Abyss of US instituational racisim

Robert Lavato, writing at the Black Commentator comments succinctly on the gross injustice of the Sean Bell verdict. FIFTY BULLETS.

... all of us need to raise our voices and point at the abyss of our country’s institutional racism as was painfully and transparently reflected in the Sean Bell verdict. We might want to start by pushing Obama, Clinton and McCain-and the mainstream media- to speak honestly and continually about what the 50 bullets in Sean Bell say about justice in the 50 states of our tattered and bloodied union.

Subprime mortgage failures - how we got there

Calculated Risk looks at a NYT Magazine article and concisely summarizes the roles of various participants to the disaster:

Homebuyer's were speculating with no money down. Mortgage brokers didn't care because they would sell the loans immediately and collect their fees. Wall Street didn't care because they could package the loans and sell them to investors. Investors would have cared, except they trusted the rating agencies. And as this article describes, the rating agencies weren't evaluating the underlying loans - they were performing statistical analysis using models based on lenders that cared if the borrower would repay the loan.

At the same time, regulators - despite numerous warnings - mostly ignored the problem, apparently for ideological reasons

Well, ONE politician, Elliot Spitzer, viewed the situation from a different perspective. He concluded his 02-14-08 Washington Post Op-Ed thusly:

But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states [to the predatory lending practices] did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on predatory and unfair lending would have in no way jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position.

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.

Veterans having hard time finding jobs

The Southtown Star reports:

War veterans face many obstacles. Discrimination. A lack of helpful job-finding resources. Skill sets viewed as insufficient in the civilian workforce. And fears about post-traumatic stress disorder. ...

[After] PTSD discrimination ... employers who don't hire veterans because they remain eligible for service is the other most common complaint of war veteran job seekers ...

specialist[s] in the Army National Guard ... [devote] one weekend a month to the Guard. If more troops are needed for the war zone, it's possible [to] be sent back.

That scares away employers.

It's a "detriment to getting your foot in the door" ...

When Iraq comes up during a job interview ... there's a "change in (the hirer's) voice and demeanor."

Torture is always immoral

Posting at Hullaballoo today, tristero deconstructs all rationals for approving torture concluding:

"The ethics of torture" is a topic that no one in a healthy democracy should have to spend too much time discussing because its immorality should be self-evident to its citizens. But we don’t live in a healthy democracy - and, after Bush, it is at least arguable the extent to which we actually live in a democracy. ... So now, to quickly conclude a tedious subject, please remember this if nothing else:

Torture is always immoral. End of discussion.

People Pleasers

(MG) I spent much of my life thinking that my job was to make "everybody" happy. Cute, white, polite suburban kids (even those from the poor side of town - which ain't all that poor to begin with -- but, relatively speaking) who smile, look pretty, don't "rock the boat", have a modicum of talent, and perhaps some wit (but God forbid, not TOO much wit), get enough positive feed back -- pats on the head, various and sundry accolades, to make the effort without asking any tought questions.

As long as one's world is sheltered, limited to say, cute, white, polite and suburban, this survival stratagem "works." It feeds you what you want -- if not what you need. But when one does not aspire to the outward trappings of success in that limiting [cute, white, polite and suburban] world (faster car, better job, bigger house), and when one begins to encounter other worlds one's eyes sometimes open wider and a universe of previously unnoticed options and choices comes into view.

At such junctures, the choices of pleasing "everyone" (which can't really be done), or live an authentic life with some degree of integrity emerge. Who is your client going to be? Who matters most to you?

I encountered this resonating article from BeliefNet recently.

Today would have been a good day for me to wear the t-shirt that says, "I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either."

As I progress in my recovery, I am a choosier shopper when it comes to friendships--I can now recognize when I’m being treated unfairly, or without respect, and I don’t feel as much need to stick around just to prevent causing waves. Nor can I afford to share myself with everyone who comes along. That’s too dangerous and wearing--with pieces of your soul left out to dry on too many doormats--not to mention impossible (like the saying goes: you can please everyone some of the time, and some people all the time, but not everyone all of the time). I need to surround myself with people who are working just as hard as I am at staying well and positive, resisting the plethora of opportunities to turn to the Dark Side and talk trash and gloom.

I feel much like Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who wrote in "Gift From the Sea," "I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere."

...

Like Anne Morrow Lindbergh said, it’s about being sincere--which means hanging out with people who respect me in the same way that I respect them, and sharing meals with girlfriends and couples who motivate you to be better people.

...

But if I keep on practicing my boundary-building skills, one day I will find that ... I am staying buoyant with little effort of my own. The boundaries will assist me in conserving energy for the things I love ...

One day I will intuitively know how to say no, and not feel guilty.

Garden Party Song Lyrics - by Ricky Nelson

I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn't look the same

CHORUS
But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself

People came from miles around, everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus, there was magic in the air
'n' over in the corner, much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise

CHORUS

lott-in-dah-dah-dah, lot-in-dah-dah-dah

Played them all the old songs, thought that's why they came
No one heard the music, we didn't look the same
I said hello to "Mary Lou", she belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk, it was time to leave

CHORUS

lot-dah-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah

Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin' a bell and lookin' like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck

CHORUS

lot-dah-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah

'n' it's all right now, learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself

Gay Pride in Billings, Montana

(MG) The Billings Gazette reported this story on Sunday, June 17, 2007. I hadn't really thought of Billings, Montana as a hot bed of gay pride -- but I have found acceptance and compassion for openly proud and gay people in blue-collar, biker country in Lake and McHenry counties in north eastern Illinois. It is easy to get all worked up over abstractions, but when the focus gets smaller, and it comes down to kind, decent, generous, caring HUMAN BEINGS you know, kind, decent, generous, caring HUMAN BEINGS you interact with on an every day basis -- it becomes much more difficult, because the hatred is no longer focused on an abstraction, but, on a real, live, breathing, kind, decent, generous, caring HUMAN BEING.

This article gives me hope for the human condition.

Peaceful and proud: Gay parade goes on

By BECKY SHAY
Of The Gazette Staff

For all practical purposes, it was a regular parade through Billings.

A color guard led the group, the grand marshals sat in a convertible, people handed out candy, and the Al Bedoo Shrine brass band played "Montana." There was laughter, waves and cheering from the kids in strollers, families and couples who lined the sidewalk.

The Pride Celebration 2007 parade stretched about eight blocks through downtown Billings on Saturday morning. The three-day celebration is hosted by the Montana Pride Network with the theme "From silence to celebration!"

Parade organizer Mary Horvath estimated that 500 people joined the parade. The parade had dozens of entries, including groups and businesses, and a bunch of people joined in along the way.

Roars from crowd could be heard along the final blocks of the parade route on Second Avenue North as spectators responded to the Montana Pride Network chanting "Two. Four. Six. Eight. Let's Celebrate!"

With sparkling green fake eyelashes, and wearing a monochrome purple outfit of a glittering blouse over a fluffy tutu and fishnet stockings, C.C. Deveroux was likely the most flamboyant parade entry.

It was Deveroux's first Pride parade and, as the tiara suggested, part of Deveroux's reign as Miss Gay Missoula 17, a title crowned in March.

"I'm really impressed with the turnout," Deveroux said. "Everybody was happy to see us. I'd wave and they'd all wave and have a big smile. It was a good experience."

Longtime Billings volunteer and humanitarian Margaret Ping marched with her church, Mayflower Congregational. Ping wore one of the rainbow-striped "Celebrate Diversity" pins handed out during the parade and said she "walked as long as my knee held out."

People of faith had a place in the parade, she said.

"We preach we believe in everybody being children of God," Ping said. "I'm amazed this many people are out, and I'm amazed I haven't heard anybody booing the parade."

Billings Police Department had its regular parade contingent - a patrol car leading the parade with others stopping traffic and officers on bicycles weaving through the route. Police Lt. John Bedford said there were no disruptions or confrontations during the parade.

The parade converged on the Yellowstone County Courthouse lawn for a rally.

Darryl Olson, who is on the Montana Pride Network's organizing committee for the celebration, was master of ceremonies at the rally. Wearing his Army fatigues, Olson said how proud he was to join the color guard in the parade.

"That's a message we need to get out there, that there are gay veterans who have served honorably," he said to a round of applause.

Olson also lauded Mayor Ron Tussing, who signed a proclamation supporting equal rights and inclusiveness for the Pride Celebration.

Among the speakers were Montana Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, and Candace Gingrich from the Human Rights Campaign. The women, both gay, were also the grand marshals for the parade. Kaufmann is executive director of the Montana Human Rights Network. Gingrich's brother, former congressman Newt Gingrich, was speaker of the House from 1994 to 1998.

Kaufmann encouraged the group to welcome other often-disenfranchised groups, including immigrants. She also reminded them of legislation and votes around the nation that are leading to more equal rights and the elections of openly gay people. Kaufmann punctuated her speech by proclaiming that Montana could be next.

Gingrich, from Washington, D.C., said that in a dozen years of taking part in Pride parades, she hadn't seen Shriners join in until she came to Billings.

"That's a testament to all of you, that they would want to be part of this," she said.

Pride events are reunions with friends and family and, yes, a chance to party, Gingrich said. Those emotions of inclusiveness should be evoked 365 days a year, she said.

"For some people, Pride means the only time of the year they can get to be out and open and feel safe," Gingrich said.

She asked people to encourage legislators - especially senators, who are holding an upcoming vote - to pass the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, which would include sexual orientation and gender identification in the definition of hate crimes.

The new law wouldn't keep people from preaching or thinking what they believe, she said.

"But you can't hate someone and hurt them," Gingrich said. "We deserve to be protected the same as every other American in this country."

Gingrich said GLBT people are in Montana because they love the state.

"Stay proud," Gingrich said. "This is the Treasure State, and GLBT and two-spirited people are part of that treasure."

The celebration moved to North Park for the afternoon. Vendors, most with information and many with items for sale, filled a section of the park; Gay Bingo was played in the community center and kickball was played on the baseball fields. People lounged on the grass and took in a variety of live music and entertainment, including singing, drumming and dancing from the American Indian Two Spirit Society of Denver and Montana.

