Tuesday December 1 2009
By Louise
Quote: "...the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy." -- Alex Carey, Australian social scientist
Hour One - Why are conservatives trying to destroy the future of America by making education available only to rich, stupid children?
Hour Two - Topic: Afghanistan, Iraq with Scott Ritter, Former UN weapons inspector www.theveteransproject.org
Hour Three - Why don't we return to the religion of the founding fathers and save the planet in the process? with Scott Wheeler www.nationalrepublicantrust.com and Roy Speckhardt www.americanhumanist.org
Comments
#2
Thom's guest is manufacturing a conflict that is not there, a method to control public discourse
#3
@DDay: The Office of Ouch in Department of the Homeland Security?
#4
Responding to a couple of posts above ...
@Richard Adlof - I think you will discover, if you were to research OUR traditions more carefully, that the ketubah belongs to your wife, and it outlines HER rights within the marriage and to a divorce under certain circumstances. Granted, my own wedding was a L-O-N-G time ago, but to the best of my recollection, there's nothing in the ketubah to "benefit" the husband (except, of course, those benefits that naturally accrue from being married).
@Quark, re: Wavy Gravy - Touche - I'm not so sure that Hugh Romney (didja know he shared a surname with the Mitster?) was nominated, though. :lol:
Regarding the Afghanistan policy speech tonight, here's what I'd like to know - I have heard that Obama plans to establish benchmarks for the Karzai Government to meet. Let's assume that there are also some timing limits associated with those benchmarks. So what's gonna happen when (no, i don't mean IF) those benchmarks are NOT met? Do we leave immediately, or do we stay longer?
#5
Maybe this guy lives at Ivanwald, C street
#6
Quark,
If it were not for the damned early caucuses this Feb. I would be on Isla Mujeres drinking tequila and smoking a Cohiba. Cest la vie.
#7
Santa Claus shopping pressure and materialism shreds the meaning of Christmas, becomes Satan's Claws.
#8
The holiday census was more likely Sukkot in the fall.
OMFG!!! Forgive the bluntness BUT the Latino gardener was not a Rabbi.
#9
DDay,
Isla Mujeres looks lovely!
#10
Fundamentalist should get the Gaia principal because God created everything and therefore the world therefore God should be coursing through everything therefore the world is a living organism of God.
Fundamentalist don't see it this way though. They just want attendence to their megachurches and aportioned stipends.
#11
Richard,
I am not sure, but, I heard it's either the Office of Biased Cuts and Reductions or maybe the Office of Oy! you Putz! at Homeland Security. what do i know? I'm a goyem. :-)
#12
mstaggerlee, the Wavy Gravy comment was mine, and yes I knew his surname, also he is Ret. Army Maj. Hugh Romney at that. Had the pleasure of meeting the man a few times.
Richard L. - But what was the "Burning Bush"? Could it be the same as Rabelais' "Pantagruelian" the bush which burns but does not consume itself?
#13
Quark, DRichards, and all knowledgeable folks,
I am very concerned that we are sending troops to Afghanistan for the sake of the Kurdistan pipeline, but I do not understand all the connections that might prove this. The pipeline will be supplying LNG to Europe? Is that correct? Can you all direct me to some discussions where I might become more educated on how our escalating the war in Afghanistan is connected to the pipeline?
thank you so very much,
#14
Hi, I found an interesting link and they call it "Pipeliniestan". ... we'll have to start using that term to let our leaders know what we know what they are up to...
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/business/black-gold-still-rules-pip...
#15
@ZeroG.: The Burning Bush was a parable to scare future Presidents . . . It did not work.
#16
That's screwed up about the birth certs for Xmas toys . . .
#17
Because piplineistan will supply oil and gas to China, is it possible that China is forcing us into this war because of our huge debt with them?
#18
I stopped dropping money in the red buckets about four years ago when oue local Salvation Army refused gay people from being bell ringers. I had enjoyed giving to them since childhood. Then I grew up.
#19
Or perhaps our corporations-- who have betrayed US workers by moving our jobs and our pollution to China (where there are few labor or environmental protection laws)-- are encouraging this war, because they need the gas and oil delivered to China?
