WHEN YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR EACH DAY: WHAT DO YOU SEE?

QUOTE:

80 Eyes on 2,400 People :

If terrorists come to tiny Dillingham, Alaska, security cameras
will be ready. But privacy concerns have residents up in arms

http://ktla.trb.com/news/la-na-secure28mar28,0,422794.story?coll=ktla-news-1

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QUOTE:

Sheila Samples :

9/11 -- Eliminating The Impossible.:

I said I'd never do it -- say what I think about
that terrible morning of September 11, 2001. I've
seen what happens to those who question the elaborate,
tangled explanations the Bush administration
offers about what happened, how it happened,
who did it

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12571.htm

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QUOTE:

Explosive Testimony:

Revelations about the Twin Towers in the 9/11 Oral Histories:

An interview with Professor David Ray Griffin

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12564.htm

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QUOTE:

Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy! :

Anyone still care about the heap of disturbing, unsolved
questions surrounding Our Great Tragedy?

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12562.htm

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QUOTE:

Iran: Scenarios of an American strike

The risks are great if Washington's neo-cons choose
military options to prevent Iran from blocking
US imperial designs for the Middle East

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/788/special.htm

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QUOTE:

Soviets “R” US

by Zbignew Zingh

Who really won the Cold War? Why does it matter?
After the Great Reagan Rapture that occurred after
the Gipper's death in 2004, it behooves us to reflect
on who was the victor and who the vanquished when
the post WWII conflict known colloquially as the
“Cold War” fizzled to its conclusion. Obviously, from
a geo-political perspective, the clear “winner” was the U.S.A.

I do not mean the American people were the “winner,”
but, rather, that those who own most of, and who make
all the important decisions in this country, were the
hands down winners. As for the rest of American's citizens,
however, the matter is more complicated.

Remember, first of all, that the Soviet Union that
crashed in the latter decades of the 20th Century
was hardly a bastion of “Marxism”. The political,
economic and social systems that existed at the end
of the Soviet Union's life were as close to its communist
roots as, dare we say, America's current brand of
“constitutional government” resembles that laid out
by its founders. There is a popular perception among
Americans -- a perception nurtured by our culture
conformity machines -- that the Cold War was worth
the effort, and that the outcome was a foregone conclusion
because “we” had the superior political, economic and social
systems and “they” had inferior ones. That is, so goes
the popular wisdom, “we” are still here as the Cold War
victors, and “they”, the Soviet losers, have disappeared.

However, although the Soviet Union is truly gone, has
not its DNA gotten into us? Take, for example, the hallmark
“one party rule” that characterized the 20th Century
SU Here, in the United States of the 21st Century, do
we now have anything different? The Republicans control
all three branches of government and they are busy
stocking the federal judiciary with life-time appointments
who meet Republican litmus tests. Although one can
argue that the Democrats and the Republicans are
“different” parties, there is no dispute that the core
power brokers in both parties closely resemble one
another. Both parties' financial lifeblood come from
the same corporate and upper class donors, both parties
tread lightly around the same special interest groups.
Neither party offers anything different than gradations
of the same elite-oriented policies. It is not terribly novel
to state that the Democrats and the Republicans are
merely different shades of the same party.

Even within the context of the elections that are held
in the United States, can we seriously contrast what we
have today with what the Soviets had in their day? There
are barely any contested elections at the local level in
America, just like in the Soviet Union. And at the
national level, the Republican and the Democrats do
their level best to keep off the ballot anyone who is not
vetted and approved by their think-alike national
committees. Thus, in America, too, we can choose only
from an approved list of candidates, just like Soviet
citizens of yore. There, the voters' choices were restricted
by the Party. Here, the parties restrict the candidates
to the lesser of two similar evils. The quality of
“choice” seems remarkably 'soviet'.

Of course, in the old Soviet Union one never knew
whether your vote was even counted. This is 21st
Century America: after the Florida 2000
disenfranchisement of the African-American voter
and our blind rush to install unverifiable Black Box
computerized voting machines, do we need to pursue
that comparison any deeper?

Citizens of the old SU knew that theirs was a
society of widespread domestic surveillance and
eavesdropping. 21st Century America, have
you not become the same? Who listens to your
digital phone calls? Who monitors your email?
Who tracks where you travel on which airlines,
what you buy at the bookstore and where you
use your credit cards?
In the Soviet Union, people... even Citizens...
could be arrested in the dead of night, disappear,
and never be seen again. There was no right of
'habeas corpus'. It is 2004 in America. People...
even citizens... have been arrested in the dead of
night, they disappear never to be seen again, and
you literally have no right of 'habeas corpus.' Are
our rights today any stronger than those of citizens
in the old Soviet Union? There was virtually no free
speech in Soviet times. Do we have free speech
when it can only be exercised in razor wire enclosed
“free speech zones?”
The Kremlin surrounded the Motherland with a
chain of totalitarian satellite countries that protected
its geopolitical interests. The White House now guards
its geopolitical interests with a global chain of totalitarian
satellite countries. We even station our soldiers in
those countries to guarantee their obeisance, just like
the Soviet Union did with its soldiers stationed in its
satellite states.

Diplomacy was not the strong suit of the old Soviet
Union. Some will recall Nikita Khrushchev banging
his shoe on the podium while addressing the United
Nations. They would 'bury us' capitalists with their
superior politico-economic system, said Mr. Khrushchev.
Now, George Bush and his minions shake their fists
at the United Nations and insist that Western
Judeo-Christian Capitalism will bury Islam and all
other opposition in the world. Our respective applications
of diplomacy, therefore, are not very different, are they?

The Soviet Union was known for its seamless welding
of the State and the Economy. In America, unless
State and Economy have been welded together, too.
Our stock and commodity markets are as manipulated
as hand puppets, and the hands within the puppets are
the Federal Reserve Bank, the Treasury Department,
the various federal commodities trading boards, the
national reserve banks, the network of interlocking
Fortune 500 boards of directors, a few ex-officio
committees and a handful of financial moguls. Many
in America believe that what the Fed Chairman does
and says on any given day dictates what any investor
should buy or sell, and they believe that the manipulated
highs and lows of the stock exchanges give the signal
whether to buy stock or to sell. Curiously, however,
the same ones who believe that will also profess the
double-think that we have a 'free market economy'.

Our 'free market economy' is as manipulated as
was the Soviet 'government economy'. For better
or for worse, there is no Adam Smith 'invisible hand'
directing our economy today – there are only
invisible puppeteer hands, just like in the old controlled
economies of the Soviet Block. In the Soviet Union,
huge, state-sanctioned companies dominated the
country and the business of the little people. In
America of the 21st Century, is not the same just
as true? The 'state imprimatur' is not as visible with
Microsoft or Boeing or Fox or Hearst or DuPont or
Monsanto or Bechtel or Westinghouse or GE or Disney,
but are they not, in the government's tacit approval
of their virtual stranglehold on their respective markets,
state-sanctioned companies as huge and as stifling and
as powerful as any were in Soviet Russia?

The Soviet Union was derided for its manipulation
of economic statistics. Its Three, Five and Ten Year
Plans were the butt of capitalists' jokes. Why do we
in the United States not laugh when today we are fed
distorted and misleading economic data and statistics?
We are told good jobs are being created when we know
that you need to work three of them just to pay the rent.
We are told that globalization creates work as our jobs
are outsourced, our wages decreased and our pensions
devalued. We are told our incomes are rising while it
seems like we have less disposable income every year.

We are told in the financial pages of the newspaper
that oil prices in 2004, though high, are relatively
cheap when compared to the 1970s when the price
of oil is adjusted for inflation. At the same time, on
another page of the same newspaper, we are told
that nothing really costs more than before because
there is virtually no inflation. Are America's citizens,
therefore, conned no less than were the Soviet Citizens
by an endless stream of misleading, manipulated
economic data and statistics?

And for the sake of industry, what did the Soviet
Union do to Mother Russia's environment? It trashed
it, utterly, wantonly, recklessly. And for the sake of
profit, what does America today do to Mother Earth?
It trashes it, utterly, wantonly, recklessly.

There was religion in the Soviet Empire. There was
a state-sanctioned orthodox church run by state
approved leaders who urged submission to the
will of the Government. In the 21st Century
American Empire, are we trending toward
state-sanctioned religion where approved churches
get 'vouchers' and government funding for
'good works', and where craven religious leaders
urge their flock to Kill and Maim and Conquer for
Caesar, in the name of God?

In the Soviet Union it was hard to know what
was the truth. The media was consolidated in
the hands of a few. The choice in newspapers,
television and radio media was pathetic. Do we
really need to compare the consolidated media
of 21st Century America with the Soviet Union?
The similarities make us wonder.

As the dying Soviet Union collapsed on itself,
its social systems, its very quality of life began
to decay. What of us, America, in the early 21st
Century? Our public schools collapse and we
have no money for our teachers. Our libraries,
our roads, our medical care system, our railroads,
our inner cities, our social safety nets, our
universities, all are slowly starving for lack of
funds. Many countries top the U.S. now in the
quality of education, child mortality, vacation
time, medical care and social support systems.
You can see America's decay just as you could
see it in the waning days of the Soviet Empire.
In the SU, life expectancy began to trend downward.
It is trending downward in America too. You can
feel it, you can see it, you can hear it in conversation
everywhere.

