HAVING A BLAST: It isn't without consternation that we avoid national politics like the proverbial plague. While we chose to concentrate on local politics it's not because the scourge that is American foreign policy isn't a genocidal blight on the world but simply because practically no one else is holding our local buffoonery's feet to the fire.
But it's been hard to ignore the dispatches from we've been receiving from former Georgia Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, if for no other reason than that they are so divergent from the jingoistic party-line crap we see on American TV and read in the sycophantic "print" press that it's apparent someone is bullsh*tting the American public.
The "humanitarian mission" bombing "military targets" story is the one that's shibai in case you haven't figured it out.
How out of touch is the US press? The headline of a Reuters story today proclaimed "Libyan rebels make fresh gains, NATO drops leaflets"
Leaflets?
As McKinney writes today
I'm still waiting to find evidence somewhere in the world that bombing poor civilian populations of the Third World from the air is good for their voting rights, democracy, medical care, education, welfare, national debt, and enhancing personal income and wealth distribution. It seems clear to me that complex life issues require more complex intervention than a Cruise Missile could ever deliver.
Her dispatch describing the bombing of Al Fateh University is so disturbing that we felt compelled to turn this space over to McKinney today.
(Full disclosure: Andy Parx is an adviser to the US Green Party Media Committee and former member of the Green National Committee)
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More NATO "Humanitarian Intervention:" The Bombing of Al Fateh University, Campus B
by Cynthia McKinney
June 14, 2011 -- Since coming to Tripoli to see first hand the consequences of the NATO military operations, it has become clear to me that despite the ongoing silence of the international press on the ground here in Libya, there is clear evidence that civilian targets have been hit and Libyan civilians injured and killed.
This Tuesday morning I was taken from my hotel across the city through its bustling traffic to the Al Fateh University.
On 9 June, Dean Ali Mansur was outside in the parking lot. The sky was blue like Carolina blue. The clouds were white--no chemtrails in sight. Puffy and white. Dean Mansur was visibly upset. It seems that some of the young men at Al Fateh University, Campus B were fighting over girls. He explained to me that Libyans are hot blooded. With a gleam in his eye, he whispered to me that girls are important to young men.
Yes, that was clearly evident today as I approached the campus of Al Fateh University, Campus B, formerly known as Nasser University. Under the trees, throughout the lawn as we approached the campus gates, I could see young men and women talking to each other, talking on cell phones, walking to and fro, assembled, probably talking about the latest campus news--whatever that might be. Today, on the Al Fateh campus, life was teeming. Student life seemed vibrant. This feel and ambiance of this university was not unlike the hundreds of other universities that I have visited in the US and around the world.
Libyan boys and girls are like ours. My son would easily fit into the life of this university.
The campus seemed vibrant, too. Cranes everywhere indicated a healthy building program, adding new buildings to enhance the student learning environment. Despite the students' fracas, Dean Mansur had everything to be happy about as he saw his university becoming bigger, better, and stronger. He told me that they had even signed an agreement with a British university to begin programs in the English language. Not English studies, Dean Mansur emphasized, but an entire curriculum of study taught in the English language! Of course, he entoned, that's all disappointingly ended now.
Al Fateh University, Campus B consists of about 10,000 undergraduates, 800 masters degree candidates, and 18 Ph.D. students; 220 staff, 150 ad hoc professors, 120 employees. It has eight auditoriums, 19 classrooms, 4 extra large classrooms. It also has a rural campus at Al Azizia where 700 students are taught and are a part of the university system. Dean Mansur compares himself to a mayor because he has so many responsibilities presiding over a large community of students engaging in a rich and vibrant academic life.
Dean Mansur told me that life at the university and, for him personally, changed forever on the afternoon of Thursday 9 June, 2011.
He recalled that the university opened as usual around 8:00 am and was to close later that evening at about 8:00 pm.
Thursday, 9 June, he thought, was going to be just like any other day, except for the fracas over the girls that had cleared the campus of many of the students who didn't want to have any part in the fighting. So, outside in the campus parking lot, Dr. Mansur told me he was preoccupied thinking how he would deal with the disciplinary issue before him.
Then, out of nowhere and all of a sudden, he heard something loud up in the sky.
He said it began out of no where, a loud roar. Then a frightful high pitched the hissing sound. He said he looked up into the sky and couldn't hardly believe his eyes: something shiny up in the sky appeared dancing in front of him. He said it moved about like an atari game or something. It danced and zig-zagged all over the sky. He said he was transfixed on the object for what seemed like minutes but in truth must have only been seconds.
Up and down and sideways it raced in the sky and then, without warning, it just came crashing down into the ground nearby. It was a NATO missile.
Tragically it had found its target: Al Fateh University, Campus B.
Dean Mansur said he saw one missile, lots of fire, lots of different colors all around it, and then a huge plume of smoke. He saw one missile, but heard what seemed like many explosions. He said he now can't honestly say how many.
Dr. Mansur said the force and shock of the blast held him frozen in his place. He said his heart stopped for a moment. He wasn't afraid, just frozen. He didn't run away; he didn't cower; he said he just stood stupefied.
The force of the blast cracked thickened concrete wells, shattered hundreds of windows and brought numerous ceilings down in lecture halls.
Whether it was a wayward Tomahawk Cruise Missile or a misdirected laser guided bomb, no one knows.
His immediate thoughts were for the thousands of his students in the university and for his own three children who study there.
After about 30 minutes, the Libyan press came to see what had happened. the University President and other officials of the school all came. But to Dr. Mansur's surprise not the international press.
And what did they see?
The media saw the widespread structural damage to many of the buildings, all of the windows blown out in every one of the eight auditoriums. Doors blown off their hinges. Library in a shambles. Books and debris everywhere. The campus mosque was damaged. Glass heaped up in piles. Some efforts at cleaning up had begun.
Dr Mansur says that they have kept the university, wherever practicable, in much the same condition as it was on the day of the attack. Except that the main classroom area that students work in has been cleaned and will be renamed the Seif Al-Arab auditorium complex in memory of Muammar Qaddafi's son murdered on April 30, 2011 in his home by NATO bombs.
On Thursday, NATO missiles. Friday and Saturday are considered the weekend here. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the students are back to school undaunted by the bombing. In many of the classrooms I saw today, students were taking final exams amid the debris. As I walked around the campus, one male voice shouted out and spoke to me in Arabic: "Where's Obama?"
Good question I thought.
I've always wondered if the politicians who regularly send our young men and women away to war and who regularly bomb the poor peoples of the world have ever, themselves, been on the receiving end of a Cruise Missile attack or placed themselves and their family at the mercy of a laser guided depleted uranium bomb. Maybe, just maybe I thought, that if they had experienced first hand the horror of a NATO attack on a civilian target they might just stop and question for a minute the need to dispatch our armed forces to attack the people of Libya.
I didn't want to disturb the students taking exams so I found some students standing outside not taking exams to talk to. I asked them if they had anything to say to President Obama. One professor, a woman, spoke up readily and said, "We are working under fire: physical and psychological." One student spoke up and said that President Obama should "Free Palestine and leave Libya alone." He continued, "We are one family."
More on that later, but briefly, every Libyan is a member of a tribe and every tribe governs itself and selects its leaders; those leaders from all of the tribes then select their leaders, and so on until there is only one leader of all of the tribes of Libya. I met that one tribal leader yesterday in another part of Tripoli and I am told he is the real leader of this country. He presides over the Tribal Council which constitutes Libya's real policymakers. So when the young man said "We are one family," that is actually the truth.
Dr. Mansur, trained in the United States and spoke fondly of his time in the US and the many friends he made there. He is proud of his students and the richness of his university's community life. He was just like any University Dean in the United States.
In my view God intervened on Thursday 9 June, 2011.
On the day that the missile struck, not one student was killed. It could so easily have been different. It could have been a catastrophe taking the lives of hundreds of teenagers.
I am told that in the surrounding area immediately outside the university others were not so fortunate.
Reports are that there were deaths in the nearby houses.
It's a funny thing about war. Those who cause war become oblivious and removed from its consequences; they seem happy to inflict harm on others and become numb to its ill effects while war's victims find a way to normalize the abnormal and live with the constant threat of death and destruction.
After visiting Tripoli, I remain as opposed to war as ever before.
The students at Al Fateh University continue their studies despite the siege that their country is under.
And oh, that second group of students that I randomly spoke to? I asked them how much they pay for tuition. They looked at me with puzzled faces even after the translation. I asked them how much they pay for their books. Again, the same puzzled face. Tuition at Al Fateh University is 16 dinars per year--about $9. And due to the NATO embargo on gasoline imports, the school now has started 10 free bus lines to its surrounding areas in order to make sure that the students can get to school, free of charge.
I told them that I was about to enter a Ph.D. program in the US myself and that I needed tuition and book money costing tens of thousands of dollars. I continued that my cousin is in debt $100,000 because she went to the schools of her choice and received a Master's degree.
They said to me, "We thank Muammar Qaddafi. Because of Muammar Qaddafi we have free education. Allah, Muammar, Libya obes!"
Well as for NATO, they still cling to the chimera that their strikes are against military targets only and that theirs is a "humanitarian intervention."
I'm still waiting to find evidence somewhere in the world that bombing poor civilian populations of the Third World from the air is good for their voting rights, democracy, medical care, education, welfare, national debt, and enhancing personal income and wealth distribution. It seems clear to me that complex life issues require more complex intervention than a Cruise Missile could ever deliver.
Here is video of Michel Collon about western wars and the media lies that accompany them (thanks to Rosemary Tylka for sending this to me for forwarding): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXFAsz6_W50&feature=player_embedded
Showing posts with label Cynthia McKinney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cynthia McKinney. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
WAR CRIMES 'R' US
WAR CRIMES 'R' US: We were going to re-post our traditional column regarding the traditional sickness of celebrating war and death on this day, as we did last year in "Baloney Hero, Hold The Mustard Gas". But somehow with the Obama regime's abandonment of all pretense that American war criminality is a thing of the past, the following "dispatch" from Tripoli, penned by former Georgia Congresswoman and 2010 Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, seemed far more appropriate.
