Sunday, November 26, 2006

THANKSGIVING DAY IN AMERICA SHOULD BE A DAY OF ATONEMENT FOR GENOCIDE OF NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLES


ETHNIC CLEANSING AMERICAN STYLE " LEST WE FORGET "

“Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the "cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.”
Don't Know Much About History, Kenneth C. Davis


SOLDIERS WHO MASSACRED NATIVE AMERICANS AT WOUNDED KNEE WERE GIVEN " MEDALS OF HONOR "
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NATIVE AMERICANS OFTEN DEPICTED AS AN EVIL BARBARIC GODLESS RACE WHO WERE A LITTLE LESS THAN HUMAN

"TRAIL OF TEARS " -" In one of the saddest episodes of our brief history, men, women, and children were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles(Some made part of the trip by boat in equally horrible conditions). Under the generally indifferent army commanders, human losses for the first groups of Cherokee removed were extremely high. John Ross made an urgent appeal to Scott, requesting that the general let his people lead the tribe west. General Scott agreed. Ross organized the Cherokee into smaller groups and let them move separately through the wilderness so they could forage for food. Although the parties under Ross left in early fall and arrived in Oklahoma during the brutal winter of 1838-39, he significantly reduced the loss of life among his people. About 4000 Cherokee died as a result of the removal. "

AFTERMATH OF MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE 1890, December 28 -

"Just twenty-one years after Columbus’s first landing in the Caribbean, the vastly populous island that the explorer had re-named Hispaniola was effectively desolate; nearly 8,000,000 people--those Columbus chose to call Indians--had been killed by violence, disease, and despair. It took a little longer, about the span of a single human generation, but what happened on Hispaniola was the equivalent of more than fifty Hiroshimas. And Hispaniola was only the beginning.

The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. That is why, as one historian aptly has said, far from the heroic and romantic heraldry that customarily is used to symbolize the European settlement of the Americas, the emblem most congruent with reality would be a pyramid of skulls. "
Dr. David E. Stannard ;American Holocaust: The conquest of the New World
Prologue (from the book) 1992

AMERICANS SUPPORT THEIR " BRAVE SOLDIERS " EVEN WHEN THEY MURDER UNARMED CIVILIANS OR THOSE UNJUSTLY ATTACKED WHO THEN TAKE UP ARMS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES -
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"Hitler's concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the wild west; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination - by starvation and uneven combat - of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity." P. 202, "Adolph Hitler" by John Toland

"I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized"
Davy Crockett
His political career destroyed because he supported the Cherokee, he left Washington D. C. and headed west to Texas.


"The opposite of love is not hate; it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness; it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy; it's indifference.
The opposite of life is not death; it's indifference.
Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies."
Elie Wiesel.

Anyway here are some more thoughts one should be aware of when talking about the United States & its history. It is also worthwhile to look at the history of United States as representative of the “ values” of Western Civilization which these days is seen as far superiour in every way to any other Civilization or Culture .

America is not or has not represented an enlightened society which always treats people of various cultures , race , creed & religion with justice, fairness & dignity . When it was in their interest they kidnapped millions of Black Africans to make them into slaves & it either didn’t occur to them that these people were also human beings who deserved to be treated as equals or they just didn’t care. But other so called Christian nations also took part in the slave trade as they believed it was their God Given Right especially since the Old Testament defended slavery. ( Note There are Christian Reconstructionists in America & Canada who even now argue in favor of slavery )

It is interesting & disturbing how so many conservative American scholars expend a great deal of time & effort to try to show that though a great many North American Native Peoples were killed by the Invading Europeans they argue ; that the number is less than one or two million as opposed to the ten to twenty million which other historians put the number at .Some claim that in total there may have been as many as 120 million aboriginal peoples in the Americas from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn when Columbus landed .

It is difficult to see the difference between these deniers of the extent of the massacre of Native Americans & those who deny the extent of the Jewish Holocaust . I n the end both are out to rewrite history to fit their own personal beliefs & prejudices . Both use a dubious process in which they find discrepancies in the numbers & therefore claim that the whole issue is contentious & therefore open to academic debate in the same way these same conservatives deny the science behind the theory of Global Warming or the Theory of Evolution .

What we wonder is why are they so insistent that there was no real attempt or explicit policy to drastically reduce the number of North American Natives .
Partly it is that such scholars & their followers believe that America has always been a fair & just & democratic society which believed in the Equality of all Men but this does not fit with the actual history of America. The other part of their efforts to deny the magnitude of the atrocities committed against Native American Peoples is at root racist since the “Indians “ as they depict them were a primitive unsophisticated people who were barbaric Pagans who in the end did not appreciate the Superiority of Western Civilization & of course that these Europeans were willing to share with these “ inferior peoples ” the GOOD NEWS OF CHRISTIANITY . As these apologist for Western Expansionism often seem to be saying is that ; “ How dare they refuse such a wonderful opportunity to embrace European or American values & Christianity .


It should be noted that the Bush Regime now claims that the People of Iraq are also ungrateful for the opportunities which the American Invaders of Iraq have offered them . The victims of American Aggression are now the ones who are guilty for all that has gone wrong in Iraq in the same way as Conservatives claimed about the Vietnamese People during the Vietnam War .

The British often made the same claims about the Peoples they conquered during their time of Empire for example India China & African & Carribean nations . Colonialist then & now will always come up with such rationalizations to explain or cover up their real motives which are avarice , greed & plunder to enhance their Empires Power & Wealth at the expense of those they have conquered & enslaved & slaughtered when this seemed to them necessary .

It could be argued that the only difference between these Empire Builders & Hitler was a matter of ruthless bureaucratic & technological efficiency . But the same racist & elitists views are at work in both cases .


