Society & Politics |
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Non-Prostituted Women and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Whore 
Suki Falconberg—05/2008 |
| Falconberg questions the authority of academics who have not experienced the nightmare of prostitution and yet feel qualified to write papers that intellectually sanitize the horror. [more >>] |
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The Raped Whores of Iraq — No Voice, No Hope
Suki Falconberg—03/2008 |
| 50,000 Iraqi women and girls have been forced into surival prostitution since the Iraq invasion. And all we hear of it in the media is a single poorly researched story on CNN. [more >>] |
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The Padlocked Vagina
Suki Falconberg—01/2008 |
| Despite the First Amendment and her relative safety from the brutality of men, Falconberg's dissident voice for women's and animal rights could brand her a terrorist in the US. [more >>] |
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Why the Claim that Progressive Secular Values and Policies Are Bad For Societies is a Great Big Lie
Gregory Paul—01/2008 |
| Far from being lawless and immoral, secular societies have lower levels of crime than their religious counterparts. So a belief in God enhances neither nations nor behaviour. [more >>] |
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 In Lies We Trust - Len Horowitz -Nov 07
Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, a leading US public health and intelligence agency analyst, has produced an insightful documentary called In Lies We Trust showing how major corporations and our politicians have for decades run a program to keep society in a constant state of fear and high alert — through war, terrorism and disease — so that the people will obligingly give away their liberty in order to accept the "security" offered by their government. This tactic was used to high effect by the Nazis, and more recently is being used by President Bush and other world leaders. He even shows evidence that the new diseases we face such as AIDS are a deliberate ploy to cull Third World populations. Fact or the result of an overactive imagination? Judge for yourself — click here. |
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The Sex Industry in Nevada
Suki Falconberg—01/2008 |
| Las Vegas is a city associated with hedonism, showbiz, gambling and glamour… but would you associate it with rape? In reality, it is the hub for trafficking prostitutes in North America. [more >>] |
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The Real Reason the Religious Right is Losing America
Gregory Paul—01/2008 |
| The Religious Right, once believed to be the future of American politics, has been confounded by a profound secularization that is currently taking place, ensuring a democratic future. [more >>] |
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The Rape of Iraq and Other Sexual Matters
Suki Falconberg—01/2008 |
| A lone voice even in the alternative press, Falconberg describes outlines the treatment of women as 'fuck meat' around the world, and puts forward some resolutions for 2008. [more >>] |
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Project Censored 2008 Report
Project Censored is a project run by Sonoma State University in California that compiles a list of all the most important news items that never made it into the US mainstream media. The top 25 censored stories for 2007 include:
1. No Habeas Corpus for "Any Person": The Military Commissions Act, signed by Bush, means that the military can now bypass all normal legal procedures and detain individuals, even Americans, without trial or regard to human rights.
2. Bush Moves towards Martial Law: The John Warner Defense Aurthorization Act of 2007, signed by Bush, gives the green light for military troops to "suppress public disorder".
3. US Military Control of Africa's Resources: The White House announced the formation of the US African Command — a Pentagon command centre in Africa by September 2008
…You can read all 25 censored news items here. |
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Australian Military Gang Rape of 'Fallen Blossoms'
Suki Falconberg—11/2007 |
| Japan at the end of World War II was awash with the semen of the conquering and raping heros of the Allied Forces. And what happened was what always happens during wars. [more >>] |
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Veterans' Day: Flags Of Our Raped Mothers
Suki Falconberg—11/2007 |
| Last year, Clint Eastwood's Flag of Our Fathers hit the movie theaters around Veterans' Day. The advent of yet another war movie prompted Falconberg to write the following. [more >>] |
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Address by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson
Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson—10/2007 |
| It is time that more American leaders and citizens stand up with courage and conviction to speak out against the murderous policies of the Bush regime. [more >>] |
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A Letter to Ken Burns about The War: An Intimate History
Suki Falconberg—10/2007 |
| This is a rape-survivor's response to Ken Burns' documentary "The War" which glorified WWII American soldiers whilst ignoring their brutal and murderous treatment of women. [more >>] |
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New Bin Laden Video Fake - Sept 2007
To many in the West, they may "all look the same" with their beards and bishts, but this latest video of "Osama Bin Laden" clearly isn't him. Not only is his beard darker, but his nose is wider and the shape of his face is different. The video has been faked to stir up fear of terrorism in the West, and to save Arab face in the East. To find who is really behind this we need to ask who gains most from upping terrorist fear levels? |
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2,000,000 Organisations Oppose Globalization - Jul 2007
A new book by Paul Hawken claims that there are about two million organisations around the world opposed to globalization and the whole process of turning us into slaves to a corporate system. However, if you are one of those who do not like what is going on, you have to act with your wallet, not just with your sentiments. For example, if you oppose the scourge of drug medicine (that kills an estimated 100,000 people annually in the US alone), then you have a responsibility to start weaning yourself off the non-essential drugs you habitually take and start pursuing natural and alternative routes. And if you oppose genetic modification or the poverty induced by supermarkets from which you buy your sterilized food packages, you have a responsibility to start buying fresh organic food from local suppliers. We cannot ideologically oppose globalisation and go about our lives 'normally' because we forget that we — little you and little me — are actually the ones bankrolling big business and their globalisation agenda with our basic consumer choices. |
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Freedom to Fascism — The New World Order / May 07
Film-maker Aaron Russo has released a film called AMERICA: From Freedom to Fascism, an absolute must-see that you owe to humanity to see and ACT upon. What is happening in the US is similar to what is happening in the EU: we are all headed for a totalitarian world-government which will bear out, with no exaggeration, the horrors of Orwell's 1984. If you want this to happen, do nothing — sit back, enjoy your TV, and trust your politicians. If, however, you don't want to be a slave to a world government, then visit www.freedomtofascism.com and see this powerful documentary. The choice is yours. (And if you want to see a film that exposes similar abuses of power and the rise of totalitarianism in the EU, watch The Real Face of the EU.) |
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Joe Bageant's new book is now published - July 2007
Bageant has been a regular contributor to this magazine for a few years now so it is with great pleasure that we can announce that his new book, Deer Hunting With Jesus, has finally been published. You can buy Bageant's book from his website at www.joebageant.com. There is also a good podcast interview with Bageant out on the net at www.electricpolitics.com. |
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Dead Man Shopping
Joe Bageant—06/2007 |
| A grim look at the deterioration rife in Middle America, a deterioration glossed over by the creed of "business as usual" and empty consumerism. [more >>] |
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Tantrums of Mass Destruction…
Phil Rockstroh—06/2007 |
| Consumerism has colonized our inner spaces, numbing us from the utter dispair and meaninglessness of a society in a collective nervous breakdown, living in a dark and ugly age. [more >>] |
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New European justice system for the United Kingdom
Known as Corpus Juras (body of law), this is the Norman legal system that will shortly override quaint Anglo-Saxon law of "innocent until proven guilty" and trial by jury:
• Trial by Jury will be replaced by trial by the decision of a state appointed judge
• Habeas Corpus will be scrapped, replaced by arrest without charge and detention for up to 9 months without any evidence
• "Innocent until proven guilty" will be dropped so that citizens must prove their innocence to the State
• Double jeopardy, the right not to be tried for the same offence twice, will go out the window.
Watch the following film to understand some of what is going on in the corrupt dictatorship of Europe — The Real Face of the EU. |
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Bush's War on Terrorism Increases Terrorism - April 07
A study by the NYU School of Law shows that the invasion of Iraq has made the world a much more dangerous place, serving only to spread the deadly virus of Al-Qaeda ideology. This study used data from the MIPT-RAND Terrorism database, considered to be the most accurate publicly available record of terrorist acts. This study has revealed that, due in large part to Middle Eastern reactions to the Iraq war, there has been a global 607% rise in the average yearly incidents of terrorism. A large part of this has occurred within Iraq, but even excluding this country, jihadist attacks have risen by 265% and fatalities by 58%. |
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Rising Above Politics
Joe Bageant—05/2007 |
| The American political system is bankrupt because it is run by an elite who have no concept of real working life. Bageant urges Americans to rediscover a true popularist politics. [more >>] |
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A Feral Dog Howls in Harvard Yard
Joe Bageant—04/2007 |
| The intellectuals, like any privileged class, maintain the harsh exploitation of the working class upon whose labour that privilege depends, serving as hit men for the ruling elite. [more >>] |
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US Gets a New Peaceful Government — Unofficially
It may seem way-out to some, but it is an idea with huge merit at a time when the US seems out of control with a government bent on militarization and world-conquest. The US Peace Government was set up a few years ago, in its own words, "to promote harmony in America and peace in the world." Its president, Dr. John Hagelin, a renowned quantum physicist and follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the Indian holy man who brought Transcendental Meditation or TM to the world) believes that world peace can only be achieved by cultivating peace and harmony inwardly through meditation, which cuts out the roots of violence and disharmony in our minds rather than trying to deal with the outer political systems and disharmonies which sprout from those roots. A crazy idea? Well it certainly cannot be crazier than bombing the hell out of defenseless countries and mass-murdering their citizens in the name of "democracy" and "freedom". Their site is at www.uspeacegovernment.org and you can watch their a 2 hour presentation here. |
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In the Reign of the One-Nutted King
Joe Bageant—03/2007 |
| Bageant describes American democracy as a grand banquet laid out for the rich in the last days of a dying empire, whilst the people stave on the illusion of liberty and democracy. [more >>] |
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Escape From America
Joe Bageant—02/2007 |
| From his new home in tropical Belize, Bageant describes a vastly different culture and pace of life to what he is used to, although he concedes he still feels the influence of US culture. [more >>] |
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Bush Commits 20,000 more troops to Iraq - Jan 07
It is a double or nothing gamble placed by the US government to try to stop the chaos and bloodshed in Iraq spiraling out of control. And it is bound to fail because the US Army's own counter-insurgency field manual states that "at minimum, 20 combat troops for every 1,000 people in the population" are needed to stamp out insurgency. Therefore, Baghdad alone would require 120,000 troops whereas the US presence in the whole of Iraq is currently only 70,000. But there is another fatal flaw in Bush's policy in that it assumes that there are a fixed number of Iraqi insurgents that need to be destroyed before the country will be at peace. But insurgents are mostly ordinary Iraqi young men who, from their perspective, are waging a legitimate terrorist campaign against infidel invaders, invaders who are politically linked with their arch-enemy, Israel. As a result, the more America commits to Iraq and the longer its occupation, the greater the insurgency it will face. Like with Vietnam, this is a no-win situation and the only viable solution is to withdraw despite the consequences. To do otherwise may save lives in the short-term, but from a long-term perspective such actions will only make matters worse. |
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Expanding Markets and Dying Oceans
Phil Rockstroh—12/2006 |
| America is in serious denial over the powerlessness of the people and the destruction of the environment, all cleverly hidden by a media virtual reality. [more >>] |
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Somewhere a Banker Smiles
Joe Bageant—12/2006 |
| Nations around the world are becoming more like corporations as governments collude with big business to extract maximum labour for minimum wage, both here and abroad. [more >>] |
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The Alarming Erosion of Press Freedom - Nov 06
Reporters Without Borders (rsf.org) who publish an index for freedom of the press in each country around the world have recently compiled their 2006 data. You can see the graph of global press freedom indexes here. Alarmingly, it reveals that freedom of the press has eroded alarmingly in 2006, especially in the countries United States, France and Japan. The federal court's refusal to allow the media to keep its sources private is blamed for the US drop in freedom, which now places that country 53rd in press freedom world rankings. The top 4 countries which share the freest world press are Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Bottom of the list, with the most restrictive press in the world, are countries such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (bit of a misnomer then), China, Cuba, Iran and Soudi Arabia. |
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An Interview with Gregory Sams 
Andrew Paterson—11/2006 |
| Gregory Sams is a pioneering writer, inventor, free thinker, counter-culture icon and genuine human being. We recently caught up with him in London. [more >>] |
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Pissing in the Liberal Punchbowl — Again
Joe Bageant—11/2006 |
| The recent change in the US political climate towards the Democrats unfortunately offers only cosmetic differences for most Americans, especially the working classes. [more >>] |
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Sadam Guilty And Sentenced To Death - 5 Nov 06
The farcical trial of Saddam Hussein has finally come to a climax, with Saddam found guilty of mass-murder and sentenced to death. Without the capture of Osama bin Laden, Saddam has become the face of international terrorism for most ignorant people in the West, thanks to lies of the Bush administration and despite irrefutable evidence that he had no involvement in 9-11. Although the judges in both his trials were replaced for being too lenient (hardly an indictment of a fair trial) there is little doubt that Saddam was a brutal dictator who murdered many thousands of people. But let us not forget that he was supported in his climb to that murderous position by the West. And let us also not forget that that support did not waiver despite Saddam's genocide of the Kurds, using chemical weapons and armaments supplied by the West. We support many a brutal dictator around the world because international politics is nothing to do with justice or democracy: it is to do with money and power. The irony is that whilst Saddam's crimes have at least been recognized, Bush and Blair who are also mass-murderers, but on a scale that dwarfs Saddam, remain "respectable" world leaders. Let us not forget that we are all involved in this farce as most of us benefit in some way from the murderous arms trade that gives psychotic men the teeth to repress their people, with of course the blessing of our "moral" leaders. And will one more murder really help matters, or does it just spill more blood on the long road to resolution? |
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Reflections On Our Inner Bush
Phil Rockstroh—09/2006 |
| Bush is not the problem, but merely a symptom of a society that has sold out to corporate capitalism. The President is now just a commodity, substantiated merely by PR campaigns. [more >>] |
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Within The Gated Subdivision of The American Mind
Phil Rockstroh—09/2006 |
| Freedom has become the freedom to to be unaware that freedom is eroding, the freedom to suffocate in gated communities that exclude the very dissenters that could revive the US. [more >>] |
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Bush in denial over US intelligence report - 27 Sept 06
leaked US intelligence report has admitted that the Iraq war has only served to inflame Islamic terrorists worldwide, becoming a "cause celebre" and great recruitment tool for the "supporters for the global jihadist movement." It states that Islamic militants, although small in number, are now multiplying and dispersing geographically, and that the conflict has bred "a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world." It also considers that Europe is now seriously endangered because it is an easier Western target (thanks George and Tony) and that the loss of al-Qaeda leaders will probably only serve to fracture the terrorist group, without decreasing its threat. Predictably, Bush is in complete denial over his own intelligence and stated that it is a mistake to believe that "going on the offence against people who want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe." Of course he failed to mention that Iraq was never a terrorist hot-bed and posed absolutely no threat to the US at all — a fact that even he must have known before he invaded Iraq. |
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Mr. Rove's Opus of Deception
Phil Rockstroh—09/2006 |
| False narratives, peddled by the US mass media, have become the staple diet of a terrified and daunted American people. But lies have an annoying habit of coming home to roost. [more >>] |
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Adam Smith meets Cousin Ronnie's Boy
Joe Bageant—07/2006 |
| America is not one massive middle class democracy. The vast majority are the sweating working classes, media-invisible but maintained by a system that feeds on their labour. [more >>] |
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Israel & Hezbollah terrorize Lebanon- July 06
Once again the Middle East has erupted in violence as Israel pummel Lebanon in an entirely disproportionate response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by the terrorist organization Hezbollah. And as usual, the main victims of war have been ordinary citizens, with Israeli strikes in Lebanon responsible for the murder of many hundreds of civilians, despite their transparent media propaganda about attacking only Hezbollah positions. It is time the rest of the world, and especially the US, stop taking sides in these conflicts and acknowledges that BOTH parties are acting as terrorists and therefore BOTH need to be sanctioned by the international community. The problem in this region is America's knee-jerk support for Israel, support which discourages diplomacy: after all, if you are under the protection of the playground bully (the US invariably vetoes UN censorship of Israeli terrorism), you don't bother with diplomacy. Instead, you act aggressively and with impunity. And whilst Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation, although one with political legitimacy, Israel is supposed to be a responsible democratic nation — part of an international community — and so it should know better. But instead, it is waging a war on unarmed Lebanese civilians, cutting the country to pieces with US-supplied bombs.