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Anatomy of a Murder: How NATO Killed Qaddafi Family Members
May 28, 2011
by Cynthia McKinney
How many times must a parent bury a child?
Well, in the case of Muammar Qaddafi it's not only twice: once for his daughter, murdered by the United States bombing on his home in 1986, and again on 30 April 2011 when his youngest son, Saif al Arab, but yet again for three young children, grandbabies of Muammar Qaddafi killed along with Saif at the family home.
Now, I watched Cindy Sheehan as she bared her soul before us in her grief; I cried when Cindy cried. Now, how must Qaddafi and his wife feel? And the people of Libya, parents of all the nation's children gone too soon. I don't even want to imagine.
All my mother could say in astonishment was, "They killed the babies, they killed his grandbabies."
The news reports, however, didn't last more than one half of a news cycle because on 1 May, at a hastily assembled press conference, President Obama announced the murder of Osama bin Laden.
Well, I haven't forgotten my empathy for Cindy Sheehan; I haven't forgotten my concern for the children of Iraq that Madeleine Albright said were OK to kill by U.S. sanctions if U.S. geopolitical goals were achieved. I care about the children of Palestine who throw stones at Israeli soldiers and get laser-guided bullets to their brains in return. I care about the people of North Africa and West Asia who are ready to risk their lives for freedom. In fact, I care about all of the children--from Appalachia to the Cancer Alley, from New York City to San Diego, and everywhere in-between.
On 22 May 2011, I had the opportunity to visit the residence of the Qaddafi family, bombed to smithereens by NATO. For a leader, the house seemed small in comparison, say, to the former Clinton family home in Chappaqua or the Obama family home. It was a small whitewashed suburban type house in a typical residential area in metropolitan Tripoli. It was surrounded by dozens of other family homes.
I spoke with a neighbor who described how three separate smart bombs hit the home and exploded, another one not exploding. According to the BBC, the NATO military operations chief stated that a "command and control center" had been hit. That is a lie. As anyone who visits the home can see, this home had nothing to do with NATO's war. The strike against this home had everything to do with NATO adopting a policy of targeted assassination and extra-judicial killing--clearly illegal.
The neighbor said he found Saif Al-Arab in his bedroom underneath rubble; the three young grandchildren were in a different room and they were shredded to pieces. He told of how he picked up as many pieces as he possibly could. He told us that there are still pieces there that he could not get. He asked us to note the smell--not the putrid smell of rotting flesh, but a sweet smell. I did smell it and thought there was an air freshener nearby. It smelled to me of roses. He asked me why this was done and who was going to hold NATO accountable.
Muammar Qaddafi was at the house. But he was outside near where the animals are kept. It is a miracle that he survived. From the looks of that house and the small guest house beside it, the strike was a complete success if the goal was to totally and thoroughly demolish the structure and everything inside it.
NATO wants us to believe that toys, items and clothing, an opened Holy Koran, and a soccer board game are the appointments found in military command and control offices. I wonder if we could find such articles in NATO's office in Brussels.
The opened Holy Koran seemed to be frozen in time. In fact, there was a clock dangling from its cord--dangling in space. And indeed, for the four young people in that house at the time of NATO's attack, time had stopped.
The concussion from the bombs were so great that eery tile on the walls and floors of the home had been knocked from the walls. Black burn marks scorched the walls. The force broke a marble or granite countertop. The bathtub was literally split into two parts. Shards of the bomb were everywhere. I wondered if the place was now contaminated with depleted uranium.
The Qaddafi home is a crime scene--a murder scene. The United States prisons are full of men and women who are innocent--even on death row. I wonder where the guilty who are never prosecuted go.
Now, if the International Court of Justice were really a repository of justice, it would be investigating this crime. Instead, it is looking for yet another African to prosecute. We in the United States are familiar with this: on our local news every night, we are saturated with photos of Black and Brown criminals with the implication being that White people don't commit crime. The moment the face of someone arrested is not shown, then we know that the culprit is White. It's the unwritten code that we people of color all live by wherever in the world we might happen to be. Global apartheid is alive and well and exists on many levels.
I left the house sick in my heart. As I was about to depart, the neighbor begged me, asked me over and over again, why had this happened? What had they done to deserve this? He seemed to not want me to leave. Honestly, I think I was his little piece of America, his little piece of President Obama and I could help him to understand why this course of action was necessary from my President's point of view. He said NATO should just leave them alone and let them sort out their problems on their own.
