Clipmarks | papananook's 'bush' clips

The U.S. commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:20:22 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Today the Palestinian ghetto in the desert, tomorrow, bombing Iran's Nukular installations... Hurray for Israel!!! May the war profiteers flourish forever! the bastids.

Clip Source: www.jta.org

Congress and President Bush kept their pledge to boost defense assistance for Israel despite deadlock on budget issues.

The final version of the supplemental appropriations bill passed last week in Congress includes an additional $170 million in defense assistance for Israel. Bush signed the bill Monday.

The sum will be added to $2.38 billion for Israel in a "continuing resolution" likely to be passed later this year, bringing defense assistance up to the $2.55 billion that President Bush promised last year.

"The U.S. commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge is the cornerstone of American policy in the region," the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in a statement. "The effort to secure this vital increase in American aid to our ally Israel could not have happened without the active support of the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate, and AIPAC applauds their effort."

Morford Addresses the Bush Aftermath

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:51:22 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: And it ain't good--but the column is.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

Is it worth mentioning how handguns kept in the home are much more likely to be used for suicides and homicides, not to mention fondled by those same curious rug rats who find daddy's little Elvis in the sock drawer and decide to aim it at their sisters? Worth pointing out that the self-defense argument is not only pathetically illogical, part of a silly pseudo-cowboy mythology, it's also statistically untrue, a perpetual, insidious lie that's undermined the American identity for generations?

Nah. Let us not stare down that particular barrel of gloom just now. Instead, let us prepare. Let us steel ourselves. As we head into the Obama era and as the GOP juggernaut mercifully sputters and lurches back to the cave of 1950, let us be reminded that escaping the Bush aftermath isn't going to be all wine and roses and new energy policies.

See, we've been enjoying a small reprieve.

But oh, not so fast.

We know it's going to be bad, but we just don't know how bad.

BUSH/CHENEY Stumbling towards disaster - again

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:18:46 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Pay attention!

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

Sy Hersh report

Bush asked for - and received - $400,000,000 to conduct covert military operation against Iran.

"Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded â€œthe coherence of military strategy,â€ one general says."

Further, it seems the only people in the government (or military) who favor an attack on Iran are Bush and Cheney:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose chairman is Admiral Mike Mullen, were â€œpushing back very hardâ€ against White House pressure to undertake a military strike against Iran, the person familiar with the Finding told me. Similarly, a Pentagon consultant who is involved in the war on terror said that â€œat least ten senior flag and general officers, including combatant commandersâ€â€”the four-star officers who direct military operations around the worldâ€”â€œhave weighed in on that issue

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Moral Depravity in the Highest Places

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:30:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: After 7 1/2 years of George W. Bush, much of the media and political establishment — which have never shown much interest in holding Bush to account — now appear anxious to simply move on. They seem determined to leave unexamined the full cruelty and mendacity of the Bush administration, with its unlawful wars and blatant violations of the Geneva Conventions.

Moving on is a great idea - once there’s been some accountability, with a full public recognition of wrongdoing, and a commitment to bring about change. Otherwise, nothing will have been learned.

The comments of Yoo, who authored top-level internal memos justifying torture and virtually unlimited presidential power, suggest a moral depravity in very high places.

That depravity led to the horrific abuses at Abu Ghraib and at other U.S. prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and “black sites” around the world.

The dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Lawrence Velvel, argues that Bush and top administration offi

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Does the president of the United States have the right to order a detainee buried alive?

Oddly, this grotesque question was posed at a U.S. Congressional hearing last week. Even odder was the answer — from John Yoo, former deputy assistant attorney general in the Bush administration, now a law professor at the University of California.

“I don’t think that I’ve ever given the advice that the president could bury somebody alive,” Yoo told a judiciary subcommittee hearing into detainee interrogations.

Apparently there isn’t. In a public debate in 2005, Yoo was asked if he thought it would be lawful for the president to authorize crushing the testicles of a detainee’s child.

It would seem like a simple “no” would suffice. But here’s how Yoo responded: “I think it depends on why the president thinks he needs to do that.”

Seeds of Current Propaganda found in Reagan Era

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:19:22 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Enduring Skills

Beyond these individuals, the manipulative techniques that were refined in the 1980s — especially the skill of exaggerating foreign threats — have proved durable, bringing large segments of the American population into line behind the Iraq War in 2002-03.

Only now — with more than 4,100 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead — are many of these Americans realizing that were manipulated by clever propaganda, that their perceptions had been managed.

For instance, the New York Times recently pried loose some 8,000 pages of Pentagon documents revealing how the Bush administration had manipulated the public debate on the Iraq War by planting friendly retired military officers on TV news shows.

Retired Green Beret Robert S. Bevelacqua, a former analyst on Murdoch’s Fox News, said the Pentagon treated the retired military officers as puppets: “It was them saying, ‘we need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.’” [NYT, April 20,

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.

That chapter — which we are publishing here for the first time — was “lost” because Republicans on the congressional Iran-Contra investigation waged a rear-guard fight that traded elimination of the chapter’s key findings for the votes of three moderate GOP senators, giving the final report a patina of bipartisanship.

The American people thus were spared the chapter’s troubling finding: that the Reagan administration had built a domestic covert propaganda apparatus managed by a CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist working out of the National Security Council.

“The State Department was used to run a prohibited, domestic, covert propaganda operation.

For sale: one used country - cheap

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:47:19 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks:
The US news media didn't think this post 9/11 "mercy" flight for Bush's personal friends was worth investigating.

==============================

How deep the connection goes

"September 13, 2001 - Thousands of Americans were dead. They have been killed in a terrorist operation largely run by Saudis. Nonetheless the two men (Bush and Prince Bandar Of Saudi Arabia) each lit up a Cohiba cigar (on the Truman balcony of the White House)...

Few Americans realized that these two dynasties had a history dating back more than twenty years. Not just business partners and personal friends, the Bushes and the Saudis had pulled off elaborate covert operations and gone to war together...

They had been involved in the Iran-contra scandal, in secret U.S. aid in the Afghanistan War that gave birth of Osama bin Laden."

From: House of Bush, House of Saud: The secret relationship between the world's most powerful dynasties by Craig Unger. Page 15

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

For sale: one used country - cheap

Over the years, the Saudi Royal Family has put at least $1.4 billion into the hands of the Bush family and its friends.

Even in these days of inflation, that's real money.

Did Bush go to Saudi Arabia to ask for lower oil prices or to assure the Saudis they could keep sticking it to us as long as he and his family were given their cut?

In the days right after 9/11, all commercial flights in US air space including those for Congressmen and the FBI, the private jets of billionaires, and transportation for donated organs were shut down.

There was one exception...

The White House arranged for dozens of still unnamed Saudi Arabians living in the US - including members of the House of Saud and the Bin Laden family - to be flown out of the country in style.

The FBI didn't think it was necessary to get a passenger list...but if you show up at a peace rally, they'll be sure to get your face on video and add your name to their database if you're arrested at one.

Obscene Military Budget is much biger than Reported Legally

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:57:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: see the article for the cuts behind the figures here:
Now, imagine that, due to a little more Pentagon/Bush administration wizardry, even this black budget estimate is undoubtedly a low-ball figure. One reason is simple enough: The proposed $541 billion Pentagon 2009 budget doesn't even include money for actual wars. George W. Bush's wars are all paid for by "supplemental" bills like the $162 billion one Congress will soon pass -- so the Department of Defense's $34 billion black budget skips "war-related funding." This means that even the overall figure for that budget remains darker than we might imagine (as in "black hole"). The Pentagon not only produces stealth planes, it is, in budgetary terms, a stealth operation. If honestly accounted, the actual Pentagon yearly budget, including all the "military-related" funds salted away elsewhere, is probably now more than $1 trillion a year.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

At $34 billion, you're already counting pretty high. After all, that's Harvard's endowment; it's the amount of damage the triple hurricanes -- Charley, Ivan, and Jeanne -- inflicted in 2004; it's what car crashes involving 15-to-17-year-old teenage drivers mean yearly in "medical expenses, lost work, property damage, quality of life loss and other related costs"; it's the loans the nation's largest, crippled, home lender, Countrywide Financial, holds for home-equity lines of credit and second liens; it's Citigroup's recent write-off, mainly for subprime exposure; it's what New Jersey's tourism industry is worth -- and, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, it's the minimal figure for the Pentagon's "black budget" for fiscal year 2009 -- money for, among other things, "classified weapons purchases and development," money for which the Pentagon will remain unaccountable because almost no Americans will have any way of knowing what it's being spent for.

Democrats Have Legalized Bush's Crimes

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:52:53 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Beyond the breathtaking scope of this new authority, the Bush administration also snuck in a clause that granted forward-looking immunity from lawsuits to communications service providers that assisted the spying.

That removed one of the few safeguards against Bush's warrantless wiretaps: the concern among service providers that they might be sued by customers for handing over constitutionally protected information without a warrant.

In short, the "Protect America Act" made warrantless surveillance legally cost free for a collaborating service provider, tilting the scales even further in favor of the government's spying powers.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The Democratic leadership cleared the way for the president and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

Editor's note: You can read more about Obama backing a FISA "compromise" here.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap "compromise" is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law.

In other words, in the guise of rejecting Bush's theories of an all-powerful presidency that is above the law, the Democratic leadership cleared the way for the President and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

they simply believed they could violate the law without consequence, under the radical theory that at a time of war -- even one as vaguely defined as the "war on terror" -- the President's powers trump all laws as well as the constitutional rights of citizens.

Everyone Caves in to the Fascists (almost)

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:12:43 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: WTF is going down? The USA...Even The Miracle Man Obama is comfortable with the corporations being given immunity....The very definition of fascism...reminiscent of the Nazis defending Krupp and other German industries. "MURRIKA UBER ALLES!!!!"

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

On January 31 of this year, Keith Olbermann donned his most serious face and most indignant voice tone to rail against George Bush for supporting telecom immunity and revisions to FISA. In a 10-minute “Special Comment,” the MSNBC star condemned Bush for wanting to “retroactively immunize corporate criminals,” and said that telecom immnity is “an ex post facto law, which would clear the phone giants from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with [Bush’s] illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass email.”

