Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sanitizing War: What would "Memorial Day" Be Without The Memories?
"We don't do body counts,"General Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, famously remarked, when asked about Iraqi civilian casualties. We do do body counts of our own -- though we don't talk about them much. (source)
The bulk of this post is taken from Cabale News Service's Labor Day post last year titled: September 07 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: A 'Labor Day' Message - The Working Class And The Employing Class Have NOTHING In Common. It has been slightly edited for clarity.
Labor Day 2009... There was a breaking story... It revolved around an image of a dying soldier, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard.
This seems like a good juncture in history, as we head into Memorial Day 2010... because it's not JUST Memorial Day this weekend, it's also Trillion Dollar Day... That's what the AfPakIraq war has cost us (The direct cost of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan)... so far, with no real end in sight, just troops moved from theatre (Iraq) to theatre (Afghanistan) to theatre (See here for a list of them)I think we should all ruminate on what we're getting for that money.
Yes.
Peace?
No.
Security?
NOT!
Dead soldiers?
Absofuckinglutely!
But the Pentagon, and the other interested parties who want you to just simply play along with their murderous imperial wars like "Good Americans-cum-Germans" don't want you to think about... REALLY think about, those Absofuckinglutely dead soldiers.
Source, PoP dEFECT Radio, Courtesy of Skidmark Bob Freek Radio Santa Cruz |
To Wit, one of the headlines @ Cabale News Service, on Labor Day 2009 read:
"Not Supposed To..." Times Two:
One of the primary rules of Journalism... "The journalist IS "NOT supposed to" become part of the story..." has been broken by Associated Press, apparently not on purpose, but because they 'violated' a 'rule' of American social mores...
Associated Press has published a picture of a dying US Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard.
Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard is tended to by fellow U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
Photograph: Julie Jacobson/AP
Astonishing! If you thought the pictures of soldier's caskets coming into Dover AFB raised a shitstorm, you ain't seen nuthin'.
It IS notable that it took a FEMALE photojournalist to push this limit.
What's ALSO notable is that Photobucket violated my TOS over this picture, NOT due to AP's copyright or insistence, but due to it's graphic nature, despite MANY pictures of dead and dying Iraqis and other third world folk in my album, including THIS gruesome and heartbreaking photo:
It's nice to know that PhotoBucket.com cares more about American soldiers and their privacy-in-their-dying-moments than an INNOCENT BLOOD-SPATTERED IRAQI CHILD SCREAMING IN GRIEF OVER THE MURDER BY US SOLDIERS OF HER FAMILY WHILE SHE WAS SITTING NEXT TO THEM IN THE FAMILY CAR.
Censorship is NOT Dead in America.
The Guardian UK hints that the flap over it's publication was essentially merit-less :
It is a graphic image of the harsh realities of war: the fatally wounded young marine lying crumpled in the mud, his vulnerable face turned to the camera. And it is one the US defence secretary would rather you did not see.
Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, pictured being tended by comrades in southern Afghanistan, died of his injuries soon after. Now the release of this record of the 21-year-old's last moments has divided America, prompting furious debate over the sanitisation of war at a critical time for the military offensive. [In Full]
Whereas Tom Ricks, EX-Washington Post War Reporter, now ensconced as a pundit for CNAS (Neo-Liberal Think Tank) affiliated Foreign Policy magazine Headlined it this way:
"The dying marine: What the hell was the AP thinking?"
Yours truly responded to Mr. Ricks, as have others...
I'm just surprised... stunned really, that it made it to copy at all in the current milieu of 'embedded' reporting and "'sanitized' for the discerning media consumer who doesn't want their conscience bothered" war reporting by the majors.
.
.
.
If the Pentagon, and your peers at CNAS want to continue these worthless wars Tom... Better stop the lying, the dissuasion from the belief that we're not vulnerable to the mayhem and non-culpable for it.. and hiding our deaths (incl the mundane, such as the returning caskets @ Dover AFB) in these wars IS a particularly creepy, Big-Brotherish, semantically corrupt, way to lie to the citizens of the country.
I feel for this soldier and his family, but "War Is Hell", whether one wins OR loses, as a nation, and as an individual human.
