Happy Fourth of July

A Former Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis to Attack US Troops

"Bring 'Em On?"

By STAN GOFF
CounterPunch

[...]Yesterday, when I read that US Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush, in a moment of blustering arm-chair machismo, sent a message to the 'non-existent' Iraqi guerrillas to "bring 'em on," the first image in my mind was a 20-year-old soldier in an ever-more-fragile marriage, who'd been away from home for 8 months.

He participated in the initial invasion, and was told he'd be home for the 4th of July. He has a newfound familiarity with corpses, and everything he thought he knew last year is now under revision. He is sent out into the streets of Fallujah (or some other city), where he has already been shot at once or twice with automatic weapons or an RPG, and his nerves are raw.

He is wearing Kevlar and ceramic body armor, a Kevlar helmet, a load carrying harness with ammunition, grenades, flex-cuffs, first-aid gear, water, and assorted other paraphernalia. His weapon weighs seven pounds, ten with a double magazine. His boots are bloused, and his long-sleeve shirt is buttoned at the wrist. It is between 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit at midday. He's been eating MRE's three times a day, when he has an appetite in this heat, and even his urine is beginning to smell like preservatives.

Mosquitoes and sand flies plague him in the evenings, and he probably pulls a guard shift every night, never sleeping straight through. He and his comrades are beginning to get on each others' nerves.

The rumors of 'going-home, not-going-home' are keeping him on an emotional roller coaster. Directives from on high are contradictory, confusing, and often stupid.

The whole population seems hostile to him and he is developing a deep animosity for Iraq and all its people--as well as for official narratives.

This is the lad who will hear from someone that George W. Bush, dressed in a suit with a belly full of rich food, just hurled a manly taunt from a 72-degree studio at the 'non-existent' Iraqi resistance. [...]

Comment: It is good to remember how those in the armed services are spending "Independence Day". From war supporter CNN: "Several attacks Thursday night left one U.S. soldier dead and at least 10 others wounded, according to U.S. military sources. [...]

Since Bush declared an end to major combat May 1, 27 U.S. soldiers have been killed and another 43 have died in accidents."

And we have, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of the coalition joint task force, commenting on the deaths of American sons, daughters, husbands and wives saying that the losses are "something that has not affected us negatively overall."

Even Bush says, "I think war is a dangerous place." Washington, D.C., May 7, 2003.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?

By Frederick Douglass
July 4, 1841

[...] What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.[...]

A QFS member writes:

Today is Independence Day in the "good ol' US of A".

The day Americans celebrate their freedom from British tyranny and the birth of "democracy" with American flags flown high, fireworks "bursting in air", barbecued burgers and plenty of Budweiser to heighten those patriotic sensibilities.

What a friggin' joke. Can't imagine why I forgot about it.

Freedom? Independence? Democracy?

Freedom from WHAT? For WHOM? Freedom from government intervention in the private lives of American citizens? Freedom from government surveillance technology which may soon include knowing every single move we make, who we talk to, what we purchase, where we are at all times, how many times we have a shower during the week? Freedom from being treated as a criminal whenever we get on an airplane?

Right. Well then.

Perhaps we mean when we speak of "freedom", that interesting breed of freedom that we ever so kindly attempt to "give" to foreign countries. You know. The kind that countries are raped for. The kind that women, children, the elderly and young men and women in the prime of life are butchered, mangled and maimed for. The kind that the American F16s and B52s bring to these ever so grateful nations, who then as a token of their eternal gratitude, hand over their countries to these "saviors", these "bringers of freedom and democracy", - lock, stock and barrel.

Damn. That's some kind of freedom. Some kind of independence from tyranny. Some kind of democracy. Gotta get me some of that alright.

The Declaration of Independence, ratified by Congress on July 4, 1776, stated:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; 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 ..."

"...it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it."

Well, sadly, even if the Bush Reich is ousted from power in the next election, it is highly likely that a regime even more diabolical will take its place. What's worse is that this evil will also likely go just as unnoticed, if not more so, than the previous one did, by the people of a nation who live in the illusion that they actually possess these inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What the people of this nation, and elsewhere in the world, do not realize, is that this "right to life" is, will and can be snuffed out at any moment by the powers that be. It happens all the time. Right before our very eyes. And when it does, when we finally see it, any sort of 3D "happiness" that one might be attempting to pursue is snuffed out as well - forever.

Liberty? Again, we know there is no such thing here. We are living in a prison of the most efficient sort. The type of prison where all the inmates believe they are free, despite all of the signs around them that scream exactly the opposite.

In a nation where so many people are content in their slumber – in a nation where people are waving their flags, spouting their patriotic slogans and slugging down their Budweisers while their world crumbles down around them - the prospects, sadly, do not look good. No, things do not look very good at all for the "good `ol US of A".

