MEDIA ROULETTE
Hidden History
July 13, 2008
Case Cracked? An Irish film maker identifies possible accomplices in the assassination of Robert Kennedy in this film via BBC, see YouTube, Part 1 and Part 2.Hunt's Last Testament -- E. Howard Hunt on his involvement in the JFK assassination, via his son Saint John Hunt. See youtube.com. LBJ's Mistress on the JFK assassination. youtube.com Jack Ruby fingers Johnson Ruby Press Conference Ruby-Nixon Connection -- Ruby worked for Nixon in 1947. LBJ-J. Edgar Hoover Phone Conversation -- Hoover: "It would be very bad to have a rash of investigations." Johnson: "Well I think the only way we can stop 'em is to appoint a high level one to evaluate your report and to put someone pretty good on it that I could select and tell the House and Senate not to go ahead with their investigations." The Secret Service in Dallas -- -- The Bush Connection, Part 2, Part 3. More Hidden History -- More history: Lyndon Johnson's lawyer says that he was behind the murder of JFK. See Was it Johnson? Part One, Part Two and Part Three. See another interview with Madeleine Brown, Johnson's Mistress. And this History Channel bit, pointing at Johnson. Here Walter Cronkite reads a Soviet Reaction to the JFK Assassination. HISTORY CLASS
July 15, 2008
More on E. Howard Hunt's Last Confession from early 2007: see Paul Joseph Watson at Prison Planet, Larry Chin at Online Journal, Erik Hedegaard at Rolling Stone, wikipedia.org (with transcript of tape), portland.indymedia.org
Since I ran across the last confession of E. Howard Hunt (See History Class) I can't help but be struck with how little it has been discussed in the media system. For many years people like Gerald Ford would say, "If it had been a conspiracy, something would have come out..." Of course zillions of things came out, but there is none so blind as one who will not see. And now you have the head of Nixon's plumbers team, who went to jail for breaking into Democratic headquarters and Watergate for Nixon, leaving a testament to his son, on tape and in his own writing, explaining the essential structure and dynamic of the operation that killed Kennedy, and the major media barely blinks. Rolling Stone was about the only mainstream publication that touched it. For half a century, virtually from the beginning, a massive majority of the population has believed that the government report was a coverup. The public is not fooled. Now you have one of the bigwigs in the underground power structure of the U.S. spilling the beans, and the mass media stares ahead blankly, says nothing. Nearly everyone already knows, understands, believes that the government's story is a lie. It doesn't matter. That will not penetrate the official media, even when the perpetrators start to talk. I mentioned this oddity to a friend of mine and he said, "I think there is a gentleman's agreement not to talk about it, that it would just be too damaging to the psyche of the country, to its self image, etc. to pull out the ugly truth."
It seems to be pretty much accurate. I personally disagree with the impulse, however. I would rather pull out the whole ugly truth and let us all look at it, hash it out, assimilate it and move on. This country could really use a huge truth commission going back to that moment and rehashing all the underground government criminal activity since. And that includes 9/11. How did a handful of Saudi Arabians with box cutters manage to paralyze the whole American defense system? We're told it was just a colossal series of fuckups? So why was no one ever held responsible for any of these fuckups. Let's launch a real investigation and let the chips fall where they will. Why are we protecting criminals from apprehension?
July 16, 2008
Creeping Fascism -- Naomi Wolf on the timetable for authoritarianism.
July 18, 2008
Now Hear This! A lifelong Republican IT expert has come forth and named Rove as the prime mover in a scam to rig elections for at least the last eight years. Check out this story at bradblog.com and velvetrevolution.us. "This entire system is being programmed in secret by programmers who have no oversight by anybody," the expert said.Georgia Fix 2002 -- New evidence has arisen that points to a fix in the 2002 Georgia elections, in which the Democrats, who led in the polls were beat with the notorious Diebold machines. One was incumbent Senator Max Cleland, the decorated Vietnam veteran who lost limbs during the war. The narrative at the time was that the smear ads that showed Cleland with Osama bin Laden had worked. But in fact, that was just a convenient cover for the more effective methods of directly tampering with the Diebold machines, which is easily done, as has been demonstrated many times. Read about it at rawstory.com. Dalai Lama on Bush -- According to Op Ed News, the Dalai Lama said, "I have great respect for, in fact, I love President Bush, because he is very frank, very straightforward. His intentions are good, but some of his policy, in spite of his sincere motivation and right goal, and some of his method becomes unrealistic because of lack of understanding about reality." It would be hard to argue with the Dalai Lama that Bush lacks an understanding of reality, it doesn't take great wisdom to understand that. I wonder though, does the Dalai Lama really think Bush has good intentions? Or is he just saying that to balance his other point, that Bush lacks an understanding of reality. It's always diplomatic to attribute good intentions, but I can't see how anyone with great insight would mistake Bush for a man with good intentions. I think he was just trying to be nice. Impeachment Rally -- At 10 a.m. Friday, July 25, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a preliminary hearing on the topic of impeachment, with a presentation by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Afterdowningstreet.org is organizing a rally in support of impeachment.