As Robert Jensen in an article " NO THANKS TO THANKSGIVING "( AlterNet. November 23, 2006.) argues:

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.

The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians' land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving "wild beasts" from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, "both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."

Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the "merciless Indian Savages" -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn't stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, "[W]e shall destroy all of them."

As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process "due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway."

Roosevelt also once said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."

How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here's how "respectable" politicians, pundits, and professors play the game: When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations' lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history.

And as for the INFAMOUS TRAIL OF TEARS & NEAR EXTERMINATION OF THE CHEROKEE NATION

TRAIL OF TEARS
http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html

Between 1790 and 1830 the population of Georgia increased six-fold. The western push of the settlers created a problem. Georgians continued to take Native American lands and force them into the frontier. By 1825 the Lower Creek had been completely removed from the state under provisions of the Treaty of Indian Springs. By 1827 the Creek were gone.

Cherokee had long called western Georgia home. The Cherokee Nation continued in their enchanted land until 1828. It was then that the rumored gold, for which De Soto had relentlessly searched, was discovered in the North Georgia mountains.

The Cherokees in 1828 were not nomadic savages. In fact, they had assimilated many European-style customs, including the wearing of gowns by Cherokee women. They built roads, schools and churches, had a system of representational government, and were farmers and cattle ranchers. A Cherokee alphabet, the "Talking Leaves" was perfected by Sequoyah.

.
In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an independent Cherokee Nation. At first the court seemed to rule against the Indians. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Court refused to hear a case extending Georgia's laws on the Cherokee because they did not represent a sovereign nation. In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee on the same issue in Worcester v. Georgia. In this case Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, making the removal laws invalid. The Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty. The treaty then would have to be ratified by the Senate.


In 1838 the United States began the removal to Oklahoma, fulfilling a promise the government made to Georgia in 1802. Ordered to move on the Cherokee, General John Wool resigned his command in protest, delaying the action. His replacement, General Winfield Scott, arrived at New Echota on May 17, 1838 with 7000 men. Early that summer General Scott and the United States Army began the invasion of the Cherokee Nation.

And so a country formed fifty years earlier on the premise "...that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.." brutally closed the curtain on a culture that had done no wrong.

Also check out THE AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM WEBSITE
http://www.aigenom.com/

The American Indian Genocide Museum has a vision to defeat
prejudice and discrimination through education. In the beginning of
American History a religious leader who claimed to speak for God
gave all the lands west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands to the
King of Spain, if it wasn't already in the possession of some other
Catholic King. This decree issued by Pope Alexander Vl, effective
from Christmas Day 1492 , is on display at the General Archive of
the Indies in Seville, Spain.

The bigotry and intolerance this decree created for Native Americans
was realized when upon seeing the Tarawa Indians of the Bahamas,
Columbus wrote, "They would make fine servants. With fifty men we
could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want".
The problem with dehumanizing people in order to take their land is,
that the next step is to take their lives also. Genocide in the Americas
is not an easy subject to address- not for any American.
The purpose of this museum is to bring historical truth
to light through the means of education using actual
documentation of events that have transpired in the
near extermination, and in some cases, the total
extermination of native tribes and cultures. It will be a
memorial to the victims of ethnic cleansing. Racism,
discrimination and injustice will be addressed with the
purpose of promoting public awareness that these
elements of genocide which existed in the past,
continue to exist today. A further purpose of the
museum will be to address prejudice which is
generated toward native peoples through biased
reporting of history. The goal of influencing authors of
school textbooks with irrefutable documentation shall
be of major importance. A library and microfilm
archive will be available. The visual use of art,
sculpture and film will create a memorable learning
experience.

and here are a few more websites that may be of interest :
from :
Race, Racism and the Law Speaking Truth to Power!!
http://academic.udayton.edu/race
excerpted from: Lindsay Glauner, The Need for Accountability and Reparation: 1830-1976 the United States Government's Role in the Promotion, Implementation, and Execution of the Crime of Genocide Against Native Americans , 51 DePaul Law Review 911-961, 911-917


And from website :
RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: ONTARIO CONSULTANTS ON RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE
PAST GENOCIDES COMMITTED AGAINST NATIVE AMERICANS
http://www.religioustolerance.org/genocide5.htm

Overview:

The population of North America prior to the first sustained European contact in 1492 CE is a matter of active debate. Various estimates of the pre-contact Native population of the continental U.S. and Canada range from 1.8 to over 12 million. 4 Over the next four centuries, their numbers were reduced to about 237,000 as Natives were almost wiped out. Author Carmen Bernand estimates that the Native population of what is now Mexico was reduced from 30 million to only 3 million over four decades. 13 Peter Montague estimates that Europeans once ruled over 100 million Natives throughout the Americas.

And see website:
understanding prejudice.org

International Human Rights: Genocide
http://www.hamline.edu/

For more links to Native American Websites see:
http://www.dreamscape.com
GHOST DANCE:

The practice of a Native American religious ritual called the Ghost Dance on the Sioux reservation led to the intervention of federal troops and the arrest of Sioux leader Sitting Bull in December 1890. Gunfire erupted and Sitting Bull was shot along with a number of his supporters. The U.S. Cavalry later killed several hundred Sioux men, women, and children who had fled to a camp along Wounded Knee Creek.


And:
GhostWolf Davidson, aka GhostWolf
www.nemasys.com/ghostwolf/index.shtml
Spiritual and Cultural Genocide...

Also check out :
Holocaust/Genocide Project
http://www.iearn.org/
Native American Genocide Still Haunts United States
By Leah Trabich
Cold Spring Harbor High School
New York, USA

And website:
UNITED NATIVE AMERICANS
http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/

And:
NATIVE AMERICAN GENOCIDE
http://www.wicocomico-indian-nation.com

And for a website which downplays The Tragedy of NATIVE AMERICANS
see History News Network which has its own Neoconservative Bias
IE pro-Bush, Anti-United Nations etc.
Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?
By Guenter Lewy
http://hnn.us/

Anyway bye for now,
GORD.



Friday, November 24, 2006

THANKSGIVING DAY AMERICAN PROPAGANDA & OTHER FANTASIES OF DEMOCRACY


PORTRAIT OF AMERICAN POET LANGSTON HUGHES
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QUOTE FROM LANGSTON HUGHES
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AMERICAN AUTHOR ALICE WALKER
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QUOTE FROM REVEREND MARTIN LUTHER KING WHOM J > EDGAR HOOVER CALLED THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA & STILL REVILED BY MANY CONSERVATIVE AMERICANS
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Anyway Americans are now celebrating their Holiest of Holidays Thanksgiving Day in which they thank their God for choosing America as the Promised Land & the Nation which is supposed to be God’s representative on Earth as it spreads Christianity & Capitalism to the rest of the Pagan & Apostate Nations of the World. .

Meanwhile the American people support the use of torture & disappearing those whom they dislike while supporting various dictators & authoritarian regimes from the Shaw’s Iran to Pinochet’s Chile & the use of brutal Death Squads & in the past supported the South African Apartheid regime & now supports the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people & gave full hearted support to Saddam til they changed their minds .

So I came across a poem by Langston Hughes which was reprinted on the Infoermation Clearing House website & I added a second poem of by Langston Hughes which seems to reflect the reality of American history as opposed to the false & distorted view which many Americans like to cling to in desperation against all evidence to the contrary which sows it to be far from being a free & open & democratic society since its beginnings.



From Information Clearing House :
Let America Be America Again
By Langston Hughes


1902-1967


Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

And:
here is a shorter poem by Langston Hughes which I thought would also be appropriate
from http://oldpoetry.com/

I, Too.
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Anyway that’s all for now ,
GORD.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS & OTHER PROPAGANDA & PART III OF AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME : A WORK IN PROGRESS


ANTONIO BANDERAS AS PANCHO VILLA IN A WONDERFUL FILM ABOUT AN IDEALIST & A REALIST WHO KNEW THE LIMITS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS ONCE IT IS CONTOLLED BY THE SELFISH & THE WEALTHY
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PANCHO VILLA LEADING HIS REBEL ARMY FIGHTING FOR DIGNITY & EQUALITY & JUSTICE ( OUT-DATED NOTIONS ACCORDING TO NEOCONS & THEIR "REALPOLITIK " & " ELITISM" )
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PHOTO OF PANCHO VILLA AS A CHILD
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And here's the next part in " AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME " which is a work in progress as it were .
In this so-called Clash of Civilizations who are the barbaians & who are the real bullies on this playground we call Earth.
And what happens when War & Politics are reduced to " Talking Points " & shallow Media " SOUND BITES " ?
And what happens when these political issues are viewed as merely subjects for college debating teams and are divorced from their true reality & their serious life & death consequences as if it were just a war movie or the simulated violence of a high tech video game ?
And what does it say about a Civilization that condemns millions to abject poverty & virtual slavery & acts as if the lives of all those peoples outside the WEST are not as worthy as our own & that we have been chosen by God or the inescapable forces of Nature to fulfill our destiny as the Rulers of The World ?
We are in need of more than just a change in governments in the WEST but also a change in our attitudes towards the rest of Humankind .

Anyway so much for my polemic now onto the main attraction :

AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME
PART III

I

pillaging the world of its wealth
believing it is ours by right
as willed by God or Nature
believing might is right
believing the world should kneel before us
believing we are the superiour race
believing we are God’s chosen ones
believing we have been chosen by Nature
to rule over the world as we see fit
if it were not so God or Nature would unseat us -


II

And the pop-singers sing little ditties
writing tunes to please & appease
writing GANGSTA tunes
glorifying chaos & violence
of brothers killing brothers
proving their phoney manliness
sometimes praising God
for being the last one standing
in the midst of the Killing Fields
in Ghettoes & not so innocent Suburbia
in the end becoming wealthy as princes
buying into the American Dream
of shiny bangles of silver & gold
big cars & lots of ass -

while all those who are mesmerized
believing themselves sophisticated
hang out in well lighted smoke-free cafes
where no one says a discouraging word
speaking of their sexual exploits
searching for the next thrill to pass the time
where everyone repeats the catch phrases of the day
parroting political pundits
& television news anchors
who praise those who hold power
proclaiming this is the best that could be
our leaders they proclaim love us
& would do us no harm
& everyone cherishes their ignorance & innocence -

while sad-eyed broken-down poets
their muse clinging to their backs
too romantic for their own good
write haiku & epics on napkins
while artists paint & sculpt few will see
in this sanitized cookie cutter world
of the politically correct
while they dine in second-rate cafes
becoming wordsmiths in greasy spoons
in the new ghettoes
speaking of love eternal & other nonsense
sometimes asked to share their wordstew
with the second-rate customers
who have no pressing engagements
who have no other place to go
who have become refugees in their own country
unable to grasp & adapt to the New World Order
or the new society of the facile
no longer just rebels going through a phase
after decades of seeking truth
or some other lost ideal
in the forlorn dry as dust world
where stone & bricks are covered in ivy
offer little sustenance
for souls bewildered
by all those false promises
bewildered by the glittering towers of steel & glass
of a world proud of its soullessness
as it verges on the brink of chaos
or just wearing itself out
its wheels cogs & gears grinding
in almost but not quite perpetual motion

or just more noisy Satanic Mills
belching out smoke steam & sulphur
a cacophony of pointless machinery
creating an illusion of progress & prosperity
while billions are enslaved
ensnared by the clutching tentacles we send
reaching across the seas
reaching across deserts
reaching over mountain ranges
reaching across continents
turning the world into ash & dust
stealthily stretching into cities & towns
even into the smallest thatched-roof village
implicating everyone in our crimes -