And it is frightening. It is even at times, infuriating. The government of the United States of America, and the puppet masters behind it, represent a tyranny the likes of which may have never been seen before.

And the tyranny doesn't stop there. This tyranny exists on all levels. From our very minds, to the entire planet. The Predator within all of us tyrannizes us ruthlessly every day. In our families, among our friends, at our work places, in our neighborhoods, on the playgrounds where our children play – tyranny. And it almost seems as though this tyranny is like some sort of a fungus that has spread, slowly eating up anything and everything good and vital and alive in its path, eventually consuming the entire planet.

"God" may be in his heaven, but all is certainly NOT right with the world.

Of course, things have been like this for a very long time now, but it seems as though the point of critical mass is quickly approaching. I see it all around me. Both in my immediate environment, and outside of it. I have seen little else apart from clever and subtle manipulation, lies, betrayal, traps, confusion, egocentricity, and apathy.

But then, what can one expect in a psychopathic world, run by psychopathic leaders, who are in turn having their strings pulled by psychopathic puppet masters? Not too much. [ More...]

Why I won't be at the victory parade: And why Bush should be charged with treason

by Helen & Harry Highwater    

[...] When the men and women of America's military put their life on the line, they deserve to know why. They deserve the truth. Sending American soldiers to fight, kill, and die, but lying to them and lying to the American public about why, is a perversion of patriotism. [...]

Bushy's Fourth of July Speech: "We also recognize the challenges that America now faces. We are winning the war against enemies of freedom, yet more work remains. We will prevail in this noble mission. Liberty has the power to turn hatred into hope.

"America is a force for good in the world, and the compassionate spirit of America remains a living faith. Drawing on the courage of our Founding Fathers and the resolve of our citizens, we willingly embrace the challenges before us."

Comment: Many will continue to believe this kind of talk, because contemplating the reality is just too horrible, since it seems to be forgotten that freedom must be based on the truth.

Brainerd peace group denied a spot in city's July 4th parade

Allen Powell II, Star Tribune Published July 4, 2003

A Brainerd peace group has been told it can't march in today's July 4th parade, and event organizers and police say it's because they can't guarantee the safety of the marchers.

Members of the Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace wanted to march to protest the war in Iraq, but were told by Brainerd Community Action, which organized the parade, that there weren't enough police officers available to protect them.

Police Chief John Bolduc said his department will be spread too thin to have an officer march with the coalition in case of violence, and was notified too close to the event to make additional arrangements.

"We have no way of regaining control once we lose control," said Bolduc, about a possible riot. "There is no other help."

[...] Kristen Blann, a coalition member, said she finds it disturbing that in a celebration of America's independence, a group with dissenting views about the war is not being allowed to voice them.

She also finds it troubling that Community Action, which is funded through a tax levy and received $10,000 from the city for fireworks, is responsible for that denial.

"I don't think the founding fathers would have approved of the climate in this country," she said.

Comment: So marchers today are by default in support of All things American:

Celebrating all things American..

Before any of us can really enjoy our fourth of July celebrations, surely we need first to really know and understand what it is we are celebrating.

What is the defining image of America? What is the one thing that has remained constant throughout America's history, the one thing that Americans can really celebrate today? Is it wholesome values and apple pie? Is it freedom and democracy?

or is it WAR...

Since its inception America has never NOT been at war in some form or other. See here for list.

The figures are hard to come by, but a conservative estimate is that approximately 1 - 1.5 million American sons and daughters were sent to their deaths by their leaders over the course of America's short but bloody history.

Of course this is only the tip of the iceberg in regard to the loss of life as a result of American war mongering. America's real speciality in wartime is the killing of citizens of other countries.

After a certain period of time it seems that America was not content with public wars, after all they had to be justified to some extent, this was no good. With the signing of the national security act the concept of "national security" came into being.

On the one hand safeguarding "national security" might suggest that the most pressing concern is the protection of America's borders. Not so, unless your understanding of "national security" is ensuring that American interests the world over are "secured". From this point of view, a risk to "national security" is any country or person who does not agree with America's goal of becoming preeminent among the nations of the world.

Some organisation, of course, was required to oversee the securing of America's "national security".

Enter the CIA

From Cambodia to Guatemala the CIA in its 45 year history has been involved in 3,000 major and 10,000 minor covert operations. They have been central in creating the pretext for most of the major wars, specialised in training and funding secret armies and death squads in many countries, overthrowing dozens of working democracies and establishing (usually) brutal military dictatorships. They have also been instrumental in the creation of the Golden Triangle during the Vietnam war and the Golden Crescent in Afghanistan, the latter being the biggest source of heroin in the world today.

The overall death toll of these operations is estimated to be at least 6 million people.

So today when you celebrate all things American, remember all the things that America has done in your name and in the name of "freedom and deomocracy", and just what it is that you are celebrating.

