“A universal health care system based on the single-payer model appears to be a bridge too far for President Barack Obama… Obama should tear a page out of LBJ’s vote-getting manual and shame the heartless opponents. The health of all Americans is our business”, writes Helen Thomas.
Fox seems to play on all possible fronts — Fox News clearly promotes private health care as the right solution for the US citizens while Fox Business is clearly excited about the prospect of outsourcing health care to foreign lands (anything that helps BCBS’s bottom line will do no matter how audacious and shameless it appears.) Maybe THAT IS WHY 72% of the public has decided that this insanity must stop. Fortunately the Fox News propaganda clearly doesn’t seem to resonate with the viewers on this particular issue. I don’t know what else the Senators need? 99% of the public for it to finally admit they indeed work for we the people and can’t continue this charade any longer against 99? What they do just defies logic.
Let’s hope Helen Thomas is wrong for once. What Obama should be scared of is the idea that without a single payer option that means a real health care reform, Health Care Tourism will become to Americans what Guantanamo has become to foreigners. Just another side-effect of a bipartisan compromise gone horrendously wrong.
In the meantime, this is what the socialist Scandinavians with their “single payer system”, “wasting” taxpayer money do.
Here are my 3 favorite songs of Michael Jackson: Earth Song, Give In To Me and We Are The World.
Someone once said that “facts are stubborn things.” Here’s what Wiki says about MTV today: “Today, MTV still plays a limited selection of music videos, but the channel primarily broadcasts a variety of pop culture and reality television shows targeted at older adolescents (age 15 and older) and young adults.” Here’s what it says about VH1: “While VH1 still occasionally plays music videos and the Tops 20 Video Countdown, its more recent claim to fame has been in the area of music-related reality programming, such as Behind the Music, the I love the… series, the Celebreality block of programming, and the channel’s overall focus on popular culture.”
The media already talk about the upcoming child custody battle (this should keep the soccer moms happy, watching Nancy Grace and the whole hysteria that will follow.) One commentator said the other day that when Michael Jackson’s legal troubles started, at one point only 5% of the American public had a positive opinion of the artist. This might explain why hundreds of thousands of tickets for the upcoming tour were sold out within hours in Europe, not in the United States.
It’s mind boggling what MTV and the whole entertainment industry has managed to do over the last decade and a half, slowly moving from televising music as art, slowly moving from showing music videos as the essence of music artistry which is the only way people can get to know it, appreciate it and love it, toward broadcasting Hawaii Beach reality shows and what celebrities have in their houses, their closets and their backyards. What a sorry business model it has proven to be.
I’m sure all Michael Jackson fans get it. All those songs played on TV and radio since Thursday will not make up for anything. As the trends, formats and media obsessions change, the king of pop will live on forever…
“I don’t believe in Facebook, Twitter, VOA, BBC,CNN. They are all trying to make a fuss about the sad side of the events in Iran, FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSES,” writes Vahab, an Iranian from Tehran. “Where were you when thousands of Gaza people were being killed? Why don’t you talk about dictatorship of your close allies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia? Do you really believe that Iranians are more oppressed than Egyptians and Saudi-Arabians?”, he continues.
In a separate article, Jack Z. Bratich asks a question: “Are people tweeting from the streets or from other lands? Are they eyewitnesses or I-spies? Perhaps these news outlets could take a tip from entertainment tabloid television program EXTRA!, which at least makes an attempt at info-sorting with a regular segment called “Rumor Control.” A member of CNN’s gushing Twitterati, Ali Velshi acknowledged that the biggest problem is getting the true story. In a nod to the power and problems of crowdsourcing he admitted, “We are as good as you are.” Well, if that’s the case then we’re in trouble: CNN ought to keep its weekly program Reliable Sources, but refer to its other 167 week hours as Unreliable Sources. Witting or not, these news networks collectively retool the famous line allegedly telegraphed by William Randolph Hearst, updating it for the digital age: “You furnish the tweets, we’ll furnish the war.”
Let’s be consistent and tweet and i-report on freedom loving Tibetans who get beaten by US police officers for what appears to be protesting against the Chinese “democracy” in Tibet. But then again, since China is our ally and Tibet must really be a state sponsor of terror no better than North Korea judging by the treatment of the Nepalese on the streets of New York, one might ask a simple question: why should anyone believe in Facebook, Twitter, VOA, BBC or CNN if their merger ultimately leads to selective, biased, hypocritical and unconfirmed news stories? If we give a pass to China, what makes China better than Iran?
Why selective, biased and hypocritical? Maybe because the coverage of the December bloody protests in Greece (the birthplace of democracy) where Neda-like shooting also took place ultimately fell on Amy Goodman’s shoulders, while CNN and other US media outlets just didn’t seem to bother exploring the not so news-worthy Greek anger. I guess the Iranian anger is easier to figure out, especially if one can count on credible news reporting of anonymous Facebook journalists and Twitters.
In the auto industry “limited” usually stands for luxurious, loaded vehicle with leather upholstery, in the international diplomacy industry “limited”, unfortunately means, limited — literally.
I guess Palestinians have to call on Texans to help with the peace negotiations now. I don’t know a single independent nation that would agree to completely demilitarize. Are we going to arm them with Tasers that as we all know turn the toughest of officers into soulless, confused, dehumanized pussies? Palestinians like Texans, would love to be independent, so there are plenty of similarities that these people share.
The above photograph of little Jewish girls writing greetings to their Palestinian neighbors leads one to believe that W. would probably join the Jewish negotiating side. How unfortunate. There’s even a chance that so would do Palin with her state of Alaska. After all, she like no other knows the importance of child exposition, child exploitation and power of verbal attacks that can ruin everything if desired or needed. As they say, stuff happens, like a Palestinian rocket going off on the day of signing the peace treaty that could derail the process for another decade again and some definitely would not mind that. Such an event in this day and age, fortunately, no matter how little probable, would only reassure that creating Palestine is the right thing to do. After all, only in an independent state with a system of justice one can get rid of criminal, extreme elements.
I tried to find a similar photograph of little Iraqi or Iranian girls, writing similar greeting on shiny, brand new weaponry, but to no avail so excuse my objectivity. Having said that, who would have thought the biggest chance to succeed for Palestinians is to look to Texas and Alaska. Seriously. WTF? Who’d be so cruel to create a plan with a specific room for error which accidentally is what we Americans cherish most, the right to bear arms and true land, sea and air sovereignty and independence.
So when the West wonders why the Iranians prefer the hardliner and everyone all of a sudden is shocked, one reason may be they simply have seen the same picture. Another reason may be there’s a war going on behind the Iraq-Iran border that has cost 1 trillion in military expenditures, 1 million lives, which as every historian will tell ya, should be easy to remember. Not to mention there are nukes aimed at Tehran as Reza Aslan explains to Matthews the way one explains simple things to a child. Finally, “limited” sounds really condescending in the era of bankrupt automakers and warmongering chicken hawks alike so maybe we shouldn’t be so shocked after all. Between war on one side and revolution on the other, there’s plenty of room for change, at least that’s been the case for ages. If it no longer works, blame reckless Bush and his cronies for changing the rules and turning the known into the unknown. Texans helping Palestine is the least they can do. One small step for them, a huge reparation for mankind.
The Declaration of the Three Powers from December 1, 1943, made at the completion of the Tehran Conference states that “We the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, have met these four days past, in this, the Capital of our Ally, Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy.” 20 months later the borders of Europe had been reshaped and finalized. If history had a sense of irony, the borders of Palestine and its statehood could very well be negotiated in Tehran again. If it was possible to rearrange and stimulate completely ruined nations at the end of World War II in a matter of months, the creation of the Palestinian state should be a cakewalk. Jimmy Carter argues why it’s critically important.
Obama will have a tough task to reach peace between Israel and Palestine if these Jewish guys and gals are representative of the general Israeli sentiment. If these people treat President of the United States this way, you can only imagine what they think of the Palestinian leadership. Who knew Rush was running “The Limbaugh College of Travesty” teaching how to be a mindless, hateful twat in Israel.