And if the locals dare protest
we have our M16s our attack helicopters
our bombs our drones our missiles
our baby nukes our napalm
to crush their resistance
to crush their houses
to rip up their streets
to turn their cities to rubble
to sow their fields & orchards with salt
and anti-personnel mines
and if they complain
we have our deathsquads
to keep them in line
as we build more mega-prisons
destroy schools & hospitals
to show them how civilized we are
as we pillage rape & kill
in the name of our superiority
in the name of our messiah
in the name of our prophet
and in the name of profit
the only thing that’s real
for its just business as usual
ours is still the only way
from one Empire to the next
from one corrupt regime to the next
its always the same
scribes accountants bureaucrats
holding onto their posh jobs
never argue with those in power
fearing for their pensions
making sure it all runs like clockwork
making sure the trains & planes run on time
delivering oranges & apples & tanks & guns
& soldiers eager to fight another war
returning home broken in mind & body
returning home mangled bodies in plastic bags
or kidnapped civilians delivered to secret prisons or death camps
what has this got to do with them they ask
while doctors nurses & psychologists do as they are told
keeping the tortured detainees alive & well for another day
for God & country & a weekly paycheck
while self-serving contractors building tombs & palaces
barracks or schools or hospitals pad their bills
in the ancient good old entrepreneurial way
they’re just out to make a buck they say
while the people settle for bread & circuses
swallow all the lies they are fed
it’s easier that way they say -

COMING TO A BLOG NEAR YOU PART IV

BYE FOR NOW,
GORD.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

"AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME " PART TWO ON THE DEATH OF THE WEST


" THE POLICE STATE - YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT " MIXED MEDIA BY NANCY WORTHINGTON : Nancy Worthington Gallery
http://www.domjoy.com/
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ABOVE IMAGE BORROWED FROM BLOG notes from somewhere bizarre
a contaminated blog by ashley benigno
http://www.ashleyb.org/
(Posted by Picasa)

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis

So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth -- Victor Hugo

Anyway here is part two of the poem "An Epic For our Time" which is a work in progress as it were .

An Epic For Our Time
Prologue to Part Two

Let us pray they say for those led astray
For the guards & executioners given orders by the righteous ones
to humiliate & degrade
to nearly drowning a thousand times
telling them they cannot pray
taking away their Holy Books
let us pray
for all the soldiers their souls corrupted
committing unthinkable acts of barbarity
raping & murdering
walking in the footsteps of a thousand years of crusading
we fight for God we are told
Love your enemy no hell kill him
kill them all to end it forever
to purify the world in fire -

thousands hide away in prisons the world round
as the Empire of America expands
needing more of everything -

all the poets feeding their angst
delving into the horrors of history
searching for The Golden Age
finding only illusion
finding only madness
finding no meaning beyond survival -


Epic for our time

I

ah to write an epic for our time
of the death of the west
as it reverts to old ways
its old fears realized
in a hostile world
peopled by those different from ourselves -

as the west takes the easy way out
selling off ideals for wealth
selling our souls for pieces of silver
selling our wondrous dreams
of freedom equality & compassion
to the highest bidder
bearing false witness
against all who stood by us
when we were down on our luck
avoiding all who saw us
at our worse
denying our past
favoring a rewrite of our history
justifying all we have done
oppression slavery genocide
all in the name of God & democracy
& the triumph of the West -

Forgetting the past remaking ourselves
reinventing ourselves in our arrogance
unwilling to ask for forgiveness
refusing to see our crimes
refusing to take responsibility
for all our misdeeds
refusing to humble ourselves
before our countless victims

knowing our failings
denying our failings
seeing ourselves as heroes
denying the worth of others
denying the dignity of others
becoming what once we hated
becoming what once we feared
as we make our claims to our destiny
becoming the world conquerors
becoming the worlds oppressors -


II

as we day by day piece by piece
rip-out the last bits of our humanity
laughing at the failings of others
laughing at the pain of others
laughing at the suffering & death of others
who are not as worthy as we
laughing at all who wish to do good
laughing at all who sacrifice for another
laughing at all who speak of love & compassion
laughing at all who speak of integrity
laughing at all who speak of honor
laughing at all who speak of tolerance

laughing at all who speak of truth & justice -

praising those who’ve turned lying into an art
praising those who’ve replaced truth with propaganda
praising those who only live for themselves
praising those who use others as stepping stones
praising those who only live for pleasure
praising those who only desire to amass wealth
praising the greedy opportunist
praising the power-hungry who prey on the weak -


destroying all those who stand in our way
destroying all those who see through our lies
destroying all those who dare disagree
destroying all who question our true motives
destroying all who dare not fear us -

Watch for part 3 coming soon !!!

And here are some blogs of note:

The-Barricade.com
A Political Poetry Ezine
http://zine.gavroche.org/


DownWithTyranny! by keninny
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis

So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth -- Victor Hugo

notes from somewhere bizarre
a contaminated blog by ashley benigno
http://www.ashleyb.org/


different maps
no use for eyes
i.e. Friday, August 11, 2006
Spectacular War
http://www.cinestatic.com/

ZNET
A CENTURY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS:
From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan
Compiled by Zoltan Grossman
(revised 09/20/01)
http://www.zmag.org/

THE POLICE STATE- YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT
Nancy Worthington Gallery
http://www.domjoy.com/

So there you go - til next time
GORD.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME: ALL THE POETS ARE GONE , PART ONE


UBU ROI BY MAX ERNST OR OUR NOBLE LEADER ?
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SPECTACULAR WAR BY MAX ERNST OR LEADERS & THEIR PEOPLE GONE MAD
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ASSASSINS BY RENE MAGRITTE
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Anyway so here's a piece of poetry I have been working on in this age of madness banality conformity & paranoia while trapped in a frozen lake of fear .