" What would have happened if millions of American and British people, struggling with coupons and lines at the gas stations, had learned that in 1942 Standard Oil of New Jersey [part of the Rockefeller empire] managers shipped the enemy's fuel through neutral Switzerland and that the enemy was shipping Allied fuel?

Suppose the public had discovered that the Chase Bank in Nazi-occupied Paris after Pearl Harbor was doing millions of dollars' worth of business with the enemy with the full knowledge of the head office in Manhattan [the Rockefeller family among others?]

Or that Ford trucks were being built for the German occupation troops in France with authorization from Dearborn, Michigan?

Or that Colonel Sosthenes Behn, the head of the international American telephone conglomerate ITT, flew from New York to Madrid to Berne during the war to help improve Hitler's communications systems and improve the robot bombs that devastated London?

Or that ITT built the FockeWulfs that dropped bombs on British and American troops?

Or that crucial ball bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated customers in Latin America with the collusion of the vice-chairman of the U.S. War Production Board in partnership with Goering's cousin in Philadelphia when American forces were desperately short of them?

Or that such arrangements were known about in Washington and either sanctioned or deliberately ignored?"

-- Charles Higham, researcher, about U.S.-Nazi collaboration during WWII

War Crimes in the Name of Freedom: 227 Years....

by John Stanton

“Great power imposes the obligation of exercising restraint, and we did not live up to this obligation.”

That according to Leo Szilard, the Manhattan Project physicist commenting on the United States and its decision in August of 1945 to obliterate non-military targets Hiroshima (70,000 dead instantly with 210,000 total deaths) and Nagasaki (40,000 dead instantly with 200,000 total deaths) in Japan.

When the United States of America takes its place in the graveyard of empires, its tombstone will display Szilard’s words alongside the inscription, “Born in violence, practiced violence and came to a violent end.”

Americans fancy their society as a peaceful, freedom loving enterprise when the reality is that Americans are brutally competitive and adversarial in every aspect of their lives. And they are warlike to the core. Is it any wonder that in America, the easiest act for the US government to carry out is war?

As Americans prepare to celebrate their Independence Day this July 4, 2003, with a grandiose glorification of ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—and wars from days past--it’s worth remembering those millions of civilians and/or non-combatants who have died at the hands of unconstrained and psychopathic American power.

The US government has a long history of reengineering and downsizing populations that get in the way of freedom loving Americans and their business interests.

Each and every American has the blood of the world on his/her hands. And freedom is going to get even bloodier as history, it turns out, is an excellent guide.

Kill ‘Em All

Prior to those fateful days in August of 1945, the US Target Committee met in May of 1945 and discussed the need for following up those two days of nuclear infamy with B-29 incendiary raids.

“The feasibility of following the raid by an incendiary mission was discussed. This has the great advantage that the enemies' fire fighting ability will probably be paralyzed by the gadget [atomic bomb] so that a very serious conflagration should be capable of being started.”

The US Target Committee, anxious to collect data on the “gadget’s” performance recommended a 24 hour waiting period before letting loose the B-29’s to vaporize any humans or structures that might have survived the “gadget’s” output.

In February of 1945 in Dresden, Germany, the United States--and its coalition partner Great Britain--were engaged in the firebombing slaughter of scores of German civilians and refugees fleeing the Soviet Army’s advance. According to rense.com.

“Dresden was a hospital city for wounded soldiers. Not one military unit, not one anti-aircraft battery was deployed in the city. Together with the 600,000 refugees from Breslau, Dresden was filled with nearly 1.2 million people. Churchill had asked for "suggestions on how to blaze 600,000 refugees. He wasn't interested in how to target military installations 60 miles outside of Dresden.

More than 700,000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on 1.2 million people. One bomb for every 2 people. The temperature in the center of the city reached 1600 degrees centigrade. More than 260,000 bodies and residues of bodies were counted. But those who perished in the center of the city could not be traced.

Approximately 500,000 children, women, the elderly, wounded soldiers and the animals of the zoo were slaughtered in one night…

Others hiding below ground died. But they died painlessly--they simply glowed bright orange and blue in the darkness. As the heat intensified, they either disintegrated into cinders or melted into a thick liquid--often three or four feet deep in spots.”

Writing in World War II magazine, Christopher Lew points out that the Americans incinerated Tokyo, Japan in March of 1945 via firebombing raids killing 100,000 civilians. The US government engaged in military campaigns such as Operation Starvation meant to deny food supplies to the population. Every city in Japan was targeted in a ruthless, murderous and calculated manner. Yet, the Emperor of Japan’s residence was considered off limits by US commanders (the rationale being he would be an asset in the post-war era).

“For three hours over Tokyo, 334 B-29s unleashed their cargo [including napalm] upon the dense city below. The fires raged out of control in little less than 30 minutes, aided by a 28-mph wind. Even the water in the rivers reached the boiling point. The fire was so intense that it created updrafts that tossed the gigantic B-29s around as if they were feathers.