Events Saturday night included disco bowling, a play at Venture Theatre and a drag show at the Loft.

Today's events begin with spiritual services at 9 a.m. conducted by Seekers Harbor Faith Community at North Park, followed by a farewell breakfast in the park. The Montana Pride Network will hold its annual meeting at 11 a.m. Events wrap up with an afternoon tea dance at The Loft, 1123 First Ave. N.

Tools of disinformation and control

(MG) Writing in the June 14, 2007 edition of The Black Commentator, Larry Pinkney takes a critical look at "the US mass media." President Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the "military-industrial" complex. This complex has become more encompassing (and more dangerous) today than ever, and should more properly be called the "military - industrial - politico - educational - media / infotainment - financial services - health care" complex. Knowledgeable readers, please feel free to advise me of other sectors that should rightfully be included.

By definition, the word "media" is the plural of the word medium which is, in relevant part, defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as, "An agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred."

For purposes of clarification, in this instance, reference to "the US mass media" is including not only corporately controlled newspaper, radio, and television so-called "news" outlets, wire services, and information sources, but also most of the schools, colleges, and universities throughout America, where those of our Black youth who are not dead or in penitentiaries are calculatedly and callously miseducated.

(MG) the callous miseducation applies to and infects red youth, brown youth, yellow youth and white youth also as well as the poor, it also applies to and infects women - much of the American system of education is about indoctrinating and inculcating students to "buy into" certain myths - the myth of American exceptionalism being at the forefront. Way too many primary and secondary school resources have been diverted to "teaching" students to pass multiple choice tests mandated by No Child Left Behind (No Child Gets Ahead) laws.

When closely considering the above definition of the word "medium," we must ponder precisely what it is that the mass media of white America exists to "accomplish," and how - what is to be accomplished- is actually "conveyed or transferred," as it pertains specifically to the economic, political, and cultural disposition of Black Americans past, present, and future. From its very inception, the institutions of that entity which became known as the United States of America, made it crystal clear that the lot of Black people on this continent was to be one of collective inferiority, destitution, and subservience. However, what is often missed is that this position of collective inferiority, destitution, and subservience of Black people was and continues to be rationalized, maintained, and perpetuated by a US mass media whose objective is to misinform, disinform, and miseducate Black people and other people of color. A people who do not know, collectively, who they are, their enormous past achievements, or their incalculable contributions to humanity as a whole are incapable of attaining or even aspiring to attain the heights of greatness reserved for all human beings and their rightful and equal place in the human family. Thus, the ongoing and despicable role of the US mass media, be it in the form of so-called "news" and information or the miseducation of Black and other people of color in schools, colleges, and universities in the 21st Century, throughout America.

Contrary to alleged conventional wisdom, it is not "the medium that is the message" or vice versa; it is the debilitating and vile intent of the medium that is the actual ongoing powerful and crippling message to Black people, sometimes in overt form and at other times, insidiously subtle. The US mass media of white America and its surrogates is to Black and other people of color, akin to a virus that horribly weakens and debilitates the body. It is reminiscent of how true history reminds us that deadly disease-infested blankets were distributed by certain whites on this continent to Indigenous so-called "Indian" people in the name of honor and helping them. Such is the reality of the US mass media, both past and present.

Black America knows, from continuous and deeply painful first-hand experience, that those politicians and "journalists" who, for example, feign surprise and ignorance at there having been no so-called "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq are, in fact, part and parcel of what the US mass media and "educational" system have always been about: deceit and disinformation [see Black Commentator-American Democracy: Legacy of Hypocrisy & Deceit]. In this vein, it is stunning to the point of being absurd that the US "news" media, which represents the only nation in the world to have actually used nuclear weapons - having dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities - dares to schizophrenically portray America as if it has never used weapons of mass destruction against civilian populations, and as if other nations (particularly of color) throughout the world are not keenly aware of this fact.

We must steadfastly refuse to succumb to the deliberate disempowering, inaccurate, and wholly misleading terms and expressions used by the US mass media, including "educational" institutions and so-called "news" and information outlets. An example of this is the misleading and inaccurate term "third world debt." There is absolutely no such thing as so-called third world debt. Rather, the accurate definition and description is actually "first world" (i.e. European and US) extortion. Yes, it is extortion by European nations and the US (through thievery of natural resources, amoral subjugation, colonization and neocolonization) of the peoples of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central & South America. To reiterate: There is no such thing as "third world debt;" there is, quite bluntly, US and European extortion of these nations.

(MG) Oh what a difference the words make. Mr. Pinkney's example here is a shocking eye-opener. To reiterate: There is no such thing as "third world debt;" there is, quite bluntly, US and European extortion of these nations.

We must endeavor to be discerning. The US mass media is not, nor has it ever been, the friend of Black America. We must constantly educate ourselves and our youth to this reality, realizing the folly of allowing the US mass media to miseducate us. We must support and create those sources which serve our political, social, and economic interests. Nothing less will do as we remain determined to persevere and keep it real in our struggle alongside the rest of humanity.