Update: Washington's continued opposition to an immediate ceasefire in a conflict killing hundreds of civilians, many of them children, can only imply complicity in the killing. Disgraceful! |
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The Beauty of the System
Joe Bageant—07/2006 |
| From a middle class perspective, the American Empire can seem a beautiful system, upholding the US's opulent lifestyle. But from other perspectives, it is a system of pure destruction. [more >>] |
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Contemplations from the Cheap Beer Zone
Joe Bageant—07/2006 |
| A working class perspective of how the vacuous media is shaping US culture and the minds of the people. [more >>] |
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| US Spys On Own Citizens - 12 May 06: At the behest of the Bush administration, the NSA, America's National Security Agency, has been spying on tens of millions of its own citizens under the guise of fighting terrorism. According to a report in USA Today, the country's three biggest phone companies — AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth — have been handing over the landline and mobile phone recordings of tens of millions of ordinary citizens since 2001 so that that the NSA can compile a call database. All parties involved in this spying campaign — the government, the security agency and the phone companies — have unreasuringly defended themselves by stating that "no laws were broken". From their point of view, putting together phone conversations into a large computer database does not constitute "wiretapping" in the original sense of the word. However, experts disagreed with this play on definitions: Prof Greenberger of the University of Maryland school of law said, "I'm quite confident that if it's true it's illegal." |
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Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven
Joe Bageant—06/2006 |
| Bageant describes an America which has reduced its citizens to consumers, caught in the false and dangerous illusions of "The American Dream", "the good life" and "God's chosen". [more >>] |
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Under the Blue Mango
Joe Bageant—05/2006 |
| Visiting the "third-world" and supporting a poor local family is a desire Bageant has written about. Recently, he did just that and shares here with us some of his observations. [more >>] |
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Physicists Warn Bush Against Nuclear War - Apr 06
Thirteen of the most prominent physicists in the US have written a letter to President Bush describing his government's consideration to use nuclear weapons against Iran as "gravely irresponsible", warning that such action would have "disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world." The letter was put together by Jorge Hirsch, a physics professor at the University of California, and was signed by a collection of eminent scientists including five Nobel laureates. It was sent to the President along with a petition signed by more than 1,800 physicists against the use of such weapons in preemptive strikes. Hirsch writes, "We are members of the profession that brought nuclear weapons into existence, and we feel strongly that it is our professional duty to contribute our efforts to prevent their misuse. Physicists know best about the devastating effects of the weapons they created, and these eminent physicists speak for thousands of our colleagues." He goes on to say that, "Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten the probability that others will too. In a world with many more nuclear nations and no longer a 'taboo' against the use of nuclear weapons, there will be a greatly enhanced risk that regional conflicts could expand into global nuclear war, with the potential to destroy our civilization." more |
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Springtime in the Republic of Larry
Joe Bageant—04/2006 |
| Bageant takes a look at the common American voter and the motivations behind his or her political party choices. [more >>] |
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| Nuclear Threat Increasing - Apr 06: Ahmadinejad's defiance of the international community by making Iran a nuclear power nation is a serious threat to world peace and regional stability because it gives Bush the excuse he needs to continue empire building into Iran. As Paul Krugman said in the New York Times: "Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?" And as Bush's ratings are at an all time low, such action would boost his support. Iran's defiant stance, although deplorable given the potential consequences, does not actually breach the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it has signed. Countries are permitted to develop nuclear power, and that is what Iran has ostensibly done. The four main countries that have not signed the NPT treaty are India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea, all of which have surreptitiously developed nuclear weapons. However, the only signatory to seriously breach the NPT treaty terms is the US, as it continues to develop new nuclear weapons, shares them with NATO countries and has even offered to trade nuclear technology with non-NPT member India. This flagrant disregard for international law sets a dangerous example for other nations. |
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Welcome to Middle-Class Lockdown
Joe Bageant—02/2006 |
| Bageant recalls days before the cult of consumerism strangled the lifeblood from communities, and he describes the cancerous suffocation of contemporary Middle-Class America. [more >>] |
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Anti-Semitism and Free Speech
Andrew Paterson—02/2006 |
| Racism now masquerades as anti-racism: the accusation of anti-Semitism is increasingly used to defend racism. [more >>] |
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Muhammad Cartoons: Free Speech in the 21st Century
Andrew Paterson—02/2006 |
| Muslims everywhere are incensed by the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons deriding Islam. Should freedom of speech be curtailed to avoid racial and religious hatred? [more >>] |
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| Un Report on Guantanamo Bay - 16 Feb 06: The UN released its report today demanding the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison around further allegations of torture and inhuman treatment, including pictures and video evidence. The white House response? To call the report "a discredit to the UN." [The only thing discrediting to the UN is the fact that this report has taken so long to be released.] White House's response to these crime against humanity is to ravage the UN, in a way that shows complete disrespect for any form of political limits or international community. The US will do what it likes in "defending" its citizens even if, in the process, it incites a growing backlash that will be far more harmful in the long-run. Any moral high-ground assumed [falsely in this case] in "liberating" Iraq has been completely eroded by the use of such inhuman ways of dealing with prisoners. Just because these men are dangerous, does not give licence for inhuman treatment, for in torture the US destroys its own humanity and that of every other nation that supports these actions. And most seriously, and there is no question about this, such actions erode international human rights. There isn't one humanity for us and one humanity for them; torture and brutal treatment have no absolutely no place in any democratic modern society. |
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Uncovering Muslim Identity
Kenji Yoshino—01/2006 |
| Regarded as a melting pot of multiple races and creeds, America post-09/11 has shown itself to be intolerant diversity. Kenji Yoshino examines the US Muslim identity issue. [more >>] |
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Goodbye Terry Gross, We Niver Knew Ye
Joe Bageant—01/2006 |
| US liberal media is dying because it has started to play by the same rules as mainstream media — primary being not to annoy your corporate sponsors by presenting anything too radical. [more >>] |
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Revenge of the Mutt People
Joe Bageant—01/2006 |
| To Bageant, the American small town rednecks are 'mutt people' who, due to their enormous disadvantage, have no other choice but to act meanly and viciously in a society that breeds them as factory workers and cannon fodder. [more >>] |
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| Shock and Awe In Iraq: It is the responsibility of our media to show us the consequences of our choices, both in our own countries and abroad, so that we can steer our democratic systems in a direction that respects life. Otherwise, we can end up unwittingly making choices that are not in our interest because they destroy life. For when we destroy life, we destroy ourselves: we destroy the living spirit that can only survive if we have honoured, to the best of our ability, other human beings, animals and the eco-system of this planet. The corporate media in the US is partly responsible for war-crimes and the moral decay of our societies because it continues to deliberately hide from us the consequences of our actions and political support. And by hiding it, it perpetuates those ignorant choices, and in so doing it colludes with the consequences of those choices. The choice to support the foreign policies of Bush and Blair is an evil one. "Evil" is a harsh word, something that we associate with blind religion, but evil is the word that best describes the deliberate policy of smashing people to pieces — physically, mentally and spiritually — for the sake of political and economic ambition. It is our responsibility, therefore, to make sure that we are not ignorant of the consequences of the choices we make. So let us see for ourselves the blood running in the streets in far-off places, and then let us try to preach our right-wing "bring 'em on" ideology that was only ever supported by what Pinter describes as "a veil of lies", ideology which, if it survives the onslaught of a cold reality-check, only betrays psychopathic tendency. Please visit www.marchforjustice.com. |
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The Simulacran Republic
Joe Bageant—12/2005 |
| Bageant describes an American society based on television and petroleum, one that is as empty of human values as a giant psychotic hologram. [more >>] |
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Harold Pinter's Nobel Acceptance Lecture
Harold Pinter—12/2005 |
| This is a transcript of Harold Pinter's powerful video-lecture given to the Nobel Foundation in December 2005. [more >>] |
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"Good Night, and Good Luck" — Joe McCarthy Rides Again
Bernard Weiner—10/2005 |
| Bernard Weiner draws parallels with the Bush administrations abuse of the nation and the nightmare of the McCarthy era — highlighted by Clooney's powerful new docudrama. [more >>] |
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Project Censored is Sonoma State University's annual top 25 news stories that were most underreported (censored) by the US corporate media. Here are the top five for 2006:
1. Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government - the Bush government is actively passing laws that reduce its assess and accountability, and increasingly shows contempt for The Freedom of Information Act.
2. Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death Toll - the US slaughtered 6000 Iraqi citizens in Fallujah and hid its activities by preventing media access.
3. Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage - We all know that there were election "irregularities" the first time Bush won the Presidency, but few realize that this was repeated in his second election "victory". In fact, the discrepancy between exit polls and the "counted" vote was so large (eight million votes!) that it is a statistical impossibility that this happened by chance.
4. Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In - Bush signed into law the Intelligence Authorization Act giving the government the FBI the right to acquire citizen's private records without any judicial review.
5. United States Uses Tsunami for Military Advantage - the US's Tsunami relief campaign (which was one of the weakest per GNP of any developed nation) was used as a means to bolster military alliances with regional powers, in an effort to control the area around China. |
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Levees Made of Lies: Rage, Grief, and the Chimera of the American Dream
Phil Rockstroh—09/2005 |
| For Rocktroh, the New Orleans tragedy is a reflection of the fetid nature of today's American Dream and its corporate underpinnings. [more >>] |
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Listen Up, You Christo-Fascist Bullies…
Phil Rockstroh—08/2005 |
| Rockstroh fires a timely broadside at the bigoted Christian fundamentalists who are encouraging so much of the US's current bloodlust policies both home and abroad. [more >>] |
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The United States of Dixieland
Phil Rockstroh—08/2005 |
| Empires, by their nature, sow the seeds of death into the hearts and minds of their subjects. Rockstroh describes that dying process and how it has made the US what it is today. [more >>] |
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| "What no one seemed to notice… was the ever widening gap… between the government and the people… And it became always wider… The whole process of its coming into being, was, above all, diverting. It proved an excuse not to think for the people who did not want to think anyway… [It] kept us so busy with continuous changes and "crises"and so fascinated… by the machinations of the "national enemies", without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us… Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted", that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures"… must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing… Each act… is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others , when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone… You don't want to "go out of your way to make trouble"… But the one great shocking occasion, when tens of hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying if with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves. When everyone is transformed, no one is transformed… You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father… could never have imagined." | They Thought They Were Free: the Germans, 1938-1945
by Milton Mayer (Quoted from The Ecologist, July/Aug 2005) |
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Of Karl Rove, Nixon's Gray Ghost, Pinball Proto-Fascism, Muscle Car Imperialism, And The Gong Show Of The American Political System
Phil Rockstroh—07/2005 |
| Rockstroh traces back the proto-fascism in American society to the collective denial of 70s' cultural banalities and flaunting consumption of which Nixon was merely a symptom. [more >>] |
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Medicating The Dead
Phil Rockstroh—07/2005 |
| Rockstroh describes how, with mass-medication becoming the norm, people are losing their grip on reality and becoming pawns to big business and corrupt government. [more >>] |
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Terrorism and Hypocrisy in London
Andrew Paterson—07/2005 |
| A Londoner's reaction to the terrorist bombings that took place in the capital this week, and how we might prevent this happening in the future. [more >>] |
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| "While the rulers of the world cloister themselves behind the fences of Seattle or Genoa, or ascent into the inaccessible eyries of Doha or Kananaskis [or Gleneagles]… they leave the rest of the world shut out of their deliberations. We are left to shout abuse… They reduce us, in other words, to the mob, and then revile the thing they have created… They, the tiniest and most unrepresentative of the world's minorities, assert a popular mandate they do not possess, then accuse us of illegitimacy. Their rule, unauthorised and untested, is sovereign." George Monbiot, The Age of Consent, (quoted from Arguments Against G8 by Hubbard and Miller) |
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A Thank You Note To Those Murderous Bastards
Phil Rockstroh—07/2005 |
| Rockstroh's response to yesterday's terrorist bombings in London which left more than 50 dead and over 700 injured. [more >>] |
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Baby George In The Land Of The Bubble People
Phil Rockstroh—06/2005 |
| Rockstroh describes the "bubble" psychology of the President, one that merely reflects that of an American people in their futile efforts to escape the sharp edges of a larger reality. [more >>] |
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21st Century Empires
Andrew Paterson—06/2005 |
| In its conquest of the Middle East, the American Empire is not only spilling blood in desert sands, but in the process it is destroying the hearts and minds of the American people. [more >>] |
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G8's Hypocrisy over African Debt Relief 2005
So you think that G8 is pulling out all the stops to try to help African debt? That they are doing everything they can to prevent climate change? G8 is actually an octopus of imperialism that thinks nothing of environmental destruction, impoverishing developing nations and starting wars to maintain the elite status of the eight member states. The escalation of African debt, for example, was a deliberate policy to enslave a resource-rich continent. G8 is the problem, not the solution. |
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Puritanism 2005
Phil Rockstroh—06/2005 |
| Rockstroh examines the explosive mixture of Puritanism and corporatism in US society and how it fuels a growing and helpless rage at our futile drive for righteous perfection. [more >>] |
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Making up a New World
Brad Blanton—06/2005 |
| Just in case you thought that all US politicians were warmongers, read Brad Blanton, a 2006 candidate for US Congress, on how to reverse our current tide of terrorism. [more >>] |
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Moloch in the Mirror
Phil Rockstroh—06/2005 |
| Rockstroh issues a powerful prosodic warning of America's rapid descent into a deathscape of aggression, fantasy, selfishness, ambition and ceaseless appetite—in service to Moloch. [more >>] |
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Admission of world's most influential decision maker:
"I don't watch the nightly newscasts on TV…. I don't read the editorial pages; I don't read the columnists…. I can scan a front page, and if there is a particular story of interest, I'll skim it…. What's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of [get] a flavor of what's moving…. I rarely read the stories." George W. Bush, Fox TV Oct 2003 |
The typical bollocks he talks because of his ignorance:
"The relations with, uh, Europe are important relations, and they've, uh… because, we do share values. And, they're universal values. They're not American values or, you know, European values, they're universal values. And those values… uh… being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." George W. Bush, Washington press conference to Europeans in June 05 |
And his use of Nazi methods to spread his propaganda:
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." George W. Bush, New York, May 05 |
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Do The People Of Iraq Have The Right To Resist The US Occupation?
Jack Smith —05/2005 |
| If the US/UK was occupied by an invading force, wouldn't its citizens believe it their sovereign right and duty to resist such an occupation by all means possible? So why don't more of us extend this understanding to the situation in Iraq? [more >>] |
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One Last Kick at Liberal Dogs
Joe Bageant—05/2005 |
| Education is the best hope, Bageant argues, to bringing the American working class to the realization that voting Republican is most certainly not in their best interest. [more >>] |
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Free People Do Bad Things
Joe Bageant—05/2005 |
| The mass slaughter that has been perpetrated and continues to be perpetrated in Iraq is just the continuation of America's history of brutality, and one that is defended by the doctrine of freedom, whereby anything goes. [more >>] |
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| Highlight of Galloway's Testimony to Senate - 17 May 05 |
 "Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies. |
| "I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning. |
| "Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever, on a pack of lies. |
| "If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac, who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens: you are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth. |
| "Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer. |
| "Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country, without even counting it or weighing it. |
| "Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee: that the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government." |
| (You can view the entire confrontation on the BBC website.) |
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Carpooling with Eichmann
Joe Bageant—05/2005 |
| Eichmann was certified sane by medical experts after WWII, despite being the man directly responsible for sending Jews to death camps. In much the same way, Bageant argues, what seems sane in America is insanely pathological. [more >>] |
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The Onion Eater
Joe Bageant—04/2005 |
| Bageant describes how millions of Americans are descending further and further into poverty as a direct consequence of the president they so obediently champion. [more >>] |
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Let's Drink to the Slobbering Classes
Joe Bageant—04/2005 |
| Life among the Virginian working classes reveals to Bageant why liberal and leftist political policies seem unable to gain a foothold in America today. [more >>] |
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Comment: US & UK Descent into Fascism - 10 Mar 05
Over the last few years, the US and UK governments seem to have jumped wholeheartedly onto the terrorism bandwagon and are enthusiastically pushing through so called "anti-terror laws" that increase their control over the people who elected them, and that undoubtedly erode democracy and government accountability in the process. Many believe that that is a fair swap — security for freedom — although many more realize that any surrender of civil liberty can actually place us in an even more precarious situation as a society looking for security can so easily descend into fascism, and we know what a fascist society is capable of from the unspeakably evil activities of the Nazis in Hitler's Germany. But even if you do believe that during times of threat liberty needs to be surrendered, you cannot deny that for any democratic society to make such an important decision (which is their right) they need to have an accurate assessment of the threat in question. The illegal invasion of the sovereign state of Iraq, and the exposed lies and spin trumped up by the UK and US to try to justify an action clearly described at the Nuremberg trials as the gravest of war crimes, must make any thinking person feel the need to reassess any perceived threat from global terrorism if that perception has been disseminated by government and government-friendly sources. That is why sites like this one and their regular visitors criticize government anti-terrorist laws. It is not that we are communists or anti-American or anarchists or stupid; it is that we recognize the value of liberty and democracy, and our perception of government is always as the servant of the people. And although we would love to trust our governments, we know from past that this is one of the most foolish things any democratic society can do. Herman Goering warned us at the Nuremberg Trials: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." And that, I am afraid, includes the "Land of the Free" and "Great Britannia". |
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Sunday in a Red State
Joe Bageant—03/2005 |
| Another look by Bageant into the soul of American Christian fundamentalism, the kind that is rapidly turning the icon of democracy into an totalitarian theocracy. [more >>] |
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A Republic of Pickle Vendors
Joe Bageant—03/2005 |
| Bageant takes a look at the mindset of the business and owning classes in America, and shows how it is responsible for the much of the misery of the working classes. [more >>] |
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Poor, White and Pissed
Joe Bageant—02/2005 |
| In a reflective and unusually subdued article, Bageant describes the mindset of his fellow poor, white Southerners — a mindset few liberals even try to understand. [more >>] |
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| "People had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldn't tell whether you were looking at them from front or back, and their skin — not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies, too — hung down. If there had been only one or two such people… perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people… Many of them died along the road. I can still picture them in my mind — like walking ghosts." A survivor of Hiroshima, 1945 |
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Coronation of Corruption
Manuel Valenzuela—01/2005 |
| On the eve of Bush's inauguration, Valenzuela launches an eloquent descant on how corruption drives the elite's control of the masses, for only a corrupted people could vote back in a president so consumed by immoral self-interest. [more >>] |
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Drink, Pray, Fight, Fuck
Joe Bageant—01/2005 |
| Bageant looks to the Scots Irish or 'Borderer' roots shared by a third of the US population, and asks whether their original war-hungry, Calvinist traits are responsible for the direction of American politics today. [more >>] |
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A Mean and Unholy Ditch
Joe Bageant—01/2005 |
| The problem with America runs much deeper than just bad government. Bad governments after all are still elected. Bageant shows us that the root of the problem actually lies with the majority of American people themselves. [more >>] |
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An alternative perspective on the US Constitution:
"Why should we feel bound today by a document produced more than two centuries ago by a group of fifty-five mortal men, actually signed by only thirty-nine, a fair number of whom were slaveholders, and adopted in only thirteen states by the votes of fewer than two thousand men, all of whom are long since dead and mainly forgotten?" Robert A. Dahl |
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The Destruction of Iraq's Health Care
Ghali Hassan—11/2004 |
| The health of the Iraqi people, especially the children, continues to alarmingly deteriorate as the US-UK invasion force has deliberately destroyed essential services. [more >>] |
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Dining with Rhinos
Joe Bageant—11/2004 |
| Bageant draws chilling parallels between American's slide to totalitarianism and Ionesco's play, Rhinoceros, a satire on herd mentality. [more >>] |
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Bush-Terror: The Supreme International Crime
Ghali Hassan—11/2004 |
| The US and its allies are covering up their war crimes in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries by passing off their heinous actions as a push for freedom and democracy. [more >>] |
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Hung over in the End Times
Joe Bageant—11/2004 |
| If liberal society is to survive the rise of the Godwacks, we need to start by calling them what they are. [more >>] |
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Lafayette Park Blues
Joe Bageant—10/2004 |
| No country embraced the idealism and liberation of the sixties as wholeheartedly as America did; and yet, today, it has become an icon of global aggression and oppression. Bageant sadly reflects on what went wrong. [more >>] |
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The Rise of a New Movement
Eve Hillary—10/2004 |
| Eve Hillary describes the terrible Big Brother consequences of the US Patriot Act and similar legislation passed in other countries, as well as the grass-roots activist movements that are countering this oppression. [more >>] |
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Karaoke Night in George Bush's America
Joe Bageant—08/2004 |
| Bageant shows us politics from the perspective of Burt's Tavern, a Southern watering hole frequented by the poorest American working class, where even basic healthcare is regarded as a luxury. [more >>] |
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Driving on the Bones of God
Joe Bageant—08/2004 |
| Bageant tries to describe the implications of Mount Weather, a massive underground military base in Virginia, without crossing the line into conspiracy theory. The problem is that "conspiracy" is an accurate description… [more >>] |
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An Interview with Joe Bageant
Andrew Paterson—8/2004 |
| You have probably read one of Bageant's articles, but who exactly is Joe Bageant? We interview him on his life, his work and his newly found internet cult status. [more >>] |
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Cranky Reflections on the Fourth of July
Joe Bageant—07/2004 |
| The Forth of July has long been a celebration of independence and freedom. But does it make any sense to celebrate it any more in a nation marching towards fascism and where even public radio is creeping to the right? [more >>] |
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Sons of a Laboring God?
Joe Bageant—06/2004 |
| Bageant's heartfelt polemic on the need for better education for working-class America in order to rescue a nation from serious social and economic decline, and to reduce the gaping gap between the rich and the poor. [more >>] |
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Is Our President a Wackjob?
Joe Bageant—06/2004 |
| Bush is not only stupid, he may well have a psychological disorder. Joe Bageant asks how such a dangerous leader could have been elected in the first place, and compares America today to pre-war Nazi Germany. [more >>] |
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Mash note for the "girl with the leash"
Joe Bageant—06/2004 |
| Lynndie England, the GI who posed in those shameful Iraqi torture photos, was presented by the media as a bad apple. Bageant, however, paints a different picture of her as a victim of small-town hopelessness. [more >>] |
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Staring Down the Jackals
Joe Bageant—05/2004 |
| Bageant gives an insightful examination of the deteriorating situation in Iraq, its parallels with Vietnam, and some of the root causes of this whole murderous travesty. [more >>] |
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The Covert Kingdom
Joe Bageant—05/2004 |
| Whilst Islamic fundamentalism takes centre stage, it is easy to overlook the more subtle but equally pernicious effects of Christian fundamentalism. Bageant gives us a disturbing look at the real reasons behind US government policy. [more >>] |
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John Ashcroft: Keep your mouth off my wife!
Joe Bageant—05/2004 |
| Talking the homeland security blues with Bingo the philosopher dog. (A few of the alarming consquences of the US Patriot Act.) [more >>] |
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Sleepwalking to Fallujah
Joe Bageant—04/2004 |
| In the war against terrorism, FBI agents at the Norfolk, Virginia, airport took anal swabs from a mechanical farting dog to make sure it did not contain explosives. [more >>] |
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Manipulation of The People
Andrew Paterson—09/2003 |
| Despite living in "the free world", there are very few free men and women walking around in our democracies. This is because we are all being manipulated in some way to do the bidding of others. [more >>] |
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A Message to our Boys in Iraq
Jenny Marsh—03/2003 |
| The has been much said in the media about the need to support "our boys" in Iraq. This is a message to "our boys" from a peace activist. [more >>] |
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Racism Revisited
Andrew Paterson—07/2002 |
| Racism has been responsible for some of the most heinous crimes in history. But will we ever be able to stamp it out by the denial that racial difference may be more than skin-deep? [more >>] |
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When Democracy Fails
Andrew Paterson—05/2002 |
| It is very easy to assume, because we vote, we live in a democracy. But although the form of our society still seems democratic, power is migrating from the people to corporations. [more >>] |
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Democracy Demands Activism
Andrew Paterson—2000 |
| Democracy is not a passive inheritance; it is the ongoing relationship between citizen and government that demands the citizen be politically active. [more >>] |
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What Would An Alien Think?
Gregg Sams—1997 |
| Gregory Sams examines how an alien would view human society. The result is thought-provoking. [more >>] |
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