I did leave his presence, but that man's face will never leave me.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned, "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
In response to my previous article, "NATO, A Feast of Blood," I received the following quite about Buddha from Shiva Shankar who excerpted Walpola Rahula's "What The Buddha Taught:"
"... The Buddha not only taught non-violence and peace, but he even went to the field of battle itself and intervened personally, and prevented war, as in the case of the dispute between the Sakyas and the Koliyas, who were prepared to fight over the question of the waters of the Rohini. And his words once prevented King Ajatasattu from attacking the kingdom of the Vajjis. ...
... Here is a lesson for the world today. The ruler of an empire publicly turning his back on war and violence and embraced the message of peace and non-violence. There is no historical evidence to show that any neighbouring king took advantage of Asoka's piety to attack him militarily, or that there was any revolt or rebellion within his empire during his lifetime. On the contrary there was peace throughout the land, and even countries outside his empire seem to have accepted his benign leadership. ..."
Please don't allow special interest press and war mongering gatekeepers of the left to blot out the tragedy unfolding in Libya. Please don't allow them to take away our chance to live in peace throughout our land and with countries inside and outside our hemisphere. Congress should vote to end NATO's action in Libya and barring that should assert its Constitutional prerogatives and require the President to come to it for authorization of this war. And then, Congress should heed the wisdom of the people of our country who are against this war and vote for peace.
---------
Anatomy of a Murder: How NATO Killed Qaddafi Family Members
May 28, 2011
by Cynthia McKinney
How many times must a parent bury a child?
Well, in the case of Muammar Qaddafi it's not only twice: once for his daughter, murdered by the United States bombing on his home in 1986, and again on 30 April 2011 when his youngest son, Saif al Arab, but yet again for three young children, grandbabies of Muammar Qaddafi killed along with Saif at the family home.
Now, I watched Cindy Sheehan as she bared her soul before us in her grief; I cried when Cindy cried. Now, how must Qaddafi and his wife feel? And the people of Libya, parents of all the nation's children gone too soon. I don't even want to imagine.
All my mother could say in astonishment was, "They killed the babies, they killed his grandbabies."
The news reports, however, didn't last more than one half of a news cycle because on 1 May, at a hastily assembled press conference, President Obama announced the murder of Osama bin Laden.
Well, I haven't forgotten my empathy for Cindy Sheehan; I haven't forgotten my concern for the children of Iraq that Madeleine Albright said were OK to kill by U.S. sanctions if U.S. geopolitical goals were achieved. I care about the children of Palestine who throw stones at Israeli soldiers and get laser-guided bullets to their brains in return. I care about the people of North Africa and West Asia who are ready to risk their lives for freedom. In fact, I care about all of the children--from Appalachia to the Cancer Alley, from New York City to San Diego, and everywhere in-between.
On 22 May 2011, I had the opportunity to visit the residence of the Qaddafi family, bombed to smithereens by NATO. For a leader, the house seemed small in comparison, say, to the former Clinton family home in Chappaqua or the Obama family home. It was a small whitewashed suburban type house in a typical residential area in metropolitan Tripoli. It was surrounded by dozens of other family homes.
I spoke with a neighbor who described how three separate smart bombs hit the home and exploded, another one not exploding. According to the BBC, the NATO military operations chief stated that a "command and control center" had been hit. That is a lie. As anyone who visits the home can see, this home had nothing to do with NATO's war. The strike against this home had everything to do with NATO adopting a policy of targeted assassination and extra-judicial killing--clearly illegal.
The neighbor said he found Saif Al-Arab in his bedroom underneath rubble; the three young grandchildren were in a different room and they were shredded to pieces. He told of how he picked up as many pieces as he possibly could. He told us that there are still pieces there that he could not get. He asked us to note the smell--not the putrid smell of rotting flesh, but a sweet smell. I did smell it and thought there was an air freshener nearby. It smelled to me of roses. He asked me why this was done and who was going to hold NATO accountable.
Muammar Qaddafi was at the house. But he was outside near where the animals are kept. It is a miracle that he survived. From the looks of that house and the small guest house beside it, the strike was a complete success if the goal was to totally and thoroughly demolish the structure and everything inside it.
NATO wants us to believe that toys, items and clothing, an opened Holy Koran, and a soccer board game are the appointments found in military command and control offices. I wonder if we could find such articles in NATO's office in Brussels.
The opened Holy Koran seemed to be frozen in time. In fact, there was a clock dangling from its cord--dangling in space. And indeed, for the four young people in that house at the time of NATO's attack, time had stopped.
The concussion from the bombs were so great that eery tile on the walls and floors of the home had been knocked from the walls. Black burn marks scorched the walls. The force broke a marble or granite countertop. The bathtub was literally split into two parts. Shards of the bomb were everywhere. I wondered if the place was now contaminated with depleted uranium.
The Qaddafi home is a crime scene--a murder scene. The United States prisons are full of men and women who are innocent--even on death row. I wonder where the guilty who are never prosecuted go.
Now, if the International Court of Justice were really a repository of justice, it would be investigating this crime. Instead, it is looking for yet another African to prosecute. We in the United States are familiar with this: on our local news every night, we are saturated with photos of Black and Brown criminals with the implication being that White people don't commit crime. The moment the face of someone arrested is not shown, then we know that the culprit is White. It's the unwritten code that we people of color all live by wherever in the world we might happen to be. Global apartheid is alive and well and exists on many levels.