#20
loretta, the pipeline is only one element, check out this history:
Former Soviet States: Battleground For Global Domination
by Rick Rozoff http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16243
Thom - The Aminita Muscaria a red mushroom with white spots, does not contain DMT, it contains muscamol, and it is not deadly.
Terrence McKenna you are talking about.
#21
loretta
You are correct that the social military is being used for private profits i.e. oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea Basin. The original project was called Centgas, a consortium of Unocal, Saudi Arabia and a few others. At the same time Bridas Oil of Venezuala (or some South American country) was actually working out a deal with the Taliban whereas the Taliban was not ammendable to the Centgas players. They even brought the Taliban to Houston for more negotiations that failed. BCC had a article about the pipeline being completed in 2002, there is another work about other pipelines with backing of one by Kissinger, the other backed by Breziisnski. It all stinks and the fact that we have to ask and search for information on this proves the conspiracy is being promulgated by the main stream media that refuses to even mention the pipelines. Keep searching there's quite a bit there, search in oil and gas trade on line sites as well.
#22
One of the first classes I attended at university was, "middle east history." This was in January of 1980 and the soviets were hip deep in afghanistan I remember a number of things i learned in that class but i will never forget the instructors observation with regard to the soviet attempt to bring the area under control and to, "stabilize" it. He said, "These people have been fighting each other for centuries. If they have a chance to fight a power that has occupied their country they will do that until that power leaves, which it always does battered and bruised. Then they just go back to fighting each other."
The US is not anymore likely to change this than all of the other powers that tried before no matter how many troops we send. More death, more money and the end we will turn it back over to the afghan's to do what they have always done.
#23
I’m a big fan of replacing the calendar with a thirteen month year with each month having 28 days WITH a single (or double on leap years) mid-summer’s holiday .
#24
Thank you Zero Lee and Scott. I will read your link now, Zero, and search Centgas, Lee. allbest, Loretta
#25
There ARE deadly Aminitas, however.
Further on Amanita Muscaria, John Allegro, Dead Sea Scroll scholar and translator wrote a book alleging that Jesus Christ was a code word for the mushroom, and that the early Christians were a mushroom cult. The book is called, "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross."
Phillip K. Dick explored this theme in "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer."
#26
Thom,
Pantheism puts humans back in the universe. Unfortunately (for some), such an existential point of view would have the potential to eliminate the particular religious "fiefdoms" that reward so many of their leaders with wealth and power.
#27
Loretta and others
Read this wiki entry on Zalmay Khalizad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalmay_Khalilzad
Notice how well connected he is with Unocal, Brezisnki, and Bremmer and Afganistan's Hamid Karzai, another Unocal/US puppet. Bremmer was Bush's roomate at Andover and was made head of Iraq Coalition Authority, he's the one that ordered 12 billion in cash and lost 9 billion of it. He's Sovereign Military Order of Malta, another fine bunch all should be famiariar with.
#28
loretta
search for "John J. Maresca, vp of Unocal's presentation to Congress in 1998. He details the favored pipeline routes from the Caspian and calls for Congress to remove the Taliban from power. Must find and save.
#29
#30
Amanita facts:
#31
Quark
Re; Pantheism
http://panendeism.org/default.aspx
Sounds rather interesting.
#32
Thank you Lee, Zero and Quark. warm wishes on a sad day. I have a cousin entering the army in January.
#33
DRichards,
Thanks --- very interesting. This allows for the notion of other universes or for the Big Bang (and maybe even the event of the Big Bang as an almost wormhole-like event that intersected space-time to create our universe, or something like that. Anyway, I blather on...)
#34
Loretta,
All that's happened recently (re: the sad standoff at my house) magnifies the tragedy of today's Prez. announcement --- more lives to be destroyed.
#35
'Need a laugh:
#36
I am sorry about the standoff, Quark and the Prez announcement not what we had hoped for.
#37
Loretta,
You are so kind. It's wonderful to know you.
#38
Oh yeah, one more thing....on that Facebook page where I posted the MM letter? I wrote Why does the President read Thomas Fried Man and not Thomas Hartmann?
Yeah ! Get em!
#39
President Obama was sounding an awful lot like President Bush this evening. I wonder what techniques our military leaders used to brainwash him.
