On May 15th, Dr. Ron Paul, the antiwar Republican presidential candidate and congressman from Texas, was denounced by "America's Mayor" in the second Republican presidential debate when he sited the role of American foreign policy in motivating the murderers of 9/11. Giuliani demanded a retraction and an apology for the statement, which Paul refused to do. (For a full account of Paul and Giuliani's clash, click here.) On May 24th, Dr. Paul assigned a list of books to help get Giuliani familiar...
I don’t believe ’em for a second
Yeah, yeah, big scary terrorist plot. Every time this happens, it turns out that the whole damn thing was either made up by the state out of thin air, the idea to do something violent came from the undercover FBI informant or the "truth" was tortured out of the guy. There's no al Qaeda in America. As always, the biggest threat to our lives and liberties is the national government of the United States. Now you know how the rest of the world feels. Partial list of bogus domestic terrorism plots...
Giuliani: Damned Dog
Matt Taibbi's got his number. "Rudy giuliani is a true American hero, and we know this because he does all the things we expect of heroes these days -- like make $16 million a year, and lobby for Hugo Chávez and Rupert Murdoch, and promote wars without ever having served in the military, and hire a lawyer to call his second wife a "stuck pig," and organize absurd, grandstanding pogroms against minor foreign artists, and generally drift through life being a shameless opportunist with an...
Repression of dissent for technicalities = “Chickenshit”
Back in the day, the term "Chickenshit" was an operative word. It meant that the government or the military was using some obscure technicality to mess with your life. This brave Marine is choosing to protest the needless war in Iraq and the government is threatening to take away his Honorable Discharge status because of his actions. We read numerous articles citing the comments of various retired generals and admirals who are critical of the administration and their Iraq policy but I do...
Palast Delivers “The (e)Mail”
Did ya' hear the one about Tim Griffin, Rove's errand boy that just happened to get one of the US Attorney slots in Arkansas from the firings, and him resigning thursday? Guess who... Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of US Attorneys, met Thursday evening in New York with Palast. After reviewing key documents, Conyers stated that, despite Griffin’s resignation, ‘We’re not through with him by any means.’ Nice job, Greg.
Antiwar Radio: Robert A. Pape
Professor Robert A. Pape explains the research behind his book Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, why Rep. Ron Paul is correct that groups who engage in suicide terrorism can only recruit in the name of fighting against foreign occupation — rather than devotion to any religion, promises of virgins in Heaven or a plot to take over the world — and why our government’s denial of this fact and its policy of regime change puts Americans in greater danger.
Antiwar Radio: Steve Clemons
Steve Clemons, senior fellow at the New America Foundation and keeper of the influential blog The Washington Note, explains Dick Cheney and his neocon cabal’s attempt to make an end run around President Bush and get us into a war with Iran whether he wants to or not, where the ‘realists’ stand, the layers of lower level neocons we’ve never heard of, the ‘news’ of CIA covert action in Iran, Bush’s meeting with the Joint Chiefs and some of the possible consequences if we do go to...
Antiwar Radio: Jim Lobe
Jim Lobe, Washington correspondent for InterPress Service, discusses the situations in DC and in Iraq and how things seem to be playing out: The ‘surge,’ Baker-Hamilton, al Qaeda, Sunni Arabs, Sadr, the Iran factions, the Kurds and the Turks, and the neocons big meeting in the Bahamas and their hopes for sabotaging Rice’s diplomatic efforts.
Happy Frickin Birthday, Star Wars
On HBO tonight, my Honey and I were watching Reventh of the Sith, Episode III. (They're airing the whole 6-episodes back to back.) Then it ended. And I'm thinking, whoa. Where Episode III ended is where we're at now, in real life, on planet Earth. It could take a whole generation or two before an opposition could grow strong enough before things are really turned around again. I wonder if the current crop of liberty-lovers are all going to play more of a role like Obi Wan Kenobi, rather than...
re: More Baghdad Embassy Photos Leaked
Thanks, Scott, for linking some of the details on the "world's largest embassy" complex in Baghdad. The scuttlebutt on this has been around for quite some time but it has never been put in tangible form before. Americans have a hard time focusing on things in the abstract and this will help. Someone should also check and see if there are any photos of the "megabases" that have been or are being built in Iraq to house US troops and weaponry. While the decider is busy working on his 50 year...
Keep Ron In
Conservative bigwig Richard A. Viguerie has set up a new website, KeepRonIn.com, and has written an open letter: Keep Ron Paul in the June 5 New Hampshire debate!Dear Fellow Conservative: The next Republican presidential debate is just days away. It will be held at 7:00 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, June 5 in New Hampshire. Its sponsors are CNN, the Manchester (NH) Union Leader, and WMUR-TV. CNN will televise the debate, which is being hosted by Wolf Blitzer. It’s up to you and I and all our...
How much does the US really pay for its unconditional support of Israel?!
An increasing number of US public figures are breaking the old taboo and openly discussing the huge cost the US is paying for its unconditional support of Israel. From Michael Scheuer, to President Carter, from John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's to Scott Ritter, to the recent Republican Presidential debate in which Ron Paul dared to openly say that US policies in the Middle-East had something to do with the "blowback" on 911. What is less known, however, is the huge, absolultey stupendous...
The Show
for today: 1st hour: Steve Clemons, Jim Lobe 2nd hour: Robert A. Pape Listen live here 11am-1pm Texas time.
Don’t We Have a Constitution, Not a King?
As the nation focused on whether Congress would exercise its constitutional duty to cut funding for the war, Bush quietly issued an unconstitutional bombshell that went virtually unnoticed by the corporate media. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, would place all governmental power in the hands of the President and effectively abolish the checks and balances in the Constitution. If a "catastrophic emergency" -- which could include a...
Rumour of the century (wiping Israel off the map)
What was said? Farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad." Translation: "The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time". Word by word: Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e (occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahv shavad (vanish from). Words not used: Israel, wiped off, wipe out, map, world, Earth, face. The western phrase, 'wiped off'...
