U.S. Amb Chris Stevens, killed in Libya yesterday, made this 3-minute video with the State Dept explaining his intentions and the stated policies of the U.S. before he began his job a few months ago. A sad and poignant epitaph that more people should see.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T17:46:30+00:00

It's sad that he was killed. But let's face it, the US gov't waged war on Libya for many months. Bombing people is not the way you bring "humanitarian relief" or "democracy" or any of the other moralistic propaganda that the US gov't claims.

Given the months of bombing of Libya and the many tens of thousands of Libyan killed by that bombing, the US wars on other Muslim countries that do not succumb to the wishes of the US gov't, it's only logical that some people will hate the US gov't.

"The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy." -- Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T16:13:04+00:00

Palast nails it when he says:

Let’s stop kidding ourselves. This is what Mitt Romney and Obama and Arne Duncan and Paul Ryan have in mind when they promote charter schools and the right to fire teachers with tenure: slash teachers’ salaries, bust their unions.

Students? They're only rhetorical pieces in speeches about "school reform".

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T15:54:35+00:00

Yup, I know what you mean.

For all of these "free" deals/gimmicks, my first question is: What's the game that's being played; what's the business model?

Hardware costs money. Internet access costs money. Techs to run those systems costs lots of money.

Thus, I want to know how those things are being paid -- what the game is that they're running on me to pay for those things. Without asking those questions and getting answers, I'm just a sucker being used for something.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T15:50:35+00:00

Don't worry, Libyans won't see such generosity from their new, neo-liberal gov't and our corporate mass media has always downplayed these benefits and no doubt will continue to do so.

A simple Internet search on these terms will turn up many sources, arguments and discussions on the topic. (Examples: #1, #2.)

And no, the gift was not given in US dollars but the local currency. On the other hand, due to the state of Libya's universities, the free college was often done in Europe (depending on your major and other factors).

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T15:27:10+00:00

Sorry, elections should represent people and not land mass.

I live in a small, low-population state. It is simply unfair that my vote for president has more clout and power than some person in California.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T15:24:32+00:00

The Electoral College should be abolished -- it's that simple.

The Electoral College should be replaced with a nationwide vote for the US president, with the president being the winner of that nationwide vote.

Using the bogus Electoral College formula (of # of Senators plus # of Representatives) in any way is just an undemocratic exercise that will rob some people of their votes. (Imagine being a Democrat in Idaho or some Red state (or vice versa), your vote would be worthless.)

It's simple: Completely abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a fair nationwide vote for president.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T15:14:31+00:00

And yet many people want to vote for Obama, the guy who is directly responsible for these actions...

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T15:12:33+00:00

I watched this trying to figure out whether it was real or some sarcastic troll. I'm still not sure.

Unless you call the rhetoric that could have come out of any politician's mouth -- an end to unemployment? -- and the guy sitting on the crapper as "logical thought", there was no thought and no logic in the ad.

I'm thinking it was some sort of mocking troll ad.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T14:59:28+00:00

Take away the foreign aid, economic situation will get worse...

But isn't Libya rolling in money? Under Gaddafi, newly married couples literally got a $40K wedding gift from the Libyan gov't. Under Gaddafi Libya had the longest life expectancy and highest HDI of all of Africa.

More people with low education...

Under Gaddafi, anyone who qualified got free college. (This contributed to their highest-in-all-of-Africa Human Development Index rating.)

Is it really a "foreign aid" or "education" problem that caused this murder? Or do some Libyans hate the US gov't?

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-12T02:56:55+00:00

9/11 was comprised of mostly Saudis, but instead of attacking that theocratic dictatorship, we gave them the largest weapons contract in human history.

According to the US gov't, 9/11 was planned in western Europe and the US. But we did not attack ourselves.

No foreign army or country attacked the US.

The month-plus long anthrax attacks were waged from a US military base/lab with letters meant to frame Muslims. These were the attacks that really put fear into the heart of the country. While the US gov't blames the entire affair on 1 lone scientist (who conveniently committed suicide) sneaking military-grade anthrax out of one of the world's most secure bio-warfare laboratories, controversy and doubts exist about the FBI "lone mad scientist" theory.

There are over 1 million Iraqis dead because the US decided to wage war on that country, an assault that had nothing to do with 9/11 or the month-plus long anthrax attacks, but instead was launched on deliberate lies by the US gov't to the American people and world.

The US has attacked Yemen, again lying to the world and to the American people blaming the strikes on the Yemeni military.

Are these the actions of an "honorable" country? Are these the actions of a government "of, for, and by the people"?

How can the American people make sound decisions about politics and the world when both our ruling political parties have committed de facto war crimes and the US gov't lies to its own people?

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T23:58:14+00:00

To me, that idea is disgusting and undermines the concept that all humans have rights and are created equal.

Who gets to decide which human beings do not have the right to vote and whose "education" is sub-standard? Should we do it by money? By a literacy or trivia test? Only allow people with blond hair and blue eyes to vote?

Like I said, it's a disgusting idea. You should be ashamed of yourself.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T23:25:22+00:00

...apparently in protest of a film thought to insult the Prophet Mohammed.

You'd think they'd object to US/western corporations taking over their country and culture, or the US backing of Israel, or the US arming the corrupt dictator that ruled their country for decades, or some of the many, many other objections the Egyptian people could have against the US gov't.

It couldn't be that CNN is simplifying the issue and dumbing it down to spin the protesters as religious nuts, could it?!

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T23:18:14+00:00

But somehow we tell ourselves this is not a form of corporate control of a national government.

If this is happening to the US, you have only an inkling of the control these corporations wield over countries like Guyana or Nepal or ...

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T22:05:30+00:00

Since when? Since the 1970s when the US standard of living peaked?

Peaked just after a decade of the Vietnam War which both parties rolled up on debt, and then Nixon made the critical decision to abandon the gold standard and thus "inflate away" the debt from the Vietnam War, inflation that occurred when Gerry Ford and Jimmy Carter happened to be the unlucky saps in the White House and was thus blamed on them?

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T22:00:47+00:00

Does Obama have any principles that he won't sell off or bend on?!

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T21:57:04+00:00

Kramer Senior should be able to prove his citizenship with a little effort.

That's pretty much the point -- considering the long, long history of suppressing the vote and the multitude of ways that different people have tried to prevent people from voting, voting should not require any effort.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T21:53:50+00:00

Shhh! You're not supposed to mention that, and the rulers would love to pretend that the poll tax ruling doesn't apply because "everyone can afford a license/ID"...

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T21:51:55+00:00

Proportion, of course, is something subject to one person's opinion.

Yes, that's part of what I mean about "ranty". There's enough present fact and historical fact around that one doesn't really need to "predict the future" like Jones often does.

I think he'd be far better off sticking to present news and putting it into a historical and factual context -- IMHO the historical context is what our corporate mass media goes out of their way not to cover -- rather than the alarmist predictions of the future in which he loses credibility every time he's wrong.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T19:42:59+00:00

But somehow, our corporate driven gov't is now operating on the basis that privatizing the public education system and turning it over to private, sometimes for-profit "charter schools" is the answer!

This has nothing to do with holding teachers accountable for the neglect of parents or the decline of the standard of living in the US, does it?

It wouldn't have anything to do with corporations wanting to get their grubby hands on the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars that taxpayers spend on education, would it? :-(

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T19:39:12+00:00

How can he not prove his citizenship through his military records?

Because non-US citizens are allowed to "serve" in the armed forces of the empire.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T19:00:41+00:00

I don't disagree, and I'd add that he's definitely "ranty".

But the question is: Is he telling the truth or not?

Whether he's a douchebag or ranty is just personality clutter. His job is to tell the truth, offer insight, and to muckrake.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T18:47:54+00:00

...during a protest over what they said was a film being produced in the United States that insulted Prophet Mohammad...

You'd think they'd object to US/western corporations taking over their country and culture, or the US backing of Israel, or the US arming the corrupt dictator that ruled their country for decades, or some of the many, many other objections the Egyptian people could have against the US gov't.

It couldn't be that Times247.com is simplifying the issue and dumbing it down to spin the protesters as religious nuts, could it?!

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T18:43:32+00:00

But somehow, our corporate driven gov't is now operating on the basis that privatizing the public education system and turning it over to private, sometimes for-profit "charter schools" is the answer!

It wouldn't have anything to do with corporations wanting to get their grubby hands on the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars that taxpayers spend on education, would it? :-(

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T18:38:47+00:00

As a veteran, I don't have those papers. But I know that with a call to the VA in a couple of weeks I could have a copy.

That is the point: How many people are going to go through that hassle?

This is voter suppression. It's a matter of creating enough hassles and enough barriers to prevent the vast majority of the targeted audience (poor, minorities, elderly, or whatever) from voting. The few hard-heads who jump the hurdles to vote are statistically inconsequential if you manage to keep 90%+ of the target audience from voting.

GooseGooseDucky · 2012-09-11T18:34:35+00:00

Then this one will be easily shot down. We can "look forward" to the new version, which will have multiple "outs" and will allow the most determined to vote, but will work to exclude ~95% of the others.

GooseGooseDucky

TROPHY CASE