Month: September 2011

Cause and effect


First this,

Jerusalem to punish Erdogan: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has decided to adopt a series of harsh measures in response to Turkey’s latest anti-Israeli moves, Yedioth Ahronoth reported

Another planned Israeli move is the facilitation of cooperation with Turkey’s historic rivals, the Armenians. During Lieberman’s visit to the United States this month, the foreign minister is expected to meet with leaders of the Armenian lobby and propose anti-Turkish cooperation in Congress.

Lieberman is also planning to set meetings with the heads of Kurdish rebel group PKK in Europe in order to “cooperate with them and boost them in every possible area.” In these meetings, the Kurds may ask Israel for military aid in the form of training and arms supplies, a move that would constitute a major anti-Turkish position should it materialize.

then there was this

A powerful car bomb explosion has rocked the Turkish capital, Ankara, killing three people and injuring 15 others, at least five seriously.

The bomb exploded Tuesday near government buildings and a secondary school, damaging cars and shops in the surrounding area and starting a fire.

Turkish officials say the blast appears to have been a terrorist attack. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the intent was to inflict as much harm as possible as the blast occurred in an area of heavy car and pedestrian traffic.

No groups or individuals have claimed responsibility for the blast.

Kurdish rebels are fighting for their autonomy in the region and have escalated their attacks on Turkish targets. Turkish officials are threatening an incursion by ground forces against Kurdish rebel bases operating in northern Iraq.

and no one wants to see the connection between the two? Even Ray Charles can see that Israel is intimidating and threatening Turkey with such moves.  Would Israel accept a Turkish pronouncement that it would possibly provide military assistance to Israel’s Arab population or even to Palestinians?  And if you think Israel has nothing to do with internal Turkish politics, remember Lieberman’s last word on the matter

“We’ll exact a price from Erdogan that will prove to him that messing with Israel doesn’t pay off. Turkey better treat us with respect and common decency.”

World War III is at your doorstep America, courtesy of your only ally in the Middle East. Aren’t you tired of war yet?  Can we afford more war?

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The FBI steps in it again!


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New Evidence of Anti-Isla

 

An excerpt

Following months of denials, the FBI is now promising a “comprehensive review of all training and reference materials” after Danger Room revealed a series of Bureau presentations that tarred average Muslims as “radical” and “violent.”

But untangling the Islamophobic thread woven into the FBI’s counterterrorism training culture won’t be easy. In addition to inflammatory seminars which likened Islam to the Death Star and Mohammed to a “cult leader,” Danger Room has obtained more material showing just how wide the anti-Islam meme has spread throughout the Bureau.

The FBI library at Quantico currently stacks books from authors who claim that “Islam and democracy are totally incompatible.” The Bureau’s private intranet recently featured presentations that claimed to demonstrate the “inherently violent nature of Islam,” according to multiple sources. Earlier this year, the Bureau’s Washington Field Office welcomed a speaker who claimed Islamic law prevents Muslims from being truly loyal Americans. And as recently as last week, the online orientation material for the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces included claims that Sunni Islam seeks “domination of the world,” according to a law enforcement source.

“I don’t think anyone with half a brain would paint 1.2 billion people of any ethnic or religious persuasion with a single brushstroke,” Mike Rolince, an FBI counterterrorism veteran who started Boston’s JTTF, tells Danger Room. “Who did they run that curriculum by — either an internal or outside expert — to get some balance?”

The FBI declined to respond directly to such questions from Danger Room. But what’s clear is that the anti-Islam sentiment in the FBI’s training and orientation isn’t the marginal problem that the Bureau portrayed in its previous public statements and press releases. It’s not a historical problem, it’s ongoing. And it will require substantial effort to root out. Not even a July warning from the office of a powerful senator was able to spur the Bureau to purge itself of its anti-Islam material.

One example is found in the mandatory orientation material for the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, or JTTFs. Those task forces are a nationwide partnership between the FBI, intelligence analysts and state and local police. As of late last week, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the program, new members or those needing a belated orientation saw this description of Sunnism — the largest branch of Islam — as part of their online training course:

Sunni Muslims have been prolific in spawning numerous and varied fundamentalist extremist terrorist organizations. Sunni core doctrine and end state have remained the same and they continue to strive for Sunni Islamic domination of the world to prove a key Quranic assertion that no system of government or religion on earth can match the Quran’s purity and effectiveness for paving the road to God.

