Time for new Progressive Meme: Social-Capitalism

Ok, we've been hearing it since the election and the first appearance of Sammy-Joe the (Un)Plumber: What Obama (and by extension his supporters) want to "Change" about America is to make it "Socialist".

The ridiculousness of this claim is so extreme that hardly anyway has responded to it anything besides snorting up their sleeve, but it's well past time we Progressives and Liberals rather started to define ourselves rather than allow ourselves and what we desire to be defined by people who don't know or care what we really stand for.

To that end I suggest we consider a completely new meme to describe that strategy we support for tackling America's problems. No it's not communism, or socialism, both of these are dusty 20th Century terms best applied to the Soviets or Red Chinese of by-gone years.

No, I think what we want is a Fair Market with Social-Capitalism.

The idea came to me based on a couple of interesting Tweet exchanges. The first with California Rep. Maxine Waters.

@maxinewaters: Barney nails it. http://is.gd/oKb5 This is exactly what I've been saying in all my tweets: $$ doesn't belong in private hands. Capital=evil.

Vyan1: I wouldn't say "Capital=Evil" - more like Unlimited Greed = Evil Capitol is a tool, it's a matter of what you do with it!

maxinewaters: The Capitol is not a tool! Or did u mean capital? No, capital=private ownership=evil. Only govt. can be trusted w/ $$ all else unfair

Vyan1: i meant money=tool for doing things. Unlimited Greed is the problem. (am constituent btw) Monopolies are a problem too!

maxinewaters A DM: "Only 1 source of jobs: companies/people who want to make $!" No, that's the problem w/ USA. We SHOULD work for justice, not $$. #TCOT

@maxinewaters: We need Michael Moore to do documentary how Bush set up the financial system via $GS & Paulson to fail to make Dems & #Obama look bad. #TCOT

Vyan1: Lots of footage of Grover Norquist on that MM film. This is the final result of the 30 year "Starving the Beast" strategy

Vyan1: the plan was loot the treasury and drive the deficit so high all entitlment programs would *HAVE* to be cut to the bone.

maxinewaters: That's why we're cutting deficit

I still disagree with Rep Waters premise that "Private Ownership=Evil" or that only the government can be trust with our money - I frankly don't trust either one of them but in our country we still need both private enterprise and government - the trick is making sure both of them keep each other in check.

However the comment that caught my eye is this one :"We SHOULD work for Justice, not $$"

Why can't we do both? Why shouldn't we do both?

If you disconnect the goal of becoming rich, what we so are often told is "The American Dream", from engaging fairly with your common man and from trying to install some for of social justie in the world - you wind up with what we've seen over the past 8 years. Unbridled Enron-inomics.

Time and time again, bankers and business have used the leverage that money gives them to cut corners, overhype and inflate prices, and use legalistic fine-print to squeeze more and more dollars out of their customers, and out of their employees to place in thier stock value.

It's become one big game of "Whose got the biggest Stock Gain this Quarter!?"

That's what drove Enron, Aldephia, Global Crossing and now Bear-Sterns, Lehmann Brothers and AIG over a cliff.

Raw, unrestricted, unlimited, Naked Greed.

As a result the government has been forced to step into the picture - which leads me to my next Tweet exchange, this time with MSNBC's Contessa Brewer

contessabrewer Why can't gov't budget be more like a wise family's. Live within your means, save for the unexpected, use debt only 4 true investments.

Vyan1 @contessabrewer Most American Families live off their credit cards and their home equity - just like the government.

contessabrewer @Vyan1 Well, that's why I said WISE families.

Vyan1 @contessabrewer Hard to be that "Wise" when wages have remained stagnant (for those that still have wages) for 10 years while prices rise.

Rather than "Supply-Side" economics, maybe it's time we began to consider the "Demand-Side" of things. Businesses can thrive when consumers have buying power - the problem has been in the ever more dramatic drive to cram down prices, we've also crammed down wages and salaries. Price inflation has still continued (Remember $4 per gallon gas!), but wage inflation hasn't. What you could buy for a dollar last year, only gets you 80 cents this year - so how did people fill that gap?

With their credit cards.

Or by borrowing against their mortgage.

Here's a little audio on this from Thom Hartmann on the Mortgage Crisis.

Hartmann: (From the Wall Street Journal) As middle-class incomes are being wiped-out, manufacturing incomes are being wiped-out, people can't pay their mortgages. And the Financial Times points out that Banks are starting to lose money are the result of this.

What we've seen over the last 26 years is a dismantling of the core of the United States, and it's been done for a specific purpose. To dis-empower the Middle class.

When the credit golden goose ran out of eggs we landed right where we are now. It wasn't simply a case of the Wall Street incompetence and Main Street over-reach. Yet again, It was both!

The failure Bush years has opened up a window. It's becoming more and more common to hear "Too Big to Fail - is Too Big to EXIST!" from not just people on the fringe, but mainstream Economists and even Members of Congress. (Such as Senator Bernie Sanders, the only "Socialist" in Congress)

Sanders: We need to have the United States Government play a role in protecting the people against the greed of multi-national corporations. If a company is too big to fail, it's too big to exist!

We are not headed into a system where government owns and operates our entire economy. We are not headed into Communism, Socialism or Marxism - however we certainly can not maintain a system where corporations run completely Amok! If consumers and employees are passenger cars on our economic highways, attempting to navigate on a road filled with Super-Giant Corporate Semi-Trailers, we need to have some Rules of the Road to prevent the smaller cars from getting run into a ditch by the trucks. We need to have some guidelines, to keep traffic flowing, and some speed limits to prevent those massive trucks from Jack-knifing and creating a Million Car Pileup.

Again.

Therefore, maybe we do need to embrace a new form a capitalism. One that doesn't simply serve the selfish self-interest of investors and share-holders but also includes the idea of being a good neighbor and a responsible co-habitant in our society.

Maybe we need to move from the Dog-eat-Dog Demolition Derby model of capitalism to a cooperative one - to Social-Capitalism.

Maybe we should work and toil not just from financial reward, but also - for Social and Economic Justice.

Certainly there are time when "Justice" doesn't really pay well. And those may be the time where, for the sake of justice and the sake of our national well-being, Government has to step it with subsidies or not-for-profit options.

Maybe we need to realize that the "Free Market" alone, CAN NOT solve everyones problem in that what we really should strive for is a "FAIR Market" that allows everyone a chance to compete, even the little guys, without being crushed into powder by well entrenched interests.

Maybe it's time we starting defining ourselves, rather than letting other hurl their epithets our way.

Maybe that time is Now.

What say you?

Follow My Tweets

Vyan

The Impending Perfect Wingnut Hate Storm

Crossposted from Dkos

We've all seen the warning signs and heard the angry cries from Wingnuttia - but it's time to stop laughing and recognize a very real threat that faces this nation.



The Southern Poverty Law Center headed by Morris Dees is the countries premier anti-hate resource, and in it's current yearly "Intelligence Report" on the activities of various domestic Hate Groups, there are more than a few familiar faces.

