Selling Stability

Winning hearts & minds.

Engagement in Libya is not about humanitarian concerns. If it was, why would we have been selling them and other abusive regimes weapons with the intent of securing these regimes?

While much has been made of the uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, and the brutal force used against these protesters and rebels, there has been only the passing reference to our role in propping up these regimes which we now find ourselves in the sticky situation of having to condemn. The "Made in U.S.A." label on tear gas canisters used against Egyptian protesters made headlines but little else in this regard has.


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Libya:

The Bush administration approved the sale of $3 million of materials to Libya in 2006 and $5.3 million in 2007. In 2008, Libya was allowed to import $46 million in armaments from the U.S. The approved goods included nearly 400 shipments of explosive and incendiary materials, 25,000 aircraft parts, 56,000 military electronics components and nearly 1,000 items of optical targeting and other guidance equipment.

In the months before Libyans revolted the U.S. government was moving to do business with his regime on an increasing scale by quietly approving a $77 million dollar deal to deliver at least 50 refurbished armored troop carriers to the dictator's military. Congress balked, concerned the deal would improve Libyan army mobility and questioning the Obama administration's support for the agreement, which would have benefited British defense company BAE.

Saudi Arabia:

Obama administration intends to make biggest ever US arms deal with Saudis.

State department official Andrew Shapiro said "It will send a strong message to countries in the region that we are committed to support the security of our key partners and allies in the Arabian Gulf and broader Middle East."

The Bush administration [made] an arms-sale package to Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf countries [United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman] that may total more than $20 billion. Included in the package are advanced satellite-guided bombs, fighter-aircraft upgrades and new naval vessels.

As for why we have gone into Libya while ignoring numerous other atrocities around the globe:

ExxonMobil signed a heads of agreement to execute an Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) with Libya's National Oil Corporation to initiate exploration activity offshore Libya in the Sirte Basin.

BP in February suspended its preparations for onshore drilling after violence broke out across the North African country. Since then, troops loyal to Col. Moammar Ghadhafi's regime have steadily rolled back the rebel advance and re-taken control of most of the country.

Why France and the UK led the way into Libya:

Libya possesses 1,800 kilometers of Mediterranean coastline. The country produces 2 percent of the world's oil, with 85 percent of exports going to Europe. Libyan nationals have been prominent jihadists in Iraq. Since the beginning of the Great Recession and the slump in global demand in 2008, Libya has allocated $200 billion toward new infrastructure spending.

None of this is about the protection of human life no matter how warm and fuzzy it may feel to think it is. One final note: Who is it we claim to be protecting anyway?

Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered US allies in the fight against terrorism, were the source of about 60% of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year to become suicide bombers or take part in other attacks, senior American military officials say.

Oh great. This won't come back to bite us in the ass.

Left is Right

Yes, I Photoshopped this. The sign originally said: "Free Tibet".

64% of Americans say Afghan war isn’t worth fighting.

Yet, back in 2001 things were different. Those of us who were against this war were told we hate America. We were only 6% of Americans who thought this war was not worth it.

This is not Photoshopped.
This is what Freedom™ looks like.

This is one among many important issues that we on the so-called liberal fringe have been vindicated on - even if this vindication comes in the form of great tragedy while we endure continued derision and/or invisibility in the media, political discourse and nation at large.

Protests have been spreading around the country as citizens fight back against union busting efforts, privatization of essential industries and the erasure of democracy by their elected leadership. More Americans are realizing that millions of jobs have been lost to developing and third world countries and economic disparity is at the highest it's been in nearly a century and only getting worse with the top 10% of Americans owning 70% of the wealth, 6 banks controlling 64% of our GDP (up from 17% in 15 years), and corporate profits setting new records while actual joblessness remains around 20%. Yet, a small percentage of us who protest WTO gatherings, NAFTA, deregulation of essential industries and financial markets have been called "commies" and other derogatory names. Even the guy who wrote the book "The Supply Side Revolution" and Reagan cabinet member Paul Craig Roberts admits what a failure these "trickle-down" policies have been.

The environment is another issue that us "tree-huggers" have been on the losing side of opinion for a long time. Our current crop of government leadership is doing all it can to defund and eradicate environmental regulations and investment in clean energy. They even mandated the use of Styro-Foarm and plastic in what can only be seen as a childish act of frivolity. In fact, concern about climate change is declining in America. Yet our impact on the environment has never been more obvious. We're causing earthquakes in Arkansas, we're ruining our fresh water supplies and destroying mountains, causing disease and illness from air pollution and so much more.

With more than 60% of bankruptcies due to medical bills in the US, essential industries becoming more and more privatized and profit driven (life and liberty should not be commodities), more subsidizing of the rich while taking from the poor and countless other issues us "radical liberals" yammer on about endlessly starting to affect larger percentages of Americans I wonder when and if we will ever be welcomed back into the public dialogue. Earlier generations of liberals struggled and fought to bring our fellow countrymen the civil rights movement, labor movement, child labor laws, clean air and water, Social Security and Medicaid, labor unions, desegregation, public education and a few other things that helped make our country strong, fair and looked up to. If we start wearing teabags on our head and carrying automatic weapons to protests can we be invited back to the discussion table?

Racist Overcompensation

Why do so many Americans have a distain for truth? There are so many items I could mention here but the one I'll focus on here is the truth about race in our nation.

From the Texas School Board changing the name of slavery to "Atlantic Triangular Trade" in their school books, to Glenn Beck hosting a rally on the same date and place as MLK's famous speech to South Carolina celebrating their secession, (while claiming secession had nothing to do with slavery), it's really alarming how much a large portion of our nation is trying to erase the success of human rights and civil rights in this country.

From the smearing of Shirley Sherrod as a racist all the while ignoring her inspiring story which emerged from an era when institutionalized racism against black farmers was all too real, to the vilification of ACORN with a slanderous and fictional video, to hyped claims about a rising New Black Panthers movement there is an obvious attempt at elevating the idea of reverse racism as a national issue.

One word sums up all the attempts at revising our nation's history and understanding of racial issues is this:

Overcompensation n. An attempt to make up for a character trait by overexaggerating its opposite.

Also known as: Projection, appropriation, narcissism, ignorance.

The conservatives out there who are claiming reverse racism while revising the history of institutionalized and real racism are suffering from the most common traits of denial and lying: The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you. The guilty person gets defensive. The guilty person will deflect the issue and tell stories that are deliberately aimed at not answering the question you asked. And, the guilty person will reverse the accusation.

A perfect example was this "discussion" with Tea Party promoter Sal Russo on "Hardball" trying to change the subject when discussing Michele Bachmann's ridiculous claims on the Founding Fathers' supposed efforts at eradicating slavery.



Bachmann claims:

"The very founders that wrote those documents [The Constitution] worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."

As anyone with at least a few years of education will recall the Civil War was almost 100 years after "those documents" were written. And, as anyone with a bit more book learning will tell you, those founders owned slaves too. (Though, Bachmann also claims our nation was founded as a Christian nation so this isn't the only issue she gets totally wrong in early American history).

I can understand why people would want to make themselves think their distain for truth and other human beings is justified and that past atrocities committed in our name never happened but I find it really hard to believe that their efforts seem to actually work. How their listeners can go along with such obvious lies and live in such ignorance of our history is as fascinating as it is frightening. History has a way of repeating itself if it is not remembered and learned from. Just as Holocaust deniers are shunned from a civil conversation, deniers of slavery and institutionalized racism should be shunned as well.

All the political discussions of our economic policies, foreign affairs and social services have valid and important arguments from both conservative and liberal circles but the opinions of people so deluded about the world they live in cannot be taken as anything more than what they are: The opinions of an ignorant person. We wouldn't take medical advice from an anti-vaccine crusader or a pharmaceutical marketing team, infrastructure advice from an anarchist or nutritional advice from an anorexic so why do voters, TV news watchers and a large percentage of Americans listen to these people?