That paragraph is contained in orientation material, known as the Joint Terrorism Task Force Orientation v2 course, distributed online through a secure intranet for every member of the JTTFs. That’s approximately 4,400 officials, according to FBI figures, all charged with stopping terrorism. The orientation course is mandatory for every member of the task force.

The passage is especially odd because most of the orientation consists of practical, mundane information, such as the proper forms to fill out during an inquiry or FBI standards for investigations, according to the source. It consists of five sections, one of which is about Islam, Muslims and Arab culture. The supervisor of each JTTF has to certify that all his or her personnel have completed the online orientation course, and then must pass that certification up to FBI Headquarters’ Counterterrorism Division.

The FBI would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the JTTF orientation material.

The excerpt from the JTTF orientation material was provided to Danger Room by a concerned law enforcement official, who says the material contains 20 paragraphs about Islam in a similar vein. Several Bureau and law enforcement officials who spoke to Danger Room on condition of anonymity believe that such instructions are detrimental to uncovering and thwarting terrorist plots, and that the FBI continues to be less than forthright with the press and the public about the extent of its teaching that Islam is at the root of the menace of terrorism. Evidence for this continuing belief can be found in Quantico, Virginia, at the FBI’s elite training academy.

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Jay Kimbrough’s abuse of the law


I’m still reeling over Tony Bennett’s apology, that he didn’t nor shouldn’t have made, so I’m naturally upset to read where an adviser to Rick Perry who was fired from a top position in the Texas university system pulls out a knife and threatens people with it before leaving his office, or that he had to be escorted from the campus by campus police.  What gives here?

I’ve written before about the in-your-face politics of today’s America and this is just another example of that.  Jay Kimbrough released, let go, fired, pink slipped, whatever you want to call it, feels perfectly justified in pulling a knife that is considered a lethal weapon and showing it to people at a time when he was asked to leave his offices on a public university campus.  Both the brandishing of a weapon and criminal trespassing are offenses for which one can be arrested, as well as the assault he made on campus police, yet Kimbrough in his explanation of things seemed to gloss over these offenses as if they were  no big deal, a joke and that’s the rub.  When the Right gets caught engaging in clear criminal behavior every excuse is made and accepted for why they are not responsible for their crimes, however, when even the poorest and in some cases the innocent are charged (Troy Davis) many in society expect the full weight of the law to be exacted against them.

Kimbrough is a friend of Rick Perry and has worked with him closely for some time.  Most likely the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree; in other words absent a clear denouncement of Kimbrough’s behavior, Perry acquiesces if not downright agrees with how the former carried himself, which begs the question, do we want a President like this?  I assert, in today’s political climate most Americans do.  We have become so collectively deranged we wish death upon the least of us and expect expiation for the strongest of us, no matter how egregious the offense.  It is a path the country has chosen to go down and it will certainly lead to its destruction.  We won’t lose our greatness because we’ve embraced diversity, but rather because we’ve abandoned compassion and the rule of law.  The lights we see in the tunnel of darkness we’re presently in is from the mirror and they are our lights.

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Derek Reeve and his dog


Meet Derek Reeve, an elected  representative of Orange County city council in California.  That state is known for doing some wacky things, so Reeve’s claim to fame is consistent with his state’s reputation.

Reeve has decided to test the waters of free speech in America by naming his dog after the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, even going so far as to say his dog is a ‘”bitch” for his other two dogs.   Reeve is perfectly within his rights to do so, but that he should hoist himself on his petard when there are far more pressing things which need to be publicly addressed shows the immaturity and sophistry of this elected official not to mention the people who elected him.   His city’s Muslim population is ranked 5th among the 10 religious affiliations found here, which means Reeve should probably be out of a job when he’s next up for re-election in 2014.  However, that potentiality won’t stop him from seeking the notoriety he wants with such racist behavior.  He has already twitted about his name appearing on that equally incendiary Bill O’Reilly of dirty talk and lootfah fame, and you can be sure he’s going to make the circuit of right wing talk radio and television who will want to make a martyr out of him.  CAIR, the Islamic advocacy group has already called on him to “apologize” for his remarks……..a really inappropriate response to Reeve in this writer’s opinion, and that will only further to inflame him and his supporters to greater heights of idiocy and racism.

