Wasn't Saddam Democratically elected????

"and who has been democratically elected time and time again?

I'm still laughing at this, French Rapper?

"Meet 15 citizens-including a French rapper, a relentless reviewer and a real life lonely girl-of the new digital democracy"

Well, it is clear that the French culture that keeps on giving is now taking from American culture?  I thought American didn't have a culture?

My bad.

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Ya can't win if ya don't play."

What should we expect from Tomb Magazine...besides, they're doomed, doomed...doomed...bwah, ha, ha!

Totally off the subject, but where is the media coverage of the potential diabetes cure found by that Toronto medical research team, supposedly with the involvement of Jackson Laboratories in Maine? Is it true? Is it a hoax?

Come on, MSM, here's a story that deserves some of that "investigative journalism" they taught you at Emerson College.

Oh wait, I forgot...the "feud" between Rosie and Donald is far more important.

Sorry for the delay.  I just had to crash — I'd been at it for 20 hours.  When I came back, the blog was down all night till noon.  Then I had errands.

So many questions — so little time.

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"If Venezuela has had oil for these so many years why in the world haven't they got beyond their third-world economic status and their incredible faith in the government to solve their economic problems?" – Those who have had control of the oil all those years are doing fine, thank you very much.  The rest are only just beginning to share in the country's wealth, and they – surprise, surprise – they love it.  It is the former group who are displeased.  My, my!  You walked into that one.  Since Chávez came along, the poverty level has substantially declined, and continues to do so, not only in Venezuela but, e.g., in Argentina, where Chávez bought a big chunk of their debt, getting them out of the debt slavery that makes the NWO the rulers of the world, as John Perkins has so eloquently written in his book Confessions of an Economic Hitman.  The Simon Legree racket that the World Bank clamped onto Argentina that broke their economy, that had the grandmothers out in the plaza banging on tin pots, has been effectively put paid to.

These tyrants you (presumably?) support want to "privatize" everything that has traditionally belonged to the people in common.  Now they have begun privatizing our most precious possession: our democratic franchise.  We nor our officials are allowed to vet the software that counts our votes, because it's "proprietary".  Some fat bastard might lose money if we get the right to make sure our elections are not being stolen. Howard Dean guest-hosted "Topic A with Tina Brown", and had Bev Harris on, and demonstrated how to completely hack a Diebold tally machine.  Odd how 99% of the voting errors since 2000 give D votes to the R column and never the other way 'round.

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"What is with the former Spanish colonies anyway?" – If you want a good answer to that question, ask the most highly decorated USMC general in history, MG Smedley Darlington Butler.  Here's a quote from a speech he gave in the 30's, as originally published in Common Sense, Vol. 4, No. 11 (November, 1935), pp. 8-12., titled "America's Armed Forces: 'In Time of Peace' "

 In the past two years large National Guard forces have seen active service in 20 strikes in as many different states, from the Pacific Coast to New England, from Minnesota to Georgia. They have used gas, bullets, and tanks -- the most lethal weapons of modern war -- against striking workers. Casualty lists have been impressive. In one instance they erected barbed wire concentration camps in Georgia to "co-ordinate" striking workers with all the efficiency of the fascist repressive technique.

There isn't a trick In the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" (to point out enemies), its "muscle men" (to destroy enemies), its "brain guys," (to plan war preparations) and a "Big Boss," (super-nationalistic capitalism).

I Was a "Racketeer"

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force -- the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. [emph. Mine]  My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical of everyone in the military service.

Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 191G. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents.

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"(and you keep talking about US 'threats' where I haven't seen that memo)" – You must be referring to Chávez's speech – that's the only appearance of threat I see in my posts, where he says: "And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?"

Don't you remember Rummy saying "He’s a person who was elected legally — just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally."  But the same is said about Bush (wrongly because his elections were actually fraudulent).  So that's not fully a threat.  There's old Pat Robertson, who is no crazier than Bush himself that gets told by God to invade countries.  Robertson, an avid Bush supporter and founder of the politically influential right-wing religious group, the Christian Coalition, says, "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."  But he's not officially in the government.

