Operation Enduring Presence

I haven't had as much time for this blog as the Canadian one of late -- so it goes.

Getting right to the business of catching up on the media narratives, as most know Obama declared the end of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," Tuesday night and the beginning of "Operation New Dawn." It is exactly the kind of Orwellian hooey that it reads like. There are as noted everywhere even the MSM 50,000 combat ready troops being left behind, but not being reported as often are the bases that still remain occupied by American forces in the desert and the 7,000 independent contractors ( re: modern-day mercenaries) they are hiring to leave behind at five different bases . Here's a report from Democracy Now on those bases:



Seven years later there's still lots to say about this war of choice that devastated Iraq. The war killed untold numbers of civilians and made refugees out of millions and it's all being ignored except in small corners of the media and blogosphere. Some like Chris Mathews are trying to pretend they were against the war back in 2003 and that they weren't cheerleaders and enablers -- it's a bit nauseating. There are so many in the media that displayed a remarkable lack of courage that one hardly knows where to start but that link includes an interview with Jim Lehrer of PBS who as much as admits to the cowardice of the press which of course includes himself.

Glenzilla does a great job of taking apart the claims that "everyone" thought Iraq had WMD's here. Rachel expresses her anger over Obama's absolving of GWB jr. and his recklessness here. You can read the complete list of who the architects of the Iraq war were at ThinkP and please note that they are now out in the media trying to claim for themselves credit for the "success" of the Iraq war. Possibly the greatest blunder in US military history and the right-wing neo-cons who argued for this war want a victory parade with themselves in the lead float.

The Police State Rocks On!

As I watched US policy take a drastic turn to the right during the administration of GWB jr. and Dick Cheney, I'll admit to being alarmed but not surprised. The Patriot act, unwarranted spying on Americans, "free speech zones," rendition, enhanced interrogation all seemed to be the wish fulfilment of a laundry list of items the right has always lobbied for. The Republicans have never been about increasing freedoms - other than 2nd amendment ones. So when Obama was inaugurated I thought all of this would be walked back and I was one of those who had no problems with the slow pace he was moving at figuring it would take considerable time to undo what Bush/Cheney had wrought. I'm starting to feel naive.

Glenn Greenwald has been covering and documenting how access to the spill sites are being blocked by BP, by police departments working for BP and by the government. Now comes word that getting any closer than 65 feet to an oil boom (called a "safety zone") will get you arrested and possibly charged with a Class D Felony which carries with it fines up to $40,000 dollars and a sentence of "not less than two years." He calls it "creepy police state behaviour," and asserts that this seems clearly to be unconstitutional acts to intimidate and impede the media... (and he would know with his background in constitutional law and as a civil rights litigator.)

What's even more remarkable is that this behaviour of intimidation extends to reckless BP acts at other refineries with DHS agents and local police officials acting as BP's personal muscle to detain, interrogate, and threaten a photographer. Not acceptable.

Here's Anderson Cooper of CNN going off on these same subjects asserting, "We are not the enemy!"


 

Soylent Green

 

I can remember being a kid and watching the film about a future dystopia, "Soylent Green," and thinking it quaint. I don't get that same sense of kitschy fun now when I view it. Characters portrayed by Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson live in a world where complete desertification has taken over the planet, destroyed the environment, and the inhabitants live a hard-scrabble life in a world completely depleted of all its' wonders and natural resources. It's (quite famously and literally) a dog eat dog world.

Today, as I busy myself posting the news links to stories I covered on my radio show, stories that are not getting enough MSM coverage because the medias are far too busy focusing on fake scandals like Obama using the word "ass," I find myself thinking of that fictional world. (My only problem with Obama's use of that word is that he did not direct it those truly responsible for the continuing disaster in the Gulf and those who really lower the level of discourse, especially when it comes to policy and politics.) Anyhow, as I continue following the nightmarish stories that are coming out of the Gulf while those on the right continue to push for an end to the moratorium on drilling, I see nothing but people blind to the real potential of this disaster in concert with everything else that is taking place around the globe. So much so that an entertainment I once regarded as a B-movie fantasy now seems prophetic and frightening.

Listen to how short-sighted and ignorant this man sounds now in the light of what's taking place:

Torture

Hello, and sorry I've been unable to look at the intertubes. The surfeit of bad news by the end of a week takes a strange toll on my psyche. Lots to post but don't really know if I'll get to it all. Wanted to start with the subject that began all this for me, torture. Back in 2005 I could all kinds of evidence that torture was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan - but none of it surfaced in the MSM in any  significant way. If you read up on torture you`ll discover that from a practical standpoint it doesn`t really work. From a moral standpoint it`s not only indefensible, it`s self defeating. It creates more enemies than it eliminates.

Last week GWB jr. glibly said that he ordered Khalid Sheik Mohamed water-boarded (183 times) and he`d do it again if it saved lives. Well, it didn`t and it constitutes a war crime. The reaction south of the border was one big collective shrug. Have a listen as Keith Olbermann interviews US Air Force interrogator Mathew Alexander and he explains how Abbu Ghraib recruited terrorists.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

GWB jr. once claimed Jesus Christ was his favorite philosopher - I would like to ask him who would Jesus water-board, and how many times would he repeat this "enhanced interrogation" technique?

Thursday Blogging Roundup

 

Starting to feel like there's nothing going on in the world except that disaster in the Gulf sometimes, but the crimes are so egregious and the people behind them so shameless.

Tony - I want my life back - Hayward and BP have a new advertising campaign going to try and salvage his/their reputation, because that's what is really important here! That's going tobe tough when you get caught trying to hide evidence of dead marine life in the hopes of the ocean washing them away. Quote: There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don’t want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It’s important to me that people know the truth about what’s going on here,” the contractor said.

Getting clean-up crews to sign waivers prohibiting them from speaking to the media looks suspicious too. Denying credible scientific reports about the massive oil plumes that are underneath the surface of the Gulf waters seems pretty muddleheaded too - especially when there's video evidence of their existence. Oh, the latest attempt at mitigating the spill has suffered a setback, and it turns out BP was unprepared for such a spill even though they had declared that they were ready for one ten times the size.

A reminder, 21 years later Alaska's coast still has not fully recovered from the Exxon Valdez spill. This of course doesn't stop Republicans who are in the pockets of big oil from making ridiculous statements understating the damage being caused to wildlife and delicate eco-systems.

George Bush still thinks torture is awesome: "It's what Jesus would do!"

Another fake Obama scandal gets debunked. Apparently all these ad hominem attacks are having an effect on Obama's disposition - for the better! They (the Republicans) gave us tax cuts that weren’t paid for to millionaires who didn’t need them. They gutted regulations and put industry insiders in charge of industry oversight. They shortchanged investments in clean energy and education, in research and technology. And despite all their current moralizing about the need to curb spending, this is the same crowd who took the record $237 billion surplus that President Clinton left them and turned it into a record $1.3 trillion deficit.

Robert Scheer risks being called a self-hating Jew to call the Israeli attack on the Gaza blockade-busting flotilla an act of international terrorism. There can be no valid claims of self-defense on the part of Israeli commandos who attacked a ship of protesters in international waters, killing nine civilians and kidnapping more than 600 others -- including 15 international reporters who were prevented from filing their stories by a nation that claims to be the beacon of democracy in the Mideast. And Israel is not making it easy for anyone to defend their actions, rejecting any international investigation into what happened.