I left the house sick in my heart. As I was about to depart, the neighbor begged me, asked me over and over again, why had this happened? What had they done to deserve this? He seemed to not want me to leave. Honestly, I think I was his little piece of America, his little piece of President Obama and I could help him to understand why this course of action was necessary from my President's point of view. He said NATO should just leave them alone and let them sort out their problems on their own.
I did leave his presence, but that man's face will never leave me.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned, "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
In response to my previous article, "NATO, A Feast of Blood," I received the following quite about Buddha from Shiva Shankar who excerpted Walpola Rahula's "What The Buddha Taught:"
"... The Buddha not only taught non-violence and peace, but he even went to the field of battle itself and intervened personally, and prevented war, as in the case of the dispute between the Sakyas and the Koliyas, who were prepared to fight over the question of the waters of the Rohini. And his words once prevented King Ajatasattu from attacking the kingdom of the Vajjis. ...
... Here is a lesson for the world today. The ruler of an empire publicly turning his back on war and violence and embraced the message of peace and non-violence. There is no historical evidence to show that any neighbouring king took advantage of Asoka's piety to attack him militarily, or that there was any revolt or rebellion within his empire during his lifetime. On the contrary there was peace throughout the land, and even countries outside his empire seem to have accepted his benign leadership. ..."
Please don't allow special interest press and war mongering gatekeepers of the left to blot out the tragedy unfolding in Libya. Please don't allow them to take away our chance to live in peace throughout our land and with countries inside and outside our hemisphere. Congress should vote to end NATO's action in Libya and barring that should assert its Constitutional prerogatives and require the President to come to it for authorization of this war. And then, Congress should heed the wisdom of the people of our country who are against this war and vote for peace.
Monday, September 29, 2008
PAVLOVIAN PUTZES
PAVLOVIAN PUTZES: Despite all the Obamamania on Kaua`i, PNN is sticking with our favorite presidential ticket- the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente.
Voting one’s conscience is hard sometimes. It takes many years of practice just to get accustomed to it but most who stay at it eventually find it hard to do otherwise.
He’s gonna win. We knew- and bet good money- last year that if he survives he’ll be president on January 20. It’s not what he says, it’s how he says it.
He’s got “it”- that thing where, like Bill Clinton before him, it doesn’t matter what he says you have to admit “wow, he’s good”... an inside joke here at the headquarters of the vast international tentacles of PNN.
But in he end Obama is just another war-mongering, insurance-industry-run heath care loving, Wall Street wallowing, oil-drilling politician..
And here in Hawai`i he’s a cinch to get double if not triple the votes of his unworthy opponent.
But McKinney actually speaks to the core of all the issue all Democrats idealize and work toward.
Any progressive voter reading her positions on war, health care, civil rights, accountability and transparency in government, free trade, re-regulation, and even impeachment would jump to support a candidate who holds most of those precepts- especially when compared with Obama’s- and especially in a blind test of affinity.
And unlike Obama, McKinney actually fought for all these things in her six years in congress.
Most of the wide-eyed Obama supporters- and especially the ex-Kuncinich supporters- who reads her positions and compares them with Obama’s will most likely agree more with her.
That’s because they are the things that the majority of people want, all else being equal.
But instead, as always in the Americkan corporate sorry excuse for democracy, there’s no choice and people once again will settle for less... or more likely nothing at all.
Voting your conscience is an acquired skill. It takes personal political will to a break from all the media fed the indoctrination.
It takes courage to ignore the constantly recurring “big lies”. We’ve actually heard people tell us that the two-party system is in the Constitution, so that creating the concept of “spoiling elections” is their reaction to the duopolistically spoiled electoral system.
But if you’re going to vote for McKinney-Clemente- or for that matter Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzales or if you’re a wing nut, Bob Barr- just because in Hawai`i the electoral college lets you do so without consequences, why bother..
Conditional conscience and situational scruples in voting won’t cut it.. In order to start to break that addiction to picking the “least worst”, meaningless gestures that don’t take principles in the first place don’t count.
Voting one’s conscience is hard sometimes. It takes many years of practice just to get accustomed to it but most who stay at it eventually find it hard to do otherwise.
He’s gonna win. We knew- and bet good money- last year that if he survives he’ll be president on January 20. It’s not what he says, it’s how he says it.
He’s got “it”- that thing where, like Bill Clinton before him, it doesn’t matter what he says you have to admit “wow, he’s good”... an inside joke here at the headquarters of the vast international tentacles of PNN.
But in he end Obama is just another war-mongering, insurance-industry-run heath care loving, Wall Street wallowing, oil-drilling politician..
And here in Hawai`i he’s a cinch to get double if not triple the votes of his unworthy opponent.
But McKinney actually speaks to the core of all the issue all Democrats idealize and work toward.