The Soviets had their Gulags. Now, we have
Abu Ghraib. Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay.
Secret prisons in Afghanistan, Diego Garcia and
Camp Bondsteel. Are not people held in secret right
here in the United States, without charge, without bond,
without access to counsel? How are we different
from the Soviets and their prison camps? Were
their tortures qualitatively worse? Are our
'intentions' qualitatively better? On close examination,
the similarities are stronger than the differences.

The Soviets developed a cult of heroes. Immense
heroes of the Revolution. Larger than life political
leaders. They had cults of adoration for the designated
governmental figurehead. And what of America,
vintage 2004? We have our strutting warrior hero
president, our manly-jawed Terminator governor,
our cultish, fawning legions of leader-worshipers
who will brook no dissent and tolerate no slight of
Our Rulers' reputations or intentions. It is all
very Soviet, is it not?

There was a curious feature of the Soviet soul as
that empire's star began to set. Its people became
depressed. They became withdrawn. They became
apathetic as they waited, sourly, for The Fall. Look
around you, America. Look deeply into the eyes and
souls of your compatriots. How are you and they
feeling? How are you and they acting? What is your
personal expectation for the future?

Look in the mirror. Do you see a Soviet Citizen?

It is the end of the Cold War. We have met the
Soviet Empire, and we became them.

Zbignew Zingh can be reached at Zbig@ersarts.com.
This Article is CopyLeft, and free to distribute, reprint,
repost, sing at a recital, spray paint, scribble in a toilet
stall, etc. to your heart’s content, with proper author
citation. Find out more about Copyleft and read other
great articles at www.ersarts.com.


********************************************************

A DECENT, INSIGHTFUL AND FORTHRIGHT ARTICLE ABOUT THE IRANIAN OIL BOURSE: IT AIN'T WHAT IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE...!

QUOTE:

Iran's plan to weaken the dollar will fail at Christian Science Monitor

**************************************************************
QUOTE:

Pillaging the Treasury and the Constitution

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

President Bush passes himself off as a
conservative Republican and a born-again
Christian. These are disguises behind which
Bush hides. Would a Christian invade another
country on false pretenses, kill tens of
thousands of innocent civilians, and show
no remorse or inclination to cease the aggression?

****************************************************
QUOTE:

US living on borrowed time - and money

By Julian Delasantellis Buried deep in the arcanum
of some recently released economic statistics are
indications that the world is tiring of its role as
America's charge card

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QUOTE:

Channel 4 - Paints Chavez As Dictator

By John Pilger

This was a disgrace from beginning to end.
Worse, it joined the kind of hysteria in the US
that is following the Bush administration’s agenda
of “positioning” Venezuela as a “rogue state” and
a threat to US interests: in other words, softening
it up for attack.

********************************************************
QUOTE:

No Legal Rights for Enemy Combatants, Scalia Says:

He also told the audience at the University of Freiburg
in Switzerland that he was "astounded" by the
"hypocritical" reaction in Europe to the prison'

Should Scalia Recuse Himself From Gitmo Case? :

Supreme Court: Detainees' Rights—Scalia Speaks His Mind

Justice Scalia flips the finger in church:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled
reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass,
by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

****************************************************
QUOTE:

Andy's Take On Outsourcing

The growing trend of outsourcing - shifting work
to workers outside the U.S. - irks Andy Rooney.
"Have we lost our ability to do anything for ourselves?"
he wonders.

***********************************************************
QUOTE:

Antique Computers? Let's Outlaw That

Andy Rooney Says Inventors Are Reinventing Too Fast

**********************************************************
QUOTE:

Late Night Political Jokes - Late Night Jokes Updated Daily

******************************************************

KATRINA ON MY MIND...! SO BRUTAL THEY SAY... WHO ARE THEY? THE VICTIMS OF KATRINA. A PROVOCATIVE STORY THAT BREAKS MY HEART & SADDENS THE SOUL.

QUOTE:

A Growing Gap Between Raw and Packaged News Destroys Credibility

BY TED RALL

NEW YORK--Hurricane Katrina survivors' shocking
testimony to Congress about their abuse at the hands
of federal troops and local police ought to have been
one of the biggest news stories ever. What happened
instead--and what didn't happen--is a perfect
illustration of the widening gap between raw and
packaged news, and why 66 percent of Americans
don't believe what they read in the paper.


http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/index.html?uc_full_date=20060321

****************************************************************
QUOTE:

The Bottom-to-Top Transfer of Secrecy

BY TED RALL

http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/index.html?uc_full_date=20060314

****************************************************************
QUOTE:

POLL: MOST AMERICANS LOVE COULTER COLUMNS!

BY ANN COULTER

http://www.anncoulter.org/cgi-local/welcome.cgi

**************************************************
QUOTE:

Andy's Take On Outsourcing

BY ANDY ROONEY

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/02/60minutes/rooney/main1363712.shtml

********************************************************
QUOTE:

Late Night Political Jokes - Late Night Jokes Updated Daily

***********************************************************

TO SEE CONSERVATIVES PUT THEIR HEADS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK IS AMAZING. TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS...! ANOTHER PROFILE OF COURAGE "MR. PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS"

QUOTE:

Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous


By Paul Craig Roberts


http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts157.html

************************************************
COMMENT: ANOTHER PROFILE IN COURAGE...!

QUOTE:

FBI Agent Says He Warned of 9/11 Hijackings

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032106Z.shtml

The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in
August 2001 testified Monday he spent almost four
weeks trying to warn US officials about the radical
Islamic student pilot but "criminal negligence" by
superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop
the 9/11 attacks.

**************************************************

DOES BUSH & COMPANY KNOW SOMETHING WE DON'T? MOST LIKELY... YOU MIGHT THINK SO AFTER READING "THE END OF CIVILIZATION": A PROFOUNDLY INTERESTING READ!

QUOTE:

The End Of Civilization

By Dave Eriqat

I had a mild epiphany the other day: it’s not
President Bush who’s living in a fantasy world,
it’s most of his critics who are. I’m no apologist
for Bush – Ineither like nor dislike him. He’s
no more significant to me than a fly buzzing
around outside my window. So permit me to explain my reasoning.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12381.htm

******************************************************

"MAN'S BEST FRIEND" ISN'T HIS FELLOW MAN. A DOG IS...? AFTER READING THESE STORIES, YOU'LL UNDERSTAND WHY A "DOG IS MAN'S BEST FRIEND" PERIOD...!

QUOTE:

Shocking Guantánamo Suicide Letter
Just Declassified and Released by The U.S.

In his letter, Jumah seeks to make his
“voice heard by the world from the depths
of the detention centers” and implores the
“fair people of America to look again at the
situation and try to have a moment of truth…”

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12370.htm

****************************************************
QUOTE:

Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons:

Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods,
Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric
abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that
were committed in Iraq?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

*******************************************************
QUOTE:

The U.S. Gulag Prison System :
The shame of a nation and a crime against humanity

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12358.htm

******************************************************
QUOTE:

Bob Herbert

Stop Bush's War

Most of the people who thought this war was a good idea
also thought that the best way to fight it was with other
people's children. That in itself is a form of depravity.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12371.htm

**********************************************************
QUOTE:

Is Another 9/11 in the Works?

By Paul Craig Roberts

If you were President George W. Bush with all available
US troops tied down by the Iraqi resistance, and you
were unable to control Iraq or political developments
in the country, would you also start a war with Iran?
Yes, you would.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12366.htm

*************************************************
QUOTE:

William Rivers Pitt Deranged, Disconnected, and Dangerous

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031706A.shtml

The man is deranged, disconnected, and dangerous.
It appears, finally, that a significant portion of the
country now sees this clearly. Only 33% of Americans,
according to the latest Pew poll, approve of Mr. Bush
and the job he is doing. Hey, it only took five years,
writes William Rivers Pitt.

******************************************************
QUOTE:

Late Night Political Jokes - Late Night Jokes Updated Daily

*******************************************************

THESE ARTICLES ARE DEDICATED TO MY LOVING DOGS WHO I WILL ALWAYS CHERISH IN MY HEART & SOUL FOREVER, MY PALS: JOEY, HUGO, GIZZY, & SPARKY. BLESS'EM!

QUOTE:

The Death of Miles

I cannot and will not feel embarrassed at feeling
bereft because of the death of my dog.

By Marc Gellman

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11845568/site/newsweek/

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QUOTE:

Andy On Man's Best Friend

Andy Rooney paid a visit to the dog show and found
himself thinking that perhaps people should be
kept away from these events. Just bring the dog
and leave. More...

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SOMETIMES THE TRUTH HURTS, AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU'VE GROWN UP TO BELIEVE IN YOUR COUNTRY. AND WHEN YOUR EYES ARE OPENED, YOU WANT TO CRY...

QUOTE:

Lessons of Iraq War start with U.S. history

By Howard Zinn

On the third anniversary of President Bush's Iraq debacle,
it's important to consider why the administration so easily
fooled so many people into supporting the war.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12339.htm

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