Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for May, 2008

Then and Now

May 20

Posted by Marlena in Afghanistan, Africa, Citizenship, Injustice, Iraq, Israel | No Comments

Here you can see photographs of Palestinians before the state of Israel was ‘declared’. I see dignified people. I see peace.

This photojournalist brings us a view of Gaza today. I hope you will look around his site.In towns across America, the news of somebody’s seriously sick child or the sudden death of a young parent spreads quickly. It’s a tragedy, we all agree, and then we do something to help.

Imagine living in Gaza, or the West Bank, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or many other places throughout the world. These people had lives once, and futures. They eat tragedy, they breathe it, and they sleep it. Day after day, year after year. But who here says it’s a tragedy? Who rushes to help? I think you would if you could see, so please look. I want you to see what I see.

It’s a terrible mistake and an immeasurable injustice to think that other people’s suffering is somehow less than our own. Do you really think people in other lands love their children less than you love yours? Do you really think that little children far away love their parents less than your children love you? On what basis can anyone believe that? Where is the proof?

There is no proof. It’s just a delusion we tell ourselves to justify sacrificing their futures for ours. But there is no future for people who can justify such sacrifice. If you want a future, you must want a future for everybody and live your life accordingly.

Planning Ahead

May 20

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Economy, Iran, Israel, Media, Military, Stupidity | No Comments

Jim Lobe has some analysis of Bush’s remarks to the Knesset. Jim is now more worried than he was before that an attack on Iran might actually happen. As I wrote over at the AA News Page, we are not plumbing the minds of psychologically normal people. You have to always expand the possibilities to include the unthinkable. So yes, I would say it’s a mistake to discount the possibility that Bush would strike Iran, incredibly unwise though that may be. From Lobe (links removed, but go through to his original and read the links):

Adding to my concern was a report by a reliable source that a prominent neo-conservative close to Cheney’s office who several months ago believed there was virtually no possibility that Bush would order an attack on Iran before he left office has apparently changed his mind. This individual (whose name I can’t divulge at the source’s insistence) recently told my source that such an attack would take place between the November elections and Bush’s departure and that it would be “massive.” I subsequently heard from a knowledgeable Israeli source that he had recently heard the same scenario from two of his sources in Israel. In that connection, Todd Gitlin’s reflections on TPM Cafe about what he was hearing in Jerusalem this week seem clearly relevant. (Gitlin attended Shimon Peres’ Presidents Conference where, according to Laura Rozen’s excellent warandpiece.com, the Israeli host was seated in the front row between Bush and Freedom’s Watch funder and Netanyahu backer, casino multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Her rendition of Nahum Barnea’s column for Yediot Aharanot on Adelson is another must read this week.)

Today the Jerusalem Post has another unnamed source saying that Bush and Cheney want to strike Iran before the end of their term. This news was broadcast over Israel’s Army Radio report and presumably has fanned out across Israel. The White House denies this report, so it must be true. Why, again, do the Israelis hear what Bush plans while Americans are kept in the dark? Oh yeah, we are the stepchildren.

Here’s the url for that:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668683139&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

It may just come down to whether our economic collapse happens before these guys pull the trigger or after.

Hey, happy Tuesday. Have a great day.

I am sure that is just a coincidence

May 19

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Economy, Politics, Psychology | No Comments

Hmmm. This looks awfully familiar. I feel like I’ve seen this pattern before.

Oh yeah! Remember this?

You Are Here

May 19

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Surveillance | No Comments

At least, I’m pretty sure I am here. I am a Target Head.

Because, you see, I do a lot of reading and a lot of thinking and quite a bit of writing, and all that probably makes me Very Dangerous in some people’s eyes. I could be a (ahem) ‘Thought Criminal’.

Now you probably wouldn’t find me very dangerous in person. I’m not very big. I’m a mom. I suppose I can wield a frying pan for a weapon…that’s about it. Nonetheless…

Our government has been collecting names of people, and compiling databases, and spying on us to protect us from us, or them from us, or us from ‘them’ (meaning the ‘terrorists’) or something like that. Actually, it’s to protect them, the government, from us, the active and engaged citizens. Anyone just zipping along on autopilot watching FOX News and American Idol probably has nothing to worry about. But you never can tell because nobody knows if they’re on the list or not, or how to get on the list, or what might happen to the people on the list if something happens to us as a nation. It’s all very secret.

So if you’re already thinking to yourself, “What the hell is she talking about?”, then it’s time to go read this and find out.