Rather than go into rumors of planned violence thru Bush crony Uribe or other factions that are, as far as my expertise goes, only rumors, let's give HC the benefit of looking at the fact that he was overthrown for two days, and to the shock of the wealthy world, carried back into power on the shoulders of his people, as I said above, and the proof of CIA complicity is unavoidable, except by avoiding Eva Golinger's website Venezuelafoia

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"These are not authoritative sources, these are cites of the Constitution and a Law." — So, the Constitution is not your authority, especially when it disagrees with your favorite Fascists.

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"A court opinion interpreting the law within the bounds of the Constitution is an authorititive source.  And I might even disagree with that." — of course you will disagree with it.  It's correct, so you're bound to to vilify it.  For the record, and any sensible reader who might stumble in here, the court opinion I refer to is in the case of ACLU & al. v. NSA, US District Court for Eastern Michigan, Southern Division, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruling for the Plaintiffs.  One notable quote from the ruling:

"Since the Court’s 1967 decision of Katz v. U.S., 389 U.S. 347 (1967), it has been understood that the search and seizure of private telephone conversations without physical trespass required prior judicial sanction, pursuant to the Fourth Amendment. Justice Stewart there wrote for the Court that searches conducted without prior approval by a judge or magistrate were per se unreasonable, under the Fourth Amendment."

When the former NSA head, Gen. Michael Hayden, was being appointed to lead the CIA (encroachment of the military there into civilian areas, if you hadn't noticed — time for a frog in water to look at his thermometer), the twisting of the Fourth Amendment came into the picture (this text from F.A.I.R. — view the video of the exchange here)

The subject came up when reporter Jonathan Landay of Knight Ridder attempted to preface a question by stating that "the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American's right against unlawful searches and seizures." Hayden interjected: "Actually, the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure. That's what it says." 

Landay politely corrected him, saying, "But the measure is 'probable cause,' I believe." But Hayden insisted: "The amendment says 'unreasonable search and seizure.'" When Landay continued, "But does it not say probable--" he was interrupted by Hayden, who said, "No.... The amendment says 'unreasonable search and seizure.'" 

Landay went on to ask his question, which was whether the NSA, by bypassing the special court mandated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, had "crafted a detour around the FISA court by creating a new standard of 'reasonably believe' in place of 'probable cause.'" Hayden's response returned to the issue of the Fourth Amendment:

"I didn't craft the authorization. I am responding to a lawful order, alright? The attorney general has averred to the lawfulness of the order. Just to be very clear, okay--and, believe me, if there's any amendment to the Constitution that employees at the National Security Agency is familiar with, it's the Fourth, alright? And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. So, what you've raised to me--and I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to become one--but what you've raised to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is 'reasonable.' And we believe--I am convinced that we're lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable."

Hayden is "convinced that we're lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable."  But Judge Taylor has reminded the legal world that Supreme Court precedent clearly says otherwise:  Justice Potter Stewart says that search and seizure is "per se unreasonable" if it does not include a judge's warrant, and the Fourth says no warrants will issue without probable cause.

Is that clear enough?  No probably not.  The Bush Crime Family, who made their fortune financing the Hitler Administration has learned their lessons well, and they are using them to the full.  But the 06 election, which in spite of millions of votes being lost still outstripped the 94 race for reversals, proves that there is still hope for America.  Goering's diktat, that "making them afraid" is all that's needed to impose the will of the leader, in any country, seems to be losing its steam.

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"Don't want to break your little heart here, but  I don't accept you as authoritative on anything, much less the Constitution." — The Constitution is written in plain language: you can read it for yourself.  (It's not like the Roman Church used to tell parishioners, "Oh, don't read the Bible — that's for the priests.  You just do as they say."  Jan Hus was burned at the stake for translating it into Czech, so the people could read it for themselves.)