July 19, 2008
This Is Not Freedom -- A million dollars for anyone who can answer this list of questions without concluding that the Bush administration is complicit in 9/11. See "False Flag of Terror" by Kelly Mitchell opednews.com. It concludes with information on four programs few know about for dealing with those who disagree with the government. "Operation Garden Plot allows for the round-up of masses of American citizens by the military based on dissident status. If you disagree with the above government policies, you can be labeled a dissident. Operation Cable Splicer details a methodology for the Federal Government to smoothly take over state and local government operations. And Rex 84, ironically first tested by exercises in 1984, allows for the detention of large numbers of American citizens. There are a number of confirmed barbed wire enclosed camps, with guards, operated by FEMA. No prisoners yet. A list of more than 600 unconfirmed, but potential sites, federally owned, exists."Brand O -- Brought to you by the same people who brought you the War on Terror: Barack Obama. obama is now advised by the former executive director of the Tri-Lateral Commission, Zbignew Brzezinski, who also brought us Jimmy Carter, a fresh face, a relatively unknown politician who said the "arms race was a disgrace to the human race," then went on to build the Trident nuclear submarine base in St. Marys, Georgia, on the Florida border. Brzezinski wrote the book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives , which lays out the objectives made into official U.S. foreign policy by the Bush administration: to gain control the Middle East and Central Asia and meanwhile make sure that no other power rises in military stature to challenge U.S. primacy. As usual, the real masters play both sides. opednews.com It's All About Money -- It's money that drives policy. Bill Moyers and Michael Winship Truthout. "This is the great denial in democracy that may ultimately mean our ruin. We just don't seem able to see or accept the fact that money drives policy. It's no wonder that Congress and the White House have been looking the other way as the predators picked the pockets of unsuspecting debtors. Mega banking and investment firms have been some of the biggest providers of the cash vital to keeping incumbents in office. There isn't much appetite for biting - or regulating - the manicured hand that feeds them. Guess who gave the most money to candidates in this 2007-08 federal election cycle? That's right, the financial services and real estate industries. They stuffed nearly $250 million into the candidate coffers.... Follow the money - it goes from your gas tank to the wine bars and steak houses of DC, where the payoffs happen. Or ponder that FISA surveillance legislation that just passed the Senate. It let the big telecommunications companies off the hook for helping the government wiretap our phones and laptops without warrants. Over the years those telecom companies have given Republicans in the House and Senate $63 million and Democrats $49 million. No wonder that when their lobbyists reach out and place a call to Congress, they never get a busy signal. Do the same without making a big contribution, and you'll be put on 'hold' until the embalmer shows up to claim your cold corpse." Howard Zinn, memo to Obama and McCain: No one wins a war. boston.com 9/11 Press for Truth, a film. How a group of New Jersey widows blew open the case of 9/11. See video.google.com.
July 23, 2008
Don't Be a Hack, Barack -- According to Robert Scheer at truthdig.com, "Barack Obama is betraying his promise of change and is in danger of becoming just another political hack. Yes, just like former maverick John McCain, who has refashioned himself as a mindless rubber stamp for the most inane policies of the miserably failed Bush administration. Both candidates are embracing, rather than challenging, the fundamental irrationality of Bush’s 'war on terror,' which substitutes hysteria for rational analysis in appraising the dangers the country faces." Scheer also expresses unhappiness that Zbigniew Brzezinski has re-emerged on the political stage this time as a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama. Brzezinski was the director of the Tri Lateral Commission, who went looking for a new face when American was fed up with Nixon and his handpicked successor Ford, who pardoned Nixon of untold crimes. Brzezinski found Jimmy Carter and helped clear the golden path for him to be president, then became his foreign policy adviser. Carter went from a man who proclaimed that the arms race was a disgrace to civilization, to one who abetted it by supporting the creation of a Trident nuclear sub base in his home state. Once someone is lured into that position of power and grandeur, it is not easy to stand for principle against the inertia of the state, and the military industrial complex.Contrasts -- MSNBC, while Obama is getting coverage from Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain talks to reporters from a golf cart he shares with George H.W. Bush.
