Fernando's blog

GOP TALKING POINT EMAIL

I got the following e-mail today and thought I would share it so you guys wouldn't be surprised if you come across it:


Muslim terrorists and the U.S.A. :
A different spin on the war in Iraq : This WAR is REAL

Dr. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retir ed

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

1 When did the threat to us start?

Many will say September 11, 2001. The answer, as far as the United States is concerned, is 1979, 22 years prior to Se ptember 2001, with the following attacks on us:
* Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
* Beirut , Lebanon Embassy 1983;
* Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
* Lockerbie , Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
* First New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
* Dhahran , Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Milit ary complex 1996;
* Nairobi , Kenya US Embassy 1998;
* Dares Salaam , Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
* Aden , Yemen USS Cole 2000;
* New York World Trade Center 2001;
* Pentagon 2001.

(Note: during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide.)

2 Why were we attacked?

Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms. The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats, as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessor, President Ford.

3 Who were the attackers?

In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.

4 What is the Muslim population of the World?

25%.

5 Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?

Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There wer e 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests).

(see http://www.Nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm
&nb sp;
Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom hear of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy in killing anyone who got in the way of his extermination of the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian, or any others.

Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US , but kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, British, French or anyone else. The point here is that, just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us 'infidels.' I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was to remain silent or be killed?

6 So who are we at war with?

There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.

So with that background, now to the two major questions:

1 Can we lose this war?

2 What does losing really mean?

If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions:

We can definitely lose this war and, as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?

It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home, and going on about our business, like post-Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get.

What losing really means is:

We would no longe r be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but, rather, will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us over the past 18 years. The plan was, clearly, for terrorists to attack us until we were neutered and submissive to them.

We would, of course, have no future support from other nations, for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see; we a re impotent and cannot help them..

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a ti me. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq . Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France . Our one hope with France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished, too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However, it may already be too late for France . France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast.

Without our support, Great Britain will go, also. Recently, I read that there are more mosques in England than churches.

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports, and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us if they were threatened by the Muslims? If we can't stop the Muslim terrorists, how could anyone else?

The radical Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We'd better know it, too, and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts i nto winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war?

Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by 'imploding.' That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose and failing to dig in and lend full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win.

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation :

President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously? This is war! For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights to which we have become accustomed. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently.

And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII, and immediately restored them after the victory ... and, in fact, added many more since that time.

Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him?

No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.

Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose.

I think some actually do. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends and it does great damage to our cause.

Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying. We have recently had an issue involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our military police.. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues, and otherwise murdering their own just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.

And, just a few years ago, these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type of enemy fighters who recently were burning Americans and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq . And, still more recently, the same type of enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally of the beheading of American prisoners they held.

Compare this with some of our press and politicians, who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the 'humiliating' of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but 'humiliating' them.

Can they be for real?

The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can.

To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world. Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife. & again, I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they are absolutely oblivious to the magnitude of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us for many years.

These people are a serious and dangerous liability to the war effort. We must take note of who they are and get them out of office. Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels. That translates into ALL non- Muslims -- not just in the United States , but throughout the world. We are the last bastion of defense.

We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant.' That charge is valid. We are arrogant i n that w e believe that we are so good, powerful, and smart that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that, with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world. We can't!

If we don't recognize this, our nation, as we know it, will not survive, and no other free country in the world will survive if we are defeated.

And, finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the world.
This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self- inflicted fall of the Roman Empire If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach, little by little, on the established French traditions.

The French will be fighting among themselves over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece.

And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, o nce they are in power.

Muslims have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who the few will be controlling the masses.

What is happening in Iraq is a good example. Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct about the 'peaceful Muslims?'

I close on a hopeful note by repeating what I said before: If we are united, there is no way that we can lose . I hope now, after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talk ing about. Do whatever you can to preserve it. I reiterate: Our national election is under way.

After reading the above, we all must do this, not only for ourselves, but for our children, our grandchildren, our country, and our world. Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal ... and that includes the Politicians and media of our country and the free world.

Please forward this to any you feel may want, or NEED to read it. Our 'leaders' in Congress ought to read it, too. There are those who find fault with our country, but it is obvious to anyone who truly thinks through this, that we must UNITE!

Lastly, I wish to add: at the risk of offending, I sincerely think that anyone who rejects this as just another political rant, or doubts the seriousness of this issue, or just deletes it without sending it on, is part of the problem. Let's quit laughing at and forwarding the jokes and cartoons which denigrate and ridicule our leaders in this war against terror. They are trying to protect the interests and well being of the US and it's citizens. Best we support them.

GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!!!!!!

_______________________________________________________

Below is my reply in blue

_______________________________________________________

I wish I had the time to go through how completely wrong this is.

