| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Yang, AthD h.c" |
| Date: |
22 Aug 2004 12:48:46 PM |
| Object: |
Iraq Soccer Team to AWOL: Go ***** Yourself |
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200408/s1181861.htm
Iraq soccer players slam Bush over campaign ad
Last Updated: Saturday, August 21, 2004. 6:34am (AEST)
Iraq's soccer players have slammed United States President George W
Bush over his decision to use their Olympic campaign in a campaign ad,
but a spokesman for the Iraqi Olympic Committee has accused
journalists of setting up the "naive" athletes.
Iraqi footballers reacted furiously when told of the ad and called on
Bush to stop using them to win votes.
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr Bush to use us for the presidential
campaign," midfielder Salih Sadir was quoted as saying by Sports
Illustrated magazine.
"He can find another way to advertise himself."
However, the Iraqi delegation accused journalists of deliberately
provoking an angry response from their players.
"Our purpose is not to politicise the football team in any way," Mark
Clark, a consultant for the Iraqi Olympic Committee, told Reuters. "It
seems the story was engineered."
The flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear in the Bush commercial which
is running ahead of the Republican convention later this month. Bush
is seeking re-election in November.
A narrator says: "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations
- and two fewer terrorist regimes."
Asked to comment, another Iraqi player asked: "How will (Bush) meet
his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so
many crimes."
But Clark insisted journalists were wrong to take advantage of the
athletes.
"It is a little naughty," he said. "The players are not very
sophisticated politically, they are a little naive. Whoever posed
these questions knew that the reaction would be negative.
"It is possible something was lost in translation. It's a free, new
Iraq and the players are entitled to their opinions but we are
disappointed."
Iraq's footballers once lived in fear of Uday Hussein, son of toppled
dictator Saddam Hussein, who used to beat the soles of their feet or
throw them in prison for slip-ups on the pitch.
Under current coach Adnan Hamd, they have defied the odds to reach the
quarter-finals at the Athens Olympics, where they will play Australia
on Saturday night.
Hamd was quoted as saying: "The American army has killed so many
people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are
shootings on the road?"
Clark expressed hope that Iraq could play on without further political
waves.
"Any success we ... have here could be beneficial in the broader
picture," he said. "But we are here to play football."
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.2 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: -3 million jobs and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -957 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
.
|
|
| User: "Michael Marxist Moore" |
|
| Title: TOP TEN MCGREEVEY JOKES THAT YANG LOVES!!!!!!!!!! |
22 Aug 2004 01:43:16 PM |
|
|
TOP TEN MCGREEVEY JOKES THAT YANG LOVES!!!!!!!!!!
10. NJ state bird is now the swallow.
9. NJ Turnpike renamed the Hershey highway.
8. NJ raises the terror alert level to lavender.
7. We know he didn't like Bush, but this is rediculous.
6. Now we know why McGreevey enjoyed "polling" so much.
5. Q: What does McGreevey and the Israeli navy have in common?
A: Jewish seaman.
4. NJ DMV to now call a rear end accident a McGreevey
3. Gives new meaning to stuffing the ballot box
2. Newspaper headline...McGreevey goes down.
And the number one McGreevey joke....
1. Shouldn't take McGreevey long to get out of the governer’s mansion,
he's already got his ***** packed!
----------
Liberals Hate America!
.
|
|
|
| User: "Psalm 110" |
|
| Title: Re: TOP TEN MCGREEVEY JOKES THAT YANG LOVES!!!!!!!!!! |
22 Aug 2004 06:55:38 PM |
|
|
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 14:43:16 -0400, Michael Marxist Moore
<mmmoore@N0TSPAM.0RG> wrote:
Fresh Links to Republican FELONY FRAUD SmearBoats villians
HOT NEWS! Exposing more on the Felony Fraud SwiftLiars Organized Crime
connections
LATEST NEWS - August 22, 2004
** http://tinyurl.com/639as veteran working to help re-elect incumbent
president George W. Bush resigned
** http://tinyurl.com/5w7by More Republican Ties Revealed Behind
"Swift Boat Vets For Bush"
** http://tinyurl.com/6wre9 Bush Campaign Drops Swift Boat Ad Figure
-- Cordier's connection to the Bush campaign was made public yesterday
by the Kerry campaign, which found that Cordier had been named on the
Bush Web site earlier this month as a member of the veterans committee
** http://tinyurl.com/4gs53 Cordier was SWFT and GOP operative at same
time. Kenneth Cordier, a retired colonel ... who appeared in an
advertisement to be aired by the anti-Kerry group, SWVT, would on
longer serve in his voluntary position on President George W. Bush's
veterans steering committee.
** http://tinyurl.com/5telj Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas,
chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said that while the
group had "every right" to express their opinion, "WE OUGHT TO GET OUT
OF THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION BUSINESS."
NEWS - August 21, 2004
**
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?pagewanted=1
http://tinyurl.com/4r7a8
** http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21239-2004Aug21.html
http://tinyurl.com/4fyem Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete And Flawed
**
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-040821rood,1,1611037.story?coll=chi-news-hed
http://tinyurl.com/6wvtm Anti-Kerry vets not there that day
**
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-040821kerry,1,7582568.story?coll=chi-news-hed
http://tinyurl.com/6v4no Swift boat skipper: Kerry critics wrong --
Tribune editor breaks long silence on Kerry record; fought in disputed
battle
**
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/21/MNGE08C6V11.DTL
http://tinyurl.com/45xfx Kerry's Vietnam-era testimony criticized in
new attack ad -- Democrat counters with endorsement by retired general
** http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-camp21.html
http://tinyurl.com/4jjth Dems see link to Swift Boat Vets, Bush-Cheney
----------------------------------
*** George W. Bush - Closely tied to Merrie Spaeth's husband Tex
Lezar, benefitted from Bob Perry money, linked to Karl Rove, to
Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, to Regnery publishing, to Harlan Crow
http://tinyurl.com/4uc37GOOGLE.COM Results 220 for "George W. Bush"
Merrie Spaeth Tex Lezar.
http://tinyurl.com/54lqwGOOGLE.COM Results 257 for "George W. Bush"
"Tex Lezar".
http://tinyurl.com/6j2gdGOOGLE.COM Results 613 for "George W. Bush"
"Bob Perry"".
*** Karl Rove - Closely linked to GW Bush, to Merrie Spaeth, to John
O'Neill, to Bob Perry, to Harlan Crow, to organized crime conspiracies
of Philip Morris
http://tinyurl.com/3hpjo
http://tobaccodocuments.org/ai_news/11015.html?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22&?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22#images
http://tinyurl.com/5cmwh
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=19991108&s=dreyfuss
http://tinyurl.com/5gbbd
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19991108&c=2&s=dreyfuss
http://tinyurl.com/5qcb2
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=hfd83c00&fmt=tif&ref=results
http://tinyurl.com/6ocdyGOOGLE.COM Results 5,100 for "Karl Rove"
"Swift Boat".
http://tinyurl.com/69vjn
http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2041158396.html?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22&?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22#images
http://tinyurl.com/5l2ee
http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2041158370.html?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22&?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22#images
*** Merrie Spaeth (Tex Lezar) Linked to GW Bush, Linked to smears of
John McCain using same criminal fraud tactics, to Karl Rove, Bob
Perry, to Ken Starr, linked to organized crime tobacco conspiracies
http://tinyurl.com/64v3cGOOGLE.COM Results 814 for "Merrie Spaeth"
republican.
http://tinyurl.com/63zvuGOOGLE.COM Results 317 for "Merrie Spaeth"
"Tex Lezar".
http://tinyurl.com/43fekGOOGLE.COM Results 10 for "Tex Lezar" tobacco.
*** Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group
http://tinyurl.com/5h6za http://mediamatters.org/items/200406020006
http://tinyurl.com/3rx8z http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060011
*** John E. O'Neill (Charles Colson apprentice) Linked to Nixon,
registered republican and donor, linked to Crow and Perry, to Corsi
and Regnery
http://tinyurl.com/4vrwqGOOGLE.COM Results 482 for "John E. O'Neill"
Colson.
http://tinyurl.com/496xl
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=John_E._O'Neill
*** Harlan Crow (Swiftliars funder) Linked to Bush, to Perry AEI
board,
http://tinyurl.com/5afl5
http://www.aei.org/about/contentID.20038142214500073/default.asp
http://tinyurl.com/6l7vnGOOGLE.COM Results 113 for "Harlan Crow"
Holdings.
http://tinyurl.com/57oc8GOOGLE.COM Results 217 for "Harlan Crow"
swift.
*** Bob J. Perry (Swiftliars funder) Linked to Bush, Rove, Crow
http://tinyurl.com/3oggt
http://okimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=79&media_type=TEXT
http://tinyurl.com/6kasoGOOGLE.COM Results 1,630 for "Bob Perry"
swift.
*** Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, (SwillBoat Ad maker) Linked to
republican party, numerous republican polician campaigns
http://tinyurl.com/5z7ddGOOGLE.COM Results 43 for "Stevens Reed Curcio
& Potholm" swift.
http://tinyurl.com/6g7fc http://srcpmedia.com/corp2.html
http://tinyurl.com/55f4r http://srcpmedia.com/corp2.html
http://tinyurl.com/5uwlw http://srcpmedia.com/house.html
http://tinyurl.com/5nmv7 http://srcpmedia.com/senate.html
http://tinyurl.com/6xnut http://srcpmedia.com/work.html
*** Regnery, a conservative company linked to Richard Mellon Scaife
who manipulates best-seller book list rankings, to Ken Starr, to Corsi
and O'Neill
http://tinyurl.com/5qw2n http://www.phillips.com/eagle.htm
http://tinyurl.com/4zvy2
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Richard%20Scaife
http://tinyurl.com/6vbpf
http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/5/confessore-n.html
http://tinyurl.com/5szod http://www.americanreview.us/back32.htm
http://tinyurl.com/4ycqdGOOGLE.COM Results 146 for "Regnery
Publishing" Richard Mellon Scaife.
*** Jerome R. Corsi Linked to Richard Scaife, to O'Neill, to Regnery
http://tinyurl.com/5a83u http://mediamatters.org/items/200408120001
http://tinyurl.com/5l66z http://mediamatters.org/items/200408110007
http://tinyurl.com/5zyuz http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010
http://tinyurl.com/4zkmo
http://www.salon.com/src/ads/house/gateway/tv_head_gateway.html?http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/08/06/mccain_on_swift_boat_veterans/index_np.html
http://tinyurl.com/5zyuz http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010
*** Dr. Louis Letson
http://tinyurl.com/3sf73
http://www.fearofclowns.com/text/kerry_faked_first_purple_heart_debunked/
http://tinyurl.com/5atvt
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=231
*** William L. Schachte Jr., a retired rear admiral
http://tinyurl.com/3wttr
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04228/361477.stm
http://tinyurl.com/65xuf
http://www.underzealous.com/index.php/2004/08/13/p522
*** Larry Thurlow, who said his boat was 50 to 60 yards from Mr.
Kerry's.
http://tinyurl.com/5m4dc
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13267-2004Aug18.html
http://tinyurl.com/6fyu4
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13267-2004Aug18.html
http://tinyurl.com/5mhcw
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i6344
The felony fraud organized crime ring is further connected to other
organiced crime fraud operations:
### Richard Mellon Scaife <http://tinyurl.com/5vdpe> is trumpetting it
from his publications. Scaife is historically linked to several of the
felons in the SwiftLiars crime ring. Scaife also funds a broad
coalition of websites and front organizations which are also promoting
this felony conspiracy though their own fraud crime operations:
Scaife thrall organization and Scaife leash-dollars put in it:
*** Heritage Foundation, $20,696,640 (Townhall.com)
http://tinyurl.com/6ng83 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 6,000 for
"Heritage Foundation" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
$5,201,000
http://tinyurl.com/68tqj GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,750 for
"American Enterprise Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** American Spectator Educational Foundation, Inc. $4,144,000
http://tinyurl.com/3n92j GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,920 for
"American Spectator" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Accuracy in Media, Inc. $3,225,000
http://tinyurl.com/3tg26 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,880 for
"Accuracy in Media" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation $2,335,000
http://tinyurl.com/53kxs GOOGLE.COM Results Results about 2,590 for
"Citizens for a Sound Economy" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Cato Institute $1,872,500
http://tinyurl.com/6jrt7 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,920 for "Cato
Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** National Center for Policy Analysis $1,760,000
http://tinyurl.com/4yyhy GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,550 for
"National Center for Policy Analysis" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Independent Women's Forum $1,600,000
http://tinyurl.com/4j9ae GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,670 for
"Independent Women's Forum" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Competitive Enterprise Institute $1,525,000
http://tinyurl.com/585fn GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,550 for
"Competitive Enterprise Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** American Legislative Exchange Council $1,495,000
http://tinyurl.com/5kuo9 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,480 for
"American Legislative Exchange Council" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Defenders of Property Rights $965,000
http://tinyurl.com/4l3gc GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,440 for
"Defenders of Property Rights" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Media Research Center, Inc. $952,000
http://tinyurl.com/46hys GOOGLE.COM Results Results 5,240 for "Media
Research Center" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Institute for Humane Studies $950,000
http://tinyurl.com/3w7b3 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,450 for
"Institute for Humane Studies" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** National Center for Public Policy Research, Inc. $825,000
http://tinyurl.com/59wll Google.com 2,610 for "National Center for
Public Policy Research" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Media Institute $645,000
http://tinyurl.com/6s7b4 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,200 for "Media
Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Acton Institute For The Study of Religion and Liberty $565,000
http://tinyurl.com/6h98g GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,470 for "Acton
Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
### Sun Myung Moon is another felony fraud conspirator using his
organized crime operation to advance his candidate who has a bilnd eye
to Moon's crimes. The WASHINGTON TIMES and UPI wireservice is Moonie
front operations. <
http://tinyurl.com/6nlt9>
***
http://tinyurl.com/55jrwGOOGLE.COM Results 42,600 for "Washington
Times" Swift boat OR Boats.
SUN MYUNG MOON uses "CHURCH PROPERTY", helps create 42,600 webpages
circulating LIES.
TOP TEN MCGREEVEY JOKES THAT YANG LOVES!!!!!!!!!!
10. NJ state bird is now the swallow.
9. NJ Turnpike renamed the Hershey highway.
8. NJ raises the terror alert level to lavender.
7. We know he didn't like Bush, but this is rediculous.
6. Now we know why McGreevey enjoyed "polling" so much.
5. Q: What does McGreevey and the Israeli navy have in common?
A: Jewish seaman.
4. NJ DMV to now call a rear end accident a McGreevey
3. Gives new meaning to stuffing the ballot box
2. Newspaper headline...McGreevey goes down.
And the number one McGreevey joke....
1. Shouldn't take McGreevey long to get out of the governer’s mansion,
he's already got his ***** packed!
----------
Liberals Hate America!
.
|
|
|
| User: "Hanoi Jane Fonda" |
|
| Title: 'Bunny Suit' Boo-boo Besets Kerry- Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) backs NASA |
22 Aug 2004 09:50:33 PM |
|
|
'Bunny Suit' Boo-boo Besets Kerry- Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) backs NASA
You'd think Mary Beth Cahill, the radical pro-abortion extremist who
is John Kerry's chief handler, would have enough sense not to keep
drawing attention to his hilariously botched Dukakis-like photo
opportunity. But no. So we'll give her the publicity she demands.
The New York Post said he looked like a sperm played by wimpy Woody
Allen in "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were
Afraid to Ask." Others are labeling it the "bunny suit" incident,
which reminds us that this is the most humiliating such case since
poor Ralphie was forced to wear the horrid rabbit costume sent by his
batty aunt in the wonderful 1983 movie "A Christmas Story."
"This was a leaked photo," Cahill complained to Brit Hume last night
on Fox News Channel.
"This was a legitimate tour of a NASA facility, and this photograph
came out of absolutely nowhere. We were surprised then. We aren't
surprised now," she claimed.
NASA, however, says it gave the photos to Kerry's campaign for review
before posting several on Kennedy Space Center's Web site.
This morning the gang at "Fox & Friends" said Democrat Sen. Bill
Nelson of Florida, who had accompanied Kerry at Kennedy Space Center,
backed NASA on this one.
Perhaps Kerry will comment on his baby-blue bunny suit. What's up,
doc?
Girlie Men Liberals Not Allowed:
http://www.georgewbush.com/Default.aspx
.
|
|
|
| User: "Psalm110" |
|
| Title: Re: 'Bunny Suit' Boo-boo Besets Kerry- Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) backs NASA |
23 Aug 2004 07:33:21 PM |
|
|
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 22:50:33 -0400, after shitting on the constitution
Hanoi Jane Fonda <hanoi_jane@N0SPAM.C0M> told SwiftLies
Fresh Links to Republican FELONY FRAUD SmearBoats villians
HOT NEWS! Exposing more on the Felony Fraud SwiftLiars Organized Crime
connections
LATEST NEWS - August 23, 2004
** http://tinyurl.com/3kt5v Silver Star incident: Langhofer, on other
boat, saw firing from both banks of a river.
** http://tinyurl.com/5bf5k Vets, others call for resignation of
prosecutor in SwiftLies ad
** http://tinyurl.com/63wmp Republican prosecutor Alfred French's lies
on affidavit about events he did not witness.
** http://tinyurl.com/65qsn Republican prosecuter's Anti-Kerry hearsay
is worthless.
August 22 or earlier:
** http://tinyurl.com/4e3y2 BusinessWeek: Flinging the Foul Mud of
Vietnam. John Kerry returned a hero. The smears his political enemies
are now flinging mark them -- not him -- as beneath contempt
** http://tinyurl.com/4yeu7 Kerry also picked up support from Wayne D.
Langhofer, who told The Washington Post he was manning a machine gun
in a boat behind Kerry's and saw firing from both banks of a river as
Kerry dived in to rescue Special Forces soldier James Rassmann, the
basis for Kerry's Bronze Star.
** http://tinyurl.com/6arcy Bush campaign admits "Cordier was a
supporter of the President during the 2000 election and served as a
member of the President's veterans' steering committee during this
election."
** http://tinyurl.com/44t3g Registered Republican SwillBoat Ad Shill
was not there.
** http://tinyurl.com/3rtwt SwillBoat prosecutors presents heresay as
if he was eyewitness.