July 23, 2008
Barack, You Run Along Now -- There is a process by which things make little turns one at a time until they are running in the diametrically opposite direction from the direction in which they started. Now we read that obama is being advised by Colin Powell. I don't want to spoil anyone's party, but isn't Colin Powell the guy who stood up before the United Nations and used his prestige as an African American who had risen through the ranks to be one of the Joint Chiefs of the U.S. armed forces to deliver a message that he knew was fraudulent but was designed to fool the world into supporting or at least not resisting an invasion of Iraq based on lies. He did it. He knew he was lying, it's in the record. He helped to put us where we are today in Iraq. He was part of the conspiracy to lie to the American people and the world to falsely justify an invasion of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, tens of thousands more maimed, their lives shattered. No need to go into detail, we all know what a horrible mess it is. He is one of the authors of it. Reluctantly, you say? Even if he was dragged into it by the bloodthirsy chickenhawks, he still made the decision to lay down his honor for their fraudulent enterprise. What kind of advice is Barack expecting to get from him? Is lying with the purpose of launching a war a war crime? Is Powell not a criminal? In the country that imprisons more of its people than any other, why is he still free. How many deaths is he responsible for for his participation in the campaign of lies?It is disturbing to see Barack's behavior as he becomes manifestly closer to the centers of power. He likes it. He likes the feel of it. He wants to take on that mantle of power, and often he seems only too eager to abandon what got him there in order to leap onto the magic carpets of power that are being unfurled for him. He will soon have enlisted all of the old guard behind him and then when he climbs to the helm of that ship of state, there is little chance he can affect its inertia much.
I don't find it offensive that he spoke to Powell, that he is civil and respectful to him. Jesus consorted with thieves and prostitutes and why should we think ourselves too good to do the same. But to approach him as an adviser, seems to contradict Obama's eloquent pledges to "end the mindset of war" and other such lofty aspirations.
Now that Radovan Karadzic, who is accused of masterminding the massacre of more than 7,500 Muslim men and boys in 1995, has been found, maybe Barack can strike up a relationship with him. Of course is 7,500 is a paltry number compared to what the Bush administration is responsible for, but Karadzic still holds a respectable place in the annals of mass murder.
Barack, what is up with you?
Air America Morph -- . Speaking of things morping into something very different from where they began, it's strange to be listening to Air America and suddenly realize you are listening to Pat Buchanan and then it cuts into a Walmart commercial. After the station's rocky start and near collapse even though it found a huge audience immediately, it's lucky that there is anything that even remotely aspires to be liberal talk radio. But it is odd to hear Pat Buchanan on the station. The reason is because Air America latched on to a simulcast deal with MSNBC's Race for the White House. The partnership came about because Air America's Rachel Maddow was found to be able to do regular network news. She could hobknob with the big name Washington pundits, and be a credible representative of "the left", as defined by Air America. She was clever, presentable and could translate into regular prime time news. She could banter in the light, bouncy format of big media news and bring a freshness that it lacked. So Rachel gets to be on MSNBC's daily political pundit blabathon and in return Air America gets to simulcast it. It's a big jump up the ladder for Air America, to be able to cut a deal like that with the big mainstream guys, the mass market titans. Only problem is that MSNBC with all its conventional blowhards yapping away is not nearly as good as Rachel Maddow by herself in her own bright, tightly structured radio format. Suddenly you're hearing the same old flabby lips gabbing away that you hear on network TV on Sunday morning. What happened?
Oh well. The center cannot hold. Every creative impulse gets coopted by the voracious corporate machine. When you hear Walmart sweet talking you in between the programming, it's hard not to think that corporate America won again. Isn't Walmart a huge part of the problem in itself? The predatory company that moves into communities, tears apart their local economies, gets tax abatements and investment on the basis of all the jobs it's allegedly going to bring in, then hires its workers for such low rates it can then urge them to claim welfare benefits. "It's your money, provided by your tax dollars," Walmart tells its employees.
But still, in America, where the right wing rules the airways and everything else, it's nice to have a station that even claims to be progressive.
Get Out of Jail Free -- The Bush administration will not have to be accountable for its crimes. Bush will issue pardons. Obama will turn the other way. See Keith Olbermann on youtube.com.
Out, Damn Word! Of words that should be stricken from the political discussion, I nominate "flip flop". Anyone who uses the term flip flop is just repeating the endless hypnotic banter that has been drilled into his head by the phony, lying corporate media. Another expression that is never used in an authentic, constructive way is "the surge". The surge worked, the surge worked, the surge worked. We hear this over and over until it becomes an article in the new religion of the state. What is the surge? What has it accomplished? Violence is not as bad as it was? Perhaps the death toll is a little less than a year ago. That's a good thing. But is there any resolution, any progress? Is there even any clarity on what this whole ridiculous adventure was about? Another ridiculous expression I nominate for extinction, Bush's "War on Terror". Terror is fear, how do you have a war on fear? And if it is a war to end terrorism, it is a contradiction in terms because today's war is terrorism, murder of civilians, destruction of civilizations. How can the world's biggest terorist declare war against terror? It's all designed to disable the mind.
-- David Cogswell