The Bush Watch

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

Slowly but surely, the truth is coming out about what the President and his henchpeople ordered American forces to do to try to pry out secrets from detainees in Guantanamo and Iraq.

The ACLU is now requesting that the White House admit or deny that there is an Executive Order in existence that sanctioned the use of inhumane questioning methods against detainees in Iraq, as well as other FBI documents that show that torture was also widespread in Guantanamo, where detainees who were labelled as "terrorists" have been held.

What these revelations do is question where in the chain of command the responsibility and accountability lie, and could add another nail in Donald Rumsfeld's coffin.

Miulang

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122204X.shtml

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

The President is now warning Syria and Iran to stay out of Middle East politics. There are some people betting that once we've left Iraq, we will invade Syria next.

Miulang

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=6292

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

My father-in-law, who's a crochety old man, tried to give me a book on the "Illuminati" when we went to visit him in North Carolina earlier this year. I thought he was nuts to believe that the world's geopolitical fortunes were governed by a highly secretive group of rich families (e.g. the Rockefellers in the US and the Rothschilds in Europe).

I just finished reading a most intriguing article by a Scottish writer about how close the Bush Administration's "neoconservative" tactics are to neofascism.
See if the 14 items below also describe our current political climate:

"Bottom line, are the neo-cons driving this agenda neo-fascist? Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, published research on fascism [18] in which he examined the fascist regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each fascist State:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarceration of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists; terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military are glamorized.

5. Rampant sexism - The government of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are intertwined - Government in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation are often the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated, or are severely restricted.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassinations of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections."

Intrigued? Read the rest of the article here. You will be shocked and angered by the historical facts. When will the "little" people in this country take power over the rich who control our destiny?

http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle7553.htm

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

There's something veeeeeery wrong with this picture: The Bush Administration, through USAID, has committed $35 million to the tsunami relief efforts. The Bush Inauguration on Jan. 20 is expected to cost somewhere between $30-40 MILLION. Granted, the funds for the inauguration are being solicited from private donors, but for gawdssake, aren't we supposed to be at WAR? Why don't the private donors (list below) take the money they were going to contribute to the Prez' inauguration and send the money where it would be most needed, like in SE Asia? The corporate fatcats are so busy kissing the okoles of the Bush Administration, they obviously can't bother with the riff raff who work in their sweat shops in places like Sri Lanka producing the clothing and other goods that places like WM sell.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...augural19.html

Miulang

This reminds me a little of Nero fiddling while Rome burned around him.

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

Another interesting tidbit from the hallowed halls of the White House: Now the Bush Administration wants federal funds to create a prison for foreign detainees suspected of terrorism who will probably never be tried due to lack of sufficient evidence against them. The DoD wants $32.1 million for a 200-bed prison to hold these detainees "indefinitely". Huh? Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? In the world of the Bush Administration I guess it must be "heck, we don't know if they're the enemy, but we'll keep them locked up and throw away the key just in case they are the enemy." They obviously haven't learned anything about how illegal this is, even though the atrocities at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib continue to unfold like bad cases of salmonella poisoning. Good proactive strategy. Like killing someone on the streets of Iraq, just in case they might be a terrorist.

Miulang

BTW: If you wander on over to the www.whitehouse.gov website, take a gander at the "Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives". There was news recently that some church groups have been given federal funding for some questionable activities (like abstinence-only education plans...$31 million). Um, what happened to separation of Church and State?

"The Administration has eliminated regulatory and policy barriers that have kept faith-based organizations from partnering with the Federal government to help Americans in need. It has also worked to put into place regulations to ensure that faith-based organizations are able to compete on an equal footing for Federal funding within constitutional guidelines, without impairing the religious character of such organizations and without diminishing the religious freedom of beneficiaries..."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/

[kimo55]

Re: The Bush Watch

The DoD wants $32.1 million for a 200-bed prison to hold these detainees "indefinitely".

That IS a travesty!


I know many contractors who would build it for half that!

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

That IS a travesty!


I know many contractors who would build it for half that!

And you can bet these detainees wouldn't be as lucky as Martha Stewart and have that facility be another "Camp Cupcake", either!

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

BTW: If you wander on over to the www.whitehouse.gov website, take a gander at the "Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives". There was news recently that some church groups have been given federal funding for some questionable activities (like abstinence-only education plans...$31 million). Um, what happened to separation of Church and State?

