The Coup is Real

It's real if you allow it. Freedom does NOT protect itself.

Dan Rather Stands by his Story

Follow the story of Dan Rather's lawsuit. It's important. Implicit in it is how much corporate media is in bed with the Bush cabal. I fear it may get buried, as did the true story of W backing out of his military service in Vietnam, the story for which Dan Rather was fired trying to bring to light. The truth may yet emerge. Let's see. If it doesn't, you know there has really been a coup, and we're just gerbils on the treadmill.

Become a Pool Boy, Start a Revolution

What a sacrifice our Prez makes! He whores for US! No wonder he keeps getting re-elected (not).

Too bad not every American is so grateful.

"If every American had to pool-boy for these people for a day, you'd have a revolution on your hands."

You say you want a revolution? The ex-pool boy to the elder Bush has the answer.

Do it!

I suggest this because no one so much as burped at Alan Greenspan's comment that the war in Iraq is "largely about oil". Well heck, that's no surprise, but why isn't that front page breaking news in the US media? Or is it too tragic to admit publicly the WMD/Democracy/Freedom issue was utter bull (yawn).

We all knew the truth and couldn't stop the insanity. The media can assume shame for that. We know our disastrous and short-sighted policies toward the Mideast for the last century have been about oil…and racism toward the heathen Arabs…and support for dictatorships like the Saudi royal family, to whom the Bushs' are wed.

Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country. —George W. Bush

No wonder they hate us.

Suppose this were your daily life? Take a moment, at least, to sign another petition asking Congress to recognize that there are likely over a million Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion.

Get angry and do something inventive.

9/11

On this, the sixth anniversary of the attack on our country, there are still unanswered questions, and some questions so ridiculous they don't need answering. (If you still believe "controlled demolition", etc., go here and enjoy. But think about it. How do you gain access to the bowels of a building that size to plant many floors of explosives and keep all the security and maintenance people who saw you quiet?) We may never have answers to the valid questions. The best summation of the outstanding puzzlers to the attack are best summed up by Robert Fisk, the eminent correspondent of the Independent UK.

Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11

Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11. Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers – which could well have been the beams cracking – are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound. OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error.

But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter.

We do need a much more thorough investigation, as well as real answers to the subsequent anthrax attack on selected Democrats.

Don't hold your breath.

The REAL Rudy

Filmmaker Robert Greenwald has a lot to say about Rudy. He made a four part series on how Rudy failed us on 9/11. You can see Part 1 below. When you're done viewing, interact with his website and learn more.

From Robert Greenwald:

"It's just not possible."

That was the sentence we heard over and over from families who had firefighter sons, brothers, husbands and fathers killed on 9/11, from experts on emergency response, and from investigative journalists. It was just not possible that Rudy could so distort what happened on 9/11 and his role on that terrible day.

These experts, these grieving and furious family members, were united only by the fact that this story had to be told. Republicans, Independents, and Democrats could agree on just one thing: the cold hard facts about Rudy's terrible handling of 9/11 and the aftermath.

And so we went to work. We researched, we read, we interviewed. Jason locked himself in a quiet room, working late into the night. Christopher flew across the country at a moment's notice to interview. Lissette went over and over the footage. Leda kept juggling schedules so we could get the film done. Jimmy worked the phones to try and raise some funds.

And here it is... The REAL Rudy: Command Center. The first of a devastating four-part series.

Labor Day 2007 - 125 Long, Eventful Years

Nearly 6000 Americans were killed last year - on the job. Yes. As bad as that figure is, it would be a lot worse if there was no labor movement.

Here's what AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said about our workplace today:

Our workplaces should be getting safer, not more dangerous. Yet six years of Bush Administration neglect and failure of workplace health and safety have put millions of workers at increased danger. It's clear that a change in direction and leadership is needed to protect workers on the job and to improve their lives.

While some groups of workers saw improvements, in 2005 job deaths increased among Latinos, Blacks, children, immigrants and agriculture workers. Sadly, but not surprisingly, these numbers confirm that under the Bush Administration, workers at the bottom of the economic ladder are paying a very heavy price.

Looking back in our history, do you honestly think a benevolent industry leader proposed the 5 day work week? Did you know people were killed by police in an effort to prevent it? How about child labor laws: do you think legislators generously created those laws to correct the brutal treatment of children in our factories? It was through the perseverance of the labor movement that forced that legislation on Congress.

So many of the things that are decent and fair in today's workplace were the product of strikes, demonstrations, beatings, and murder by the forces of law and order, as our industrial and legislative leaders stood by. If they did not obstruct, they did little of nothing to improve the lives of the people working for them. Next time you go to work, think about the sacrifice of many generations of the labor movement that allowed you a safe, somewhat fair, workplace with (somewhat) decent hours and wages.

There's still a ways to go for fairness in the workplace, and the offer of hope for a living wage and a decent middle class life. You certainly know that. Just remember those who got you where you are today.

Happy Labor Day, 2007.

Extra credit:

Don't be fooled by the latest foolery of the boy President. Read this, briefly excerpted below.

Seven Years in Hell

On Body Counts, Dead Zones, and an Empire of Stupidity

By Tom Engelhardt

(referring to the President's recent VFW speech)

"In its own strange way, Bush's speech was an admission of defeat. Somehow, Vietnam, the American nightmare, had finally bested the man who spent his youth avoiding it and his presidency evading it. The President had finally mounted the tiger you are always advised not to ride and had officially entered the dead zone, where the bodies pile high and victory never appears, taking the rest of the country with him."

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