This week a report detailing at least 60 Post-9/11 plots of violence by Militant Right-Wing Militia and Birther groups was spiked in Missouri under the argument that sharing the information with Officers in the field would have been Political Profiling!

In Knoxville Tennessee it was shown that a mass-murderer, James Adkinson, - inspired directly by writings of Fox News Contributor Bernard Goldberg, as well as the rantings of Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter - perpetrated a deliberate Hate-Crime (i.e. Terrorism) against Liberals.

"Know this if nothing else: This was a hate crime. I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them....

Yet, the mainstream media ignores the report of an attempted Right-Wing Dirty Bomber in Maine.

“Amber (Cummings) indicated James was very upset with Barack Obama being elected President,” reported the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center (PDF link). “She indicated James had been in contact with ‘white supremacist group(s).’ Amber also indicated James mixed chemicals in the kitchen sink at their residence and had mentioned ‘dirty bombs.’”

“Also found was literature on how to build ‘dirty bombs’ and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials,” said theBangor Daily. “The FBI report also stated there was evidence linking James Cummings to white supremacist groups. This would seem to confirm observations by local tradesmen who worked at the Cummings home that he was an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler and had a collection of Nazi memorabilia around the house, including a prominently displayed flag with swastika. Cummings claimed to have pieces of Hitler’s personal silverware and place settings, painter Mike Robbins said a few days after the shooting.”

Before he was inaugurated there were at least two distinct supramacists plots to assassinate Obama.



It's time we stopped sweeping this under the rug.

Since the year 2000 the number of U.S. hate groups has risen 54% to a current estimate of 926 active groups in 2008.

As in recent years, hate groups were animated by fears of Latino immigration. This rise in hate groups has coincided with a 40 percent growth in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2007, according to FBI statistics.

Two new factors were introduced to the volatile hate movement in 2008: the faltering economy and the Obama campaign.

"Barack Obama's election has inflamed racist extremists who see it as another sign that their country is under siege by non-whites," said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, a quarterly investigative journal that monitors the radical right. "The idea of a black man in the White House, combined with the deepening economic crisis and continuing high levels of Latino immigration, has given white supremacists a real platform on which to recruit."

Moving far behind the usual skin-head, supremacist and neo-nazi's we would expect to spout this kind of rhetoric we're now hearing plenty of panicked and frightened fear-mongering from many many "mainstream" sources.

Even members of Congress.

Such as Michele (I'm Not a Kook) Bachmann on staging an Orderly Revolution" against Obama.

Bachmann: At this point the American people - it's like Thomas Jefferson said, a revolution every now and then is a good thing. We are at the point, Sean, of revolution. And by that, what I mean, an orderly revolution -- where the people of this country wake up get up and make a decision that this is not going to happen on their watch. It won't be our children and grandchildren that are in debt. It is we who are in debt, we who will be bankrupting this country, inside of ten years, if we don't get a grip. And we can't let the Democrats achieve their ends any longer.

If Tim Geithner is successful under President Obama, and they move us to an international currency. Then we have no hope of standing on our own as a sovereign nation with our own economic system. It's over. We can't do that.

Bachmann: Right now I'm a member of Congress. And I believe that my job here is to be a foreign correspondent, reporting from enemy lines. And people need to understand, this isn't a game. this isn't just a political talk show that's happening right now. This is our very freedom, and we have 230 years, a continuous link of freedom that every generation has ceded to the next generation. This may be the time when that link breaks. And I'm going to do everything I can, I know you are, to make sure that we keep that link secure. We cannot allow that link to break, because as Reagan said, America is the last great hope of mankind.

We've been hearing this kind of "marxist, socialist, new world currency, we're losing america to the immigrants (and the Gays)" stuff for some time - and we've typically laughed it off - but it's time we stopped laughing.

The guys at Southern Poverty Law - aren't.

The histrionics over the supposed 5 million bad mortgages is a prime example. On Oct. 9, the conservative online news site Drudge Report included a link to a story on the website of conservative talk radio KFYI-AM in Phoenix that said HUD had reported that 5 million illegal immigrants held bad mortgages. That same day, the Phoenix Business Journal posted an article stating that a HUD spokesman said there was "no basis" for the 5 million figure, and that the agency had no data reflecting the number of bad mortgages held by illegal immigrants.

But a few hours later on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" — a primary venue for the airing of false allegations about undocumented immigrants — San Diego radio show host Roger Hedgecock cited the bogus HUD statistic as a hard fact. By the following day, others were engaging in the journalistic equivalent of fabricating a "big fish" tale, embellishing the falsehood with their own extravagant claims. Rush Limbaugh stated on his radio program that HUD was "admitting 5 million illegal aliens were given mortgages ... with fake Social Security numbers and so forth to go out and purchase homes that they didn't have to pay back." Over at Clear Channel's "The War Room with Quinn & Rose," Jim Quinn claimed that while there were some excesses on Wall Street, the bigger problem was the issuance of "5 million mortgages to illegal aliens who didn't even have to come up with an ID."

So the Bush Bailout isn't the result of mismanagement, greed and deregulation - it's all because of those damn dirty illegals, not to mention the rest of those shiftless minorities - and ACORN too!

As the mortgage crisis worsened in 2008, more diatribes followed regarding what syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin called "the massive illegal alien mortgage racket." In September, she wrote that it was "no coincidence" that the areas hardest hit by the wave of foreclosures "also happen to be some of the nation's largest illegal alien sanctuaries." Rick Oltman, a former top official of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) now with the anti-immigrant Californians for Population Stabilization, wrote on that group's website that foreclosures are highest in border states and cities "swollen with illegal aliens." Still, he added charitably, "illegal immigration didn't cause this, it just made it worse.

Conservative commentators also didn't let facts stop them from continually repeating the fallacy that the Community Reinvestment Act had forced lenders to make high-risk mortgage loans to illegal immigrants and other minorities.

The CRA regulations were tightened in 1995 when Bill Clinton was president. Critics contend that left-wing activists — especially at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which became embroiled in controversy during the presidential campaign when it was investigated for voter registration fraud — began to use data showing how CRA banks performed to petition regulators to deny lenders' plans to expand or merge with other institutions. This, they say, coerced banks into making risky, poorly documented loans — including to illegal immigrants — resulting in large numbers of defaults, which in turn caused the mortgage morass.

Jinned up by all of this misplaced fear and outrage, a brand new Xenophobic Militia Movement as been steadily growing. Unlike the lone-wolf acts of people like Adkinson or Cummings, what we truly need to worry about is what Bachmann and to some extend Glenn Beck with his "We Surround Them" bruhaha are clearly attempting to foment. A committed, directed, networked and focused Resistance Movement of batshit-wingnuts who see any and all Liberals (or their Gay, Black, Brown and poor allies) as their enemy and the enemies of America.

People who seriously believe - like Alan Keyes - that America has been hijacked by an illegitimate usurper.



What is likely to happen if and when radical anti-abortionists like Keyes (or Eric Rudolph the Olympic Park Bomber), join their ideology with that of the Birthers, the Sovereigns who are trying to make their own-currency and secede (Palin-style) from America, the anti-immigrant Minute-Men who've begun to be infiltrated by Nativist Extremist, with the 2nd Amendment-ers, and perhaps the most deluded of all - the End-Timers?

How long before all this "Revolution" talk goes from inspiring single persons, to organized groups?

How long before someone taps into all this pent up fear and anger and sends it careening in the wrong deadly direction?

HBO: Right America Feeling Wronged!


All these Palinite-Americans have not gone away - they're still with us and now they've been rendered powerless in Congress - making them more dangerous than they've ever been.

Here are IMO four potential catalyst events which could spark this kind of coalescence -

1) The Firing of BlackWater/Xe by the State Dept in Iraq, putting thousands of heavily trained and right-out of the war/post-stress impacted merceneries OUT Of A JOB.

Blackwater has been fired by the State Department from its job protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

Executives of the controversial U.S. security company were notified today by the State Department that its five-year, $1.2 billion contract for services in Iraq will not be renewed in May, U.S. officials tell ABC News. The contract provides yearly options for cancellations.

After working for noted Right-winger (and End-Times/Christian Supamacist) Erik Prince, these guys are ripe for Militia Recruitment. Just multiply Tim McVeigh by 1,000 and add seething hatred. What do you do when you're a former paid killer, go back to parking cars?

2) Re-instatment of the Assault Weapons Ban which originally fostered the Gingrich Revolt on '94.

3) Allowing for Government to "Take-Over" and fix Pseudo-Banks like AIG - something Newt Gingrich has already called something akin to a "Dictatorship".

And the coup de grace?

4) Repealing "Don't Ask - Don't Tell". (Which at the moment seem to be on the back-burner)

These are the wingnuts worst nightmares, and rest assured the selfish self-aggrandizing power-whores among them (Beck, Gingrich, O'Reilly, Malkin, Ingraham, Bachmann, Cantor, Boehner, Cornyn and McConnell) will NOT stop their fear and hate-mongering once the blood start flowing.

More than likely - they'll AMP IT UP.

I'm certain that innocent Americans will suffer for it, we just have to make sure those who incite political violence, as well as those who perpetrate it aren't allowed to get away with it.

Vyan

O'Reilly's 19th Nervous Breakdown!

As many of you may know Bill O'Reilly is in the middle of a desperate death-rattle inducing war of verbal spitballs with Thinkprogress managing editor Amanda Terkel, because she had the Temerity to Quote O'Reilly Accurately when he blamed an 18-year-old girl for her own rape and murder.

Somehow he's shoved that issue to he side, even after he sent one of his Produca-Stalkers to Harrass Terkel, and is now the galloping Crusader against "Far-Left Hate". Yes, really! Watch


Absolute truth? No Ad homs? Not so much.

– O’Reilly on TP Managing Editor Amanda Terkel: “Well, Miss Terkel is certainly a villain.” [3/23]

– O’Reilly on ThinkProgress: “They’re insects, OK?” [3/25]

– O’Reilly on Podesta: “This smear merchant, character assassin John Podesta...” [3/25]

Just for the record the original audio of O'Reilly's comment is here.

Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She’s walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she’s out of her mind, drunk.

Those are his words, no one elses - no question. The best case scenario is that he was claiming that her being Drunk and scantily clad at 2 A.m. somehow justified her rape and murder as if being dressed in a burlap burka would have really made a difference.

"How could the poor hapless thug Resist?"

So naturally after compounding the brutalization of one woman, O'Reilly has to participate in the verbal brutalization of another woman who dared to rise to her defense.



O'Reilly claims here that he's done more for "victims" than any show on television - even than America's Most Wanted? Really? Deluded much?

The stalker-ucer in this segment accuses Terkel to being "dishonest" simply because she admits to not listening to the Mel Gibson portion of O'Reilly comments, as if that would somehow change the context of what he said about Jennifer. However, thinkprogress does provide a link to the entire show right here - and they did go back an review those comments which were...

I think it’s safe to say that if Mel Gibson didn’t get drunk, he wouldn’t be in this terrible situation he finds himself in. And if a young woman, 18-year-old Jennifer Moore of Harrington Park, NJ, didn’t get drunk, she’d be alive today.

I will agree that the point of O'Reilly's segment was that "If you get drunk on a regular basis - it will damage you're life", and that parents absolutely need to monitor and properly educate their children - that's a given.

However..

If Mel Gibson hadn't gotten drunk he wouldn't have been arrested for drunk driving, but he still probably would have held the views and beliefs that prompt his vicious anti-semetic comments. If Jennifer hadn't have been drunk (or had her car towed, or been walking alone) - a murderous thug could have, and probably would have still raped and killed her. I mean, c'mon - She wasn't even at legal drinking age - in the first place. Why aren't we wondering who illegally served her the drinks?

And look, if her car hadn't been towed, she would have tried to drive home and might have killed someone else - but does O'Reilly consider this? NOoooo! (And I listened to the entire recording!)

I'm not buying this snake-oil and neither should you.

O'Reilly: There's no peer pressure - you don't see Jay Leno, or Jon Stewart (talking against drugs and alcohol) The only thing was Nancy Reagan "Just Say No")

Well, there's MADD (Mother's Against Drunk Drivers) an there's R.A.D. (Rockers Against Drugs)

Vince Neil (who committed vehicular manslaughter while drunk in the mid-80's and eventually, painfully sobered up) did a spot for R.A.D.



Both of these programs are ongoing - so even with O'Reilly's argument that "nobody" is telling kids not to get drunk or go off on drugs - he's Full of Shit.

No where in the radio program does he consider Jennifer's attacker at fault - he absolutely blames no one but Jennifer for what someone else did to her. Pathetic. The more you listen the worse it gets.

O'Reilly: This girl Jennifer Moore couldn't have made more mistakes than she made - and forfitted her life because of it.

Sure, she made mistakes - but people should be able to make mistakes without someone else KILLING THEM!

Thirdly, O'Reilly claims that Terkel has petitioned and attacked the Alexa Foundation - that's a Lie!

After Terkel's second post she was invited onto Olbermann, and Billo - went Balistic-o!



In this segment he claims that there is some type of "cabal" linking the dreaded George Soros to Media Matters, to Thinkprogress and (former Clinton Admin, and Obama transition team head) John Podesta, to NBC News (without even mention MSNBC or Keith - who is the guy who actually put Terkel on the air). Yeah, right.

O’REILLY: And Podesta’s mainstream media is, of course, NBC News. That’s the outlet Podesta uses. ... A well coordinated, well financed cabal attacking dissent, it’s a pretty big story, especially because it involves Podesta, who has access to the president and NBC, which along with its parent company General Electric is grossly misusing its power.

First off the Urban Myth of Soros funding Media Matters has been completely debunked, but even if it were true - So Frakking What?

It's not like rich people like T-Bone Pickens has funded organizations like the Swift Boaters to smear John Kerry, or Newscorp/Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch funded the "Arkansas Project" via the American Spectator to smear and dig up dirt on Bill Clinton - except that they did.

The real irony here is that David Brock, who founded Media Matters did it specifically because - he was one of Murdoch's henchmen who wrote the original "Trooper-Gate" stories on Clinton and smear attacks on Anita hill, but after he saw what happened with the Impeachment and realized that Hill was absolutely correct about Clarence Thomas - he started fighting against the REAL smear machine. The Right-Wing Smear-Engine which links Roger Ailes to Karl Rove to Matt Drudge.

"World Currency" my left eye.

If there's one thing that O'Reilly's good at - it's Projection - particular when he complains about being attacked by Thinkprogress.

“If you go to this ThinkProgress website,” the Fox News hatemonger said, “anybody who disagrees with Barack Obama in the public eye gets smeared and slimed. ... They’ll go after your sponsors, they’ll go at your house, they’ll go after your family.”

Lying yet again, Thinkprogress is not going after his house or his family - but they are going after his sponsors. Like UPS.

UPS values and takes seriously the comments from personal emailers and those posted on your site regarding advertising that appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s FOX News show. We are sensitive to the type of television programming where our messages and presence are associated and continually review choices to affect future decisions. Further investigation is underway related to this placement.

Capital One.

Thank you for contacting Capital One. We regret that you found the Bill O’Reilly programming during which one of our ads was aired to be offensive. Please be assured that this was not our intent. Capital One in no way endorses the views/opinions portrayed during the news broadcasts in which we advertise.

And Ford Motor Company

I agree with you about the rantings of the hopelessly pig-headed Mr. O’Reilly, recognize that I am just an innocent bystander in this email letter silliness. I work at Ford and support Ford, but have no idea how the decisions are made on where we advertise. Frankly, as a mainstream company, we advertise everywhere there are good ratings. That is not an endorsement of the show — that is recognition that people are watching the show. Don’t know why they watch that mindless ranting. But they watch in droves. Welcome to America, I guess.

Although all of these advertisers clearly abhor O'Reilly's comments - and not one has attempted to defend them - none appear willing to take the next step and pull their support, even temporarily as a statement in support of criminal victims, because O'Reilly still gets "high ratings".

I guess money talks and values walk for some people. Especially U.S. corporations. Clearly they need to made aware that their ads are an endorsement of the show since their ads pay for the show! You can't make a stronger endorsement than keeping the show on the air.

The point isn't that O'Reilly made a stupid comment in 2006, it's that instead of simply acknowledging it or correcting it - he's began a campaign of terrorism (yeah, I said it), hate-mongering and smear purely to obstruct and deflect from his own actions.

And this isn't the first time - he's staged these kinds of Ambush-interviews at least 40 Times. No one is arguing that being out-of-control drunk is a good thing, that's not the issue. O'Reilly absolutely has a right to state his views - but when those views are knowingly and clearly FALSE, and when he attempts to use his platform to intimidate those who point out his falsehoods - he should be held to account.

O'Reilly doesn't care whose right or wrong - he only cares to use this argument to continue his paranoid persecution complex, and deluded attacks on anyone who supports the middle, the center or the hated "Left".

If you agree - join the petition to make O'Reilly's Advertisers realize just what you really think of him, and what you think of THEIR continued support of such his hate-speech and terror-tactics. All it takes for hate and evil to spread, is for the good to do nothing.

Meanwhile to help clear your palate from all that negativity: here's a little bit of what O'Reilly "isn't hearing" about alcohol and drug abuse from the media, Sixx A.M.'s "Life is Beautiful"



Update: UPS has pulled their advertising. from the O'Reilly Factor!

Vyan

Obama Stomps a Mud-hole in Cheney's Ass

Obama on 60 Minutes

Obama: How many terrorist have actually been brought to justice under (The Bush System)? It hasn't made us safer.

The answer to that question is one - Jose Padilla. 6 years, one conviction.

As was previewed yesterday by muzikal233 President Obama slapped down hard on the notion that he's made us "less safe".

Transcript via Huffpo

PRESIDENT OBAMA:

I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney. Not surprisingly. You know, I think that-- Vice President Cheney has been-- at the head of a-- movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the l-- wrong lesson from history.

The facts don't bear him out. I think he is-- that attitude, that philosophy has done incredible damage-- to our image and position in the world. I mean, the fact of the matter is after all these years how many convictions actually came out of Guantanamo? How many-- how many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment. Which means that there is constant effective recruitment of-- Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against U.S. interests all around the world.

Obama's comments have to be looked at in the context not only of self-serving ramblings of John Yoo, but also Col Larry Wilkerson - Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff at the State Department who states that Cheney and Rumsfeld knoew that only 24 detainees at Gitmo were actual terrorists and that over 700 innocent people held for years without reason or justice.



Wilkerson's response to Cheney via the Washington Note.

Simply stated, even for those two dozen or so of the detainees who might well be hardcore terrorists, there was virtually no chain of custody, no disciplined handling of evidence, and no attention to the details that almost any court system would demand. Falling back on "sources and methods" and "intelligence secrets" became the Bush administration's modus operandi to camouflage this grievous failing.

...

In addition, it has never come to my attention in any persuasive way--from classified information or otherwise--that any intelligence of significance was gained from any of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay other than from the handful of undisputed ring leaders and their companions, clearly no more than a dozen or two of the detainees, and even their alleged contribution of hard, actionable intelligence is intensely disputed in the relevant communities such as intelligence and law enforcement.

So not only were the vast majority of the people held in Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram AFB completely innocent - even the little information we received from the "real" terrorist was bogus.

What a waste.

Particularly since this system, this treatment, has been the number one thing Al Qaeda has been using to recruit more fighters according to the interrogator who took out Abu Zarqawi.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. ... It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me — unless you don’t count American soldiers as Americans.

Former Gitmo Prosecutor Col Vandeveldt's experience completely supports Wilkersen and Obama - not Cheney.




What Cheney doesn't understand - or apparently care about - is that THIS IS NOT JUSTICE. This system can't be allowed to stand and doesn't make us "safer" - it does the exact opposite.

Obama is dead right, Cheney is dead wrong.

Vyan

Primetime Torture: 24 Turning a Corner? Maybe...

24 - Season 7 - 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM


A funny thing happened in the latest episode of "24" - which Human Rights First calls an example of Primetime Torture - someone may have finally Talked Jack Bauer Down...maybe.

As I discussed in my last diary some would argue why bother with torture on a mere TV Show - however people like Army Interrogator Tony Lagouranis that in the absense of clear direction from their leadership - our troops began making up their interrogation techniques on the fly, and many of their ideas came directly from shows like "24".

Silly though it may seem, the show "24" is indeed part of our national debate on torture particular as people such as Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham and Cal Thomas constantly refer to Bauer as justifications for actions taken by the Bush Administration.

In the past Bauer's character - the right-wing poster boy for extreme measures - has argued that "Either you do what is neccesary or (innocent people suffer)." He's said that those who don't agree with him are "WEAK - Unwilling and Unable to Look Evil in the Eye and DEAL WITH IT!" - and as a result practically anything he does is therefore Justified.

