OBAMA ADMINISTRATION THREATENS BRITAIN TO KEEP TORTURE EVIDENCE CONCEALED
Glenn Greenwald has another blockbuster this morning to show that the Obama regime is, on yet another issue, following the lead of the Bush regime in hiding human rights violations of our government.
THE ENTITLEMENT SCAM
From time to time, the Forces of Greed (FOG) running the country, try to get rid of what little goes from the treasury to average citizens. They want everything in the treasury to belong to them, even trust fund money like Social Security that workers pay for themselves.
They do this with misleading statements in their controlled mass media. In recent days, all of the corporate media are telling us Social Security and Medicare funding will bankrupt the nation. This scam begins anew about every decade, and usually convinces a number of citizens to go against their own interests.
Corporate media do not tell us that the wars we are waging will bankrupt us, nor the trillions of dollars gone to bail out Wall Street for their greedy mistakes. None of the massive corporate welfare is a problem for our mass media.
Before Social Security and Medicare, many elderly Americans starved to death, froze to death, or died from other problems easily preventable with a small amount of income. Corporate media are driving us back in that direction with scary scenarios.
None of them, and we have read through the major newspapers and TV commentary, none of the mass media suggest cuts in what euphemistically is called "defense" spending, despite the fact that this has little to do with defense. The last time a foreign power attacked an American state was during the War of 1812 (Hawaii was not a state in 1941, and the 9/11 attacks were not conducted by a foreign power).
The FOG's corporate media don't allow the opinion of defense cuts because the FOG make billions of dollars from "defense," and use the military to protect their global ventures against the interests of most of the people on the planet.
A number of progressives believe that President Obama gave the trillions to Wall Street and expanded wars well beyond what most thought he would do, in order to put us into an economic hole to "justify" cuts to what corporate media call "entitlement" programs like Social Security and Medicare. Our mass media never call corporate welfare "entitlements."
INFORMATION CONTROL WORKS
British news has a piece this morning about the plan to control the media in the Afghanistan/Pakistan war. It appears the Taliban are getting information out by radio. Only one viewpoint is allowed in the Land of the Free, that of the Forces of Greed, and this will be applied in the AfPak War region now.
Expect to see Afghanis and Pakistanis walking around like zombies, just like here, if the Obama Administration has its way. They are not supposed to know about the bombing of thousands of innocents which have occurred in their countries since the war began, because, well, it's bad for control of the population.
One recalls al Jazeera stations being bombed in the early days of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for reporting what was actually happening on the ground. The New York Times and other obedient "news" sources were not bombed. Each time al Jazeera reporters were bombed, we were told by our government that it was an accident.
Control over a population depends on the control of mass media. Those in power fear nothing more than facts outside of their control.
A major frustration of progressives is that the "two-party" system often provides a choice between two people who believe the same things and are financed by the same transnational investors (who expect the same return for their investment).
Some of us vote Green or Nader. Some of us vote for the "lesser evil," as they see it. Usually, we wind up banging our head against a wall, after we see that our vote changed nothing-- Wall Street, the Nuclear Mafia, Big Pharma and other thieves and cutthroats still rule.
Sometimes it is a good idea to vote for a Democrat, as in the case of Barbara Lee representing Oakland California, who holds to the highest ideals. Sometimes it is a good idea to vote for a third party candidate or independent like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont against the two-party system.
In the following piece, Norman Solomon offers a third way. Sometimes we can defeat an incumbent Democrat by running a progressive Democrat against them in the primaries --Jack
by Norman Solomon
There are many reasons progressives will mobilize behind the campaign of Marcy Winograd, who announced on Monday that she'll challenge incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman in the 2010 Democratic primary.
Some will speak of Harman's pro-war record. Some will recall her support for warrantless wiretapping, followed by her irony-free indignation when it turned out that NSA snoops had taped her own phone conversations. Some will recount Harman's long public silence after being briefed on torture by the US government.
And then there's the extensive evidence that Representative Harman has gone over the top to do the bidding of the Israeli government and some of its most extreme supporters in the United States.
But what may be most significant about Winograd's race to unseat Harman in 2010 is that it reflects - and is likely to help nurture - a growing maturity among progressives around the country, who are tired of merely complaining about centrist Democrats in Congress.
Many progressives are getting a clear take-home message: Let's stop griping about lousy members of Congress and start defeating them.
Winograd, a high school teacher in South Los Angeles, is a longtime activist, who founded the Los Angeles chapter of Progressive Democrats of America. Back in 2006 - after less than three months of campaigning - she won 38 percent of the primary vote against Harman.
The launch of Winograd's new campaign (www.Winograd4congress.com) has come more than 12 months before Election Day. And the candidate's kickoff speech on Monday afternoon laid out a tapestry of compelling reasons behind her second run for Congress.
At the Venice Pier in the northern end of California's 36th Congressional district, Winograd sounded the unabashedly progressive notes that have animated her activism over the years.
Speaking of widespread economic woes in such areas as Torrance, where foreclosures have skyrocketed, Winograd declared, "It doesn't have to be this way. It is time to say NO to government waste, to trillion-dollar war budgets for endless occupations that breed more terrorists, to countless no-bid contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan that drain our treasury of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Halliburton gets rich, while the working family in Torrance watches their home slip away."
Congresswoman Harman provides a particularly spectacular example of an officeholder who has boosted militarism while helping to undermine civil liberties and human rights. But, in essence, on the Hill she's run-of-the-mill.
As a matter of routine, most members of Congress avidly serve corporate interests and the warfare state. They benefit when progressives leave electoral battlefields to others, while complaining bitterly about corporatists and warmongers atop Capitol Hill.
Strong progressives like Marcy Winograd belong in the United States Congress. Movements that learn how to propel more candidates like her into office - while defeating the likes of Jane Harman - will gain strength for the long haul.
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Norman Solomon is co-chair of the Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign organized by Progressive Democrats of America. His books include "War Made Easy" and "Made Love, Got War." For more information, go to: www.normansolomon.com.
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