"Officially the Japanese listed 83,793 killed and 40,918 injured. A total of 265,171 buildings were destroyed, and 15.8 square miles of the city were burned to ashes. It was the greatest urban disaster, man-made or natural, in all of history.”

The slaughter of the Japanese and their cities was unrelenting and so insidiously effective that the US military ran out of targets.

Of course, the US government has never been content just to annihilate those pesky civilians in other lands. There’s always work to be done right here in the United States. Whether rounding up Arabs in 2003 and locking them away or engaging in genocide in the 1800’s, the US government has a long history of reengineering and downsizing populations that get in the way of freedom loving Americans.

For example, in 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the Indian Removal Act according to www.understandingprejudice.org.

President Andrew Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. In the summer of 1838, US Army General Winfield Scott led his men in the invasion of the Cherokee Nation. In one of many bloody episodes in US history, men, women, and children were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles--some made part of the trip by boat in equally horrible conditions. Under the indifferent US Army commanders, an estimated 5,000 native Americans would die on the Trail of Tears.

The Tradition Continues: Make War Not Love

Thanks to its penchant for war and belief in its divine invincibility, worldwide polls now show that the United States is a reviled nation. Little surprise there.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shrugs off the deaths of 10,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is equally without pity for the American troops now dying each day in both failed military campaigns.

Attorney General John Ashcroft—who now likes to be addressed as General Ashcroft—presides over an American justice system which has stripped from all Americans the rights to due process and other rights formerly guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

In the US, accused serial killers and rapists have more access to legal assistance than an individual suspected of terrorism.

And for the first time, America has more of its citizens incarcerated and executed than any nation on the planet.

“With liberty and justice for all” seems meaningless as the United States flaunts the fact that it runs a death camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that its foreign and domestic policies include torture, assassination, and eavesdropping on any person it deems a threat to national security.

America has been at war since 1775. Indeed, the US has never been at peace. The following are considered major conflicts: Revolutionary War (1775-1783), War of 1812 (1812-1815), Mexican War (1846-1848), Civil War (1861-1865), Spanish American War (1898), World War I (1917-1918), World War II (1941-1945), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam War (1964-1972), and the Gulf War I (1990-1991).

And that list excludes the invasion of Panama, Grenada, Serbia, Gulf War II and a whole slew of covert actions that overthrew governments the world over.

The future holds for us all Wars in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Colombia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and, arguably, the entire planet.

Unfortunately, war is the defining characteristic of the US government and a majority of its people. American freedom depends on war and their economic system demands it.

“Under capitalism, corporations that produce weapons make huge profits from these weapons of war and therefore are happy both to prepare for war and to engage in war. You prepare for war, you have all these government contracts, and make all this money, and you engage in war and you use up all these products and you have to replace them,” according to Howard Zinn.

Is there any hope of breaking away from a bloody history celebrated mindlessly each July 4th? Will Americans ever live up to the ideals set forth in the US Constitution? Can they break the habit of war?

“War has always diminished our freedom,” says Zinn.

“When our freedom has expanded, it has not come as a result of war or of anything the government has done but as a result of what citizens have done. The best test of that is the history of black people in the United States, the history of slavery and segregation.

"It wasn't the government that initiated the movement against slavery but white and black abolitionists.

"It wasn't the government that initiated the battle against racial segregation in the 1950s and 1960s, but the movement of people in the South.

"It wasn't the government that gave the people the freedom to work eight hours a day instead of twelve hours a day.

"It was working people themselves who organized into unions, went out on strike, and faced the police. The government was on the other side; the government was always in support of the employers and the corporations.

" The freedom of working people, the freedom of black people has always depended on the struggles of people themselves against the government. So, if we look at it historically, we certainly cannot depend on governments to maintain our liberties. We have to depend on our own organized efforts.”

Only the American people can stop war.

Max Cleland Survived His Vietnam War Wounds. But He Has Yet to Recover From His Last Campaign Battle.

By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer

In his new job, Max Cleland is supposed to get young people all fired up with idealistic zeal for politics, but that won't be easy. These days, Cleland, a Georgia Democrat defeated in his bid for reelection to the Senate last fall, is angry, bitter and disgusted with politics.

"The state of American politics is sickening," he says.

But he lost a few things along the way. In 1968, he lost his right arm and both legs in Vietnam. Last fall, he lost his Senate seat in a campaign that became a symbol of nasty politics.

Cleland, 60, is still livid over a now-infamous TV commercial that Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss ran against him. It opened with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, then attacked Cleland for voting against President Bush's Homeland Security bill. It didn't mention that Cleland supported a Democratic bill that wasn't radically different.

"That was the biggest lie in America -- to put me up there with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and say I voted against homeland security!" he says, his voice rising in anger.