Last night, Olbermann invited Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama’s support for the FISA and telecom amnesty bill (video of the segment is here). There wasn’t a syllable uttered about “immunizing corporate criminals” or “textbook examples of Fascism” or the Third Reich.

Endless Funding for Endless Wars

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:01:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: On and on and on and on it goes....Why don't we just take the babies from their moms when they're born and be done with it...give 2/3 of all you earn to the Pentagon...

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a much-disputed bill alloting 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill gives funding for the conflicts through to mid-2009 after President George W. Bush, who must now sign the bill into law, has left office.

The legislation passed 92 votes to six in the Senate after its approval by the House of Representatives June 19 topped weeks of haggling between Democrats and Republicans.

Bush has indicated he will sign the legislation despite opposing some of the measures included in it.

The deal was reached after Democrats agreed to drop a withdrawal timetable from the bill. The majority party has repeatedly failed to force Bush’s hand on Iraq since taking over Congress in 2006 elections.

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd noted that with this new funding, Congress will have approved over 656 billion dollars for the war in Iraq.

Insane ex-Ambassador to UN Bolton predicts Bombs

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:42:33 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: “An Obama victory would rule out military action by the Israelis because they would fear the consequences given the approach Obama has taken to foreign policy,” said Mr Bolton, who was Mr Bush’s ambassador to the UN from 2005 to 2006.

“With McCain they might still be looking at a delay. Given that time is on Iran’s side, I think the argument for military action is sooner rather than later absent some other development.”

The Iran policy of Mr McCain, whom Mr Bolton supports, was “much more realistic than the Bush administration’s stance”.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush’s successor is sworn in.

The Arab world would be “pleased” by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.”It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there’ll be public denunciations but no action,” he said.

Mr Bolton, an unflinching hawk who proposes military action to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, bemoaned what he sees as a lack of will by the Bush administration to itself contemplate military strikes.

“It’s clear that the administration has essentially given up that possibility,” he said. “I don’t think it’s serious any more. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I thought it was a real possibility. I just don’t think it’s in the cards.”

Daily show clips

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:09:04 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: all funny...love TDS

Clip Source: www.thedailyshow.com

June 19, 2008

Baracknophobia - Obama's Own Campaign

(01:56)

June 19, 2008

Guantanamo Baywatch - Supreme Court Ruling

(06:13)

Tags: Supreme Court , war on terror , Guantanamo Bay , Prison , John McCain , Indecision , Indecision 2008 , elections

June 19, 2008

The Procrastinator

(03:55)

Tags: George W. Bush , Indecision , Indecision 2008 , elections

June 19, 2008

Moment of Zen - Veto Pen

(00:20)

Tags: Moment of Zen , Taxes , George W. Bush

Delusional thinking about Hero Preznut

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:47:25 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I just couldn't let this go from pkronfield unnoticed--what we are up against in'Murrika...Delusional idiots.

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

American liberalism is heavily invested in this narrative of U.S. isolation. The Shiites have their annual ritual of 10 days of self-flagellation and penance, but this liberal narrative is ceaseless: The world once loved us, and all Parisians were Americans after 9/11, but thanks to President Bush we have squandered that sympathy....

Indeed, in the Arab world of the future, there will be streets and shrines dedicated to George W. Bush, their liberator. Future generations will admire this American president who, against all odds and resisted viciously by rabid liberals, courageously held the line and in the end, prevailed.

"there will be streets and shrines dedicated to George W. Bush, their liberator."
You, too, are as delusional as the Preznut. His failed policies have set us back 30 yrs at least on all fronts. I doubt that I could change the mind of a person so blind but can't just let that clip or comment go unchallenged. You're Nuts! Pop for insanity!

White House Coup (almost had a Bush in 1934)

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:37:11 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: two more videos at link--must see for the full story

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

Fascist America...almost

You probably didn't learn this in school.

In 1934, a group of wealthy individuals and corporate leaders decided to force Roosevelt out of the White House - with violence if necessary.

A retired Marine General was recruited, half a million men were identified as potential members of a private army to carry out the coup, and the right wing press was on board to provide propaganda.

One of the conspirators: Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's grandfather.

How little things have changed.

A list of the Dems Capitulations...er, Compromises

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:10:17 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Shame on the Dems

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

It’s bad enough watching the likes of Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel and a disturbingly disoriented Nancy Pelosi eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, exempt their largest corporate contributors from the rule of law, and endorse the most radical aspects of the Bush lawbreaking regime. But it’s downright pathetic to see try to depict their behavior as some sort of bipartisan “compromise” whereby they won meaningful concessions:

But this absurd praise underscores what the Washington power structure means when they speak of “bipartisanship” — it means having the Republican Party demand something, and then having enough Democrats agree to it to ensure it passes in essentially undiluted form. In January, I compiled a list of the Great Bipartisan Compromises of the Bush era and demonstrated that they are characterized by one common attribute: namely, they are supported by almost all Republicans and then enough Democrats from a split caucus to ensure its passage. As I wrote: