Global
Back on our organic commune in western Massachusetts we often laughed about a fabled farmer who owned a manure spreader. This fabulous device flung cow, horse and chicken droppings high and far onto corn and hay fields.
We had one. It worked great.
Allegedly this mythical farmer once used his to render the home of a corrupt Selectman terminally fragrant. It was a great story.
So amidst our endless disputes with local officials and polluters, we fantasized about arming our own crap flinger for a few choice passes at town hall or the local utility office.
But there was nothing explicit in the law books about airborne poop, and we weren't sure Gandhi would have approved. So despite the great laughs, we never actually did it.
No such qualms plague Dick Cheney or Karl Rove, disciples of the ultimate filthy trickster, Dick Nixon.
We had one. It worked great.
Allegedly this mythical farmer once used his to render the home of a corrupt Selectman terminally fragrant. It was a great story.
So amidst our endless disputes with local officials and polluters, we fantasized about arming our own crap flinger for a few choice passes at town hall or the local utility office.
But there was nothing explicit in the law books about airborne poop, and we weren't sure Gandhi would have approved. So despite the great laughs, we never actually did it.
No such qualms plague Dick Cheney or Karl Rove, disciples of the ultimate filthy trickster, Dick Nixon.
Dear America,
“My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.”
–Audre Lorde The Cancer Journals
I begin my letter with this epigraph because I routinely have been labeled as a member of a silent generation; I am twenty-four years old, a woman, and a college student. Three markers which have led to me and others like me being labeled apathetic when it comes to politics. As the election date nears, I can be silent no longer. America I am here to tell you that our apathy is caused by the feeling that we don’t count. In the year 2000, our government told us our voice doesn’t matter. It is the Supreme Court and the Senate who choose the president, not the American people. Now, I come to you on bended knee to beg that you reignite in me the belief in democracy.
The presidential election of 2004 is all about fear.
That is the simple yet complete truth. November 2, 2004 is a referendum on fear: should we, a nation of 260 million people, make all of our major political and life decisions based on the actions of nineteen monsters who hijacked four airplanes on a beautiful morning in September three years ago and murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens? Are we obliged due to our natural and understandable terror on that horrible day to eliminate civil liberties and common decencies for which Americans have fought and died since our country’s inception?
When the citizens of the United States step into their voting booths, they should understand that the choice is not between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry. The ballots should read Fear and Freedom.
Anyone who votes for Bush, regardless of their stated reasons, is casting a ballot for fear; for making decisions based upon what scares them, or what they are told by the Bush administration should scare them.
That is the simple yet complete truth. November 2, 2004 is a referendum on fear: should we, a nation of 260 million people, make all of our major political and life decisions based on the actions of nineteen monsters who hijacked four airplanes on a beautiful morning in September three years ago and murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens? Are we obliged due to our natural and understandable terror on that horrible day to eliminate civil liberties and common decencies for which Americans have fought and died since our country’s inception?
When the citizens of the United States step into their voting booths, they should understand that the choice is not between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry. The ballots should read Fear and Freedom.
Anyone who votes for Bush, regardless of their stated reasons, is casting a ballot for fear; for making decisions based upon what scares them, or what they are told by the Bush administration should scare them.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is based on facts, good journalism, and truth. The film uses interviews with relatives of victims of 9/11, soldiers fighting in Iraq, soldiers who have returned after duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and veterans organizations against the Iraq War. Because President Bush stopped all attempts to form a 9/11 Commission to determine what happened that allowed the 9/11 attacks, the relatives of the victims who died on 9/11 had to sue the government and GW Bush. Bush was able to delay the formation for almost a year and a half. He did this because he was afraid of what a 9/11 Commission would dig up, particularly Bush's failings which allowed the attacks to occur.
When the Iraqi Survey Group released its long awaited report last week that
said Iraq eliminated its weapons programs in the 1990s, President George W.
Bush quickly changed his stance on reasons he authorized an invasion of
Iraq. While he campaigned for a second term in office, Bush justified the
war by saying that that Saddam Hussein was manipulating the United Nation's
oil-for-food program, siphoning off billions of dollars from the venture
that he intended to use to fund a weapons program.
The report on Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, prepared by Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. weapons inspector and head of the Iraqi Survey Group, said Saddam Hussein used revenue from the oil-for-food program and "created a web of front companies and used shadowy deals with foreign governments, corporations, and officials to amass $11 billion in illicit revenue in the decade before the US-led invasion last year," reports The New York Times.
The report on Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, prepared by Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. weapons inspector and head of the Iraqi Survey Group, said Saddam Hussein used revenue from the oil-for-food program and "created a web of front companies and used shadowy deals with foreign governments, corporations, and officials to amass $11 billion in illicit revenue in the decade before the US-led invasion last year," reports The New York Times.