"I volunteered 35 years ago to go to Vietnam and the guy I was running against got out of going to Vietnam with a trick knee! I was an author of the homeland security bill, for goodness' sake! But I wasn't a rubber stamp for the White House. That right there is the epitome of what's wrong with American politics today!" [...]

Comment: If you haven't seen the flash presentation Chicken Hawks Hall of Shame yet then you are missing out. It is good to see what so many of those in power have done to fight for "freedom." Written and produced by real veterans.

This link takes you to documents released under the FOIA regarding Bushy's evasion of military duty. "I don't remember debates. I don't think we spent a lot of time debating it. Maybe we did, but I don't remember." Bush states regarding discussions of the Vietnam War when he was an undergraduate at Yale, Washington Post, July 27, 1999

Jobless Rate Hits 6.4 Pct., 9-Year High

By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer

WASHINGTON - The nation's unemployment rate shot up to 6.4 percent in June, the highest level in more than nine years, in an economic slump that has cost nearly a million jobs in the last three months.

Businesses slashed 30,000 jobs just last month, with cuts heavily concentrated on factory assembly lines, the Labor Department ( news -web sites ) reported Thursday. [...]

Since March, unemployment has increased by 913,000. Two million people were unemployed for 27 weeks or more last month, an increase of 410,000 since the start of the year. Only in March 1994 was the unemployment rate higher. [...]

Manufacturing led in payroll cuts last month, with 56,000 jobs lost. Since July 2000, the nation's factories have cut 2.6 million jobs. [...]

Comment: On yesterday's Signs we posted an article from Reuters reporting, "there will be a little less 'rockets' red glare ' across the United States this Fourth of July, as some fireworks displays have been canceled or scaled back due to local government budget troubles."

Bush has systematically dismantled the U.S.A. - except for the war machine, unless you count reducing Veteran's benefits as part of the war machine.

The Bush Dyslexicon

Bush Jr.'s Skeleton Closet

HOW BUSH GOT BOUNCED FROM CARLYLE BOARD

SUZAN MAZUR

[...] "But when we were putting the board together, somebody [Fred Malek] came to me and said, look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. Needs a board position. Needs some board positions. Could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth.

"I said well we're not usually in that business. But okay, let me meet the guy. I met the guy. I said I don't think he adds that much value. We'll put him on the board because - you know - we'll do a favor for this guy; he's done a favor for us.

"We put him on the board and [he] spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

"He said, well I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.

"And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know." [...]

Comment: "I've got a reason for running. I talk about a larger goal, which is to call upon the best of America. It's part of the renewal. It's reform and renewal. Part of the renewal is a set of high standards and to remind people that the greatness of America really does depend on neighbors helping neighbors and children finding mentors. I worry. I'm very worried about, you know, the kid who just wonders whether America is meant for him. I really worry about that. And uh, so, I'm running for a reason. I'm answering this question here and the answer is, you cannot lead America to a positive tomorrow with revenge on one's mind. Revenge is so incredibly negative. And so to answer your question, I'm going to win because people sense my heart, know my sense of optimism and know where I want to lead the country. And I tease people by saying, 'A leader, you can't say, follow me the world is going to be worse.' I'm an optimistic person. I'm an inherently content person. I've got a great sense of where I want to lead and I'm comfortable with why I'm running. And, you know, the call on that speech was, beware. This is going to be a tough campaign." George Bush Interview with the Washington Post, March 23, 2000

Global Eye -- Errand Boy

By Chris Floyd

[...] Here are Bush's exact words, quoted by Haaretz: "God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." [...]

Comment: "Show me the money!" -- George Bush acting as Texas Governor shouted out that cinematic jest on seeing two lobbyists on the steps of the Capitol in Austin, Texas. Texas Monthly, 6/99

Did you know . . .

Donald Rumsfeld, "Rummy" to his friends, campaigned for Nixon, who employed him in the Office of Equal Opportunity, and he immediately established an office to spy on his employees, looking for revolutionaries who might grant federal funds to potentially politically subversive organizations.

Rumsfeld worked in Nixon's notorious Power Control Group.

Ford named him chief of staff after Al Haig resigned.

In 1986 he was named chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Studies. ICS sponsored studies like expansions in "entitlement programs" and their erosive effects on the economy, and a book on the uses of coercion by Communist regimes.

Has been a vocal proponent of chemical weapons.[Sterling Seagrave, Yellow Rain: A Journey through the Terror of Chemical Warfare, M Evans and Co., New York: 1981]

He was Chairman of the Rand Corp. See the Adventure Series, which has some of Laura's research on the Rand Corp. and their development of Game Theory.

In 1998, dropped a presidential bid and was named a v.p. of Westmark Systems, led by past CIA Director Bobby Ray Inman. Rumsfeld was one of the founding directors of Westmark.