** http://tinyurl.com/6ubnz SwillBoater claims he has no evidence
** http://tinyurl.com/639as SwiftLie vet working to help re-elect
incumbent president George W. Bush resigned
** http://tinyurl.com/5w7by More Republican Ties Revealed Behind
"Swift Boat Vets For Bush"
** http://tinyurl.com/6wre9 Bush Campaign Drops Swift Boat Ad Figure
-- Cordier's connection to the Bush campaign was made public yesterday
by the Kerry campaign, which found that Cordier had been named on the
Bush Web site earlier this month as a member of the veterans committee
** http://tinyurl.com/4gs53 Cordier was SWFT and GOP operative at same
time. Kenneth Cordier, a retired colonel ... who appeared in an
advertisement to be aired by the anti-Kerry group, SWVT, would on
longer serve in his voluntary position on President George W. Bush's
veterans steering committee.
** http://tinyurl.com/5telj Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas,
chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said that while the
group had "every right" to express their opinion, "WE OUGHT TO GET OUT
OF THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION BUSINESS."
NEWS - August 21, 2004
**
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?pagewanted=1
http://tinyurl.com/4r7a8
** http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21239-2004Aug21.html
http://tinyurl.com/4fyem Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete And Flawed
**
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-040821rood,1,1611037.story?coll=chi-news-hed
http://tinyurl.com/6wvtm Anti-Kerry vets not there that day
**
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-040821kerry,1,7582568.story?coll=chi-news-hed
http://tinyurl.com/6v4no Swift boat skipper: Kerry critics wrong --
Tribune editor breaks long silence on Kerry record; fought in disputed
battle
**
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/21/MNGE08C6V11.DTL
http://tinyurl.com/45xfx Kerry's Vietnam-era testimony criticized in
new attack ad -- Democrat counters with endorsement by retired general
** http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-camp21.html
http://tinyurl.com/4jjth Dems see link to Swift Boat Vets, Bush-Cheney
----------------------------------
*** George W. Bush - Closely tied to Merrie Spaeth's husband Tex
Lezar, benefitted from Bob Perry money, linked to Karl Rove, to
Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, to Regnery publishing, to Harlan Crow
http://tinyurl.com/4uc37 GOOGLE.COM Results 220 for "George W. Bush"
Merrie Spaeth Tex Lezar.
http://tinyurl.com/54lqw GOOGLE.COM Results 257 for "George W. Bush"
"Tex Lezar".
http://tinyurl.com/6j2gd GOOGLE.COM Results 613 for "George W. Bush"
"Bob Perry"".
*** Karl Rove - Closely linked to GW Bush, to Merrie Spaeth, to John
O'Neill, to Bob Perry, to Harlan Crow, to organized crime conspiracies
of Philip Morris
http://tinyurl.com/3hpjo
http://tobaccodocuments.org/ai_news/11015.html?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22&?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22#images
http://tinyurl.com/5cmwh
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=19991108&s=dreyfuss
http://tinyurl.com/5gbbd
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19991108&c=2&s=dreyfuss
http://tinyurl.com/5qcb2
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=hfd83c00&fmt=tif&ref=results
http://tinyurl.com/6ocdy GOOGLE.COM Results 5,100 for "Karl Rove"
"Swift Boat".
http://tinyurl.com/69vjn
http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2041158396.html?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22&?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22#images
http://tinyurl.com/5l2ee
http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2041158370.html?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22&?pattern=%22Karl%20Rove%22#images
*** Merrie Spaeth (Tex Lezar) Linked to GW Bush, Linked to smears of
John McCain using same criminal fraud tactics, to Karl Rove, Bob
Perry, to Ken Starr, linked to organized crime tobacco conspiracies
http://tinyurl.com/64v3c GOOGLE.COM Results 814 for "Merrie Spaeth"
republican.
http://tinyurl.com/63zvu GOOGLE.COM Results 317 for "Merrie Spaeth"
"Tex Lezar".
http://tinyurl.com/43fek GOOGLE.COM Results 10 for "Tex Lezar"
tobacco.
*** Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group
http://tinyurl.com/5h6za http://mediamatters.org/items/200406020006
http://tinyurl.com/3rx8z http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060011
*** John E. O'Neill (Charles Colson apprentice) Linked to Nixon,
registered republican and donor, linked to Crow and Perry, to Corsi
and Regnery
http://tinyurl.com/4vrwq GOOGLE.COM Results 482 for "John E. O'Neill"
Colson.
http://tinyurl.com/496xl
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=John_E._O'Neill
*** Harlan Crow (Swiftliars funder) Linked to Bush, to Perry AEI
board,
http://tinyurl.com/5afl5
http://www.aei.org/about/contentID.20038142214500073/default.asp
http://tinyurl.com/6l7vn GOOGLE.COM Results 113 for "Harlan Crow"
Holdings.
http://tinyurl.com/57oc8 GOOGLE.COM Results 217 for "Harlan Crow"
swift.
*** Bob J. Perry (Swiftliars funder) Linked to Bush, Rove, Crow
http://tinyurl.com/3oggt
http://okimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=79&media_type=TEXT
http://tinyurl.com/6kaso GOOGLE.COM Results 1,630 for "Bob Perry"
swift.
*** Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, (SwillBoat Ad maker) Linked to
republican party, numerous republican polician campaigns
http://tinyurl.com/5z7dd GOOGLE.COM Results 43 for "Stevens Reed
Curcio & Potholm" swift.
http://tinyurl.com/6g7fc http://srcpmedia.com/corp2.html
http://tinyurl.com/55f4r http://srcpmedia.com/corp2.html
http://tinyurl.com/5uwlw http://srcpmedia.com/house.html
http://tinyurl.com/5nmv7 http://srcpmedia.com/senate.html
http://tinyurl.com/6xnut http://srcpmedia.com/work.html
*** Regnery, a conservative company linked to Richard Mellon Scaife
who manipulates best-seller book list rankings, to Ken Starr, to Corsi
and O'Neill
http://tinyurl.com/5qw2n http://www.phillips.com/eagle.htm
http://tinyurl.com/4zvy2
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Richard%20Scaife
http://tinyurl.com/6vbpf
http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/5/confessore-n.html
http://tinyurl.com/5szod http://www.americanreview.us/back32.htm
http://tinyurl.com/4ycqd GOOGLE.COM Results 146 for "Regnery
Publishing" Richard Mellon Scaife.
*** Jerome R. Corsi Linked to Richard Scaife, to O'Neill, to Regnery
http://tinyurl.com/5a83u http://mediamatters.org/items/200408120001
http://tinyurl.com/5l66z http://mediamatters.org/items/200408110007
http://tinyurl.com/5zyuz http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010
http://tinyurl.com/4zkmo
http://www.salon.com/src/ads/house/gateway/tv_head_gateway.html?http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/08/06/mccain_on_swift_boat_veterans/index_np.html
http://tinyurl.com/5zyuz http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010
*** Dr. Louis Letson
http://tinyurl.com/3sf73
http://www.fearofclowns.com/text/kerry_faked_first_purple_heart_debunked/
http://tinyurl.com/5atvt
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=231
*** William L. Schachte Jr., a retired rear admiral
http://tinyurl.com/3wttr
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04228/361477.stm
http://tinyurl.com/65xuf
http://www.underzealous.com/index.php/2004/08/13/p522
*** Larry Thurlow, who said his boat was 50 to 60 yards from Mr.
Kerry's.
http://tinyurl.com/5m4dc
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13267-2004Aug18.html
http://tinyurl.com/6fyu4
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13267-2004Aug18.html
http://tinyurl.com/5mhcw
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i6344
The felony fraud organized crime ring is further connected to other
organiced crime fraud operations:
### Richard Mellon Scaife <http://tinyurl.com/5vdpe> is trumpetting it
from his publications. Scaife is historically linked to several of the
felons in the SwiftLiars crime ring. Scaife also funds a broad
coalition of websites and front organizations which are also promoting
this felony conspiracy though their own fraud crime operations:
Scaife thrall organization and Scaife leash-dollars put in it:
*** Heritage Foundation, $20,696,640 (Townhall.com)
http://tinyurl.com/6ng83 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 6,000 for
"Heritage Foundation" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
$5,201,000
http://tinyurl.com/68tqj GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,750 for
"American Enterprise Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** American Spectator Educational Foundation, Inc. $4,144,000
http://tinyurl.com/3n92j GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,920 for
"American Spectator" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Accuracy in Media, Inc. $3,225,000
http://tinyurl.com/3tg26 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,880 for
"Accuracy in Media" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation $2,335,000
http://tinyurl.com/53kxs GOOGLE.COM Results Results about 2,590 for
"Citizens for a Sound Economy" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Cato Institute $1,872,500
http://tinyurl.com/6jrt7 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,920 for "Cato
Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** National Center for Policy Analysis $1,760,000
http://tinyurl.com/4yyhy GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,550 for
"National Center for Policy Analysis" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Independent Women's Forum $1,600,000
http://tinyurl.com/4j9ae GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,670 for
"Independent Women's Forum" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Competitive Enterprise Institute $1,525,000
http://tinyurl.com/585fn GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,550 for
"Competitive Enterprise Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** American Legislative Exchange Council $1,495,000
http://tinyurl.com/5kuo9 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,480 for
"American Legislative Exchange Council" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Defenders of Property Rights $965,000
http://tinyurl.com/4l3gc GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,440 for
"Defenders of Property Rights" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Media Research Center, Inc. $952,000
http://tinyurl.com/46hys GOOGLE.COM Results Results 5,240 for "Media
Research Center" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Institute for Humane Studies $950,000
http://tinyurl.com/3w7b3 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,450 for
"Institute for Humane Studies" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** National Center for Public Policy Research, Inc. $825,000
http://tinyurl.com/59wll Google.com 2,610 for "National Center for
Public Policy Research" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Media Institute $645,000
http://tinyurl.com/6s7b4 GOOGLE.COM Results Results 1,200 for "Media
Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
*** Acton Institute For The Study of Religion and Liberty $565,000
http://tinyurl.com/6h98g GOOGLE.COM Results Results 2,470 for "Acton
Institute" Swift boat OR Boats.
