Perverse Muslims Reject Bush Charity Initiative

The News: A U.S.-backed Mideast democracy and development summit ended in rancor Saturday despite adoption of two initiatives that are part of President Bush's push to expand political freedom in a region dominated by monarchies and effective single-party rule.

A draft declaration on democratic and economic principles was scuttled after Egypt insisted on language that would have given Arab governments greater control over charitable and good-government organizations . . . Many Middle East nations are wary of Bush's second-term democracy agenda in the region, and some organizations the administration has tried to engage are reluctant to take State Department funding.

U.S. officials said the sticking point was a passage that pledged "to expand democratic practices, to enlarge participation in political and public life and to foster the roles of civil society, including NGOs," and to widen women's political and economic participation.

Egypt wanted the statement to stipulate that non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, be "legally registered," under each country's laws, a requirement that U.S. officials said would defeat the purpose of the statement. Egyptian delegates left the gathering early, after discussions on the final statement broke off.

Non-governmental organizations is a term used by the State Department and others to describe both humanitarian aid organizations such as the Red Cross and lesser known groups that promote social and political agendas.

The Note: Actually, Them-Crazy-Muslim resistance becomes very understandable once it is recognized that "NGO" is a term used by the State Department to describe infiltrating US wedge organizations that do Fifth Column work. The only people unaware of this are denizens of the US who are fed newspap like that quotes.

©Barfo, 2005.

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Them Belligerent Ayraps

The News: U.S. papers have been carrying photos of outrage demonstrations in Jordan in reaction to the hotel bombings. The first photo was a close up of 4-5 men shooting with their fists raised in the air. But from the slice of background one could tell that it was a smallish group of no more than 15 in some parking lot. The second foto (this AM on CNN) was also a close up, of a smallish group, most of whom were obscured by a professionally drawn sign that said "JORDAN'S 9/11". A well-dressed, well-coiffed middle aged woman with a professionally painted Jordanian flag on her face stood adjacent to the sign. Although the "group" looked rather tranquil, the headline read "Hotel Bombs Spark Fury in Jordan"

The Note: Such contrived bullshit.

©Barfo, 2005
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Disrespect in Life and Death

U.S. Soldiers Burnt Bodies of Captured Taliban Fighters

This news on Afghanistan - an Australian TV program has aired footage of U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters. The program also aired footage of a U.S. Army psy-ops unit caught on tape broadcasting news of the burning to local residents. The message read : "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be... You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are." On Wednesday the Pentagon announced it would investigate the incident.

Guantánamo Detainees Tortured, Force-Fed, Induced to Vomit

Meanwhile at Guantanamo Bay, detainees are accusing guards and medical officials of mistreating prisoners taking part in a camp-wide hunger strike. Detainees said large feeding tubes were forcibly shoved up their noses and down into their stomachs, with guards using the same tubes from one patient to another. The force feedings reportedly resulted in prisoners vomiting up "substantial amounts of blood." The detainees say no sedatives were provided during these procedures, which they allege took place in front of U.S. physicians, including the head of the prison hospital. The accusations were made to New York-based attorney Julia Tarver of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Tarver says one client told her "now after four years in captivity, life and death are the same."


©Barfo, 2005

Vapid Abstractions

The News: Several of Miers' writings have been lampooned, such as a 1997 letter to Bush in which she declared that "Texas is blessed" because Bush was governor, and a column she wrote for the Texas Bar Journal in the early 1990s that conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks called a "relentless march of vapid abstractions" whose "quality of thought and writing doesn't even rise to the level of pedestrian."

The Note: Sounds like a typical California appellate decision.


©Barfo, 2005

Getting Into (or Out of) the Axis of Evil

The News: An article in the Guardian by Richard Norton-Taylor claims that Bush told Blair, prior to the invasion of Iraq, that " he "wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD proliferation, mentioning in particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan," The claim was based on the note of a telephone conversation between the two men on January 30 2003.) The article goes on to state that the US and Pakistan latter made kissie-poohs.

The Note: A number of people have pointed to Saudi Arabia as the Bete Grise of this whole affair. The oil connection seems to clinch it for this crowd. I myself have never believed it. While I have never been able to rule out some sort of oil-connection, I have always fingered Israel. That is the one hypothesis that is simplest and makes consistent sense.

This story further confirms my hypothesis. Saudi Arabia has never ceased to be within Zionist cross-hairs. One only has to recall the ruckus raised by the U.S. Jewish establishment against the sale of AWACs to that country. In contrast Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons hardly gets a peep. One will notice that Pakistan has decided to recognize Israel and to engage in "dialog" and blah blah. In other words, Pakistan has been sufficiently neutralized (from the Israeli point of view).

©Barfo, 2005

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Learning Helplessness

The News: Progressive Magazine's Barbara Ehrenreich writes: "It is too soon to say what the results of this first-ever experiment on humans will be. Animals subject to "non-contingent" punishments and rewards‹i.e., those unconnected to any prior choices or behaviors‹tend to get a little psychotic. In a classic study undertaken by psychologist Martin Seligman, dogs subjected to unavoidable shocks for no reason at all developed a condition called "learned helplessness," and lost the ability to avoid future shocks even when avoidance was possible. Similarly with rats: After being subjected to undeserved torments, they simply give up and huddle in a corner of their cage.

And never doubt for a moment that our leaders are capable of conducting such experiments on humans. Jane Mayer revealed in the July 11 New Yorker that Seligman's results with tortured dogs have been of interest to the military and may have influenced the bizarre treatment of "enemy combatants" in various detention spots around the world. Not to mention the fact that being held indefinitely without charges is itself a supremely non-contingent punishment.

I'm not saying "we're all in Guantánamo now," or anything as melodramatic as that. Most of us, after all, enjoy infinitely more comfortable day-to-day living conditions than those offered to detainees. But we are all being subjected to the same sort of experiment‹and will be until we overcome our "learned helplessness" and get up on our hind legs again.

The Note: What kind of human scum, would "experiment " that way with a dog or a rat. If he's so damn curious why doesn't he have the decency to test it out on the brats of his loins? On the other hand, maybe he just takes after the Great Malevolence in the Sky. After all, Life itself seems to be a sequence of non-contingent punishments. I for one feel pretty helpless.

©Barfo, 2005
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"Reaganism was about Ideas"

The News: Saith David Brooks, " Yeah. I don't have anything against her, from everything I know she's a wonderful woman. But the conservative movement was built on a certain set of identity for itself: That ideas have consequences, that arguments really matter, that you win the war of ideas, that you form these organizations like the Federalist Society, this conservative legal organization, and that you win the war of ideas and that Reaganism was about ideas, and that even Bush, the war on freedom was about ideas." (PBS)

The Note:  Oh sure... why the Reagan Admin. was a just a Great Books seminar led by Mortimer J. Adler. Ah yes, another intelectudrool on the New York Times.

©Barfo, 2005

The News: Larry Diamond a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution has written a book entitled "Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq.'' Speaking of Bush Diamond said, "He fails to acknowledge his own strategic blunders and failures ... that have enabled Iraq to become a cesspool of terrorist activity.''

The Note: Cute. As if the effort (bungled or not) was to be "bring democracy to Iraq"..... I suppose it depends on what ya mean by a zone of democratic peace


©Barfo, 2005,

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Drivel

The News: The Pentagon claims to have obtained a tactics letter from the deputy head of AL Qaeda. "In the missive, Zawahiri apparently warns tactics such as the killing of hostages and bombings of mosques may alienate the "Muslim masses," Pentagon spokesman, Mr Whitman, said." (BBC)

The Note: Oh sure. IslamoFundies run around blowing up mosques. If we apply the A=C rule, this means that it's the US which is behind the bombing of mosques. "

-o0o-

The News: In this letter [i.e. internal Pentagon memo], Whitman talks about believing that the eventual governance of Iraq must include the Muslim masses, and that they are at risk of alienating those," he [Whitman] told reporters. (BBC)

The Note: What Islamic "extremist" would not believe that the "eventual" government in Irak had to include "muslim masses"? Is this something a muslim would naturally and normally say? Would Bush say something like "eventually" any government in the US would "have to" include Christians?

What a lot of crap.


©Barfo, 2005

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What We Get to Take Back

News in a Note: Let me see if I got Al Gore right. We gotta take back TV from the corporations but not do anything about the corporations themselves. We gotta make sure corporations don't confiscate the internet but not do anything about the corporations themselves. There are giant bullies running amok in the "market place" and so we should all learn to duck and dodge with great agility. Thank you Al. Just what we needed. More false consciousness masquerading as a solution.

©Barfo, 2005

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El Imperio Terrorista

La Noticia: Los terroristas son malvados pero no locos". La frase es del presidente Bush quien en su última aparición pública ha afirmado que los malvados "utilizan el conflicto en Irak como una excusa para intimidar al mundo y tienen como objetivo establecer un imperio radical islámico que se expanda desde España hasta Indonesia". La fórmula del hombre más poderoso del planeta contra semejenate "peste" es muy clara: "Sólo hay una respuesta efectiva: nunca daremos marcha atrás, nunca cederemos y nunca aceptaremos menos que una victoria completa".

"Estamos haciendo frente a una ideología radical con un claro objetivo, el de esclavizar naciones e intimidar a todo el mundo", según Bush, quien insistió en que "ningún acto nuestro provocó la furia de los asesinos" y ningún gesto de calma cambiará sus planes de seguir matando.

Commentario: Ota vez: la acusación revela la confesión.


©Barfo, 2005
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The Sounds of Peace

The News: The U.S. is pursuing a major assault in western Iraq. At least 3,500 U.S. troops are taking part in two separate offensives. Operation River Gate was launched at the start of the holy month of Ramadan. It marks the biggest U.S. offensive in western Iraq this year. Blasts from U.S. warplanes and helicopters lit up the sky during the fighting. Today, 42 Iraqis were reportedly killed .

Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 2, is warning residents in western Iraq that the U.S. will be there for a while. He told a crowd of Iraqis "We're not going anywhere... Some of you are concerned about the attack helicopters and mortar fire from the base. I will tell you this: those are the sounds of peace."

The Note:

©Barfo, 2005

Constabulism at Home

Items

Prisoners have told Human Rights Watch Inmates that correctional officers have beaten, kicked and hit them while they were shackled. They also say that officers sprayed the walls with chemicals and forced inmates to hold their faces against the sprayed walls. When some inmates became ill and vomited, officers wiped their faces and hair in the vomit.

&

According to the Associated Press, the bodyguards were American employees of the private security firm DynCorp. The company has been contracted by the U.S. State Department to protect Alexandre, the unelected interim president of Haiti. Alexandre took power after the coup that toppled Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The journalists were beaten as they tried to cover the event.

&

The Justice Department confirmed on Monday that it will investigate the FBI killing of Puerto Rican independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios. The killing has sparked widespread outrage in Puerto Rico. On Sept. 23, over 100 FBI agents surrounded the house of the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios. After he was shot, the FBI let him lie wounded in his house for nearly a day during which time he bled to death.

&

The Senate Intelligence Committee has approved new legislation that would allow Pentagon intelligence operatives to collect information from U.S. citizens without revealing their status as government spies. According to the Los Angeles Times, the bill would end a long-standing requirement that military intelligence officers disclose their government ties when approaching any U.S. citizen in the United States.

