Comments on the News Round Up

Thomas Jefferson quote of the day: All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.



For about a fortnight now network and cable news have gone on and on about Obama's Preacher, the Rev. Wright. Long story short, Rev. Wright wrote a powerful sermon after 9/11 where he pointed out some of the reasons he (and coincidentally, Ron Paul among others) have for believing it was payback. (The book Blowback, with its title derived from "a term coined by the CIA to denote the unintended consequences of policies that were in many cases kept secret from the American public," speaks directly to this point of contention). So, Obama has been raked over the coals about the fact that he has not only been endorsed by Rev. Wright, but was a member of his congregation...20 years ago. Every major news media have taken and run with this story for days: asking Obama to denounce the endorsement, to denounce the preacher; and they've even attacked Rev. Wright.

Yet, strangely, they are silent (crickets chirping here) about the Rev. John Hagee's endorsement of Senator John McCain. Frank Rich in today's New York Times, here, explains it all by saying that, "it is disingenuous to pretend that there isn’t a double standard operating here. If we’re to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates - and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them - we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick."

Why are they silent about this; about someone who has made much more inflammatory and derogatory remarks than Rev. Wright has? Some of Rev. Hagee's beliefs are: "God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins," that the Roman Catholic Church is "the Great Whore," and that "most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews."

Are those in power and control of the media, racist? anti-black?, pro-McCain?, all of the above?





First there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, then there weren't. Then we were there to get rid of Saddam, then we weren't. Then we were there to bring democracy to Iraq, then we weren't. There were ties between Saddam and al Qaeda, then there were not. Al Qaeda was in Iraq prior to our invasion, then they were not.

Then Iran was training people to fight in Iraq, then they were not. And then Iran was making and sending weapons into Iraq...well...maybe not.





What's important is not who's starving or being oppressed. What's important is my stock price. Money, baby: gimme, gimme, gimme!

"Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry."




Guess what? I went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and all I got was this stupid T-shirt! "As these astonishing mementoes [sic] show, the US authorities are promoting the world's most notorious prison camp as a cheap hideaway for American sunseekers – a revelation that has drawn international anger and condemnation."




I was a first-born kid and, according to this new study, it looks like we have it harder.

The Week of Follow-Ups

It seems that this weeks' news wire is abuzz with the continuing saga of many stories. That's good. All too often a story gets a prominent spotlight only to vanish backstage and never be heard or seen from again. (Did we ever find out who sent the anthrax to Congress? Or who placed the put-options on United and American Airlines stock days before 9/11?)



Global warming - peak oil: I tend to put them in the same category since the latter is causing the former, but also because they're both happening at the same time. It's going to create quite a calamity, as I've blogged about here. Thankfully, I'm not the only one to see this and recognize other facts like how over 99% of Americans are dependent on the 0.3% of us that grow our food. Tom Whipple and the coming storm is here.



According to the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8: "The Congress shall have the power to...provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States...[and] to regulate commerce with foreign nations...."

What part of that does the Bush Administration not understand? And will Democrats or Republicans in Congress do anything about it? Let's bet they won't.

The following is from: Bush officials: Congress irrelevant on Iraq.

"The Bush administration also feels it does not need to seek the authorization of Congress to ratify two pending agreements with Iraq: a “Strategic Framework” that would govern “normalized” relations with the U.S., and a Status of Forces Agreement that would govern the “authorities and protections” of U.S. troops in Iraq past Dec. 31, the expiration of a U.N. resolution that the administration says authorizes their presence."



Our precious supply of fresh drinking water is running out. The FDA thinks you don't need to know about cloned meat or milk. And Monsanto, of Agent Orange fame, is trying its hardest to keep you from knowing the dangers of rBGH - or recombined Bovine Growth Hormone. They're injecting dairy cows with it. It's genetically modified. It's linked to cancer. Read all about it here. If you want to live long and prosper - Buy Organic!



Our friend Hillary "I"ll say whatever I have to in order to be elected President" Clinton has contradicted her policy platform yet again. Yesterday, I wrote about her ties to corporate America. Today it's her lack of ties to the American worker.

Three years ago, she helped negotiate a deal for 23 high-tech "Marine One" presidential helicopters being made by numerous companies - including European ones. However, "this past week, [she] derided the Pentagon's decision to award a $40 billion defense contract to build mid-flight refueling tankers to a team consisting of Northrop Grumman and EADS, a European company." Sam Stein has blogged his analysis here.

Are any Americans paying attention to this? If your priest, pastor, car salesman, father-in-law, school teacher, or any such person in a position of authority consistently changed their story only for the benefit of selling you a car or getting some extra bills in the collection plate, would you stand for it? If you're a Hillary supporter, why is this ok? Someone help me on this...please...



This would definitely be a follow-up on my hypocrisy rant: with an endorsement from this guy, John Hagee, how can McCain seriously represent anything approaching Christian morals or American values?



Do not watch this if you're a human being. This really has nothing to do with the fact that this guy is an American. It does, however, have everything to do with what war does to the consciousness of a human being. The last paragraph of this story explains it well.


Something fun, something light, something cool...Volk Hände.