Do you really believe we would be in Iraq
if they didnt have the second biggest oil supply in the world?
Our sons and daughters are dying for future oil profits for the rich, and we are also paying the bill.
Our sons and daughters are dying for future oil profits for the rich, and we are also paying the bill.
The American Presidential election is always important for the rest of the world. The US is the primary sponsor and maintainer of the present global order and changes in the US can have direct impact in the economic and political structure of the world.
This time the elections are doubly important because of the enormous ideational and ideological differences between the two candidates on how the global order must be structured and serviced.
If Bush Wins
If George W. Bush wins he and his neoconservative ideologues will assume that their departure from traditional American foreign policy positions has been vindicated and they may be tempted to pursue the same course with greater arrogance, recklessness and abandon.
1. Expect more attempts at regime changes, particularly in Iran, Sudan, Syria and perhaps Saudi Arabia. It is possible that the Neocons may turn on Pakistan and its nuclear capabilities to ensure that no Muslim country has the capacity to ever balance/threaten Israel in the near or distant future.
2. There will be no progress on the Palestinian State. Israel will consolidate further in the West Bank.
This time the elections are doubly important because of the enormous ideational and ideological differences between the two candidates on how the global order must be structured and serviced.
If Bush Wins
If George W. Bush wins he and his neoconservative ideologues will assume that their departure from traditional American foreign policy positions has been vindicated and they may be tempted to pursue the same course with greater arrogance, recklessness and abandon.
1. Expect more attempts at regime changes, particularly in Iran, Sudan, Syria and perhaps Saudi Arabia. It is possible that the Neocons may turn on Pakistan and its nuclear capabilities to ensure that no Muslim country has the capacity to ever balance/threaten Israel in the near or distant future.
2. There will be no progress on the Palestinian State. Israel will consolidate further in the West Bank.
Was George bush "miked-up" during his second debate with John Kerry like he was during the first debate? In the first debate it became very obvious when, roughly half way through the debate in the middle of talking about how a commander in chief acts, Bush told someone to "let me finish"?. There was no one in the room talking to Bush and the only place Bush could have heard a voice was from a microphone in his ear or on his person. Also, can anybody really believe Bush could have remembered all those facts and figures he came up with? How can Bush call himself a leader when he can't even debate John Kerry without help?
Seems like every group and its hamster has put out some kind of dossier on the last four years. Top Bush Lies. One Hundred Mistakes Bush could admit to. Best scandals. Biggest Bush flip-flops. Iraq. The economy. The environment.
Corporate pork and payoffs galore. Homeland insecurity. The deficit. On and on it goes.
But I like to remember the little things, those itty-bitty things that really made it special. Those touches of style. The je ne sais quoi of it all. Like choosing Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to announce his administration would oppose affirmative action in the University of Michigan case, calling it "divisive," "unfair" and "unconstitutional." Classy timing. Of course, Bush (Andover, Yale, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Harvard Business, three failed oil companies rescued by Daddy's friends, set up by Daddy's friends in baseball and given a huge cut for a tiny investment) never experienced affirmative action in his life. Made it all on his own, pulled himself up by his bootstraps -- black people can do it, too.
Corporate pork and payoffs galore. Homeland insecurity. The deficit. On and on it goes.
But I like to remember the little things, those itty-bitty things that really made it special. Those touches of style. The je ne sais quoi of it all. Like choosing Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to announce his administration would oppose affirmative action in the University of Michigan case, calling it "divisive," "unfair" and "unconstitutional." Classy timing. Of course, Bush (Andover, Yale, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Harvard Business, three failed oil companies rescued by Daddy's friends, set up by Daddy's friends in baseball and given a huge cut for a tiny investment) never experienced affirmative action in his life. Made it all on his own, pulled himself up by his bootstraps -- black people can do it, too.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Now is the time for all good men -- and women -- to race to the aid of their country. Liberals and libertarians unite! The Sinclair Broadcasting Group has moved this election into the realm of creeping fascism, state propaganda, Big Brother and brainwashing. What me, hyperbole?
This is SO simple -- how would you conservatives feel if NBC, CBS or ABC decided to pre-empt primetime programming a week before the election to air Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? And then announced, "But we've offered President Bush a chance to reply"?
Sinclair has also offered President George W. Bush the inestimable service of diverting attention from his record and is using OUR publicly owned airwaves to do it.
This is SO simple -- how would you conservatives feel if NBC, CBS or ABC decided to pre-empt primetime programming a week before the election to air Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? And then announced, "But we've offered President Bush a chance to reply"?
Sinclair has also offered President George W. Bush the inestimable service of diverting attention from his record and is using OUR publicly owned airwaves to do it.