Posts Tagged ‘Bush’
Democrats are Not Immune from Ignorance
Over the last few years I have become very acquainted with politics. I formed my views during the Bush presidency, and they have remained rather stable since then. I disagreed with just about everything George Bush did as president. I disagreed with his economic policies, his foreign policies, and his huge power grab for the executive. However, upon voicing my opinions I was referred to by republicans as un-American and unpatriotic. I felt this sort of ignorant name-calling was unique to the neoconservative side of the American political system. However, recent events have proven me wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
Our Silence is Betraying Humanity
More than half a year after Bush left office, our country still finds itself involved with two wars. Barack Obama flew into the White House with a message of change. So far he has kept Bush’s policies of bailing out failed companies with taxpayer money, continues to support State’s Secrets, has called for the creation of internment style prison systems, supports the denial of habeas corpus to prisoners in Bagram airbase, and has escalated Bush’s side-war in Afghanistan.
I am failing to see the change that Obama promised us. Turns out I’m not alone. There might be a few of us who remember Cindy Sheehan. She was the woman who courageously protested against the War in Iraq outside of Bush’s Texas ranch. Well unlike most people of today, she understands that there still is a war going on in the Middle East even though Obama has taken office. She is now protesting Obama’s wars in the Middle East, actually calling his policies “worse” than Bush’s. Not surprisingly, the Left who once supported her and her negativity toward Bush, are not so happy with her anti-Obama rhetoric. Go here to read her words on how quickly the Left has ‘left’ her side (pun intended).
I have been called a “racist” from the so-called left. In these people’s opinion, I was totally justified in protesting Bush, but I am a racist for protesting the same policies under Obama…There are many people in this country who oppose Obama because they’re racist, but I am not one of them. I oppose Obama’s policies because they are wrong…
The Rich Man’s Terrorism
It is no stretch for one to conclude that terrorism has replaced socialism as the new perceived threat to America. Our government has found it exponentially more convenient to use mythical terrorist threats to scare US citizens into saluting the flag and pledging support for all horrendous atrocities being carried out in our names. These scare tactics are to be expected post Cold War because America needs a new reason to justify its empire, as well as its increasing control over the lives of the population. However, a recent court case has me questioning the arbitrary definition our government has placed on terrorism.
According to Al Jazeera, A US court recently sentenced the former heads of the charity organization Holy Land Foundation to 65 years in prison for providing funds to Hamas. Prosecutors claimed that the charity was spreading Hamas ideology by providing aid to its schools, hospitals, and social welfare programs inside Palestinian territories. They also accused the charity of allowing Hamas to fund its fighting with the charitable donations. Bush labeled this case another battle in the War on Terror. However, while I would not agree with this charity funding Hamas’s violent actions, the case does expose the hypocrisy of the US government in dealing with Israel and Palestine.
The Road to Fallujah
A new documentary is shedding some light on the US invasion and assualt on Fallujah. It follows Mark Manning as he travels into the Iraq war with no security of his own to document the true nature of war. Visit the site for more information here.
THE ROAD TO FALLUJAH follows the story of Mark Manning, the only westerner to live with the people of Fallujah, Iraq immediately following the November 2004 battle that destroyed their ancient and holy city. With unique access to both sides of the conflict, the film gives a voice to the people directly involved and affected by the war and takes an in-depth and humanizing look at the issues in Iraq, breaking through the myths and misconceptions surrounding the violence and offering alternative solutions to war.Disillusioned with the lack of un-biased information about the war in Iraq, Manning leaves his job as a diver on the offshore oilrigs of California and travels to the Middle East, where he meets and joins forces with an Iraqi woman, Rana Al-Aiouby, a humanitarian aid worker and journalist from Iraq. Together, they travel into the heart of the Iraq war, unembedded and without armed security, to experience and document the reality of war from the perspective of the Iraqi people.As one Military Commander said, “As went Fallujah, so went Iraq.” THE ROAD TO FALLUJAH gives a detailed analysis of the circumstances that led to the siege of Fallujah, the actual events of the siege itself, and the consequences of the battle that have shaped the present situation in Iraq and beyond. With a clear presentation of the reality on the ground in Iraq, the film provides a human perspective of U.S. policy in the Middle East, offering a new direction towards solutions to the current crisis and a guide for future foreign policy decisions.
200 Organizations Ask Holder to Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Bush, Cheney, et al.
Two hundred organizations, including the UM Constitutionalists, After Downing Street, Democrats.com, the Robert Jackson Steering Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, the Society of American Law Teachers, Human Rights USA, the American Freedom Campaign, and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, have signed a joint statement urging Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor for former top officials of the Bush Administration.
The complete list of organizations can be found at
http://specialprosecutor.us
The complete statement reads as follows:
We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.
Our laws, and treaties that under Article VI of our Constitution are the supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of crimes that strong evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the former president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations. The former president has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
We see no need for these prosecutions to be extraordinarily lengthy or costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations of a panel or “truth” commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is already in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation should begin immediately.
-The UM Constitutionalists
Bush Torture Memos
As most of you may have heard, memos concerning the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” have been released to the public by the Department of Justice. We thought it necessary to provide everybody with a copy of these disgraceful documents. Download them here.
I would like to point out that the position the Obama Administration has taken to not prosecute individuals responsible for carrying out these techniques is in direct violation of the UN Convention Against Torture. The US is a signatory of this convention and ratified it as a treaty, which under the US Constitution gives it the full authority of law within the United States. As Ryan Powers from Think Progress puts it:
Indeed, Article 2 of the convention on torture explains that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever” can be used to legally justify torture. Further, the convention states that an “order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.”
STANDARD: CIA torturers are according to U.S. President Obama not to be prosecuted. Is that decision supportable?
NOWAK: Absolutely not. The United States has, like all other Contracting Parties to the UN Convention Against Torture, committed itself to investigate instances of torture and to prosecute all cases in which credible evidence of torture is found.
Therefore, President Obama is now in violation of US law. The American people should demand a full investigation of the Bush Administration and the current Obama Administration and have all guilty of war crimes brought to justice. If not, we are setting a dangerous precedent for future presidents.
Obama and Civil Rights
It has been nearly three months since the Obama Administration took control of the White House. He rode in high on promises of change. Admittedly, he has made a few positive steps. However, it seems for every step forward he makes, he is content with taking two steps backward. Seeing as how the American mainstream media will not do their job, I wanted to bring to light Obama’s actions on civil liberties, which are currently mirroring those of George W. Bush.
Let’s start off with Obama’s executive order to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. This was a positive step for human rights. Obama opposed the denial of rights to the prisoners kept at Guantanamo. He also supported the verdict of Boumediene v Bush, which stated the denial of Habeas Corpus rights to the prisoners at Guantanamo was unconstitutional. After this ruling dealt a blow to the Bush Administration, Bush still did not stop imprisoning people without charges. He simply began shipping them to our prison camp at Bagram, Afghanistan. Bush asserted that the prisoners at Bagram had no rights of any kind.
Orwellian Doublethink from the White House
In his classic science fiction novel 1984, George Orwell warns his readers of the psychological propaganda schemes exploited by totalitarian governments. Essentially, these tactics are efforts to control public opinion with deceitful language. The George W. Bush Administration is notorious for its use of such propaganda, some instances being more obvious than others. Consider Bush’s rhetoric in the early days of the “War on Terror” (and the idea of a war against terrorism in the first place), and you may recall such statements as: “Either you’re with us, or you’re with the terrorists,” or, shortly before the invasion of Iraq, “Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
The propaganda continues into the final weeks of the Bush Administration. Bush seems to have learned his tactics of deception from Orwell himself, who explained the concept of doublethink:
“Doublethink is an unending series of victories over your own memory, reality control; to know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constricted lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancel out, knowing them to be completely contradictory, and believing in both of them; to use logic against logic to repudiate morality while laying claim to it.”
This week’s example of doublethink concerns the executive bailout of the auto industry, for which Bush explains: “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” Two completely contradictory statements wrapped into one. Logic does not permit the coexistence of these facts any more than, say, crashing one’s car into a wall to maintain its prime condition. These rhetorical contradictions stink of propaganda at the highest level of American politics. The noxious odor dissipating from Pennsylvania Avenue is nothing new; media soundwaves have carried it eastward for eight years. But it’s become evident that the source of this stench is a rotting rule of law, infested with maggots whose survival depends upon perpetual death and rancid bullshit.
Don’t let yourself be deceived. Propaganda falters upon its recognition. Deceitful intentions must be recognized before they can be rejected.
-Dan Blazo
Source: thinkprogress.org
Killing Innocent People is the Problem, Not the Solution: Syria Condemns US Attack as “Terrorist Aggression”
Who are the bad guys? Who are the terrorists in the “war on terror?” This week, the terrorists are hiding behind stars and stripes and the most overbearing military in the history of the world. It does not come easily for me to admit this, but the most recent attack by the US military proves that our foreign policy in the absurd “war on terror” contains repulsive acts of terror itself.
How do you think the White House would perceive an attack on American soil from Syrian planes, assuming Syria did not seek permission from the US government beforehand? Would Americans justify the deaths of eight fellow countrymen so long as Syria claimed it was acting out of self-defense, perhaps aiming for Christian Fundamentalists? This is a ridiculous proposition. The attack would be considered terrorism and the US media would endorse the government’s perception of Syria as “evil.” Syria would become a sandy parking lot in a matter of hours. The anti-Islamic sentiment in the US would explode, support of “shock and awe” military tactics would approach consensus, and Americans would be terrified. Why should we expect a different sentiment among Syrians?
Seven weeks after illegally dropping bombs in Pakistan and killing dozens of civilians, the Bush Administration is at again. Eight Syrian civilians were killed in broad daylight by US bombers. Understandably, Syria is outraged. Bush’s trigger-happy days are still in full gear, making the world an even more violent, polarized, anti-American place. Yet another preemptive strike under the guise of “self-defense” has been committed with fighter jets and soldiers bearing our flag. OUR flag, not the war-mongers’ in the White House who disgrace it time and time again. The symbol of our flag has already lost much of its prestige internationally, and this week will only exacerbate the fading of the stars and stripes that once gleamed so brilliantly in a free and prosperous land. It’s time we take our flag back and restore its dignity. It’s time for a new foreign policy, or rather, an old foreign policy that has been abandoned by ambitious tyrants who continue to disgrace our nation. We the People of the United States cannot allow our politicians to start any more wars. It is in our best interest, our children’s best interest, the WORLD’S best interest to put an end to this military madness! It is our duty to say, “no more!” and do whatever we can to curtail the ill-fated path of the government’s quest for world domination. The time for action is now!
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