Any progressive voter reading her positions on war, health care, civil rights, accountability and transparency in government, free trade, re-regulation, and even impeachment would jump to support a candidate who holds most of those precepts- especially when compared with Obama’s- and especially in a blind test of affinity.
And unlike Obama, McKinney actually fought for all these things in her six years in congress.
Most of the wide-eyed Obama supporters- and especially the ex-Kuncinich supporters- who reads her positions and compares them with Obama’s will most likely agree more with her.
That’s because they are the things that the majority of people want, all else being equal.
But instead, as always in the Americkan corporate sorry excuse for democracy, there’s no choice and people once again will settle for less... or more likely nothing at all.
Voting your conscience is an acquired skill. It takes personal political will to a break from all the media fed the indoctrination.
It takes courage to ignore the constantly recurring “big lies”. We’ve actually heard people tell us that the two-party system is in the Constitution, so that creating the concept of “spoiling elections” is their reaction to the duopolistically spoiled electoral system.
But if you’re going to vote for McKinney-Clemente- or for that matter Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzales or if you’re a wing nut, Bob Barr- just because in Hawai`i the electoral college lets you do so without consequences, why bother..
Conditional conscience and situational scruples in voting won’t cut it.. In order to start to break that addiction to picking the “least worst”, meaningless gestures that don’t take principles in the first place don’t count.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
TASTES LIKE IT- GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT
TASTES LIKE IT- GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT: Well it’s all over but the pooping as the Council reportedly made it official yesterday passing a law saying that the bike path is now the apparently the “Bryan Baptiste Memorial Dogcrap Repository”.
And as Joan Conrow reported this morning, county spokesperson Mary Dauber confirmed what we suspected Tuesday- that Bernard Carvalho will be “sidestepping” the bureaucratic dog pile he created and doing it at taxpayer expense by taking vacation time from the job he will no longer have when he returns.
But in another of those “only on Kaua`i” laws the council passed a provision saying that dog walkers must “visibly carry” a bag to clean up after their pets.
Now presumably owners will somehow be pinning their little plastic bags to their lapels although how to attach them without putting a hole in them might be somewhat of a challenge.
And woe be to the owner who only brings one bag because presumably they must always wear a crap-carrier even after their animal’s done their business.
We just can’t wait for the parade the dog-doody-bedecked citizenry. Perhaps a whole new line of pine-scented-aloha-shirts will spring up as the dog-poop-clad-denizens dance by the dog-poop receptacles in search of another carrying-container for fear of a $500 fine
Why Hilo Hattie’s may offer a free clothes pin with each perfumed mu`umu`u.
Who said the county isn’t creating new jobs.
But speaking of dogshit is there anyone who hasn’t smelled the stench coming out of Denver this week?
In case anyone missed the real story, the Democratic Party has apparently “grown up” when it comes to corporate teat-sucking as attendees lapped up the bribes just like Republicans.
Some of the alternative press such as reporter and “Official Hawai`i Democratic Convention Blogger in Denver” Ian Lind have mentioned the excesses for the privileged such as breakfasts for the Hawai`i delegates “complements” of Lockheed and Boeing.
But sitting through hour after hour of 37 TV channels of breathlessly-identical sycophantic-fluff was getting to be way too much to stomach until last night when a piece from ABC News– a whole three minutes and twenty seconds of it- appeared.
The must-see Brian Ross segment “Money Trail: The Democratic Elite” details how the “Pelosi 100” – those who raised more than $100,000 for the party- were wined and dined in private suites and fancy restaurants, clubs and hotels, day in and day out, throughout the week.
After showing us telescopic lens views through the window of a few of the venues the piece showed how the Denver police joined in the fun by roughing up a segment producer who dared to try to film it from a public sidewalk, replete with a stogie-smoking cop choking the newsman and arresting him for trying to take pictures of those attending one of the corporate sponsored galas.
Finally it juxtaposed the ring of luxury suites at the mentioned-once-every-four-second “Pepsi” Center, sipping champagne and dining on a hot buffet while a Georgia delegate downstairs in the lobby had to buy a $7 hot dog because “it’s all there is”.
But the fact that the Democrats have caught up and taken the lead in the race to sell our government to the highest corporate bidder is but a precipitating factor in explaining why they have gone along with every bit of constitution-shredding, war-mongering, corporate-theft that’s come down the Republican pike since 2001.
We’ll leave listing the crimes to the best candidate running for president, the Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, who in 2006 as Georgia Representative to the US House introduced the first Bush-Chaney impeachment motion.
From funding the war to supporting the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act and from supporting the Gitmo gulag to caving on the telecom immunity bill the Democrats have been complicitous and have not just taken impeachment off the table it aided and abetted the Republicans by using their pen hand to support what their mouths bemoan.
How anyone can vote for these swine is beyond us but we suppose people have been eating their horseshit because at least it isn’t dogshit... and doing it for so long it’s beginning to “taste like chicken”
We’ll leave you with McKinney’s article in Counterpunch Magazine yesterday that- in case somehow you forgot- lists the Democratic eight-year efforts as partners-in-crime.
-----------------
It's Time for Real Change
How the Democrats Helped Bush Hijack the Country
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY
CounterPunch, August 27, 2008
Our country has been hijacked and the Democrats have proven themselves to have been in on the plan. When it came to the Constitution, the Democratic leadership showed us that aiding and abetting illegal spying on us was more important to them than protecting our civil liberties.
When it came to war and occupation, the Democratic leadership showed us that financing an illegal and immoral war, based on lies, was more important to them than the people's desire for peace.
And when the people, hurting from the financial mismanagement of this country, called for accountability for the crimes that have been committed against the people here, against the global community, against nature, itself, the Democratic leadership took impeachment off the table!
Grassroots Democratic Party activists want a livable wage! A "Medicare-for-all" type of health care system, repeal of the Bush tax cuts that have ushered in the greatest income inequality in this country since the Great Depression. But the Democratic Party has shown itself to be incapable of providing even a semblance of the values even of its own activists.
The Democratic Party's national leadership didn't even mention Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors in their Congressional agenda for the first 100 days.
The Democratic Party's national leadership gave us the Iran Naval Blockade bill, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and telecom immunity. They continue to fund war and occupation to the tune of $720 million a day while our children graduate from college tens--or even hundreds--of thousands of dollars in debt. Entire cities are going into receivership while the Democratic leadership in Congress gives the Pentagon one half trillion dollars annually with no accountability, no strings attached. That's over and above spending for war.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are the hallmarks of the new U.S. gulag Democrats are helping to create.
They want us to believe that China and Russia are our enemies, in addition to the 60 countries on Dick Cheney's list. They want us to believe that workers, who come to this country to support thier families after Democratic leadership in the country saddl3ed workers with NAFTA, are our enemies. But we are here today to declare that we know who the real enemies are: those false patriots that George Washington warned us of, who wrap themselves in the flag while betraying our values.
We are the true patriots!
We know that the strength of this country lies in the way it countenances dissent. And we are here to dissent. We are not deterred by reports of sleek, new detention facilities or recently-acquired taser guns that kill. For we come to dissent in peace. Indeed, we dissent for peace.
Today, we declare our independence from conformity and "go-along-to-get-along" politics. We declare our willingness to be radical in pursuit of peace and in our hunger for justice. We can see clearly now who the real stickup artists are and that's why we're in Denver!
Our actions here this week begin the disarming of the hijackers. We no longer are afraid. And we won't be deceived. We know that a vote for the Democrats is a vote for more war in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
But today, we are now free.
Free to stand on the four pillars guiding our political engagement: environmental wisdom, peace, grassroots democratcy, and social justice. And finally, we know our power. We know the power of the people. We know that true power rests in the hands of the people. People who are willing to take a stand.
We need look no further than Haiti, Code, I'voire, Spain, and India to see the power of the people at the ballot box. No further than Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Paraguay to know that if they can do it, so can we.
Provided our elections are fair!
And if the Democrats cave in, in the face of fraud, disfranchisement, and theft, then we will be there to demand election integrity!
All over this country, the signs are there. People from New York to Florida, Washington State to California, Colorado to Texas are liberating themselves. We must not stop! Our country is worth it! Let's take our country back! Power to the People!
And as Joan Conrow reported this morning, county spokesperson Mary Dauber confirmed what we suspected Tuesday- that Bernard Carvalho will be “sidestepping” the bureaucratic dog pile he created and doing it at taxpayer expense by taking vacation time from the job he will no longer have when he returns.
But in another of those “only on Kaua`i” laws the council passed a provision saying that dog walkers must “visibly carry” a bag to clean up after their pets.
Now presumably owners will somehow be pinning their little plastic bags to their lapels although how to attach them without putting a hole in them might be somewhat of a challenge.
And woe be to the owner who only brings one bag because presumably they must always wear a crap-carrier even after their animal’s done their business.
We just can’t wait for the parade the dog-doody-bedecked citizenry. Perhaps a whole new line of pine-scented-aloha-shirts will spring up as the dog-poop-clad-denizens dance by the dog-poop receptacles in search of another carrying-container for fear of a $500 fine
Why Hilo Hattie’s may offer a free clothes pin with each perfumed mu`umu`u.
Who said the county isn’t creating new jobs.
But speaking of dogshit is there anyone who hasn’t smelled the stench coming out of Denver this week?
In case anyone missed the real story, the Democratic Party has apparently “grown up” when it comes to corporate teat-sucking as attendees lapped up the bribes just like Republicans.
Some of the alternative press such as reporter and “Official Hawai`i Democratic Convention Blogger in Denver” Ian Lind have mentioned the excesses for the privileged such as breakfasts for the Hawai`i delegates “complements” of Lockheed and Boeing.
But sitting through hour after hour of 37 TV channels of breathlessly-identical sycophantic-fluff was getting to be way too much to stomach until last night when a piece from ABC News– a whole three minutes and twenty seconds of it- appeared.
