Sunday, May 06, 2007

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Gore Vidal dated the fall of the American republic and the subsequent rise of the American empire to February 27, 1947.
Fifty years ago, Harry Truman replaced the old republic with a national-security state whose sole purpose is to wage perpetual wars, hot, cold, and tepid. Exact date of replacement? February 27. 1947. Place: White House Cabinet Room. Cast: Truman, Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson, a handful of congressional leaders. Republican senator Arthur Vandenberg told Truman that he could have his militarized economy only if he first "scared the hell out of the ,American people" that the Russians were coming. Truman obliged. The perpetual war began. Representative government of, by, and for the people is now a faded memory.

- Gore Vidal, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How we got to be so hated

Since that time by Gore's reckoning, the US has been an empire, a "national security state". Though the Constitution stipulates that only Congress can declare war, that provision has been conveniently ignored by every President since Harry Truman. The National Security Act created the CIA and other covert agencies in the executive branch. The measure was said to be necessary to counter a growing Soviet threat, though the Soviet Union had been all but destroyed by World War II. It was the start of the long, destructive cold war. It was the start of a hoax still perpetrated upon the American people.

Since that time, the US has intervened aggressively in every part of the world. Some 90% of all federal disbursements go to what is euphemistically called defense. The language itself has gone soft and imprecise. The right wing has gotten away with demonizing the noble word "liberal" from the Latin "liberalis", pertaining to a free person. Corporations control the government and public opinion via an increasingly corporate, increasingly concentrated "mass media" - the official means by which a ruling establishment, a mere one percent of the population, tells the rest of us what to think. Here's the worst of it: in 1991, 37% of federal revenues (taxes) came from individuals and only 8% from corporations. But corporations are treated as if they were persons.

Things have only gotten worse under Bush, a demagogue like many another wannabe who would exploit the corrupt status quo to elevate himself to dictator. Sadly, we won't know what the final figures will be until its too late to do anything about it.


Vidal's ideas, so succinct in his slim little pamphlet entitled The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, inspired William F. Buckley to threaten Vidal with typical right wing violence. It took place on television, in full view of the world. It jump started the famous feud between Buckley and Vidal and most certainly defined the vehemence and the substance of right/left debate in America.




What about living standards in the USA?
Eighty percent of Americans have been falling behind since 1973. That is the date they usually cite for the oil crisis. Nowadays a husband and wife make less money than the husband alone made at that time. On the other hand, some people have become fabulously rich. One percent owns everything - like the CEOs who now seem to be queuing up to go to gaol! Under them there is a further twenty percent who support the Empire. These are the lawyers, the journalists, politicians and bankers and so on. The one percent hires the twenty percent.

- Gore Vidal, The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

How do the Bushies continue to get away with mass murder in Iraq, possibly at home?
"Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we inquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find that, as force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded, and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments as well as to the most free and most popular."

David Hume, 1758, "Of the First Principles of Government"

Is it surprising then that the current ruling cabal and the GOP in general have waged war on the American working class at least since the ascension of Ronald Reagan? Briefly: since Ronald Reagan's infamous tax cut of 1982, the rich have gotten much, much richer and the poor have gotten much, much poorer. Over this period of time, only the upper quintile has prospered. Everyone else has lost ground. Of the upper quintile, only an increasingly smaller percentage prosper by any standard measurement.

This was by design, sold to the American public as supply side ecnomics, in reality "trickle down" theory. Wealth did not trickle down.

How modern sound the Vidal/Buckley debates! How little has changed! Now as then, a war rages as a right wing, reactionary administration impugns the patriotism of those who dare dissent. How omnipresent are the sixties -an era that defined the current debate! If there is a difference between Nixon's prosecution of Viet Nam and Bush's prosecution of Iraq it is only this: "we" thought we could change things and got tear gassed in Chicago, shot at Kent State for our efforts.

Today few try because few believe that anyone can make a difference. Having given up protest and activism, we have found nothing to replace them and, if we cannot, we are sorely fucked! Bush will have won and not only the people of Iraq will be enslaved, but also the people of the United States. If we are not already.


If God is on our side, it is hard to imagine how Satan treats the rest of the world.