### Sun Myung Moon is another felony fraud conspirator using his
organized crime operation to advance his candidate who has a bilnd eye
to Moon's crimes. The WASHINGTON TIMES and UPI wireservice is Moonie
front operations. <
http://tinyurl.com/6nlt9>
***
http://tinyurl.com/55jrwGOOGLE.COM Results 42,600 for "Washington
Times" Swift boat OR Boats.
SUN MYUNG MOON uses "CHURCH PROPERTY", helps create 42,600 webpages
circulating LIES.
??? 'Bunny Suit' Boo-boo Besets Kerry- Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) backs
NASA
???
???
???
??? You'd think Mary Beth Cahill, the radical pro-abortion extremist
who
??? is John Kerry's chief handler, would have enough sense not to keep
??? drawing attention to his hilariously botched Dukakis-like photo
??? opportunity. But no. So we'll give her the publicity she demands.
???
??? The New York Post said he looked like a sperm played by wimpy
Woody
??? Allen in "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were
??? Afraid to Ask." Others are labeling it the "bunny suit" incident,
??? which reminds us that this is the most humiliating such case since
??? poor Ralphie was forced to wear the horrid rabbit costume sent by
his
??? batty aunt in the wonderful 1983 movie "A Christmas Story."
??? "This was a leaked photo," Cahill complained to Brit Hume last
night
??? on Fox News Channel.
???
??? "This was a legitimate tour of a NASA facility, and this
photograph
??? came out of absolutely nowhere. We were surprised then. We aren't
??? surprised now," she claimed.
???
??? NASA, however, says it gave the photos to Kerry's campaign for
review
??? before posting several on Kennedy Space Center's Web site.
???
??? This morning the gang at "Fox & Friends" said Democrat Sen. Bill
??? Nelson of Florida, who had accompanied Kerry at Kennedy Space
Center,
??? backed NASA on this one.
???
??? Perhaps Kerry will comment on his baby-blue bunny suit. What's up,
??? doc?
???
???
???
???
???
??? Girlie Men Liberals Not Allowed:
??? http://www.georgewbush.com/Default.aspx
???
.
|
|
|
| User: "Hanoi Jane Fonda" |
|
| Title: Noam Chomsky's Satanic Verses |
23 Aug 2004 08:55:51 PM |
|
|
Noam Chomsky's Satanic Verses
By Paul Crespo
January 29, 2004
Noam Chomsky - the deranged Marxoid from MIT - is enjoying a kind of
revival with recent interviews in the New York Times and a book review
of his latest screed that while dismissing its lunatic conclusions
pays it respect as an argument that should be taken seriously. (?!!!)
The Bush-hating Times no doubt finds rationality in Chomsky’s devil
theory of history which casts America as the Great Satan and all
purpose explanation of what’s wrong in the world.
It seems an appropriate time, therefore, to take a look at one of his
earlier books -- and one of the few that comes close to actually being
a book - and not just an interview collection of “Chomsky Says.” This
1985
text Turning the Tide covers a variety of topics including the arms
race, nuclear freeze movement and domestic policy. But most of its
focus is on US policy toward Latin America - especially Ronald
Reagan’s successful efforts to halt communist subversion and expansion
in Central America -- which he refers to as an American “terror war.”
Actually Chomsky has the annoying habit of referring to almost
everything the US does internationally as a “terror war” or
“terrorism” or “state terrorism,” greatly diminishing the impact or
validity any of his points may have.
Turning the Tide is divided into five chapters. The first three
concentrating on Central America tend to overlap and repeat
themselves-in fact much of his work is highly repetitive. They include
such choice section headings as: “The planning of [US] state terror,
“Planning for hegemony,” “The system applied: Torturing El Salvador,”
“Torturing Nicaragua,” “Torturing Hispaniola,” and most creatively,
“Torturing Guatemala.” Chomsky, it seems is fascinated by the alleged
“torturing” of entire countries.
In the fourth chapter he focuses on national security policy and
describes “The race to destruction,” and the “drift toward global war”
which according to Chomsky is a “result of US government programs that
have little to do with security, but are deeply rooted in the
structure of power in our society...” One section is titled:
“Containing the anti-Fascist resistance: From death camps to death
squads” and describes his standard US-Nazi analogy. To Chomsky anyone
the US opposes (or is opposed to the US) is anti-Fascist ipso-facto
because the US and its allies in his view are Fascist.
His final chapter turns from foreign policy to the domestic US scene
and “the dedicated efforts that have been taken by dominant elites to
overcome the democratic revival of the 1960’s…” Chomsky believes his
fellow counterculture pseudo-Marxist radicals were the vanguard of
this “democratic revival.”
While Chomsky dishes a great deal of dirt on all prior US presidents,
Reagan - who Chomsky considers a simpleton likening his pronouncements
to the “random babbling of a young child”-- was nevertheless far more
evil in intent and results than all his predecessors and deserves
special opprobrium.
With regard to Reagan and Central America, Chomsky’s main thesis is
that Reagan was simply continuing a long-term policy on behalf of evil
American economic elites to suppress the region’s indigenous people
and control its “vast” natural resources- apparently often in the
strategically significant form of bananas. In Chomsky’s world the more
insignificant the country, the more important it is to the evil elites
who dominate US foreign policy - “the weaker and poorer a country is,
the more dangerous it is as an example.” This theory of the “dangerous
example” animates much of his views on US policy toward the
hemisphere.
In Chomsky’s mind, despite the strategic oil resources of the Middle
East, mineral wealth of Africa, and other valuable resources of the
Far East, the US has spent “billions of dollars” and immense effort to
rape, murder and pillage the people of Latin American countries such
as Nicaragua and El Salvador, that by his own admission could
disappear and American business would never notice.
Why American elites would spend decades and billions of dollars in
savage wars of repression to destroy countries when they could more
easily and cheaply gain their resources through trade is never really
addressed. But according to Chomsky these insignificant countries
were close to home and were in the process of creating successful
alternative models of economic development that didn’t require US
business and investment.
Chomsky of course disregards the fact that all socialist experiments
have been proven total disasters and have brought only food rationing,
repression, death and famine to the guinea pig populations who
suffered
under them. In his view the potential success alone of these
“dangerous examples” was a mortal threat to elite American interests
requiring an unrelenting and savage US response.
One of the first things one is struck by when reading Chomsky is the
propagandistic nature of his effort and his shrill, pedantic and often
times snide tone. His work is also extraordinarily dense and generally
a chore to read. He packs detailed anecdotes, facts and figures among
his diatribes in an almost overwhelming manner. The sympathetic
reader’s conclusion: there is simply so much evidence; Chomsky must be
a genius and his conclusions irrefutable. Chomsky’s intent may also be
to inundate his critics in order to produce sheer physical and mental
exhaustion if not ultimately ideological surrender.
In Turning the Tide Chomsky focuses most of his one-sided ire at US
actions in El Salvador and Nicaragua, but also delves on Guatemala and
Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), detailing an alleged
pattern of savage US intervention and rabid, systematic looting and
domination. In chapter 2 he describes his important Fifth Freedom
theory which provides the intellectual framework for much of his
foreign policy analysis.
To the Four Freedoms articulated by Franklin Roosevelt (freedom of
expression and religion and freedom from want and fear) Chomsky adds
what he considers the American elite’s secret yet overriding Fifth
Freedom - “the freedom to rob and exploit.”
To him the “preservation of the Fifth Freedom, by whatever means are
feasible” is a “guiding geopolitical conception” in US planning. But
this idea is even more than a planning premise. To Chomsky this evil
secret principle is “an invariant core, deeply rooted in the basic
institutions of American society.” It virtually defines US foreign
policy. Hence all US actions in Latin America are seen through the
prism of his Fifth Freedom thesis.
He also picks and chooses quotes and references to show a uniform
thought process in a homogenous, unified American business-government
elite. To Chomsky there are no competing interests or internal
political debates in the United States; only one state-business
conglomerate with a fixed, eternal goal of domination.
And while this Fifth Freedom supposedly is a secret principle, Chomsky
selectively accesses some previously classified US government
documents to buttress his argument that all US policy is based on this
principle. Most significant in his writings is his extensive George
Kennan misquote from State Department Policy Planning Study 23.