Recruited by public relations firm G.D. Searle due to his status as a house politician and his "boy scout image". He proceeded to lobby for the approval of aspartame and to undue the damage done by independent researchers who had bothered to point out it's toxic side effects of brain lesions, headaches, mood alterations, skin polyps, blindness, brain tumors, insomnia, depression, and ability to erode intelligence and short-term memory.

With a resume like this one, We are not so sure that he is concerned about the men and women stuck in Iraq . More than likely he shares Henry Kissinger's perspective, "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy," as quoted from the January-February 2003 edition of Eagle Newsletter. We don't think Bush has lived up to his promise he made a while back. "The administration I'll bring is a group of men and women who are focused on what's best for America, honest men and women, decent men and women, women who will see service to our country as a great privilege and who will not stain the house." Des Moines Register debate, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2000

[Some of the above research taken from Psychic Dictatorship in the USA by Alex Constantine, Feral House, Los Angeles, 1995]

America

Dr. Samuel Francis Smith wrote the words to this song, "America," and his congregation at Park Street Church in Boston sang it for the first time in public on this day in 1832. The tune is an old German song. Unknown to Dr. Smith at the time, the melody is the same as the British national anthem.

My country tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring! [....]

Comment: "Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great inalienable rights of our country. We're blessed with such values in America. And I--it's--I'm a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful values." George Bush -- Visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., July 2, 2001

Bush: We Won't Join Globalist Court

Tuesday, July 2, 2002

President Bush today repeated his firm stand against the sovereignty-destroying International Criminal Court.

"As the United States works to bring peace around the world, our diplomats and our soldiers could be dragged into this court," Bush told reporters during a visit to Milwaukee. "That's very troubling.

"We'll try to work out the impasse at the United Nations, but one thing we're not going to do is sign on to the International Criminal Court." [...]

Comment: For Bush, freedom, liberty, and independence mean the freedom to make or break any law he wants, the liberty to accuse any nation of being a threat and preemptively invade that nation without proving that it presents a real threat to America; and the independance from international laws that might seek to charge him and his entourage with real crimes against humanity. Bush stands for anything BUT the American ideals upon which the republic was founded.

A Day to 'Begin the World Over Again'

by John Nichols
Madison Capital Times

[...] As America celebrates the 227th birthday of the new world, however, it is important to recall that Paine also reflected upon the prospect: "If you subvert the basis of the revolution, if you dispense with principles and substitute expedients, you will extinguish that enthusiasm and energy which have hitherto been the life and soul of the revolution; and you will substitute in its place nothing but a cold indifference and self-interest, which will again degenerate into intrigue, cunning and effeminacy."

Paine's warning anticipated this degenerate moment, in which Americans are awakening to the prospect that the president and his advisers intrigued the country into a foreign misadventure that stinks rather too much of the imperialism Americans once associated with the British crown their forebears revolted against.

Comment: "If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign." George Bush, Hilton Head, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000

BUSHVILLE II

[Is] an encampment of poor and homeless families that was named after the president, was created yesterday by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union to draw attention to poverty. The union's director, Cheri Honkala, said, "We're demanding our economic human rights to health care, affordable housing, food and a job at a living wage."

Comment: Also see Bushville 2: Tent City.

From the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --

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, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Comment: "I can't tell you what it's like to be in Europe, for example, to be talking about the greatness of America. But the true greatness of America are the people." Visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., July 2, 2001

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION

Independence Historic National Park
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

[...] America's founding documents give us religious liberty in principle; these Americans show us religious liberty in action. Religious liberty is more than the right to believe in God's love; it is the right to be an instrument of God's love. (Applause.)...

Comment: The Athiests have an interesting reaction to Bush's speech and point out that The Philadelphia Inquirer noted, "Such language may be more expected from a preacher than a politician."

American Atheists President Ellen Johnson states that "Bush should have used July 4 as a time to talk about the Bill of Rights and the whole American secular experience in uniting the country, but instead he turned a national holiday into 'pulpit time,' He chose to visit a Baptist event, and distort our nation's history by ignoring the whole principle behind the separation of church and state."

We do not buy it that Bush is the slightest bit religious. He is merely pandering to the easiest crowd to win over to the Lie. The people most likely to jump at the prospects of a crusade perhaps.

Bush calms public for July 4 potential terror attacks

By Patrick Anidjar
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush sought to calm the jittery US public Tuesday as plans to observe Independence Day Thursday are made under a shroud of security and warnings of unspecified potential terrorist attacks.

"They should celebrate heartily because we have freedom, and we love freedom. And they should also know our government is doing everything they can to make the homeland secure," Bush said.

Americans "ought to be joyous in their celebrations and celebrate the fact that we're fortunate enough to be Americans."