The MSM would say that they are certainly not representative and objective. I suppose the random Twitter people that the media promote and give credence to on a daily basis aren’t objective either. I suppose Rush Limbaugh who’s the leader of the Republican Party and is treated as such by the media isn’t objective either. These young people are all that Limbaugh is and just as every opinionated person in the Twitter era should be taken seriously.
It’s hard to imagine that the things these guys say about Obama could be heard so openly and honestly on the Iraqi street on June 4 ‘09, or the Palestinian street, or the Egyptian street, or any other street to be honest. It’s even hard to come up with an analogy that would match the level of human ignorance shown in this video — besides the daily Fox News extremism – I suppose only the rants against Osama Bin Laden from September 12 by totally wasted American people watching the 9/11 coverage would do it justice. And that is truly frightening.
Ralph Nader is concerned that the newly established relationship between the US and China will be disastrous for the American workers. Who wouldn’t be worried if an economic power like the US irreversibly tied itself with the communist regime (that’s no better than North Korean only instead of products such as grass, tree barks and apples offers lead-tainted toys and anything made from cheap material by cheap labor to sell cheaply in Wal Mart stores.) Why would the US want to have anything to do with a nation whose policy is not to allow North Korea become democratic (like East Germany or Czechoslovakia at some point in the recent past did) and instead of promoting and encouraging freedom and self-determination so one day the Koreans can unite, it promotes a preservation of the status quo, a preservation of Hell on Earth because god forbid someone decides it’s time for a revolution and creates a solidarity movement somewhere in there.
China doesn’t want that because China is no better than North Korea, China doesn’t want that because China knows it would causes a competitive disadvantage, today they can only dream of catching up with the South Korean IT, hi-tech, electronics, auto sector (or Japanese) and their know-how, not to mention the later is democratic, the former is authoritarian that might as well be ruled by Kim Jong himself. China is afraid of refugees? Seriously, why would the North Koreans choose to migrate to China if there’s South Korea that would welcome them with open arms and billion in foreign aid, not to mention the fact that everybody in the northern Korean Peninsula knows by now that you do not step to the same river twice. You would also hope that enough of the North Koreans watched the movie “Valkyrie”, after all, sometimes one is enough.
Why would the US tie itself with a nation that treats its people far worse than East Germany, Czechoslovakia or the Soviets ever did. What has changed over the last 20 years that makes it all of a sudden morally appropriate to openly trade with the “evil” (remember “Red Dawn”?), exchange technologies and so on. If it had been appropriate all along, why no one have let the Soviet satellite states know earlier that fighting and struggling to become like the West, particularly the United States one day, should have not been exactly at the heart of the idea given the fact the grand ideals of the United States have been perishing with ever increasing intensity lately causing a heart wrenching disappointment throughout the globe.
An American corporate fella, a typical republican will ask what’s our beef with China since the money flows (now even the bailout money flows.) Well, all the above and also the fact that might be actually a conservative motto — at the end of the day, excluding elusive savings at the Wal Marts of this nation, the US worker is bound to get screwed big time. Who would have thought that in the nation of the free, the nation of Barack Obama, an average American should get used to the salutation — long live Single-Party Communist State President Hu Jintao. Thanks to Bush, Cheney, neocons and the right wingers, instead of anticipating that China becomes more like America, we have become more like China.
The “No-Follow-Up-Question” mainstream media probably know the answer as to why it’s become so. Three names come to mind – Roland Burris, Sonia Sotomayor and Joe Sestak. If only the progressive movement, of which Ralph Nader is certainly a part of contrary to Arlen Specter of which he’s not, could understand why journalistic machos like Chris Matthews would go so bravely and resolutely after Roland Burris, a wounded prey, a vulnerable, weak politician of color and wouldn’t act in the same fashion when confronted by Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld, we would be so better off. If only the left could understand why those criticizing Sotomayor, calling her a racist and an intellectual lightweight, will always get the Bush treatment (sucking up to power and letting a lie go unchallenged) from the media instead of being called on their bigotry and true racism, we would be also way better off as American people. Roland Burris, Sonia Sotomayor and Joe Sestak, all representing some inferior qualities, some historically rooted, some recently created, like blaming failure on soldiers (or/and the CIA.) The last one will be explained by Governor Rendell and President Obama in due time. Three names, three symbols that prove that the United States has indeed become internationally as well as domestically more like communist China, for lack of a better term, a sell-out.
