Atlantic Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times

European Friends Write: "Are You Americans Crazy?"

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:56:37 -0500

by Bernard Weiner

Dear Wolfgang and Jacqueline:

Yes, I know that you and other European friends are, as you put it, "totally confused" by what's happening here in the U.S. right now. Welcome to the club. I wish I could answer all your questions about America's current political/economic crisis with definitive certainty. But the situation is moving real fast, with one disaster after another, and with politicians flip-flopping all over the place.

As a result, it's difficult to know precisely what's going on, but I'll do the best I can. Here are my responses to your italicized questions about McCain, Obama, the financial crisis and bailout, and electoral corruption:

1. BEYOND THE "CRAZY" FACTOR

"Bush, with his policies and wars, has nearly wrecked the U.S. Constitution and economy and America's moral standing abroad. We don't understand why your John McCain, so closely associated with the Bush policies that brought these disasters upon your country and the world, should be nearly even in the polls with Obama. Have you guys gone crazy?"

Short answer: Everyone goes "crazy" for awhile now and again. European history is also replete with such examples. In the American TV age, celebrity trumps experience: We feel we "know" these candidates, since we've seen them on the big screen or had them in our living-rooms nearly every night. In recent years, don't forget, we elected a Grade-B movie actor as president (Ronald Reagan). We elected a professional wrestler and a professional bodybuilder as governors (Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger). We elected a song-and-dance man a U.S. Senator (George Murphy). By and large, those experiments didn't turn out well and did great damage to the body politic, but the fascination with celebrity is still there.

As to why McCain is nearly even with Obama in the polls, part of the explanation is that racism is alive and well in the U.S. A healthy chunk of the electorate, maybe 10% (and much higher in some states, especially in the South), simply will not vote for a black man. Sometimes, they're quite open about their reason for not...

Cheney's Testimony in Valerie Plame Leak Case Classified, DOJ Says

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:51:25 -0500

by Jason Leopold

The Department of Justice, in refusing to release Vice President Dick Cheneys interview transcript with the special prosecutor who investigated the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson said for the first time last week that contents of Cheneys interview have been classified.

In a letter sent Thursday to Citizens of Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the government watchdog group that filed a Freedom of Information Act request last month seeking access to the transcript, the DOJs Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) said the documents have been withheld, in due part, because it contains information protected from disclosure by the National Security Act.

We are withholding the records...because they are protected by the deliberative process, presidential communications, and law enforcement investigative privileges, states the Sept. 18 letter sent by OLC attorney Paul Coborn to CREW chief counsel Anne Weissman. We are also withholding them...because the records were compiled for law enforcement purposes and their production could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. The Department is concerned that releasing the records could interfere with future Department investigations by discouraging voluntary cooperation.

Finally, we are withholding portions of the records...because they are classified and contain information protected from disclosure by the National Security Act of 1947.

In a separate development, a federal judge on Saturday ordered Cheney to preserve all documents during his seven years as vice president. CREW sued the vice president challenging Cheney's narrow interpretation of his obligations under the Presidential Records Act, based in large part on his claim that he is not part of the executive branch. In granting CREW's request for a preliminary injunction, the court rejected the arguments of the White House that they were preserving all vice presidential records, which they defined narrowly to include only functions "specially assigned" to the vice president by the president and his duties as president of the Senate.

Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the he House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey in June for Cheneys interview transcript as well a copy the transcript of President George W. Bushs interview with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and the grand jury testimony of Karl Rove, Bushs former top aide.

But Mukasey did not state that...

he Secret War With Iran - Book Review by Jim Miles

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:43:03 -0500

Tby Jim Miles

The Secret War With Iran. Ronen Bergman. Free Press (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2008. [Translated from Nekudat Haal Chazor]

If one knew little about the Middle East and its many strands of religious, political, military, and strategic interests, this seemingly well written work would have the reader believing that Israel is the altruistic good guy although making tactical mistakes in its counter terrorist endeavours and the Iranians are the cause of all the atrocities in the Middle East. In the epilogue Ronen Bergman indicates that he began researching this book in order to uncover and make sense of the secret war that has been ongoing between Israel and Iran, and to place the eventsin their historical context. If that is what he intended to do, then this work fails completely.

The major fault with The Secret War With Iran is exactly that, one of context. It is a fault that puts this book squarely in the genre of blatant apologetics and rhetoric exhorting the Americans to attack Iran. The contexts not revealed in the text are several. The main hidden context being the reasons for much of the Middle Easts anger at Israel, the ongoing occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territories. This uses many guises from outright military force, imprisonment, torture, house demolition, through to the subtler and yet more psychologically abusive tactics of land expropriation, marriage laws, and a multitude of other laws that make it impossible for the Palestinian people to have a home and a culture. Only once in the work do I recall the word occupation being used, with the implication otherwise that the Israeli military is in Palestinian territory to stop the terrorists, not to ethnically cleanse the territory for Jewish Zionist settlers. [1]

The United States is mentioned frequently with the final commendation being that Israels considerable contribution to Americas endeavors to make the world a better place must be acknowledged. I would consider that an outright lie, unless...

Obama Americas Second Chance or is it its Last?

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:36:20 -0500

by Maher Osseiran

I was asked to write a follow up analysis to The Clintons Contributions to the Iraq War, which showed the continuity of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East spanning one Republican and two Democratic presidential administrations and how they paved the way for Bush II to invade Iraq.

Since McCain will not be our next president, this article will strictly deal with an Obama presidency and how Obama will fit within this continuity of US foreign policy.

By examining the Obama foreign policy team, during the primaries, and in its latest version, announced in June of 2008 after he became presumptive candidate; an assessment of the teams contributions to American foreign policy through the decades will help us accurately predict their future war plans.

At least this is how things started, but as I went deeper into the analysis, Brzezinski came to the forefront and Obama faded away. As I was finishing this follow-up, I stumbled upon Webster G. Tarpleys excellent work The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate.

the Illinois Senator is a synthetic Manchurian candidate who has been concocted over a period of two decades or more by a political intelligence faction associated with the Zbigniew Brzezinski clanW.G. Tarpley, Feb. 19, 2008

From the little that I have read, if my analysis has similarities with Mr. Tarpleys work, it should be looked at as an independent confirmation from a geopolitical perspective into how Obama, through Brzezinski, would operate on the international stage.

Brzezinski and the Neocons

On my part, I could not complete this task without reading Second Chance, a book written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obamas earliest advisor during the primaries that spanned the same period and the same administrations I had already reviewed in relation to the Iraq war.

We also need to keep in mind that Brzezinski had written The Grand Chessboard American Primacy and its Geopolitical Imperatives an American foreign policy...

Colombia: the High Cost of Free Trade

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:29:46 -0500

by James McEnteer

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe came to Washington last week along with a huge retinue to lobby Congress - seeking a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. He picked a bad time. Legislators were preoccupied with the meltdown of financial markets. But Congress may reconvene after the November to deal with fiscal questions. And in that lame duck session, with nothing to lose and nobody watching, lawmakers may decide to approve a free trade pact with Colombia

The Bush White House has pushed hard to get the deal approved. In a fact sheet press release the Bush administration calls the agreement essential to our national security. Not only will the free trade pact bring economic gains for both countries but it will send a clear message to the region.

But like the pre-Iraq war intelligence, the facts in the White House version of Colombian events have been bent to fit the policy. Bush claims that Under the leadership of President Uribe, Colombia has been a strong and capable partner in fighting drugs, crime and terror. In reality, despite billions of U.S. dollars earmarked under Plan Colombia to fight illegal drugs, more cocaine than ever is cultivated and exported to the United States from that country.

Though ineffective in eliminating cocaine production, the eradication campaign has driven millions of small farmers from their land. Colombia has more than two million internal exiles, citizens displaced from their traditional farmlands, impoverished and forced to move to cities. Fumigation has also caused major environmental degradation in many prime agricultural areas.

Uribes crime fighting has also been disastrous. With the assassination of Alexander Blanco Rodriguez in front of his co-workers on August 26, more union members have been murdered in 2008 (41) than in all of 2007 (39). More trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in the past five years than in the rest of the world combined. Chiquita Brands recently paid a $ 25 million fine...

Our Republic Raped and Still No Revolution!

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:52:53 -0500

by Joel S. Hirschhorn

Are Americans ready for a revolution? What worse than the current meltdown of the financial sector, the unraveling of our economy, and burdening us and future generations with astounding debt is needed to convince Americans that the two-party plutocracy has sold out ordinary Americans? What we are witnessing is far worse than the taxation without representation that spurred the American Revolution. Taxation with MISrepresentation is a greater evil and shameful sellout of democracy that so many Americans have fought and died for.

Yet, despite over 80 percent of Americans saying that the nation is on the wrong track BEFORE the current financial crisis, Americans sheepishly seem ready and willing this year to keep voting for Democrats and Republicans. If they had one shred of the smartness and courage of our nations Founders, they would overwhelmingly vote for third party presidential candidates to send the clearest and most patriotic message possible to the ruling class that has both major parties in their pocket.

Ousting Democrats and Republicans is more justified and needed than removing the tyranny of the King of England. Our elected domestic tyranny operating as a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy has been raping our nation. Yet middle class victims seem more than willing to keep bending over and asking for more pain and insult as they fall hook, line and sinker for the lies of both Barack Obama and John McCain.

It is far too easy, with the financial sector meltdown, for Americans to only blame Republicans. But Bill Clinton started the deregulation of the financial sector and every evil and stupid thing George W. Bush and Republicans have done could not have happened without the cooperation of corrupt and cowardly Democrats in Congress. They too have inflicted economic sodomy on us and contributed to disgracing our Constitution.

What incredible absurdity that the government seems ready to spend $700 billion to bail out countless crooked, mismanaged and greedy companies (and similar money on the Iraq war) and...

Financial Crashings: Too Few Christians?

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:28:32 -0500

by Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon (Hebrew: גלעד עצמון‎, born June 9, 1963) is a jazz musician, author and anti-Zionist activist who was born in Israel and currently lives in London. He was born a secular Israeli Jew in Tel Aviv, and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His service in the Israeli military convinced him Israel had become a militarized state controlled by religious extremists. He emigrated from Israel to London at age 32.

John Reynolds ends his latest Observer commentary on the ethical implications of the current economic disaster with the following words:

Above all we need more individuals to make a stand. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York should go further and call for more Christians to work in the city. (John Reynolds, chief executive of Reynolds Partners, and chairman of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group, The Observer 28.9.08).

One may wonder what Reynolds refers to when calling for more Christians to work in the City. I tend to believe that more than just a few people out there do understand pretty well what Reynolds is suggesting. Reynolds, the chairman of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group protests against the non-ethical spirit that has been abundant in the City for more than a while. By pleading the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to send more Christians to the City he may try to suggest to us that our financial world must be spiritually de-Judified. I must admit that it took me by complete surprise to read such a suggestion in the politically correct Guardian. I wonder how it happened that such an idea filtered through.

Two months ago - I took the task of elaborating on this very issue in front of the Cambridge Forum. The following presentation is an effort to disentangle the horrifying tribal plot that accidentally led towards the destruction of the American Empire and Western financial hegemony.

Gilad Atzmon Talks About The Credit Crunch at Cambridge Forum (16/9/08)

Free speech not safe from attack by Canadian media corporation

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:03:10 -0500

by Robert Jensen

When the bottom line is threatened, corporations typically show little concern for holding the line on political principles such as freedom of expression. In capitalism, freedom is too often just another word for maximizing profits.

But even when we have no illusions about the predatory nature of modern corporate capitalism, theres something particularly disheartening when a media corporation abandons free-speech principles. Journalists are supposed to be the good guys on freedom of expression, right? If for no other reason than self-interest, shouldnt media managers support these principles?

Yes, but apparently not when ideology gets in the way, as seems to be the case at Canadas largest media corporation.

CanWest owner of newspaper, television, and online properties, including one of the countrys national dailies and a TV network is trying to use trademark law to punish political activists free speech in a classic SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation).

This case is relatively simple: CanWests founder, Izzy Asper, was a vocal supporter of Israel, (hes been quoted as telling the Jerusalem Post, In all our newspapers, including the National Post, we have a very pro-Israel position. we are the strongest supporter of Israel in Canada.) and CanWest papers have maintained that ideological commitment since Aspers death in 2003.

To highlight this pro-Israeli slant in CanWest papers, the Palestine Media Collective produced a parody of the Vancouver Sun that included such stories as Study Shows Truth Biased against Israel, By CYN SORSHEEP. As with most parodies, some of the attempts are clever and some fall flat. But theres no way to not recognize it as a parody. (You can see for yourself by reading online at http://www.straight.com/article-144790/emfrankem-challenges-CanWest?#)

Because the folks who produced the parody were anonymous (theyve since stepped up to identify themselves publicly), CanWest sued the printer and another activist who had passed out a few copies, Mordecai Briemberg, claiming a trademark violation. Such a suit is legitimate only when the plaintiff...

Remembering Edward Said Five Years On

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:44:40 -0500

by Stephen Lendman

Born in West Jerusalem in 1935. Exiled in December 1947. Said was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1991, a malignant cancer of the bone marrow and blood. At 6:45AM on September 25, 2003, he succumbed (at age 67) after a painful courageous 12 year struggle. Tributes followed and resumed a year later. In a testimony to his teacher, Professor Moustafa Bayoumi called him "indefatigable, incorruptible, a humanist and devastatingly charming....leav(ing behind) legions of followers and fans in every corner of the world. I am lost without him....I miss him so."

Chomsky called his death an "incalculable loss." A year later, Ilan Pappe said "his absence seems to me still incomprehensible. What would have happened if we still had Edward with us in this last year....another terrible (one) for the values (he) represented and causes he defended." Tariq Ali referred to his "indomitable spirit as a fighter, his will to live, (my) long-standing friend and comrade," and described his ordeal:

"Over the last eleven years one had become so used to his illness - the regular hospital stays, the willingness to undergo trials with the latest drugs, the refusal to accept defeat - that (we thought) him indestructible." Leukemia kills, and in response to Ali's questions, his doctor said there was "no medical explanation for (his) survival." No doubt Dr. Kanti Rai made a difference. Said spoke of him reverentially - of his "redoubtable medical expertise and remarkable humanity" that kept him going during his darkest times, and there were many. He later described months in and out of the hospital, "painful treatments, blood transfusions, endless tests, hours and hours of unproductive time spent staring at the ceiling, draining fatigue and infection, inability to do normal work, and thinking, thinking, thinking."

Yet, as Ali recounted, in the end the "monster (overpowered him), devouring his insides (but when) the cursed cancer finally took him the shock was intense." Palestinians had lost their "most articulate (and powerful) voice....(he's) irreplaceable."

Veteran Palestinian-American journalist Ramzy Baroud agrees. He called 2003 a bad time for Palestinians to lose one...

Report from Planet Reality

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:40:51 -0500

by Robert Fantina

Here on Planet Reality we take great pleasure in watching the U.S. political system in action. We greatly appreciate that, every four years, a wide variety of people, ranging from the moderately qualified to the total buffoon, announce their candidacy for the most powerful office in the world, and then spend millions of dollars trying to purchase votes, as they all run around criticizing each other without making any constructive statements.

After about two years, the numbers of those who have either run out of money or ego increases, and the number of candidates (or should that be comedians?) is greatly reduced. But we are not made sorrowful by this; those that remain often achieve the highest level of bizarre humor as the so-called election approaches. We take great delight, and even give odds, on seeing whether or not the voice of the small percentage of people who actually vote will be heard, or if the courts will step in and appoint someone of their own choosing.

But be that as it may, we are currently having a wonderful time. We have watched in glee as the Republican Party, which appears to our interpretation to be the representatives of the wealthy, and apparently unaware that anyone making under half a million dollars annually even exists, completed their nominations. Their selection for president is Senator John McCain, an elderly gentleman who seems to answer any and all questions with either a blank stare, a combination of words that, singly, have meaning, but when strung together do not, or often, and most bizarrely, a reference to his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He even conjured up that old saw when asked about his taste in music.

But his crowning achievement came when he selected his running mate. We had watched with interest as speculation grew as to whom the old man would select. Would it be former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who looks more suited to be maitre d at a fancy New York restaurant than a vice president? Perhaps Connecticut...

Why Bluff Martial Law?

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:24:59 -0500

by Zahir Ebrahim

The bailout Bill passed the House in its second vote, as predicted by Project Humanbeingsfirst that it would, just a few moments ago, 263 to 171. President Bush immediately signed it into law on Friday afternoon, asserting:

By coming together on this legislation, we have acted boldly to prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country,

CNN Money reported that Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., stated in a statement before the vote:

We're on the cusp of a complete catastrophic credit meltdown. There is no liquidity in the market. We are out of time. Either you believe that fact, or you don't. I do.

I suppose I do too. This is indeed a genuine crisis. The ordinary American stands to not only lose his shirt and her skirt, but also their comfortable lifestyles, and their meager lifesavings.

But it is also a manufactured crisis. And those pushing this particular bailout solution are the same peoples who deliberately manufactured the crisis. And subsequently, deliberately manipulated and shrunk the money and credit available to the public to substantiate the scare-mongering pressure that was being applied by their insiders in Congress.

Thus the same constituencies who had earlier called in to urge a NO vote on the Bill, may very well have called in to urge a YES revised vote. Only data available later will reveal the success of this Edward Bernays style public psyop whether a majority of Congress persons changed their votes only due to the insiders' gun to their head, or whether they also had a face-saving rescue from their constituencies getting scared off by Wall Street action. The banks have sufficient liquidity to lend to each other, but not to the Main Street public in the guise of being wary of bad debt, as noted by CNN Money:

For the past two weeks, lending between banks and between banks and businesses has gotten considerably more expensive. Small businesses are having trouble getting...

OBAMA: CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN - NOT

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:17:04 -0500
by Kéllia Ramares

Part One

Part 1. The Economy

It is often said that you are known by the company you keep. If that is true, then progressive voters should familiarize themselves with at least some of Sen. Barack Obama's advisers and fundraisers, and by this I don't mean Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I mean the real movers and shakers who are the answer to the question: "How does a young, black, first term Senator rise so quickly in politics so as to be standing at the threshold of the White House?" You will see that those who made it possible are

not Weather Underground, or vociferous ministers, but are the people who will insure that Barack Obama will not make any fundamental changes to the way the United States does its business - here or abroad.

The Religion of the Free Market

The Democratic presidential candidate's chief economic advisor is Austan Goolsbee of the University of Chicago, an economist described by author Naomi Klein as "on the left side of a spectrum that stops at the center-right."1 Goolsbee is very much a home town pick, and not merely because he and Obama both live in Chicago. Obama taught at the law school of the University of Chicago for a decade, and, as Klein says, "is thoroughly embedded in the mind set known as the Chicago School."2 The Chicago School's long time "Headmaster" was the late Nobel Prize-winning monetarist Milton Friedman, who made a secular religion of "the free market." According to Klein, Goolsbee qualifies as a leftist in this group because he acknowledges inequality as a problem. But his answer to it is more education.3 Sound familiar? During his years in the White House, Bill Clinton emphasized retraining for the people who were losing their manufacturing jobs to "downsizing." But, besides the difficulties...

Lies from the Corporate Political Parties

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:12:44 -0500
by Timothy V. Gatto

The thing about me is that I dont care much for labels. I know what works and what doesnt, and that has only come with age and experience, and by having been in many countries throughout the world. I dont have an MBA or a PHD, but I manage to understand whats happening. I have a few friends who are economists and they have filled me in on the blank spots. Right now, my friends are telling me that this country is much worse off than the media would like you to believe.

The current national debt is 10 Trillion dollars. We have outsourced much of our industries, we no longer make steel and Detroit is on the ropes and the airlines are failing. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, the largest financial institutions are losing value and you could realistically say that they re in free-fall. It doesnt take a MBA to figure out that this country cant keep the status quo if the paychecks of ordinary workers have the McDonalds golden arches as a watermark. Were not going to see huge amounts of capital infused by Wal-Mart workers. The truth is that this nation doesnt make much of anything to sell on the world market; about the only thing this country makes anymore is war.

Then we have the two Presidential candidates that have spent almost a billion dollars between them to garner a job that only pays $400,000.00. The impetus isnt the salary however; its the power of being the Chief Executive of The United States of America. It seems that the winner of this contest will end up being the leader of cash register operators, burger flippers, labor pool workers and department store clerks. Those arent bad jobs and if you happen to have one of those jobs, consider yourself lucky, there are hundreds of thousands out there that have no jobs.

This, according...

Bread and Roses: - U.S. Democracy: What a Farce!

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:39:27 -0500
by Jennifer Lynne Ziemann

Are you living abroad and a U.S. citizen? Why do we do it? Well, unless you are in the military or you are working for the corporate interests of the United States, pardon me, I guess that is a bit of an oxymoron because if you are in the military then you are working for the corporate interests of the United States of America. Okay, lets rephrase that: Unless you are working for the corporate interests of the United States then your life abroad probably has to do with the fact that you are not too pleased with the current U.S. political policies. In fact, displeased is probably an understatement.

Currently, I am living and working abroad and I do not work for a U.S. corporation. I am seeking a better way to live and have plopped my ass down in Costa Rica, the Switzerland of Central America unless they pass CAFTA in which neutrality would become a hard position to maintain since it would leave them beholden to U.S. corporate interests. Costa Rica has no standing army and provides healthcare for all of its citizens just to mention a few of their positive attributes. On the Caribbean coast a lifestyle exists that is not driven by capitalismyet. It is not paradise and I still have much to learn about their government, but hey, no standing army, how cool is that?

Recently, I have been asked by a variety of expats if I have registered to vote abroad. I reply no and here is the general conversation that inevitably follows that answer:

Well you still got time; here I can show you where to go online.

I mean, no, I do not intend to vote.

Well, you dont want McCain to win do you?

No,...

The Palin- Biden Debate: High Time to Move Beyond Clichés

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:25:14 -0500
by Ramzy Baroud

One should rightly assume that the weight of the US financial crisis, the full impact of which is just beginning to unravel, and the widening military debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, would compel new thinking amongst leading US politicians. And then again, maybe not.

Aside from tactical and rhetorical differences, presidential candidates and their vice-president-hopefuls are yet to strictly champion and act upon a truly different leadership strategy: Barack Obamas current foreign policy visions are more or less those of President Bush in his second term. Republican candidate John McCain, however, advocates a less solid and increasingly confusing set of principles: he strives to distance himself from a discredited, unpopular president, position himself as a man of experience and resolve, yet pander to the religious right and defend a hawkish strategy that is no less destructive than that championed by the neoconservative-designed Bush Doctrine, which led to two major wars and a near-complete loss of US credibility and leadership abroad.

More alarmingly however, are both candidates choices for their vice president. Obama, who has repeatedly cornered his old rival Hilary Clinton with the tireless accusation that, unlike him, she is a Washington-insider, has chosen Senator Joe Biden, the embodiment of what partisan politics is all about, and someone who, prior to his candidacy, seemed much closer to McCains views, than to those of Obama. On the other hand, McCain, in an apparent game of wit, picked Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate, a poor choice by any count, simply because he wished to exploit Obamas fallout with a supposedly disgruntled female constituency following the defeat of his Democratic rival, Clinton.

Back to the seemingly odd choice of Biden. Columnist Susan Abulhawa rationalized Obamas decision. Biden, the self-proclaimed Zionist, assuages Israeli and Jewish American fears that Mr. Obama might not be so accommodating to Israel. This view was corroborated repeatedly in Israeli media, but most importantly by Biden himself in the first vice presidential debate on October 3. To outdo Palins passionate answer to a question about Israel, where she asserted that a McCain-Palin administration will never allow a second Holocaust, Biden cut to the chase: no...

The End of the Economy

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:28:33 -0500
by Christopher Ketcham

The good news for economy I use the word in its old, perhaps archaic, sense keeps on coming, but we are told the current economic crisis is a tragedy for the nations living standards. Far from it. First of all, lets define economy. What we are hopefully entering is a period of real economy, which means conserving, scaling down, simplifying, saving, spending prudently and wisely and only for the things that one needs. A decent meal of greens and simple protein (I suggest beans and rice and spinach), good drink (Budweiser works wonders), clothes and shoes that last and can be mended for the long haul (try old military surplus and paratrooper boots), shelter that is modest and affordable but functional and not a credit scam. Having a beautiful wife or girlfriend who doesnt like to wear clothing also helps.

But everywhere the consensus trance holds that a slow-down of consumption signals the End Time, the shuttering of hope, chance, freedom. Look no further than how the New York Times spins it from the usual gibberishing oracles: The last few days have devastated the American consumer, says retail consultant Walter Loeb. Americans, avers Loeb, all feel poor. Really? So too we are meant to believe that when consumers get concerned abouttheir country, they need entertainment, per the wisdom of the Entertainment Merchants Association. So too is it amazing how much even these 10-year-old girls are aware that something is going on, the chairman and chief executive of Tween Brands tells us, who has been traveling the country to listen to moms and little girls. And what does the CEO hear? Mom is saying, I cant afford that.

Tragic, darkness at noon, a nightmare I tell you. The reporters in the mainstream press, as dimly discerning as dreamers who know nothing but the dream from which they cant awake, escort us through the envisaged circles of hell of this unaffordable world....

101 ways to get rich without doing anything socially useful

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:51:21 -0500
by William Blum

Why do we have this thing called a "financial crisis"? Why have we had such a crisis periodically ever since the United States was created? What changes occur or what happens each time to bring on the crisis? Do we forget how to make things that people need? Do the factories burn down? Are our tools lost? Do the blueprints disappear? Do we run out of people to work in the factories and offices? Are all the services that people need for a happy life so well taken care of that there's hardly any more need for the services? In other words: What changes take place in the real world to cause the crisis? Nothing, necessarily. The crisis is usually caused by changes in the make-believe world of financial capitalism.

All these grown men playing their boys' games. They create an assortment of financial entities, documents, and packages that go by names like hedge funds, derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, index funds, credit default swaps, structured investment vehicles, subprime mortgages, and dozens of other exotic monetary vehicles. They create all manner of commercial pieces of paper, of no known real or inherent value, backed up by few if any standards. Then they sell these various pieces of paper to the public and to each other. They slice and dice mortgages into arcane and risky instruments, then bundle them together, and sell the packages to those higher up in the pyramid scheme. And some of those engaged in this Wild West buying and selling become millionaires. Some become billionaires. They get Christmas bonuses greater than what most Americans earn the entire year. Is all this not remarkable?

And much of the buying is not done with the buyer's own money, but with borrowed funds; "leveraged", they call it. The pieces of paper sometimes represent commodities, but the actual commodities are not seen, may not even exist; if the seller demanded the buyer's own funds, or the buyer wanted to see the goods, the whole transaction would freeze. They sell "long", expecting the price to rise; they...

Popular Scams of the Rich and Famous

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:50:22 -0500
by Richard Baccus

There are an ever-increasing number of linkages between politicians, big businesses, and rich individuals designed to promote their joint prosperity at the expense of the general public. Money flows in both directions between these players under various pay for play schemes. Because they unfairly absorb federal tax revenue or deprive the general public of legitimately earned benefits, I refer to these schemes as scams'. Most are technically legal' being based upon law or statute, or founded upon government policy and practice, but have been set up in ways designed to benefit favored individuals. In most cases, these practices are promoted by Republican politicians serving their primary clients, rich individuals and big business. Hopefully, in the coming elections, legislators will be chosen which will have the courage to rectify these abuses. The following are just a few of the more popular scams.

Social laws, uncertain as to constitutionality, have been passed to control the general populace, and are generally ignored by those creating them, as evident in many recent court cases. Prostitutes do quite a brisk business during political party conventions, and a madam recently interviewed claimed that the "family values" group, the Republicans, are the the best customers. But all this has been pretty well hidden from public awareness by the establishment media, and grudgingly and belatedly disclosed, if at all, after previously promulgated on blogger sites. This situation was not reported during the 2004 conventions by a single major U.S. media, and I read about it only in foreign news sources, the Guardian and Reuters. So much for the fearless American press! But news media in the U.S . practice self-censorship because they are fully aware of what they can and cannot report. Anything critical of the rich and famous is forbidden.

There has been no effort to contain medical expenses that have caused a great many of the financial problems currently plaguing the U.S. The AMA and ADA have so well financed the campaigns of our legislators that we are now facing multiple financial crises substantially directly cause by health care costs. The 2007 federal government deficit...

Big Brother state reaching new levels of surveillance and depression

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:42:02 -0500
by Roland Michel Tremblay

Where do we need to move now to escape Big Brother, and would the North Pole suffice? I wonder. I came back from work tonight to find a new CCTV camera right outside my door, this is as close as it can be before they install one in the apartment I live in. I live on a lone street in the suburbs of London, there is absolutely no reason to put a camera there.

We can no longer deny that our governments are control freaks, they will not stop until they know everything we all do and say at any given time. This is called paranoia. Why the need for such a police state? What are the authorities really fearing? Great questions.

Lets study the consequences of such a Big Brother policy on all of us, and if really this is something we want in any self-proclaimed democracy. And if we dont want it, why is it still imposed on all of us? Crucial questions.

As soon as you get your birth certificate, we have established your identity. We know your name, your date of birth and where you were born. After that, to get your first identity card or passport, what is required, is simply generally your birth certificate.

Imagine a world without birth certificate, none of us would have an identity. Imagine if none of us had a name and didnt know where we were born and on what day. Sounds weird, but it is a fact for all animals on this planet, except of course our cherish pets which we now microchip and follow online. Only humans have this obsession with identity, identifying, and eventually to track down anything about anyone anywhere on this planet. You will never witness that anywhere in the animal kingdom.

If it were to stop there, it would be easy enough and it would be nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, your birth certificate is simply a login and password to your true...

The Dog Days of September

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:32:13 -0500
by Gary Corseri

Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth.
The unmentionalble odour of death
Offends the September night.

- W.H. Auden, September, 1939

Historians may look back on September, 2008 as Americas economic 9/11. Major financial institutions are collapsingto use a bitter analogy--like the twin towers: first, Bear Stearns (already 6 months ago!); and now, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the insurance giant A.I.G. Just as 7 years ago, we cry out, What hit us? Who did this? Why? Merrill Lynch helped finance the cotton trade before the Civil War! Say it was an essential linch-pin in the rise of the South on the backs of black slaves. Say that free-market, deregulated capitalism is now getting its due; if I am in steerage on the Titanic and I hear that the swells who have been dancing above our heads are about to take a dip in the sea, Schadenfreude doesnt calm my queasy stomach.

NBC begins its broadcast with the news that I am now the proud owner of the worlds largest insurance company. Bull!. If I own something I can determine how to dispense with it; I can decide who will oversee my assets. Obviously, I and millions of other American taxpayers do not own a particle of A.I.G.; were just bailing it out. A.I.G. will be owned by America, Inc. and managed by people very similar to its former managers. The question is, Who owns America, Inc.?

It has become clear by September, 2008 that Americans own less and less. In the past year, hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. Millions no longer own their jobs. Jobs have been shipped overseas by the real owners of America, Inc.our corporate bosses and their political shills. With our jobs went our job-related health care. We do not own our own health in Ws ownership society.

As I write this, some 3 million Americans are without power...

Palestinian Unity: Goal or Mantra?

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:28:10 -0500
by Ramzy Baroud

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa used exceptionally tough language during a Cairo news conference 9 September, when he lashed out at Palestinian factionalism, saying that the League is going as far as studying the possibility of imposing sanctions on quarrelling Palestinians.

"I am extremely angry with the Palestinian organisations... We are studying the measures to be taken in the face of the current Palestinian chaos," he said, after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers. He added, "the sanctions would not be against anyone in particular. They would be against the party which obstructs reconciliation and maybe against everyone or against the organisation which obstructs Egyptian efforts."

Considering Moussa's devoted efforts in the past aimed at solidifying a Palestinian front and generating a semblance of a Arab unity in its support, one can only sympathise with the head of the League's frustration and indeed "extreme anger".

Palestinian disunity, and political if not, geopolitical fragmentation is eroding the Palestinian cause more than all Israeli efforts, walls and military incursions combined. The painful-to-watch televised bickering between representatives of various Palestinian factions has led to confusion among traditionally pro-Palestinian groups worldwide. The political objectives once agreed upon as "constants" and symbols that once united Palestinians everywhere are now wide open for extreme interpretation.

In fact, "respecting the sanctity of Palestinian blood", which for long served as the lowest possible denominator agreed on by every Palestinian grouping, has been violated many times in recent months and years; too many times to count. Repeating the slogan is, at this point, an empty mantra, joining the numerous other mantras that have for long served as a sedative for the hapless masses, whether Arabs, Palestinians or both.

That said, a reality check is also in order. It might be easy for the Arab League to pass a measure or two to sanction Palestinian groups who might be perceived as the ones jeopardising the Cairo talks, whether the ones underway or the larger gatherings scheduled for October. Not even Palestinians would dare criticise the League for practising some brotherly tough love for the sake of the cause of Palestine, which is supposedly the main overriding priority...

Reviewing Danny Schechter's "Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime ...

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:06:29 -0500
by Stephen Lendman

Danny Schechter is a media activist, critic, independent filmmaker, TV producer as well as an author of 10 books and lecturer on media issues. Some call him "The News Dissector," and that's the name of his popular blog on media issues. He's also co-founder of Media Channel.org. It covers the "political, cultural and social impacts of the media," and provides information unavailable in the mainstream.

Schechter's books include Media Wars; Embedded - weapons of Mass Deception; The Death of Media; The More You Watch The Less You Know; and his newest and subject of this review, Plunder. Subtitled: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, Schechter examines the fallout from the current economic and financial crisis. What the mainstream media (MSM) suppresses:

decades of wealth transfers to the rich;

the economy in recession;

the result of multiple imploding bubbles: housing, mortgage finance, and an alphabet soup of SDOs, SIVs, SPVs, and a whole menu of levered-up, high-risk securitized assets amounting to financial alchemy; largely outright fraud;

the risk things may worsen;

from drowning in debt and speculative excess;

bankrupt by some measures;

huge amounts of corruption;

government hiding how bad it is; complicit in it as well;

over one million homeowners foreclosed since summer 2007;

another million are 90 days past due on payments; foreclosures about to go out on them;

three million more potentially in coming months with up to five million total at risk over the next few years in the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression and too little government help provided too late;

rising unemployment;

failing banks;

rising inflation; and

consumers maxed out on credit and strapped by indebtedness the way Schechter portrayed them in his 2006 film titled "In Debt We Trust."

Schechter's book is timely, important, and frightening. He...

Burning the First Amendment

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:02:33 -0500
by Walter Brasch

Got a match?

I didnt know where he came from, but there he was, right behind meas usual. You know I dont smoke, I told Marshbaum. Come to think of it, you dont either. Whats up?

Not much. Planning to roast some marshmallows and hotdogs. Burn some books.

Marshbaum, I commanded. You cant burn books.

Sure I can. All I need is a match. See, first you

Burning books is against everything this country stands for.

Not when the books are evil.

Didnt you ever read anything Jefferson wrote? Our country was founded upon the principle that all views must be heard.

My view is that were going to burn some books to keep them from causing any more trouble.

I could have given Marshbaum a 30-minute lecture about how we no longer have a history of the pre-Columbian Aztec civilization because Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century destroyed the writings of one of the worlds greatest civilizations. I could have given him a few words from philosopher John Stuart Mill who stated, We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion, and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. Maybe a little wisdom from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who told us that democracy is best served in a marketplace of ideas. But, I knew Marshbaum was in no mood to hear philosophy. So, all I said was a sarcastic, I assume you plan to burn everything you think is evil.

Mooseburger Palin agrees with me, said a smug Marshbaum.

Sarah Palin may be a lot of things, I said, but I doubt she believes in burning books.

As mayor of Wasilla, she objected to some books in the library, and then fired the librarian who protested ham-handed attempts to censor books.

Palin said she fired...

Lies and Taxes

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:10:36 -0500
by Tim Buchholz

I am sad today. I am sad for my country, sad that there seems to be little to be done about it. As the campaigns flare up, we have gone beyond the usual slandering and now just turned to out and out lies. I have been following very closely the recent TV appearances by McCain and Palin, and watched the latest ads.

I read every story I can get my hands on, and many say that McCain and Palin are repeating things that have been proven as untrue. From the Jet sold on eBay, the Bridge to Nowhere, denying seeking earmarks, and that Obama is going to raise your taxes. These have all been proven false, and not on left-wing extremist websites, but I find them every day in the Associated Press. The jet was not sold on eBay, they did try to sell it on eBay, but after several attempts, they handed it off to a broker who sold it at a $600,000 loss, plus his fee. The Bridge to Nowhere was part of her campaign for Governor, and only after it became unpopular did she start talking against it, and she kept the money.

There was even a report in todays AP written by Garance Burke called, Palin supports $600 million other bridge project, which just happens to be a bridge and highway project to connect Alaskas largest city with her home town of Wasilla, a small town with 7,000 residents. McCain was on The View last week, and again repeated the lie that Palin didnt seek earmarks, when in fact she sought over $200 Million this year as Governor, according to McCain and Palin castigate the earmarks she seeks, by AP writer Jennifer Loven. But the Straight-talk Express keeps repeating the lines, and they know if they keep saying it, enough people will think it is true.

AP Economics writer Martin Crustinger did a comparison between Obama and McCains tax plans in an article called, Obama and McCain have big economic differences, and found that under Obamas plan, individuals making under...

Crazy?

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:01:30 -0500
by Jayne Lyn Stahl

A recent blog asks its readers to come up with a psychiatric diagnosis for John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, asserting that she could be borderline, bipolar, a sociopath, or any diagnosis of their choosing. The post cites descriptions for all of the pathologies taken from the Physician's Desk Reference.

This got me to thinking... far be it for me to defend Sarah Palin who, frankly, scares the wits out of me, but why is it that all the questions about mental health are landing on her when, for instance, we have a commander-in-chief who claims that he took orders from God to invade, and pummel Iraq, and that he's fighting a "war on terror" against an "axis of evil," (paranoid? schizophrenic? delusional), and a sociopathic Cheney-iac as his veep, who detaches himself from the executive branch whenever he's about to be held accountable for anything, and who allegedly hid out in cellars for months after 9/11.

Yes, and why all these aspersions cast solely on Ms. Palin when her running mate, John McCain, is legendary for his temper, and impulsivity, and who probably is still suffering from PTSD because it was never treated in the first place, (try spending as much time in solitary confinement as he did, and not having anger management issues).

Hell, there are some who find Sarah likable she sure has charisma; she might even come across to some like Ronald Reagan in a dress (if you're Alfred Hitchcock, that is), but where is our sense of outrage at this side show? To say that the Republican Party has, with the nomination of Sarah Palin, managed to trivialize the executive branch, as well as the notion of public service, is an understatement.

Oh, and this, too how about a little gender equity? If her name was Sal, for instance, she might be making sure the trains run on time in Sicily instead of running from the press in Denver, or firing troopers in Anchorage.

Okay, guys, so maybe the broad is a whacko, but she's got a lot of company; yes, some whackos in high places, so why...

The end of (capitalist) history?

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:40:35 -0500
by William Bowles

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Francis Fukuyama published his now utterly discredited book, The End of History, which told of a glorious future, a capitalist paradise, where we would all be rich, eventually, when the wealth unleashed by an unfettered capitalism would trickle down to us in that best of all possible worlds, free market capitalism, where the market would take care of everything.

In an article by arch-conservative Arnoud de Borchgrave, titled Bandit Capitalism? , amazingly, we read of a catalog of disasters that have befallen capitalism since the days of the S&L debacle back in the 80s, yet by some sleight-of-hand, he manages to avoid connecting the dots. From Enron to Worldcom, billions have been siphoned off leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without jobs or pensions.

The Fortune 500 CEOs between them rake in about $5.75 billion dollars each year in salaries, stock options, pensions and so on, with Steve Jobs of Apple siphoning off the highest at $650 million and thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Instead, de Borchgrave presents us with a scenario of a bunch of bandits, crooks, fraudsters, call them what you will, who have taken advantage of a deregulated economy and milked it for all its worth, which is true enough but avoids who did the deregulating in the first place, what is laughably referred to as government, and even more importantly, why the deregulation took place.

There are two, interconnected processes at work here: on the one hand, we have the capitalist economy that inexorably finds its rate of profit falling over time, a process that can only be halted by expanding into new, lower cost production centres, finding new markets, which in turn has facillitated the spread of industrialism which in turn has led to new (and more efficient) competitors eg, China, India.

But in order to do this the leading Western capitalist economies had to deindustrialize, thus new sources of profit had to...

Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers of consequences of mining sacred site

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:11:59 -0500
by Brenda Norrell

A delegation of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota warned Lehman Brothers stockholders of the dire consequences of their actions in 2001. In a rare move, censored by most media, the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers, after it acquired the financial interests of Peabody Coal, of the spiritual consequences of mining coal on sacred Black Mesa and the aftermath of Peabody Coal's machinations that led to the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute.

Lehman Brothers is now in the midst of financial collapse, with its bankruptcy producing a rippling effect throughout the world's economy.

At the time of the Lehman Brothers stockholders meeting in 2001, Arlene Hamilton bought two shares of stocks in Lehman Brothers to pave the way for the delegation to address the stockholders. Hamilton said her life was threatened because of this action. Shortly afterwards, Hamilton was killed in a car crash. Longtime Navajo relocation resister Roberta Blackgoat died in California, where she had gone to attend Hamilton's memorial.

A traditional Hopi was among those addressing the Lehman Brothers stockholders. His admonitions followed those of the late Hopi Sinom elders Thomas Banyacya and Dan Evehema, among the Hopi elders who warned of dire consequences, including natural disasters and worldwide consequences, if Peabody mined coal on Black Mesa and Navajos were relocated from this sacred region. The Hopi Sinom never authorized the establishment of the Hopi Tribal Council, which they referred to as a puppet government of the United States.

The traditional Hopi in the delegation told stockholders, "Lehman Brothers, even though we are just a few here, we speak for the Creator, who is the majority.Therefore we demand you stop the Peabody coal mining and the slurry. We demand again, said the Hopi elder who asked that his name not be published in the media.

"Traditional and priesthood people don't want this mining. The Hopi prophecies say that we have to protect land and life. If we don't protect our beautiful Earth --our Heaven, our Mother, we will suffer with her." He told stockholders that Hopis never signed a treaty with the United States and the current Hopi...

Bolivia: Fascism Seizes Power - Morales Complains

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:03:28 -0500
by James Petras

Bolivian fascists have seized power in five of the richest states in Bolivia, forcefully ousting all national officials, murdering, injuring and assaulting leaders, activists and voters who have backed the national government with total impunity. Ever since Evo Morales was elected President over 33 months ago, the Bolivian far-right has taken advantage of every concession, compromise and conciliatory gesture by the Morales regime to expand their political power, block even the mildest social reforms and paralyze the functioning of the government, through legal maneuvers and gangs of violent street thugs.

While the Bolivian government has used state repression against peasant squatters and striking miners, it remained a passive, impotent spectator to the right-wing seizure of the Constitutional Assembly, the major airfields in Santa Cruz (forcing the President to flee back to his palace), suspending all public transportation, federal tax collection and public investment and projects. Worse still, paramilitary fascist gangs have repeatedly insulted, beaten, stripped and paraded ethnic Indian peasant supporters of President Morales through the main streets and plazas of the capital cities of the provinces they control.

Despite winning nearly 70% of the national vote in the recall election of August 10, 2008, Morales has not taken a single measure to counter the fascist seizure of regional power continuing to plead for dialogue and compromise, as the far right gathers strength and prepares to engage in violent civil warfare against the poor and indigenous Bolivians. The Bolivian government expelled the US Ambassador, Phillip Goldberg, only after the US Embassy actively backed the far rights regional power grab after almost 3 years of open financing and public collaboration with the secessionists. Since the Morales regime did not break relations with Washington, it is likely that a new Ambassadorial appointee will soon arrive to continue Goldbergs active plotting with the far right.

The contrast between the ignominious passivity of the President and the aggressive violent political putsch of the fascist right is striking. The centerpiece of the violent uprising and the successful seizure of fascist power is located in five regional...

Or What I Learned From My Race-Car Grandpa Who Had No Bankers - The Economy of Dead Sperm

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:25:03 -0500
by Christopher Ketcham

My grandfather knew about bankers. With his father, my great-grandfather, he built a machine-shop business in Cleveland, Ohio, based on the idea that you offered a product in the free market machined ball-bearings and such and if there was a demand, you succeeded. My grandfather paid for his house in one of the outlier suburbs of Cleveland, what was then countryside, with cash from his wallet. No mortgage on the house. Id like to imagine my grandfather who drank too much, he was a happy drunk and had to be chased out of bars with a feather, and raced cars in his off-time telling the banker: I have just enough money here for this house to pay everyone but you. The middleman parasite is the heart of economics in the US today, so my grandfather wouldnt have come off well.

He had a barn where he hid Ferraris he was an amateur race car driver and it was the same house that I loved as a child, visiting from New York City every summer. He had a wild old unshaven Model T Ford that he raced around the two-acre property under the cawing of the crows in the big trees, with us kids, the cousins, hanging like pubic hair for dear life and wanting the thing to topple. And ol grandpa would bash the machine into first gear from third and rage the engine and we slivered to right and left on the knoll of his property, the grass getting torn and the neighbors wondering. When I was five years old, a moment Ill never forget, my grandfather had me in the passenger seat of his Ferrari, which he had bought and rebuilt engineer and entrepreneur that he was from someone who couldnt love Ferraris.

So there were we. Blasting. The old man shifting through the gears, the car...

Response to 'How the GOP Turned the US Into a Hideous Police State'

editor@atlanticfreepress.com (Chris Cook) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 06:57:55 -0500
by Zahir Ebrahim

Dear Mr. Len Hart,

As I read through your chilling summation of what's presently transpiring in the real America that most Americans still do not get to see and hear, I feel no sense of gloat or satisfaction; only intense frustration at what this beautiful country has been so very very predictably turned into. It is incoherent to blame it upon the GOP alone. The GOP/RNC represents the same ruling interests as the DEM/DNC. They have the same common financiers and power-wielders, policy-planners and think-tankers - surely you know all this already. Both presidential platforms represent the same imperial mobilization agendas. They differ only cosmetically at best, and perhaps a bit in temporal tactics if at all.

None of what you detail is at all a surprise it was predicted the day FBI visited my home in search of some terrorist, an experience I detail in the first part of my book; and the basis of whatever you have described by scouring all those current newspaper and eyewitness reports, is in the second part of my book. This was in 2003, on the eve of Iraq's invasion. At that time, maximum weekend protest size in America by any reasonable estimate, was less than half a million and then it was back to work in pursuit of the American dream. Today, the protests are far smaller, any mass mobilization non-existent. Whence your optimism: When millions are so motivated, the underpinnings of this dictatorship of less than one percent of the nation will collapse.?

That is like Etienne de La Boetie platitudinously observing in his famous discourse on Voluntary Servitude in 1552 A.D.:

Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose...

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