This of course sounds exactly like Dick Cheney.

KING: I’d like to simply ask you, yes or no, by taking these steps do you believe the President of the United States has made Americans less safe?

CHENEY: I do. I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think that’s a great success story. ... President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.

You see, it was "Neccesary" - it was "Justified" - we HAD to do it. Obama HAS to Keep doing it. Just like St. Jack always says. Even if the Red Cross says it was clearly, absolutely Torture,

The classified report, Danner wrote, "tells a certain kind of story, a narrative of what happened at the 'the black sites' and a detailed description, by those on whom they were practiced, of what the President of the United States described to Americans as an 'alternative set of procedures.'" The accounts -- which the report concludes are so strikingly similar as to make fabrication extremely unlikely, if not impossible -- offer "a harrowing view of conditions at the secret prisons, where prisoners were told they were being taken 'to the verge of death and back.'" As the Washington Post described, "during interrogations, the captives were routinely beaten, doused with cold water and slammed head-first into walls. Between sessions, they were stripped of clothing, bombarded with loud music, exposed to cold temperatures, and deprived of sleep and solid food for days on end. Some detainees described being forced to stand for days, with their arms shackled above them, wearing only diapers."

The real irony here is that the foes that have framed Bauer for murder, are exactly like him! 8 minutes into the first section Jon Voight, playing the head of a Blackwater-like U.S. mercenary group makes the following speach as he commits himself to unleashing a deadly WMD attack on U.S. Soil.

Voight: Mr Seton, I get no pleasure from the knowledge that people will die at our hands. One single soul - The loss of one soul is tragic to me, let alone the numbers we're talking about - but do not forget that every war must have collateral damage, and that what we're doing is fundamentally and absolutely neccesary.

Sounds kinda familiar.

But this week Bauer's techniques and arguements have come back to bite him - big time. His attempted interrogation of a Congressional Staffer led to the target's death (not at Jack's hand). Jack is on the run for murder. He's managed to get Chloe Sullivan arrested for Obstruction of Justice by asking her to tamper with evidence, he's led FBI Agent Renee Walker astray with his arguments and now she's been suspended from duty.

It's not until he comes face to face with the U.S. Senator (Kurtwood Smith) whose been trying to restore the rule of law, revise the War Crimes Act and send Bauer to PRISON that he finally begins to see - just a glimmer - of how far wrong he may have gone off track. (Scene begins after the third break, 29 minutes into the episode)

Mayer: At the hearing this morning you said you had "no regrets" about what you've done, but what I saw was a man full of regret.

Bauer: Of course I have regrets Senator. I regret losing my famlly. My wife was murdered because I was responsible for protecting David Palmer during an assasination attempt. (Actually she was murdered as blowback from a busted black-ops attack led by Bauer in Bosnia) My daughter can't even look at me (Which might have a bit to do with Jack cutting off her boyfriends right ARM!) Everyday I look in the eyes of men, women and children knowing that at any moment their lives might be deemed "expendable" in an effort to protect the greater good. I regret every decision and mistake I might have made that resulted in the loss (of innocent life). You know what I regret the most? It's that this world even needs someone like me (IT DOESN'T!)

Mayer: So you think I'm naive to believe we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct?

Bauer: It doesn't even matter what I think, you just need to understand that things get a lot messier where I work than where you work on the hill.

Mayer: What you've lost Mr. Bauer is tragic, what you've been compelled to do in the name of saving innocent life is tragic. Sometimes we need to incur the most horrible losses in order to uphold the ideals that this country is founded on - how can we presume to lead the world unless we set an example?

Bauer: You make it sound so simple.

Mayer: Maybe it's simpler than you think, maybe all the things you've seen and all the things you've done have clouded your vision.

THAT RIGHT THERE is exactly the point. It's just what Bauer has failed to understand all this time. Let me again point out that it was a failed (illegal) black-bag opperation to assasinate Slobadon Milosevic's right-hand man (Victor Drazen) that instigated personal retaliation against David Palmer (who authorized the mission) as well as Bauer (who led it) and his family. Even on "24", from the beginning our extreme measures have been a catalyst for the extreme measures of others, and Bauer has been blind to it this entire time.

Just as Real Life Interrogators such as Matthew Alexander have explained our using criminal methods in Iraq have Caused Greater U.S. Casualties. Causing people unneccesarily suffer and die, even in order to save other people - is NEVER justified. Committing a crime to stop crime still means - there was a CRIME! Yes, it is simple - but that doens't mean it's EASY! The right thing is often the HARD thing do.

After finding the evidence he's looking for and discussing the specifics of what Jon Voight's company is probably up to - Mayer and Bauer again begin to discuss the future possibilities. (Section 3 - 34 Minutes into episode)

Mayer: You're obviously on to something, maybe I can help you find the evidence you need to prove your case.

Bauer: Starkwood infiltrated the White house. They'll come after you.

Mayer: We'll keep the circle small, it's time you started trusting the institutions that you've sacrifice so much to protect.

Bauer: Trust isn't my greatest asset.

Mayer: Son, you have to start somewhere.

::SPOILER ALERT::

Unfortunately immediately after this scene Mayer takes three bullets to the chest, and Bauer is on the run again - but before he's gone Mayer clearly makes the point that what Bauer is doing, and he's been doing - ISN'T NECCESARY. And frankly if it's acceptable to let people suffer and die, then maybe it's better to allow that to happen on the basis of some kind of PRINCIPLE.

Let's just suppose for second that Cheney is right, maybe we will be hit again if Obama stops the various extreme interrogation and illegal wiretap programs - I SERIOUSLY DOUBT IT - but let's take that point. As the President's daughter (who'se played by an actress who had a regular role in the Post-Apocalypic CBS Show "Jericho" where yet again a Blackwater-like private army and corrupt corporation use WMD to take over the U.S.) argues in another part of the episode, those people who we may lose - while standing firmly behind our ideals - would be THE REAL HEROES - not someone like Bauer who is little different than the people he's fighting against.

It's well past time we started demanding that America truly live up to it's values - fulfill the promise of American potential - and stop under any and all circumstances accepting the kinds of sadistic rationizations coming from either Cheney or Bauer.

They're time is done.

Now, I actually doubt the show will begin to change direction, even though the producers promised Human Rights First that it would. This is probably just a momentary aberration from their ongoing campaign of sadism - but it does offer, for once, a credible opposing arguement directly to those - like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh - who've been swallowing Jack's drivel for so many years. There IS another way besides deliberate brutality, really and truly there is.

Vyan

Primetime Torture to Gitmo: The Deadly Connection

Human Rights First has produced a 14-minute movie featuring interrogation experts and trainers who all support the argument that Hollywood via shows such as "24", "Alias" and "Lost" have been bombarding the American public with a vicious, poisonous lie.

The idea the Torture is EVER "Heroic" or effective.



Psst It's NOT!

There's a debate and an argument going on in this country concerning the issue of Torture and War Crimes. On the one had you have those who believe the U.S. has an absolute obligation to honor it's own laws and treaties and abide by the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention against Torture.

Geneva states "There Will be NO AFFRONTS TO PERSONAL DIGNITY" against detainees.

The UN Torture Conventions says:

No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

Neither of these documents leave any wiggle room - there are no "Special Circumstances" - No Exceptions. No MEANS NO! Period.

On the other hand you have people who posted these comments to another HRF video on "24" which call it nothing more than an "Ad for Torture"

-torture and interrogation is ok for terrorists and bad people, to do whatever it takes to make them talk, we dont see you human rights assholes when innocent people die, you only come forward to protect the rights of the worst kinda murderers

-What a bunch of fucking pussies. You're safe because of torture. Never forget that.

-right so.. terrorists are allowed to kill innocent people but we're not allowed to try and stop these attacks from even taking place?

These people sound a lot like George W. Bush.

Bush: I just can't imagine being President without having these techniques when we capture a known killer who has information about the next attack on America

Don't worry - you won't be. Thank God.

Or maybe they sound more like Jack Bauer.

Season 7 Episode 1

BAUER: When I am activated, when I am brought into a situation, there is a reason and that reason is to complete the objectives of my mission at all costs. [...]

For a combat soldier the difference between success and failure is your ability to adapt to your enemy. The people that I deal with, they don’t care about your rules. ... In answer to your question, am I above the law? No, sir. I am more than willing to be judged by the people you claim to represent. I will let them decide what price I should pay. Now please do not sit there with that smug look on your face and expect me to regret the decisions that I have made because, sir, the truth is I don’t.

Yeah, that's a great argument for Jury Nullification there O.J.


Episode 6 (When Jack argues for the kidnapping and threatening of an innocent woman and child to get her suspected traitor Secret Secret Agent husband to cooperate)

Bauer: When are you people going stop thinking everyone else is following your rules- They're NOT!

Because committing acts of terrorism against innocent people is a wonderful way protect innocent people from terrorists - dont'cha know?

Episode 9

Mayer: Madame President I don't care if his source is the blessed virgin Mary nothing justifies what went on in this room.

Taylor: But what if he's right? What if it means we could save lives?

Mayer: Look at that (points to the bloody and battered Burnett) and tell me it's not barbarism? Is that something you can live with?

Bauer: Earlier today two airplanes were brought down - is THAT something you can live with?

Mayer: You're reprehensible Bauer.

Bauer: AND YOU SIR ARE WEAK - Unwilling and Unable to Look Evil in the Eye and DEAL WITH IT!

Right, all the people stand for Human Rights and against torture - are the "Weak People". The Pussies! It takes a REAL MAN to be a sadistic Dickhead who repeatedly inspires vicious terrorists to hunt and attack him and his country. Thanks for the Tip Jack.

And then there are those who feel "It's Just TV", so don't worry about it.

why are people making a big deal outta this? So 24 shows torture. Deal with the guys who abuse kids and kill innocent people first, then we can talk about a TV show.

-Oh, and another thing assholes, what happened to freedom of speech? Just turn if off if you don't like it, yes? I'm quite sure that's what you'd say if a program happened to be in alignment with something you advocated, but others were criticizing. Fucking hypocrites.

Well, the big deal is that it's not just one show. It's many many shows over a great many years including "Alias" and "Lost" that have perpetuated this MYTH that all you have to do is inflict enough pain and the bad guys will "Crack". All of us have seen that movie, from Dirty Harry to Death Wish to SAW VII, that moment when the bad guys finally says - "ENOUGH, I'll Tell you...I'll TALK!"

We've all seen it, and hardly any of us have stood up and walked out thinking "That's Bullshit". We consider it credible, we think it's plausible - we BUY INTO IT - but it's just a myth, no more valid or real than the idea that a young girl in a short skirt is asking to be raped and murdered by a pedophile - or that the dirty Juden Deserved the Ovens!

Yeah, I went went there, because Nazi Germany is a large part of why Geneva exists. If Bauer was real, by now he'd be a sadistic neo-fascist sociopath - and that's exactly the point. He's a War Criminal.

If we saw a suggestion like those two in a film almost no one (except maybe Bill O'Rielly or Pat Buchanan) would buy it as believable. Yet hardly anyone objects to the idea that "everybody breaks" - and that right there is the challenge that stands before anyone who supports Human Rights and the rule of law. Even people on our side of the argument, are often willing to make excuses and compromises for "Special Circumstance", but just as the UN Torture Convention state - there are no excuses. None. Zero. Even seriously entertaining the suggestion should be completely abhorrent to all of us - yet it's not.

The argument that real people don't take this seriously and don't believe what their seeing on the TV or movie screen is belied by the Real Experience of Interrogators in Iraq.

U.S. Army Interrogator Tony Lagouranis: We were told that the old rules (Geneva) didn't apply anymore and were encouraged by the Pentagon to "Be creative" - so we watched Movies and TV for ideas.

Thanks to Bush, Cheney and the Yoo Memo's all their training and all the rules We're Out the Window!" Here is an Iraq Veteran Interrogator TELLING YOU they took tips directly from shows like "24" (and still I'm sure people will argue that these shows had nothing to do with it even though Lagouranis is clearly saying that IT DID!).

Add this to the words of the interrogator who helped take out the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq - Abu Zarqawi - that Torture Is NEVER Neccessary



No one is suggesting Censorship, nor is simply ignoring a show you don't like or agree with a solution. Sticking our head in the sand does nothing to address the fact that Millions of Americans are being LIED TO and almost no one - NO ONE - in Hollywood is making a rational and responsible effort to get the truth out, even while they repeatedly perpetuate a lie that is costing American lives.

When all anyone hears is one side of the argument - that side wins by default. Ignoring it is tacitly endorsing it.

Contrast how many times you've seen in your own life someone screaming "No - Enough" on TV or a film with how many times you've seen what Alexander is talking about? How many times have you seen Hollywood show someone give a False Confession or bogus information just to make the pain stop the way we received false intelligence information from Ibn Sheilk al Libi and Abu Zubaydah, information which helped send us into pointless war with Iraq?

I've only seen it once that I can recall - on Showtime's Sleeper Cell which IMO was the most honest and accurate program on terrorism ever, but that's hardly enough to counter the cultural juggernaut that Bauer has become. He's practically a national Icon. No one is saying "24" shouldn't be made, or that the creators don't have a First Amendment Right to present their story the way they'd like to - but if that story is based on a LIE - it should be questioned and vigorously challenged. We should always recall that the best of our art is literature isn't simply done in a flashy or stylistic way - it also represent and illuminates some basic human truths, not lies.

Ironically in part 2 of the Human Rights First film some of our real life interrogators do happen to use a piece of Hollywood film making to help them make their point on young soldiers who've already seen years of successful torture - and that piece of film comes from way back in the pre 9-11 days of 1998's The Seige.



What we don't really see is someone like Agent Hubbard on "24" who doesn't wind up looking like and treated like a Coward and a Pussy. Last year the producers of "24" promised to "Tone done the Torture" after a visit from the Commandant of West Point Gen Finnegan, but they haven't, they've simply come up with louder excuses for it. Waiting for Bauer to lose the argument to Agent Moss or Senator Mayer is like expecting Colmes to have ever gotten the better of Hannity. The Shit is RIGGED - "Jack the Superhero" is always right and always wins the fight. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

But then again even on TV sometimes the Hero does lose, like on Season 2 of Sleeper Cell: American Terror when torture fails and the bad guy uses it to play them for a suckers. It's not that you can't do accurate TV addressing terrorism - you can - but only if people refuse to accept and idly stand for BAD MISLEADING TV about terrorism. People need to demand better, but they'll only do that when they realize like Mathew Alexander - THERE IS A BETTER WAY!

Yet Again, (because people really don't seem to get this point) no one is suggesting censorship or a boycott, but even a show like Mythbusters includes a clear disclaimer :"Don't try this at home - Ever."

Maybe at the very least "24" should have a similar disclaimer
; Don't Try this on the Battlefield - EVER!

Vyan

Canada might not be safe for Bush anymore...because of the Torture

A series of Canadian attorney's are seeking to have George W. Bush either Prosecuted or Banned from entering Canada because of the credible information that he was involved in Torture.

Bush is scheduled to speak in Calgary March 17, but Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson says that because Bush has been “credibly accused” of supporting torture in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Canada has a legal obligation to deny him entry under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The law says foreign nationals who have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, including torture, are “inadmissible” to Canada. ”The test isn’t whether the person’s been convicted, but whether there’s reasonable grounds to think that they have been involved,” says Davidson, who’s with Lawyers Against the War (LAW). “

This is Bush said in 2006 about Torture:



"We do not torture"...he says.

Yet when Bush finally left office he said this:



Bush claims that what he did was "Legal" based on opinions he received from the OLC, yet those very opinions have since been under review and the prelimarily indication is that the attorney involved - John Yoo, Jay Bybee - may just be DISBARRED for offering them.



Late last year a Gitmo Prosecutor openly ruled that WE DID TORTURE detainees.



From the Washington Post

The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."

"We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

As Congress dithers on weather or not a Truth Commission will take place, and questions continue on whether AG Holder will truly investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration and address torture via a Special Counsel it may fall to the nations of the world to finally bring Bush and his nest of torturers, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Cheney - to justice.

But whether it will be St. Patricks Day in Canada - remains a mystery.

The (Canadian) federal government is keeping silent on the upcoming visit. “We have no comments to offer on the visit of Mr. George W. Bush to Calgary,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Alain Cacchione in an e-mail. When told about Davidson’s letter, a spokesperson with the Canadian Border Services Agency said “we wouldn’t comment on something like that.” Davidson is one of many voices around the world calling for Bush’s prosecution. Earlier this year, Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, said the U.S. has a “clear obligation” to prosecute Bush and former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld for authorizing torture — a violation of the UN Convention on Torture.

Regardless of what Canada does or doesn't do - the ball is truly in our court, if only we choose to run with it.

Vyan

Beck, Norris and Bauer - the Triumvariate of Wingnuttery

After reading rec'd diaries by Meteor Blades and Winter Rabbit on the Seccesionist Rants of Glenn Beck and Chuck (The President of Texas) Norris - I had a feeling we may have just crossed a Rubicon of Serious Nuttbaggery.

Then I went and found the actually interview and it's really much worse than previously advertised.

Much.

BECK: Chuck's the author of Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America. Chuck, you know what? I was talking about General Petraeus the other day. I mean this sincerely: I would love to have General Petraeus go up to Washington and clean that hornet's nest out. I'd like him to set up a military tribunal and call them in one by one, okay, going to have a little interview with you. Find out if they're guilty or innocent of being involved in, you know, all kinds of the scandals that are going on and kick them out.

NORRIS: I want to go with General Petraeus myself and be next to him and when he finds out who's guilty and, you know, dishonest, then I will take care of it for him. Took him out. I'll choke them out, the ones that he finds dishonest, I will choke them out and stick them into a pile.

Ok, let me get this straight - Chuck and Beck are talking here about essentially Overthrowing the Government, setting up their hero Petraeus as Military Dictator and putting Congress on trial one by one, after of course violently assaulting them without provocation. (Why not just use Gitmo and skip the trial?!)

This is more than a step beyond Michelle (Crazy like a Loon) Bachmann who felt there should be an investigation of Congress for "Anti-Americanism".

They then get into a discussion of one of my favorite subjects - that's right - the Enduring Heroism Neo-Conism of Jack Bauer.

GLENN: Do you ever watch 24?

NORRIS: I'm sorry?

GLENN: Do you ever watch the TV show 24?

NORRIS: No, I don't.

GLENN: Jack Bauer last night, he choked somebody out. Is that hard to do without killing them?

NORRIS: Yeah, you stop after 8 seconds. It takes 8 seconds for them to go unconscious.

GLENN: And then they --

NORRIS: They are always saying -- you know, since Jack Bauer, since I'm off the Walker series, everyone says, would Walker have a chance against Jack Bauer? I said Jack Bauer would last 5 seconds against Walker.

GLENN: Wow. But could you know which wire to cut if it was a nuke? Come on, Walker, come on, buddy.

NORRIS: I have good instincts, Glenn. My gut reaction will tell me which one to cut. That happens to Bauer, he doesn't know, either.

Hey guys - Bauer's a FICTIONAL CHARACTER! But then apparently so is Chuck Norris. I have talked time and time and time again about how the Wingers have been using Bauer and his actions as their Ultimate Example of Justice and LIberty. This is yet just another example of how divorced they are from facts and realty. Even if they realize HE'S NOT REAL - they not so secretly wish that he was real.

To further this point they go on to discuss a never released TV movie about an Osama Bin Laden "Dirty Bomb" attack on Chicago that was apparently filmed and scheduled to be shown just after September 11th and called - get this - "Ground Zero" - but was pulled by CBS. What a suprise, eh? (I'm willing to bet they could get ABC to put it on, they'll put on anything particularly if it makes Bill Clinton or Democrats in general look bad - just get Joel Surnow to write it.)

Beck: Holy Cow, that's amazing

Yeah, well the first episode of Fox's the X-Files Spinoff "The Lone Gunmen" which was shown just a couple months before 9-11 featured an attempt to crash an airplane into the World Trade Center - so you're not really all that special with the near clarvoiant TV Chuck.

On the Gunmen, the attempt to destroy the Tower is just a False Flag ploy to get the military industrial complex fired back up into high gear and start a war with a completely innocent nation - but then who would believe anyone in America would fall for something like that?

Yeah, right. Thank God it's just Tee Vee.

In the latest episode of "24" which as usual, got pretty stuck in my craw - Jack's latest failed interrogation gets a re-boot when Agent Walker (Hmm.. Walker!!?) proclaims "IF we'd just done things Jack's Way none of (all the usual "24" terrorist attacks) would have happened".

Ok, I've been watching all season and my question to the "24" writers is this: WHEN THE FUCK DID THEY NOT DO THINGS JACK's WAY!??