Shepard Smith of Fox News gives us an idea of how we should not prosecute people for torture. Let’s better leave it to the pros Shep. The Fox News Dreamland that the likes of Shepard Smith helped to create has gotten seriously out of control and they know it. A dreamland in a nightmarish sense. A parallel universe unlike anything out there able to convince the masses on a fixed income that after Obama’s win, they live in a fascist regime and should fear it and rebel against it. Or rather a nightmareland based on lies that managed to convince everybody that sending soldiers to war is in itself the essence of patriotism.
Without those voices, we would have had just one war that would be probably over by now. Actually, one might argue that if the invaded states were left alone this very moment, the world would be probably a safer place in a matter of days, all elements would come together, self-restore and self-adjust what’s been broken by the might of the US military power — the power that will easily blow up anything, anytime if asked to. We know that. They — the Afghans, the Iraqis, the Pakistanis would go back to defending their loved ones which is what this whole thing called war is all about and they would succeed if there were no profiteers in between. American guns by design are not for winning the hearts — not in the Middle East, not anywhere. If some still can’t understand the importance of self-governance, own statehood and humility, prosperity and solidarity it creates, too bad.
Someone said that when you call the International Court of Justice in Hague to ask about enhanced interrogation techniques, they don’t know what you’re talking about and ask for a further elaboration. That means only one thing — someone’s seriously fucked. It is clear that no people should be responsible for actions of their leaders and they should pity no one no matter what they’re called by Fox News or conservative radio talking heads who will conveniently equate the leaders with the people. Crimes of a few are a shame of a few and a responsibility of a few, no matter what the right wingers claim — there’s no shared guilt — progressives know it just as everybody outside the conservative realm knows it. Philippe Sands explains.
“Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. It is surprising that the first time the Obama administration has been required to take a public position on this matter, the administration is so closely aligning itself with the Bush administration’s views,” CREW reports. St. Louis Today has more.
Assuming that the Obama administration is on Bush’s side, the left and history fortunately isn’t. It’s funny how making definite statements just doesn’t seem to have the same effect as it used to. The Nazi-Mongol war preemption that the Bush administration put into action was bound to have far reaching consequences. As those consequences are being scrutinized and judged, moving on is not an option until we learn from the last 8 years and get to the truth in order to avoid repeating those mistakes again — saying that no crimes were committed just doesn’t make it so. Making speeches either.
The media have recently reported that Obama “closed Gitmo” (literally) because he signed an executive order yet miraculously it did not happen — last time I checked it was up and running — just as is the Bush era fearmongering machine that no one seems to know how to dismantle. Saying we don’t torture unfortunately also falls into the “speech category” and can’t be trusted even by the left anymore. Who would have thought that we would reach this point. CREW has a justified reason to claim that Obama is aligning himself with the Bush administration’s views. What happened to Joe and Valerie Wilson’s case only reinforces this notion.
The fearmongering machine has never been better it seems. As we stock up on guns, because now we don’t only fear Muslims but socialism and fascism thanks to Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, our anti-war president who’s “bringing troops home” from Iraq (the “speech category” again) at the same time escalates the war in Afghanistan and threatens Iran and Pakistan. Now that’s some reassuring change we can believe in!
One thing is striking though. One might expect that shooting Osama Bin Laden paper targets at shooting ranges across the country (very cool stuff) with the newly acquired extra arsenal might ease our collective warmongering tendencies and fears. One might expect that we, as a nation, would know terrorists wouldn’t harm us from supermax prisons. If it’s true and Obama is on Bush’s side, he should reconsider and so should the Congress. It’s clear that if the Founding Fathers had a chance to look at the American people today and make one defining statement, they would probably say one thing after reviewing the state of the world and America’s current place in it — it’s a nation of Taliban women.