Comment: More Boot in the Face. With astonishing rapidity, the thuggery practiced as policy abroad has rebounded at home. The image of Abu Grahib and house batterings in Irak will be the image of Amurka at home. It is that way because for decades the U.S. has been cultivating the pestilential virus of thuggery on the streets of its ghettos, in the corridors of its prisons and in its courts with a wink and a nod from judges whose tongues are black from bootlicking.

©Barfo, 2005

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Life under Constabulism

Items:

Meanwhile the U.S. is launching another major offensive in western Iraq near the Syrian border. About 1,000 U.S. troops backed by attack helicopters and tanks raided the town of Al-Qaim on Saturday. At least 12 people were killed. The U.S. claims the offensive is needed to root out fighters connected to Al Qaeda. Over the past month the U.S. has repeatedly attacked Sunni strongholds displacing thousands of Sunnis, just weeks ahead of the October 15 vote on the constitution.

&

A U.S. military report has confirmed that Knight Ridder journalist Yasser Salihee was killed by an American sniper in June but claimed the shooting was justified. Salihee was shot as he was driving in western Baghdad. He was then left lying dead in his car, splattered with blood. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists U.S. troops have killed at least 13 journalists in Iraq since the war began.

&

The former Muslim chaplain at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay has revealed in a new book that military authorities knowingly created an atmosphere in which guards would feel free to abuse prisoners. James Yee said the prison's commanding officer - Major General Geoffrey Miller -- would regularly incite anger toward the prisoners. Miller would later oversee the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. For Yee, the book also discusses his imprisonment. In 2003 he was arrested and jailed on suspicion of espionage. The case proved groundless.

&

Military contractor Boeing and its partner Bell Helicopter have been forced to apologize after they published a magazine ad that depicted U.S. Special Forces troops rappelling from an Osprey aircraft onto the roof of a mosque. The ad reads "It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell." The ad also states: "Consider it a gift from above." The Council on American-Islamic Relations had criticized the ad saying it deepens concerns that the so-called war on terror is a war on Islam.

Comment: Well that's about an accurate thumbnail of life in the ZioCon World Order

[Items from DemNow.Org]

©Barfo, 2005
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Still Not Getting It

News: Two articles in today's Counterpunch complain of US government thuggery. In "The Great Green Scare" Jeffery St.Clair denounces an FBI unhinged that prosecutes, destroys and assassinates objects of its political wrath. In "Condi Rice- Gunslinger" Paul Craig Roberts rails against an unhinged and belligerent US that sanctimoniously wreaks war, havok on happless countries.

Notes Both St. Clair and Roberts are still arguing from a political point of departure and, as a result see absurdities and contradictions. They have yet to realize that there is no contradiction because this is not a political or even a rational matter. It is very simple. "The image of the State in 1984, is that of a boot in the face."

• Incidentally, Roberts says outright that the U.S. does Israel's bidding. Three dribbles in a week on this taboo is equivalent to a torrent.

Echoes of Jabotinisky

The News: US forces have launched a new offensive in western Irak. "They say Operation Iron Fist - the latest in a series of assaults in the area - will tackle infiltration and destroy the insurgents' haven." (BBC)

The Note: Iron Fist? Iron Wall, Iron Will, Iron Arm, Iron Hand -- from whom have we heard such language before?

©Barfo, 2005
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A New Mutant Strain of Doubletalk

The News: "This is not some grassroots coalition of national resistance, these are barbaric killers who want to provoke nothing less than a full-scale war among Muslims across the entire Middle East," Condoleeza Rice said during a delivery at Princeton University. (BBC)

The Note: I think we have a new mutant strain of double-talk here that goes beyond the 180 Rule. Hitherto, in order to ascertain the truth of the matter, it has proved useful to take any denial or affimation by the U.S. Government and invert it 180 degrees. If the government said that "there was no danger" of an outbreak of mad cow disease, one could count on the truth being exactly the opposite. Under this Rule, Rice's statement would mean that the alleged terrorist are a grass root national resistance and are not barbaric killers that want to inflame a Muslim civil war.