The point is however that Reeve wants to inflame public opinion, and especially that of Muslims worldwide in order to point to them as  the wrong kind of element for America which needs somehow to be censored or worse.  Would that CAIR had gone on record by saying they regret Reeve’s inflammatory application of “free speech”, but supported his right to it, this would have been a non issue and Reeve would have returned to the obscurity which probably drove him to the heights of such idiocy.  In a multi-cultural society like America purposely  inflaming passions by abusing the religious symbols of any member is not only stupid but counter productive to good citizenship, while yes still being legal.  Generally for such people who are so inclined we isolate them mentally and socially from having any real impact on the public discourse, while keeping an “eye” on them.  Today’s America, however, revels in the ‘in your face’ arrogance which is so typical of politicians today and so such due diligence will probably not be seen, especially when it comes to people who are different than the likes of Reeve and O’Reilly.  Look to Reeve to get a lot of play from the haters and race baiters, and even from Muslims.  It’s too bad people keep falling into these traps.

Tony Bennett’s apology


Tony Bennett, a free and law abiding citizen of the United States and a veteran of World War II, was thrust into the public eye after making these comments

“But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right. They flew the plane in, but we caused it. Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.”

The malestorm that ensued caused Bennett to make an apology, which he should not have done, but one can see why he did it.  The above comments were made on Howard Stern’s show, the shock jock of American airwaves, when Bennett appeared there to promote his recently released album and  upcoming tour.  Sensing a  reaction reminiscent of what happened to the Dixie Chicks at the start of Bush’s illegal war in Iraq  Bennett issued his retraction.

What Bennett was talking about however is blowback, and the idea that America bears some responsibility for the international community’s opinion of us is nothing new.  In fact the term has been in widespread use within government circles for at least the last 25 years, or maybe even longer.  Ron Paul has brought the word and the concept to the forefront during his two presidential election campaigns and even before seeking that office.  Here is the definition of blowback

Blowback is the espionage term for the violent, unintended consequences of a covert operation that are suffered by the civil population of the aggressor government. To the civilians suffering the blowback of covert operations, the effect typically manifests itself as “random” acts of political violence without a discernible, direct cause; because the public—in whose name the intelligence agency acted—are ignorant of the effected secret attacks that provoked revenge (counter-attack) against them.

and this is exactly what Bennett was talking about.  Notice in the definition that in order for the aggressor government to get the most out of blowback…….casus belli, the population must remain ignorant or rather uninformed about the clandestine operations being done in their name by their imperial government, which is why Bennett’s remarks had to come under immediate scathing, scurrilous attack. Too many people are saying the same thing as Bennett and that makes it increasingly difficult for escape the judicial remedies necessary to correct this should the ground swell continue.   It didn’t help Bennett’s cause any that a tour and a new album have been released or are  imminent.  The attribution of his remarks with the attending negative publicity would spell doom for a man used to the adulation and depending on it for a livelihood.  The ‘powers that be’ know that, which is why they jumped on him so quickly.  Bennett’s original comments however were right on the mark….sort of, if you believe bin laden was responsible for 911.  Here’s is another view, however

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More No Fly List news


Michael Migliore an American citizen who was put on the no-fly list by US authorities possibly because he refused to talk to the FBI without a lawyer had to end his way to Italy by train from the West Coast and then by boat to England.  The story doesn’t end there however, he was detained by authorities before the boat he was in even made it to port in Suffolk, England.