I saw this via Cryptogon, who has additional links for your reading enjoyment.

And so far it looks like 8 million names are on this secret list, or roughly three Americans in one hundred. So if you live in a town of 15,000 people, roughly 450 people in your town may be at risk for anything from heightened surveillance to detention should some sort of terrorist attack happen again.

That’s quite a lot of people. I would be really happy if that many people in my town knew what was going on, but personally, I find that number impossibly optimistic. Just in terms of having good information about what is currently happening, I would estimate maybe three people in 1000 have begun to limn out the reality. That’s just a totally wild-assed guess based on my own observations. So basically what I’m trying to say here is that I think this list is total bullshit. It’s very seriously doubtful whether anyone on this list poses any threat whatsoever to national security, unless of course you define national security as ‘whatever George W Bush prefers’. Now if you do that, sure, it would be pretty easy to rustle up 8 million people who think that ass-clown should go. But that still doesn’t make them dangerous. Seriously.

Do you see what we’re dealing with here? Do you see why it’s so important to prevent some new bogus war? Do you see where this is all going? This country can change overnight. All they have to do is flip the switch, and we’ll be living in a police state.

Now I just want to say that if I ever get detained for thinking and writing about the psychopaths who have taken over our country and are itching to create a police state, let it be known that some of us saw them walking over to that switch. We see them raising their hands, and we are screaming at you people to LOOK. For the love of God and country, look at what they are doing. They are going to plunge us into darkness.

That’s what makes us ‘dangerous’. And that’s it. So remember that someday.

Close Enough to See the Whites of their Eyes

May 18

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Israel, Lebanon, Military | No Comments

I’m not exactly sure who Franklin Lamb is, but he seems to have some great sources. Sadly, they are anonymous, but here’s what they say about the situation in Lebanon. As far as taking the word of anonymous sources, it’s definitely not ideal but that hasn’t stopped the Bush Administration and our corporate journalists from selling us a couple of wars that way, now has it?

According to US Senate Intelligence Committee sources, the Bush administration initially green lighted the intended May 11 Israeli ‘demonstration of solidarity’ with the pro-Bush administration militias, some with which Israel has maintained ties since the days of Bashir Gemayal and Ariel Sharon.

In the end, ‘the Bush administration got cold feet’, a Congressional source revealed. So did Israel.

Israel was not willing to proceed with the original Bush Administration idea which was to have Bush attend the May 15 Israel anniversary celebrations following the Israeli attack meant to hit Hezbollah hard, and give Bush the credit for coming to the dangerous region. The message was to be that Bush comes to the rescue ‘on horseback and leads the US Calvary charge straight out of a B western movie where the bugle would sound and flag would be unfurled and the white hat good guys would show their stuff before riding into the sunset and back to Texas, leaving the results to the likely Obama administration to sort out.

The plan involved Israeli air strikes on South and West Beirut in support of forces it was assured would be able to surprise and resist Hezbollah and sustain a powerful offensive for 48 hours.

Highly orchestrated, dramatic fantasy hero narrative, miscellaneous collateral damage to Arabs via air strikes, etc. Yup. That sounds about right. If it weren’t for the big party the Israelis were having later that week, I’m sure they would have gone through with it. But they already paid the caterers. You know how it is. It’s true that if it went well the party would have been even more awesome, but what if something went wrong?

So at the last minute, they blinked.

This week Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief, Major General Amos Yadlin complained to the Israeli daily Haaretz that Hezbollah proved that it was the strongest power in Lebanon… stronger than the Lebanese and it had wanted to take the government it could have done it,’ He said Hezbollah, continued to pose a ’significant’ threat to Israel as its rockets could reach a large part of Israeli territory.’

Yadlin was putting it mildly.

But what Intelligence Chief Yadlin did not reveal to the Israeli public was just how ’significant’ but also ‘immediate’ the Hezbollah threat was on May 11. Nor was he willing to divulge the fact that he received information via US and French channels that if the planned attack on Lebanon’s capitol went forward that Tel Aviv was subject, in the view of the US intelligence community to ‘approximately 600 Hezbollah rockets in the first 24 hours in retaliation and at least that number on the following day’.

The Israeli Intel Chief also declined to reveal that despite Israel’s recent psyche-war camping about various claimed missile shields ‘the State of Israel is perfecting’, that this claim is being ridiculed at the Pentagon. Israel will not achieve an effective shield against the current generation of rockets, even assuming no technological improvements in the current rockets aimed at it, for another 20 years. And that assumes the US will continue to fund their research and development for the hoped for shields’ according to Pentagon, US Senate Intelligence Committee, and very well informed Lebanese sources.