Some assorted news items from the Bush police state:

U.S. Military Handbook Labels Media "A Threat"

A new U.S. military handbook officially states alongside Al Qaeda, computer hackers, drug cartels, warlords and militias. The handbook was published by the Army's 1st Information Operations Command. The Army has also placed new emails by soldiers. Soldiers sending emails or posting items on blogs must now first clear the content with a superior officer. Many believe the rules will likely result in the end of all military blogging.

Banned by Army: Folk Singer Joan Baez Can't Sing to Wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed
The Army has denied legendary folk singer and antiwar activist Joan Baez permission to sing at a concert for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. We speak with Baez at her home in Palo Alto. [includes rush transcript]

JOAN BAEZ: When I got back from touring in Europe, which is why I didn't know anything any sooner, my manager called and said that I had been invited by John Mellencamp to be a guest at his concert at Walter Reed Hospital. And my response was just kind of intuitive or instinctive, the way my responses usually are, and I said yes, and later on thought about why I had said yes, because I usually am sort of very -- run very shy of “singing to the troops.” But I realized that singing to the troops during a war, what I call a Bob Hope syndrome, is really condoning the war, and I’ve always had an aversion to the idea of singing to some kid who’s going to go out and get his brains blown out the next day. I feel as though I should have been sitting there pleading with him to go home.

However, when they got home, either they, I mean, a lot of times received a hostile reception, and for the most part just were ignored, and I think we are still seeing the results of their pain. And so, I thought, well, you know, this is one small way to show a welcome before the fact.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, you agreed. Now, these are people -- at Walter Reed, these are people have come home wounded.

JOAN BAEZ: That is correct.

AMY GOODMAN: So you agreed.

JOAN BAEZ: Yeah. And then -- so, I guess, Mark, my manager and Mellencamp's manager began talking on the phone, because probably the greatest red tape in the history of the world would be the military, but it seemed to be developing in a positive way. So -- and then Mark would check with me, and he said, “Are you still on for this?” And I’d say yes. And this went on for, what, a month? And there was, I think, five days, about five days before the concert, and I was -- I did have a flight booked and a hotel booked and the final agreement, yes. Maybe four days before the concert, then I was told that I was not approved.

AMY GOODMAN: For what reason, were you told? What were you given as the reason?

JOAN BAEZ: Well, not -- I mean, all I know -- and it was Mellencamp's manager who did all the talking. He went there and talked face-to-face to somebody. I don't know whom. And he could not get an answer that made any sense to him from anybody. So all they could say was that I wasn't approved.

- Democracy Now

An extra:


Additional resources:
Now here's an update from Austin, TX in reply to Fuzzflash's excellent comment in which he used the phrase "got a job but not a life". It might have made the perfect country and western song, if Steve Goodman and David Allan Coe had not beat him to it. But that's not Fuzz's fault. There is always another song to be written:


Now...if you think that is over the top, then you ain't ever been to Texas.


As promised in the comments section, I have found a video clip featuring Merle Haggard with members of the Bob Wills' old Texas Playboys. Enjoy. It's hard to find music this good these days. This stuff swings.


The 'Cowboy' on FacebookMedia Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership, Global Issues, Updated: January 02, 2009

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19 comments:

Allen Branson said...

The lies have come so fast and furious and the American people have been so emotionally, intellectually and spiritually numbed that I have to wonder if there will be any real dissent as the American Empire falls with a resounding thud that will bring much of the world down with it.

The very fact that there are gaping holes in the official 911 story that are obviously being swept under the rug should be enough to move people to action. Instead, we see most people talking about this like it was a movie they had seen or an episode of 24. It is so 'shocking' that maybe the government could do something like this. And, 'I think it really could be that there was a conspiracy,' said without any anger.

It would appear that the U.S. government has been taken over right under our noses and our 'democracy' is no more. The reaction of most people? Who won American Idol and how is my 401K doing? Your 401K is already worthless because you won't have a friggin' country to spend it in if you don't do something to save it!

Just my two cents.

Unknown said...

Thanks Allen...

You are correct. I think Bush deliberately blitzed the nation with lies, counting upon the short American attention span.

Still, I hold out hope that the story is at last out. Or, as they said on the X-files, the truth is out there.

Be sure to come back to the cowboy. I have edited this story since your comment.

I am beginning to believe that things are falling apart for Bush. Let's hope so...and more than hoping, let's agitate and get the word out.

Anonymous said...

Fuzzflash says:


Cazart! Mister Hart, you’ve done it again. What a romp; from David Hume’s wisdom at the start of the Industrial Revolution, through to the historically precise and patrician wit of Gore Vidal re-iterating the perils of the Military Industrial Complex. Garnished most aptly with the folk-musical majesty of Joan Baez-- still too hot for The Man to handle. Especially around Vets maimed in a phoney war. Hotter than a flag-furled coffin on TV News, or a furled Guernica in a UN foyer.

Dug the way Gore Vidal got up Little Billy Buckley’s nose in his one-on-one, the very same schnozz that Li’l Bill looks down during a later piece-to-camera as he toff-spruiks Tricky Dicky as a worthy president. At least Vidal’s natural haughtiness considering where he was bred, born and with whom he hung out is tolerable, because of the brilliance of his ideas compared to Buckley’s condescending demeanor and treacled rhetoric.

And let’s not forget Joe Hill this May Day. They finally snuffed him too. The essential crime of trickle-down economics is the theft of human dignity from those who labor with their hands to provide home, hearth and sustenance for their families. They have been swindled of their Constitutional Rights and robbed of one of the greatest, of human dreams.

Recently overheard by an agent, who’s got a job but not a life, on one of the 35 million NSA tapped phones of someone, who was anonymously reported by someone, for being allegedly soft-on-terrorism:

“………Click……..

Say, Hon, will you collect a Special Jumbo Tub of fried chicken, a mess of pizza, extra fries and a side of Coke on the way home. The gang are comin’ by to watch American Idol Winner-Take-All Super Series Grand Finale Extravaganza. I figured a little company would be a nice surprise for you.

But my plastic is maxed-out, sweetie.

Charge it to the new one the finance company sent you. You nit-wit.
Oh my God. Lindsay Lohan is gonna make it OK. The guy on Fox just said she’s definitely off booze and pills and NO WAY is she going to have that nose job.

That’s great news, darlin’. Home inside the hour. Bye-bye.

Click ………………….

……………………………Click . ”


The Revolution, it seems, will not be televised.

Unknown said...

Fuzzflash says:


Cazart! Mister Hart, you’ve done it again. What a romp; from David Hume’s wisdom at the start of the Industrial Revolution, through to the historically precise and patrician wit of Gore Vidal re-iterating the perils of the Military Industrial Complex.

Vidal, of course, is loathed by the American right wing. Huns, no doubt, loathed Marcus Aurelius.

Garnished most aptly with the folk-musical majesty of Joan Baez-- still too hot for The Man to handle.

St. Joan we called her. Which one of us would have had the balls to act upon such suppressed lust? Not many. It was enough for everyone but Bobby to merely bask in that angelic voice. If it helped end an immoral war, so much the better.

Especially around Vets maimed in a phoney war. Hotter than a flag-furled coffin on TV News, or a furled Guernica in a UN foyer.

The images of Nam come back to haunt us. Guernica, by way of Picasso, an eternal scream, a Ginsburgian howl against war.

Dug the way Gore Vidal got up Little Billy Buckley’s nose in his one-on-one, the very same schnozz that Li’l Bill looks down during a later piece-to-camera as he toff-spruiks Tricky Dicky as a worthy president. At least Vidal’s natural haughtiness considering where he was bred, born and with whom he hung out is tolerable, because of the brilliance of his ideas compared to Buckley’s condescending demeanor and treacled rhetoric.

Indeed, Fuzz. Vidal is an American original, the haughty aristocrat, relative of Al Gore, the patrician eschewed by patricians, unable to roll up his sleeves and dig a ditch. But Vidal is forgiven all that. Who cares. The man is a American origianl. Unlike a billion hypocrites, he is ever true to his convictions. With his nose in the air, he was wroth more than Buckley and George W. Bush is unworthy to carry his shit.