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"Your continual reference to whether the Geneva Convention is 'quaint' is also silly as I never made that point nor is it germane to the topic." — It is indeed germane, because Chávez's popularity here and in Latin America results from his requiring accountability of the Bush government, and not taking "no" for an answer.  No SA troops in the balcony are going to stare him into submission, nor me either.  We've had enough Fascism for one lifetime.

Jack Bauer Says: "The Laws of War (the Geneva Conventions) were established to protect lawful combatants in armed conflicts.They had zero to do with preventing another 'nazi regime,' any more than they had in preventing another murderous commie regime. Is this the sort of tripe you are learning at school?" — Ooops!  What was I thinking?  The Geneva Conventions came out of WWI.  I inadvertantly crossed them up with the Nuremberg Tribunal.  Thanks for correcting me.

I had been reading Chief Prosecutor (and later Justice) Robert Jackson's 1945 statement that "the U.S. itself will be bound in the future by the rules they are imposing on the German war criminals in Nuremberg today."  The reference was to the fact that Bush opted out of the International Criminal Court (with good reason, of course: he and Cheney and Rummy and all that gang are war criminals.)

What I should have said about the Geneva Conventions is that there are Four of them.  The Fourth, which, as it happens, was after WWII (1949) doesn't deal with "lawful combatants", Mr. Bauer, but with Civilians "during times of war in the hands of an enemy and under any occupation by a foreign power."

Civilians like the taxi drivers and students and day laborers who were fingered in Afghanistan by (well-paid) bounty hunters and sent to Guantánamo for an indefinite period without benefit of any of the legal rights of the civilized world, from which Bush has decided to secede.  The military admits that 80% of them are innocent (eventually).  But they have brown skin, so, as ACA says, "So What?"

I remember with amazement my own words some ten years ago, how "Torture used to be an everyday occurrence in European capitals only 400 years ago."  How naive I was!  Torture is an everyday occurrence today, at the hands of the people I pay taxes to support!  And the spiral down into a torture-first mentality is tightening and speeding up moment by moment.  And it's dittoheads like you that are feeding the monster.  Germane it is, sir, germane it is.

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"Naw, that was Bill and Hillary with their 800 FBI files, silly." — Don’t be surprised if I fail to defend the Clintons.  He was miles better than Bush, but he sold the country out in NAFTA and in the Telecommunications Act.  They are both globalists.  And she is a warmonger to boot.  She scares me to death — I want no part of her.

BC was in cahoots with Poppy Bush and his old CIA cronies during Iran Contra, making sure the cocaine drops in Mena AR were safe.  See him riding around on Poppy's golf cart?  He and W are just playing good cop/bad cop, in my opinion.  Take a look at Webster Tarpley's George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (free in ZIP format). I don't trust them at all. 

Would I pick him, even her, over Bush?  Well, duh.  But I'd be out in the streets as I am today, fighting the New World Order, telling the world not to trust them, because they're up to their eyeballs in it.  You betcha.

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"News flash.  One cannot separate a government from its people when the very government is created by its people.  Particularly the government of the US."  — The recent election shows just how little support this government has from its people.  Bush at 29%, Cheney at 16%, editorial pages arguing over which president in history Bush might not be worse than.  You're not talking to a shut-in here, Chauncey.

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"This dictator elected by fraud over and over again"  — you mean Bush, right?  It is now well known that if the SCOTUS had not abused its power by shutting down the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court, and all the counties had been recounted (admittedly the ones Gore asked for would not have been sufficient), Gore would be president.  Likewise, the extent of fraud by multiple means in Ohio is legendary.  The best summary of the factual ineluctable data on the matter is in Bobby Kennedy's Rolling Stone piece here

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This exchange is bound to come to an end soon.

But I'd like to say, it's been good chatting with you gents.  And this site has as nice a blog engine as I've ever used.

"   — e sono tanto semplice li uomini"