"The Administration has eliminated regulatory and policy barriers that have kept faith-based organizations from partnering with the Federal government to help Americans in need. It has also worked to put into place regulations to ensure that faith-based organizations are able to compete on an equal footing for Federal funding within constitutional guidelines, without impairing the religious character of such organizations and without diminishing the religious freedom of beneficiaries..."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/

This White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is really scaring me now. It's bad enough that federal funds are being distributed to religious groups, but now they want state governments to chip in, too. What about the aetheists? Isn't that discriminatory?

Miulang

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor.../federal_faith

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

OK, so now the Republicans have increased their majority in the House. So what do they plan on doing this session of Congress?
Here are 3 of the top items on their wishlist:

They want to do away with a 30-year old House rule that would essentially negate a general rule of conduct that the ethics committee has often cited in admonishing lawmakers -- including Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- for bringing discredit on the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation. This means that if someone like DeLay is indicted in his home state, he will no longer be censured by the House nor forced to give up any key positions he might hold in the leadership. Talk about moral turpitude!

A second item on their list is the relaxation of rules against relatives of lawmakers from accepting foreign or trips from groups interested in placing legislation in front of the House. Can you say conflict of interest?

Rounding out the terrible 3 is a rule that would allow either party from stopping a House Ethics Committee investigation. Today if the House is deadlocked, an investigation would ensue. Without this provision, it pretty much opens the door to further hanky panky with no punishment.

If you care at all about how your elected officials conduct themselves while representing you, the electorate (and you want things to be done in an ethical manner), please write to your Congress people (both Republican and Democrat) and tell them this is not right and totally unnecessary and that you will be keeping score.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...7521_2004dec30

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

OK, so now the Republicans have increased their majority in the House. So what do they plan on doing this session of Congress?
Here are 3 of the top items on their wishlist:

They want to do away with a 30-year old House rule that would essentially negate a general rule of conduct that the ethics committee has often cited in admonishing lawmakers -- including Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- for bringing discredit on the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation. This means that if someone like DeLay is indicted in his home state, he will no longer be censured by the House nor forced to give up any key positions he might hold in the leadership. Talk about moral turpitude!

A second item on their list is the relaxation of rules against relatives of lawmakers from accepting foreign or trips from groups interested in placing legislation in front of the House. Can you say conflict of interest?

Rounding out the terrible 3 is a rule that would allow either party from stopping a House Ethics Committee investigation. Today if the House is deadlocked, an investigation would ensue. Without this provision, it pretty much opens the door to further hanky panky with no punishment.

If you care at all about how your elected officials conduct themselves while representing you, the electorate (and you want things to be done in an ethical manner), please write to your Congress people (both Republican and Democrat) and tell them this is not right and totally unnecessary and that you will be keeping score.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...7521_2004dec30

The postscript to all of this is that the House Republicans met in a secret session today (one day prior to the official opening of Congress) and chickened out on changing the rule of conduct that would require any leader in the House to step down from his leadership role if indicted. They also apparently will allow deadlocked decisions to go to a special House Ethics Committee investigation.

Maybe they realize that they need to play nicey nicey with the Democrats in the same sandbox in order to get some of the Bush Administration's program, which has yet to be completely unveiled, pass through Congress without too much filibustering. There was no mention, however, about spouses and children being allowed to go on domestic and foreign trips that are sponsored by parties who want to put legislation before Congress. I guess they decided that the perks weren't controversial enough to give back to the Democrats.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

The Bush Administration paid $240,000 to a black commentator to "advertise" the President's "No Child Left Behind" Act. That in itself probably wouldn't raise too many eyebrows, but the manner in which the "objective programming" commentator Armstrong Wiliams delivered (he was contracted by the Administration to comment on the Act regularly on his syndicated news program, as well do interviews with Education Secretary Rod Page (also a black) which were aired as radio and TV spots), has been deemed unethical by the top Democrat on the House Education subcommittee. It was also disclosed elsewhere that the Medicare prescription medicine program was also influenced by the President using our taxpayer money.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010805A.shtml

So now the Bush Administration wants to use federal (our taxpayer) funds to advocate for his pet programs by hijacking the media to do his dirty work? No wonder the public doesn't trust the US media anymore.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

Seems that the great state of Texas is squandering some of our hard earned tax dollars on some interesting pieces of "equipment" in the name of Homeland Security. During a recent audit, it was discovered that one jurisdiction used funds marked for anti-terrorism activities to purchase a trailer to tow lawn mowers to "lawn mower drag races". Hmmmm...wonder how many terrorists race lawn mowers in Texas? One other Texas county used the money to purchase radios and other communications equipment from a company owned by a county commissioner.

The Texas audit found other funds purchasing equipment for traffic stops, drug probes and community festivals.