Condolences from AP is in order... Maybe they should MAKE SURE that the soldier's family gets every single benefit due them, because the Pentagon sure won't.
But they DO NOT owe an apology.
The last so many presidential administrations INCLUDING the current regime owe his family that.
.
.
.
([Should we] Publish this picture...) To a nation full of children raised on video game and fantasy movie violence?
Whose parents who often don't let those children out of their sight to the age of majority?
A nation who's media panders them and tells them they NEED the trinkets sold them ('trinkets' often produced by what amounts to 3rd world slave labor) at behaviour controlled shopping malls where they lose the ability to socialize or empathize with anyone besides people just like them (consumers of products we destroy countries like Afghanistan to obtain the extractive resources for..)
([Should we] Publish this picture...) YES! Absolutely.
[Read what Tom Ricks had to say, and other comments, at his Blog, The Best Defense]
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Memorial Day? It's About War! (...And Something's Gonna Give)
The war to liberate Southeast Asia from communism resulted in the deaths of 3.5 million Vietnamese, 2 million Laotians & Cambodians, and 58,000 Americans.
Rather than raping and pillaging the lands for its resources, the American military napalmed its jungles, carpet bombed its cities, defoliated the jungles with 20 million gallons of herbicides (including Agent Orange) and slaughtered women and children (My Lai Massacre).
It was easy to rationalize these acts when referring to the inhabitants as gooks, dinks, tunnel rats, and Uncle Ben's boys. Racism makes it easy to treat human beings as objects and dehumanize your acts of horror. ~~Jim Quinn, Charlie Don't Surf, OpEd News, February 2009
Here's a little something Auntie Imperial lashed together for Memorial Day 2010. It's Dedicated to those who have fallen, and Americans still at risk, in our ongoing IMPERIAL wars.
[Pop Out Player]
(Also See: Vietnamistan - PoP dEFECT Radio, Agitational Propaganda For A 'Failed State')
Some photos pulled from various sources follow the Outernational credits
Labels:
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Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Word To The E.N.G.O.s, Supposed Defenders Of The Environment... Derrick Jensen’s Second Premise From 'ENDGAME'
"Traditional communities do not often voluntarily give up or sell the resources on which their communities are based until their communities have been destroyed. They also do not willingly allow their landbases to be damaged so that other resources—gold, oil, and so on—can be extracted. It follows that those who want the resources will do what they can to destroy traditional communities."
[Pop Out Player]
H/t: Stimulator @ SubMedia.tv:
Last week the supposed defenders of the environment, A.K.A. the Environmental Non Governmental Organizations or E.N.G.O.s, cut a “deal” with timber industries to protect a large chunk of the boreal forest.
On the surface this agreement looks good, but the entire deal was not published, only an abridged version was made available online. Some of the groups that took part of this deal are Greenpeace, the David Suzuki Foundation and Forest Ethics.
The one aspect of this “accomplishment” that they are not publicizing is that they struck it without consulting with the First Nations, the original human inhabitants of those lands.
As we face increasingly catastrophic environmental destruction, it is imperative that we seek guidance from those who “managed” the environment sustainably for over 10,000 years.
This short piece from “END:CIV” is a visual interpretation of Derrick Jensen’s Second Premise from (the book) ENDGAME:Traditional communities do not often voluntarily give up or sell the resources on which their communities are based until their communities have been destroyed. They also do not willingly allow their landbases to be damaged so that other resources—gold, oil, and so on—can be extracted. It follows that those who want the resources will do what they can to destroy traditional communities.Music by stig inge oy. and CJ Boyd
Monday, May 24, 2010
Action Alert: Federally Funded Drug Squad Seizes Petition For Pot Legalization In Washington State
I KNEW you could!
An Alert, from Firedoglake:
Sensible Washington is the group whose marijuana legalization petitions were seized by the federally funded agents. The group is well on its way to let Washington State residents vote on legalization on the November ballot, but this raid can put it in jeopardy.
The intended effect of this raid is to put a chill on other citizens from signing the petition, who will fear having their names and addresses exposed to a drug task force. It's intimidation, pure and simple. And your tax dollars are paying for it.
A federally funded drug task force seized as evidence up to 200 petition signatures for marijuana legalization in Washington State in a series of early-morning raids this week. Seizing the petition signatures is bad enough. What's worse is what the task force did on its raids of a legal marijuana dispensary and its owner's home.Drug agents handcuffed a 14-year-old boy and pointed a gun at his head. Then they took $80 from a 9-year-old girl's Minnie Mouse wallet that she earned for straight A's on her report card.
Now the drug agents - funded by the US Department of Justice - say they can only find two pages of the petition. But they had time to make photocopies of the petition, keeping the names and addresses of residents who signed.
We started our own petition demanding the release of the seized signatures that we'll deliver to the task force headquarters next week.
Ironically, it's this kind of reckless waste of time and money that makes marijuana legalization a safer, smarter alternative than the failed war on drugs.
Sensible Washington is the group whose marijuana legalization petitions were seized by the federally funded agents. The group is well on its way to let Washington State residents vote on legalization on the November ballot, but this raid can put it in jeopardy.
The intended effect of this raid is to put a chill on other citizens from signing the petition, who will fear having their names and addresses exposed to a drug task force. It's intimidation, pure and simple. And your tax dollars are paying for it.
That's why it's important we speak out about this gross violation of first amendment rights. We need to make sure that not only is every petition signature returned, but any other copies must be destroyed.
The only thing these petition signatures are evidence of is an exercise in democracy.
Sign the petition HERE
Thanks for standing with us,
Jane Hamsher
Firedoglake.com
Sunday, May 23, 2010
'Grudge Post' Files: Greenpeace Sold Out Canada's Forests And "Nature Conservancy" Has A 'Posse' Of Corporate Names Too
About Greenpeace's sellout
(and they haven't floated a boat for years either, content with lobbying congress 'for the Whales'):
So a new management deal has been signed for Canada’s Boreal Forest. It’s being hailed as the largest forest deal in the history of the world. You can see the map above: orange will be ‘protected’, gray areas will not. The fragmentation seems to indicate a lack of wildlife migration corridors. Sounds pretty fishy already. Check out this article especially, and this one, and this from the NYT business blog.
21 timber and paper companies, the State and 9 NGOs are on board, including Greenpeace, which is publicly declaring this deal as a major victory. But many questions remain unanswered, like these from DTE.
And as usual, despite their having been here for at least thousands of years, no one consulted the Natives. Mad props to the VMC for breaking this.
“It’s a massive tomb, uh, tome that we’ve put together,” misspoke Richard Brooks from Greenpeace at the press conference on Tuesday morning. Only a twelve page abridged version of the agreement has been made public. The full agreement was leaked to the Vancouver Media Co-op on May 19. According to Brooks, it will now be presented to various levels of government.
“The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement is essentially another huge jump away from democracy, towards corporate control of the lands of Canada, as well as the corporatization of what is left of a once defiant environmental movement,” said Macdonald Stainsby, coordinator of OilSandsTruth.org.
“I hardly think that this in any way represents an end to the conflict between the true proponants of the war over the boreal forest, which of course are corporations and First Nations,” he said. “What this means is that First Nations no longer have the support of these mainstream environmental groups... [In Full, With Linkage]
But this is a story about The "Nature Conservancy" and THEIR friends, along with a list of "Environmental NGOs" that aren't... "Environmental" that is.
Nature Conservancy's Corporate Posse:
It is a disgrace to ecosystems everywhere and the next seven generations that they pimp nature dot org as their official website. A quick look-see into the world of TNC and comprehension dawns. Their corporate partners in environmental crime and shame:Also see this Washington Post article: Nature Conservancy faces potential backlash from ties with BP
3M Company
Alliant Energy
Altria Group
American Electric Power
Bank of America
Barrick Gold Corporation
The Boeing Company
BP
Cargill
Caterpillar Inc.
Chevron
The Coca-Cola Company
Delta Air Lines
The Dow Chemical Company
Duke Energy Corporation
Eastman Kodak Company
Ecolab Inc.
ExxonMobil Corporation
MeadWestvaco Corporation
Monsanto Company
Nestlé Waters North America
PG&E Corporation
Plum Creek Timber Company
SC Johnson & Son, Inc.
Temple-Inland
Weyerhaeuser Company
Xerox Corporation
Scratching your temple?
Read "This. Is. Serious." Environmentalism is Dead
Monday, May 17, 2010
Vietnamistan - PoP dEFECT Radio, Agitational Propaganda For A 'Failed State'
[Pop Out Player? Click Here]
Source, PoP dEFECT Radio, Courtesy of Skidmark Bob Freek Radio Santa Cruz
Friday, May 14, 2010
You KNOW It's "Hip" They Collaborate With Apple Corp: "It's up to you to keep America safe!" - Spy On Your Neighbors, Only With Apple's iPhone
To get started, download SnapScouts for any Android phone, create and account, and get Snapping!
Once you've found something suspicious or caught someone in the act, you can tag it to report what type of crime it or just to let us know it "Looks Suspicious".
After you've tagged it, you can enter the name and address of the people in the photo, too. The photo gets submitted to our super secret servers, where a team of trained security professionals reviews every image for possible illegal activity.
Find out more!
(Hey kids!) Want to earn tons of cool badges and prizes while competing with you friends to see who can be the best American? Download the SnapScouts app for your Android phone (iPhone app coming soon) and get started patrolling your neighborhood.It's up to you to keep America safe!
If you see something suspicious, Snap it!
If you see someone who doesn't belong, Snap it!
Not sure if someone or something is suspicious? Snap it anyway!
Play with your friends and family to see who can get the best prizes.
Join the SnapScouts today!
SnapScout Features:
Colorful interface and sounds makes reporting a potential crime fun and easy!
Submit reports anonymously to stay safe and secure!
Help law enforcement collect evidence in real-time!
Collect a variety of awards and badges to compare with friends!
Makes civic duty and community fun!
Coming soon: Multi-crime tagging to catch more crimes at once!
http://www.snapscouts.org/ (intentionally left unlinked)
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Times Square 'Bomber' Faisal Shahzad: "...just one in a long line of really, really stupid terrorists."
Tremble The Devil... 5 most ridiculous moments in terrorist history"Being afraid of terrorists makes about as much sense as being afraid of a drunk blindfolded one-legged midget who’s hopping around throwing cabbages at your head.
Terrorists don’t create terrorism – we do".
To become an Assassin you first had to go through a trial that is fairly unique in history. A prospective initiate had to smoke hash until he blacked out.
Seriously.
The first step to becoming an assassin was to literally smoke yourself retarded.
Afterwards you’d awaken in a lush garden, filled with fountains and the most beautiful damsels in all the land, who would feed him every type of delicious morsel and subject you to sexual pleasures he might not even had known were possible. Odds are, to become an assassin you’d have to be cool with having a finger stuck somewhere uncomfortable. Possibly the back of a Volkswagen.
As the day went on you were given more and more pleasures, and more and more hash, until you passed out from the dope once again. A finger may still have been somewhere uncomfortable. When you woke up, the whole process began again, until finally an Assassin explains that what you’ve just experienced was but a tiny glimpse into the Paradise that awaited you if you would die for Allah as an Assassin.
Once you accepted their offer you would learn all the ways of the dagger (while high), how to mix poisons (while high), become a master of disguises (also while high), and how to pass for a member of any religion or culture in the region (while, of course, high). On your mission you must be focused on the kill alone, not your own escape, or where to find some munchies.
Assassins carried out hundreds of bleary-eyed killings as they spread their empire from Persia across the rest of the Middle East, and faded from notoriety only after their supply of marijuana finally ran dry.
But the best part…
Saturday, May 1, 2010
MAYDAY! MAYDAY! "No Peace, No Work," (Recounting The Mayday Longshoremans Strike Against the War 2008)
..and has a graphic illustration of where the problem lies:
Auntie's Union, and it's motto:
It was a moment without historical precedent, American workers striking against a war that their government is waging. On Mayday this year, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) shut down every port on the west coast of the United Stated--all 26 of them--in opposition to the US war against the people of Iraq.
[Pop Out Player]
Labels:
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