(MG) Nor is the U.S. mass media the friend of working America, nor is the U.S. mass media the friend of poor America. The U.S. mass media exists to serve a very small and VERY privileged class of wealthy, powerful people -- this class has become ever more wealthy and ever more powerful, especially since the Reagan years -- and for the most part, seeks to become even wealthier and more powerful. There is NOTHING democratic and nothing egalitarian about this.

War is a drug

(MG) Chris Hedges' War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning addresses truths of war that typically do not make it into movies, histories, novels, media reports.

I learned early on that war forms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug, one I ingested for many years. It is peddled by mythmakers - historians, war corespondents, filmmakers, novelists, and the state - all of whom endow it with qualities it often does possess: excitement, exoticism, power, chances to rise above our small stations in life, and a bizarre and fantastic universe that has a grotesque and dark beauty. It dominates culture, distorts memory, corrupts language, and infects everything around it, even humor, which becomes preoccupied with the grim perversities of smut and death. Fundamental questions about the meaning, or meaninglessness, of our place on the planet are laid bare when we watch those around us sink to the lowest depths. War exposes the capacity for evil that lurks not far below the surface within all of us. And this is why for many war is so hard to discuss once it is over.

The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidness of much of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly our airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble. And those who have the least meaning in their lives, the impoverished refugees in Gaza, the disenfranchised North African immigrants in France, even the legions of young who live in the splendid indolence and safety of the industrialized world, are all susceptible to war's appeal.

(MG) These words reveal much about their author. Opportunities to "rise above OUR small station in life" are selling points used by the "mythmakers." People who view their station in life as small, then, would be easy targets for the sellers of war. This points to a lack of purpose and meaning in one's daily life - a spiritual void - a problem that seems to have accompanied "modernization," "the industrial revolution," and "western civilization."

(MG) We need to examine our lives, to carefully consider just what it is that makes them worth living. Because WHEN (or if) the answer comes back, "not much," we are vulnerable to buying into wars.

... When we ingest the anodyne of war we feel what those we strive to destroy feel, including the Islamic fundamentalists who are painted as alien, barbaric, and uncivilized. It is the same narcotic. I partook of it for many years. And like every recovering addict there is a part of me that remains nostalgic for war's simplicity and high, even as I cope with the scars it has left behind, mourn the deaths of those I worked with, and struggle with the bestiality I would have been better off not witnessing. There is a part of me - maybe it is a part of many of us - that decided at certain moments that I would rather die like this than go back to the routine of life. The chance to exist for an intense and overpowering moment, even if it meant certain oblivion, seemed worth it in the midst of war - and very stupid once the war ended.

(MG) There is a clear death wish expressed here, one that Karen Armstrong discusses in "The Battle for God".

Propaganda about Iraq

(MG) A recent piece by John Pilger reveals interesting information about the occupation of Iraq (which as we all know is going badly by any definition, from any perspective, except al-Qaeda's).

...

More often than not, [media] censorship by omission is employed: for example, by omitting the fact that almost 80 per cent of attacks are directed against the occupation forces (source: the Pentagon) so as to give the impression that the occupiers are doing their best to separate “warring tribes” and are crisis managers rather than the cause of the crisis.

There is a last-ditch sense about this kind of propaganda. Seymour Hersh said recently, “[In April, the Bush administration] made a decision that because of the totally dwindling support for the war in Iraq, they would go back to the al-Qaeda card, although there’s no empirical basis. Most of the pros will tell you the foreign fighters are a couple of per cent and they’re sort of leaderless... there’s no attempt to suggest there’s any significant co-ordination of these groups, but the press keeps going ga-ga about al-Qaeda... it’s just amazing to me.”

Corporate Crime in America

(MG) The following information about corporate crime comes from Russell Mokhiber's Corporate Crime Reporter web site. It is almost enough to give one pause, especially when thinking about what entities really decide which candidates the parties will run for the office of POTUS.

Number 20

Corporate crime inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined.

Whether in bodies or injuries or dollars lost, corporate crime and violence wins by a landslide.

The FBI estimates, for example, that burglary and robbery – street crimes – costs the nation $3.8 billion a year.

The losses from a handful of major corporate frauds – Tyco, Adelphia, Worldcom, Enron – swamp the losses from all street robberies and burglaries combined.

Health care fraud alone costs Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a year.

The savings and loan fraud – which former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called "the biggest white collar swindle in history" – cost us anywhere from $300 billion to $500 billion.

And then you have your lesser frauds: auto repair fraud, $40 billion a year, securities fraud, $15 billion a year – and on down the list.

Number 19

Corporate crime is often violent crime.

Recite this list of corporate frauds and people will immediately say to you: but you can't compare street crime and corporate crime – corporate crime is not violent crime.

Not true.

Corporate crime is often violent crime.

The FBI estimates that, 16,000 Americans are murdered every year.

Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products, and hospital malpractice.

These deaths are often the result of criminal recklessness. Yet, they are rarely prosecuted as homicides or as criminal violations of federal laws.

Number 18

Corporate criminals are the only criminal class in the United States that have the power to define the laws under which they live.

