THE WAR AGAINST THE WARMarch 2, 2003
Looks like the Turkish Parliament, by defying the US, may have made itself "irrelevant" like the UN. Now the powers that be are saying they are not going to bring the measure to another vote. Instead of honoring the democratic vote, they may just nullify democracy like they have in the US. "Democracy," as we have seen, is any government that gives these gangsters what they want. Anything else is "irrelevant" or "extremist" or even "communist." See The New York Times for the story. According to democrats.com "The intelligence website Stratfor.com says Saddam 'has agreed to a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin - previously discussed between Russian, French and German leaders - that Baghdad formally invite U.N. peacekeepers within the next 10 days or so to back up weapons inspectors... Hussein has asked Putin to deliver a secret offer to U.S. and British energy giants, inviting them back to Iraq as major industry players roughly 30 years after they were ousted from the country. The companies could return to Iraq immediately if Washington calls off its planned invasion...'" International diplomats are getting a taste of the dirty tricks that have facilitated the Republican rise to power since the Nixon years. Security council delegates are having their telephones bugged and emails read. See The Observer. According to a survey by Editor & Publisher, "the growing rift at the United Nations and massive antiwar demonstrations around the globe appear to have had an impact. E&P now finds that a majority of top papers oppose any attack on Iraq without broad international support." According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, "The percentage of registered voters who say they would support President Bush in 2004 fell below 50 percent for the first time." The poll found two-thirds of those questioned saying the economy is "poor." Optimism about the economy dropped 10 points since December. The US stance of ultra-aggressiveness, its statement of its intention to strike first with nuclear weapons if it chooses, has maximized world tensions, and South Korea and Japan are finding themselves in the line of fire if North Korea responds with its own aggressiveness. According to the Associated Press, South Korea's new president warned of a possible "calamity," and the North responded that nuclear war could break out on the Korean Peninsula "at any moment." Billionaire capitalist George Soros, the 38th richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine, is no left winger and obviously not "with the terrorists," but he calls the Bush statements that "Those who are not with us, are against us," to be "an imperialist vision" and says Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and others in the administration to have "an exaggerated view of their own righteousness." Bernie Saunders, a congressman from Vermont who shows that not all politicians are controlled by big corporations, wrote an open letter to Michael Powell, son of Colin, head of the Federal Communications Commission and agent of corporate monopolization of media. "Let’s be clear," he said. "One of the great crises facing this country is that a handful of huge corporations control the flow of information. Whether it is television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books or the Internet, fewer and fewer giant conglomerates are determining what we see, hear and read. Unless we stop this trend and create a media with much broader ownership and diversity of opinion, it is not certain that democracy will survive in this country." You can read the entire text at Bernie's site. O'Reilly's most recent outrage was his statement that those who oppose the war should "just shut up" and are "enemies of the state" and will be "spotlighted". The sponsors of O'Reilly's show are Discovercard, Hummer.com, and Morgan Stanley. If you believe in freedom of speech, exercise your consumer power and complain to these sponsors. For information on O'Reilly's sponsors, click informationclearinghouse.info According to the UK site journalism.co.uk, Americans are increasingly turning to news from abroad. "According to the internet audience management and analysis company, Nielsen NetRatings, traffic to the UK's biggest news sites, BBC News Online and Guardian Unlimited, has increased dramatically over the past year," the site reports. "Many of these new users are from the US." American consumers need to demand more of US media. As consumers you do have power. You can make a difference. Click here to send a free fax to your congresspeople urging them to reject the Son of Patriot Act. According to Greg Palast writing for TomPaine.com, "If U.S. intelligence agencies did not see the attack coming it was because they were told not to look. Why? From inside the agencies were obtained statements and documents indicating that the Bush administration blocked key investigations into allegations that top Saudi Arabian royals and some members of the bin Laden family, not just Osama, funded and supported Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations."