the ongoing extortion in Washington is rising at a staggering rate.

As President George W. Bush prepares to hand over his kingdom to President-elect Barack Obama, the secrecy surrounding some of Bush’s decisions and his claims of ‘National Security’ are finally being questioned. Leaders of the Bush administration and George W. Bush himself, who conspired to violate U.S. law and the Geneva Convention could be in for some rude awakenings and some deep trouble because of all the illegal acts committed under the guise of illegally gained Presidential powers. The list of crimes committed against humanity are quite extensive and Joe Every Day American is paying a heavy price courtesy of the corrupt, incompetent leadership thrust upon us since 2000. Unfortunately, most if not all levels of government have been permeated by Bush cronies and it could take years to root them out.

With a little over two months to go before George W. Bush leaves office, hasty preperations are reportedly being made to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — if his previous history is any indication, few changes will be for the good — and it could take months or years to identify and undo all the damage. The New York Times took a look at a few of the parting gifts they’re afraid President Bush is planning before he departs since he hasn’t done enough damage already. ABC News has more information too. Congress could intervene and prevent some of the damage, but given their track record with the Bush administration, it would be foolish to expect much from them.

Recently it was reported that the Bush administration had secretly authorized military raids against up to 20 countries without any declarations of war or explicit Congressional authorization for armed action. Attacks were made under an order issued by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and approved by President Bush in the spring of 2004 that gave the U.S. military’s Special Operations forces license to attack alleged al Qaeda targets “anywhere in the world.” After everything our military has been subject to, one would think they would be appreciated by the government they’re fighting for, but one would be wrong.

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California’s Fight Over Equal Rights

California’s Proposition 8 — which, according to the New York Times was possibly one of the most expensive ballot measures ever contested, with a combined spending of almost $74 million from both opponents and proponents — sought to amend California’s Constitution to limit marriage to unions between a man and a woman, overturning a California Supreme Court decision recognizing same-sex marriages as a fundamental right, and it appears that the majority of California voters voted to pass the discriminatory proposition.

In typical political fashion, lies, propaganda and scare tactics were utilized in efforts to sway public opinion, including, but not limited to, asserting that public schools would be indoctrinated into accepting gay marriage against their parents’ wishes, churches would be sanctioned for not performing same-sex weddings and the institution of marriage would be irreparably harmed. The proposition has been reported as passing with 52% voting yes and 48% voting no. The Mormon Church spent almost $20 million to encourage passage of the bill. Lawyers and civil rights groups say Proposition 8 appears to be illegal and they may be right.

It’s rather interesting, in a hypocritical sort or way, to watch a U.S. Senator talk about how wrong it is to amend and rewrite the Constitution to destroy civil rights, when Congress has repeatedly passed illegal ‘legislation’ that amends the Constitution and totally destroys civil rights and freedoms — the Patriot Act, The FISA legislation, immunity for telecoms who willingly and knowingly spied on Americans illegally, etc. — while denouncing discrimination.

Passage of the bill has been attributed to record turnout of African-American voters by the press, an explanation that has been shot down by The Daily Kos. It’s ironic that a majority of voters in California voted for an African-American President, then apparently turned around and narrowly voted to discriminate against gays.

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Multiple Facets Of Attempted Election Theft

With Election day being hours away, reports of attempts to steal the election are in full swing — racism and discrimination are playing their usual roles, the familiar, never-ending smear tactics, lies and misinformation campaigns continue growing more blatant, fraudulent attempts at voter suppression, many examples of which can be found below, by the desperate Republican party are getting more ridiculous and attempts at stealing the election with the usual dirty tricks are shifting into overdrive — but they don’t appear to be working very well because the public has had more than enough of the damage done by the Republican party and are fully aware of what is happening.

Accusations of voter fraud and voter suppression have practically become commonplace in several states. Reports of widespread vote flipping are growing. There are also reports of ballots not being recorded. Numerous examples of election fraud are available from After Downing Street. There is still too much secrecy in how ballots are counted too. Despite all the reported problems with Electronic Voting machines, they are still used all over the country.

Georgia’s Secretary of State reportedly opened the door for racial targeting, declaring that regular citizens could address the “problem” of non-citizen voting by contesting the citizenship of fellow voters at the polls, forcing them to cast “challenge” ballots that won’t be counted on election day. 11,000 voters in Denver, Colorado didn’t receive mail-in ballots due to an “unfortunate mistake” by Sequioa Voting Systems, after originally lying and telling the city that they had delivered all of the ballots they were supposed to print and deliver. More information on the missing ballots is available from The Denver Post and ABC7 News in Denver. Another example of a Republican actually trying to steal the election can be found from The Daily Kos.

Another slanderous DVD is reportedly being spread, this time to three of Ohio’s largest newspapers, along with papers in Florida and Nevada. Phony fliers are reportedly being distributed in Virginia telling Democrats to vote on November 5 and what are referred to as fear fliers on steroids are reportedly being distributed throughout Ohio. Just because the Federal government has been racially profiling for years under the guise of the attacks of 9/11 that Bush allowed to happen does not mean that racism and prejudice are the norm. This is the 21st century and there is no need for it. A lot of racial evangelicals are spreading all kinds of lies about Obama. Calls are also being made in Ohio telling people that they can vote by phone to avoid long lines at the polls, which is absolutely false. Racial slanders and discrimination should not be tolerated.

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