#40
Poverty rate keeps growing but the press is blind to it. I have read that 50% of our children will qualify for food stamps. Something is not right in our country.
#41
There are times I hear various pundits, politicians, etc... that make me wonder "why is that true ?"
The latest example of this occurred after Obama's Afganistan plan was made public.
Yet again the same voices who supported more than 10 years of war in Iraq and Afganistan are opposed to setting deadlines(In this case the 2011 ).
They belive this will embolded the enemy because if they know that they can hold on to the day of the deadline they can win. This seems to be accepted by the military, by the media and by the politicians. My point is why do we not ever consider the other side of the equation. These are all possible consequences of announcing an indefinite commitment.
1 The local government never works to establish a credible force because it is cheaper easier to let the US do it for them. Also much less risk for them to let the US government provide protection vs a local force possibly infiltrated by insurgents.
2 They would have to legitimize their positions in the government without the weight of the US military on their side
3. The insurgents change tactics to low grade guerilla warfare knowing that no invader will commit to a neverending conflict. In fact they have experience with this scenarios when the Russians invaded Afganistan. This is their country they have no where else to go. Why would they not "wait out" the occupiers of their country?
4. Most of the military "surge" relies on national guard troops who did not expect to be permanent military personell. This means that they are making people who might have joined the National Gaurd less likely to join if they are going to be committed to long term military tours.
So maybe we consider making them justify their arguments rather than let them be repeated as gospel.
#42
@Richard
I had to leave yesterday to get some last minute yard work done or I was looking at a "spanking" from the wife. I wanted to respond to your comments regarding John Edwards. Amen.
Even though I live in Minnesota, I volunteered to canvas in Iowa for Edwards. Trudging thru the snow in Northern Iowa in Dec & Jan. getting doors slammed in your face was less than fun. Edwards was the only viable candidate who got it, when it comes to the inequalities in our system and the threats posed by corporations. He had everything. Except, ultimately, self control. A real tragedy. Yes, Richard, I agree, I would take him, human weaknesses and all, in a heartbeat.
#43
The plutocracy in their first positional paper Crisis of Democracy “A Report on the Governability of Democracy to the Trilateral Commission” Stated that they should limit higher education because educated labors make a disgruntled workforce.
The architect of that paper Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era makes the point that it has been proven too easy to control the minds and motivations of the masses with presentable radio and television characters. He suggests that the Multi National Bankers and Business Elite use the programming that they are paying for with their advertising dollars be crafted to carry concomitant messages. The application of Nero Linguistic Programming and Cerebral Cybernetics are suggested as useful tools in shaping the messages are also mentioned. That was way back in 1972.
#44
Already Backpedaling
Thom,
Defense Secretary Rbt. Gates went before congress this morning to explain Obama's new Afghanistan policy. He said that the administration would start considering (paraphrasing) withdrawal in 2011. (In other words, it's not a hard and fast deadline.)
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/02/senate-committee-questio...
#45
Thom,
Please remind Dan Gainor that training for flying airplanes was done in places like Minnesota and Florida!
#46
@Quark - Of course it's a flexible deadline - it HAS to be. The idea was to let the Afghans know that it is NOT our intention to remain in country forever, and to goive them a date by when we'd LIKE TO be able to leave. McCain wasn't entirely wrong when he said last night that the pace of withdrawal must be dictated by the progress made by the Afghani military in taking over. He WAS wrong when he said that a date shouldn't be given at all.
Consider the case of hiring a contractor to rebuild your kitchen. If he won't give you a completion date for the job, you're probably not gonna give him the job. If he gives you a date, and you give him the job, but that day comes and the job isn't finished, I'm sure you'd rather have him stick around until it is finished than walk away because time is up.
#47
mstaggerlee,
I mention the because "pundits" have been saying that the only thing that will make liberals go along with Obama's policy is a deadline.
#48
s.b. "I mention it..."
#49
Waukesha = waw' ki shaw (Wisconsin)
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DDay,
I shouldn't be in Minnesota in the middle of winter. I should be living on a trust fund and living in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii at that time of year. I pretty much hybernate in MN. Apparently my Karma just isn't cooperating! LOL
http://www.konaweb.com/index.shtml#WEBCAM