The must-see Brian Ross segment “Money Trail: The Democratic Elite” details how the “Pelosi 100” – those who raised more than $100,000 for the party- were wined and dined in private suites and fancy restaurants, clubs and hotels, day in and day out, throughout the week.
After showing us telescopic lens views through the window of a few of the venues the piece showed how the Denver police joined in the fun by roughing up a segment producer who dared to try to film it from a public sidewalk, replete with a stogie-smoking cop choking the newsman and arresting him for trying to take pictures of those attending one of the corporate sponsored galas.
Finally it juxtaposed the ring of luxury suites at the mentioned-once-every-four-second “Pepsi” Center, sipping champagne and dining on a hot buffet while a Georgia delegate downstairs in the lobby had to buy a $7 hot dog because “it’s all there is”.
But the fact that the Democrats have caught up and taken the lead in the race to sell our government to the highest corporate bidder is but a precipitating factor in explaining why they have gone along with every bit of constitution-shredding, war-mongering, corporate-theft that’s come down the Republican pike since 2001.
We’ll leave listing the crimes to the best candidate running for president, the Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, who in 2006 as Georgia Representative to the US House introduced the first Bush-Chaney impeachment motion.
From funding the war to supporting the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act and from supporting the Gitmo gulag to caving on the telecom immunity bill the Democrats have been complicitous and have not just taken impeachment off the table it aided and abetted the Republicans by using their pen hand to support what their mouths bemoan.
How anyone can vote for these swine is beyond us but we suppose people have been eating their horseshit because at least it isn’t dogshit... and doing it for so long it’s beginning to “taste like chicken”
We’ll leave you with McKinney’s article in Counterpunch Magazine yesterday that- in case somehow you forgot- lists the Democratic eight-year efforts as partners-in-crime.
-----------------
It's Time for Real Change
How the Democrats Helped Bush Hijack the Country
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY
CounterPunch, August 27, 2008
Our country has been hijacked and the Democrats have proven themselves to have been in on the plan. When it came to the Constitution, the Democratic leadership showed us that aiding and abetting illegal spying on us was more important to them than protecting our civil liberties.
When it came to war and occupation, the Democratic leadership showed us that financing an illegal and immoral war, based on lies, was more important to them than the people's desire for peace.
And when the people, hurting from the financial mismanagement of this country, called for accountability for the crimes that have been committed against the people here, against the global community, against nature, itself, the Democratic leadership took impeachment off the table!
Grassroots Democratic Party activists want a livable wage! A "Medicare-for-all" type of health care system, repeal of the Bush tax cuts that have ushered in the greatest income inequality in this country since the Great Depression. But the Democratic Party has shown itself to be incapable of providing even a semblance of the values even of its own activists.
The Democratic Party's national leadership didn't even mention Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors in their Congressional agenda for the first 100 days.
The Democratic Party's national leadership gave us the Iran Naval Blockade bill, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and telecom immunity. They continue to fund war and occupation to the tune of $720 million a day while our children graduate from college tens--or even hundreds--of thousands of dollars in debt. Entire cities are going into receivership while the Democratic leadership in Congress gives the Pentagon one half trillion dollars annually with no accountability, no strings attached. That's over and above spending for war.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are the hallmarks of the new U.S. gulag Democrats are helping to create.
They want us to believe that China and Russia are our enemies, in addition to the 60 countries on Dick Cheney's list. They want us to believe that workers, who come to this country to support thier families after Democratic leadership in the country saddl3ed workers with NAFTA, are our enemies. But we are here today to declare that we know who the real enemies are: those false patriots that George Washington warned us of, who wrap themselves in the flag while betraying our values.
We are the true patriots!
We know that the strength of this country lies in the way it countenances dissent. And we are here to dissent. We are not deterred by reports of sleek, new detention facilities or recently-acquired taser guns that kill. For we come to dissent in peace. Indeed, we dissent for peace.
Today, we declare our independence from conformity and "go-along-to-get-along" politics. We declare our willingness to be radical in pursuit of peace and in our hunger for justice. We can see clearly now who the real stickup artists are and that's why we're in Denver!
Our actions here this week begin the disarming of the hijackers. We no longer are afraid. And we won't be deceived. We know that a vote for the Democrats is a vote for more war in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.
But today, we are now free.
Free to stand on the four pillars guiding our political engagement: environmental wisdom, peace, grassroots democratcy, and social justice. And finally, we know our power. We know the power of the people. We know that true power rests in the hands of the people. People who are willing to take a stand.
We need look no further than Haiti, Code, I'voire, Spain, and India to see the power of the people at the ballot box. No further than Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Paraguay to know that if they can do it, so can we.
Provided our elections are fair!
And if the Democrats cave in, in the face of fraud, disfranchisement, and theft, then we will be there to demand election integrity!
All over this country, the signs are there. People from New York to Florida, Washington State to California, Colorado to Texas are liberating themselves. We must not stop! Our country is worth it! Let's take our country back! Power to the People!
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