In the real world (rather than Chomsky’s delusion one) the passage
Chomsky quotes from explains Kennan’s realpolitik approach to
preserving US national security interests and containing of Soviet
communism in the Far East. But this widely used quote is taken out of
context and misinterpreted. By
omitting key elements, Chomsky grossly distorts Kennan’s intent and
globalizes his conclusions.
Chomsky quotes Kennan as follows:
"…we have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its
population...In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy
and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a
pattern of
relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of
disparity without positive detriment to or national security. To do
so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming;
and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our
immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we
can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction…We
should cease to talk about vague and -- for the Far East -- unreal
objectives such as human rights, the raising of standards of living,
and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have
to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by
idealistic slogans the better."
Despite the fact that Kennan argues against being “hampered by
idealistic slogans” in this secret document, Chomsky immediately notes
that “the idealistic slogans’ must constantly be trumpeted by US
elites in public in order to pacify the domestic population…” But that
is Chomsky speaking not Kennan. By describing Kennan’s ideas this way,
Chomsky makes it appear that Kennan is arguing that human rights are
just US slogans and should be ignored in order to maintain US wealth.
Unfortunately when reading Chomsky the truth is almost invariably lost
in what Chomsky dishonestly leaves out of his quotes. In this case it
is an entire paragraph detailing Kennan’s pessimistic but realistic
view that US wealth would provoke envy and resentment no matter what
we did and that because of problems of population growth and food
supply (especially in India and China) that many countries in Asia
would fall into the Soviet sphere regardless of US policy or focus on
human rights. To Kennan global
wealth disparity was a sad fact of life not a goal to achieve.
Kennan’s stated emphasis in the paragraph leading to the above quote
is: “It is urgently necessary that we recognize our own limitations as
a moral and ideological force among the Asiatic peoples.” As such he
urges restraint in our policies toward Asia and counsels the US to
leave most of mainland Asia alone and focus on keeping Japan and the
Philippines firmly in the US sphere as bulwarks of US security in
Asia. A foreign policy realist Kennan argued regularly against the
trumpeting of idealistic slogans in favor of pursuing realistic
politics. These are far from the views presented by Chomsky.
Immediately following the Kennan quote Chomsky uses a quote from the
1984 bipartisan Kissinger Commission report that states “the
international purposes of the United States in the late 20th century
are cooperation, not hegemony or domination; partnership, not
confrontation; a decent life for all, not exploitation.” But since
this was in a public document, the quote is spun by Chomsky as an
example of the public trumpeting of insincere “idealistic slogans.”
For Chomsky there is a quote to fit his every argument, even if he has
to twist or parse the quote to make it fit or simply define it as he
wishes. He accepts at face value those statements that he agrees with
or that support his point directly, and when they do not, he simply
discounts or interprets them as examples of disinformation.
If one is able to get beyond all this the next hurdle one faces is
that despite his intellectual pretensions Chomsky is not a reliable
source of historical information or a serious political scientist. On
the contrary, a
reader would be well served to fact check every citation and find
proper context whenever reading Chomsky. A linguist by training, he is
extremely adept at pointing out sometimes valid omissions and
inaccuracies in the works of his opponents, but considering his own
highly selective use of citations as noted above, one-sided analysis,
conclusion by inference and association as well as outright distortion
and omission of fact---it is surprising so many on the left and
elsewhere consider him a serious academic.
Chomsky’s sloppy use of citations and documentation is a serious flaw
in his work and hampers the readers’ ability to confirm or evaluate
the context or validity of his research. In one example on page 4 of
“Turning the Tide,” Chomsky states that “the United Fruit Company
client took power [in Honduras] in 1932 ‘and hand-in hand with United
Fruit ruled his country for the next seventeen years.’” Who actually
said this? We don’t know. His source is the 1985 book “The end and
the beginning: the Nicaraguan
Revolution” written by John Booth. But no where does Chomsky say who
the quote came from or why it is authoritative rather than simply
conjecture or opinion.
Sometimes Chomsky’s quotes contradict his main points; as when he is
arguing that the malevolence of the US embargo against the Sandinistas
is “fully in accord with our operative values, throughout our
history.” But his source, James Austin of the Harvard Business School,
admits in the same quote that the worse effects of this embargo are on
the “US-made potable water system and Nicaraguan hospitals which rely
on US equipment.” (Italics added).
Apparently Chomsky misses the irony of including admissions of US-made
potable water systems and the supply of US medical equipment to
augment claims of our historically “inhumane” and “morally
reprehensible” actions against the poor people of Nicaragua. How does
Chomsky reconcile his view of
our perennial aggression against Nicaragua with the fact that
Nicaragua’s medical system and water supply was almost all made in the
USA? He doesn’t seem even to notice the contradiction.
One of Chomsky’s key techniques is to make the US operate in a global
vacuum so it appears omnipotent and omni-malevolent. Hence for Chomsky
the world revolves simply and entirely around the United States which
is guilty of most of the world’s ills. Other countries, including
those of Western Europe and especially the Soviet Union are but a
backdrop or bit players in a historical drama totally dominated by the
American colossus.
This may be due to the fact that as one reviewer notes “Chomsky is a
critic, not a policy-maker, a whistle-blower rather than a strategist
furnished with alternatives.” But this is an understatement. Part of
Chomsky’s worldview is based on the idea that self-criticism is the
highest form of moral value. Of course this self-criticism applies to
criticizing ONLY the United States ad nauseum as the “proxy self” but
not to Chomsky ever criticizing himself or the left when it is wrong.
His continuing apologetics for Cambodia’s
genocidal communist leader Pol Pot is a case in point.
Most of the other countries Chomsky discusses, such as Vietnam,
Nicaragua, Cuba, etc. are never anything more than innocent victims of
American “savagery.” Their actions are wholly reactive to US
initiatives. They never have any autonomous foreign policies. His is a
negative-ethnocentrism on a grand scale. There is never mention of the
plans or stratagems of countries other than the US or those controlled
by the US such as Israel or our “neo-Nazi” South American allies.
Often he refers to the Soviet bloc as “so-called” communist states.
When he does mention a geopolitically significant country such as the
Soviet Union it generally is to systematically apologize and
rationalize its perceived negative behavior and show the hypocrisy of
US policy toward the “alleged” enemy. Rarely does Chomsky acknowledge,
much less describe in detail, any evil conducted by the Soviet Union,
Castro or the Sandinistas such as the millions tortured and murdered
in the Soviet Gulag or Stalin’s purges, Castro’s soccer field show
trials and mass executions or Sandinista
atrocities.
Though he occasionally makes a denunciation of the Soviets it is
usually done simply pro-forma and as a way to create a moral
equivalence between the US and USSR. As when he states about the
Soviet Union on page 218: “Reagan’s Evil Empire is exactly that, as is
its American counterpart.” More often the Soviet Union is described as
well-intentioned and acting defensively, whereas the US is always
cynical and malevolent.
In chapter four Chomsky does a few references to Soviet flaws but also
quotes Soviet leaders or the state press with a total lack of critical
analysis. This approach contrasts sharply with the critical if not
hostile
and disbelieving approach he takes with almost all US government,
media or business sources and statements.
On page 179 he quotes Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko as saying
“we are prepared to go even further-to agree on banning in general the
use of force both in space, and from space against earth.” While
taking Gromyko’s obvious propaganda statement at face value he then
refers to the Reagan
administration as being “strongly opposed to this hopeful
development.”
He then quotes without questioning Radio Moscow (the Kremlin’s
official state controlled media) as saying that the Soviet idea is “to
conclude an agreement to prevent militarization of outer space…” Of
course to Chomsky unlike his view of US statements, Soviet statements
are never considered simply as ‘the trumpeting of idealistic slogans.”
Shortly thereafter Chomsky refers to an “evasive” Times report on the
same topic-evasive because it did not see the Soviet proposal and US
reaction in the same pro-Soviet light as Chomsky. When US press
reports what Chomsky believes is correct he describes it as
“accurate,” but when it does not, he calls it an example of the US
propaganda press and refers to it as “evasive,” “self-censoring” or
misleading.”
In his arrogant and delusional perspective only Chomsky sees the truth
which is obscured by American “corporate propaganda” and
“self-censorship.” The majority of Americans are simply pawns and
dupes.
In chapter five he argues that there has been an orchestrated massive
campaign to squelch the “democratic revival” of the 1960s. The fact
that the supposedly repressed counter-culture leftists he speaks of
gradually came to dominate academia, the media and much of mainstream
American popular culture since the 1960s appears irrelevant to him. In
fact he denies this reality as vehemently as he denies the atrocities
of Cambodia’s “killing fields.”
Instead he uses his “propaganda model” to show that Americans are
systematically kept from hearing the truth through a
corporate-controlled propaganda conspiracy, despite the fact that that
his own popularity among the intellectual “avant-garde” seems to
disprove his thesis.
So Chomsky argues that from the 1960s onward the “business classes
moved effectively to extend their already massive (italics added)
dominance over universities and the media…” Adding that “well-funded
reactionary jingoist (“conservative”) journals are now widespread in
an effort to counter threats to intellectual independence…” But, if
there is such massive “business” dominance over the universities and
media, why is there a need for such a campaign to counter “threats of
intellectual independence?” Conveniently according to Chomsky, it is
because that dominance is “always deemed inadequate” by the generic
and all-encompassing US elite he simply calls “business.” As with the
US itself, nothing is ever enough for these business elites - their
voracious appetite for total control is insatiable.
