| Betreff: Protecting Our Global Environment: Strength & Security For A New World |
| Von: "ECOTERRA Intl." |
| Datum: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:31:55 +0300 |
| An: undisclosed-recipients:; |
Please Broadcast this to Anyone you know who may be "Undecided":::
Nader's Former Advisors & Former Running Mate Winona LaDuke Urge Support for Kerry!!! In Swing States-- Start Swinging! Some of us love Ralph Nader. Some hate him. Some voted for him in the last presidential election. Some of us did not. But now let's join together on Tuesday to vote Bush out of office. That means voting for Kerry. I've recently joined Noam Chomsky, Phil Donahue, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Hightower, Bonnie Raitt, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Howard Zinn and dozens of other former Nader supporters in urging everyone to vote for Kerry in swing states. (Below, see the members of the "Nader 2000 Citizens' Committee" who are urging swing state support for Kerry.) Click here to read former Nader running mate Winona LaDuke's eloquent explanation of why she is voting for Kerry this year: http://www.nativenationsnet.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1180 Click here to see some of the differences between Kerry and Bush: http://www.americanvoice2004.org/askdave/01askdave.html If you know people who may vote for Ralph Nader, please forward this e-mail to them. Yours for Booting Bush,
John Kerry for President
John Kerry and John Edwards understand that we face some of our most serious environmental challenges - and opportunities - at the international level. Unlike the Bush administration, which has reversed decades of American leadership, John Kerry will reassert America's leading role in global environmental issues. When John Kerry is president, the U.S. will:
John Kerry for President
As president, John Kerry will reclaim and strengthen America's role as a global leader. The Kerry-Edwards national security strategy will deploy every weapon in our national arsenal, from military strength to our diplomacy, our intelligence capabilities, our economic might, and the power of our values and example. Across the globe, John Kerry and John Edwards will pursue policies based on a vision of an America truly stronger and truly respected in the world.
John Kerry and John Edwards believe that U.S. engagement in Africa should reflect the continent's vital significance to U.S. interests as well as the moral imperative to help a continent struggling with the scourge of disease and persistent poverty. The HIV/AIDS pandemic in southern and eastern Africa is a massive human tragedy. It is also a security risk of the highest order that threatens to plunge nations into chaos. Chronic and debilitating hunger also threatens the very survival of communities where investment in agriculture has suffered for over a decade. As president, John Kerry will be committed to bringing the full weight of American leadership to bear against these challenges.
John Kerry and John Edwards will work with the United Nations and Africa's regional organizations to address Africa's persistent, disproportionate share of the world's weak, failing states and chronic armed conflicts, and promote sustainable economic development. John Kerry and John Edwards support extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides a door to a brighter future for many of the continent's poorest countries. John Kerry and John Edwards also support effective relief efforts when there is a humanitarian crisis - particularly at this moment in Darfur, Sudan, where genocide is underway. And in a Kerry-Edwards administration, the United States will continue to promote policies to support democracy, economic reform and respect for human rights.
John Kerry for President
America was born in pursuit of an idea - that a free people with diverse beliefs can govern themselves in peace.
Throughout our history, we have forged powerful alliances to defend, encourage, and promote that idea around the world. Through two World Wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War and Kosovo, America led instead of going it alone. We respected the world - and the world respected us.
Today, our leadership has walked away from more than a century of American leadership in the world to embrace a new - and dangerously ineffective - American disregard for the world. They bully instead of persuade. They act alone when they could assemble a team. They confuse leadership with going it alone. They fail to understand that real leadership means standing by your principles and rallying others to join you.
John Kerry and John Edwards believe in a better, stronger America - an America that is respected, not just feared. An America that listens and leads - that cherishes freedom, safeguards our people, uplifts others, forges alliances, and deserves respect. This is the America they believe in. This is the America they are fighting for. And this is the America we can be.
Today, we face three great challenges above all others - First, to win the global war against terror; Second, to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; Third, to promote democracy, freedom, and opportunity around the world, starting by winning the peace in Iraq. To meet these challenges, John Kerry's national security policy will be guided by four imperatives:
Launch And Lead A New Era Of Alliances
The threat of
terrorism demands alliances on a global scale - to utilize every
available resource to get the terrorists before they can strike at us.
As president, John Kerry will lead a coalition of the able - because no
force on earth is more able than the United States and its allies.
Modernize The World's Most Powerful Military To Meet New Threats
John
Kerry and John Edwards have a plan to transform the world's most
powerful military to better address the modern threats of terrorism and
proliferation, while ensuring that we have enough properly trained and
equipped troops to meet our enduring strategic and regional missions.
Deploy All That Is In America's Arsenal
The war on
terror cannot be won by military might alone. As president, John Kerry
will deploy all the forces in America's arsenal - our diplomacy, our
intelligence system, our economic power, and the appeal of our values
and ideas - to make America more secure and prevent a new generation of
terrorists from emerging.