All the poets are gone
An Epic For Our Time
( a work in progress )
part one
October 1st -November12
Gord.

All the poets are gone
the people without a voice
Poets driven to suicide
some crippled by a broken heart
some kidnapped off the streets late at night
some silenced by fear
some write verses to praise their captors
some driven to madness
some left in prisons to rot
some disappeared without a trace
like the good old days in El Salvador & Chile
or in the efficient third Reich
everyday another martyr is created
the people left without a voice
all their tears & prayers in vain
no one to comfort them in their poverty
no one to comfort them in their despair -

The people are left without a voice
without a Ginsberg to lead the way
to give America a wake-up call
no Bukowski to soothe us
for its all just more bullshit he would say
no Kerouac to pass on the Dharma
no Dharma Bums to share their visions
no Thoreau to teach us simplicity
no Blake or Burns to mock us
no Dante to damn our hypocrisy
no Cervantes to help us to dream
no Swift to undermine our certainty
no Baudelaire to reflect our despair
no Pablo Neruda or Garcia Lorca
reciting lyrical verses about freedom & tyranny
singing songs of revolution
no folk singers & rock & rollers
willing to stand up
too busy making another million or two
how many millions does one person need
no rebels to throw a wrench into the machinery
so many lost their way becoming Court Jesters
for Monarchs, the New Czars & tyrants
such tyranny abides when poets abandon their posts
all we get are silly sad love songs while the world burns -

All the poets are gone
tending their gardens
while bombers pass unnoticed over their heads -

No Poets to man the Barricades
No Poets to storm the Bastille
Poets fat & content in Suburbia
having retired from the battlefield
writing odes to flowers & misguided soldiers -

Poets crying out in the wilderness
Poets shouting from the mountain tops
all in vain the people have turned a blind eye -

Poets crying into their beer
all those long dark nights of the soul
waiting for a reprieve
we all stand accused -

poets gone to Innisfree & Walden Pond or gone to live in Medieval Castles
or to the Isle of Crete or to the Courts of Kings who feed the poet’s ego & belly
in the hopes of regaining their sanity
hoping to regain their identity -

Poets lost in drug induced visions
Poets having meditated themselves into indifference
for all is an illusion they say
even your hunger & destitution
even mangled bodies of children merely an illusion
all life is suffering so why worry be happy
so their song & dance men sing -

Poets getting drunk to dull the pain
to run through the streets drunk or high
jumping head first into the machine
torn apart by its cogs & wheels -

Poets lost in lust or love
& other distractions
souls untended left to languish-

Poets longing for death
each line a confession of despair -

Poets writing manifestoes no one will read
Poets preparing for the next revolution
just another delusion of the feeble minded
as they huddle together in a common room
of some hospital for the overly sensitive
who weep & wail over the mangled bodies of strangers
blown to pieces in another war to end all wars
on the tv nightly news but now its 24/7 there’s no escape
& it’s just a video game everyone wants to play -

Poets unable to see the trees for the forest -
Poets plagued by nightmares of war & pestilence
of massacres & genocide -

Poets chipping away at icebergs
taking an axe to our paintings & statues
smashing our glass houses
murdering our mythical selves -

Poets oblivious savoring sweet dreams
& visions of beauty
til they are dragged away
breaking their guitars & breaking their hands
then politely shot -

Poets seeing through the false veneer
of a society & world gone mad -

Poets giving up the ghost
throwing in the towel -

Poets lashed to the unforgiving wheel of time -

Poets caught like flies in amber
twenty years gone in the blink of an eye -

Poets born into an age where poets are ignored
better to face a firing squad -

Poets calling to the people to arise
to fight the tyrants
the people stoning poets in the public square
believing their wise men & priests
who feed their blood-lust & hate
for what is a man without fear & hate -

See you later,
GORD.

ASSASSINS BY RENE MAGRITTE
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Thursday, November 09, 2006

BUSH'S OWN GRAND INQUISITOR GRANTED IMMUNITY BY DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS AS PART OF THE AMERICAN TRADITION ??? RUMSFELD & MENTOR TORQUEMADA
























WATER TORTURE USED DURING THE SPANISH INQUISITION BY THE PIOUS TORQUEMADA WHO'S ACTIONS EVEN NOW ARE DEFENDED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH & DOES NOT REPENT FOR THESE UNCHRISTIAN ACTS OF BRUTALITY.
















And here is a bit about Torquemada which reminds one of Rumsfeld:
From BLOG WHAT'S LEFT

" Never has a man so enjoyed his work! Torquemada developed and employed an elaborate network of spies and secret police to root out heresy. His favorite methods for extracting confessions, nevermind the truth, were to hang the accused by the arms so that the arms were pulled from their joints, to force the swallowing of gallons of water, and to have the joints dislocated on the rack. His methods made him generally unpopular — he had to travel with bodyguards — but no one dared oppose him. Even the Pope could not reign him in: when Sixtus issued a bull absolving conversos of any wrong they might have done, Ferdinand, under Torquemada's influence, refused to enforce it.



The least of his crimes was his twisting of jurisprudence: In 1490 Torquemada oversaw the LaGuardia trial, in which eight Jews and conversos were accused of crucifying a Christian child. No victim was identified, no body ever discovered, but all eight were convicted nevertheless on the strength of confessions obtained by torture. And all were burned at the stake.



In sum, Torquemada had over 2,000 heretics, Jews and Muslims burned by auto-da-fé, and perhaps 9,000 punished in other ways. "



(From catholic encyclopedia : At that time the purity of the Catholic Faith in Spain was in great danger from the numerous Marranos and Moriscos, who, for material considerations, became sham converts from Judaism and Mohammedanism to Christianity. The Marranos committed serious outrages against Christianity and endeavoured to judaize the whole of Spain. The Inquisition, which the Catholic sovereigns had been empowered to establish by Sixtus IV in 1478, had, despite unjustifiable cruelties, failed of its purpose, chiefly for want of centralisation. In 1483 the pope appointed Torquemada, who had been an assistant inquisitor since 11 February 1482, Grand Inquisitor of Castile, and on 17 October extended his jurisdiction over Aragon.)
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14783a.htm

My comment -This sort of apologetic is typical of Christian Historians who through their own twisted view of the world & mangled logic are able to defend the " indefensible ".
For one thing The Christian Church was not threatened at that time in Spain . Secondly the statements made show how suscepible to the propaganda & ignorance & supertitious beliefs of virulent anti-semitism which has played a major role in Christianity since its very beginnings & was incorporated into Christian theology by the Church Fathers .
When it comes to the Church's silence while Jews were being exterminated by the Nazis the Catholic church & other Christian Churches have down-played their lack of action & offer some feeble half-assed apology is it because they still do not see that they too by their silence are also to a great degree guilty of Sins of Ommission at the very least .

See for instance : THE CRUCIFIED JEW : TWENTY CENTURIES OF CHRISTIAN ANTI-SEMITISM abook by Dan Cohn-Sherbok pub. 1992
















GRAND INQUISTOR RUMSFELD PROUDLY SMILES BELIEVING HE IS DOING GOD'S WORK BY ORDERING OTHERS TO KIDNAP, DISAPPEAR , TORTURE & KILL ALL WHO WILL NOT SUBMIT TO GOD & DIVINELY GUIDED AMERICA.
HE HAS THE SAME BLIND FAITH AS HIS MENTOR TORQUEMADA & IS PROTECTED & DEFENDED BY KING BUSH !!!
Rumsfeld is a living example of " the Banality of Evil "
Just a bureaucrat in a nice blue suit doing his job !!!

CONDI'S PLAN FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AS SHE DISCOVERED IT IN THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS
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Rumsfeld's resignation is really just a bit of window dressing to appease the more gullible among America's public . This is just another trick in Bush's " dog & monkey show " or if you will just a piece of theatre to silence some of the administration's critics .


There has been no indication from Bush or his administration that things are going to be different and so the kidnaping & disappearing & torture of detainees will continue.
The Blood-Bath that is Iraq will continue as Bush stays the course.

Bush again said Rumsfeld did a great job & that everyone agreed & that because of Rumsfeld the Taliban have been beaten in Afghanistan.

These assertions are not in tune with the reality that Afghanistan is a bloody mess & the Islamic extremists control large parts of the country & that warlords operate freely & the opium business is booming while most Afghans live in abject poverty .

But Bush Rumsfeld & many Americans never really cared about the people of Afghanistan anymore than they care about the Iraqi people .




DETAINEES SHOUTED AT; BEATEN ; NOT PERMITTED TO TALK OR PRAY & NOT PERMITTED TALK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE WHILE BEING HELD OR AFTER THEY ARE FEED -THIS WE ARE TOLD ARE THE SUPERIOUR WESTERN VALUES WE ARE BRINGING TO THE ISLAMIC WORLD
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AMERICAN JUSTICE AT WORK CONDI RICE EXPLAINS
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TORTURE CONTINUES AT QUANTANAMO & ELSEWHERE WITH REAL CHUTZPAH BUSH HAS MADE IT LEGAL
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The question is do Americans have a conscience or do they believe anything done in their name is ok by them . If their neigbor's kid dies in Iraq or if their neighbor is disappeared into the secret prison system & tortured that's ok as long as it is not them or their friends or relatives .

Since the election has reduced Republican control of the government then if Democrats are serious about change they should everyday stand up & demand that the Geneva Conventions be upheld in regard to " detainees" & that American laws in regard to suspects who are American citizens should have their rights respected as guarnteed by US law the Constitution & the Bill of Rights which Bush has & Rumsfeld have disregarded & defamed since 9/11 & further that Bush be made to relinguish those powers which he has amassed for the Executive in his move to give himself dictatorial powers equal to those likes of leaders who ruled with an Iron-Fist & jackboots such as Pinochet in Chile & Marcos in the Phillipines or Franco had over Spain or the ruthless Shaw of Iran or even Saddam himself & note all these dictators were supported by various American administrations .




It is time for the American people to show the world that they not only believe the principles of democracy which they refer to all the time but that they are willing to put these priciples into practice. This would mean extending human rights to everyone regardless of their social standing whether they are rich or poor of whatever their color or race or their religion or lack of religious belief or their gender or sexual preference . This would really require a New American Revolution in political & social terms so it is probably unlikely as the Elite would not allow it & as for the people they seem to be quite comfortable in their Zenophobia & their racism & bigotry .



Such a revolution would have to include investigating these war crimes & crimes against humanity & bringing all those to trial who are responsible for these crimes including senior staff members of the administration & those in other parts of the government who are also culpable whether they in the Pentagon or the CIA or Special forces or individual officers & soldiers or those who have been "contracted out" to perform such tasks who should have refused to obey such blatantly unethical immoral acts .




