December  2008

Want Worldview News? Get the new Al Jazeera English Satellite News Channel. One time dish cost of about $200 from http://www.GlobeCastWorldTV.com .No monthly fees.And, read President Jimmy Carter's new book "Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid";    Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World,    Howard Zinn-Put Away the Flags

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Credibility Test for 2008 Candidates: Iraq is only a reflection of US bipartisan foreign policy that is unchanged from WWII. It can be summed up as an aspiration for unqualified US dominance.The plan to achieve dominance has involved actions  supporting anything anti-Soviet (anti-communist), and unqualified support for Israel (regardless of US interests or moral/legal justification), and supprtive of US corporate/commercial interests(even when at the expense of local populations). The political smokescreen has always been selling altruistic motives of spreading freedom and democracy and US security(absurd) to the US public. If you are looking for a litmus test for a candidate with a policy based on the pursuit of US interests, but  guided and constrained by international law/justice and humanitarian/moral values, then find one advocating the US sever its support for the racist apartheid Israel. None exist.Worst, if he/she existed they would commit political suicide for advocating such action. So real change must begin with public education. Then true alternative policy candidates will reveal themselves and can be elected. 2008 is just going to be the latest democratically elected US fascist government. Vote a third party and lay the groundwork for future change.If you insist on voting the lesser evil strategy, then vote for Dennis Kucinich in the primaries as the closest to a passing grade,but I believe he also fails my litmus test for true change.[Add Mike Gravel of Alaska to the top tier of the lesser evil category of democrats.] Until then US foreign policy will continue to have no credibility. Withdrawal of military and financial support for racist apartheid Israel policies,and taking a positive pro-Palestinian position to solve that conflict will immediately establish a credible US foreign policy.{Utter Futility of Lesser-Evilism}

... The illusion of a woman (Clinton) or black (Obama) president is but a shadow of real change. Either just shows that "minorities" have (finally) been fully integrated into the US typically white ,male power structure. Arguably even that is cause for patriotic pride. But I require more from my country that is responsible for over a million unnecessary Iraqi deaths, destruction of a country, wanton pursuit of a new generation of nuclear arms,threatening further international aggression on pre-emptive strike principles, inhuman torture, undermining of confidence in international justice (and UN) by unprincipled support of Israel in stealing  Palestinian lands and apartheid,starting a new nuclear race by trying to develop a defensive missile system that could protect it even if it engaged in unlawful international aggression,continued stupid self-defeating policies toward Iran,DPRK,Cuba,Venezuela ....,waffling on global warming,International Criminal Court,un-American domestic spying (bypassing FISA),Guantanamo,unlawful rendition,Patriot act,...,(despite Democratic incremental prospects on universal healthcare,taxation-balanced budget-social welfare net, overemphasis on immigration red herring) ....(See Helen Thomas) "Democrats Need to Take A Stand "

So I still will vote for Kucinich (Primary) Peace & Freedom (general election) and not Obama ... (not lesser evil) .

PS: I suppose one could vote for Obama in the hope that he is pursuing a public campaign necessary to get elected ,and will pursue a more real change ala the above if elected. However that prospect is so unlikely as not to get my vote

.... [Kucinich has dropped out now 1/24/08 so I am leaning toward Obama in primary...but will probably go third party as his lofty rhetoric belies the emptyness of the democratic party acceptance of fundamental change...]

Obama is my remaining choice of the "best of the worst" as he is the only remaining candidate with a chance of being elected that has consistently been against the Iraq war and seems committed to beginning immediate  (though dishearteningly prolonged "phased" withdrawal). But his recent foreign policy talk is indicative of only a minimalist change....so do not expect too much.... (hope that some of the pastor Wright perspective remains ...)

The Democratic Party Platform 2008

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Don't Forget the Real Reagan Bastard.(Iran Contra).. {Republicans hold up Reagan as their gold standard; well what can we say about that}Ortega Calls on US to Respect World Court Ruling.......
The Bush administration’s roots in supporting military repression in Latin America during the 1980s has played a prominent role in the reaction to Bush’s visit. In Nicaragua, president Daniel Ortega called on the US to respect the 1986 judgement of the World Court that said the Reagan administration should pay Nicaragua $17 billion for committing unlawful aggression.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega: "The court said that the United States should cease these aggressions against Nicaragua and should compensate Nicaragua with $17 billion dollars. And if President Bush recognizes this debt and withdraws its troops from Iraq then we would be dealing with a state that could accept that they cannot be aggressors."
President Bush is in Mexico today for the last stop of his Latin America tour. ..{most media manipulated americans don't know of that World Court guilty verdict and US refusal to pay up....this is the Republican gold standard} The Reagan Myth

North Korea: As it did with the 1994 Clinton North Korean nuclear disarmanment deal, the Bush administration is undercutting the latest deal. North Korea (DPRK) has made it clear that the initial step in the phased process requires the US to release its sanctions on the Bank of Macau it deals with which has resulted in some $25 million dollars being frozen. The US has dumped the specific issue in the lap of the Macau government while issuing a decree that no US banks are to deal with the Macau bank. This in no way unencumbers the North Korean foreign financial problems. Not being stupid, expect North Korea to balk at completing the agreed upon followon phase involving shutting down their plutonium producing nuclear reactor. Recognizing this, China at once noted the US ploy. The US will use the DPRK failure to do so in an attempt to put the failure of the process on them, just as they did with the earlier process whose failure the US initiated by accusing  them of pursuing a high enriched uranium bomb production program, which has not been proved. The duplicitous behavior of the US in these negotiations parallels that in the ongoing Iran nuclear issues. [3/24/07 update: DPRK has realized their funds are not available and put a hold on further talks until they are truly available.Afterwards they are likely to discover there remain US instigated roadblocks to their international finances beyond the initial $25 million.Not sure that will scuttle process or not.] [Update:4/16/07: DPRK seems to have awakened that the mere release of the pittance $25 million will not halt the US instigated roadblocks to its utilization of normal international financial transactions.So it has not begun shutdown of its reactor;and expectedly the US is acting as if it truly met their obligation.Same old ploys.][Update 4/18: detailed article on mechanics of US bank matter]  (7/21/07) DPRK held out and forced real progress in getting access to international finance networks in getting their money released;however, I am sure they realize the US will continue to hamper their future access as a matter of policy.The US is acting as if DPRK agreed to give up their nuclear weapons prior to receiving the light water reactors promised by the west as part of the previous agreement which the US undermined;they did not.It all comes to being back to the prior agreement and whether the US is truly willing to follow through on negotiated commitments,or is merely attempting to use diplomacy to steal concessions they could not accomplish by force and intimidation. DPRK is smart enough not to trust the US.Let's wait and see; it's a process going to take years.

Iran: Further Iran UNSC resolution to halt legal enrichment builds on the illegality of the 1st such resolution, and digs a deeper diplomatic hole to achieve resolution. Simply, Iran should continue to ignore the baseless resolution and speedup Natanz in order to make their own fuel in a few years and start their Bushehr nuclear plant up.They should abandon unreliable Russian nuclear supply. By "tricking" the UNSC into passing the illegal resolutions the US has achieved its goal of reducing the UNSC to irrelevance by undermining its legality and credibility through the backdoor. We know most domestic US politicians are untrustworthy,duplicitous, gullible, and generally not too smart (ie. stupid)(except in matters of manipulating the public and remaining in office);now it appears the gullibility extends to most international diplomats also.[Update 9 April: Iran announces it has advanced to 3,000 centrifuge stage;just the expected and previously announced scaleup path to 54,000 devices for an industrial plant;nevertheless expect misinformation and media scare tactics for the public Nuclear Standoff With Iran: The Only Way Out    The Case For Nuclear Iran

Eight Anti-War Democrats Vote Against War Funding
A total of 14 Democrats voted against the bill including eight who oppose any more funding of the war. The eight anti-war Democrats were, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Diane Watson and Barbara Lee, all of California, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, John Lewis of Georgia, Mike McNulty of New York and Mike Michaud of Maine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to secure passage of the spending bill because she received the support of many Democrats who had voted against previous supplemental spending measures. The Senate is taking up a similar spending bill this week.(from http://www.democracynow.org of 3/26/07) [Hurray for this small group for not supporting continuation of the war. They support a resolution HR508 that truly ends the war,but Pelosi is blocking the resolution from even reaching open debate.]{lots of congressional "bullshit" surrounding emergency war funding;just don't do it; cutting off funding ends warmaking;military has more than enough money for "tickets home" for every troop and piece of equipment. Troops are only endangered if administration continues to prosecute the war instead of wrapping it up;in such case we need to hang those "bastards".

Israeli Best-Seller Breaks National Taboo    Olmert Says Israel Should Withdraw From West Bank      Wall Street Meltdown Primer         Over a million Iraqi deaths caused by US Occupation         US   in Need Of Rebellion: H Zinn   Democratic Foreign Policy Platform 2008     Russia vs Georgia War:US Government and News Media Lying Again     The Lies Of Hiroshima Live On    Israel's Collective Psychosis: THe Denial Syndrome   Some Thoughts on Patriotism   Getting to the Heart of America's Economic Crisis    The Catastrophe: Ethnic Cleansing; How Palestine Became Israel    Carter: Americans Don't Know Israeli Discrimination    British Jews Call for Boycotting Israeli Independence Celebrations     Neocons Admit "War on Terror" is a Hoax    America's Irrational Defense of Israel: A Mad Foreign Policy