Free America From Its Dangerous Dependence On Mideast Oil
To
secure our full independence and freedom, we must free America from its
dangerous dependence on Mideast oil. By tapping American ingenuity, we
can achieve that goal while growing our economy and protecting our
environment.
Ben Cohen President, TrueMajorityACTION-----------------
Co-Founder, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream+
P.S. If you want to join efforts to convince former Nader voters NOT to vote for Ralph Nader this year, visit www.repentantnadervoter.com We, the undersigned, were selected by Ralph Nader to be members of his 113-person national "Nader 2000 Citizens Committee." This year, we urge support for Kerry/Edwards in all swing states, even while we strongly disagree with Kerry's policies on Iraq and other issues. For people seeking progressive social change in the United States, removing George W. Bush from office should be the top priority in the 2004 presidential election. Progressive votes for John Kerry in swing states may prove decisive in attaining this vital goal. °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º° Mark Morford: 'Get out to vote and scream' Now that we're all completely fried and bitter and media punch-drunk, it's time to act By Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle So here we are, staring down a rather historic moment amidst the sputtering ideological orgy that is the American experiment and if you're paying any sort of attention at all you're doubtlessly drunk on election hype and saturated with Bush/Kerry platitudes and you wish a white-hot death upon every screeching TV pundit who is right now analyzing yet another insidious national poll that seems to reveal everything and nothing at the exact same time. And Bush is out there right this very second stumping and sweating and blinking fast and defending his useless hideous little war and hurling snide little invectives and completely fabricated exaggerations at John Kerry, and Kerry is returning the favor by casually mentioning how Bush has ruined the goddamn nation and decimated our self-respect and run roughshod over our international relations all while raping the environment like no president in history and racking up a world-record deficit and mangling the language like a child on too much Ritalin. It has been, in short, the longest and most painful episode of "American Idol" ever, wherein the two finalists have belted every cheesy American standard and regurgitated every lame disco-era stage move and hit every warbly high note and sacrificed every shred of dignity and integrity and true individuality they might've once possessed, all in the desperate hope that you are finally sufficiently numbed to where you are finally ready press the right 800 number on your AT&T wireless service and place your stupefied vote. We are almost there. We are so very on the cusp. This is where it all comes down to your intuition and your intelligence and a sheer force of will, your ability to overcome the media-induced nausea and deeply inbred American political ennui and hoist yourself out of this election stupor and go to your polling place and punch the little card or push the little button, and then pray you don't live in a state where the GOP has rigged the touch screens or shredded all the Democratic voter registrations as you think, wow, world's foremost democracy and yet why does it feel like I'm voting in, like, Yugoslavia? Why does it feel that this election is so incredibly messy and loaded and rife with snakes and spit and hissing corruption? Weird. Sad. Telling. It has become surreal, this election. It has become beyond coherent. We are at a point where our election system has become suspect and deeply flawed and our ideology has come unraveled and we as a nation no longer fully understand our role in the world and the bloom is way, way off the patriotic rose, so much so that it's no longer just a matter of which candidate will put a shinier coat of paint on the massive ship of bureaucracy, but who will stop us from sinking too abruptly into the quicksand of abuse and arrogance and ever increasing irrelevance. Go, U-S-A! So then. As we stare down this uncanny and indelible moment in American history, there are two angles of approach. One: sit back and reflect on how the hell we got here, what bizarre machinations and demonic falling dominos managed to put BushCo in power, just what sort of humiliating and positively satanic chain reaction lo these past 50 years led up to where we are now, to this bitter yet oddly amusing spectacle of a massive and awe-inspiring empire in full crumble.
This approach, it is the more depressing and fatalistic and painful of the two and will result in much sighing and the supping of wine and the licking of lovers to deflect the pain and energize the skin and try and put it all in perspective, and is recommended only in small doses. Except for the drinking and licking part.
Conversely and perhaps more enjoyably, you can project forward, then reminisce. You can, that is to say, imagine it's a short 20 years hence and it's about 2024 and we're sitting there sipping our laudanum/Vicodin Colas and injecting Nexium straight into our eyeballs and watching our 10-foot plasma-TV walls and looking back and saying my god, 2004, that was a weird one, wasn't it?
Remember that ugly time? Remember when that smirking dolt Bush Jr. was president and we went through that dark dank tunnel of spiritual dread and international humiliation and we bombed Iraq for no reason and killed all those people for no reason and gutted our own economy for no reason other than to line the pockets of the Bush WASP mafia's corporate cronies? Wasn't that just so, like, crazy?
We will make jokes and shake our heads and sigh. We will say oh man remember that defense guy? Rumsfeld? Remember his black and ominous eyes? His savage abuse of power and complete lack of accountability? Remember that demon-god Ashcroft and his oiled feet, didn't dance and didn't smoke and didn't drink and didn't have sex and wanted to crack down on nipples and scan our e-mail and check our library books and tap our phones? Remember Condi Rice, that lost and desperate look, lonely and sad and a creepy veneer of doomed longing over her soul? Weird times, my friend. Sip.
We know that 20 years hence, there will be no Reagan-like legacy for Shrub. There will be no renamed airports or honorary expressways or revisionist rose-colored history books arguing the good and the bad of his epic much-loved presidency, because there is so little good and so very, very much bad and there is absolutely no love anywhere.
We already know that history will look very, very unkindly upon this most booblike, lie-torn, appallingly underqualified of American presidents. Of this we can rest assured. Of this we will only look back and be incredibly grateful it didn't last all that long.
This angle, it is the moderately healing and perspective-adjusting one. It's comfortable and helpful to project in such a manner, especially given how it's almost too hot right now, just too frustrating and painful to remain in this moment, to sit here and wait for the election returns and the potential lawsuits and Supreme Court riggings all the while knowing the GOP is trying everything short of launching another terrorist attack to maintain power and will stop at almost nothing to instill fear and dread and Dick Cheney deeper into the numb American psyche.
You cannot stay here. You cannot sit in this moment any longer. You simply have to get out and vote and scream and then roll up this ugly hunk of living history into a tight little ball of hot gelatinous goo and hurl it at the wall of time and see what sticks.
This is my recommendation. That and the wine thing. And voting. Voting is mandatory. Do it. Do it so you have something to talk about in 20 years. So you can say you were there and you participated and you tried like hell to change history. Because of course, you can.
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Defend Free & Fair Elections in the U.S.A.!
They're doing it again. In Nevada, a Republican contractor has allegedly ripped up thousands of Democratic registration forms.(1) In Florida, Jeb Bush has purged tens of thousands of legitimate voters -- mostly black, mostly Democratic -- from the rolls because their names are similar to a felon's.(2) In Ohio, the Republican Secretary of State has been so uncooperative that a federal judge said that he "apparently seeks to accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000."(3)
But there's one big difference between the election of 2000 and the election of 2004: this time, a number of powerful, well-staffed groups will be aggressively responding to each and every instance of voter intimidation, suppression, and fraud. Messing with our right to vote is a felony, and with your help we'll make sure that anyone who does is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We've put together a wallet-sized card that has all the numbers and information you need if someone tries to stop you from exercising your right to vote. You can download it now at:
http://cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/ep_card.pdf
In a great majority of polling places, of course, voting will be very efficient -- even fun. Poll workers will guide you through the process. They're non-partisan, and they are there to help.
But it's likely that some precincts will be targeted for vote suppression, and that's what we have to be on the look-out for. Since one key suppression tactic is slowing down the voting process, we have to be careful not to fall into that trap. Don't obstruct: just demand that whoever is giving you trouble step aside with you and let the voting continue.
But before we get into what you should do if things go wrong, here are a few pointers to help make sure your voting experience is a good one:
Vote early. In Hawaii, you can vote early until October 30th at locations determined by your City/County Clerk. For the City and County of Honolulu, call (808)523-4293; for the County of Hawaii call (808)961-8277; for the County of Maui call (808)270-7749; and for the County of Kauai call (808)241-6350.
Find your polling place ahead of time. Having this information ahead of time will help make sure that you can zip to the polls and back during that half-hour lunch break. You can locate your local polling place using your zip code at http://www.mypollingplace.com. In most cases, the site will tell you what kind of voting machines to expect and how they work. (By the way, if mypollingplace.com conflicts with information you've received from your county or state election officials, use the official information.)
When in doubt, ASK. Poll workers are there to help you. They'll show you how to work the machines, and if you're at the wrong polling place, they should tell you how to get to the right one. Every polling place should also have a posted list of your voting rights, and instructions for filing a complaint if your rights have been violated.
Know your rights. If you're an eligible voter, you have the following rights: If your name is not on the official voter list but you believe you are eligible to vote in that precinct, even if an election official challenges your vote, you have the right to cast a "provisional ballot."
If you're in line when the polls close, you should stay in line because you're entitled to vote. In many states, your employer must allow you time to vote at some point during the day. You can't be fired for being late due to long polling lines.
You have the right to vote without being intimidated by anyone. For your rights in your own state, check out this website: http://www.ourvote.com/
Bring photo ID, preferably government-issued ID or a utility bill, phone bill, or paycheck with your name and current street address. If you're a new registrant, it may be required.
Vote in the morning. In a great majority of polling places, everything will go smoothly, but by going early you can help prevent lines later in the day.
A regular ballot is better than a provisional ballot. If your eligibility to vote is questioned, ask if you can cast a regular ballot by providing additional ID or by going to another polling place. Only cast a provisional ballot if there's no alternative available. So, what if something does go wrong?
First, document it. If there are specific individuals involved who are challenging your right to vote, intimidating voters, or interfering with the process, try to get their names. Write down exactly what happened, including the time of day, descriptions of the people involved, and any other details you can remember.
Then, report it. There are lots of organizations that will be working to respond quickly to complaints of voter intimidation, suppression, and fraud. Here's who to call:
MoveOn PAC: Go to http://www.moveonpac.org/. On election day, our website will host a form where you can post your problem and get help.
Common Cause: Call 1-866-MYVOTE1. Common Cause has set up a hotline that you can call to report any problems you have voting. They'll document where problems are occuring, watch for wide-spread voter suppression, and provide real-time legal help to the hot spots.
1-866-OUR-VOTE. This hotline has been set up by a coalition of nonpartisan groups to deal with the most serious problems on election day. They have hundreds of lawyers standing by to immediately respond to the most egregious problems. 1-866-OUR-VOTE is the "911" of voter suppression hotlines. Please don't call unless your problem is serious enough that you have to talk to a lawyer immediately.
Again, to download a wallet-sized card with all of this information that you can bring with you to the polls, go to:
http://cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/ep_card.pdf
As Bill Clinton said at a rally with John Kerry on Monday, "They're trying to scare the voters away from the polls. It worked so well in Florida, they seem to be trying it elsewhere." We're not going to let them get away with it. And with your help, we'll make sure that anyone who tries to stop people from exercising their right to vote ends up behind bars.
Thanks for everything,
--Adam, Eli, Hannah, James, Laura, and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
October 27th, 2004
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Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey: "A disease called George Bush" Never in the history of humankind has an election had so much at stake
By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda
Dear friends,
As a journalist who has the good fortune to write for an international journal with millions of readers around the world, I have the individual responsibility to inform you of the feeling in the international community regarding the outcome of the election on November 2nd.
As citizens of the United States of America, who have the power to endorse or to dismiss the policies of the Bush regime, you have a collective responsibility not only unto yourselves, but to the world, which will hold you accountable for your decision.
I write this letter as a citizen of this international community and as a journalist for a newspaper whose name is Pravda (Truth), I have the obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I can say for a start that the vast majority of the international community will agree with the thoughts and requests expressed in this open letter. As proof, one only has to see the opinion polls held around the world, in which only a small handful of citizens from a tiny percentage of states prefer a re-election of George Bush to regime change in Washington.
It is not for foreigners to dictate to the people of the United States of America how to vote, however since the media in the USA is controlled and since people do not have access to the current of opinion in the international community, it is an act of friendship to inform the citizens of the USA how the world feels about the state of affairs today and it is our right as citizens of the world to express our concern, for the Bush administration does not confine itself to its shores.
9/11 was a horrific event, which went against the grain of human civilization, as did the horrendous terrorist attack in the school of Beslan in the Russian Federation. However terrible these events were, it is necessary to envisage the facts with maturity and to draw the correct conclusions from them, not to use an evil event to justify another act of evil.
Unfortunately this is what the Bush regime has done. While the attack against Afghanistan was understandable in the circumstances (although such an attack had been planned well before 9/11, not because of the Taleban regime, which George Bush Senior created, but because of the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan), the attack against Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with international terrorism.
>From a moral point of view, the Bush regime could not have descended lower. Lies, forgery, blackmail, bullying and belligerence became the modus operandi of American diplomacy, instead of discussion, dialogue and debate, the fundamentals of democracy, which Bush and his clique of corporate elitists threw out of the window in their haste to get their hands on the resources of Iraq, a country which did not possess chemical or nuclear or biological weapons, despite the repeated claims that it did.
The raw truth is that Saddam Hussein was the man telling the truth and that George Bush was the one who "stiffed the world".
The fundamental precepts which justified the war have since been refuted and denied, in their entirety, by the very people who stood before the cameras and lied through their teeth, saying they knew where the WMD were hidden and they knew where the evidence would be found.
These people are the members of the Bush regime, not one or two members, but all of them. It is not only George Bush who stands for election on November 2nd - it is the entire regime, including the substantially important Jewish lobby within Washington. It is not only Capitol Hill which controls your foreign policy, it is also, and with increasing importance, the Knesset in Tel Aviv.
George Bush may have tried his level best at being President of the United States of America and nobody doubts that he will have wanted to give it his best shot and do a good job. However, his background, his speeches and his skills, make it only too apparent that he does not have what it takes. Like the Texas he was born in, he is a Lone Ranger.
George Bush and his government have managed to divorce Washington from the international community. He dare not step off an aircraft in most countries and even in the home of his closest ally, the UK, he was the only visiting Head of State to have to run out of Number 10 Downing Street by the back door, because he was too scared to leave by the front, given the fury of the demonstrators against him.
Is this the image you wish to vote for on November 2nd?
George Bush and his administration spent four long years breaking every fibre of decency† and each and every norm in practice in the diplomatic community. If New York is host to the United Nations Organization, how can it be justified to breach the UN Charter by attacking Iraq outside the auspices of this organization? Each and every resolution bears the express condition that any act of war must be the result of a separate resolution of the UN Security Council.
If Washington and London did not believe this to be the case, why did the USA and UK spend so many energies trying to secure the vote, only to deride this organism when they saw they could not win the day by diplomatic means? Hence the phrase, echoing around the international community: US out of UN or UN out of US.
George Bush has turned the USA into a pariah state in the international community and before the eyes of the citizens of the world.
The legacy of George Bush is unfortunately abject failure in everything he has done. Internally, it is up to the citizens of the USA to decide whether he has delivered on jobs, health care, welfare, pensions and so on - for this is nobody else"s business. Externally, however, he has wholly destabilized a delicate region which he was advised not to enter.
Afghanistan is far from pacified, the Taleban are as strong as ever, the difference being now that the heroin trade has restarted. Fantastic for the cities of Russia and Europe, now flooded once more by prime quality smack. We can thank George Bush for that every time an old lady is kicked to death for her pension money by some guy who needs a fix.
Iraq was never a bastion of terrorism, as Rumsfeld now admits. It is now, only after the illegal, incompetent, unfounded invasion launched by George Bush. Cities like Fallujah, more than one year on, are still in the hands of Iraq"s freedom fighters and now, the calls for British troops to help the US forces, who are losing control in Baghdad, are causing a political furore in London, due to the fact that the actions of the US armed forces would be considered war crimes in Europe.
The torture at Abu Ghraib was one symptom of a disease called George Bush and his neo-conservative, extremist, elitist regime, basically a group of super rich kids who thought nothing of spending two hundred thousand million dollars of your hard-earned money, which, you"d better believe it, you will pay a heavy price for in the coming years. Elect Bush again, and there will be more, much more.
You, the electors, will be the ones who pay, not Bush or Cheney or Rice or Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz. They"ve already filled their coffers, they only care about you before November 2nd. After that, all you can do is to sit back and watch as the horror unfolds before your eyes..
The final twist to this sordid and horrible tale is that the war crimes committed by the Pentagon have created a sullen hatred in the hearts and minds of the international community. The shock and awe we feel at learning how cluster bombs were dropped in civilian areas, for children to pick up thinking they were sweets, only to have their eyes and faces and futures and lives blown away, makes us stand together making a solemn and heartfelt request to our friends, or those we wish to count as friends, over the other side of the Atlantic.
Please, consider very carefully what you are doing on November 2nd. We want to have the USA back among us as part of the international community of nations. A vote for Bush is a vote for more wars, more terrorism, more violence, a shift further away from the welcoming arms of the community of nations, which wants to live together as brothers, not in hatred.
Killing tens of thousands of civilians is not Christian, it is evil and the callousness with which this issue is faced by the Bush regime is witness to the coldness in their hearts and minds, a coldness which creates shock and revulsion in the community of nations. In Europe, in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, in Canada
If you cannot bring yourselves to vote for any of the other contestants, then at least, please, consider not voting for Bush. In a nutshell, there are no two ways about it. Killing tens of thousands of civilians by strafing their homes, mutilating tens of thousands more, commiting rape and torture on a scale unseen outside the concentration camps of Hitler, amounts to war crimes, murder.
Voting for Bush is voting for a war criminal and a mass murderer.