Chris Matthews asks Senator Ben Nelson if execution of Guantanamo prisoners should be on the table. I guess there is an easier solution — how about finding US psychopathic prisoners who happen to be evangelicals (there is a bunch of them) and putting each Gitmo prisoner into their prison cells. Their terrorist Muslim dead bodies a day later would be definitely educational and show that they were indeed human beings after all. Are we talking about this type of executions or the old fashioned ones? Fast and creative, pitting sentenced devoted right wing extremists professionally diagnosed by the proven US prison system as sociopaths against Gitmo prisoners who may not be even medically crazy? Since some of them have proven to be absolutely innocent, therein lies the problem. Execute or keep the Gitmo prison running.
And how do we know that these people want to kill the Americans anyway? The 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombing proves that the terrorists wanted to kill the Spaniards just as the 7 July 2005 London bombing shows that the terrorists wanted to kill the Brits. So can we cut this American exceptionalism crap? It’s just insane and simply not fair to those who have already died in the war on terror (that might as well be called the war on evil — that’s opposed to good, or the war on warfare — that’s opposed to terrorism.) Just ask any military man what real warfare is and how and why it’s been effectively done for ages — in a particular way, a good way, a noble way with achievable goals — against living enemies, not abstract terminologies.
Finally a point about our short attention span. The MSM say that the torture story will be over a week from now. They actually report that “in a week we won’t be talking about Speaker Pelosi and who knew what and when.” Since when the American public wants to know time frames of how long news stories run?! This should be the last thing the journalists focus on. Seriously, a week before the Iraq war we were told that in a week the public wouldn’t be talking about Saddam anymore. And then the war came into being. I guess the progressives have to assume that a week from now we won’t be talking about the Pelosi controversy because we’ll be talking about the independent truth commission and Bush and Cheney’s crimes.
A Fox News report shows, contrary to what the mainstream media and Newt Gingrich say, that the CIA regularly makes “mistakes” (some say it is dishonesty, some call it lies). Just ask Colin Powell how he’d call these “mistakes” — the way Nancy Pelosi has characterized them or rather Rush Limbaugh. After the events of the past week, you have to wonder why an ally such as the UK would care any longer. The case is closed. Time to move on. Nancy Pelosi “knew” about waterboarding because the right wingers say so and that is what counts, that’s all we need to know. Forget about hundreds of thousands of lives that were affected by a policy crafted exclusively by the Americans and for the American use only (as the following story shows), forget the Bush administration, it is Speaker Pelosi who from now on bares the responsibility and carries the burden of proof that the United States has ever tortured.
Ben Griffin, a former SAS member, gives an idea of how the channeling of prisoners worked. What’s really disturbing is how the members of the coalition of the willing clearly and firmly followed the conventions and treaties, leaving one culprit left standing with not too grand and virtuous partners in crime.
“By handing these people over to the Iraqis, the Afghans and the US, we are in fact in breach of the Geneva Convention because we’re handing these individuals over to a jurisdiction in which we know and the reason we know this is because our own soldiers have seen it and participated in it, in the torture of detainees, in the secret detention of detainees, in the indefinite imprisonment of detainees without charge,” says Ben Griffin.
Judge Napolitano gives his verdict on torture that Bush, Cheney and their cronies will not like. The difference between the judge and real “journalists” is that they offer spin based on sound bites, judge Napolitano offers verdicts based on the law.
“Thus if the New York Times article is accurate that would mean that President of the United States of America committed a felony for each act of torture he authorized and which was carried out… Is it right, is it proper for the Obama administration to prosecute someone in the Bush administration for doing what they thought was right — my answer is yes,” says Andrew Napolitano of Fox News.
Senator Chris Dodd puts it no less bluntly — “You gotta go where you gotta go.”
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