The mafia, no.

The gangstas, no.

The street thugs, no.

But the corporate criminal lobby, yes. They have marinated Washington – from the White House to the Congress to K Street – with their largesse. And out the other end come the laws they can live with. They still violate their own rules with impunity. But they make sure the laws are kept within reasonable bounds.

Exhibit A – the automobile industry.

Over the past 30 years, the industry has worked its will on Congress to block legislation that would impose criminal sanctions on knowing and willful violations of the federal auto safety laws. Today, with very narrow exceptions, if an auto company is caught violating the law, only a civil fine is imposed.

War Gives Us Meaning

(MG) I'm currently rereading Chris Hedges War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Hedges relentlessly hammers his sobering message home, page after page. His direct, no-nonsense prose resonates with me, and all he has to say about war are things that on a gut level, I already know.
I pray that I might always have the strength to resist the mongers of war, the courage to speak to their lies, and the compassion to see "the other" as human beings, created by a Loving God.

The ethnic conflicts and insurgencies of our time ... are not religious wars. They are not clashes between cultures or civilizations, nor are they the result of ancient ethnic hatreds. They are manufactured wars, born out of the collapse of civil societies, perpetuated by fear, greed, and paranoia, and they are run by gangsters, who rise up from the bottom of their own societies and terrorize all, including those they purport to protect.

Often none of this is apparent from the outside. We are quick to accept the facile and mendacious ideological veneer that is wrapped like a mantle around the shoulders of those who prosecute the war. In part we do this to avoid intervention, to give this kind of slaughter an historical inevitability it does not have, but also because the media and most of the politicians often lack the perspective and analysis to debunk the myths serve up by the opposing sides.
...
Look not to religion and mythology and warped versions of history to find the roots of these conflicts, but to the warlords who dominated the Balkans. It took Milosevic four years of hate propaganda and lies, pumped forth daily over the airways from Belgrade, before he got one Serb to cross the border into Bosnia and being the murderous rampage that triggered the war. And although the war was painted from afar as a clash of rival civilizations, the primary task of Milosevic in Seriba, Franjo Tudjman in Croatia, and the other ethnic leaderships was to dismantle and silence their own intellectuals and writers of stature and replace them with second-rate, mediocre pawns willing to turn every intellectual and artistic endeavor into a piece of ethnic triumphalism and myth.

(MG) The online e-zine Counterpunch has posted excerpts of an essay from Jeffrey St. Clair's recent End Times book addressing the issue of selling a war:

(St. Clair) The war on Iraq won't be remembered for how it was waged so much as for how it was sold. It was a propaganda war, a war of perception management, where loaded phrases, such as "weapons of mass destruction" and "rogue state" were hurled like precision weapons at the target audience: us.

To understand the Iraq war you don't need to consult generals, but the spin doctors and PR flacks who stage-managed the countdown to war from the murky corridors of Washington where politics, corporate spin and psy-ops spooks cohabit.

...

... the Bush team never wanted to present a legal case for war. They had no interest in making any of their allegations about Iraq hold up to a standard of proof. The real effort was aimed at amping up the mood for war by using the psychology of fear.

Facts were never important to the Bush team. They were disposable nuggets that could be discarded at will and replaced by whatever new rationale that played favorably with their polls and focus groups. The war was about weapons of mass destruction one week, al-Qaeda the next. When neither allegation could be substantiated on the ground, the fall back position became the mass graves (many from the Iran/Iraq war where the U.S.A. backed Iraq) proving that Saddam was an evil thug who deserved to be toppled. The motto of the Bush PR machine was: Move on. Don't explain. Say anything to conceal the perfidy behind the real motives for war. Never look back. Accuse the questioners of harboring unpatriotic sensibilities. Eventually, even the cagey Wolfowitz admitted that the official case for war was made mainly to make the invasion palatable, not to justify it.

(MG) Patrick Lang also speaks of the "morality play" modality used to stroke the country to wargasmic fever pitch about Iraq / Saddam:

(Lang) War is not about virtue as opposed to sin. War is about the struggle of opposed interests and wills. To begin this war, a "morality play" atmosphere was generated which led to "war fever" on a massive scale. It was skilfully done by people who thought "they knew best." I hope they are happy with the result of their efforts. The country is only now slowly recovering. It is as though the United States is now in a protracted "de-tox" program.

(Hedges) Lawrence LeShan in The Psychology of War differentiates between "mythic reality" and "sensory reality" in wartime. In sensory reality we see events for what they are. Most of those who are thrust into combat soon find it impossible to maintain the mythic perception of war. They would not survive if they did. Wars that lose their mythic stature for the public, such as Korea or Vietnam, are doomed to failure, for war is exposed for what it is -- organized murder.

But in mythic war we imbue events with meanings they do not have. We see defeats as signposts on the road to ultimate victory. We demonize the enemy so that our opponent is no longer human. We view ourselves, our people, as the embodiment of absolute goodness. Our enemies invert our view of the world to justify their own cruelty. In most mythic wars this is the case. Each side reduces the other to objects -- eventually in the form or corpses.

...

When we allow mythic reality to rule, as it almost always does in war, then there is only one solution -- force. In mythic war we fight absolutes. We must vanquish darkness. It is imperative and inevitable for civilization, for the free world, that good triumph ...

(St. Clair) The Bush claque o

f neocon hawks viewed the Iraq war as a product and, just like a new pair of Nikes, it required a roll-out campaign to soften up the consumers. The same techniques (and often the same PR gurus) that have been used to hawk cigarettes, SUVs and nuclear waste dumps were deployed to retail the Iraq war. To peddle the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and company recruited public relations gurus into top-level jobs at the Pentagon and the State Department. These spinmeisters soon had more say over how the rationale for war on Iraq should be presented than intelligence agencies and career diplomats. If the intelligence didn't fit the script, it was shaded, retooled or junked.

Take Charlotte Beers whom Powell picked as undersecretary of state in the post-9/11 world. Beers wasn't a diplomat. She wasn't even a politician. She was a grand diva of spin, known on the business and gossip pages as "the queen of Madison Avenue." On the strength of two advertising campaigns, one for Uncle Ben's Rice and another for Head and Shoulder's dandruff shampoo, Beers rocketed to the top of the heap in the PR world, heading two giant PR houses: Ogilvy and Mathers as well as J. Walter Thompson.

At the state department Beers, who had met Powell in 1995 when they both served on the board of Gulf Airstream, worked at, in Powell's words, "the branding of U.S. foreign policy." She extracted more than $500 million from Congress for her Brand America campaign, which largely focused on beaming U.S. propaganda into the Muslim world, much of it directed at teens.

"Public diplomacy is a vital new arm in what will combat terrorism over time," said Beers. "All of a sudden we are in this position of redefining who America is, not only for ourselves, but for the outside world." Note the rapt attention Beers pays to the manipulation of perception, as opposed, say, to alterations of U.S. policy.

But the goal we seek when we embrace myth is impossible to achieve. War never creates the security or the harmony we desire, especially the harmony we briefly attain during wartime. And campaigns, such as the one in Afghanistan, become starting points for further conflicts, especially as we find that we are unable to root out terrorism or maintain the kind of solidarity that comes in the days just after a terrorist attack.

The chief institutions that disseminate the myth are the press and the state. The press has been culpable since the telegraph made possible the modern war correspondent. And starting with the Crimean War, when the first dispatches were fed by newly minted war correspondents in real time, nearly every reporter has seen his or her mission as sustaining civilian and army morale. The advent of photography and film did little to alter the incentive to boost morale, for the lie in war is almost always the lie of omission. The blunders and senseless slaughter by our generals, the execution of prisoners and innocents, and the horror of wounds are rarely disclosed, at least during a mythic war, to the public. only when the myth is punctured, as it eventually was in Vietnam, does the press begin to report in a sensory rather than a mythic manner. But even then it it [the press] reacting to a public that has changed its perception of war. The press usually does not lead.

Mythic war reporting sells papers and boosts ratings. Real reporting, sensory reporting, does not, at least not in comparison with the boosterism we witnessed during the Persian Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan. The coverage in the Persian Gulf war was typical. The international press willingly administered a restrictive pool system on behalf of the military under which carefully controlled groups of reporters were guided around the front lines by officers. It could have never functioned without the cooperation of the press. The press was as eager to be of service to the state during the war as most everyone else.

Such docility on the part of the press made it easier to do what governments do in wartime, indeed what governments do much of the time, and that is lie.

Authenticity or policy?

(MG) The Common Dreams web site today offers up a wonderful Paul Krugman NYT op-ed piece about a distrubing trend in today's political coverage: the "authenticity" question. Krugman has been a giant of integrity in commenting upon politics and economic policies of the cheney administration. Krugman operates in a fact-based world, and actually reads policy proposals and REMEMBERS what people have said, and done. He's a treasure.

Rich liberals who claim they'll help America's less fortunate are phonies.

Let me give you one example — a Democrat who said he’d work on behalf of workers and the poor. He even said he’d take on Big Business. But the truth is that while he was saying those things, he was living in a big house and had a pretty lavish summer home too. His favorite recreation, sailing, was incredibly elitist. And he didn’t talk like a regular guy.

Clearly, this politician wasn’t authentic. His name? Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Luckily, that’s not how the political game was played 70 years ago. F.D.R. wasn’t accused of being a phony; he was accused of being a “traitor to his class.” But today, it seems, politics is all about seeming authentic. A recent Associated Press analysis of the political scene asked: “Can you fake authenticity? Probably not, but it might be worth a try.”

What does authenticity mean? Supposedly it means not pretending to be who you aren’t. But that definition doesn’t seem to fit the way the term is actually used in political reporting.

For example, the case of F.D.R. shows that there’s nothing inauthentic, in the normal sense of the word, about calling for higher taxes on the rich while being rich yourself. If anything, it’s to your credit if you advocate policies that will hurt your own financial position. But the news media seem to find it deeply disturbing that John Edwards talks about fighting poverty while living in a big house.