In the name of the world community,
For the Love of God,
Respectfully and in friendship
Reprinted from Pravda:
http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/98/386/14460_Letter.html °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º° Night of the RepubliNazis: Idiots for Bush say "Boo" The "Ugly American" Monster Mob B.Z.B. 10-31-04 Metamagic Media Network The unravelling of the Bush regime, with its increasing desperation and ugliness, is a frightening purple Kool-Aid version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." With neighbors like these, who needs Halloween costumes? It reminds me of that old George Carlin bit about thinking how clueless the average American is-- then realize that half of them are even more ignorant than that. The Bush agenda is counting on the ignorance and ugliness rampant amongst the under-educated and stubbornly prejudiced rural "Limbaughlands." We've been dragged back to the days when they thought it funny to wear shirts saying "Nuke 'em all & let God sort it out." Now they no longer think it funny-- they're deadly serious. Try talking sense to anyone around you who still supports Bush, and face the "ugly American" syndrome solidified with patriotic fervor and fear. Most of these well-intentioned, misinformed citizens cannot tell you anything at all about U.S. foreign policy, the Bush family or the CIA, but they know that war is the answer. Be cautious when a group of these "dittoheads" gather into a mob-- they tend to be aggressive, hateful and intolerant. The most scary monsters in the Bush brigades are those who know they are part of a fascist movement, know the consequences of their supporting the Bush oil wars, know they are ravaging the economy for short-term profit and militaristic tyranny. These are the RepubliNazis, the ones who show up in your neighborhood and begin bullying, threatening, frightening anyone who dares to criticize the Bush regime. A suggestion for this most historic of Halloweens-- don't dress up as ghosts, witches or aliens this year, dress up in Ku Klux Klan and Nazi regalia and campaign for Bush in prominent places. You will be at the same time representing the shocking truth of our bloody Roman heritage, and unmasking the real monsters among us. BZB & Irregular Unit 005 Burning Bush http://burnbush.blogspot.com Planetary Rescue Corps 2012 Chrononautic Intervention Agency http://mutanex.com °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º° Bush 'most hated' American leader October 22, 2004 BRITISH spy novelist John Le Carre has branded US President George W. Bush America's most "universally hated" leader and urged voters to kick him out of office next month. The author of global best sellers such as The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy launched the stinging attack on the US leader and his war in Iraq in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. "Probably no American president in history has been so universally hated abroad as Bush: for his bullying unilateralism, his dismissal of international treaties, his reckless indifference to the aspirations of other nations and cultures," Le Carre wrote in the online article. He also accused Bush of having "contempt for institutions of world government, and above all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an illegal war - and now anarchy - upon Iraq. "Maybe there's one good reason - just one - for reelecting George W. Bush, and that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions and answer for his own lies," Le Carre fumed. The editorial also slammed British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his support for the war in Iraq and lashed Bush for eroding US civil rights through the Patriot Act. In the piece that appeared less than two weeks before the closely-contested November 2 presidential election, the author urged Americans to come in from the cold by kicking out Bush. "Give us back the America we loved, and your friends will be waiting for you," he said. Agence France-Presse ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ GLOBAL EYE : The Heart of Darkness in Bush Empire By Chris Floyd October 22, 2004 Now we come at last to the heart of darkness. Now we know, from their own words, that the Bush Regime is a cult -- a cult whose god is Power, whose adherents believe that they alone control reality, that indeed they create the world anew with each act of their iron will. And the goal of this will -- undergirded by the cult's supreme virtues of war, fury and blind faith -- is likewise openly declared: "Empire." You think this is an exaggeration? Then heed the words of the White House itself: a "senior adviser" to the president, who, as The New York Times reports, explained the cult to author Ron Suskind in the heady pre-war days of 2002. First, the top Bush insider mocked the journalist and all those "in what we call the reality-based community," i.e., people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." Suskind's attempt to defend the principles of reason and enlightenment cut no ice with the Bush-man. "That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality," he said. "And while you're studying that reality, we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." Anyone with any knowledge of 20th-century history will know that this same megalomaniacal outburst could have been made by a "senior adviser" to Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini or Mao. Indeed, as scholar Juan Cole points out, the dogma of the Bush Cult is identical with the "reality-creating" declaration of Mao's "Little Red Book": "It is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever." For Bush, as for Mao, "discernible reality" has no meaning: Political, cultural, economic, scientific truth -- even the fundamental processes of nature, even human nature itself -- must give way to the faith-statements of ideology, ruthlessly applied by unbending zealots. Thus: The conquered will welcome their killers. The poor will be happy to slave for the rich. The Earth can sustain any amount of damage without lasting harm. The loss of rights is essential to liberty. War without end is the only way to peace. Cronyism is the path to universal prosperity. Dissent is evil; dissenters are "with the terrorists." But God is with the Leader; whatever he does is righteous, even if in the eyes of unbelievers -- the "reality-based community" -- his acts are criminal: aggressive war that kills thousands of innocent people, widespread torture, secret assassinations, rampant corruption, electoral subversion.
Indeed, the doctrine "Gott mit Uns" is the linchpin of the Bush Cult. Tens of millions of Americans have now embraced the Cult's fusion of Bush's leadership with Divine Will. As a Bush volunteer in Missouri told Suskind: "I just believe God controls everything, and God uses the president to keep evil down ... God gave us this president to be the man to protect the nation at this time." God appointed Bush; thus Bush's acts are godly. It's a circular, self-confirming mind-set that can't be penetrated by reason or facts, can't be shaken by crimes and scandals.
That's why Bush's core support -- comprising almost half of the electorate -- stays rock-solid, despite the manifest failures of his administration. It's based on blind faith, on poisonous fantasy: simple, flattering ("We're uniquely good, God's special nation!"), comforting, complete -- so unlike the harsh, bewildering, splintered shards of reality.