And let’s not forget Joe Hill this May Day. They finally snuffed him too. The essential crime of trickle-down economics is the theft of human dignity from those who labor with their hands to provide home, hearth and sustenance for their families. They have been swindled of their Constitutional Rights and robbed of one of the greatest, of human dreams.

Joe Hill's story is very close to home. I know "who" killed Joe Hill. "They" are still alive and running the country...into the ground.

got a job but not a life

...the American life-style in a phrase. It might be the title of the perfect country and western song if the lyrics could somehow work in a train, momma, getting out of prison, and getting drunk.

Here are Steve Goodman's lyrics:

It was all that I could do to keep from cryin'
Sometimes it seems so useless to remain
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even call me by my name.

You don't have to call me Waylon Jennings
And you don't have to call me Charlie Pride.
You don't have to call me Merle Haggard, anymore.
Even though your on my fightin' side.

CHORUS
And I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain.
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even call me by my name.

I've heard my name a few times in your phone book
I've seen it on signs where I've laid
But the only time I know, I'll hear David Allan Coe
Is when Jesus has his final judgement day.

CHORUS...

Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song
and he told me it was the perfect country and western song
I wrote him back a letter and told him it was NOT the perfect
country and western song because he hadn't said anything about
Momma, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin' drunk.
Well, he sat down and wrote another verse to the song and he sent
it to me and after reading it, I realized that my friend had written
the perfect country and western song. And I felt obliged to include it
on this album. The last verse goes like this here:

Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison.
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But, before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train.

CHORUS:

So I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain. No,
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even call me, I wonder why you don't call me
Why don't you ever call me by my name.

Jon Gregory said...

Please endure a poem on the subject:

FAUSTUS INCORPORATED

We all serve the same firm
It just has different names
Draftees in an army
Playing the same war games
But today you got commissioned
In trenches I'm confined
You've sold your soul to Lucifer
He's only renting mine

We all must feed ourselves
And so we compromise
There's very few above the game
And hence we swallow lies
For me, it's been necessity
For you, the party line
You've sold your soul to Lucifer
He's only renting mine

We've heard the tales of death
In gulags and the purge
There's other ways to kill a man
When subtle powers merge
The many you put on the street
Drink vodka as if wine
You've sold your soul to Lucifer
He's only renting mine

Yes, it's only business
And business must be done
I've played my own less crucial roles
In battles that you've won
So feast upon the flesh of fools
In finest restaurants dine
You've sold your soul to Lucifer
He's only renting mine

Copyright 2007, by Jon Gregory. Written in January 2002. Please check out www.exitonlypoems.blogspot.com, and www.theamericandissident.org. I've got a different poem on the latter.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Jon. You honor this forum with your poetry and thanks for the links.

The surly gang that hangs out on this blog will enjoy your links. When you think about it, what other blog will quote Sarte and Camus accompanied by the likes of Johnny Cash and David Allan Coe.

Come back and "set" a spell. Have a long neck.

Christopher said...

Regarding Allen Branson’s comments on the gaping holes in the official 9/11 story, and your posting of May 5th, where you discuss the likelihood of controlled explosions being the cause of the Twin Towers collapse, I’m assuming you are both implying that 9/11 was a set-up job by the Bush administration, or that 9/11 was allowed to “happen”. In other words, a “conspiracy”.

One of the problems with this scenario is that a lot of people would have had to have been involved in a conspiracy like this, and by the law of averages at least one of them would have spilled the beans by now. But so far no-one has.

Another problem is that proponents of conspiracist scenarios invariably leave out facts that don't fit their theories.

Conspiracists have asserted, for instance, that it was a missile that struck the Pentagon, not a 747 jetliner, and the evidence used to support this was that the hole in the Pentagon wall through which the airplane crashed into the building wasn't big enough for a 747 to have passed through.

But what the conspiracists conveniently ignore is that many people did see a 747 crash into the building.

As to controlled explosions being why the twin towers collapsed, as well as the tower adjacent to them, they have been satisfactorily explained by engineers with no ideological axes to grind, and they support the official story that the jetliners which crashed into them were the cause.

The failure of the US airforce, under the auspices of NORAD, to do anything effective to intercept the hijacked jetliners does look extremely suspicious. But who’s to say the reason wasn’t simply incompetence on the part of top brass? Screw ups happen all the time.