What the hecuba is going on in Texas, anyway? Are all the States as negligent as Texas? If so, no wonder we should be in fear of another attack on our shores. Sheesh.

Miulang

http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=2783139

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

If you want to feel like you live in a police state, make every attempt to be part of the inauguration day crowd in Washington, DC.

Snipers on every rooftop...cement barricades lining streets...armed helicopters hovering overhead...metal detectors at entrances to reviewing stands...

Funny that I got this story from the Chinese newspaper, Xinhua!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_2443507.htm

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

The White House begrudgingly admits now that the panel it hired to look for WMDs in Iraq didn't find any. This search took 2 years and millions of dollars. George Bush has lost his main reason for the pre-emptive attack against Sadam Hussein. Whether or not he had WMDs before 2001 is a moot point, because by 2003 he had none in Iraq. They may be hidden in Syria (our next probable war front), but nothing was found in Iraq.

What gets me is how the Bush Administration cannot admit that a mistake was made in starting the war. Scott McClellan, Bush's mouthpiece said today that even knowing there were no WMDs threatening us, the Administration still would have proceeded with the invasion. OK, so what were the other reasons for us having more than 1300 US troops killed, $200 billion spent, 10,000 troops wounded and more than 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians killed? Was it to control the oil resources? Getting rid of the despot Saddam Hussein (funny, but many Iraqis think what's going on today is worse than Saddam ever was when he was in power)?. The closest they will come to admitting it was a mistake is to attack the intelligence gathering community for "faulty information".

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...s_iraq_weapons

[Miulang]

Re: The Bush Watch

Some of this article is a little too much even for me, but it does cause one to stop and think. According to this author, the "army of fascism" are those Americans who blindly pledge allegiance to the Bush Administration without question.

Dangers Real and Perceived

Yet, for about forty percent of the population, the ‘war on terror’ is as real as night and day, a most important war against the hated Arab heathens who share neither religion nor culture nor skin color with noble America. To the army of fascism, Arabs are evildoers extraordinaire, savages and primitives intent on killing all of what America stands for. They are barbarians, a people worshipping false gods and idols, mere subhuman animals willing to kill themselves, the army of Satan and reincarnations of demons past. They are an enemy that must be defeated and exterminated, whatever the cost, whatever the consequences. This belief by the army of fascism, however, is one based on ignorance, the belief of fantasy and a sheer weak-minded capacity to distinguish fact from fiction. When bombarded by a Zionist-first media and scapegoat-needing government, using a massive and methodical propaganda campaign, though, the Fox News and talk radio addicted army of fascism easily succumbs to such manipulations and lies.

While most Americans have recovered their senses in the years after 9/11, the army of fascism still remains trapped inside the clouds of asbestos and debris and smoke and dust, refusing to take the hand of truth and reality, firmly digging themselves inside the trenches of a horror-filled fantasy. Because they wish for its truth, they make it so, retaining the lies and deceits and manipulations they hear, never questioning for an instant the validity of such claim and never seeking their own education of such matters. Trained to always believe what they hear, they incorporate deceptive propaganda as their own, every day hating and fearing more and more, scapegoating an entire culture, religion and race, justifying their hatred and growing racism through the bull manure they hear and see on a daily basis.

The army of fascism remains deeply distraught by the horrors of 9/11, still possessed by its demons and its stresses, unable to exorcise the memories or ghosts of an operation allowed to succeed by the same heroes the army now religiously follows. Their outward bravado hides a deep inner fear, acting as their protective surrogate, for traumatized they remain and brainwashed they have been made to be. Psychologically fragile and mentally intimidated, they cling to the Dear Leader their monitors and radios command them to adore as a father figure in whom they seek protection and security. These millions are not able discern the falsity of the war on terror, nor the reality of what their ‘leader’ truly is, nor the true nature of the wars of conquest against Afghanistan and Iraq.

To the army of fascism, lies become truth just as much as reality becomes falsity. In their inescapable bubble, they see not how the world is but how they want the world to be, refusing to accept truth even as it showers them with unending facts and even as it utterly destroys the fictions they cannot let go of. These Americans remain traumatized and haunted by 9/11, clouding the rational and analytical thought processes they might have once possessed. Every hate and racist filled tirade by their favorite talking head vermin only validates in their minds the necessity to wage ceaseless war upon innocent Arabs and Muslims. Every diatribe they hear confirms their belief in the elimination and mass murder of hundreds of thousands of humans, replacing the goodness they once had with the thirst for malice that now runs through their veins.

More here (very long document): http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle7676.htm

Miulang