Meanwhile he claims that the paranoid vision of “Marxist-controlled”
universities is “comical” but not limited to the “totalitarian right,”
noting a New York Times Book Review article written by a person
Chomsky describes a “respected liberal intellectual historian”
(identified in the footnotes as John Patrick Diggins) that also argues
that Marxism “has come close to being the dominant ideology in the
academic world.” Yet rather than analyze or and refute the arguments
made by this “respected liberal intellectual,” Chomsky simply
dismisses them as “so remote from reality as to defy rational
discussion.” Many points that contradict Chomsky’s views are discarded
that way.
Chomsky adds that Diggins’s view “can only be understood as a
reflection of the fear that if heresy is granted even a tiny opening,
all is lost.” Why this respected liberal intellectual would suffer
from such a paranoid fear, is left unexplained. This condescending
dismissal without discussion of the counterarguments of opposing views
is another major flaw in Chomsky’s pseudo-scholarly approach.
Chomsky’s faults also include his obsessive need to revel in
ad-hominem attacks, overstatement and misstatement. He refers to even
the most innocuous foes as a “fanatics,” the slightest inaccuracy in
opponent’s argument as “frauds” and “lies.” But his obsession with
exaggeration and hyperbole is most troubling.
Beginning in the first pages of “Turning the tide” Chomsky uses an
overwhelming and repetitively mind-numbing number of graphic anecdotes
describing alleged massacres, tortures and murders by Nicaraguan
anti-communist rebels (“contras’) or by Central American governments
allied with the US. These often unsubstantiated vignettes are always
brutal and disturbing. He provides lurid details about decapitations,
bloody rapes and the sadistic butchering of children.
On page 11 he quotes from a report that a witness had returned to a
battlefield and found what the Contras had allegedly done to one
victim including “cut his throat, then cut open his stomach and left
his intestines
hanging out on the ground like a string.” They also reportedly opened
up another victim “and took out his intestines and cut off his
testicles.”
Beyond the gruesome descriptions though, when we look at his source,
we find it was a “fact-finding mission” conducted by a US law firm
representing ‘Nicaraguan interests.” Chomsky uses that euphemism to
avoid saying the firm represented the Sandinista government. The
“report” could thus be seen as
part of the firm’s public relations effort on behalf of the
Sandinistas and probably should not be considered impartial or
credible.
Later Chomsky notes that a mother describes how her husband, a lay
pastor, and her five children were kidnapped and when she found them
the next day “they were all cut up. Their ears were pulled off, their
throats were cut, their noses and other parts cut off.” Since Chomsky
is writing about Contra atrocities one assumes this is simply another
example, but this is never stated directly. And worse yet, there is no
direct citation for this quote. As is the case for many of Chomsky’s
quotes and references, there are specific citations above and below
this quote but nothing to determine where this specific quote came
from. It is virtually impossible to correctly identify many of
Chomsky’s references.
The citations he does use correctly are often from mainstream leftist
newspapers such as the UK’s Guardian, or obscure local sources such as
a Peruvian church-based publication or other leftist “human rights
groups.” Never does he acknowledge that these may be questionable, or
biased sources. Yet, according to Tim Brown a fellow of Stanford
University’s Hoover Institution, many of these so-called atrocities
were deliberate fabrications and deserved a much more skeptical
reading. He states:
"I was personally witness to literally hundreds of instances in which
international human rights activists condemned alleged human rights
violations by anti-Communist guerrillas that were later proven to have
been fabrications. Recently, the former military commander of the FMLN
of El Salvador has explained very carefully and on the record to me
just how this was done and how easy it was for them to manipulate the
American human rights establishment because their fabrications were
always accepted without
question by their American sympathizers."
Brown adds:
"His comments are corroborated by the written contemporary record.
According to existing archives, a very high percentage, perhaps 40%,
of all official FMLN members were assigned by the party to human
rights missions, including the planting of fabricated stories, because
the FMLN understood that they might never win militarily but could do
so on the political front. This made their propaganda war even more
important than their military effort. That they were so successful in
doing so was a direct function of the willingness
of their sympathizers to accept their fabrications or exaggerations
without checking the sources."
Chomsky can certainly fall into this category.
And apparently these alleged crimes by US proxies are always brutal
and gratuitously sadistic. None of America’s victims are simply shot
or executed. They are all systematically tortured and destroyed in
ways Nazis would be proud. And this is not surprising since according
to Chomsky many of America’s “allies” in Latin America and elsewhere
are in fact Nazis or neo-Nazis as when he refers to our “various
clients, particularly Argentine neo-Nazis” (when Argentina was under
military rule).
Thus equating the US and Nazi Germany in Chapter four Chomsky actually
details his view that the US conspired with German Nazis to create a
new post-war global fascist alliance. On page 200 he states “The
postwar US project of crushing the anti-fascist resistance [all
communists automatically fall into this category] with Nazi assistance
establishes a direct link between Nazi Germany and the killing fields
in Central America.” In developing this conspiracy Chomsky generally
ignores the decisive American role in defeating Nazi Germany as when
he notes “US solicitude and care for useful Nazi gangsters as Europe
was liberated from Hitler.” As if Europe was “liberated” by itself.
And of course according to Chomsky, these Central American killing
fields are always attributed somehow - though never quite sure how -
to the US. When he can’t make some sort of direct connection between
the actual perpetrators and the US or US forces he simply defaults to
referring to “US proxies.” Thus he constantly refers to “US-backed”
“US-supplied” or “US- trained” forces. Sometimes even the simple use
of “US-made” equipment (such as a radio) by any of these “proxies” is
enough to infer American complicity
in war crimes.
On page 6 Chomsky cites Charles Clements, a “committed pacifist” and
former US Air Force pilot who had been sent to a psychiatric hospital
after refusing to fly missions in Vietnam, as a witness to many of
these types of US proxy atrocities in El Salvador in 1982-83. Chomsky
speaks for Clements throughout. He begins by noting “the strafing by
US-supplied [Italics added] jets aimed specifically against
defenseless peasants.”
This is followed by stating that the “worst atrocities were carried
out by US-trained elite battalions…and by air and artillery units
employing tactics designed by US forces in Vietnam and taught by US
advisors.” According to Chomsky, simply being US-trained or using
basic military tactics employed and taught by the US, any alleged
atrocities conducted by Salvadorian forces were directly attributable
to the US.
He adds further that that Clements, “using a US-made scanner…could
hear the voices of American advisers directing troops on their mass
murder mission.” Since none of this a quote, Chomsky cleverly and
disingenuously confuses what Clements actually said with Chomsky’s own
interpretation and commentary
and totally obscures the distinction between what may have been normal
combat and alleged war crimes.
As the above noted example demonstrates, he rarely substantiates how
the forces in question were US-backed or trained. An expert
propagandist, Chomsky will often mingle truth with half-truth with
generalization and inference. As with the above-noted example he will
also make references to actions of specific US-trained battalions in
El Salvador after describing numerous alleged brutalities by other
un-named “US-backed” forces. The reader is expected to assume they’re
all the same.
Chomsky’s work is littered with left wing sources such as the Nation,
the Guardian or openly Marxist human rights groups. When “mainstream”
or reputable media, academic or other sources contradict his
worldview, he simply reverts to his argument that we can’t believe
these sources.
When referring to Nicaragua, he revels in alleged “contra’ crimes as
well as the Crimes of the prior dictator Anastasio Somoza, but ignores
the thousands of Nicaraguans who were imprisoned, tortured, or
executed by their new communist masters as they attempted to protect
their private property, or who simply committed the crime of owning
private property. In “Remembering Sandinista Genocide,” Jamie Glazov
writes:
According to the Nicaraguan Commission of Jurists, the Sandinistas
carried out over 8,000 political executions within three years of the
revolution. The number of "anti-revolutionary" Nicaraguans who had
"disappeared" in Sandinista hands or had died "trying to escape" were
numbered in the thousands. By 1983, the number of political prisoners
in the Sandinista’s' ruthless tyranny was estimated at 20,000. Torture
was institutionalized.
Chomsky also fails to note that unlike the Somoza regime, the
Sandinistas did not leave the native populations on the Atlantic coast
of Nicaragua in peace. All Nicaraguans were forced to take part in
their Marxist experiment.
Glazov adds:
"Thus, in perfect Khmer Rouge style, the Sandinistas inflicted a
ruthless forcible relocation of tens of thousands of Indians from
their land. Like Stalin, they used state-created famine as a weapon
against these "enemies of the people.”
The Organization of American States and the Nicaraguan Human Rights
organization have found that a large number of clandestine cemeteries
from the Contra War period have been excavated in Nicaragua and
several hundred bodies exhumed and examined by forensic pathologists.
In every case the bodies were confirmed to be the remains of victims
of Sandinista Army atrocities.
These include documented examples of clandestine cemeteries at Jalapa,
Corinto Finca, Cerro de Mocoron, Santa Matilde, Cano del Aislado,
Murra, and Loma Chata. There are many others. Yet Chomsky conveniently
ignore this evidence condemning the Sandinistas.
After communism’s global collapse there have been scores sources
painting a clearer picture of the scale of leftist deception and
delusion regarding the real effects of decades of socialist
experimentation. Unfortunately, Chomsky continues to ignore the
evidence.
The fact is that in this political work (as opposed perhaps to his
actual specialty in linguistics) Chomsky is not an academic or a
fair-minded intellectual. He does not research evidence and then find
a model that best
describes it. Instead, he is a propagandist who has created his
fanciful models such as the Fifth Freedom and propaganda model, and
simply looks for evidence to support it, ignoring, discarding or
dismissing all other contrary evidence. The evidence he does use is
highly selective, often taken out of context, uncritical when
referring to America’s enemies and disingenuous and misleading when
applied to the US. Too often it is impossible to confirm what sources
he was using.
In typical propagandist style, he seamlessly co-mingles many elements
of fact and truth with speculation, conjecture, misquotes,
interpretation and commentary, never identifying where one ends and
the other begins. Focusing almost exclusively on monolithic US actions
and flaws he creates a virtual parallel universe that ignores the true
motivations and intentions of adversaries, simplifies and demonizes US
motives and intentions and provides a thoroughly one-sided and
distorted reality. Sadly, many on the left live in this Chomsky
fantasy world.
Paul Crespo is a political analyst, columnist and former member of The
Miami Herald editorial board. An adjunct faculty member in the
political science department at the University of Miami, he is also a
Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in
Washington, DC. He served as a US Marine Corps officer on three
continents. A graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign
Service, he has advanced degrees from London and Cambridge
Universities in the UK.
--
Left-wing liberals are EVERYTHING they accuse the right of being. They
are mean, vicious, hateful, greedy, cold-hearted, closed-minded,
selfish, intolerant, bigoted and racist.
.
|
|
|
| User: "MOONIES for Bush" |
|
| Title: Re: Noam Chomsky's Satanic Verses |
25 Aug 2004 02:06:36 AM |
|
|
On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:55:51 -0400, Hanoi Jane Fonda
<hanoi_jane@N0SPAM.C0M> twrote
It seems an appropriate time, therefore, to take a look at
Bush Pal SUN MYUNG MOON's Nuke-Tech to ATHEIST North Korea.
The issue is NOT purple hearts in Viet Nam, but Black Hearts in
Washington D.C.
George Bush buddy Sun Myung Moon gave nuclear weapons submarine
sea-launch technology to North Korea in 1994. That technology now
permits North Korea sea-platform launched missiles to hit continental
USA. Bush and Moon are collaborating on "SwiftVet" smear dirty tricks,
using Moon's Washington Times and UPI news operations to peddle felony
frauds.
SUN MYUNG MOON gave North Korea NUKE DELIVERY SYSTEMS.
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Nukes.html
Sun Myung Moon's Japanese Toen Trading company delivered 12 Russian
Golf missile submarines with launch tubes intact. The North Korean
communists studied this technology and adapted their missiles to be
sea launched from surface and submarine platforms. North Korea now has
nuclear weapon strike capability which can reach the continental
United States from sea-based mobile launch facilities at distances of
2,500 miles. This website has clickable links to Sun Myung Moon
subversion sources, documentation, proof.
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Nukes.html
LINKS -- NK sea-missile capability: http://www.navyseals.com
http://www.janes.com http://www.reuters.co.uk http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.washingtontimes.com http://www.newscientist.com
http://www.townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com
http://www.libertyforum.org http://www.theage.com.au
http://www.iht.com http://www.latimes.com
LINKS -- North Korean-born Sun Myung Moon's Toen Trading Submarine
Subversion: http://www.freerepublic.com http://www.usasurvival.org
http://www.gorenfeld.net http://www.davidicke.net
http://blog.mmadsen.org http://www.kenlayne.com
http://www.pandagon.net http://jameswagner.com
http://functionalambivalent.typepad.com http://www.la-mancha.net
http://windsofchange.net http://thoughtcrimes.org http://www.vuw.ac.nz
Sun Myung Moon owns the Washington Times newspaper, and he owns the
UPI (United Press International) wireservice. He controls the main
Washington DC conservative propaganda mill. The Washington Times has
been subsidized by over a billion dollars of moonie slave labor. Every
time that a republican politician quotes the Washington Times, or
writes an article or op-ed in it, Sun Myung Moon is made larger in his
brainwashed follower's eyes. Conservatives are so desperate for
propaganda for their agenda that they willingly aid and abet Sun Myung
Moon's organized crime activities in exchange for the help his
organized crime front operations deliver to them.
Sun Myung Moon has paid ex-presidents, such as George Herbert Walker
Bush up to $10,000,000 for photo-op and endorsements, because his
virtually captive followers have very restricted access to news. They
are told that everybody Moon shakes hands with has accepted Moon as
their lord and savior. This global slave labor force replenishes a $10
million expense for faked stage setting photo-op in a couple of days.
LINKS about Moonies, Bush, Washinton Times connections:
The Moonies: Everything you wanted to know about Sun Myung Moon and
the Unification Church
Moonie and Related Links
* The Right Wing Media Conspiracy - How the Moonies and right wing
groups control the media
* Moonies and the Washington Times - The mouthpiece of Sun Myung
Moon
* Is George Bush a Moonie? - Bush takes $100,000 to endorse the
Moonies
* Inside Look at the Moonies - Great article I snagged
* Moonie Front Organizations - 1000 organization that are Moonie
fronts
* Consortium News - Very good articles about Moonies and other
right wingers
* Bush and Moon - US CIA and Korean CIA?? GHW Bush Praises Sun
Myung Moon as 'Man of Vision'
* Sun Myung Moon - "the Savior, Messiah and King of Kings of all
of humanity"
* The Bush-Kim-Moon Triangle of Money - the political largesse of
Sun Myung Moon.
Sun Myung Moon crowned as Second Coming in DC
The news of a very strange event that occurred at the end of March,
but was quietly swept under the carpet by the mainstream media, is
just now beginning to leak out. Expect to hear more about it in the
coming days. Here's a preview on what surely must be one of the most
bizarre happenings in the long history of Congressional oddities...
It occurred on March 23, 2004 when Reverend Sun Myung Moon, cultist
leader of the Unification Church (currently known as The Family
Federation for World Peace and Unification), was crowned "King of
Peace" in a coronation ceremony. In his coronation speech, Moon told
the audience that it was now time to officially recognize him as the
returned Messiah.
LINKS:
Moon Crowned in the Capital, [Unification Church] Sun Myung Moon
Crowned 'King Of America' At U.S. Senate Building, Hail to the Moon
king, Moon Over Washington, Sun Myung Moon Crowned Messiah By
Congressmen, Sun Myung Moon crowned as Messiah by U.S. Senate! Moonie
leader 'crowned' in Senate, Sun Myung Moon Crowned Messiah! U.S.
Lawmakers Crown rev. Sun Myung Moon Messiah! Here's a guy the
Republicans don't want us to know about. (Actually, it was a democrat
conservative, to the great relief of republican conservatives, who
placed the crown on Moon, in this hoax ceremony. In Moon's world he
replaces all governments with his Taliban, so Republicans and
Democrats all will be liquidated.
The quaint mass marriage ceremonies of the Moonies has another
significance: these represent thousands upon thousand upon thousands
of members of an organized crime empire, as dedicated as body-bomb
suicide muslims, to the eccentric whims of this visibly insane man.
Moonies surreptitiously swell rallies for rightwing causes, clog the
internet forums with their unshakable propaganda-mongering which
cannot be reasoned with, vote as a block and move across state lines
to do it. They even move across international boundaries to meddle in
politics.
Moonies also collaborate with other organized crime rings for mutal
profit.
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Koctopus_01.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Killer_David_Koch.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/CSE_Organized_Crime.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Corrupt_CFACT.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Seitz_Tobacco_Crimes.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Singer-Nightline.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Singer-1993-1994.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Singer-Seitz.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Stohrer-Singer.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Hazeltine-Singer.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Heidelberg-Appeal.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Corrupt_Sallie_Baliunas.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Walter_Williams_AdTI.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Corrupt_Richard_S_Lindzen.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/ADTI_Frauds_01.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/AdTI_Villians.htm
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Pelosi.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Becky_Norton_Dunlop_AdTI.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Confronting_AdTI.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Chrispeels.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Corrupt_Idsos.html
http://www.ecosyn.us/adti/Corrupt_Fred_Michel.html
.
|
|
|
| User: "Michael Marxist Moore" |
|
| Title: How NPR Made Me a Conservative |
25 Aug 2004 02:51:07 AM |
|
|
How NPR Made Me a Conservative
By Paul Beston
March 29, 2004
A few years ago, I worked for a struggling dot-com in Manhattan whose
work force was almost uniformly liberal. Given my conservative
orientation, I saw little sense in getting involved in workplace
political discussions. My silence was interpreted as acquiescence
until I could stand it no longer and fessed up. One co-worker, who had
served on the committee that hired me, felt betrayed.
"But," he stammered, remembering my resume, "You worked for NPR."
Actually, I never worked directly for NPR, but rather for a production
company whose program was carried on 100 NPR stations. It was a
distinction without a difference - I had worked in public radio.
My colleague's incredulity implied disappointment with public
broadcasting's ideological screening process: How had I gotten
through? He would have been even more surprised if he had known the
truth: I had arrived in public radio not as a conservative, but as a
liberal, if an admittedly disaffected one. By the time I was through
with public radio, I was through with liberalism, too.