Certainly, 9/11 came at a perfect time for the neo-conservative ideologues in the Bush administration, since it created the needed change in the climate of public opinion that allowed the neo-cons to implement their imperialist plans, as outlined in the 1998 report of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC).

I, too, initially thought that 9/11 was “allowed” to happen by the Bush administration. But now I’ve come to the view that we'll simply never know what really happened, since the scenarios of the conspiracists contain inconsistencies as big as those of the “official” explanations of the Bush White House.

Anonymous said...

fuzzflash sez:

Thanks, Len. Had a great giggle at David Allen Coe's loose-in-the-pool-room clip. Wonder how he'd look with some dark shades and a black, broadbrim bandit hat on. Just sayin'.

jon gregory, I liked your poem a lot. Hope you gain a wide readership for it or maybe have people want to record it (perhaps with music?). There's a paticular moment in a scene in the recent, rather good De Niro film where "The Good Shepherd" goes bad. A classic Faustian moment. The sold soul, played by Matt Damon lives your fine poem from that moment hence.


christopher i, hi.

You state, sir: "One of the problems with this scenario is that a lot of people would have had to have been involved in a conspiracy like this, and by the law of averages at least one of them would have spilled the beans by now. But so far no-one has."

Your point is not lightly refuted, however, the "law of averages", like statistics in "the wrong hands", can produce some fascinating outcomes. If only we had an articulate, fiesty, mathmatically-gifted conspiracy theorist around here.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Len. Had a great giggle at David Allen Coe's loose-in-the-pool-room clip. Wonder how he'd look with some dark shades and a black, broadbrim bandit hat on. Just sayin'.

Glad you liked the C and W. Get set for some more in the person of one Merle Haggard singing with the legendary "Texas Playboys", a name that is forever associated with the great Bob Wills. However, I've come to the conclusion that that's not David himself who is loose and run amok in the pool room. Coe, himself, I am afraid, probably doesn't get around that "athletically" these days. Still, it's a fun clip. Jes' good ol' boys, eh?


jon gregory, I liked your poem a lot. Hope you gain a wide readership for it or maybe have people want to record it (perhaps with music?).

I agree with you Fuzz. There may be a poet in all of us but it a takes a poet to get "him" out and onto the page.

Your point is not lightly refuted, however, the "law of averages", like statistics in "the wrong hands", can produce some fascinating outcomes. If only we had an articulate, fiesty, mathmatically-gifted conspiracy theorist around here.

Good point. In any case, I would hate to subscribe to an official theory based upon anything less than some damn good evidence AND a mathmatically "correct" law of averages based upon an empirical study of a statistically significant sample. For example, if just enough people gave credence to Bush to give him the dictatorship that he has, in fact, joked about, I couldn't live with myself. Call it "Existentialist Angst".

Manifesto Joe said...

It's great to see that somebody still remembers the TV exchange between Gore Vidal and "Buckley Junior" (as Vidal is apt to call him).

Congratulations on this most excellent blog. I'd like to have one this good someday. At www.manifestojoestexasblues.blogspot.com, I'm still a novice, but invite you to check it out. May I list your blog's address among my links?

Also, please check out www.beggarscanbechoosers.com. That guy and I are both Texans, and I've written for him a lot. He just got something picked up by salon.com, so his blog is starting to really cook.

P.S.: I also know that poet, Jon Gregory -- we used to work at the same place. He, too, is a native Texan. He's sworn to secrecy about my identity -- I use an alias for a very good reason.

Unknown said...

Manifesto Joe said...

That guy and I are both Texans, and I've written for him a lot. He just got something picked up by salon.com, so his blog is starting to really cook.

Thanks for the kind words and the link to your blog. Indeed, let's exchange links. I have just added two links to my blogroll.

The exciting thing about the internet is its ability to create communities from all over the world. Good to see some more Texans joining this international community. Given what Bush has done to Texas' image, I have tried to tell people that Bush has done as much harm to Texas as he has to the rest of the world. He all but destroyed education, set execution records and boasted about it, he despoiled the air and screwed up the budget. He was a total disaster. I am toying with the idea of posting an article about Ma Furguson, Texas' first woman governor from the 30's I believe. Unlike Bush who boasted of killing folk on death row, Ma Furguson is known for the pardons she granted.