This would mean that Rumsfeld Condoleeza Rice ,Cheney & a host of others including President Bush would be forced to testify at their own trials for Crimes Against Humanity & try to defend their actions in the same way as Saddam has had to defend his actions & face the consequences. If this were followed through then we would know that the American people will insist on holding their leaders up to these higher standards of Democratic Principles & Human Rights & Ethical or Moral standards . ( yeah ! When Hell freezes over as they say)




Anyway , that's all for now
GORD. Posted by Picasa

RUMSFELD RESIGNS BUT WILL HE PAY FOR HIS VARIOUS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY???
















RUMSFELD SHAKING HANDS WITH FRIEND & FELLOW WAR CRIMINAL SADDAM 1983

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Wednesday, November 08, 2006

SADDAM BUSH & OTHER RUTHLESS DICTATORS & WAR CRIMINALS & ETHNIC CLEANSING AN AMERICAN HABIT ???


KILLING INDIANS FOR HORSES & PLUNDER : ETHNIC CLEANSING OF NORTH AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PEOPLES & NOW AMERICA'S NEW VICTIMS ARE IRAQIS ARABS & MUSLIMS IN THE NAME OF GREED & GOD
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So the body count for Iraqis is lets see 500, 000 dead during the rather strict & inhumane ten years of sanctions then America invades & another 650,000 Iraqi are killed the majority of the dead are unarmed civilians & then there is another approximately 2,000,000 who are now refugees & yet Bush still claims in the midst of Chaos in Iraq that America is winning the war what chutzpah . Bush claims people do not appreciate what he is doing to save our wonderfully superiour civilization against the Barbarian hordes at our gates but he believes “history” will prove him & his gang of thugs to have been right all along .Of course we are told that we must forget the rationale which Bush & Co. Gave for the invasion: WMDs & the illusive & unfounded belief that Saddam was connected with Al Qeda & 9/11 & that he was about to drop his non-existent Nukes & chemical weapons on American soil. And besides Saddam was a ruthless dictator who imprisoned people without due process tortured prisoners & kept them in jail for as long as he wished & he cracked down on his critics & the Media in Iraq . We can all agree Saddam was ruthless but the Bush regimes leaves out America’s complicity in aiding Saddam when he was America’s greatest friend in the Middle East.

The irony & hypocrisy, in case anyone missed it, is that Saddam was tried & found guilty of Crimes against humanity by a sham court controlled by the Bush administration which also can & does imprison so called “ Enemies of the State “ without due process or other “ quaint “ antiquated & old-fashioned ideas such as “ habeas corpus “ & actually telling detainees what they are being charged with & what evidence their accusers have collected against them besides innuendo & rumour & the desperate inadmissable statements made by those who have been tortured is & the right to an attorney & the right not to be tortured or treated like an animal or subhuman . Ah well we live in dangerous times so now torture & all those methods used formerly by Totalitarian Regimes are quite acceptable. And if anyone speaks out against these things then they too are guilty of giving aid & comfort to the “Terrorists”. So no wonder the mainstream Media is mostly silent since they fear they could be imprisoned or at least their subscriptions or advertising revenues & tv ratings might suffer.

So “ truth “ is merely relative & each Iraqi child killed by the American forces is just one less terrorist to worry about. It reminds us of the good old days when American were slaughtering the South Vietnamese people in order to save them or when Americans thought mass murdering Native Americans almost to the point of extinction which was really just another form of “Ethnic Cleansing” or even Genocide. We are not really supposed to say or even think such things since Americans & Canadians believed that the “Red Skins” as it were /were not of European descent & were not even Christians so they deserved to be wiped out , at least according to most white Europeans .

In the same way White Europeans who landed in North America thought enslaving millions of Black Africans was ok since the Africans in their view were subhuman & didn’t have a proper language or a proper religion & beside the Bible explicitly says that slavery is ok .

When slavery was made illegal then the South set up its laws of segregation which were of course legal though unethical but when did ethics ever bother racists . Then came the creation of that wonderful all-American institution of the KKK as celebrated in G.W. Griffiths “ Birth of a Nation ” which originally was entitled “THE KLANSMEN” who were supposedly the protectors & saviours of The White Christian Race later to be followed in Germany by the SS Stormtroopers of Adolph Hitler. ( and the SHOAH ( holocaust) which was really the culmination of 2,000 years of Rabid Christian Anti-Semitism the Catholic Church & most Europeans did little or nothing to stop it from happening to their eternal shame though most people rather than feel guilt make excuses or as Bush would say play the blame game)

Like Saddam the Bush regime also uses kidnaping & assassinations & death squads but that’s ok since God is in daily contact with King George & America has been- we are told again & again- blessed by God from its creation which is all part of God’s Master Plan to destroy all heretics & non-Christians who refuse to repent & become Born Again in Jesus’ “ Holy Rivers of Blood ” & the blood will flow until the Messiah comes or until there is no one left alive on America’s New Prison Planet (to borrow a phrase) .

And now the Clash of Civilizations may soon take place if it hasn’t already begun because of the actions of the Americans & her allies such as Britain & Canada which are precipitating such a clash. But the Neocons are not distressed since it is possible that chaos in the Middle East is just what they want if not then they have failed terribly & tragically to bring democracy or peace to the Middle East. But who knows what their real goals are one would need to be able to explore the inner workings of Karl Rove the Master Puppeteer behind all of this according to numerous sources or is the Radical Religious Right (who now make up fifty to a hundred million Americans) the real force behind Bush ; if so then according to their ENDTIMES -Rapture-Tribulations cum Armageddon & the return of the Messiah type logic ala “ The Return of the King in Lord of The Rings or The Matrix when NEO saves humankind or whatever comparisons you wish or some other sequel type logic such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning in which the killers believe they are serving some higher purpose -

I do digress according the Born Again Dispensationalists if there is peace in the Middle East then the Anti-Christ has arrived & if America agrees to any such Middles East Peace agreement between Israel & the rest of the Middle East then America has joined up with the Anti-Christ who in part is represented by the United Nations & after that things get complicated .
For instance The Ultra orthodox Jews in Israel need a red Heifer for some sort of sacrifice so they can build th The Third Temple & take control of all of the Biblical Israel & kick out or wipe out a few million Arabs & Palestinians so that the Messiah can come but there you go.