Maybe that’s why this Raytheon technology was on the Bush agenda with the Israelis.

They’re worried about spilling their own precious blood. Good to know.

O say can you see

May 16

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Corruption & Crime, Media, Military, Psychology | No Comments

There is a line.

I don’t know if it’s a line in the sand or crossing the Rubicon or however you want to think about it, but there is a line. When you stand at the line, you know that you will not step over it because if you do, you can’t come back. You can’t come back to your country, to your lover, to your mother, or to yourself. Maybe you can’t even come back to God because part of you, an important part, will be dead.

So you’d think it would be amazing that people cross the line, but in fact they do it all the time. Yes, they do.

There are really just two basic moral constraints for human beings: no killing and no stealing. If everyone agreed to just those two things, certainly the world would be a more pleasant place. But of course, there’s all manner of killing and stealing going on, not to mention all the other stuff. Killing and stealing go hand in hand. I don’t think this is really in dispute if you think about it for 30 seconds.

The military plays a special role in state-sanctioned killing and stealing. I realize that many Americans have joined the military to serve with honor, but instead they’ve found themselves sent off to kill and steal in places like Iraq. Why? Because we civilians stupidly let our country be taken over by totally corrupt monsters who have no qualms about killing and stealing. And to the extent that military people have long made their bed with the Republican party and have gone along with the inane meme that only Republicans can protect the nation, they have literally slit their own throats for these monsters.

This is really nothing new, but it still takes many people by surprise. That’s the tragedy of it. Americans love our military and seem to think we have special dispensation to kill and steal as we see fit in the name of ‘national security’. That’s what they keep telling us, and that’s why the Winter Soldier hearings had to be buried — to preserve the narrative.

Crossing the line has become so common as to be institutionalized, particularly in the military, but also in many other areas of American ‘culture’. The psychopaths have indeed remade the world in their image. But there are pockets of resistance and true courage. Because let’s get one thing straight: it takes no courage to cross the line and murder and steal. This is just another lie that people believe because they have no faith. They have no courage to live an honest life. They really don’t believe it can be done. They really don’t believe that God exists and that he will take care of them, and therefore being honest is just too risky. They know they’ll fail or be run over by murderers and thieves, so they give up and join them before it gets to that point. It’s a total capitulation to the morally depraved.

Where we’re at today, we see courage when someone simply tells the truth. We see courage when someone refuses to cross the line. We see courage when someone refuses to kill and steal. We see courage when someone has no weapon save their integrity. We see courage when someone stands up to the murderers and thieves, and calls them what they are knowing full well that he will be savagely attacked.

There’s courage in holding the line.

People should get on their knees and thank God that people like this still live and breathe in America.

Because this is what happens when a people loses real courage but clings to the illusion that they are still brave.

O say can you see?

More of Bush just doing his job: manifesting the Zionist vision

May 16

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Israel | No Comments

“The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel.” - Ann Lewis, Hillary Clinton adviser and former White House official, said to applause at the United Jewish Communities debate in March 2008.

This week, as we all know, Bush is visiting Israel. If you think you can stand it, go read about his sickening speech to the Israeli Knesset, who interrupted his speech over fourteen times with loud applause.

Link to Haaretz: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984045.html

After the speech made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Knesset in March, it was hard to expect a more pro-Zionist speech. But as a former Knesset speaker, MK Reuven Rivlin, put it Thursday, “I wish our leaders would make speeches like this.” Rivlin described Bush as “manifesting the Zionist vision.”

Contrary to the applause Bush received for his address, the speech by Prime Minister Olmert was less popular and stirred considerable controversy.

Olmert promised that when there is a peace agreement it “will be approved by a large majority in the Knesset and it will be supported by the vast majority of the Israeli public.”

Two MKs from the National Union, Zvi Hendel and Uri Ariel, left the plenum in protest, complaining that the event was “used to promote a political agenda that is opposed by most of the Israeli public.”

Hendel issued a statement calling on Olmert “to learn from the president of the United States what Zionism is.”

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) called out during Olmert’s speech, “in your dreams.”

He later proposed that Bush should replace Olmert.

Olmert, that pussy, is now facing serious corruption charges and will resign if indicted. The Israelis will have to find another suitable candidate to be their Zionist leader. They like Bush, but sadly, he’s spoken for.

The Israelis are going to have to get their own damn crazy psychopathic murdering bastard for president. There is a limit to American generosity toward Israel, after all.

Dick believes that the house always wins

May 15

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Military, Nuclear Weapons | No Comments

Vice President Cheney has little concern for the likely consequences and the resulting loss of life which would result from the use of both conventional and nuclear weapons. He is fully aware that even a limited air attack on Iran could contribute to unleashing a broader Middle East-Central Asian war, extending from the Eastern Mediterranean to China’s Western frontier. The various scenarios of this broader war have already been envisaged.

Go read the whole thing.

War Criminals

May 14

Posted by Marlena in 9-11, Afghanistan, Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Military, Psychology | 2 Comments

Pay attention.

American Goy has a good long post up about how, back in the fall of 1992 mind you, a neocon named Bernard Lewis wrote an article suggesting that the US should ‘Lebanonize’ the Middle East. Meaning, smashing up into various squabbling bits and pieces the countries hostile to Israel. And by the way, he recommended using American military forces to do the smashing. But as a bonus, this process ‘could even be precipitated by (Islamic) fundamentalism’. How convenient.

After that came ‘A Clean Break’ (1996), PNAC (1997), 9/11 (2001), Afghanistan War (2001-present), Iraq War (2003-present)…

This has all come to pass. Please note the current results in the Middle East: chaos, turmoil, countries smashed up into various squabbling bits and pieces, 1.2 million dead Iraqis, etc. Today’s situation was premeditated, planned out and executed precisely to be the chaotic bloody mess it is. OK? This was not unintentional incompetence. The neocons and the Bush Administration deliberately fucked up the Middle East and sent Americans off to kill and die there. It’s all in writing — their writings, their speeches, their documents, and their statements. These are Conspiracy Facts.

Over at Chris Floyd you can read how this process continues in Lebanon.

And so in Lebanon — as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia — the policies of the Bush Administration have only produced more extremism, more terrorists, more violence.

Can we not discern a pattern here, a clear intention? The “War on Terror” produces terror; it’s part of the “creative destruction” that the militarists used to boast about, when they dreamed that their crimes of aggression, torture and murder would lead future generations to “sing songs about us,” in the immortal words of Michael Ledeen. This quote is often attributed to Richard Perle, but it comes from Ledeen’s call for “total war” in a speech at American Enterprise Institute on October 29, 2001. Ledeen followed this up with a piece on National Review Online in August 2002, when he mocked Brent Scowcroft’s concern that an invasion of Iraq could turn the Middle East into a cauldron. Ledeen’s response:

One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today.

These are the sick minds running foreign policy in the United States. These very same people, the architects of the Iraq War, want to bring more wars and more death and more destruction to the Middle East, using more American lives to whip up the pain and suffering that they obviously feed on. Far too many people in the United States still cling to the LIE that all this bloodshed is somehow helpful to Americans. It’s not. It will just lead - at a bare minimum - to our certain economic demise, and in all probability things will be much worse than that. So leaving aside the profound moral implications of all this killing, which so unfortunately has not been enough to snap people out of their torpor, just imagine letting these monsters slit your economic throat, because they certainly will, and with pleasure.

Or, we can try to stop them.

Wild Kingdom

May 14

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime, Politics | No Comments

The Sunlight Foundation has tried to measure the net worth of our congresspeople (results here). Admittedly a difficult task, what with the data based on the flawed disclosure system used by congress. It could be an exercise in futility for all we know.

And why the hell should we know this stuff anyway, eh? I mean, Does It Matter how our elected representatives made all their money? Oh, pshaw!

And please note who is right there at the top of the list! Jane Harman!! THE Jane Harman, sponsor of HR 1955: the loathesome Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. Jane Harman like so many Americans could be worth close to a half-billion. Look how happy she seems!

The thing that caught my eye was this remark:

Bill Allison, the Sunlight Foundation senior fellow who led the research, noted that members of Congress who sink into debt are worth watching because they could be “more open to temptation” and “more likely to deal with special interests.”

Interesting perspective. Can one conclude that the congresspeople who are not sunk into debt (and therefore not reflecting the reality of most Americans) are also not worth watching? Have they already succumbed to temptation and made their shady nests with special interests (how boring and utterly predictable)? Is the action truly with these financially wounded congresspeople, desperately clawing their way across the barren political landscape with the burning hot sun beating their backs, as special interest vultures circle overhead, ready to swoop down at any moment and pluck out their still-beating hearts?