In search of an American Louis XIV
Just a link to something you might want to read, Rightwingers say the darndest things - - Posted on May, 4 at 11:08 am by Ken L
I came across excerpts from this piece while browsing Obsidian Wings. I assumed Hilzoy was summarising an exquisite bit of piss-taking but I was wrong; the piece in question is dead serious. Please go and read it if you can find time, it’s seriously funny and proves once again how pointless it is trying to write satire when the genuine article exceeds in its sheer exhuberant lunacy anything I could dream up.
The writer, one David Kupelian (whose work is unfamiliar to me* but which I will certainly look for in the future) apparently wants to see the White House turned into a latter day Versailles, with a [Republican] president in the role of the Sun King:
What I’m saying is, the president is like the father of a big family, and who he is and what he is – his spirit – affects everyone, like the sun. It’s a radiant energy that directly shines on people. Presidents invisibly shape the character and worldview of the country, with a particularly profound effect upon the young, since they are the most impressionable.
Wipe that smirk off your face and consider this evidence:
Whereas Ronald Reagan had such respect for the Oval Office that he reportedly never entered it without wearing a coat and tie, Bill Clinton turned it into his private sex club. And the radiant effect of his monumental selfishness was that he infected an entire generation of young people, in high school and even middle school, influencing them to sexually mimic the national trauma of a president exploiting an intern barely older than his daughter.
Just imagine what a new Clinton presidency would mean for the USA:
You could expect a radical increase in shocking, self-destructive and criminal acting-out by lost souls lashing out blindly in a desperate expression of revenge toward the contemptible society that could dare elect such a person as president.
Oh look I’ll stop now before I copy and paste the whole thing. It’s a pure unadulterated scream.
BTW Steve of Brisbane was good enough to link to RTS the other day and I should return the favour. You know Steve, he’s the surly wingnut who drops by occasionally and leaves a withering comment along the lines of ‘youse lefties are such wankers why don’t you go read this [insert link to Piers Akerman or similar intellectual heavyweight]’. No not that one, that’s Pete, I mean the other one, Steve from Brisbane.
Anyway Steve is whining that nobody here will ‘debate’ him, by which he means nobody takes him seriously enough to respond to his insightful observations. Well that’s what he says he’s upset about but you know what? (Damn Rudd, now he’s got everyone asking rhetorical questions.) I think deep down his post is a cry for help. Here he’s been writing posts on his blog for months demonstrating conclusively how stupid teh lefties are and from the quick look I had, his comments are averaging *cough* 0. None. Zero.
So please take a moment to help Steve lose his cyber virginity. Go break his comments duck. It’s all part of the brotherhood of the blogosphere 
.
*Kupelian is apparently ‘managing editor of the world’s leading independent Internet news source, WorldNetDaily.com.’ WOWSERS! His book ‘has been enthusiastically endorsed by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, David Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, D. James Kennedy and many others’ … hehe, you can’t get much more independent than that.
Posted in Just a link to something you might want to read, Rightwingers say the darndest things |
May 4th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Come on, Ken. If I wanted to read cut-and-paste excerpts from World Net Daily I’d visit Aurora’s online Hillsong truth forum.
Also, Steve = pwned. Can’t bring myself to comment on his blog, though. What if he responds?!1!!
May 4th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Ken, I think Kupelian is on to something here. After all he and many of the other right wingers grew up while Richard M. Nixon was the father of the nation and obviously his sun (or whatever it was) shining on them turned them into the devious, perverted, anti-democratic minions of evil that they are today.
Seriously, the truly scary things are that a) he believes this insane clap trap b) he purports to be a serious journalist (and we wonder about the state of American media!)and c) goodness knows how many other Septics are nodding their heads and going “He’s right you know. There wuzn’t no evil in our country until Bill came along. We wuz as good as gold ‘fore that”
Anyone who thinks Reagan was a Great Man is completely delusional.
May 4th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Had a squiz at Steve’s blog since am in Brisbane these days but it’s an awfully ordinary read.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Inclined to think Kupelian is selling his credo a bit to a type of audience.DavidIcke.com is more reliable,and some his related sites go into the target areas.Prison Planet.com is unpleasing sometimes,but,it isnt malice with the generalities.And The there is Save the Man or whatever,slinging off,but, has he hit the nail on the hammer a few times,with me at least.I cannot stand this stuff about attacking Women\’s Lib.etc.,But I dont think the man himself is dishonest,just engaging in some vary rare and pointed historical matters,that may not be everyone\’s sense of history.But the World\’s Bankers have been up to heaps for a very long time,and men can be easily manipulated.I cannot be part of the Right,but I dont dismiss some of these people as completely laughable.After all… what is ever truth,will remain so,with thousands of detractors,both practised and willing,and some volunteers.Kupelians are selling their product,but it doesnt necessarily mean,that it is a completely faulty design.And if you have ever been in a Action type group,the slinging offs are very strange indeed.I put up a photo of myself, once, at the Friends of the Earth Melbourne,and in a Army Disposals shirt.These ex-army shirts were what everyone wore too prove their anti-war and ecological credo..because they were green,not wanted,ex military,could withstand hard work,and were bloody cheap.And out of fashion,by what they were.Rejects completely in a civvy world bent on.. in-built obsolescence.Well blow me down,some Feminine took exception to it,the photo,and the masculine necessity to be far away.I wasnt squinting into the distance,and I am short-sighted without wearing glasses.I couldn\’t believe that sort of shit, from one photo!Then raising an opinion about men being always far away in attitude,and that, needs to change because its causing wars.Shit I have seen dog fights between humans,and the bitch loses,because quite clearly he sees up close,and never wants to go over the present horizon.I doubt what she wrote,said feminine,had much impact,but it did on me! My lack of 20/20 vision disturbs me greatly,as much as it would any woman with the same physical problem,who wouldnt dare wear a Army Disposals shirt,and loves the short cycles of fashion.I use to wear them to work,social occasions,everywhere those shirts,and they seemed just right for me.And in a minor way,I was sort of proud that,what wasnt any longer useful,got turned into agricultural wear,ploughshares ,from the war machine.Some poor worker originally made them.Being misunderstood like that,is in itself,a type of war wound..and, I aint,ever served.That is one reason,amongst many, I take the DavidIcke.com line semi-seriously,without much laughing involved. I think Steve ,maybe,O.K. his into Stirling Engines..cannot find much fault with that.Why he attacks this site,is probably more its style,rather than ,his claims of Leftism,without,insight.And if you found in a site somewhere,some compelling evidence that Hilary isnt what she seems at a deeper level,which the present level seems artful intelligent and reasonable well argued,what if, this history becomes plain truth,and that what seems to be a careful well chosen smile at people she thinks are just idiots,is in fact a contempt,a murderous contempt,that will not give way to a historical evidence gathering group of people,who may have evidence that their life is ,and has been threatened by chasing Hilary in this manner.Without fear or favour,is a frightening standard to keep to.And easy to keep low,so you dont cast a shadow in someone\’s day.There is An American journalist who was in work when Bali happened for Australia suggesting,but unable to penetrate the reluctance,that the CIA was involved in that.These matters must be aired I say.Or do I squibb playing Jonny Farnham even!? Gutter the squibb sub-mariners now,I say! And let this guttering remain a resourceful Long Day!
May 4th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Yes indeed - you can only “anticipate” the dire consequences that Kupelian foresees by being totally irrational.
By which I assume Kupelian means that he will dramatically ramp up his own publication frequency.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Ah yes. Saint Reagan.
That would be the bloke who dispatched special envoy Donald Rumsfeld to make kissy-face with Saddam in 1983. You know…. months AFTER the US State Department raised muted concerns about Iraq’s use of illegal chemical weapons against Iran.
I sometimes wonder what happened to those golden cowboy spurs and pistols that Ronnie sent to Saddam as gifts.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Ken, there is nothing I love more than commenting on a RWDB blog. But I fear that if you did drop a comment on one of Steve’s posts he’d either stalk you for life or become your best friend.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:37 am
The Sun King…was once thought to be a President…then the one that followed…then a media mogul…but perhaps he originates from the desert & a Kingdom…& plays w/ all those pretend Sun Kings. He’s a Chimera of sorts. So says THE GRIFFIN.
One bloodline of his people are aristocrats ruling w/ despotic fist…the other in his lineage path, FREEMEN (Bedouin…no friend of paranoid Israelis, ruthlessly pragmatic Syrians, Resource Empires and such)…FREEMEN banished, abused, & exploited…somewhat like THE KURDS. His conflicting ideological genetic memories similar to many who have lineages that signify both oppressor & oppressed…for instance: English & Irish. In one person the collision of two opposing forces/ideologies can CREATE extraordinary ideas…fiery passion…bubbling blood…that leads to a NEW WORLD…a World forged in a pit of chaos, freedom, revenge, division, influence, destruction & re-construction…POTENT FORMULA…spread across the chess-like battlefield of the new & old aristocracy:
”This is my favorite!” exults Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud, flicking a switch that floods the desert with enough wattage to light a ballpark.
The prince and his entourage are in the middle of nowhere, about 30 miles northeast of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, clustered in the open air around two giant log fires. But the comforts of home - if home is a tech toy fantasyland - are everywhere.
Six NASA-caliber satellite dishes, an equal number of lavishly appointed mobile homes, computers, printers and scads of mobile phones, all are at the prince’s disposal. Wide-screen televisions tuned to the CNBC and Bloomberg business news channels keep him abreast of the markets.
This tented compound is the weekend desert sanctuary for a man Forbes magazine says is the wealthiest individual outside the USA. Prince Alwaleed boasts a global portfolio worth more than $21 billion, and his latest move - a bold $1 billion bet on the U.S. stock market - will captivate folks on both sides of the new economy/old economy divide.
The prince says that since October he has put a cool $1 billion into 15 U.S. stocks, split between industrial-era staples and Internet hotshots. That’s in addition to a separate $1 billion investment he announced April 6 in America Online, Compaq, Kodak and Xerox.
Favorite drink: Pepsi
Favorite colors: Green and beige
Can’t live without: CNBC and Bloomberg television
Best investment: Citicorp
Worst investment: Planet Hollywood
Quote: ”This euphoria for the new economy is fine, but the old economy companies aren’t going to disappear. You’re still going to drink Pepsi, shave with a Gillette and eat a (McDonald’s) hamburger.”
His first big score came in 1991 when he bought $790 million of Citicorp stock. The stake is now worth about $8.6 billion.
All this success could go to a guy’s head. And it has. An inveterate name-dropper, the prince says in Kingdom Holding promotional literature that he is ”the equal” of world leaders, including President Clinton. Discussing an upcoming trip to the USA, he invokes as business contacts in a single run-on sentence the names of Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill; Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire owner of the eponymous news service; Merrill Lynch Internet analyst Henry Blodgett; and Goldman’s bullish equity maven Abby Joseph Cohen.
”We have a tremendous story. We are one of a kind,” he enthuses. ”I’m called the (Warren) Buffet of Arabia.”
(USA Today profile: 05/16/2000)
—————-
Recall T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia):
The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster.
“Report on Mesopotamia” The Sunday Times (22 August 1920)
—————————
Mr. Dryden: Lawrence, only two kinds of creature get fun in the desert: Bedouins and gods, and you’re neither. Take it from me, for ordinary men, it’s a burning, fiery furnace.
T.E. Lawrence: No, Dryden, it’s going to be fun.
Mr. Dryden: It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun. (Lawrence of Arabia: The Film)
—————————-
The Bedouins were divided into related tribes. These tribes were organized on several levels -a widely quoted Bedouin saying is “I against my brothers, I and my brothers against my cousins, I and my brothers and my cousins against the world.” The saying signifies a hierarchy of loyalties based on closeness of kinship that runs from the nuclear family through the lineage, the tribe, and even, in principle at least, to an entire ethnic or linguistic group (which is perceived to have a kinship basis).
(Wiki pedia)
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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.(Dune)
—————————————-
Bless the Maker and all His Water. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing cleanse the world. May He keep the world for his people.
Fremen saying, recited by Liet-Kynes, in the presence of Paul Atreides. (Dune, 1965)
——————-
There is no escape — we pay for the violence of our ancestors.
Paul Muad’Dib (Dune, 1965)
—————————–
Muad’Dib: We Fremen have a saying: God created Arrakis to train the faithful. One cannot go against the word of God.
————————-
Balian of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Safeguard the helpless. Never lie, even if it leads to your death; that is your oath.
(Kingdom of Heaven)
———————
“Judge a tree from its fruit; not from the leaves.”
‘Euripides’
—————————
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
——————
Dr. Jekyll: Oh, God. This I did not intend. I saw a light but did not know where it was headed. I have tresspassed on your domain. I’ve gone further than man should go. Forgive me. Help me!
—————–
The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly…
(Blade Runner)
————————————
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
May 5th, 2008 at 2:44 am
“…influencing them to sexually mimic the national trauma
As opposed to EXPLOITING a national trauma for political gain and to benefit a small, rich group of elites?
May 5th, 2008 at 6:10 am
Mars, who may in fact have a common cause to understandably wipe out “feudalistic” attitudes…but have ironocally befriended & act like some Aristocrats who continue to live in that era…INFLUENCE & BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS are hard habits to break, even when you’re on the INSIDE but convincing yourself you are the all knowing OUTSIDE.
& in turn, the FREEING of people from a (PERCEIVED) FEUDAL PRISON SOCIETY by the use of wealth, arm twisting, false flags & expert puppeteering brings about huge suffering in the SHORT (?) TERM…deleting “archaic” systems for the sake of a soda & burger & “kerching” register - & the right to be woman or man behind that NEW SERF counter - well it’s a HARD GAME to play, and some MUST be considered DISPENSABLE in the playing. It’s the sense of END GAME that counts…& the feeling of NEW…NEW GUARDIANS, NEW IDEAS, NEW HOLDERS of the SECRETS & the TANGIBLE ASSETS…NEW CAPITALISM molded & fed in (PERCEIVED) MORE APPROPRIATE HANDS.
The new PYRAMID MAKERS have grand, private, cloning, longevity-oriented, grandiose, GOD-LIKE PLANS (think Blade Runner: The Final Cut, ironically dystopic…playing from Muslim border to Muslim border…& businesses that show & construct images)…those who build monuments to themselves on land riddled w/ gold & oil…LAND & SANDS that also require water (diverted from sources that colonial explorers’ children once thought worthy of filming “whodunnits” on))…& in the doing causing other consequences…as the walls of GAZA break & potential SERFS flow in the direction of the NEW AGE.
But, who are we to question THE GRAND DESIGN…THE PURPOSE…’cause in the long run there will be more OPPORTUNITIES, less ABUSE a sense of “equality” & “multi-culturalism” will exist in the environment of malls & grand buildings & highways built over shifting sands.
Once the “civil war-making” is done…& systems are DELETED w/ their LEADERS & ENABLERS…& acts of past brutality and exploitation are revenged on that ROAD TO DAMASCUS…the new ALLIANCE of PHARAOHS & CONSULS & SENATORS & HIGH PRIESTS will play out their joyous roles…some have even begun in expectation of victory…TRANSFORMATION…
yes, some will “take the piss” & gloat, standing beside yachts like villains from movies (as tho they thought themselves as serial killers daring the NEW CENTURIONS to “come & get me”)…
or they may justify their deeds by giving w/ one hand and a HARMONIOUS smile…whilst flowering all w/ back handed compliments & faux empathy…like courageous & proud NOMADS filled w/ a sense of JUSTICE, secure on the blasted desert of ground zero (past…or future…or both?)…
and joining in festivities & moral affirming discussions w/ their political enablers & their families…donating to LEGACY CONSTRUCTING LIBRARIES…
and then afterwards running to their hotel rooms or planes to OBSERVE their creations, their puppets, their NEW SPRAWL from on HIGH…convinced they have the MIDAS TOUCH…
and gazing into the mirror at their OTHER…wondering when it will stop smiling & start sneering and killing in the name of INFLUENCE, CONTROL, TRAUMA & FAUX FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY…again.
Personally, I’m tired. Like Sherlock Holmes I feel the need to retire to work w/ bees..or nature. The Games people play will always lead to “if I didn’t do it, who would?”.
It’s up to our governments, judicial system & HEROES to make JUDGEMENT on who has CHEATED in order to WIN…& how & when they should be punished…if in fact they should. Our MEDIA appear to have generally “sold out” or “turned away” & apart from a few courageous Bloggers, commentors & journalists & filmmakers & other artists…they are proving to be fairly unDemocratic & traitorous.
WE, most of us, the less influential, can only hope to VOTE…& provide the authorities w/ butterfly effects…& thumbs up or down to their interpretation of the
RULES OF THE GAME.
GUARDIANS OF DEMOCRACY sometimes get it wrong…but sometimes…
Anyway, it seems most of the time WE always stand ALONE…pretty well…and eventually SURVIVALISM kicks in…& retirement from searching & judging & analyzing looks good. It does for me tonight.
And anyway, who am I to judge, make the case against, & point the finger at GIANTS during times where ideologies & TITANS of all moral persuasion clash?
Has the room grown colder?
Can you hear the sound of burnt & dust-covered babies screaming in the night…& of jets?…screaming…screaming…screeching…babies LOST in the midst of the WEEDS…WEEDS infiltrating, insidiously…growing within.
SUN KINGS MUST BE WORKING OVERTIME
Good thread Ken.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
For such a worldy, straight-talking blog, you get some crazy-ass commenters Ken.
I’m pretty sure that comments that no-one reads go as tribute to Baron Samedi.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
SmellyTerror…yawn.
“Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea,” said Japhy. “Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.”
Jack Kerouac
May 6th, 2008 at 2:47 am
The Republican ‘Sun King’ GW Bush using his IMAGINATION:
“America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
(glad he kept his approach to Iraq’s scary threats calm & measured…not like that “panicky elitist” Obama)
“I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.”
(how’s that workin’ out for ya?)
“America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children.”
(cool)
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”
(compliment laid on Undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Michael Brown, for his “amazing” coordination of the assistance to Hurrican Katrina victims…say no more)
“The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants.”
(Ken Lay & ENRON had absolutely nothing to do w/ it…they were just doing the “altruism” thing…like so many Corporations do…just a public service)
“The legislature’s job is to write law. It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret law.”
(hmmm…let me think that one over whilst I’m waterboarding this cockroach that made it into my food cupboard)
“The tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.”
(is that with or without a burger & a shake?)
“We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own.”
(with the change you’ve left in the Govt. kitty laddy i doubt you lot could afford to do a weekend at the Hilton Abu Dhabi hotel)
“When you turn your heart and your life over to Christ, when you accept Christ as the savior, it changes your heart.”
(remind me to join the “National Secular Society”)
————-
Over to John McCain…the pecker on the cheek in Chief:
“Thank God for our form of government. The media won’t let there be any cover-up.”
&
“Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.”
(nice start John)
———————-
SYMBOLISM: Symbolism is the applied use of symbols: iconic representations that carry particular conventional meanings.
What is a metaphor?
The term metaphor meant in Greek “carry something across” or “transfer,” which suggests many of the more elaborate definitions below:
a comparison between two things, based on resemblance or similarity, without using “like” or “as”
(most dictionaries and textbooks)
the act of giving a thing a name that belongs to something else
(Aristotle)
Mushroom cloud: meaning - run & get your gun Annie & shoot at the knees of that Iraqi pr*ck whilst me & my mates ransack the place & take the oil hostage so it’s worth goes up & them sucker taxpayer’s have to pay the ransom…YEEEHAAA
California Crunch: meaning - get the smartest cons in Texas to screw over the Californian public so we can hammer the Democrat Governor & bring the Terminator in to rig elections & “do” the Teacher Unions & sh*t. - Bush to his Mob…”He is on our side…RIGHT?”
The Media: Generally, PREDATORS searching for compassionate, half-decent, deep thinking, fleshy objects to feed on. Some are trophy hunters in the most dangerous game. Sometimes they turn on their own…or build ambitious types into STARS & then take pleasure in STAR SHOOTING. Often ideologically driven…as in “whatever you’re selling Hillary, i’m not worried provided it gets me blood & spoils” (usually uttered w/ a sadistic glint in the eye). Renowned for PANDABEARING it around Corporations.
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That’s it…over to the professionals. It was…interesting. Many thnx to Tim & Ken.
Great comments the past few weeks, enjoyed reading & responding to them…at least to MOST. As for those LIZARDS philip…i think they like rocky places. And lots of heat…;)
N’
May 6th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Let’s all pass around the hat and buy Philip Travers a paragraph insertion tool for his birthday.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
God knows what people like Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin or Tom Paine would make of Kupelian’s feverish scribblings.
These guys fought a war to rid their country of Kings and yet here we have one of their political descendants speaking of the sum shining out of the some orifice or other of a Kingly President.
I suspect they’d tar and feather him.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, James Madison.
And a bunch of other sensible Americans (conservatives included) would be deeply disappointed by the current farce that passes for US politics and foreign policy.
“America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”
-John Quincy Adams
“No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world.”
-Patrick J. Buchanan
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
-James Madison
“Under the benign influence of our republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources.”
-James Madison, First Inaugural Address
“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”
-James Madison
“Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.”
-Thomas Paine
“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
-George Washington
“When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency.”
-General Douglas MacArthur
“Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.”
-General Douglas MacArthur
“War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
-Martin Luther King Jr
May 7th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Mars - quotes well worth noting. You omitted the one from the perennial ACP presidential candidate Gus … Spence(?) “When fascism comes to amerika, it’ll be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ’nuff said.
I loved Kupelian’s puff that he “..is a dynamic speaker.” Is that like some sort of supa dupa carpet cleaner?
May 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am
It’s not hard to connect the dots. Like what the good senator had to say a few years before the Spanish-American war (which saw the US occupy Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and at Guantánamo Bay). That conflict, strangely enough, was helped along by a mysterious explosion aboard the of the USS Maine and a senstionalist press.
“I firmly believe that when any territory outside the present territorial limits of the United States becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development, we ought to lose no time in acquiring it.”
-Sen. Orville Platt of Connecticut, 1894.
The more things change…
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
-Robert Maynard Hutchins
May 7th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
“Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in!” (The Godfather, Part III)
Dammit, Janet…or should I say Steve? Ken doesn’t pander to the Far-Left. In fact i reckon he took a pretty MAVERICK view of things during the past Aussie election, to the point where some commentors here were begging him to be more supportive of “Our man in QLD” Kevin ‘07. And Ken’s views on selling off the ABC TV just don’t hit the LEFT note w/ me & others. So enuff hyperbole.
As for crazy commentors. I wear my tinfoil hat proudly…because i do my research, & yes, I might get it wrong now & then…but I do go back & reevaluate/contemplate & alter if need be.
I think a few of those who slavishly follow any ideological line need to do same.
Particularly, the “Reaganauts w/ the tan that lasts a lifetime” & a copy of “Bedtime for Bonzo” to give them safe widdle dweams at nacht after the STURM und DRANG of a long, security NOT making day…& the Busheviks w/ the “We will be proven to be RIGHT in the long run…even if it kills us & few million Muslims & other Arabs” attitude.
YOU, meaning the Bushevik conned, have been INFILTRATED, DECEIVED, SABOTAGED, SUCKED IN, PLUGGED UP THE ARS*…& the SABOTEURS & SLEEPERS & JUST PLAIN GREEDY F*CKS are running for the VAULTS & running the HOTEL DOOM at your expense.
If yer SUN KINGS are so bloody USEFUL & CARINGLY PATERNAL, then why are so many in America losing their DREAM? Or feeling the land of milk & honey is so STICKY they can’t climb the ladder ’cause they’re glued to the wall of DEBT & LOW WAGES & ESCALATING FOOD, HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION and ENERGY PRICES?
And why do overseas SOVEREIGN FUNDS & PRIVATE EQUITY GROUPS & PYRAMID BUILDERS OWN your ARS*? Not to mention, the reliance on OVERSEAS OIL & the CHINESE good mood when it comes to your GREENBACK…the money plenty of WISE GUYS are suggesting should be THROWN to THE WOLVES….along w/ the missing tangible assets & gold…swiped by REVENGE SEEKERS w/ LONG MEMORIES w/ a little help from a few RED, WHITE & BLUE FRIENDS & ASSOCIATES.
SUN KINGS my arse…more like MOBSTERS w/ a BLOWTORCH focused on THE WORKERS & UNDER-PRIVILEGED. Too many these days are EYES WIDE SHUT…but some are finally beginning to see THE LIGHT. Become ENLIGHTENED & EMPOWERED…& not CONNED.
And as for you Philip…I wasn’t taking the piss. In fact, i get some of where you’re coming from…& I too have run into a few Radical Fems wearing myopic glasses & hypocritically lusting over that which they HAMMER more tolerant fellas with…the type who would rather SLAM a fella than listen & see alternative pathways. Like, abortion might be necessary on a BAD BAD BAD day…but babies have BAD days too….particularly when they are REJECTED.
And yes, I had one of those “take the piss outa WAR” outfits too back in the 80s Philip & so i knows where you are coming from.
Keep it up & the really RAD BULLY FEMS will have Labor on its knees before we can say TURNBULL.
I’m all for feminism & women working & equal rights, equal pay, maternity leave…& angry young women’s right to spread good ideas…& sometimes WINGE…same goes for grumpy old women…some who are my dear friends…but…SLAMMING & HEADBUTTING EASY TARGETS like “opinionated, generally compassionate, usually tolerant, but somewhat unthinking like you & your UNI course at the moment” guys is so PASSE…& BS…and doesn’t influence & attract friends…rather it pushes the fence sitters onto the X-treme RIGHT grass.
Imho, Mums & Dads & Guardians spending valuable time w/ babies in the early stages can be quite SECURITY forming & CONFIDENCE building (depending on the CRADLE PUSHER of course)…take it from a kid who got handed from one individual to another & never knew if he was coming or going. Tho I had the WARM moment now & then. Better than being on a floating piece of wood in the ocean near Myanmar…poor things (remember to GIVE).
It’s all about COMPROMISE…& TOLERANCE…& OPENING YOUR EARS & EYES…& learning from the past & experiences….& mistakes…& the BAD KARMA you’ve inadvertantly or intentionally spread.
Way too many ROBOTS these days…speaking, acting but rarely thinking. Trying to FIT IN…& constantly stepping on someone else’s thoughts…& self-esteem. (still, i’m not much better sometimes).
Mebbe REPTILES are a METAPHOR…SYMBOLISING something about our less than Democratic system these days. But it’s all we’ve got…& often better than OVER THERE. Generally.
Hey! if it wasn’t I’d be in a prison camp or whacked by now. Or censored/blocked by those Corporations/Dynasties or twelve that run those Totalitarian regimes.
But in the criticism of OVER THERE, & the defending of OVER HERE, perhaps we need to talk more & kill less…& PERSUADE by way of EXAMPLE…& not find ourselves in BED w/ the same type as OVER THERE…making us just like THEM…whilst jumping around w/ our heads chopped off going
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!
Life is COMPLEX…if you want to get thru THE CUBE…& actually find a way to a more BALANCED WARM WORLD…you have to listen to most IDEAS…no matter how DUMB or UNPRACTICAL some are…so you can make the most APPROPRIATE CHOICE for you & yours (& sometimes your community/Nation/World/fellow species) as you NAVIGATE your way thru THE CUBE…trying to find the most EFFECTIVE & good KARMA promoting way out of THE TRAPS & MESS set by the “greed & zealotry for gain” types…
ensuring YOU don’t get to the next day/month/year/election result/career/HOME…& realise you have been left hanging on the outside of a very tall CONSTRUCTION that idolises…idolises…well, take your pick.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Louis XIV (baptised as Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715) ruled as King of France and of Navarre. Louis XIV is also known as Louis the Great (in French Louis le Grand or Le Grand Monarque, “the Great Monarch”), because, following his victory in the Franco-Dutch War and the Treaty of Nijmegen, the Parlement de Paris decreed that all public inscriptions and statues of the king should carry that epithet attached to his name.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
This was meant for another blog but got lost & i’m tired of telling them so…& suits RTS anyway because SUN KINGS, particularly the post-Reagan ones, have a family history we should know about:
Speaking of “looking the other way” on the NAZISM bit…& a history of forgetting a Nation or twelves bad memories:
[link]
(How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power. Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today’s president)
These Busheviks are pretty good at stirring up hornet nests & making moolah out of the consequences.
Bush: “CONSTRUCTING WARS…who me?…i’m FREEDOMS LAST CHANCE”…”What me worry?”
sneak peek:
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen’s US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.
Tantalising
Bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow Thyssen to move assets around the world.
Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler’s efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen’s international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush’s links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen’s American assets were seized in 1942.
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surprise surprise…then look up ‘Teapot Dome scandal’. AND Prescott Bush. And the TREATY of VERSAILLES. And W. Averell Harriman.
And see the movie ‘There will be blood’.
And little by little YOU can connect the dots. WARS just don’t happen.
IT’S A BLOODY JIGSAW…but the picture is becoming clearer by the day.
NO LONGER EYES WIDE SHUT.
BTW, great speech by Obama. A knockout!
May 8th, 2008 at 10:50 am
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
here’s that link that doesn’t work above
May 8th, 2008 at 11:09 am
And of course we remember that SUN KING Reagan was President during the Iran-Contra affair. Here’s a few characters that still keep popping their heads up (the list is from 2 years ago so some have moved on from the Bush admin. and such:
Elliott Abrams - currently deputy assistant to President Bush and deputy national security advisor for global democracy strategy, Abrams was one of the Reagan administration’s most controversial figures as the senior State Department official for Latin America in the mid-1980s. He entered into a plea bargain in federal court after being indicted for providing false testimony about his fund-raising activities on behalf of the Contras, although he later accused the independent counsel’s office of forcing him to accept guilt on two counts. President George H. W. Bush later pardoned him.
David Addington - now Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, and by numerous press accounts a stanch advocate of expanded presidential power, Addington was a congressional staffer during the joint select committee hearings in 1986 who worked closely with Cheney.
John Bolton - the controversial U.N. ambassador whose recess appointment by President Bush is now in jeopardy was a senior Justice Department official who participated in meetings with Attorney General Edwin Meese on how to handle the burgeoning Iran-Contra political and legal scandal in late November 1986. There is little indication of his precise role at the time.
Richard Cheney - now the vice president, he played a prominent part as a member of the joint congressional Iran-Contra inquiry of 1986, taking the position that Congress deserved major blame for asserting itself unjustifiably onto presidential turf. He later pointed to the committees’ Minority Report as an important statement on the proper roles of the Executive and Legislative branches of government.
Robert M. Gates - President Bush’s nominee to succeed Donald Rumsfeld, Gates nearly saw his career go up in flames over charges that he knew more about Iran-Contra while it was underway than he admitted once the scandal broke. He was forced to give up his bid to head the CIA in early 1987 because of suspicions about his role but managed to attain the position when he was re-nominated in 1991. (See previous Electronic Briefing Book)
Manuchehr Ghorbanifar - the quintessential middleman, who helped broker the arms deals involving the United States, Israel and Iran ostensibly to bring about the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon, Ghorbanifar was almost universally discredited for misrepresenting all sides’ goals and interests. Even before the Iran deals got underway, the CIA had ruled Ghorbanifar off-limits for purveying bad information to U.S. intelligence. Yet, in 2006 his name has resurfaced as an important source for the Pentagon on current Iranian affairs, again over CIA objections.
Michael Ledeen - a neo-conservative who is vocal on the subject of regime change in Iran, Ledeen helped bring together the main players in what developed into the Iran arms-for-hostages deals in 1985 before being relegated to a bit part. He reportedly reprised his role shortly after 9/11, introducing Ghorbanifar to Pentagon officials interested in exploring contacts inside Iran.
Edwin Meese - currently a member of the blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, he was Ronald Reagan’s controversial attorney general who spearheaded an internal administration probe into the Iran-Contra connection in November 1986 that was widely criticized as a political exercise in protecting the president rather than a genuine inquiry by the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
John Negroponte - the career diplomat who worked quietly to boost the U.S. military and intelligence presence in Central America as ambassador to Honduras, he also participated in efforts to get the Honduran government to support the Contras after Congress banned direct U.S. aid to the rebels. Negroponte’s profile has risen spectacularly with his appointments as ambassador to Iraq in 2004 and director of national intelligence in 2005. (See previous Electronic Briefing Book)
Oliver L. North - now a radio talk show host and columnist, he was at the center of the Iran-Contra spotlight as the point man for both covert activities. A Marine serving on the NSC staff, he steadfastly maintained that he received high-level approval for everything he did, and that “the diversion was a diversion.” He was found guilty on three counts at a criminal trial but had those verdicts overturned on the grounds that his protected congressional testimony might have influenced his trial. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Virginia in 1996. (See previous Electronic Briefing Book)
Daniel Ortega - the newly elected president of Nicaragua was the principal target of several years of covert warfare by the United States in the 1980s as the leader of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front. His democratic election in November 2006 was not the only irony — it’s been suggested by one of Oliver North’s former colleagues in the Reagan administration that North’s public statements in Nicaragua in late October 2006 may have taken votes away from the candidate preferred by the Bush administration and thus helped Ortega at the polls.
John Poindexter - who found a niche deep in the U.S. government’s post-9/11 security bureaucracy as head of the Pentagon’s Total Information Awareness program (formally disbanded by Congress in 2003), was Oliver North’s superior during the Iran-Contra period and personally approved or directed many of his activities. His assertion that he never told President Reagan about the diversion of Iranian funds to the Contras ensured Reagan would not face impeachment.
Otto Reich - President George W. Bush’s one-time assistant secretary of state for Latin America, Reich ran a covert public diplomacy operation designed to build support for Ronald Reagan’s Contra policies. A U.S. comptroller-general investigation concluded the program amounted to “prohibited, covert propaganda activities,” although no charges were ever filed against him. Reich paid a price in terms of congressional opposition to his nomination to run Latin America policy, resulting in a recess appointment in 2002 that lasted less than a year.
(National Security Archive: The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On, Documents Spotlight Role of Reagan, Top Aides
Prominent Figures Involved in the Scandal
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 210
Posted - November 24, 2006)
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Plus ce change eh?
May 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Some interesting observations regarding the relationship between the Neo-Cons & Reagan by the ever gutsy Wayne Madsen:
Ronald Reagan’s neo-conservative and pro-Israeli cells, operating in the White House and Pentagon, tarnished his image by using Israeli middlemen and intelligence agents to swap American hostages held in Israeli-occupied Lebanon for weapons to Iran’s radical Islamist regime headed by Ayatollah Khomeini. In addition, it was the 1982 Israeli invasion and subsequent destabilization of Lebanon that triggered a series of events that resulted in Reagan dispatching U.S. Marine peacekeepers to Beirut, a decision that was to cost 241 of them their lives in a deadly 1983 truck bombing of their barracks. In effect, Reagan had nothing to thank Israel for but Israel should have been deeply indebted to Reagan. Yet, in a major snub, Israel sent its Ambassador as a sign of its contempt for the United States.
The neo-conservatives are trying to glom George W. Bush’s presidency onto Reagan’s legacy. Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, David Wurmser, John Hannah, Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen and the other Bush administration officials who carried out Sharon’s and the Likud’s plan to invade and destabilize Iraq should be asked one very important question: If George W. Bush is so much like Ronald Reagan, why did Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan, and Chief of Staff Howard Baker in 1987 purge the administration of the neo-cons who damaged him through their involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal? Is this why Israel snubbed Reagan’s funeral? After the neo-cons, like the 17-year cycle Brood X cicadas, re-emerged to infest the Bush II administration and handed him a “Weaponsgate,” “Plamegate,” and “Torturegate” trifecta of major scandals, they stand poised to actually bring down this administration. And for future Democratic and Republican administrations, there is an important lesson here. Not only is it time to tag the neo-cons to ensure they never again emerge in a future administration to wreak havoc to American foreign and defense policies, it is also clearly time to rethink America’s relationship with Israel. Its snubbing of Ronald Reagan indicates a certain arrogance and condescension that should not go unpunished. Perhaps their amen corner in the conservative wing of the Republican Congress should keep this in mind the next time they consider foreign aid appropriations for the Israelis.
(Counter Punch, Weekend Edition, June 12 / 13, 2004,Israel’s Slap in the Face
Top Israelis Boycott Reagan’s State Funeral
By WAYNE MADSEN)
and David Corn, journalist and author…and ardent Bush critic (Bush…”mugged the truth”) in an Nov 28, 2006 article sums up succintly how much was learnt from this scandal:
As for the current relevance of Iran/contra, one could argue that the affair taught Reaganites and neocons a lesson, the wrong lesson: you can get away with it. Though the operations ended up being exposed and the Iran deal crashed and burned, the Reagan administration and the first Bush administration did create enough pressure on Nicaragua and forced the expulsion of the Sandinista government in a 1990 election. Perhaps more important for this crowd, no one involved in the shady activity was held accountable. Bush the First was elected. Abrams and other scandal vets were rewarded with prominent posts in the next Republican administration–that of Bush the Younger. The Reaganites had lied to Congress and the public about Iran/contra and ultimately escaped retribution.
(Iran/contra: 20 Years Later and What It Means)
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and from wiki pedia:
Early into the administration, Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981. Bush, second in command by the presidential line of succession, was in Dallas, Texas and flew back to Washington immediately. Reagan’s cabinet convened in the White House Situation Room, where they discussed various issues, including the availability of the nuclear football. When Bush’s plane landed, his aides advised him to proceed directly to the White House, as an image of the government still functioning despite the attack. Bush rejected the idea, responding, “only the president lands on the south lawn.” This made a positive impression on President Reagan, who recovered and returned to work within two weeks. From then on, the two men would have regular Thursday lunches in the Oval Office; Reagan admired Bush’s continued loyalty to him and the administration.
As Vice President, Bush chaired a special task force on deregulation, reviewing hundreds of rules and making specific recommendations on which ones to amend or revise, in order to curb the size of the federal government. The Reagan administration introduced new policies in the War on Drugs, and Bush was part of this by heading another task force, this one on international drug smuggling and federal efforts to stop the spread of drugs from entering the US.
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Here we go round the family Bush,
The family Bush,
The family Bush.
Here we go round the family Bush
On a Middle Eastern hot and roasting morning.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
That was flat-out insane.