Comment: "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mential losses." George Bush, At a South Carolina oyster roast, as quoted in the Financial Times, Jan. 14, 2000

Man Gets Life in Prison for Spitting

Thu Jul 3, 7:53 AM ET

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma man arrested on suspicion of beating his wife faced a year in prison and a fine. But when he spit in an arresting officer's face, he got a life sentence instead, officials said on Wednesday.

John Carl Marquez, 36, was convicted of "placing bodily fluid upon a government employee," a felony that can carry a life sentence because of the possibility of transmitting a potentially deadly disease. [...]

1987 Soviets rock for peace

A rock concert in Moscow, jointly organized by American promoters and the Soviet government, plays to a crowd of approximately 25,000. The venture was intended to serve as symbol of peace and understanding between the people of the United States and the Soviet Union.[...]

Comment: "Russia is no longer our enemy and therefore we shouldn't be locked into a Cold War mentality that says we keep the peace by blowing each other up. In my attitude, that's old, that's tired, that's stale." George W. Bush, Des Moines, Iowa, June 8, 2001

America imports its own flag.

$7.9 million [is the] dollar value of U.S. imports of American flags in 2002; more than half of this amount ($5.2 million) was for U.S. flags made in China. This was down from the 2001 dollar value of U.S. flag imports ($51.7 million), but still considerably higher than the total for 2000 ($747,800). That was the last full year prior to Sept. 11.

Comment: Sheesh. Meanwhile the jobless rate is up...and so are US exports of infected cows...

Canada Report: Mad Cow May Be From U.S.

Thu Jul 3, 3:33 PM ET

TORONTO - Canada's lone case of mad cow disease may have originated in the United States, according to a report issued Thursday by Canadian investigators, who have been unable to pinpoint the source of the infection.

In its final report on the case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, detected May 20 in Alberta, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency raised the possibility the disease arrived in Canada in a large 1998 shipment of pregnant U.S. cows. [...]

U.S. offers $25-million reward for information leading to Saddam's capture

08:13 AM EDT Jul 04

(AP) - U.S. administrators in Iraq announced Thursday a $25-million US reward for information leading to the capture of Saddam Hussein or confirmation of his death, as well as $15 million US for information on either of his two sons...

The bounty for Saddam matches the $25 million US Washington has offered for Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader missing since U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan and helped topple the Taliban government.

Comment: News Flash! The Signs of the Times editorial team is pleased to announce an offer of $20 million (US) for information leading to the capture of either Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. The last thing we heard, bin Laden was seen vacationing in the area of Crawford, Texas with old family friends. We believe Saddam may be in a deep basement at the Pentagon.

Expect less security this Fourth of July

7/3/2003 1:55 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation spent last Independence Day in the shadow of Sept. 11 and under the heavily armed guard of police. This year, Americans probably will see fewer police officers, bomb-sniffing dogs and security fences in what law enforcement officials say is a return to a more normal holiday.

Strained budgets will limit police presence and security tactics in many jurisdictions. Other cities are not bringing in extra officers because the federal terror level is expected to stay at code yellow. [...]

No country can democratise another

By forgetting its own history, America risks turning those who might have been friends of democracy in Iraq into enemies

Benjamin Barber
Sunday June 29, 2003

Can the West democratise the Middle East? Clearly, the answer is no. But whether the Middle East can become democratic is a very different question.

The notion that any country can democratise any other country leads us to misunderstand the fundamental concept of democracy building and misread our own history in Britain or America, where the struggle for democracy was a long, slow and internal: a struggle in which people over centuries seized their own rights, and not one in which overnight a foreign invading army somehow liberated us from external conquerors and made us free. [...]

Even Remote Imperial Powers Can Fall - Lessons from the American Revolution

By JOHN CHUCKMAN
Counterpunch.org
July 2, 2003

[..] Some Americans, blissfully unaware of European history and the long-term development of democratic and enlightened government in all advanced societies--a process that has proceeded as inexorably as the growth of modern science since the Renaissance, albeit in fits and starts over some periods--add that the events of those early days were almost a set of miracles, providing the world with a new concept of government, "made from whole cloth," as one enthusiastic Fourth of July editorialist put it.

These notions manage to get thoroughly muddled with Puritan religious ones that have been around since America's colonial days, producing a story with strong overtones of a biblical legend.

Belief in the sudden, unprecedented appearance of a new form of government reminds one of the sun being halted in the sky or the virgin birth. Attitudes about the Founding Fathers uncomfortably mimic those for the Twelve Apostles. There's even a Judas character in Benedict Arnold. The documents associated with these events, from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, are regarded with much the same awe as books of the Bible, even though, as is the case certainly for the Declaration of Independence, there is a good deal of silly, outdated nonsense.[...]

Bush declares al-Qaida suspects eligible for trial

Associated Press
22:33 Thursday 3rd July 2003

US President George Bush has designated six al-Qaida captives as eligible for trial before military tribunals, a senior administration official says.