Simply because the "24" fans will always argue with me and try to justify anything Jack does - Let me just take a short walk through the ridiculousness of that statement (and hence try again to debunk the right-Wings endless syncophantic Worship of all things Bauer.)

Episode 1: Jack and Agent Renee Walker interrogate a gun-runner suspected of having ties to an impending terrorist attack. Renee let's Jack do whatever he wants - and the guy ends up shot by a sniper before he can reveal too much.

Episdoe 2: Jack figures the sniper had help from someone in the FBI and tells Renee he's disguised himself as one of them, they follow a suspicious agent and lo-and-behold he leads them directly to their target: Tony Almeida.

Episode 3: Jack asks to interrogate Tony himself - THEY LET HIM - and he discovers that Tony is working undercover to infiltrate the terrorists, so Jack helps Break him out of FBI headquarters.

Episode 5: Jack and Tony help kidnap a foreign Prime Minister Mutobo to prove their "Loyalty" and maintain Tony's cover in order to get closer to the chief terrorist - Dubaku, who meanwhile causes a mid-air collision killing over 200 people. Renee arrives chasing Tony and Jack, they take her hostage.

Episode 6: Jack pretends to "execute" Renee and buries her alive, later she is dug free by Bill Buchanan and Chloe Sullivan. Jack then reveals to Minister Mutobo that he is working with the "good guys" (Tony, Bill & Chloe), and talks them into to voluntarily being surrendered to the "bad guys" so they can locate them. The plan works and the attacks are stopped but Dubaku escapes, meanwhile the First Gentleman has been taken hostage.

Episode 7-8: Jack, Bill and Renee go to the President for help - she eventual agrees with their actions and charges them with finding the First Gentleman and Dubaku - "Whatever It Takes!" Phone records lead them to a currupt Secret Service Agent - Jack tells them to split up and go after both him and his Family. Only by threatening his wife and child are they likely to find the First Gentlemen sayeth Jack. SO THEY DO IT - and naturally, because this is television show, it works. The Agent is killed by Jack (in self-defense of course), the First Gentleman is found but wounded.

Episode 9-10: Jack and Renee locate Dubuku's girlfriend Marika and Jack talks her into leading them to him using GPS tracking of her cellphone. Dubuku is tipped off and destroys the phone, rather than continue following quietly Jack initiates a high-speed chase that ends in a crash that KILLS Marika and severely injures Dubaku. Jack threatens to deny medical attention to Dubauku and to hunt down his family to get the names of his accomplices - Dubaku passes out before he can give any information, but Jack finds it anyway in a chip hidden just under his skin and has it extracted after pulling his gun on the paramedics!

Episode 11-12: Tony comes to Jack and says he has a tip of yet another attack, but he doesn't know where only that a Congressional Staffer named Burnett is involved. Jack calls Chloe and has her commit obstruction of justice by deleting Burnett's name from Dubaku's file so that he won't be arrested and call for a lawyer before Jack can get to him. He tracks down Burnett in the White House and uses a taser to torture him, but he doesn't quite crack. Meanwhile Dubaku is killed in the Hospital by men working for his commanding officer Gen. Juma. Renee figures out that his death wasn't acidental, uses surveillance and detective work to find Juma and his commando team who are about to attack - The White House. Jack is arrested, Burnett calls for his lawyer and Juma attacks.

Episode 13: In the melee of the attack Jack is released by Bill and somehow winds up being the one person who gets the President to the Safe Room. They are eventually lured out by a threat against the first daughter, but manage to set a booby trap. Washington Bureau Chief Larry Moss defies the Vice President and orders a counter attack after Bill Buchanan sets off the trap and is killed in the explosion. The President is saved, Jack is arrested again. Renee goes over Larry Moss's head to the President's Chief of Staff to support Jack's plan to continue the interrogation of Burnett. Moss is overruled and since he believes so deeply in the chain of command - excluding of course the Veep - he immediately suspends Renee, then follows through with Jack's plan. Juma's *OTHER* set of accomplices are tipped-off and manage to get an operative in place to immobilize Jack with a nerve agent and kill Burnett before he can talk - the Third interrupted interrogation of the day - and of course frame Jack for Burnett's death (The same thing that happened with Jack's own brother during an interrogation last season - Jack NEVER Learns!). Jack being Jack, rather than let his blood be screened for toxins and prove his innocence - RUNS FOR IT! WhattaHero!

In short, Renee finds out the same information that Jack's is torturing people to discover by simply doing her job properly - and the truth is if Jack had been Following Her LEAD and backing her up the Attack on the White House would have been prevented - not the other way around. To claim that they haven't done Everything the way Jack's wanted to do it - is just PLAIN NUTS. And because they did it Jack's Way - Agent Vossler is Dead, Dubaku is Dead, Marika is Dead, Burnett is Dead and Bill Buchanan is Dead. It's particularly nutty coming from Renee since her own actions prove Jack Wrong, but then again that's the way guys like Beck and Norris Roll, with thier blather about "red wires", "green wires", "Walker could kick Bauer's ASS in 5 seconds" - yeah, except that Jack would just SHOOT YOU Dumbass. They really do think this crap is real.

But I digress.

Getting back to actual reality, there is a serious point in all this. Beck is apparently sponsoring a big Call to Arms event on March 13th, called "We Surround Them".

It was described on Beck's program this way.

Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation. You can host or attend a viewing party by going to Glenn's website. My wife Gena and I will be hosting one from our Texas ranch, in which we've invited many family members, friends and law enforcement to join us. It's our way of saying "We're united, we're tired of the corruption, and we're not going to take it anymore!"

They're tired of the corruption Now? NOW!?

Clearly this is a call out to the Palinites among us. We have members of Congress saying they need to function as an Insurgency - Like the Taliban. Former Presidential Candidates like Alan Keyes have openly sounded the insurrectionist alarm arguing that OBAMA MUST BE STOPPED OR AMERICA IS LOST. We have already had a hard core Right-Wingnut Take Up Arms and commit Acts of Terrorism including Mass Murder in Knoxville, an Attempted Dirty Bomber has been found - this is NO Joke, it's not TV - it's bad enough that the Real FBI is on High Alert.

The FBI monitors and investigates all the white supremacist groups and websites and the guy I know in NY told me that Obama's election has turned into the best recruiting tool they have ever used. Membership is up for the first time in I don't know how long, and new hate websites are emerging every week. Some of the websites actually call for Obama's assassination in their title!

The only solace I can offer is that, typically, these assholes are usually just that: a bunch of bored blowhards, terrified by the pace of a world that is passing them by, who have nothing better to do than complain, blame others for their shitty lives and spew their hatred and pitifully ignorant views online.

So far the danger to the populace from these people and their uber-Patriot "Do Whatever is Neccessary!" ideas are likley to have limited effect only because they are each operating alone and independently. They're just "Lone Gunmen" so to speak, but what is likely to happen when you pile a big ton of pissed-off wingnuts all together all at once and let them simmer on some spicy Liberal Hatred?

What do all these dimbulbs think Jack Bauer would do?

Nothing good will come of this, mark my words.

Vyan