This closed mind-set is constantly reinforced by the ubiquitous right-wing media -- evoking the threat of demonic enemies on every side, relentlessly manufacturing righteous outrage -- and by Bush's appearances (epiphanies?) at his carefully screened rallies, where even the slightest hint of demurral from his Godly greatness is ruthlessly expunged. For example, three schoolteachers were ejected from a Bush rally under threat of arrest last week. Not for protesting -- they hadn't said a word -- but merely for wearing T-shirts that read, "Protect Our Civil Liberties." Thus the faithful "create the new reality" of undivided loyalty to the Leader.
The dogma of Bush's godliness is no rhetorical flourish; it has been forged with blood and iron. Consider General Jerry Boykin, who, in uniform, toured churches across the United States, declaring openly that "George W. Bush was not elected by the majority of the American people; he was appointed by God" to lead his "Christian nation" against Satan and the "idol-worshippers" of Islam, as Salon.com reports. Bush then made Boykin the Pentagon's chief of military intelligence -- the point man for wringing information out of Islamic captives in the "war on terror."
The result -- confirmed even by the Pentagon's own anemic investigations -- was a military intelligence system gone berserk, systematically torturing and occasionally murdering prisoners who, as the Red Cross notes, were overwhelmingly innocent of any crime. Bush signed orders removing these prisoners from the protection of U.S. and international law; Boykin's boys then visited divine wrath upon the heathens. But these atrocities cannot be crimes, because Bush and Boykin are, in the general's phraseology, "Kingdom warriors" in the "Army of God."
This isn't politics as usual -- not even an extreme version of it, not McCarthyism revisited, Reaganism times two, or Nixon in a Stetson hat. There's never been anything like it in American life before: a messianic cult backed by vast corporate power, a massive cadre of religious zealots, a highly disciplined party, an overwhelming media machine and the mammoth force of history's most powerful government -- all led by men who "create new realities" out of lies, blood, theft and torment.
Their "empire" -- their Death-Cult, their power-mania -- is an old madness rising again.
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Open letter to US citizens: American people, please save us from yourselves!
Dear America,
Now that John Kerry has demonstrated himself to the American people as rational and statesmanlike leader, especially compared to the histrionic, contorted and ugly evasions evinced by President Bush during the three debates that were his to loose, hopefully we have embarked on a journey that will culminate in a change of government in the USA.
Just as the rest of the world sits amazed at the malaise that has seized America since Bush took office and which has manifested itself in more extreme forms since he entered into an ill defined and unwinnable war against terror, so too are many Americans evidently staggered by the enormity of the mendacious lies that they have been sold by a deceitful leadership, further distorted by an unquestioningly compliant media.
Seymour Hersh, the veteran journalist responsible for exposing the Pentagon Papers, the Mai Lai massacre and many other low points of recent American intervention and mismanagement in the world, is himself as shocked as any man can be. Hersh, who recently blew open the details of the Abu Ghraib story, has gone on to detail how the Republic of the United States of America has been taken to the cleaners by a small band of neo-conservative extremists with no sense of shame, no sense of remorse nor any degree of guilt at their traitorous self indulgence.
This rotten clan has created a private fiefdom for their friends to feast at an Iraqi pork barrel of unprecedented taxpayer largesse. The war that was supposedly meant to free Iraqis has instead benefited insider organisations like the Carlyle Group with its close associations with both the extended Bush Family and more specifically, its incumbent Presidents' inner circle. It has also inordinately benefited Halliburton, the company vice president Dick Cheney headed up before taking his present post, not to mention a slew of others associated with well-connected conservative Washington Beltway insiders. Tax breaks abound for this coterie while the average American citizen sinks ever deeper into a morass of national debt that threatens to destabilise the entire international financial system.
This cabal has eroded twenty years of improved environmental governance, cocked a snook at the rest of the world and United Nations - which it cynically and ironically attempts to court in a cackhanded sort of way - and has gone on a rampage, striking out in every which direction, not only forgetting why - or who - it first set out to get, but more importantly that it has created a far more unstable world than it inherited, difficult as that is to comprehend.
These extremists, this junta who failed to achieve even a democratic majority, has eroded the US constitution more seriously in the past 4 years than any other government in the previous 229 years of the existence of the USA, including during the time of the American Civil War, in what was arguably Americas darkest hour. The Patriot Act, rushed through congress in the middle of the night shortly after the panic of 9/11 and instituted by the fundamentalist Attorney General John Ashcroft, has swept away rights that have long been considered basic and inviolate. Despite creating Big Brother, the Patriot Act has not secured one single indictment. The real indictment rests upon Ashcroft and his political masters.
The world's people have a special place in their hearts for America, its ideals and its people. Sadly the land of the free and the brave has been subjected to what amounts to a coup by unscrupulous and unconstrained extremists of the most dangerous sort. If Americans give these guys a look in at four more years, it will mean the end of the world, as we know it.
The global majority wishes to reach out to our friends in America, of whom we know we have many, and call for calm and strength. The time ahead is of far more importance for the world than 9/11 or the war on terror; or even, as is whispered in the corridors of the White House between prayer sessions, "the rapture, the rapture", otherwise known as Armageddon.
We know that these particular lunatics in charge of the asylum would be only too happy to 'do His word' (a sexist concept if ever there was!) and engage this Armageddonite rapture. These fruitcakes unquestionably consider themselves amongst those selected to ascend straight to heaven when this rapture descends on the rest of us mere mortals, be it nuclear, chemical or biological or some hexed up combination. The certainty is that the rapture will be of their very making, in one way or another, if we end up with another four years of this corrupt plutocracy. When these dudes accuse others of possessing WMDs, there is some serious projection going on!
In the face of this clannish dementia it is up to rational humans around the world to embrace the interim compromise of a President Kerry and to help steer this sadly stumbling superpower back to its path of goodness so that it can again stand tall again amongst all nations. No nation becomes great simply by projecting power. Power comes with responsibility.
The world wishes to co-operatively rehabilitate this once great nation that has lost its way after being taken on a magical mystery tour of psychedelic proportions by misguided and irrational extremists of the most dangerous sort; its very own leadership.
These are - after all - the very men who created both Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden; their actions now spawn armies of enemies far more threatening than these earlier, evil incarnations. They have spawned legion enemies, literally.
There is a distinctly psychopathic tendency in how Rove, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice and Bush individually, jointly and severally refuse to take any responsibility for the mess they have made and are making; instead they revel in a perverse war-against-everything, from terror to the environment, from their political foes to anyone who questions them. Please, we must stop them not just for the sake of America but for all of us.
Americans, we call you to your senses and extend a hand of friendship in extracting you from the quagmire not only of Iraq, but also from the nightmare of geopolitical reality you have allowed us all to be sucked into.
Together we really can create a better world for all; we can do it with difficulty without America but it would not be the same. Come; stand again on the side of what is good and right, with the global democratic majority. Let's get on with building this world together.
I can say with complete confidence that the rest of the world would welcome President Kerry as a worthy representative of America. I cannot say the same for Bush.
American people, please try to save us from yourselves!
God save America and God save us all!
Completely and utterly sincerely,
Glenn Ashton
A free country, outside the USA.
Planet Earth.
Glenn Ashton is a freelance South African writer and researcher. He spent over a year and a half visiting the USA during the 80's and 90's and maintains close ties with friends who visit and live there. He still likes Americans even if its no longer fashionable.
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“By Corrupted Despotism”
As the election approaches, some warnings issued by the Founders leap off the page as never before.
By Jim Sleeper
Web Exclusive: 10.26.04
If some of us anti-Bush Americans seem on the verge of a nervous breakdown in these final days, it's not necessarily because John Kerry is our heart's desire or even because George W. Bush and Co., under cover of fighting terrorism, are spending the country into crushing debt that will drive the social compact back to the 1890s. Nor are we wrought up because a Republican ticket led by two former draft dodgers (as defined by every conservative Republican since the late 1960s, when both men did their dodging), has savaged war heroes like Max Cleland, John McCain, and Kerry himself.
The republic has survived excesses like that, if barely. What really scares some of us is the foreboding that, this time, it won't outlast the swooning and the eerily disembodied cheering at those Bush revival rallies. Something has happened to enough of the American people to make some warnings by this country's own Founders leap off the page as never before.
As soon as King George III was gone, the Founders took one look at the American people and became obsessed with how a republic ends. History showed them it can happen not with a coup but a smile and a friendly swagger, as soon as the people tire of the burdens of self-government and can be jollied along into servitude -- or scared into it, when they've become soft enough to intimidate.
Alexander Hamilton sketched the stakes when he wrote that history had destined Americans, "by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force."
And Ben Franklin sketched the odds, warning that the Constitution "can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall have become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other."
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http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=8805 ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ "I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future," -- Henrik Ibsen "When I dare to be powerful-- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." -- Audre Lorde "The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it." -- Edward Dowling "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will." -- Frederick Douglass "The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it." -- Edward Dowling "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." --George Orwell Eminem's Mosh Music Video - Directed by GNN's Ian Inaba View Video (quicktime) http://gnn.tv/content/eminem_mosh.html °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º° News of the Strange & Supernatural http://metamagic.org/strange MetaMagic MediaMinistry http://metamagic.org "We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." -- Martin Luther King Jr. BZB's BriarPatch http://briarholler.blogspot.com GaiaWurm SurfReport http://gaiawurm.blogspot.com Burning Bush http://burnbush.blogspot.com Mutation Jubilation http://wonderkind.blogspot.com (<>..<>) (--)