Christopher said...

To Len: If I gave the impression that “conspiracists” are confined to only those who assert that 9/11 was an inside job, or was “allowed” to happen, then I apologise. The fault is mine, and mine alone.

That the Bush administration conspired to cherry-pick the evidence to support WMDs, and to link Saddam to the 9/11 planning, and otherwise manipulate the US into war on false pretences, and engage in all the other skulduggery, goes without saying. But it is important to recognize that much, if not most of this, came to light because of disaffected insiders, like Richard Clarke and others whose names escape me, who subsequently blew the whistle.

You present an excellent prosecutorial case that Dick Cheney was the principal agent in “allowing” 9/11 to happen. But what seems absent here are “whistleblowers” of the sort who exposed the other conspiracies of the Bush administration.

Since 9/11 as an inside job, or of it being “allowed” to happen, would have involved facilitating the enormity of an attack on the plotters’ own country (the USA), one might have expected at least someone by now, to have approached Bush administration opponents with insider information. It would have been received by them as the proverbial manna from heaven.

I want to take you up on the following comments you made: “An airliner DID NOT strike the Pentagon. If it had done, you could have shown me the wreckage. Show me the wreckage!” and “In the absence of wreckage, there is NO evidence that an airliner crashed the Pentagon”. I refer you to the following report www.whatreallyhappened.com/911
_pentagon_eyewitnesses.html which gives the eyewitness accounts stories of 25 people who saw a jetliner crash into the Pentagon.

Here another article www.rense.com/general32/phot.htm that shows photos of jetliner debris amidst the rubble of the Pentagon, as well as giving first hand accounts of the crash. Note, for what it’s worth, the article’s conclusion, that “…..Despite the destructive fire that raged inside the impact area on 9/11, pieces of debris were visible on 9/13 and 9/14, and were photographed by recovery workers. These photos clearly show pieces of landing gears, a large turbofan engine, and fuselage. The evidence inside the building is consistent with the evidence of plane wreckage outside -- indicating that a commercial airliner flew into the Pentagon on September 11th.”.

By the way, I’ve added your site’s link on to mine. I hope you don’t mind, for I find your posted articles intellectually stimulating and provocative, and very well-written. I enjoy reading them enormously.

And a question: How do you get web addresses in Blogger comments, to show in hyperlinked form?

SadButTrue said...

"a question: How do you get web addresses in Blogger comments, to show in hyperlinked form?"

Here you go Christopher:
//
How to embed a link:
copy/paste this code onto a notepad or other plaintext document:

<a href="URL">TITLE</a>


Better yet, paste several copies onto the same text doc while you're at it. That can be very handy.
Then, when you want to embed something, copy/paste the URL into where it says 'URL' (duh), and type in whatever TITLE you want to give it. And blogs y'r uncle!
//

Len, the 1% ruling class and 20% enabling class of functionaries is probably pretty close to the hierarchal societies around the time of Nebuchadnezzer or the Pharoah Ramses II. Plus ça change.

Unknown said...

If I gave the impression that “conspiracists” are confined to only those who assert that 9/11 was an inside job, or was “allowed” to happen, then I apologise.

Admittedly, I have come to associate the word "conspiracist" and other epithets to Bush's deliberate and well-orchestrated campaign of vilification against all critics of his administration. It was at its height when Bush partisans and other GOP partisans were waging war not merely in Afghanistan but at home against Michael Moore and the Dixie Chicks. I know something about political "PR", having observed some prominent campaigns from the inside. I had a GOP campaign manual which advocated tactics pioneered by Joseph Goebbels. The GOP, however, is nothing if not eclectic. The proto-types of Karl Rove would borrow equally from the "left". Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" is a favorite. Especially rule12:

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Notably, the quote above is from the Free Republic web site which advertises itself as: the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.

Another "manual" that the GOP has embraced over the years is Goebbels on propaganda: "If you tell a big enough Lie, and keep on repeating it, in the end people will come to believe it." - Josef Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief

In a Machiavellian, cynical sort of way, Bush has done liberals a big favor. He has proven correct every vehement critic of conservative hypocrisy and corruption.

That the Bush administration conspired to cherry-pick the evidence to support WMDs, and to link Saddam to the 9/11 planning, and otherwise manipulate the US into war on false pretences, and engage in all the other skulduggery, goes without saying.

We are in complete agreement on that point.

But it is important to recognize that much, if not most of this, came to light because of disaffected insiders, like Richard Clarke and others whose names escape me, who subsequently blew the whistle.

It is unfortunate that that is almost always the case. Especially closed, totalitarian-like regimes of the Nixon and Bush sort.

You present an excellent prosecutorial case that Dick Cheney was the principal agent in “allowing” 9/11 to happen. But what seems absent here are “whistleblowers” of the sort who exposed the other conspiracies of the Bush administration.

I had hoped that Libby, faced with indictment, would cut a deal and sing. Alas - the best hope is getting the House Judiciary Committee to act. It was July 25, 1974 that Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas (Houston), faced with committee inaction with regard to the Nixon impeachment, told the House Judiciary Committee members: My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution. It other words, had the committee NOT acted, Nixon might have served out his crooked term. Jordan was having none of that. And Jordan's was the "voice of God". At this link, you will find the text of her historic remarks as well as a video.

Jordan also quotes Madison on the subject of impeachment: James Madison again at the Constitutional Convention: "A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution."

Madison, of course, is called the Father of the Constitution. He very nearly wrote it. He had it all outlined in his mind before the convention started. And, of course, as we know, it was Madison whose draft of the Bill of Rights was ratified by the electorate of the new nation.

Since 9/11 as an inside job, or of it being “allowed” to happen, would have involved facilitating the enormity of an attack on the plotters’ own country (the USA), one might have expected at least someone by now, to have approached Bush administration opponents with insider information.

Much has come out already, as you pointed out. Why do people wait? Who knows? Why did Tenet remain silent for so long? Fear, intimidation? Who knows? Frankly, I don't care what motivates these people. I contend that there is probable cause to bring Bush and Cheney to trial NOW. Let's get on with it. The nation will be better off if Bush and Cheney are compelled to testify under oath. This chapter will never be put behind us until someone talks.

I refer you to the following report www.whatreallyhappened.com/911
_pentagon_eyewitnesses.html which gives the eyewitness accounts stories of 25 people who saw a jetliner crash into the Pentagon.


There are as many saying that it was anything from a small "commuter" airplane to a missile. Rumsfeld, himself, referred to a "...the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center."

At last, anyone who has seen the official footage of "something" hitting the Pentagon from (suspiciously) the ONLY surveillance camera footage to have been released, is a witness.

It was this footage that convinced me that it was NOT an airliner that crashed into the Pentagon. Any lawyer will tell you that eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable and often colored by prejudice, stress, and previously, implanted "information.

Here another article www.rense.com/general32/phot.htm that shows photos of jetliner debris amidst the rubble of the Pentagon, as well as giving first hand accounts of the crash.

This link makes a pretty good case for a "missile" crashing the Pentagon. I've seen those photos before. It looks like no wreckage I've ever seen and I've seen some wreckage and charred bodies.

Moreover, of all the footage that I have seen of the "crash", there was lots of smoke but not the "raging" inferno that was advertised. In fact, the exposed interiors to the left are absolutely untouched by fire. There is an open book perched upon a table on the floors edge - another inch and it would have fallen some three floors. It is not even scorched. On the left side of the "gouge", there is no evidence of fire at all. Clearly, it remains to be proven that what fire might have occurred was sufficient to have consumed an entire 757. It is also doubtful that such a fire as evidenced in the photos could have incinerated to dust the bodies that were said to have been on board that flight.

That brings up the fraud that was perpetrated at Arlington National Cemetary. But, I will save that for a full article. In short, no one knows who or what is buried at Arlington. The handling of this even is appalling and abominable. Ted OLson, significantly, fumbled around for words when Larry King asked him about his wife's funeral. At last, his answer was inconsistent with the account on the official website of the Arlington National Cemetary.

Also, if you look closely, the photo of what is said to be a 757 landing gear among the rubble does not match the other photo of a 757 landing gear.

At last, where is that wreckage now? Like the WTC, it would appear that "evidence" was just carted away and destroyed. I think that suspicious. In every other instance, aircraft wreckage is sorted, entire planes have been put back together again. Why was this crash not fully investigated?

Why was there no investigation of 911 at all until some 400 plus days after the event? Wreckage will not exculpate Bush, because someone, somewhere made the decision that whatever "aircraft" wreckage of any type be carted off and dumped.

In any case, we may have to agree to disagree. I will be happy to exchange links with you. Post a link to your site and I will add it to my blog roll.

Anonymous said...

For those commentators who are seeking background reading material on 9/11 might I suggest here. It's not intended to be definitive, merely informative of the issues that make the case for a new, independent, go-anywhere, see-anything, ask-everything 9/11 Inquiry.

It's important to understand the most fundamental principle here: the government is accountable to the people, not the other way round.

Here are some justifying reasons:

* The 9/11 commissioners themselves considered bringing perjury charges against a number of witnesses, especially NORAD officers for the failure of the air defenses

* Sen. Bob Graham has admitted that a "sovereign foreign nation" was involved.

* NONE of the physical evidence has been available to independent scientific authorities or the public.

*More money was spent chasing Clinton or investigating the Challenger disaster than 9/11.

* The evidence discrepancies are significant throughout.

* This government is criminal at all levels and has consistently lied to Congress and the American people.

* There are NO underlying security reasons that would prohibit a new inquiry.

But even these reasons are secondary even inconsequential. The sole and complete justification is that the US government works for the American people. If the want another damn inquiry they can damn well have one any damn time they want, any damn way they want. :)

Marc McDonald said...

Hi Len: thanks for the link to my blog. I have linked you now as well. Nice job with this blog: I'm a Texan myself and I always enjoy fellow Texas progressives' blogs. I've been aware of your blog for some time (I see your content show up in BuzzFlash).

Sincerely,
Marc McDonald
BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com

Christopher said...

To Sadbuttrue: Thanks for the info on creating hyperlinks on Blogger comments.

To Len: If the jetliner, that was alleged to have crashed into the Pentagon, didn't do so, as you suggest, where did it go, or what happened to it?

More importantly, what happened to the passengers?

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping in Marc, and thanks for pointing out that the "Wild" west had more stringent gun laws that America has today.

I have written several pieces about the role played by the NRA in this intolerable situation. As is to be expected, I am attacked and reviled. But, I have the opinions of Madison, Washington, Hamilton, US v Miller and the Second Amendment itself on my side.

Bushies would have the rest of the world believe that all of Texas is as ignorant, inarticulate and as belligerant as he is. Although, I remember a "blue" Texas, Democrats in Texas have a spotty record. W. Lee (Pappy) O'Daniel (the character played by Charles Durning in O Brother, Where Art Thou) hardly helped the Democratic cause when all was said and done. He must be credited for having created the "Light Crust Dough Boys". It gave Bob Wills his start. And Bob Wills' contribution to "Western Swing", a music that was originally unique to Texas, cannot be overestimated. It's hard to imagine how "Asleep at the Wheel" might have sounded if Bob Wills had never made legends of the "Texas Playboys".

Now that the topic has come up, I will edit the current article to include a great old black and white "video" of Bob Wills performing either San Antonio Rose or Ida Red. Let me know what you think of it.

Unknown said...

Christopher I said...


To Len: If the jetliner, that was alleged to have crashed into the Pentagon, didn't do so, as you suggest, where did it go, or what happened to it?

More importantly, what happened to the passengers?


Indeed, Christopher, those are precisely the questions I put to Bush and Bushy.

If, as the Bushies would have us believe, an airliner crashed into the Pentagon, then where is it?

Where is the black box?

Where are the passengers?

Remember the burden of proof? Those who assert must prove.

Those who "theorize" that an airliner crashed into the Pentagon must plug up the holes in their theory. That they don't have any wreckage is a real problem for them.

Some ashes - said to have been terrorists and employees --was interred in a common urn. In short, the official reports from Arlington National Cemetary are shot full of inconsistencies and "holes". I will write a complete article about this shameful fraud at a later date.