Just like so many issues in this nation, race and our handling of its effects on society need to be discussed by sincere people if we are to continue along our proud journey of elevating the human condition so lets stop supporting the voices of people who prefer a time when women, minorities and the poor were oppressed. And if anyone feels threatened by the reverse racism of hostile words or affirmative action I'd recommend picking up a book or traveling to one of many oppressive places on the planet to learn what real oppression is.

A Message from the Republican Party

A short and simple message for the unemployed, working families and anyone not in the top 2% financial bracket.

GOP Rebranding 101

Old: Republican Party
New: Tea Party

The most recent major rebranding success comes in the form of the non-existent "Tea Party" and it's supposed wins in the mid-term elections.

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Why would the Republicans need a rebranding?

"Trickle Down Economics"
After 30 years of conservative fiscal policies the average income of the bottom 90% in America from 1980-2008 increased 1% compared to the previous increase of 74.6% from liberal fiscal policies 1950-1980.

War in Afghanistan officially nation's longest war
Yeah, Vietnam can be argued to have started in 1961 but it wasn't official until 1964. By that measure our war in Iraq began in 1991. And there's still no end in sight for Afghanistan or Iraq.

Largest Redistribution of Wealth in Nation's History
An all around awful plan by a Republican Treasury Secretary signed into effect by President Bush.

And so many more things like: lying to get us into Iraq then bungling both wars for years; Hurricane Katrina failures of leadership; the Terri Shiavo fiasco; under-equiping troops at war; moral hypocrisy of Vitter, Craig, Ensign, Sanford, Foley and others; spying on all Americans and granting Telecom immunity from the Constitutional protection of privacy; legitimizing torture as an American value; unaccounted billions of dollars lost to war profiteers; attempting to privatize Social Security... and on and on...

So, with this much needed rebranding how legitimate is the "Tea Party" as an actual political party? Let their own words speak for themselves:

"When a group lists themselves on our website, that's a group," Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, told the Post. "That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence – we don't know."

It will be interesting to see if the new Tea Party has succeeds in reversing the comically obscene failure of "fiscal conservatives" to do anything but inflate the federal debt and size to record levels each time they're in power. My money is on them forgetting what they stood for once they have power.

Wicked

When did Christians stop fearing and start following witches?
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UPDATE: Well, I guess these ladies have another thing in common aside from witchcraft and Jesus - they've both lost elections now.

An Apology on Iraq... Finally

"My fellow Americans: I'm a pundit, not a president, but since it's a moment for taking stock of America's role in Iraq, I want to remind you that I blew it." - Matt Miller, The Washington Post

I've been waiting for such an apology for years from the people who worked the PR campaign for the lead-up to war. It's good to hear one finally.

It takes courage to admit such an enormous error of judgement and while it may not fix any of the damage done to our nation and Iraq through the past long years of war, divisiveness and fear, it may help lead to some progress in preventing mistakes like this and possibly even some healing of our broken 4th estate.

I've been angered for years every time one of the "chattering class" speaks of faulty intelligence, being mislead or whatever else the excuse may be. How could a small journalistic enterprise like McClatchy get it right and everyone else get it wrong? How was I able to read about the lack of WMD and a nearly prophetic analysis of the debacle that awaited us from a book in my local bookstore called "Behind the Invasion of Iraq" by The Research Unit for Global Economy (a think tank in India) almost six months before the invasion and yet almost no one in the mainstream media in America was clued in to the peril that awaited us?

Was it laziness? Was it corruption? Whatever the reason is, to me it's unforgivable.

Thousands of American lives lost, tens of thousands injured and more psychologically traumatized. The true financial cost of the war is unknown but in these times of skyrocketing deficits it's a cost we didn't need. Our massively privatized military industry is a threat to peace for generations because any industry that's bottom line is based on continued instability is a curse for humanity.

And what about Iraq? After losing hundred of thousands in the Iran/Iraq War (which Reagan gamed by selling weapons and strategies to both Iraq and Iran), a brief yet destructive war under Bush Sr., a decade of draconian sanctions under Clinton which was responsible for hundreds of thousands more deaths (Madeline Albright claimed it was "worth it") and now the past 7 years of war. With hundreds of thousands more dead, millions displaced and fled to other countries, an infrastructure in ruins and a non-functioning government it will be generations before Iraq can heal from our intrusions there.

Again, I thank Mr. Miller for his apology. It is one I've been waiting to hear for years and has inspired this long diatribe I needed to get off my shoulders. I only hope his words will have an influence on all the other champions and architects of this war. What have they achieved that they are so proud of? Allowing Iraq to become a training ground for terrorists? Helping install a government with ties to Iran? Or the billions in taxpayer dollars redistributed to war-profiteers and warlords?

Please, take these lessons you've learned Mr. Miller and do everything in your power to correct the attempts at revisionist history and future calls for unnecessary wars.

Oil Money

Money may not clean up the spill but it will make it go away for BP.

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Deadbeat Deity

After receiving $5 million in incentives from the South Carolina state government, "Inspiration Network" has failed to deliver on it's promises.

Condos. Shops. Outdoor concerts. Internships to prepare students for careers in broadcasting. All were to be part of the Inspiration Networks' 93-acre City of Light.

More than five years after unveiling its plans, however, Inspiration has delivered on few of its development promises, leaving Lancaster officials disappointed as they try to revive a county with 19 percent unemployment.

Today, the City of Light campus is home to two buildings _ both nonprofit projects that don't pay county property taxes.

So, has Inspiration fallen on hard times? After expenses Inspiration's net profit was between $4.2 million and $11.9 million from 2002-2006. Compensation for officers and directors grew from $1.5 million to $5.9 million over the same period of time. Check the numbers here. Yet, with all that money they still felt the need to take $5 million in incentives from taxpayers.

Inspiration Network's mission statement reads: "Our mission is to impact the destiny of people and nations for Christ through media." Thus, implicating Christ himself in their greed scheme.

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On a similar note:

”Foreclosures Don’t Spare House of God" and ”In Hard Times, Houses of God Turn to Chapter 11 in Book of Bankruptcy.” The headlines make God sound like a deadbeat debtor, the kind of deity who buys an expensive house and quickly falls behind on payments.

It's beginning to look more and more like we are a Christian Nation after all.

Moral Authority "Laughable"

Three American journalists have recently been imprisoned in Iran and North Korea.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested and sentenced in a closed court to 8 years in prison for spying in Iran.

North Korea said this week that it would put the two American journalists (Laura Ling and Euna Lee) on trial, and suggested that they could face years in a prison camp.

Our government and human rights groups are working hard for their release and concerned for their treatment.

The response has been humbling:

North Koreans scoffed at any suggestion that the Americans were receiving harsh treatment.
"They laughed. 'We are not Guantanamo.'

Iranian judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters, "That a [U.S.] government expresses an opinion without seeing the indictment is laughable."

How can they find our concerns so "laughable"? Maybe because of the case of Sami al-Haj.

Pakistani forces apparently seized al-Haj at the behest of the U.S. authorities who suspected he had interviewed Osama bin Laden.

But that "supposed intelligence" turned out to be false.

"This is wonderful news, and long overdue," said Clive Stafford Smith who has represented al-Haj since 2005.

Al-Haj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the U.S did not make public its full allegations against him.

Al-Haj was the only journalist from a major international news organization held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered U.S. officials.

For six years, an innocent man was imprisoned with no charges, no trial, constantly shifting allegations, brutal treatment, no visits with family and not even a phone call home... by the U.S. government.

Sami al-Haj's response to his imprisonment is worth thinking about:

”My last message to the US administration is that torture will not stop terrorism — torture is terrorism.”

But even more important considering the fate of three of our own journalists are the words from The Committee to Protect Journalists:

"His detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas."

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UPDATE:
Roxana Saberi was set free after an appeals court reduced her punishment to a two-year suspended sentence. So, Iran allows actual trials and appeals to their enemy combatants... And they're the "evil" ones?