Only an Expert

Need I say more?

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Once Again - Thank You Mr. Obama!

Thank You Mr. Obama!

Rex Babin

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The Five Steps to Tyranny

LIES - the Current Political Norm

From Truthout by Henry A. Giroux

When lying and deceit become normalized in a culture, they not only serve as an index of how low we have fallen as a literate society, but also demonstrate the degree to which language and education have become corrupted, tied to corporate and political power and sabotaged by rigid ideologies as part of a growing authoritarianism that uses the educational force of the culture, the means of communication and the sites in which information circulate to mobilize ignorance among a misinformed citizenry, all the while supporting reactionary policies. Especially since the horrible events of 9/11, Americans have been encouraged to identify with a militaristic way of life, to suspend their ability to read the word and world critically, to treat corporate and government power in almost religious terms and to view a culture of questioning as something alien and poisonous to American society. Shared fears rather than shared responsibilities now mobilize angry mobs and gun-toting imbeciles, who are praised as "real" Americans. Fear bolstered by lies and manufactured deceptions makes us immune to even the most obvious moral indecencies, such as the use of taser guns on kids in schools. Nobody notices or cares - and one cause and casualty of all of this moral indifference is that language has been emptied of its critical content just as the public spaces that make it possible are disappearing into the arms of corporations, advertisers and other powerful institutions that show nothing but contempt for either the public sphere or the kind of critical literacy that gives it meaning.

Obama's presence on the national political scene gave literacy, language and critical thought a newfound sense of dignity, interlaced as they were with a vision of hope, justice and possibility - and reasonable arguments about the varied crises America faced and civilized. Such practices as Obama compromised, if not surrendered, some of his principles to those individuals and groups that live in the vocabulary of duplicity, the idealism that shaped his language began to look like just another falsehood when measured against his continuation of a number of Bush-like policies. In this case, the politics of distortions and misrepresentations that Obama's lack of integrity has produced may prove to be even more dangerous than what we got under Bush because it wraps itself in a moralism that seems uplifting and hopeful while it supports policies that reward the rich, reduce schools to testing centers and continue to waste lives and money on wars that should have ended when Obama assumed his presidency. Obama claims he is for peace, and yet the United States is the largest arms dealer in the world. He claims he wants to reduce the deficit, but spends billions on the defense industry and wars abroad. He says he wants everyone to have access to decent health care, but makes backroom deals with powerful pharmaceutical companies. Orwell's ghost haunts this new president and the country at large. Reducing the critical power of language has been crucial to this effort. Under such circumstances, democracy as either a moral referent or a political ideal appears to have lost any vestige of credibility. The politics of lying and the culture of deceit are inextricably related to a theater of cruelty and modes of corrupt power in which politics is reduced to a ritualized incantation, just as matters of governance are removed from real struggles over meaning and power.

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Democracy is fragile, and its fate is always uncertain, but during the last decade we have witnessed those in commanding political and corporate positions exhibit an utter disregard for the truth, morality and critical debate. The Enron template of lying and deception has turned an ethos of dialogue and persuasion into its opposite: dogmatism and propaganda. In doing so, the American public has been bombarded by a discourse of fear, hate and racism, coupled with a politics of lying that undermines any viable vestige of a democratic ethos. We now find ourselves living in a society in which right-wing extremists not only wage a war against the truth, but also seek to render human beings less than fully human by taking away their desire for justice, spiritual meaning, freedom and individuality.

h/t Agent 99 & Old Uncle Dave

Read the whole article HERE your future and the future of this country depend on it!


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Disbar Torture Lawyers Press ConferenceNational Press Club Washington D.C.

From The Raw Story:

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, former Reagan administration Associated Attorney General Bruce Fein lamented President Barack Obama's decision to shut his eyes to open confessions of war crimes by members of the prior administration.

"It's at the highest levels that the rule of law finds its greatest majesty," he told reporters. "That's why the United States was so idolized after Nixon left. We said that the most powerful man in the world is subject to the law. He cannot defy it."

Fein was making the historical argument with respect to the Obama administration's continued refusal to investigate the Bush administration's torture program, which was designed and specifically authorized by high-level officials.

"[Today] we have an instance where the President of the United States -- Harvard Law Review, a Constitutional Law professor who knows what the law is -- shuts his eyes to open confessions," he said. "We authorized torture, for which there is no exception."

Fein was speaking on behalf of Velvet Revolution, a coalition of over 150 peace and religious groups, that is leading the charge to get attorneys involved in the Bush administration's torture program thrown out of office and the legal profession.
Link

Bruce Fein is joined by Velevet Revolution lawyer Kevin Zeese and others in the following video of their presentation.

Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story reports here with links to the complete complaint. (MS Word Document)

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Over-Collecting

The ghost in the machine.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I Want my Country Back!

The Votes are Flipping!

The electronic voting machines are already flipping the votes!

Even Oprah was a victim.[click photo for story]

Here's how the flipping is done!


Other means of flipping an election and what you can do to prevent it.

You can help

Video The Vote

No More Numbers!

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiraling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.

Link

Oh goody! - does that mean it can't get any worse?

Fairy Tales

In honor of tonight's debate!

[click photo]

Wall Street Bailout Weapon$ of Ma$$ Deception

[h/t Big Dan's Big Blog for assembling this assesment]

No Further Explanation Required

[h/t Homeyra]

Alaska Women on Palin...

More at Mudflats - Tiptoeing Through the Muck of Alaskan Politics.
Musical slide show of the signs.

Meet McCain The Real Maverick

Brave New Films

According to Cliff Schecter, author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't: "It is dangerous for a democracy when a presidential candidate can lie with impunity, change positions on a whim, and physically and verbally threaten others and virtually none of it is reported by a besotted media eagerly awaiting the next moment when he might slap their backs in friendship." TheReal McCain.com

Dick Cavett on McCain:

Every time I nostalgically try to regain my liking of John McCain, he reaches into his sleaze bag and pulls out something malodorous.

If there were a prize cake available, McCain’s lowbrow ad attempting to paint Obama as a virtual pornographer and peddler of sex to kindergarteners would take that pastry. Plate and all.

And it might be, if not instructive, at least fun to give McCain’s trash-peddling Karl Rove acolytes some truth serum and ask them if — in their heart of hearts — they really think Obama meant to call our Sarah a pig.

Lair Challenge! The RNC Freudian Slip Campaign

My friend and fellow blogger Big Dan of the Big Blog has issued a challenge:

We need a "freudian slip" post from BlueBear, an all-encompassing GOP Freudian slip post!

Therefore I am calling on all my readers to chip in with your favorite Freudian Slip for GW* and his minions. Youtube or other videos of subjects making such statements are highly appreciated. Leave the links here in the comments or email links or videos to me blubear2@gmail.com. I will give attribution to all whose links I use.

[I guess I have my own Freudian Slip thing going - I keep having to go back and correct the spelling because it keeps coming out "Fraudian Slip" - Hmmm]

935 Lies

Harry Shearer

h/t Dredd

HuffPo's Business Section

...is trying to outzen me in the means of communicating more than just news, or something.

Carlin

h/t Old Uncle Dave

Watch Dana Perino Duck and Cover

After weeks of being intentionally ignored at White House Briefings, Eric Brewer of The Raw Story finally got his chance to press her on the phony "media specialists" used by the Pentagon to spread its propaganda:



At Raw Story - Link
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