But these days, the 180 Rule no longer serves produces the truth of the matter which is: that it is the US that is the barbaric killer which wants to inflame an intra muslim war. How do we know this to be the case?

We know because it was revealed, in the non-embedded media, that the two British soldiers, disguised as civilians, were recently arrested carrying concealed bombs. What this means is that it is our "coalition" which is planting bombs and if so, that can only be with the aim of stirring up chaos.

The policy makes perverted sense. After all the more there is chaos the more it is necessary for the US to engage in its "constabulary" actions abroad and police state measures at home. Shit is too good a word for this government.

But what this analysis shows is that Rule of 180 no longer works to calculate the truth of the matter. The truth here was not simply the opposite of what was asserted but rather that what we said about them was really a confession about our own motives, intents and acts. We need a new rule: The Rule of Reflection: The Accusation is the Confession

©Barfo, 2005
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American Cabaret

The News: A U.S. immigration judge has ruled Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles won't be deported to Cuba or Venezuela where he is wanted for his role in blowing up a Cuban jetliner in 1976 killing 73 people. The former CIA operative has spent four decades trying to destabilize and overthrow the Cuban government through assassination attempts and bombings. He has been in US custody since May after he illegally entered the country. Venezuela had asked that he be extradited to stand trial.

On Tuesday the immigration judge ruled that Posada would not be deported to either country because of the possibility that he would be tortured there. The Convention Against Torture act prohibits the United States from deporting someone to a country where they could be tortured. Venezuela condemned the decision. The judge's decision has not ruled out the removal of Posada to another country. (DemocracyNow.Org)

The Note: All dictatorships ooze a sludge of black humour, with their own official pronouncements often the most grimarious. The United States is no exception.

©Barfo, 2005

New PBS Chief Brings Added Slant

The News: Longtime Republican fundraiser Cheryl Halpern has become the new chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, replacing Kenneth Tomlinson whose two-year term had ended. Tomlinson remains on the board. Before President Bush appointed Halpern to the CPB in 2002, she served on the Broadcasting Board of Governors overseeing such government-funded media projects as Voice of America, Radio Marti in Cuba and Radio Free Iraq. She is the former national chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition. She has accused National Public Radio of being biased against Israel. Like her predecessor, Kenneth Tomlinson, Halpern has also criticized the journalism of Bill Moyers. Two years ago she publicly agreed with Senator Trent Lott's comment that Moyers is "the most partisan and nonobjective person I know in media of any kind." The website PoliticalMoneyLine.com reports she has given over $300,000 in political contributions in recent years almost all to Republicans. Recipients have included President Bush, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi and Sam Brownback of Kansas. The group Common Cause warned Monday that the selection of Halpern may "mean more politicizing for public broadcasting." (Democracy Now.Org)

The Note: As if... PBS can't even publish a map of the Zionist takeover of the West Bank. But once again this shows how "the tribe" seeks to infiltrate and control. The two prongs are 1) using all media means to keep the "holocaust" in people's faces constantly (aka "keep the memory of the holocaust alive" and other such phrases) and 2) hollering "anti semitism" at the drop of a pin ...or even less. In fact, even less, because the aim is really no more than to bludgeon people and keep them afraid of saying anything against Jews, critical of Jews .... in fact about Jews at all unless it is told to them from Jewish controlled megaphones. "We'll tell you what you need to think about Jews."

©Barfo, 2005

A Talent We could Use

The News: Lafontaine and Gysi spent the three months leading up to the election doing what they do best: drumming up support. Lafontaine, who has a unique talent for turning speeches into tirades, has called the German republic a "madhouse" and dubbed Schröder's program of reforms, Agenda 2010, "idiotic." Gysi, a native of East Berlin, has a way of sneaking up on voters with a mixture of mischievousness, wit, and humor... (Der Spiegel)

:))

©Barfo, 2005