Migliore was responsible enough to make his way to Europe by 19th century means because of how the US government categorized him, but it seems that “brand” followed him to England as well which underscores the pernicious nature of the no-fly lists.  Migliore’s crime seems to be  being Muslim, knowing  someone who was charged with terrorism and not talking  to the FBI about that relationship without a lawyer (something any seasoned lawyer would advise and which he has the right to do).  What this says is the federal government wants to rescind the right to have someone present when authorities talk to you AND the government wants to punish you for exercising your right to freedom of religion.  That a 21 year old university graduate has to fight this fight against the two greatest powers in the world, the US and the UK, is shameful and disgusting.  That no one or very few people in America is up in arms about this violation of Migliore’s inalienable rights is further indication of  how close this  country is to abandoning the principles of its Founding Fathers.

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More News to Scare you or maybe not!


You’ve gotta wonder how many of the ‘terror threats’ are just as baseless as the two highlighted below are.  Indeed, just a week before the 10th anniversary of 911, we the public were regaled with news about an unsubstantiated terror threat that could possibly interrupt the 10th anniversary celebrations.  Nothing happened to get in the way of our post 911 angst  except our own fears.

Local and federal law enforcement officials had told ABC News Sunday initial reports of “suspicious behavior” by multiple passengers that prompted the emergency call for F-16s was suspected of being a couple “making out” in the plane’s lavatory mid-flight. When the flight landed, the plane was taken to a remote area for security screening and three passengers were briefly taken into custody.

In the course of their investigation, the FBI found that one of the passengers, who felt sick, happened to get up and head to the bathroom at approximately the same time as another passenger. None of the three people taken into custody knew each other, the FBI said.

Of course we’ve been all conditioned to say the response of authorities was appropriate and not comical, which was really the case.   We’ve also been conditioned to look the other way when people who disrupt the transportation industry are not our typical view of what a terrorist should look like.

A Long Island woman worried about her mom and brother flying to New York on the eve of 9/11 was busted for trying to ground their flight — by twice phoning in false bomb threats against the Southwest Airlines plane they were taking from Arizona, the feds said today.

The loony Saturday morning stunt by ex-con Mary Purcell, 37, of Lake Ronkonkoma, sparked a massive security response at Tucson Airport — where a horde of police, bomb-experts and explosive-sniffing dogs quickly swarmed around Flight 2475 to re-screen luggage and passengers as a security alert for the entire airport was elevated.

“We felt that it was a credible threat,” said John Ivanoff, chief of the Tuscon Airport Authority Police. “We were already at a heightened state of alert [because of the 9-11 anniversary Al Qaeda threats], but more manpower was needed.”

Purcell, a convicted felon, doesn’t fit our image of a terrorist, but America doesn’t seem to be upset that a lot of resources were wasted on her ‘threat’ or that Americans somewhere in the transportation system of our country were inconvenienced or maybe had their rights as citizens of this Republic abridged because of the actions of a loony and an over responsive federal government.

Finally, there’s the story of the American teenager who was found driving around in his city alone without a drivers license BUT with an AT4 rocket launcher in the back seat of the SUV.  It’s clear this boy’s name is not Arabic or his religion Islam, for had it been, he, his father and brother, who are connected to the US military, would be linked to al-Qaida, conspiracies hatched and foiled and headlines proclaim how Islam is trying to take over the country and establish sharia. The young man was not named because he’s underage, but driving around during school hours with blaring music is a sure way to draw attention to ones self.  As far as the press is concerned, however, it’s just another teenage prank.

So, while we were informed of security alerts surrounding the 10th anniversary of 911 based on unsubstantiated  information that cannot be verified, the two news items above barely scratched the attention of the Nation and were strictly a local event……as they should have been.   However, we should not have been frightened with alerts that really had no basis in fact but which served a political purpose for the party(ies) in power.  Don’t we deserve better than that?

The Republican Refrain of Dissin’ the President


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We’ve written extensively here on Miscellany101 about how the GOP is the obstructionist/racist party of today’s America.  It’s really bad however when their partisanship interferes with their governance and what’s good for the public they say they serve.  Why anyone would  accept the declaration of their party’s titular head and one of its stalwarts that it wants to pursue a strategy to soil a sitting president’s term, even if it means pursuing goals that prove detrimental to the country is astonishing, to say the least.  Especially when this president, Obama, has  in cases of foreign policy, almost mirrored the stance taken by George Bush, in effect saving a lot of Bush appointees from the embarrassing specter of being tried for high crimes and misdemeanors, the Republican’s position is meant to humiliate Obama and the country too for electing him.

