(American Conservative - 3/27 cover) Hillary the Hawk

[msgadget]

...

..."I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran,” she averred. Accusing the White House of choosing to “downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations,” she disdained Team Bush for “standing on the sidelines.”

“Let’s be clear about the threat we face now,” she thundered. “A nuclear Iran is a danger to Israel, to its neighbors and beyond. The regime’s pro-terrorist, anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric only underscores the urgency of the threat it poses. U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal. We cannot and should not—must not—permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons.” To be sure, we need to cajole China and Russia into going along with diplomatic and economic sanctions, but “we cannot take any option off the table in sending a clear message to the current leadership of Iran—that they will not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons.”


...

... She boasted that it was under a Democratic administration that the U.S. “changed its underlying policy toward Iraq from containment to regime change” and took credit for the bright idea of putting Ahmad Chalabi, convicted embezzler and known liar, on the U.S. payroll. Her speech reads like a Weekly Standard editorial, reiterating each of the War Party’s talking points—the bio-weapons fantasy, the links to al-Qaeda gambit, the phantom nuclear arsenal: “This much,” she maintaind, “is undisputed.”

...

If the Democratic establishment’s stance on the war is at odds with the party’s antiwar activist base, then their outright warmongering on the Iranian issue puts the two factions on a collision course. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi—who effectively quashed fellow California Democrat Lynn Woolsey’s resolution calling for a withdrawal timetable —has followed the Hillary-Emanuel-DLC party line, while managing somehow to assuage her constituents with plenty of pork and partisan rhetoric. When it comes to Iran, however, she is just as belligerent as the next neocon: Pelosi co-sponsored legislation imposing draconian economic sanctions on Iran and stops just short of calling another war.

If Hillary maintains her lead in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes—and with over $21 million in the bank, she’s way ahead of any potential rivals—and the party establishment effectively strangles insurgent antiwar activism at the grassroots level, an increasingly “isolationist” electorate will be faced with a choice between two interventionist candidates, giving credence to what Garet Garrett, that lion of the Old Right, bitterly observed in 1951:

Between government in the republican meaning, that is, Constitutional, representative, limited government, on the one hand, and Empire on the other hand, there is mortal enmity. Either one must forbid the other or one will destroy the other. That we know. Yet never has the choice been put to a vote of the people.

[tocqueville]

1. What do we have NATO for if not to defend our way of life?

Jesus, and I thought that Nato was there to defend ALL ITS MEMBERS from external aggression... or else
define "our way of life"...

BTW the article is signed by Justin Raimondo from antiwar.com

[Peace Patriot]

2. Yup, I was right about Hillary (as DUers who've read my comments will

attest). She's made a deal with the fascist junta. I only hope she knows what she's getting into. They're going to Diebold her into the White House and then immediately start blaming the Democrats and "liberals" for Bush's colossal financial and foreign policy disasters--as the various shits start hitting the various fans--preparatory to the installation of the real Hitler in '12, when the country is coming to pieces, a la Germany 1933, the center/left has been fractured--probably by a military Draft, if not by financial meltdown--and we are on our knees.

Hillary won't investigate them. Hillary won't disavow the extralegal presidential powers Bush has been setting up. She may not use them all, but they will remain in place. Hillary--and I thought this was something of a stretch, but it appears to be true--may well bomb or even nuke Iran (whose democracy we destroyed in 1953). I guess they can't wait for Jeb (or whoever--Rumsfeld?) to do that in '12. (All that oil in euros, etc.). And...

...with a few sops to the left, like support for women's procreation rights, she will put the grass roots movement to free us from Diebold and ES&S election theft machines to sleep. See? "Democrats" CAN get elected with "trade secret," proprietary programming code in the new electronic voting systems, controlled by rightwing Bushites, with virtually no audit/recount controls. Don't look there as the source of your problems!

Maybe we can convince her to restore election transparency--and get an easy national solution to the loss of our right vote. She does need SOME votes, SOME grass roots support, and SOME small donations, to get into a position to be Diebolded into power. If that were to be the price of our support--and Hillary was pressured to do it, as a 'good government" measure--we might get our democracy back. But I think it's likely going to be a slow, difficult, long term battle at the state/local level.

Well, I now understand what's been going on with the Democratic Party leadership, regarding rightwing Bushite corporations counting all our votes behind a veil of secrecy--something you would think they would have objected to rather loudly (I had thought: are they insane?).

Some of them are in on it.

And at the level of Senators, House members, and presidential candidates, it has to do with war profiteering. At the lower levels--state election officials and legislators--it's a simpler form of corruption (wrought by Diebold/ES&S's lavish lobbying, etc.).

We're in for a long struggle to get our democracy back, brothers and sisters--and we had better get a plan.

--------------------------------------

Some resources for American Revolution II:

Breaking news:

Californian voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org--just announced--is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Scharzenegger appointee Bruch McPherson:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630


www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

-----------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[msgadget]

6. WoW!

It's heartening to see that voting rights has not taken a backseat while all hell was breaking out elsewhere. Thanks so much for this research, Peace Patriot!

:patriot:

[Demeter]

7. I Hope You Are Wrong, But I Fear You Are Right

If a Democrat enters the White House, and Bush and Company are not shipped off to the Hague, then we are more than screwed.

[bee]

3. "A second President Clinton would lead the Democratic wing

of the War Party". exactly right. Great article.

[Peace Patriot]

4. 58% of the American people opposed Bush's pre-emptive war on Iraq

BEFORE the invasion, in Feb. '03. That disapproval dipped only once, in the few weeks of the invasion with US soldiers at maximum risk, and then right back up to nearly 60%, where it stayed throughout the election. 63% of the American people oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May '04).

And yet, in 2004, we were given two choices:

1. Bush: a man who perpetrated an illegal and unnecessary war, told a 100% pack of lies about it, and slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people, and tortured many more; or

2. Kerry: a man who voted to give Bush the power to perpetrate illegal war and to slaughter tens of thousands of innocent people, who promised to do a more efficient, more competent illegal war, and who said not one word in opposition to illegal and immoral torture.

Things are shaping up this way again. And we had better get very smart and very strategic about HOW this is being done to us, and target and retrieve our only power, the means by which we exercise our sovereignty: our right to vote.

If the South Americans can do it, we can, too. One of the keys to the peoples' revolution that is sweeping Latin America--in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico--is the hard, grass roots work of achieving honest, verifiable, TRANSPARENT elections.

[msgadget]

5. Verifiable voting would indeed be a start

but, what if there's no real choice as you pointed out? The Middle East agenda and unchecked 'globalization' are being advanced by both parties in one form or other. Individual politicians are making efforts but "The Party" (i.e., its media darlings and right-leaning strategists) is running full-tilt toward war and jobless recoveries on into the future.

[Peace Patriot]

8. In order to remove private money from our political campaigns, and have

honest campaigns and honest and open political debate in this country, and in order to remove corporate lobbyists from the halls of government, and have honest representatives in government, and in order to bust the corporate news monopolies, and have honest reporting and fair representation of American public opinion, and in order to stop unjust and unnecessary and illegal war, by busting up the out-of-control military-industrial complex, and in order to create a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we MUST first of all restore our right to vote. It's not just a start, it is an essential start. Without it, we have no power. With it, we can do ANYTHING. We can completely reform this country, and make it an even better one than it was before. That is WHY they took our right to vote away. They KNOW what an American vote is worth in this world center of global corporate piracy. We, the people, are sovereign here. We CHARTER the US-based global corporate predators who are destroying the planet and oppressing other people. We CAN reign them in. We have that power in theory. Again, that is WHY they took our right to vote away--because they were sensing revolt (starting in Seattle 1999, in my opinion), and because they wanted to loot us blind and destroy democracy here before it happened. Our vote is a potent weapon against the war profiteers, and the creators of sweatshops worldwide, and the corporate thieves and murderers, and the polluters and destroyers of everything. We MUST get it back--and I believe that the grass roots movement to do just that has the potential, also, to spark a vast peaceful, democratic revolution here--on all issues, on all fronts--such as we are seeing in South America. Democracy is a very, very powerful idea. It is not going to go away. All it needs is a spark.

[msgadget]

9. Please,

can you tell me what happened in Seattle in 1999?

[Peace Patriot]

10. 50,000 people--labor unions, human rights groups, environmental

groups, religious groups, teachers, parents, kids, and scads of ordinary Americans--peacefully shut down the World Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle in 1999. What ensued was a police riot. I was there. I saw what really happened. The truth came out later in hearings of the city of the Seattle, whose citizens were incensed at the behavior of their mayor, their police chief and the city and state police. The police chief was forced to resign. This huge peaceful protest was of course completely misrepresented by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, who never told the truth about it, and utterly ignored the hearings. When 10,000 people sat down in the city intersections, to prevent the WTO meeting from occurring, the police in Darth Vader costume began attacking peaceful seated demonstrators with big firehoses of pepper spray, nightsticks, tear gas, and rubber bullets, and brutal arrests and detentions, starting at 10 o'clock in the morning, and going on for hours. It was horrible. They even invaded adjacent neighborhoods, and began assaulting uninvolved people, and beat up a city councilman. Late in the afternoon, after hours of violence by the police against unresisting people, some youngsters couldn't take it any more--or were planted as agents provocateurs--and broke some windows and burned some trash cans in the downtown area. This vandalism of course led all news stories that night--"protesters riot in Seattle." Total rubbish.

It was an amazing event: 50,000 people peacefully marching in the streets against the WTO, and the massive civil disobedience of the 10,000. It was also a hugely important and powerful event.

The WTO is a highly secretive, undemocratic institution, which sets the "free piracy" rules for global corporate predators like Wal-Mart and Gap. For instance, the WTO is responsible for the proliferation of sweatshops worldwide, where workers are paid pittance wages, often as indentured slaves, and have no human, civil or labor rights. They and the IMF/World Bank have destroyed third world country economies by enslaving them to onerous loans, and then, as terms of the loans, forcing them to permit sweatshops in "free piracy" zones, natural resource destruction (such a deforestation), corporate privatization of basic resources like water, big cutbacks in education and health care--anything that helps the poor--and dumping of cheaply priced first world products--such as powdered milk and rice--to destroy local food producers and force dependence upon imports.

Seattle 1999 was the first "shot heard round the world" of massive, worldwide, grass roots revolt against WTO/IMF/World Bank policies--now a huge movement, marked recently by the third world country rebellion at the WTO meeting in Cancun, led by Brazil, India and some 20 other countries, with large protest contingents from the worldwide "campesino" movement (small farmers, peasants). Thousands of farmers in India and South Korea have committed suicide, in utter despair over "free piracy" policy. Countries like Jamaica and Venezuela have lost the ability to feed their own people and depend on imports.

Now all of South America is in revolt against these policies, and have been electing one leftist government after another, to fight them, to establish self-determination, to throw off the IMF/World Bank and US domination, and to represent the vast populations of poor, mostly brown and black people who have suffered under these policies for decades. An incredible revolution, with leftist/socialist governments elected, often by big majorities, in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Peru will be next, then Mexico (leftists ahead in the polls in both countries).

And it all started in the United States, in Seattle in 1999--the first big protest, with U.S. citizens establishing solidarity with the poor in very exploited countries, and determining to reign these corporations in, from our end, as U.S. citizens with the power of our votes and our political activism in the heart of the corporate beast. These corporations of course oppress us, too--by outsourcing jobs which destroys labor unions, workers' rights and collective bargaining, by undermining our environmental laws, by monopolizing our public airwaves with fascist propaganda, by purchasing politicians, by robbing our governments of rightful corporate taxes, and, now we know, by taking over and privatizing our election system, so they can directly control public officials, and perpetrate resource wars and rob us blind--and, most important of all, so they can PREVENT the American people from regulating them! (--or, dismantling them and seizing their assets, which we have the theoretical power to do, as the sovereigns in this country).

You don't hear about Seattle 1999 in the US corporate news monopoly press--although, if you read the business section, you will sometimes find traces of its reverberations around the world. They falsely dismissed it as a riot--then we got the Bush junta. I think a decision was made by the fascist powers that the American people had to be subdued, and the US economy destroyed, in order to prevent any curtailment of global piracy and profiteering and to utterly smash our environmental/labor laws.

[msgadget]

11. That was only 6 or 7 years ago

yet I can't imagine getting that many American people together right now. I'm not being a pessimist but when I go to meetings and vigils the turn-out is WAY different from the marches of the 60's and 70's. The press is different too. I was quite surprised at the coverage of the protests over the past weekend considering all the recent protests held in a virtual vaccum.

Thank you so much for enlightening me, Peace Patriot!

Okay, so grassroots progressive action is building but what about the coming elections? What about candidates like Hillary who carefully compile a liberal voting record and have different spins for each focus group? You're saying first fix the voting machines and then we can get who we really want, not whose chosen for us? How close are we to fixing the voting process? And, is there anything you'd suggest in the meantime? (Sorry, a lot of questions but you've obviously got a firm handle on this. :))