Sound off: Where the views and opinions of our staff and others are expressed on various topics that relate to Bush

Sound off: Where the views and opinions of our staff and others are expressed on various topics that relate to Bush: "BLOOD IN BEIRUT: $75.05 A Barrel | by Greg Palast | July 26, 2006

The failure to stop the bloodletting in the Middle East, Exxon's record second-quarter profits and Iran's nuclear cat-and-mouse game have something in common -- it's the oil.

I can't tell you how it started -- this is a war that's been fought since the Levites clashed with the Philistines -- but I can tell you why the current mayhem has not been stopped. It's the oil. I'm not an expert on Palestine nor Lebanon and I'd rather not pretend to be one. If you want to know what's going on, read Robert Fisk. He lives there. He speaks Arabic. Stay away from pundits whose only connection to the Middle East is the local falafel stand.

So why am I writing now? The answer is that, while I don't speak Arabic or Hebrew, I am completely fluent in the language of petroleum.

What? You don't need a degree in geology to know there's no oil in Israel, Palestine or Lebanon. (A few weeks ago, I was joking around with Afif Safieh, the Palestinian Authority's Ambassador to the US, asking him why he was fighting to have a piece of the only place in the Middle East without oil. Well, there's no joking now.)

1984! Who would have imagined that history would prove so easy to rewrite in a democratic nation with a free press? 50% believe Saddam had WMD !

Rozius: Paul Krugman: Reign of Error: "Friday, July 28, 2006

Amid everything else that’s going wrong in the world, here’s one more piece of depressing news: a few days ago the Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans now believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when we invaded, up from 36 percent in February 2005. Meanwhile, 64 percent still believe that Saddam had strong links with Al Qaeda.

At one level, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. The people now running America never accept inconvenient truths. Long after facts they don’t like have been established, whether it’s the absence of any wrongdoing by the Clintons in the Whitewater affair or the absence of W.M.D. in Iraq, the propaganda machine that supports the current administration is still at work, seeking to flush those facts down the memory hole.

But it’s dismaying to realize that the machine remains so effective.

Here’s how the process works.

First, if the facts fail to support the administration position on an issue — stem cells, global warming, tax cuts, income inequality, Iraq — officials refuse to acknowledge the facts.

Sometimes the officials simply lie. “The tax cuts have made the tax code more progressive and reduced income inequality,” Edward Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, declared a couple of months ago. More often, however, they bob and weave.

Consider, for example, Condoleezza Rice’s response a few months ago, when pressed to explain why the administration always links the Iraq war to 9/11. She admitted that Saddam, “as far as we know, did not order Sept. 11, may not have even known of Sept. 11.” (Notice how her statement, while literally true, nonetheless seems to imply both that it’s still possible that Saddam ordered 9/11, and that he probably did know about it.) “But,” she went on, “that’s a very narrow definition of what caused Sept. 11.”

Meanwhile, apparatchiks in the media spread disinformation. It’s hard to imagine what the world looks like to the large number of Americans who get their news by watching Fox and listening to Rush Limbaugh, but I get a pretty good sense from my mailbag.
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Whatever the reason, the fact is that the Bush administration continues to be remarkably successful at rewriting history. For example, Mr. Bush has repeatedly suggested that the United States had to invade Iraq because Saddam wouldn’t let U.N. inspectors in. His most recent statement to that effect was only a few weeks ago. And he gets away with it. If there have been reports by major news organizations pointing out that that’s not at all what happened, I’ve missed them.

It’s all very Orwellian, of course. But when Orwell wrote of “a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past,” he was thinking of totalitarian states. Who would have imagined that history would prove so easy to rewrite in a democratic nation with a free press?

We need 100,000 Megaphone users to make a difference. So, please distribute this mail to all Israel's supporters.

The Truth Will Set You Free: 100,000 Whiners for War Crimes: "100,000 Whiners for War Crimes

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called for 100,000 apologists for Israel to spam web sites reporting the Israeli Death Forces' horrors in Lebanon. Just like Israel bombed the UN and bombed the USS Liberty, get ready for Israel Firsters to bomb your web site with Bu**sh**. The following notice is being circulated to potential supporters of Israel's genocide and war crimes:

Please go to www.giyus.org, download the Megaphone, and you will receive daily updates with instant links to important internet polls, problematic articles that require a talk back, etc.

We need 100,000 Megaphone users to make a difference. So, please distribute this mail to all Israel's supporters.

Do it now. For Israel.

