Eid Message of Mullah Omar, Leader of the Taliban

Mullah Omar, Amir of the Afghan Taliban, released his Eid Message and declared that Afghans should prepare for the eventual defeat of the occupying forces, that things were going well for the Taliban, that government officials should withdrawal their support for the Taliban regime.  The entire message can be read here.  

He divided the message into sections, addressing disparate audiences. Here is a section of the message addressed to Religious Scholars, Statesmen, Teachers, Writers and Poets:

You are the very caste of the society that have the capacity to portray the wants and aspirations of the people. It is your Islamic and national duty to expose the atrocities of the invaders and put them before human rights organizations and public of the world. Enlighten people on the American invasion by unveiling the realities and facts. Inform them about the overt and covert conspiracies of the enemy; explain to them the fundamentals and benefits of Islamic system; educate the new generation in a constructive way, saving them from the impact of foreign dogmas and culture; teach them unity and harmony; inform the local leaders of Jihad of the grievances of people and convey the intentions of Mujahideen to the people. You are a bridge between the Islamic Emirate and the people. So it must be. Because through such a mechanism, all errors and mistakes should be corrected whenever they crop up. I call on you to assist the Islamic Emirate to bring about a blemish-free Jihadic and Islamic atmosphere.

Al-Qaeda fighters swell Afghan Taliban ranks

The US launched its war in Afghanistan just weeks after the 9-11 attacks to find Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and defeat the Taliban fighters who supported him. But nine years on Bin Laden remains at large. And al-Qaeda and the Taliban have joined forces against the U.S. and its allies, their ranks swelled by an influx of foreign fighters. Al Jazeera has gained exclusive access inside a Taliban group in northern Afghanistan, Sue Turton has our report.

Video Review: How Corporations Destroyed Democracy - Chris Hedges

REVIEW: 

Chris Hedges begins this lecture with a great quote, “In celebrity culture we destroy what we worship.” He goes onto describe the impact of corporatist structures on modern culture, properly identifying the pagan and idolatrous cornerstone of secular society today, an intellectualized materialism based on the same precepts and sensorial metaphysical underpinnings of all pagan societies before it, there is an applicable analogy here that marks a series of concepts not foreign from the dominant norms of Muslim societies and Muslim households as well. Unfortunately, the majority of us have long given up on the belief that Islam serves a greater social purpose. Instead, the shopping malls, complexes, and corporate advertising campaigns that represent the idols of consumerist culture so too represent an equivalent reality of the Muslim world.  Therefore, much of what is said applies to Muslims and Muslim nations as well.  

  

The principles underlying corporatist structures deem impossible any “greater good” from coming about. Free market adherents would argue that pursuit of selfish interest indirectly contributes to a greater good, but corporations are totalitarian and cannot produce anything productive for society other than profit; a axiom of principality that makes acquiring profit a religion and thereby reduces the human experience to financial gain. As institutions they swallow belief in a greater good and by their very underlying conceptions exist only to produce positive returns for shareholders and vested interests. Therefore, such institutions cannot act on any other principle regardless of the occasional good-intentioned individual found inside their corporate conclaves.  Therefore, the lecture is about the byproduct of these principles on real human beings, about the corporatization of human beings.

The critical mind must realize that we have so-too corporatized the religion of Islam, over hundreds of years we have added and subtracted from the preserved message and principles included in the Quran. Defining our success based on the status we have attained, looking for conformal acceptance in a world of norms that contradict the tenants of our religion, and stuck in between a historical context of immigration for freedom of economic gain while oftentimes ignoring and feeling unaccountable for a reality of authoritarianism and oppression at home. It the sense of accountability to all of humanity that make non-Muslims like Chris Hedges important voices for us to hear.

The principles of Islam have been corporatized: Ramadan is now less about restraint than consumption, Hajj a voyage commoditized as part of the tourism industry, seeking knowledge a pathway to marketing one’s self in ways that guarantee acceptance by the mainstream but only if one is willing to necessarily ignore some of the most important concepts of Islam. The list goes on, but most remain ignorant and ill-concerned with standing up to this increasing reality and adoption of pagan concepts in the norms of our societies, As if we can so too, separate religion from state, we seek to maintain the ritualization of religion while ignoring the substance of simplicity in worldly dabbling in exchange for depth of contemplation and development of the soul and mind, something that is impossible when interacting with the corporate machine.

Hedges goes through the transformation of democratic society as ‘Inverted totalitarianism’ – represented by a massive public relations campaign as statist propaganda – Similarly, our monks and rabbis call to the same simple expression of purpose in life. The science of objectives of the shariah (ilm-maqaasid-al shariah) is adulterated in order to hearken the call to conformity to what has become normal in a secular world. The principle of maslaha (or seeking the greater good) is misunderstood and invoked by leaders to designate “the believers” as part and parcel participants in the corporatist model and mandating consent to the corporatist wars that just happen to be waged on Muslim soil these days via silence. It is this silence that is that is also part and parcel of what the corporate machine desires. American Islam increasingly represents the commoditization of our religion, a path of altering the tenets of Islam so that they are suitable to Western norms and desires while ignoring the very many problems of the contemporary order, the hypocrisy of the theorized values of western, secular society. In reality, this modern, “American Islam” is marketed in the same way Gap sells jeans manufactured in sweat shops to ignorant consumers. With the rhetoric of the powerful trying to convince people that the US is not at war with Islam, few realize that for that to be true they have got to create an Islam suitable to their needs, a version of our religion that accepts the same corporatist, pagan norms dominate our economies, that we accept despots and dictators loyal to multinational firms and preventing true freedom of choice and expression from asserting themselves in Muslim societies.

A quote that is particularly profound can be hear near the end. Hedges, who lost his job at the NY Times for speaking against the Iraq War at a college graduation ceremony explains,    

“Totalitarianism, George Orwell pointed out is not so much an age of faith but an age of schizophrenia, a society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial, Orwell wrote. That is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud and force is soon all the elites will have left. We can march in Copenhagen, we can join Bill McKiven’s worldwide day of climate protests, we can compost in our backyard, and hang our laundry out to dry. We can write letters to our elected officials, and vote for Obama and chant ‘Yes We Can’, but the power elite is impervious to the charade of democratic participation. Power is in the hands of moral and intellectual trolls who are ruthlessly creating a system of neo-feudalism and killing the ecosystem that sustains life, and appealing to their better nature or seeking to influence the internal levels of power will no longer work. Yet, in the face of this catastrophe mass culture assures us that if we close our eyes, if we visualize what we want, if we have faith in ourselves, if we tell God that we believe in miracles, if we tap into our inner strength, if we grasp that we are truly exceptional, if we focus on happiness, our lives will be harmonious and complete. This cultural retreat into illusion, whether peddled by positive psychologists, Hollywood, Oprah or Christian preachers is a form of magical thinking. It turns worthless mortgages and debt into wealth. It turns the destruction of our manufacturing base into an opportunity for growth. It turns alienation and anxiety into a cheerful conformity, and it turns a nation that wages illegal wars, and administers offshore penal colonies where it administers torture into the greatest democracy on Earth.” 

  

While we spend the majority of our time concentrating on separating ourselves from the kuffar, while at the same time imitating them in their blind ignorance and allegiance to the falsified notions and oppressive, dominant norms of the day. We would do better to recognize that we have adopted many of the same views. We would also do better were we to attempt to revive some of the critical thought and sensible critique that is evident in discussions like these. We need Muslim speakers, authors and activists that attempt to correlate the responsibility to act for justice and truth to a moral obligation mandatory on us all.

At one point Hedges says that, “America’s most dangerous enemies are not Islamic Radicals but those that sold us the perverted ideology of free market capitalism and globalization.” Likewise we suffer from an internal hypocrisy that seems to dominate the age. It is time we join the conversation and opposition to corporate globalization, but first we must seek to understand the principles that challenge its existence. They are the principles we read every time we pick up the Quran, the principles we glaze over and ignore as we separate knowledge from implementation.  In conclusion, Mr. Hedges remarks about the importance of acting with a moral imperativeness that this system must be fought even if the outcome looks bleak… indeed this is the condition of humanity at large – the lacking sense of moral responsibility plagues us all. The sense of complacency and lack of courage to formulate alternatives and fight for the cause of justice haunts us as well. We should all become activists and voices like Chris Hedges, concerned and caring, yet rational and tactful in how approach the obstacles. 

This video gets 4/5 stars and is definitely recommended. Feel free to comment about your own interpretations by clicking on the comment button below. 

Syed Qutb - In the Shade of the Quran - Surah Ankabut 41-43 - The Spider's House

The Frailty of the Powerful

Now that the destruction of despotic, wrongdoing and wicked unbelievers has been outlined, and bearing in mind what was said at the beginning of the sūrah about tests and temptation, the relative power of competing forces is described in a clear simile. There is only one true power and this belongs to Allah. Every other power is frail and flimsy. Whoever seeks support or protection from other than Allah is like a spider which clings to a frail home woven of silk that lacks strength. Both the spider and its web, or home, are without real support:

Those who take anyone other than Allah for their protectors may be compared to the spider which makes for itself a home. Indeed the spider’s home is the frailest of all homes, if they but knew it. Allah certainly knows the nature of whatever people invoke instead of Him. He alone is Almighty, Wise. Such are the comparisons We draw for people’s benefit, but none will grasp their meaning except the people of knowledge.(Verses 41-43)

This is an amazing but true picture of the powers operating in the universe. People sometimes overlook this truth and hence their values fall by the wayside. Indeed their concept of human relations grows corrupt and all their criteria become ill-balanced. They do not know which way to go, what to take up and what to leave. In this situation, the power of government deceives them. They feel it to be too strong, address their wishes and complaints to it, fear it and try to appease it so that they remain safe from its strong-handed measures. Similarly, they are deceived by other powers, such as that of wealth which they imagine to control people’s lives. They, thus, try to obtain wealth so that they can exercise power over others. The power of knowledge also deceives them as they consider it a source of strength, wealth and all other elements that give people power. Hence, they approach it with humility, just like a worshipper engaged in devotion. Whether controlled by individuals, communities or states, apparent power deceives them. They are pulled towards it like moths are attracted to light or swarm towards a fire.

People are thus oblivious of the one power which creates all the little powers, owns, gives, directs and uses them as it pleases. They forget that seeking support and protection from these little powers is just like a spider taking refuge in its web. It remains a small powerless insect that has no power within itself or its flimsy web.

The only real support and protection for man is with Allah. This is the main truth which the Qur’ān takes special care to instil in the minds of believers. It makes their community stronger than all the powers that try to obstruct it. Over the centuries it enabled the community of believers to place the arrogance of tyrants under its feet and to overcome tyranny in its strongest forts and seemingly impregnable lines. This great truth is established in every believer’s mind, it has filled every heart and become part of their very being. It is no longer a word we utter, or a subject for debate. It is the main idea in our lives, minds and senses.

All power belongs to Allah. The only protection to be sought is from Allah.

Everything else is weak, flimsy and powerless, however much it tries to inflict punishment, be tyrannical and overpowering. They are simply spiders, and what power has a spider other than the silk with which it weaves its web?:

“Indeed the spider’s home is the frailest of all homes, if they but knew it.” (Verse 41)

Advocates of the divine message who are often subjected to oppression and hardship, and also to temptation and deceit, should reflect on this great truth and keep it before their eyes. They must not allow themselves to forget this even for a moment as they face different forces, some trying to inflict harm on them or even crush them, and some trying to lure them to their own line, or to buy them out. But all these forces are no more than the threads of a spider’s web. This is their real estimation in Allah’s measure. It is also the measure when compared with true faith when people have the right concept of it.

“Allah certainly knows the nature of whatever people invoke instead of Him.” (Verse 42)

They seek the protection of patrons to whom they ascribe a share of divinity. Allah knows the reality of these patrons: they are no more than a spider seeking refuge in its frail web. “He alone is Almighty, Wise.” (Verse 42) He alone has power over all things, and in His wisdom, He conducts the affairs of the universe.

“Such are the comparisons We draw for people’s benefit, but none will grasp their meaning except the people of knowledge.” (Verse 43)

Devoid of knowledge and clear reasoning, some unbelievers took such comparisons as material for ridicule. They said that Muhammad’s Allah speaks about spiders and flies. They were uninspired by this remarkable description because they did not use their reason, while their knowledge too remained scanty:

“None will grasp their meaning except the people of knowledge.”(Verse 43)

The Politicization of the 9-11 Anniversary: Reflections Marred by the Misinformed Mainstream

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the infamous day notoriously referred to now simply as 9/11.  This year's occurrence has been marked by the interesting coincident phenomena of the end of Ramadan and the Eid Holiday of Muslims occurring the day before.  This, alongside the simultaneous controversy and commentary associated with the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero and a small town pastor wanting to burn the Quran, highlights the increasing animosities of the War on Terror. The press, in typical fashion, will focus on the patriotism this day and help to memorialize and commemorate in its typical simplistic fashion as social networking sites, youtubers, and other digital mediums so too will help to ritualize what once was just another day in September.  Many will participate without even noticing that the majority of media coverage fails to acknowledge an all too important voice in the discussion; the voice of the "terrorists" themselves. 

While mainstream media across the world mourns the deaths of the more than 3,000 people that died that day, little will be said about the hundreds of thousands, in actuality millions, that have died as a result of the United States' and its allies retaliatory aggression since. They will also comment little with regard to the reality of the very different world we live in today as a result of that event and its follow-up.  But as individuals take time to reflect on the anniversary of 9/11, an anniversary that has come to mark the contemporary era, they base their reflections on their particular circumstance, experience, and worldview. As this year's anniversary rolls around, it is more important to emphasize the necessity that we look outside information and interpretations we are used to and rather to opposing views whenever we want ot fully grasp a particular phenomenon. It is only when we turn to try to understand opposing viewpoints that the same divisions and conflicts that have been perpetual both before and since 9/11 may finally be mediated. 

One of the first things a supporter of the Global War on Terror led by the United States would recognize if he or she took the time to analyze the opposite spectrum in the clash of civilizations would be that the objectives of the "terrorists" have largely been recognized.

The eve of the 9-11 attacks witnessed the United States of America as a unipolar force in the world. The fall of the USSR in the early 1990's birthed an entire decade dominated by U.S. decision making.  The idea of a neo-liberal new world order espoused by George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, conservative and democrat alike throughout the 1990's marked what many considered to be the beginning of the end to conflict in ideology and consolidation of the entire globe to the model of free markets and democracy. The world was covered in nation states, the major rival communist power had declined, and the phenomenon of globalization was ready to merge the world into the same dominant creed. The problem was that this new world order, its professed free markets and democracy, in actuality promoted nothing of the sort. Instead its model promoted the success of big business, multinational corporations, and global finance, while propping up dictators and despots from Mexico to Indonesia.  Many of the authoritarian regimes supported by this model were over Muslim nations and what most don't realize is that 9-11 was as much a reaction, not to the espoused ideals of this international order, but to the actual effects the implementation of this order had in the real world.

Nine years after 9-11, the international arena is dominated by discussions about the War on Terror, as states have utilized the terror scare in much the same way the Iron Curtain rhetoric was utilized after World War II to pave the way for the Cold War. People across the globe today have less freedom and liberty as a result, and democracies are malfunctioning from East to West, including some of the most developed nations. For example, riots in Greece and similar conditions in many developed countries seem to foreshadow a reality of the civil unrest the United States could face itself someday. Already discussions about austerity are occurring in America alongside a nation divided politically. This as corporate and financial consolidation occurs across the globe and we speak not of democracy for all but of a new, authoritarian state capitalism competing with the neo-liberal model once considered the end of history.   Domestic conflict and internal strife is one of the necessary existent variables the "terrorists" need for victory.

America is still embroiled in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  In Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and other countries like them, proxy wars fought today with mechanical drones and foreign armies, prepare citizens of today for perpetual, longterm war tomorrow. As billions are spent each month in the process and no one talks of cutting back military expenditure, as the fields, scope and expense of the war exasperate, it seems America and her allies may be stuck in a unsustainable quagmire that leads ultimately to failure. 

The George W. Bush III era marked a complete alteration of global perceptions with regard to America and its effect on the world.  Barack Obama has so far done very little to curb those perceptions, and bank bailouts and corporate subsidies alongside the foreign wars serve as proof to people everywhere that governments have become but tools of an elite corporatist  military security complex that cares little about the everyday man on the street.  Thus, the idea of an End of History has been put in the dustbin and people subsist on what has become normalcy in their lives simply because there is no alternative and certainly not because they are content with the circumstances of the present.  

Despite the recent rhetoric of withdrawal from Iraq, progress in Afghanistan, economic recovery and other lies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to perpetuate American dominance alongside the fabrication that the United States is the vanguard of freedom and democracy in the world.  Commemorations and celebratory speeches marking 9/11 may boost the morale of small segments of the people, but the speeches that most need heard and listened to are those that are blotted out from the mainstream.  They are not the words of domestic dissidents benefiting as well from the comforts of empire. Nine years after the Global War on Terror's initiation it is time for people to finally listen to the words of the "terrorists" themselves. 

Shortly after 9/11, major media outlets agreed not to publish any of the statements of the "terrorists" for fear that the messages may include encrypted messages with directives for more attacks. CBS said it was committed to "responsible journalism that informs the public without jeopardizing American lives".  This allowed the elite to promote the lie that America was attacked by religious extremists who hated her freedoms and democracy while nothing could be further from the truth.  Instead, they would show clips of the press releases and statements that came in as a justification in the aftermath of 9/11, 2001.   CNN, for example, continuously showed footage of Osama bin Laden saying: “If inciting people to do that is terrorism and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists.” However, a review of bin Laden quotes from 9/11/2001 unto today shows that most of the stated causes of the attack on September 11, 2001 had nothing to do with  western liberties and that the intended consequences of the attack have largely been realized. Today the causes cited by the "terrorists" preside due to the continuous press blackout, and the approach taken in the War on Terror continues to provide the fodder for which entire generations may find themselves in war. 

Shortly after 9/11, bin Laden was interviewed by Tayseer Alouni of Al-Jazeerah (later put in Guantanomo for the coverage).  In the interview he stated emphatically, 

"But I mention that there are also other events that took place, bigger, greater and more dangerous than the collapse of the towers. It is that this Western civilization, which is backed by America, has lots its values and appeal [qiyamuhaa]. The immense materialistic towers were destroyed, which preach Freedom, and Human Rights, and Equality. It became a total mockery and that clearly appeared when the US government interfered and banned the media outlets from airing our words which don't exceed a few minutes, because they felt that the truth started to appear to the American people, and that we truly aren't terrorists by the definition they want, but because we are being violated in Palestine, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Sudan, in Somalia, in Kashmir, in the Philippines and in every place, and that this is a reaction from the young men of this nation [ummah] against the violations by the British Government. Therefore, they declared what they declared, and they ordered what they ordered, and they forgot everything they mentioned about Free Speech, and Unbiased Opinion and all those matters. So I say that Freedom and Rights in America, and Human Rights, have been sent forward to the guillotine with no return unless they are quickly reinstated. The government will take the American people and the West in general will enter into a choking life, into an unsupportable hell, because of the fact that those governments have very strong ties, and are under the payroll, of the Zionist lobby, which serves the needs of Israel who kills our sons and our children without right so that they can keep on ruling with total control"

 Obviously, it is U.S. foreign policy and the hypocrisy of its espoused rhetoric vis a vis true action that led to the attacks. Additonally, it seems that bin Laden predicted a decline in domestic condition akin to what we see these days.  

In 2002 bin Laden issued another declaration, this time specifically giving a justification for the attacks of 9/11. In it he stated the reason America was attacked as, "very simple: Because you attacked us and continue to attack us." He went on to describe US foreign policy in the Muslim world, its invasions, its support for Israel, its propping up of dictators and other atrocities that killed thousands before 9/11, none of which had anything to do with American freedom, democracy or human rights.

In 2006, just 5 years into the war, bin Laden declared, "The mujahedeen recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan -- with Allah's permission,'' thus highlighting that it is a plan of luring America into economic strangulation and a war of attrition that was the true purpose behind the attacks on September 11. With discussions of debt after trillions spent at war, with little military and economic gain attributable to the  events since, it 

 There are many more quotes and declarations. The point is that millions still live completely unaware of why America was attacked that day, oblivious to the cause, ignorant of the objectives. The "terrorists" have set up a very effective propaganda campaign using the internet as a result of being boycotted by the mainstream press, but today, few mainstream Americans know any of what the "terrorists" say, while millions of Muslim youth across the globe are all too familiar with the message at hand.  As a result, reading the names of those killed on 9-11 as commemoration, while ignoring the names of the millions dead in the Muslim world will have worse consequences than burning the Quran in the longterm.  

Nine years in, the War on Terror rages onward and most of the objectives of the "terrorists" have been realized. Effective insurgencies continue to exist not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in many countries across the world.  Mujahideen or "terrorists" are unified in their struggle as each and every day the arrogance of the United States is all too clear to the rest of the world. The economic condition of the Western countries continues to fall, political processes fail and majorities now oppose the direction of their governments with large majorities disapproving of American influence abroad.  Still, there is little mention in the public discussion about the political and economic causes cited by the perpetrators of 9/11.   

In June of this year, CIA Director Leon Panetta told ABC News that Al Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan is now “relatively small…I think at most we’re looking at maybe 50 to 100.” This was to defend the claims of the Obama Adminstration that they were winning the war, and needed to send tens of thousands of additonal troops to the region in order to protect America from attacks plotted on foreign soil.  What failed to be mentioned was that U.S. intelligence never numbered members of Al-Qaeda as anything more than a few hundred individuals. According to the FBI, there were only 200 sworn members at the time of 9/11.  Al Qaeda was founded, not on the belief that they could mobilize a military big enough to take on America in combat, but on the belief that they had to attack America in order to prevent it from further intervening and influencing the authoritarian situations of the Muslim world.  It was always about ideology and incitement and never about raw force and power.  The only chance they had to succeed in such an asymmetrical situation was in the event that America continued to subject the world to such rhetorical propaganda, ignored the real causes of 9-11, acted unilaterally with the all its military might and subsequently radicalized a sufficient portion of the Muslim world. The amazing thing is that through it all, the United States has not altered its practices whatsoever. The rhetoric has changed but few are listening and it looks like a small fringe group of around 200 terrorists have taken on the global hegemon and are on the verge of achieving their goals.

Human beings are ritualistic, and societies have forever used holidays and commemorations to ensure a continued allegiance to the creed of its elite.  9-11 is no different; as the ceremonies at the Pentagon and at Ground Zero will document a message that justifies perpetual war, ignores reality and helps to justify a world system that enslaves and dehumanizes. Certainly the ritual rhetoric of "freedom and democracy" will reign supreme, continuously exerting a stronghold on the minds of its loyal adherents.  No mention of the causes as proclaimed by the "terrorists" will be inserted into that discourse and for good measure. Were people able to understand and think rationally, peace and prosperity could be ushered in tomorrow.  Bin Laden has offered peace for years. In 2006, for example he proclaimed,

 We don't mind offering you a long-term truce on fair conditions that we adhere to. We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie and cheat. So both sides can enjoy security and stability under this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been destroyed in this war."  The mainstream press made sure not to cover that segment of the speech.

This year, after global citizens tune off the press coverage of the names being read of the dead from Ground Zero, or the President's rhetorical speech it would do them much justice if they took a few minutes to listen to the other side. 

Each year, around 9/11, the "terrorists" release a video highlighting their interpretation of present circumstances.  Below is the version from 2009:

download in entirety (PART 1) and (PART 2)

The wars will only be ended and security will only be returned once people take the time to address the grievances of the perpetrators of 9-11, to at least analyze the influence the United States continues to exert in the Muslim world. As long as people shun their message as propagandistic, rejecting it altogether because of the means they choose to utilize in reaction to their perceived oppression, so long as people neglect to recognize that most of the acronyms and adjectives used by Western leaders to describe the "terrorists" are as applicable to itself, then the clash of civilizations will forever go forth and all of humanity loses.  

As the anniversary of 9-11 is commemorated this year, a pastor who wanted to burn the Quran is insulted and proclaimed insane by a mainstream press that worries about its contribution to the animosities of Muslims across the world.  What no one is ready to recognize is that this man is a product of his environment, of a world that prevents any discourse creeping into the mainstream that fails to coincide with the view of an elite.  The Quran burning pastor has little interaction with the complexities of a world that is not black and white and has no awareness of the variables that produced 9-11. In that sense he is little different than the majority and represents a very typical stance. Decrying the "terrorists" without any reflection, investigation and rational analysis of the claims of the attackers is typical of a dominant majority so too brainwashed by media propaganda. It is as true whether you prefer Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC.  In so far as this ignorance continues, the only loser in War on Terror can be freedom, liberty, and human rights themselves.  Perhaps that is what the "real terrorists" desire. Here is to the opening of minds to other views.

Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket

First it was South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene, propped up by Republicans but somehow winning the democratic primary before being brought up on phelony porn charges...

But today, the NYTimes discusses an even more hilarious approach.  Steve May, a Republican, recruited three street people to run as Green Party candidates in Arizona. Check out pics and the articvle here

Some great quotes are included:

Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk...

“Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said Mr. May, who is himself a candidate for the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.”

To make his point, Mr. May went by Starbucks, the gathering spot of the Mill Rats, as the frequenters of Mill Avenue are known.
“Are you fake, Benjamin?” he yelled out to Mr. Pearcy, who cried out “No,” with an expletive attached.

“Are you fake, Thomas?” Mr. May shouted in the direction of Thomas Meadows, 27, a tarot card reader with less than a dollar to his name who is running for state treasurer. He similarly disagreed.

“Are you fake, Grandpa?” he said to Anthony Goshorn, 53, a candidate for the State Senate whose bushy white beard and paternal manner have earned him that nickname on the streets. “I’m real,” he replied.

Gathered around was a motley crew of people who were down on their luck, including a one-armed pregnant woman named Roxie whom Mr. May befriended sometime back and who introduced him to the rest.

I just find this all too hilarious. As much as I consider the right in America traditional fascists in the Hitlerian sense, I have to say that this invasion of the "Green Party" is all too funny.  In a state like Arizona with some very artsy, fartsy friendly fascists running around, many democratic voteswill go to these Greenies, simply due to political lethargy and lack of trust in tradtional politics. These votes may skew tight races and lead to misery at the hands of the GOP.  While I am not pro-misery, I do feel a certain sense of pleasing irony to the fact the great democracy jammed down peoples throats at the barrels of guns and tanks since WWII is completely malfunctioning.

I also find the Green Party full of irrational, liberal eco-Nazis looking to throw the world back into some anti-technological perosis, and most of them equivalent on their views about U.S. imperialism and the international order complete in line with the other strand of liberal fascism run from the Democratic party and spouted at MSNBC. 

Apparently, the official Green Party has shunned the move as a hoax. But I have to honestly say that I think homeless people would have made more effective decisions than the idiots in charge now have over the past generation.

I express my full fledged support for these individuals and look forward to seeing more from the "Green Party" as election season comes to the fore.  American democracy seems to have officially been destroyed, by its own corrupt politicians another indication that it is really time people look for real change outside contemporary systems. 
      

The 12.8 trillion dollar bailout you never heard about...

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Apparently the U.S. government spent a whole lot more than $700 billion to bail out the banks.  According to a team at Bloomberg News, at one point last year the U.S. had lent, spent or guaranteed as much as $12.8 trillion to rescue the economy.  This boils back to the broader question of the power of the printing press in the U.S. private central bank, dollar denominated global order.  The only reason this is possible is due to the nature of dollar dominance today. The people should be up in arms, but are busy protesting a mosque in Manhattan instead.

Some quotes to understand follow:

Sir Josiah Stamp, director of the Bank of England during the years 1928 ? 1941, stated:- “The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough money to buy it back again... Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue to be slaves of the banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit.”

 JK Galbraith said:? “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled……… It is, moreover, one that is almost breathtaking in its audacity." JK Galbraith (1975), Money: Whence it Came, Where it Went.

Apparently the original journalist that sued the Fed and won is dead. Age 52, heart attack....

Here is a short vid (music in intro) on his efforts....

It is really time people put an end to this inservitude.