The decision about whether to actually conduct a trial will be separate, and will partially depend on the next moves by the captives and their lawyers.

The official would not elaborate on why Bush singled out the captives, or where they are being held. [...]

Comment: These captives will not get a fair trial. Richard Erdmann writes:

"Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of the United States during the 1830's and his observations say much about democracy in general, democracy in the United States of the 1830's and democracy today. His greatest fear for the United States was of apathy on the part of its citizens. He saw individualism and material wealth as potent contributors to the United States but also as potential distracters. He felt that the greatest threat existed because democracy might work so well that citizens would become apathetic. At this point the omnipotence of the majority would cause the democratic freedoms to slip away almost unnoticed."

Blackouts Return, Deepening Iraq's Dark Days

Lack of Steady Electricity Is Biggest Obstacle to Reconstruction, Officials Say

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 3, 2003

BAGHDAD, July 2 -- Two months after Iraqis fired AK-47s into the night sky to celebrate the resumption of electrical service, crippling blackouts have returned to the capital and the rest of the country, impeding the restoration of public order and economic activity, and creating a new focus of anger at the U.S. occupation. [...]

White House defends Bush remark on Iraqi attacks

Thursday, July 3, 2003 18:09 GMT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House found itself on the defensive Thursday for a comment President Bush made a day earlier that some Democrats say amounted to a dare for militants to attack U.S. troops in Iraq.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush was only expressing his faith in the strength and capability of U.S. forces when, talking about militant attacks, he declared, "Bring 'em on." [...]

Comment:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
- Abraham Lincoln

"You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order order out of chaos. But we will." George Bush, Washington, D.C., April 13, 2003

"See, we love we love freedom. That's what they didn't understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love." George Bush, Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002

"When Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried, and persecuted as a war criminal." George Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 2003 (Thanks to Chad Conwell.)

"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." George Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

Ariz. firefighters want more resources

7/3/2003 1:01 PM

TUCSON (AP) — Firefighters have asked for more resources to battle a flare-up of a southern Arizona blaze that has already destroyed more than 300 homes at a mountaintop vacation hamlet.

Heavy winds on Wednesday fanned flames along the southern edge of the fire atop Mount Lemmon, a peak northeast of Tucson, spreading the fire within a few miles of summer camps, homes and a radio tower. Residents in the area were previously evacuated when the fire began June 17.

By Thursday morning the flames were about 3 miles from any surviving structures, said Gordon Gay, a spokesman for the fire crew. The threatened area is southeast of the community of Summerhaven, where the human-caused fire destroyed 317 homes or cabins and seven businesses last month. Investigators have said they have no suspects in the blaze.

The winds caused the fire's range to grow to 44,500 acres, making it now only 60% contained, Gay said. [...]

Will the job market ever get better?

July 3, 2003: 9:54 AM EDT
By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money Staff Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Two years ago, the U.S. economy was just entering its third -- and probably last -- quarter of recession, and the unemployment rate was just beginning to climb.

Two years later, the jobless rate is still climbing.

In fact, U.S. unemployment rose to its worst level in nine years in June as businesses cut thousands of jobs, the government said Thursday.

Unemployment rose to 6.4 percent from 6.1 percent in May. That's the highest level since April 1994. Economists on average had expected a jobless rate of 6.2 percent, according to a Reuters poll.

In addition, non-farm payrolls fell by 30,000 jobs for the month, the report said, after losing a revised 70,000 jobs in May.

Payrolls have fallen year-over-year for 23 straight months, according to Labor Department data, extending the worst stretch for the labor market since World War II. [...]

Comment: A litle reminder about Bush's life in business.

They don't only asssassinate foreign leaders...

Although the following excerpts are from JFK's inaugural address in 1961, his words are still relevant to each of us today in the context of the QFS network and associated ideas and lessons.

"In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. [...]

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."

And finally...

Bolt Hits Steeple, Travels Through Guest Evangelist's Microphone

FOREST, Ohio -- Damage to a church in Forest, Ohio, is estimated at $20,000 after a preacher asked God for a sign.

A member of the First Baptist Church said a guest evangelist was preaching repentance and seeking a sign from God when lightning struck the steeple.

Ronnie Cheney called the incident "awesome, just awesome!"

Cheney said the lightning traveled through the microphone, blew out the sound system and enveloped the preacher, who wasn't hurt.

Afterward, services resumed for about 20 minutes until the congregation realized the church was on fire. The building was evacuated.

Check out the Signs of the Times Archives

Send your comments and article suggestions to us.

Contact Webmaster at signs-of-the-times.org
Cassiopaean materials Copyright ©1994-2014 Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk. All rights reserved. "Cassiopaea, Cassiopaean, Cassiopaeans," is a registered trademark of Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.
Letters addressed to Cassiopaea, Quantum Future School, Ark or Laura, become the property of Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Republication and re-dissemination of our copyrighted material in any manner is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.

.