Monday, October 30, 2006

clemons: anarchy lie ahead for the country

* clemons:
"The next two years are going to be politically bloody and difficult ones for the nation and the world. There is a somewhat understandable, yet naive, hope that Democratic success in the coming election will somehow corner President Bush and his team into a more rational national security posture.

To some degree this is true. Democratic political strength in the nation is palpable, and virtually everyone sees the House of Representatives changing management, though the Senate is far less certain. Senator John Warner, Bush family "fixer" James Baker III, and others see this change in course coming -- and are trying to develop fig leaves for Bush to tack a different course on Iraq and US foreign policy in general.

But this view of change misses some key detail and parts of the political picture that need to be factored in.

First, Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team and new Committee chairs will not be able to hold back the calls for investigation, testimony under oath, and "public hangings" for those responsible for the corrupt practices with firms like Halliburton, the politicization of intelligence driven by Douglas Feith and friends; and the management failures that led to Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Guantanamo, and the lack of body armor for American soldiers.

In fact, Pelosi should not hold back. A public spotlight must be focused on those who took this nation in to the Iraq War -- and in particular, hearings along the lines of those that Harry Truman called in the Senate in 1940 to expose war profiteers should be quickly assembled and legal investigations of the structural corruption behind this war launched.

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If the House becomes the primary driver of investigations into the abuses, corruption, and duplicity that took this nation into a war that has undermined American status and security in the world, then the spotlight on the many scandals to roll forward will actually bring over Republicans.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid need to make sure that they have space in their plans for Republican defections away from the White House -- and the Dems need to force Republicans to vote over and over again on legislation and resolutions and investigation authorizations related to the Iraq War and America's currently self-defeating foreign policy.

We are going to see the implosion of the Bush presidency I think -- and just like Watergate -- there needs to be space for the William Cohen types and Howard Baker types of this Congress to join in a collaborative spirit with Democrats to save this country.

The problem with the thesis I am describing is that it doesn't quite capture how reluctant the White House will be to cooperate -- even if the President wants to tack towards a new and constructive direction in America's Middle East policy.
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But Bush will not go quietly -- and more importantly -- the allies for a better direction in foreign policy who actually do exist in hidden corners of the Bush administration are dominated by Cheney's followers throughout the national security bureaucracy.
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Cheney's acolytes will see a new equilibrium in the MIddle East as code for selling out Israel's security interests because they do see these issues in zero sum terms, even if the President of the United States does not (by then).

Cheney's people, if not neutralized, will derail any new opportunities or directions.

They need to be exposed as part of the broad Cheney network and pushed to the side. That is the only way to let some other policy possibilities to take root in the next two years of the Bush administration.

Dems and moderate Republicans can take credit as needed for these new changes in policy -- but without neutralizing Cheney down to the roots of his power -- policy and political anarchy lie ahead for the country."

5 comments:

Seven Star Hand said...

Hello Lukery and all,

Here's some more red-hot ink for your pen. This is the key to neutralize Cheney's and Bush's core support. Now help me "vanquish the sword."

No leader of an empire ever truly believes the religions used to manipulate subjects. That would be like a drug dealer hooked on his product; its bad for business...

Understanding why religion is strong delusion

Christians often quote things like "know them by their fruits," yet after millennia of being duped into abetting blatantly evil scoundrels, many still don't understand the meaning or import of much of what they read. The same canon paradoxically propounds "faith," which means the complete opposite of "know them by their fruits," i.e., to discern the truth by analyzing deeds and results (works) and to weigh actions instead of merely believing what is said.

The deceptive circular logic of posing a fantasy messiah who urges both discernment of the truth and faith (belief without proof) clearly represents a skillful and purposeful effort to impose ignorance and confusion through "strong delusion." Any sage worth his salt could understand the folly of this contradictory so-called wisdom. This and mountains of evidence demonstrate that faith and religion are the opposite of truth and wisdom. It is no wonder charlatans like Rove, Bush, and others have marked Christians as dupes to be milked as long and as hard as possible. Any accomplished con artist easily recognizes religion as the ultimate scam and fervent followers as ready-made marks and dupes.

We now live in an era where science has proven so much about the vastness, rationality, mathematical preciseness, and structural orderliness throughout every level of our 11-dimension universe. Nonetheless, large percentages of people still conclude that these flawed and contradictory religious canons are the unmodified and infallible "word of God." People who can't (or won't) discern the difference between truth and belief are easily misled about the differences between good and evil, wisdom and folly, perfection and error, reason and irrationality, and right and wrong.

The fact that political leaders have always had close relationships with religious leaders while cooperating to manipulate followers to gain wealth and power is overwhelming evidence that the true purpose of religion is deception and delusion. People who are unable to effectively discern basic moral choices or to reason accurately are easily indoctrinated to follow the dictates of national and imperial leaders who wrap themselves in religious pretense. Truth and wisdom are direct threats to the existence and power of empires. That is why imperial leaders always strive to hide so-called secret knowledge and impose deception and ignorance upon their subjects.

What then is the purpose of "faith" but to prevent otherwise good people from seeking to understand truth and wisdom?

Read More...

Peace...

Anonymous said...

thanks for the very interesting material in your post, dude. food for thought and all.

Mizgîn said...

Actually, if there were a strong anarchist party in the US, things would be much better. At least then there would be a REAL two-party system.

Instead, it will be the same thing as always with the upcoming elections. What, exactly, is the difference between the Democrats and Republicans? As far as foreign policy is concerned, there IS no difference.

So we are left with the same non-choice: vanilla (Democrats) or vanilla (Republicans).

It's long past time for some dark, bittersweet chocolate.

lukery said...

mizgin - i try to keep some faith that there's at least a little bit of ddifference between the two - but i'm not confident.

Anonymous said...

mizgin: Actually, if there were a strong anarchist party in the US, things would be much better. At least then there would be a REAL two-party system.

i'm totally w/you, dude.