To understand these issues of EndTimes better watch if you can stomach it the three “ LEFT BEHIND ”movies based upon these prophecies. It is like looking into the mind of Mad King George Bush & how he sees himself & the world & history -VERY SCARY !!!

We need to remember though that such improbable nonsense as suggested in these films & the various Left Behind novels do not represent mainstream Christianity throughout its 2,000 year history & such notions are not part of the beliefs & theology & eschatology of the majority of Jews . These believes which are held mainly by American & Canadian Born-Again Evangelical Fundamentalist- Dispensational -Christians only date back to about 1840 & John Darby etc.
There are lots of sites on the internet arguing both sides of the question but I believe there is little in the Bible or Christian theology to support this rather twisted version of the Book of Revelations & if anything may do more harm than good to the Christian Religion .

See:
Blog of Note: DOWNWITHTYRANNY
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/

And at Information Clearing House recent articles of note:

"This was a guilty verdict on America as well"
By Robert Fisk

So America's one-time ally has been sentenced to death for war crimes he committed when he was Washington's best friend in the Arab world. America knew all about his atrocities and even supplied the gas - along with the British, of course - yet there we were yesterday declaring it to be, in the White House's words, another "great day for Iraq".
www.informationclearinghouse.info

"U.S. seeks silence on detainees"
By Carol D. Leonnig and Eric Rich

The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.
www.informationclearinghouse.info


"Iraq-Gate
How The United States Illegally Armed Saddam Hussein "

"Spider's Web": The Secret History of How the United States Illegally Armed Saddam Hussein; a Conversation with the Journalist Who Broke the Iraq-gate Scandal That Involved President George Bush, James Baker and Donald Rumsfeld .

And at alternet.org:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
"Saddam Trial: GOP Sacrifices Justice for an 'October Surprise' "
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted November 6, 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/

"How Jesus Endorsed Bush's Invasion of Iraq"
By Damon Linker, Doubleday. Posted October 28, 2006.
Alternet.org


Anyway that’s all for now,
GORD.


Monday, November 06, 2006

BUSH & TORTURE & THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY


" 1984 " BIG BROTHER IS HERE & IS WATCHING !!!
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Anyway Bush has now made torture of detainees legal & Americans & Canadians don't see this as a real problem or an issue to be discussed or debated . So everybody is just fine with hanging people by their thumbs , beating them as close to death as possible or just " water-boarding " them or just a little harmless sodomy which seems odd for people who are so homophobic but there you go. So it seems the Bush administration is planning to build more prisons at home & abroad for all the detainees they expect to be arresting in the future & possibly all American Arabs & Muslims if they can swing it . And a few Americans might protest but most have already been conditione by years of relentless Propaganda to view all Arabs & Muslims as the enemy & as the representatives of Satan or the Anti-Christ . Or the supporters of Bush see Arabs & Muslims as a little less than human & this helps ease their consciences . Its like having the KKK in power except the enemy are not Jews & blacks but Arabs - can you tell the difference I can't . I thought human rigts were to apply to everyone & not just those who are most like ourselves or whatever group we happen to identify ourselves with .

Like any society that feels threatened we need our scapegoats or other upon which we can pour out our bile or venom or anger onto.

What is surprising about the Bush administration is how blatant they are about what they are doining are are going to keep doing . And Bush has also made it against the law for a detainee to speak about the details of their interrogation or where they are or what they have seen to their lawyer- if they ever see one - or to their families or friends or the Media or the Red Cross or any Human Rights Watch groups for they might reveal details which might not be in the interest of National Security . So BIG BROTHER HAS ARRIVED.

Bush has also passed legislation so that he & his lackeys can just decide who is a danger to America & send out their secret police to pick up just about anyone they suspect or whom they do not like . They can disappear anyone they wish to in the same way they helped or approved of " disappearing " torturing & assassinating people who were using arms or who just criticisized the regimes in El Salvador or Gautemala or Chile or Argentina or even in Franco's Spain or Iran under the ironfist of the Shaw or the ultra right wing government of Israel And the public responds with deafening silence since most people seem to believe anyone who is arrested must be guilty of something .
So everyone is suspect now. If someone criticizes what the Bush Regime is doing they could be seen as giving aid & comfort to the enemy . This pleases their spokes people like Glenn Beck Ann Coulter & Rush Limbaugh & The Washington Post & The New York Times as we watch the slow death of the Free-Press in America .

Under Stephen Harper & gang things are not much better in Canada as our media have been co-opted to a greater or lesser extent by the Neo-Cons & the Radical Religious Right & combined with the average Canadians deep-seated racism which is now rising to the top & the racists can now openly say what many Canadians have always believed .

My belief is that for a brief peiod of time our society appeared to becoming a more just societ & one that was less racist & bigot but maybe because people wanted to appear less racist because to voice their real opion this would not be " politically correct " and so our so called enlightened society has returned to its primal roots of fear & hatred of the " other" in the same way it had been considered reasonable to be Anti-Semitic til the Holocaust finally awoke our better instincts .

Anyway , thats all for now
GORD.