I was a co-producer for one of the most unusual programs NPR ever
carried, "Bridges: A liberal/Conservative Dialogue." The premise was a
discussion between the liberal of the show's title, Larry Josephson,
and leading conservative thinkers.
Larry was a longtime public-radio host and producer. He had started
out at New York's always-loony WBAI, where he had hosted a legendary
morning program in the late '60s and early '70s. Since then, he had
moved on to more sedate terrain. When the Gingrich revolution swept
Washington, Larry conceived of "Bridges" as an answer to charges that
public broadcasting shut out conservatives. The Corporation for Public
Broadcasting approved the show and provided funding for a four-year
run.
By the time I arrived in 1997 as a co-producer in charge of writing,
research and booking guests, the program was in its third year. I had
been a liberal since college, but the performance of New York City
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had shaken my old certainties. Crime was
dropping precipitously all around the city. The drug dealers were gone
from the street corners of my East Village neighborhood, and Grand
Calcutta was becoming Grand Central again. Watching the city change
before me, I was worried: Was I starting to like Giuliani? Would it
pass?
Besides my having a graduate degree, the impulses for my liberalism
were fairly common: anguish and guilt over the inequities of life; the
conviction that only liberals wanted to alleviate suffering (a belief
reinforced by professors, the mainstream media and most everyone I
knew in New York); and a deep suspicion of capitalism, heightened by
disgust at the behavior of so many successful people in American
culture.
I had read a couple of books by Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities
and Amazing Grace, both about poor children. They were beautifully
written, with the searing passion of an Old Testament prophet. Mr.
Kozol demanded a moral accounting; he was the kind of writer who made
readers question even the smallest life choices they made. In the real
world, though, his prescriptions usually came down to more government
spending. America was still a deeply racist society, he held. Perhaps
tax dollars could redeem centuries of sin. I wasn't sure anymore.
In my previous job, at Legal Aid in East Harlem, I had seen the office
torn apart by the use of race in hiring. A cold war had broken out
between blacks and whites over the hiring of a white candidate who
happened to be significantly more qualified than a black candidate.
The office seethed with mutual recriminations, and "race matters"
consumed more time than official work.
Because everyone in the office was a committed liberal or outright
leftist, no one condemned affirmative action. Still, I felt a
simmering disgust for the entire enterprise. As with my feelings about
Giuliani, I tried to reassure myself. True, I hated muggers and
affirmative action. But I still opposed Newt Gingrich and supported
the progressive income tax. Everything would be fine.
Then came "Bridges."
Now I would have to read and hear what the conservatives were
thinking.
Sure beats Foucault
My main responsibility was to distill guests' books into a few
single-spaced pages and write interview questions for Larry that he
could accept or reject while adding his own. As part of my job, I read
omnivorously in the conservative literature - books, periodicals and
the Web sites that were coming online.
Larry had print subscriptions to just about everything, from Reason to
Crisis. The piles of conservative magazines lay around my workspace
like a stack of Hustler in Saudi Arabia, daring me to look inside.
Opening the pages of National Review or Commentary for the first time
gave a certain thrill of heresy.
It quickly became clear that my understanding of conservatism was a
cartoon. The writers took perfectly reasonable positions and argued
them with eloquence. Always, there was the sense of limits to what one
could hope for - and the warning that taking action could make things
worse instead of better. After my years in the fervent environs of the
left, the sober skepticism of the conservatives was very appealing. I
couldn't help but think that many of my fellow liberals had, like me,
assiduously avoided coming in contact with their arguments. That was
easy to do in New York City.
One of our first shows after I arrived was a history of American
conservatism with the historian George Nash. His magnum opus, The
Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, has long
been a
reference bible on the right. The book condenses the thought of some
of the most consequential political and economic thinkers of the 20th
century - men such as Russell Kirk, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman
and James Burnham. I had heard of very few of them. Nash traced the
intellectual fault lines that appeared on the right and that endure
today, such as, for example, the one between traditionalists and
libertarians.
As I read, I kept thinking to myself: "This sure beats Michel
Foucault."
He argues well
From Nash, it became abundantly clear that conservative thinkers were
more than equal to those on the left. I was impressed with their
emphasis on preserving Western culture and what they called the "Great
Tradition," their gloomy take on collective man and their profoundly
religious motivations for anti-communism. None of these squared with
my superficial view of the right - on culture, as prudes and scolds
who didn't really care for the arts anyway; on history, as blithely
indifferent to human suffering; and on communism, as rabid and
paranoid.
The depth and moral seriousness of the Nash book stayed with me long
after the broadcast, and I found myself taking it home to read - and
reread. I just made sure I didn't leave it on the coffee table when
friends came to visit.
Soon afterward, we scheduled a program with Robert Bork. Reading some
obscure intellectuals was one thing, but reading Slouching Towards
Gomorrah was another. This was radioactive stuff from one of the
right's Great Satans.
Nothing had prepared me for the shock of reading Bork. He identified
American cultural decline with two primary forces: radical
egalitarianism, which I had seen firsthand at Legal Aid, and radical
individualism, which was all around us.
Like many other conservatives, Bork traced the cultural crisis to the
'60s generation. He didn't just blame the '60s, though; he took apart
the foundations of the '60s ethos and held them up to withering
scrutiny. Bork spoke to a central premise that continues to animate
the left - namely, that man can be perfected into a state of harmony.
"Real human beings do not have any large unfulfilled capacity for
love," Bork wrote. "They simply do not regard men as infinitely
precious, whatever the homilist may say on Sunday; and they lack the
boundless energy and selflessness required to will themselves to
brotherhood. ... Attempts to suppress aggression entirely and to
substitute love, being unnatural, will finally erupt in greater
aggression. When utopians are frustrated in the realization of their
vision by the real nature of humans, who are then seen as perversely
evil, they can turn nasty and violent."
Maybe other liberals already knew that the soul of man was, at best,
equal parts dark and light. For me, though, coming up against this
assertion - which I instantly recognized as true - left the rest of my
political foundation as wobbly as an old porch struggling under too
much weight.
"What did you think of the book?" Larry asked me, paging through my
summary.
I wanted to say, "I can't believe how much of this I agree with."
Instead, I said, "He argues his points well."
Game's up
With each subsequent guest - Sam Tanenhaus on Whittaker Chambers,
James Q. Wilson on crime and punishment, David Horowitz on Vietnam and
the New Left - my liberalism weakened.
I also had begun listening to old tapes of "Bridges" from before my
arrival. On one, Marvin Olasky discussed poverty and welfare reform,
sounding not unlike a Jonathan Kozol who had allowed for human nature.
His emphasis on the spiritual and moral importance of work bore no
resemblance to the "Dickensian workhouses" described by angry
liberals. Unlike many welfare advocates who often seemed more
interested in discussing the selfishness of the rich, Olasky spoke of
the poor themselves, what they genuinely needed.
But the tape I played over and over - the one that pushed out the few
remaining beams in my tottering old porch - was an early program with
Shelby Steele. Steele argued forcefully for individual responsibility
and rejected black group identity. He described affirmative action as
"a fraud perpetrated on black Americans" by whites eager to assuage
their racial guilt.
Taking this as an invitation to candor, Larry told Steele that he had
been mugged twice by blacks and now walked to the other side of the
street at night when he saw black men approaching. Here, on NPR, Larry
was confessing one of the great liberal taboos: that his traumas had
scarred him in a way that affected his behavior toward blacks. Though
liberals could always rationalize black anger toward whites, no white
emotional responses other than guilt and empathy were permitted.
NPR listeners must have been stunned by Steele's response.
"I see people move across the street when I cross the street in
Monterey, California," he said. "I understand why. I do, too. There's
a crime problem in the black community. ... Until that fundamental
situation begins to subside, you can say anything you want; people are
going to have that kind of reaction."
Larry was not condemned; the conversation proceeded. It was what a
conversation between blacks and whites might sound like in America if
honesty prevailed.
Race was the hook on which liberals hung their moral authority.
Without it, I had nothing left to hold onto. It took a little while
for it to sink in, but I knew as I listened to Shelby Steele that the
game was up.
I was misinformed
For the rest of my time at "Bridges," I thought of myself as an enemy
mole. I'm not sure if Larry suspected; he had enough on his mind.
"Bridges" went off the air in June 1998 when we were unable to secure
another year's funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The Gingrich storm had passed.
Unlike some former liberals who moved to the right, I did not find the
experience disillusioning. It did not fill me with sadness that what
the culture would call my "youthful ideals" bore so little relation to
the real
world. My reaction might be compared to Casablanca's Rick, who tells
Captain Renault that he came to Casablanca for its waters. When
Renault protests that they are in a desert, Rick nods and replies, "I
was misinformed."
NPR's liberal tilt hasn't changed, at least when I'm listening.
"Bridges" was always an aberration. CPB would never have funded it if
not for the Republican takeover of Congress and the subsequent threats
to "zero out" public broadcasting. Therein lies perhaps the show's
most unlikely legacy: Trying to get conservatives off their backs, the
CPB and Larry made a conservative out of one of their own producers.
"All things considered," my time in public radio was a breath of fresh
air.
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