Amir Gissin

Director Public Affairs (Hasbara) Department
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs understands that today's conflicts are won by public opinion. They mobilize pro-Israel activists to be active and voice 'Israel's side to the world.' The Megaphone desktop tool, built by Giyus, which means 'mobilization', sends desktop alerts on key articles on Israel and surveys, online polls where activists could click on the button to support Israel and click alerts to easily voice pro-Israel opinions. The tool tracks down online articles and polls that members should act upon. After installing the tool, members receive alerts on those articles. With this tool Israel's Foreign Ministry obviously thought it would help Israel's fight in cyberspace. However, having used this tool, for others, it is quit useful as well. There is also a weblog and a forum."

Report Shows Department of Defense Surveillance of UC Berkeley Students’ Plans to Hold Protest

The Daily Californian: "Government Monitored Anti-War Group E-Mails | BY Kaitlin Anderson | Contributing Writer | Thursday, July 13, 2006"

Newly surfaced government surveillance reports reveal that the U.S. Department of Defense monitored anti-war and anti-military e-mails sent by UC Berkeley students in April.

The students' e-mails contained plans to host a campus protest against the war in Iraq and against the presence of military recruiters on campus.

The reports, released on June 15 following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in January, contained information copied from an e-mail circulated by student group UC Berkeley Stop the War Coalition regarding a protest planned for April 21, 2005 on Sproul Plaza. ..

$1 million Defense Department grant 'to limit the scope of the Freedom of Information Act.'

MySA.com: Metro | State: "Bob Richter: Going after the Freedom of Information Act is a slippery slope | Web Posted: 07/09/2006 12:00 AM CDT | San Antonio Express-News

The Express-News reported Friday that St. Mary's University's Center for Terrorism Law has received a $1 million Defense Department grant 'to limit the scope of the Freedom of Information Act.'

Journalists get slippery-slope worries when we hear the Pentagon wants to alter a law that allows the sun to shine on what politicians and government officials do behind closed doors.

As a federal judge in Michigan (Damon J. Keith) said a couple years ago: 'Democracies die behind closed doors.'" ...

did you know that in April President Bush went to Stanford but was not allowed on campus? students blocked Bush's access

A Republic or an Empire?: "By Paul Craig Roberts

07/09/06 'Information Clearing House' -- -- Gentle reader, did you know that in April President Bush went to Stanford University to speak to the Hoover Institution fellows at the invitation of former Secretary of State George Shultz but was not allowed on campus? The Stanford students got wind of it and blocked Bush's access to the campus. The Hoover fellows had to go to Shultz's home to hear Bush's pitch for war and more war.

A person might think that it would be national news that Stanford University students would not allow the President of the US on campus. It happened to be a day that hundreds of prospective freshmen were on campus with their parents, many of whom joined the demonstration against Bush. I did not hear or read a word about it.

Did you? I learned of it from faculty friends in June when I attended Stanford's graduation to witness a relative receive her degree. The June 16 edition of The Stanford Daily reprints its April 24 report of the episode."

this week the entire conservative movement declared war on the very idea of an independent press.

Media Matters - "Media Matters"; by Paul Waldman: "'A declaration of war

This week, the conservatives declared war.

Not on The New York Times. Not even on the media in general. No, this week the entire conservative movement -- from the White House to Republicans in Congress to Fox News to right-wing talk radio to conservative magazines -- declared war on the very idea of an independent press.

They declared war on the idea that journalists have not just the right but the obligation to hold those in power accountable for their actions. They declared war on the idea that journalists, not the government and not a political party, get to decide what appears in the press. They declared war on the idea that the public has a right to know what the government is doing in our name.

This is a profound threat to our democracy, and we underestimate it at our peril.
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There is a reason the Founders singled out the press for special protection when they wrote the Bill of Rights. It was because they understood that without an independent, free, aggressive, courageous press, democracy itself is impossible. When the government decides who gets to report the news and what they get to say, we no longer live in a free society. When journalists live under threat of prosecution and even violence, we cease to be citizens and become only subjects.

The right has kept the media under constant assault for decades, and the response from the media has been to bend over backward to prove they aren't biased -- by being harder on Democrats. They should have learned long ago that the "liberal bias" charge has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the news. It is a political strategy, a way of "working the ref" and providing easy excuses for public rejection of the right's goals. But what we have seen this week is something qualitatively different.

Given the constant drumbeat of criticism directed at the media from conservatives, it might be easy to dismiss this latest expulsion of bile as just more of the same. But it's worth stepping back to take a look at exactly what has occurred over the past week. Members of Congress have suggested revoking the Capitol Hill credentials of journalists, so that only news organizations that do not displease the ruling party may be permitted to report from Congress. Other members have accused members of the media of "treason" and advocated their prosecution. A conservative television and radio personality suggested that the government establish an Office of Censorship to screen the news. Another said, "I would have no problem with [New York Times editor Bill Keller] being sent to the gas chamber." The House of Representatives passed a resolution saying it "expects the cooperation of all news media organizations."

In short, the right assembled a posse this week -- vigilantes stalking television studios, radio airwaves, print, and the Internet, their apparent goal to revoke the First Amendment. ..

Terrorist attack by Israel - another terrorist attack by Israel, a Palestinian school was hit in Gaza, during a missile salvo against civilian targets

Terrorist attack by Israel - Pravda.Ru: "Front page / Opinion / Columnists | 02.07.2006

Israel commits another act of state terrorism using military hardware against civilian targets. Tel Aviv replies to kidnapping with war crimes. Palestinian school destroyed by Israeli armed forces.

Tel Aviv has lost the propaganda war, the hearts and minds of the international community and the war of intelligence, descending to knee-jerk, primary reactions of the crudest form of violence, playing into the hands of the terrorists on the Palestinian side and proving for many that after all, the Israeli camp is no better – and perhaps even deserves what it gets.

If firing shells at Palestinians enjoying themselves on a beach provoked the kidnapping of the Israeli corporal, responding by kidnapping Palestinian Ministers did nothing to create a situation whereby diplomacy could take over, which is exactly the territory in which the terrorists thrive, as has been seen time and time again in different parts of the globe. Tel Aviv, in failing to see the writing on the wall and in failing to learn the lessons of history, is consigned to defeat in its quest to stubbornly occupy lands that do not belong to Israel and whose occupation goes against international law. If Israel does not abide by international law, why should the Palestinians?

Last night the terrorist attack against the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya’s office in Gaza was paramount to the Palestinians firing Qasim rockets at civilian targets in Israel. What after all is the difference between a Jewish civilian being murdered by a Palestinian terrorist and a Palestinian civilian being murdered by an Israeli soldier or airman?

Bullseye! Israeli terrorist attack destroys school

In another terrorist attack by Israel, a Palestinian school was hit in Gaza, during a missile salvo against civilian targets on Saturday night. For Israel, this was no doubt a successful military operation against terrorist targets. Today a child, tomorrow a terrosist, is that the motto?

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

Right-Wing Blog Asks Readers to "Hunt Down" Info About NYT Editors' Children

Right-Wing Blog Asks Readers to "Hunt Down" Info About NYT Editors' Children |by Hunter | Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 05:44:19 PM PDT

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This, the right-wing bloggers assert, is an intentional "exposure" of Cheney and Rumsfeld to terrorists, done with malice by the New York Times. No, I'm not kidding.

There's only a few problems with this "theory", as Greenwald admirably points out with the help of others in the blogosphere. First, noting the astonishing fact that Cheney and Rumsfeld have vacation homes in St. Michaels is hardly new information. In addition to being public information, it was printed in a similar soft story in the Washington Post last year. So did, in fact, NewsMax -- one of the rightwing outlets now pretending that publishing that information now is treason.

Second, the New York Times printed a similar story in 2003 about the Clinton's Chappaqua home, demonstrating that these puff pieces are, golly gee, done all the time. Guess how many right-wing bloggers had a very public and ceremonially overdressed cow over that one? Yeah.

So essentially, this "affront" to the delicate sensibilities of these overstuffed sausages known as the "right" is a completely bogus story. It's all spin; there's no "there". None. NewsMax itself could tell you where Cheney lived -- they even cited the Washington Post story as their source, in their article.

But here's the nasty part. The "response" the right wing blogs have decided on, as a result of this hidden menace that they and only they can see, is retaliation against the reporters and editors who enabled this story. From one right-wing blog (no link; see Greenwald if you must):

So, in the school of what's good for the goose is good for the gander, we are providing this link so YOU may help the blogosphere in locating the homes (perhaps with photos?) of the editors and reporters of the New York Times.

Let's start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live?

Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous - grab for the golden ring.

Their homes. Their children. Go report on where their kids go to school, and it's "your chance" to "do America a favor". Find out where their kids go to school, so you can "grab for the golden ring".

Yeah. And that particular blogger isn't the only one encouraging such actions, and in fact numerous right-wing blogs have begun to publish the information; phone numbers, street addresses. Maps to get to those houses. And encouragement to grab for that ring. ...