(MG) Note - Krugman makes an assertion, and then gives an example to support his assertion. We have a concrete, real-world example of what Krugman is talking about. He then notes how "deeply disturbing" it is (to the news media) that John Edwards can live in a big house and talk about fighting poverty.

On the other hand, consider the case of Fred Thompson. He spent 18 years working as a highly paid lobbyist, wore well-tailored suits and drove a black Lincoln Continental. When he ran for the Senate, however, his campaign reinvented him as a good old boy: it leased a used red pickup truck for him to drive, dressed up in jeans and a work shirt, with a can of Red Man chewing tobacco on the front seat.

But Mr. Thompson’s strength, says Lanny Davis in The Hill, is that he’s “authentic.”

Oh, and as a candidate George W. Bush was praised as being more authentic than Al Gore. As late as November 2005, MSNBC’s chief political correspondent declared that Mr. Bush’s authenticity was his remaining source of strength. But now The A.P. says that Mr. Bush’s lack of credibility is the reason his would-be successors need to seem, yes, authentic.

Talk of authenticity, it seems, lets commentators and journalists put down politicians they don’t like or praise politicians they like, with no relationship to what the politicians actually say or do.

Here’s a suggestion: Why not evaluate candidates’ policy proposals, rather than their authenticity? And if there are reasons to doubt a candidate’s sincerity, spell them out.

...

The point is that questions about a candidate shouldn’t be whether he or she is “authentic.” They should be about motives: whose interests would the candidate serve if elected? And think how much better shape the nation would be in if enough people had asked that question seven years ago.

(MG) Be still my heart! Question a candidate's motives - ask whose interests would be served if a candidate were elected. What novel ideas.

MSM - an extension of great power

(MG) In a fascinating interview on Decmocracy Now, John Pilger, award-winning documentary film maker, investigative journalist, and war correspondent makes a number of interesting observations:

JUAN GONZALES: In your viewpoint, what is the basis for why especially the media in the West have such a blind spot toward a fair portrayal of the situation in Israel? And how has does that relate to your overall theme of this book of empire and the importance of understanding empire in the world?

JOHN PILGER: I think I started to realize what I was first sent to Vietnam as a foreign correspondent, and [my] naivete started to crumble pretty quickly that basically the main so - what we call the mainstream media, that amorphous thing, is an extension of great power. Yes, there are exceptions and very fine exceptions, but we have seen that time and time again. And with the- especially in the United States – with such an extraordinarily powerful, vociferous groups supporting Israel, associating any criticism in Israel with anti-Semitism, and I’ve been on the, I’ve been at the tail wind of this, with massive e-mail campaigns and so on. Very intimidating. It’s worked on the BBC to a great deal – to a great extent, rather. Uh, when, I think when you have that, then, the media will then revert back to what it sees, interestingly, as the center. Well, it’s not the center. It’s really as an extension, an expression of, of, of government and power. Yes, personalities are criticized. George W. Bush is fair game probably now. Certainly, finally, Tony Blair is, but the system that produced them is not.

a reflection on the media age

(MG) The following statement comes from John Pilger a documentary film maker and investigative journalist. Pilger said these words during an interview with Amy Goodman.

"I quote at length in the book a pioneering study done by Glasgow University Media Group in which it asked a cross-section of television, viewers of television news in Britain, what they knew about the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict. And they found that of young viewers, I think people under the age of 21 who watched TV news, 92% of them thought that the settlers, the illegal settlers, uh, were Palestinians. And the clear, and the clear message from this report was that the more people watch television, the less they knew. And, I think, I have to say that because I think Edward Said’s rather bitter lament just before he died, in which he blamed journalists, foreign journalists, for ignoring the history of the Palestinian struggle, never contextualizing it, never using the terms equally, like terrorism towards Israel as well as toward the Palestinians, almost never used towards Israel. His complaint stands today, and I think the fact that we still have so much misinformation about what is the world's longest military occupation and one of the world's longest struggles for basic justice, uh, is, is a reflection on the so-called media age in which we are said to live."

20th century history of Iraq

(MG) William R. Polk, writing at Juan Cole's Informed Comment web site offers an excellent 20th century history of Iraq

What is Iraq: Iraq was created by Great Britain at the end of the First World War from three provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire. While it is common to think of it as still those three parts – the Kurdish Muslims in the North, the Sunni Muslims in the middle and the Shia Muslims in the South – it has become considerably integrated over the last century so all three communities are intermingled.

(MG) this perspective was collaborated by Riverbend on Monday, Dec 22, 2003:

Sunnis and Shi'a have always lived in harmony in Iraq and we still do, so far. I'm from a family that is about half Shi'a and half Sunni. We have never had problems as the majority of civilized people don't discriminate between the two.

It is also common to call Iraq “artificial,” and in part that is true, but the same could be said for virtually all countries. What is certain is that it is a small country, not quite two-thirds the size of Texas of which most is barren. Only an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined can be farmed by rainfall. Elsewhere, agriculture depends on the rivers – the Euphrates at Baghdad is about the size of the Arkansas River at Little Rock and the Tigris is about as large as the Missouri River at Kansas City. Because of the intense solar radiation, agriculture is difficult to maintain. Thus, until recently, Iraq has always been a poor country. What changed Iraq was oil. Oil was discovered in 1927 and is potentially very abundant but as yet is largely undeveloped; such developed facilities as exist have been severely damaged. It was oil, however, that paid for Iraq in the 1980s to become one of the most advanced countries of the Middle East.

While he was a brutal, aggressive dictator, Saddam Husain used oil revenues to fund public health, education, the building of modern infrastructure and the growth of industry. The population benefited and grew to about 24 million with a high level of education. Today the population is in turmoil with millions of people leaving their homes or even leaving the country, but with about half the population below the age of fifteen, growth will continue to be rapid.

(MG) Here's what Riverbend had to say about education in Iraq on Tuesday, Sept 16, 2003 (these comments would apply only BEFORE the U.S. invasion)

Something you probably don't know about Iraq: We have 18 public universities and over 10 private universities, plus 28 technical schools and workshops. The difference between private and public colleges is that the public colleges and universities (like Baghdad University) are free, without tuition. The private colleges ask for a yearly tuition which is a pittance compared to colleges abroad. Public colleges are preferred because they are considered more educationally sound.

Arab students come from all over the region to study in our colleges and universities because they are the best. Europeans interested in learning about Islamic culture and religion come to study in the Islamic colleges. Our medical students make the brightest doctors and our engineers are the most creative…

In 6th year secondary school (12th grade), Iraqi students are made to take a standardized test known as the Bakaloriah. The students are assigned 9-digit numbers and taken to a different school with random examination supervisors to watch over the testing process. For 'science students' the subjects required for examination are math, physics, English, Arabic, chemistry, Islam (for Muslim students only), French (for students taking French), and biology. For non-science students, the subjects are Arabic, English, history, geography, Islam (for Muslims), math, and economics - I think.

As soon as we get our averages, we fill out forms that go to the Ministry of Higher Education. In these forms, you list the colleges and universities you would like to end up in, the first being the one you want most.…

Anyway, according to the student's average, and the averages of the people applying to other colleges, the student is 'placed'. You don't even meet the dean or department head until after classes have begun. Ironically, ... [a] guy can get into an engineering college with a 92% while for females, the average is around 96% because the competition between females is so high.

... in engineering, science and medical colleges over half of the students in various departments are females- literate females, by the way. Our male and female graduates are some of the best in the region and many public universities arrange for scholarships and fellowships in Europe and America.

What we were told about Iraq: The litany of partial- or mis-information is well known. Iraq did not support terrorism, did not have or even intend to get nuclear weapons, had an antiquated army and air force and could not possibly have been a danger to the United States. It did, however, have an ugly, tyrannical government – like many others in the world – but the United States government worked closely with, and supported, that government for many years during the Reagan and first Bush administration.

The first American invasion: Relations between Saddam Husain’s regime and Kuwait (which every Iraqi government since the 1920s regarded as a part of Iraq illegally split off by the British) hinged on loans made to Iraq by Kuwait during the Iraq-Iran war. Kuwait pressed hard for repayment and Saddam was nearly bankrupt. He concluded that Kuwait was attempting to overthrow his government. Arab efforts at mediation failed and the United States told Saddam that it had no position on the disagreement. ... (MG) Saddam interviewed U.S. Ambassador Gilpatric to get a sense of how the U.S. would respond to an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait ... he was told the U.S. had no position on this disagreement ... never forget this ... Saddam asked and got an answer ... Rightly or wrongly, Saddam took our statements as a “green light” and attacked Kuwait. The attack was naked aggression and on behalf of the United Nations, the United States (under the first Bush administration) drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait. The U.S. did not attempt to conquer Iraq. President Bush commented: “Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.” ...(MG) But President Bush the 41st DID exhort the Iraqis to overthrow Saddam, and the Iraqi peoples took him at his word ... they rose up in revolt and had taken over 16 of the 19 Iraqi provinces when Saddam unleashed the Red Brigade in retaliation ... there is ample documentation from U.S. military about their heart sickness of being ordered to PERMIT the Red Brigade to fly (via helicopter) into the various provinces to crush the uprisings ... what President George H.W. Bush wanted was a MILITARY overthrow of Saddam, and a new Iraqi strongman, who would hearken to the back and call of the U.S. government to take power ... but the uprising threatened to empower forces / people whom the U.S. government might not be able to control ... But he and President Clinton imposed upon the country a severe program of sanctions that virtually crippled the economy and severely damaged the society.

Sanctions did not, however, accomplish what most people believed to have been their objective, to overthrow the regime. That was done in the second American invasion of 2003. The second American invasion and occupation. In the spring of 2003, American (together with smaller British and other) forces quickly defeated the Iraq army and occupied the country. When the regime collapsed, the U.S. created an occupational government known as the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) headed by an American official. Then, on March 8, 2004, the American-written constitution was approved by the American-appointed and controlled Iraqi Governing Council and selected an interim prime minister. Meanwhile, from April 2003, Iraqis began a major and wide-spread rebellion against the Americans and the American-appointed Iraqi administration.