It’s particulary bad however when former conservatives call the GOP out on their racist tendencies, like this one here

So, Boehner, using the phony excuse that Congress wouldn’t be back in session until 6:30 p.m.—as Roger Simon points out Congress was technically never out of session, a move designed to keep Obama from making recess appointments—essentially did what Massa Rush said to do and he put the uppity Negro in his place.

There you have it, all you doubters about the motives of these guys.  Straight from the mouth of the de facto chairman of the Republican Party.  John Boehner put Obama “in his place.” The President of the United States got “smacked down,” as he “attempted to force his way to the front of the line.”

and no one blinks an eye.  But we’re not done……..

Democratic Governors Association Chair and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said Thursday that Republicans were opposed to any plan proposed by President Barack Obama that could lead to job creation.

“I firmly believe that Republicans in Congress, driven by a concerted group, have decided that it is not in their party’s political interest to have the president succeed at creating any jobs,” he said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “And I believe therefore they will do their very best to deny him any victories that could lead to job creation or a speedier recovery.”

“I don’t think there is another rational explanation for much of their opposition,” O’Malley added.

There’s is another explanation, and it lies in the comments of Limbaugh and his ditto heads. It’s about putting the black guy in his place.  The GOP has taken a decidedly antagonistic position in American politics…an ‘in your face’ approach to its opponents and the American people.  We vote for them…….we can NOT vote for them the next time they come up for reelection!

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FBI interrogator: 9/11 could have been prevented | Raw Replay


A manufactured crisis which has driven our country to near bankruptcy, the war on terror should have never been waged had America lived up to her ideals and not allowed itself to be used by power hungry politicians and greedy pols with axes to grind!
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Could this be the terror threat


We heard about a terror threat centered around the 9/11 anniversary remembrance taking place.  I don’t think this is the terror threat the corporate media had in mind, but it is terror nonetheless

Authorities say an anonymous caller threatened to detonate a bomb inside a mosque in Tennessee on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

According to a police report, an unidentified person made the threat Monday in a voicemail left at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. The report says the message included extreme profanities and derogatory remarks toward Muslims.

Murfreesboro Police spokesman Kyle Evans told The Associated Press on Wednesday that security at the mosque has been increased and that marked and unmarked vehicles are patrolling the area.

Evans says federal authorities are helping in the investigation.

The mosque has been the target of vandals who defaced signs at the site where it plans to build a bigger site of worship. Last year, arsonists also torched construction equipment there.

 

The American Media is useless to the American people


Why? Because it is built on sensationalism. The weekend of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, comes this headline

Federal Authorities Probe Possible Terror Threat Around 9/11 Anniversary

Federal authorities are warning local law enforcement agencies of a potential terrorist threat involving car bombs that could coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, several sources told Fox News on Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it had information about a “specific, credible but unconfirmed threat,” and the White House said President Obama was briefed Thursday morning and has been updated throughout the day.

Of course reading that sends chills and hot flashes throughout one’s body.  (Did you notice the words in bold and how they might alter or affect one’s  understanding of the “threat”?) How dare, the reasoning would go, someone should attack us while we honor our dead.  This is what such articles as the one above DON’T tell you

How many Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks inside the United States since the September 11, 2001, atrocities? Arguably 16. Egyptian Hesham Mohamed Hadayet killed two Israelis at the El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles airport on July 4, 2002. On June 1, 2009, Abdulhakim Muhammed killed one soldier at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 soldiers during a shooting rampage in at Fort Hood, Texas in November 2009.

Checking the Global Terrorism Database, one finds that an additional 14 Americans were killed in broadly defined domestic terrorism incidents since September 2001. Five died from anthrax attacks (2001); two died in an attack on a Knoxville church (2008); two are suspected to have been killed by members of the Minutemen American Defense group in Arizona (2009); an abortion provider was killed in Wichita, Kansas (2009); a guard was stabbed to death at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., (2009); two died in Austin when a man crashed his light plane into a government building over a dispute with the IRS (2009); and a neo-Malthusian terrorist was shot by police during a hostage incident at the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland (2009). That adds up to a grand total of 30 Americans killed in terrorist incidents inside the United States in the last 10 years.

In addition, the National Counterterrorism Center has been compiling worldwide deaths of private U.S. citizens due to terrorism since 2005. Terrorism is defined as “premeditated, politically motivated violence, perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”

In 2010 (the latest report), 15 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks; nine died in 2009; 33 in 2008; 17 in 2007; 28 in 2006; and 56 in 2005. The vast majority of private U.S. citizens killed in terrorist attacks died in the war zone countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. So the sad tally of Americans killed by terrorists around the world since 2005 comes to a total of 158, yielding an annual rate 16 Americans killed by terrorists outside of the borders of the United States.

Taking these figures into account, a rough calculation suggests that in the last five years, your chances of being killed by a terrorist are about one in 20 million. This compares annual risk of dying in a car accident of 1 in 19,000; drowning in a bathtub at 1 in 800,000; dying in a building fire at 1 in 99,000; or being struck by lightning at 1 in 5,500,000. In other words, in the last five years you were four times more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a terrorist.

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) has just published, Background Report: 9/11, Ten Years Later [PDF]. The report notes, excluding the 9/11 atrocities, that fewer than 500 people died in the U.S. from terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2010. The report adds, “From 1991-2000, the United States averaged 41.3 terrorist attacks per year. After 2001, the average number of U.S. attacks decreased to 16 per year from 2002-2010.”

Of course, the police and politicians will cite the lack of deaths from terrorism as evidence that their protective measures are working. Earlier this year, the conservative Heritage Foundation compiled a list of 39 terror plots that had been foiled since September 2001. Going through the list, about 23 of the plots might plausibly have resulted in terror attacks of one sort or another. Several were aimed at subways, military bases, and shopping malls. To get a feel for the number of people that might be killed in typical terrorist attacks, consider that four subway bombs killed 52 people in London in 2005; the deadliest attack on a military base killed 13; and blowing up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killed 187 people in 1995.

Making the huge assumption that all 23 plausible plots would have succeeded in killing an average of 100 Americans each, that means that 2,300 would have died in the last 10 years, or about 230 per year. (This implies a rate that is 10 times higher than the rate between 1970 and 2010, excluding the 9/11 attacks, by the way.) Even at this higher rate, your chances of dying in a terrorist attack would be about 1 in 1.7 million.

Ohio State University political scientist John Mueller and Mark Stewart, an engineering professor at University of Newcastle in Australia recently estimated that the U.S. has spent $1 trillion on anti-terrorism security measures since 2001 (this figure does not include the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Assuming that 2,300 Americans might have been killed by terrorists inside the United States, this implies a cost of more that $400 million dollars per life saved. Typically when evaluating the costs of protective regulations, federal government agencies set the value of a life at about $9 million.

However, terrorism is especially frightening (that’s why they call it “terrorism”), so the average citizen might want to spend double the usual amount to prevent a death. But still suggests that on a reasonable benefit-cost basis public and private spending is 20 times too much to prevent deaths from terrorist attacks. Now let’s retrospectively add the tragic 3,000 deaths from the 9/11 attacks to take into account the remote possibility that terrorists might be able to pull off another similarly spectacular assault; that still means that nearly $200 million is being spent per plausible life saved.

A good bit of the trillion dollars has supported measures that threaten our liberties by beefing up the national security state. Since 2001, we all get to enjoy airport security theater; we must carry proper “papers” in order to gain admission to federal buildings; and federal minions have felt free to wiretap without warrants.

On this 10th anniversary, we will certainly remember those who died so tragically. But we should also recognize that terrorism is a hollow threat to which we should not surrender one iota of our liberties.

Americans Should Not Remember 9/11


The memory of 9/11 should be buried in a time capsule and sent to the earth’s core to be forever forgotten.  As we approach September 11, 2011, what happened 10 years ago should be blocked from the Nation’s conscience.  At the very least, if not, then we should also remember what we did and have done since 9/11.

We have invaded two countries whose governments had nothing at all to do with the events of that day.  We oversaw the assassination of one country’s president/ruler/leader and attempted to kill or murder another.  We fostered an entire administration of international war criminals who went about justifying everything that before 9/11 we opposed and fought against ourselves.  We re-elected a president who was responsible for the plunder of the national treasury at the hands of greedy, despotic bankers who felt no remorse nor sense of responsibility to the welfare or anyone but themselves.  We became cannibals on September 11, 2001, turning against ourselves, engaging in demagoguery and hatred that haven’t been seen since the days of Reconstruction; pitting one religious community against another in nonsensical, fabricated assertions that are not even remotely connected to reality.  We have exaggerated the political differences among us to heights of disrespect and rude discourse to the point the Nation’s interests are no longer important, only partisan political gains.  Whereas just 5 short years ago we were demanding the country respect its president, we now heap scorn upon him with sophomoric imagery becoming of elementary illiterates and all this under the gaze of an omnipotent media which spun the corporate line to make it palatable to an angry country that wanted nothing more than blood…….anyone’s blood, even the blood of innocents.

We will be regaled with images and orchestral music evoking the pain and suffering we experienced that day, while our own war criminals’ victims have no place in our national conscience  and the crimes which they suffered go unpunished.  We were once a nation that demanded justice, yet we willingly want to see our criminals spared that process.  We no longer have leaders who inspire us, we elect and want leaders who frighten and anger us, who push us towards hatred of our fellow citizens who are different than us because of faith or skin color.  We have gone backwards in time…..to the time of our primal ancestors who killed their brothers for no apparent reason than jealousy or envy and that seems to be ok with a great many of us who want to “remember” 9/11.

I want to forget 9/11 and  all that because our country is greater than all the things previously mentioned in this piece.  Born out of hope and struggle we achieved greatness until we started remembering 9/11 at which time we fell out of Grace.  We cannot continue down the paths we started on 9/12 without negative consequences, yet we seem to not even consider what those consequences are, focusing instead on our suffering while ignoring what we have reaped on others.  In other words, we’ve become a country of cry babies….bellyaching about every perceived injustice we’ve had while forgetting about our own criminality.

I want no part of remembering 9/11 because I remember everything that happened after 9/11 and it was/is just as much a nightmare for me as the events on that awful day.  But unless we as a Nation make amends for what happened on 9/11 and beyond there will be more 9/11s, not by unknown, foreign, dark skinned people with funny names invading our shores, but rather at the hands of people we elect to office, or listen to or watch on our ever present media, or our neighbors unemployed for years with no sign of hope, or business people who either want more or don’t have enough and on and on it goes.  I want no part of that America and I want no part of anything that brings it on.  I want to forget 9/11.

Day of Destruction, Decade of War – US military increasingly privatized


More death and destruction for profit
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Day of Destruction, Decade of War – War as for-profit business


Tea Party members are hypocrites unless they call for reductions in defense spending that grows year after year and adds to the deficit they say they are sworn to reduce at all costs.
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Is this democracy or terrorism?


I’ve often stayed up at night wondering how did the strongest, most prosperous country, one supposedly dedicated to democracy and freedom justify invading, occupying and terrorizing a country that was not at war with us, or at the time of the 2003 war anyone else. While it’s really old news that no substantial cache of WMDS on the order of what were told have been found in Iraq and equally old news that thousands of civilians have been killed it still is no easier to read headlines like this

Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi.

The unclassified cable, which was posted on WikiLeaks’ website last week, contained questions from a United Nations investigator about the incident, which had angered local Iraqi officials, who demanded some kind of action from their government. U.S. officials denied at the time that anything inappropriate had occurred.

But Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said in a communication to American officials dated 12 days after the March 15, 2006, incident that autopsies performed in the Iraqi city of Tikrit showed that all the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head. Among the dead were four women and five children. The children were all 5 years old or younger.

News like this is the answer to the question, ‘why do they hate us?’ This is who we are…….what we’ve become.  It is such a far disconnect between what we say we are, and what we  told people, like Iraqis, and how we behave.
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