1. The threat started when multinational foreign corporations started using America's growing dominance to suppress the opportunities of poor around the world, many of which are Muslim. The easiest way to do that is to manipulate apathetic voters on the simplest issues that don't even matter like abortion and gay rights and who the "bad" guys are in immigration.

2. We were attacked because so called "democracies" are manipulated by dumb voters to become front organizations for countries that prop up tyrannical dictators like the Shaw, like the house of Saud, like Saddam Hussein, like Pinnoche. This is silly on its face. Recommend you research the recent BAE investigations from the Offices of Serious Fraud in Britain.

3. McVie was a Muslim? Really? How retarded. If we don't label people we can't separate one from another to demonize and attack them. This is the rhetoric of war mongers. Don't fall for it.

4. How many so called "Christians" live on the world and how many have they killed?

5. All religious fundies are horrible and dangerous when listened to imo. What religion are you and how are you dealing with that mental hypnosis?

6. The war is on the middle class of all countries and they is being manipulated to drain their wallets, restrict your freedoms, and reduce you to slaves for multinational corporations. This is done to make things easier for the royal elite who crap on golden toilets. (yes they really do that)

Can we lose the war? Hell yes, if people are so simple as to follow along with this message that you broadcast.

What does losing mean? It means small business' vanish and our rights are reduced to the signing statement we are expected to sign up for when we accept forced employment to feed our children or get health care.

I could go on and on but I don't have time. Good luck.

IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS 7/25/2008 @ 10am

Constitutional Limits of Executive Power

Judiciary

Washington, District of Columbia (United States)

Conyers, John Jr.
U.S. Representative, D-MI

Those people who told us that Impeachment Articles would die in the Judiciary, they need to look up who the witness' are hehehe :)

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich, Representative from Ohio
The Honorable Maurice Hinchey, Representative from New York
The Honorable Walter Jones, Representative from North Carolina
The Honorable Brad Miller
, Representative from North Carolina

Panel Two

The Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Representative from New York
The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Representative from Georgia, 2008 Libertarian Nominee for President
The Honorable Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson
, Founder and President, High Roads for Human Rights
Stephen Presser
, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law
Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82, Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Vincent Bugliosi
, Author and former Los Angeles County Prosecutor
Jeremy A. Rabkin
, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
Elliott Adams
, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr.
, Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

VIDEO LINK

NETROOTS UPDATE w/pics

(bumped by management.... nice pics! originally authored 2008-07-19 20:55:52 -0400)

 

If anyone saw Nancy's Q&A you saw her use the same old tired lines about FISA that were all debunked by Glen Greenwald. Then she blamed the Senate and by implication Harry Reid for letting it go to the House in the first place which was totally weak on her part. It was infuriating because she knew that we knew better. That was so insulting that I almost left.

 

 

Thank goodness for CodePink and their show of dissent. Afterwards when asked about what a new Democratic majority would mean she referenced rebuilding America's infrastructure. Decoded that means earmarks. Not once did she say that rescuing the Constitution was on that agenda. I wanted to throw something at her. But I didn't. I could feel my pulse in my ear drums I was so pissed off.

 

 

Al Gore's "surprise" appearance made getting up and to the exhibit hall worth while. He denied any interest in being a part of an Obama administration. He wants us all to sign up at wecansolveit.org and sign up in support of his 10 year Apollo type agenda to make the United States 100% run on renewable resources. I signed up from my phone just so I would get it done immediately because if Al says so, I don't ask questions.

 

 

 

Shortly after that panel came Lawrence Lessig. I only went because Sam told me to go during the meet up. That was probably the best presentation I've seen here. Only 9% of Americans think Congress is doing a "good" job. He based his presentation on public financing being the answer to restoring trust in our legislators. I completely support his effort. He recommends that we join something he calls Change Congress. It works like Creative Commons where you pick what you support and it gives you candidates who match your priorities. This is his model for public financing. I'm going to give that a try.

 

 

The Written to Spoken word session that Sam was a speaker at with Cenk was interesting to me, but only because I am such a worry wart over the future of progressive media. Sam and Cenk did not get to speak as much as I wish they could have. The question and answer period was limited so most of us could not ask questions.

One funny moment at the session was When I went to meet Cenk and shake his hand, I had hidden a Center for Constitutional Rights condom in my palm. The look on his face when he realized I was passing him something was hilarious. He put it in his pocket and I now feel like I've done my duty to keep Austin safe.

One never knows what that Cenk is capable of getting into.

I did get to talk to Sam out in the hall when we were done but all he wanted to talk about was "how toniD was doing?" :) I told him what I have read.

I bumped into Phillipe Collin again and confronted him again about how much ad revenue we would have to bring in to get Sam back on. We went back and forth but basically he broke down and told me the existing AAR team would have to pay a heavy penalty to release a certain nuisance from his contract. I'm guessing you understand what I mean and I won't quote figures. I still think we can package Sam with Ads ready to sign up and offer them to Novam. Those are after all our ad airwaves and our market dollars we spend for goods and services. We have been quiet way too long. I'm not done with this. In fact, I've only started.

SAM INTERVIEWS DON SIEGELMAN w/pictures


We demand that William and Lauren Canary, Alice Martin, and Richard Scrushy go before the Judiciary before Karl Rove.

OTHER LINKS
Gov. Siegelman at Netroots Nation: Bush's Undoing?
AL Gov. Don Siegelman Video At Netroots Nation

A BAD SITUATIONIST - REVIEWED


Sam Seder introduced his film A Bad Situationist today in its final form to a good sized audience at the Austin Convention Center. The showing was started a bit late after the Netroots Keynote address given by Gov. Howard Dean. In contrast to Howards generally empowering message to take us forward, Sam's sad comedy reminds us of a different reality.

Sam plays the part of Arthur. Arthur is the son of a loser who grows up as a trust fund baby. His character is unable to do anything for himself including sell the story about how the Bush Administration accomplished a fascist coup.

Arthur does have one talent that helps him survive. Arthur is a con-man. He is able to create his reality within his own weakness and crawl through his ego while accomplishing absurd comedy.

You will laugh. It may even hurt. It may hurt in more ways than one.

I found myself laughing at the constant betrayal Arthur must endure. His father betrays him. Women reject him. The only relationship he has with a woman is one all of his friends has already enjoyed. His friends ultimately reject him. His hero rejects him. Al Gore betrays him by not forcing a Florida recount. It goes on and on until Arthur can endure it no longer.

Crapping, toilets, and flushing seemed to add odd dimensions. Arthur is after all an anal explosive loser who often does not even understand his own spew. In this way he even betrays himself. In one scene Arthur is found sitting on the ceramic throne taking a dump and pondering his lot in life. In another scene Arthur essentially attempts to regain control of his life through violence only to have it backfire into something very similar to flushing himself with a cannon made of what appeared to be toilet plumbing parts. Don't forget that this is brought to you by Poopy Productions.

Arthur's assistant played a relatively minor role but an important one to me. He handled most of the daily work and appeared generally happy in his equally meaningless life. I think it says something that two people involved in the same hopeless endeavors can get such opposite levels of satisfaction in their existence.

There are a lot of lessons one could get out of this film. The value of violence is clearly over rated and the consequences in this film prove that. The satisfaction of working and accomplishing tasks is not as blunt but clearly on display. The cast is amazing. You will recognize almost everyone. The film is raw and unhappy in a comical way.

If you want a film that explains itself, this may not be the movie for you. But this film will work for you if you want to laugh while validating the value of our daily struggles.

NETROOTS MEET UP @ IRISH PUB


FRIDAY 5PM AT B.D. Riley's Irish Pub
easy walk from the Hilton or the Convention center

B. D. Riley's Irish Pub
204 East 6th St
Austin, TX 78701
512-494-1335

ON THE WAY TO NETROOTS


Getting to Netroots has been interesting. I lived in Austin while attending the University of Texas. There is a lot to do down here. I couldn't resist a few detours.

First I went to visit my mom in Corpus Christi. She has a way of being a bit terse and upset when I wake her up in the wee hours of the morning to go watch the sun come up at the beach. That wears off quickly as the light breaks into the new day. I found it important to torture her again that way. While visiting her, I picked up a gift from my aunt. She had painted me a picture of a psychedelic roster. The weather was great there and it was hard to say goodbye but I knew more lay ahead.

I made it to Austin on Saturday morning and fumbled around the new airport wasting money parking at the wrong terminal. I had picked up a flight from VivaAerobus. They had flights that were so cheap I expected to actually be mailed over instead of seated like a human. It turns out they have a fantastic service that easily rivals Southwest Airlines or American Airlines. Be advised however, if leaving from Austin you have to head to the South Terminal. If you show up early, it's right next to Mckinney falls state park.

Once in Mexico we landed in Escobedo not far from Sienega de Flores where too much conversation and food took place. The resulting hangover made decision making hard the next day. Our failed attempts at logic found me on top of a contraption with chairs mounted 14 feet above street level. My cousin and I drove around taking pictures. We passed one small site where Blue Agave was in its infancy. It's like a tequila nest. We made it around the plaza too and found a huge flag next to the city cathedral.

That flag at the plaza was tiny compared to the one I saw across the street from a school yard. This flag was easily half the size of a football field and was hoisted above a peak placing it in view of much of the city of Monterrey.

After that and some more debauchery elsewhere, I separated one day to spend some time by myself at Rancho La Luna. Rollis took me then left after lunch. I really like him because of how well he talks about my godfather and he's taught me a lot about what to expect when our own government gets too much power over people. We talked for a while and contrasted our experiences. We have it pretty good here but we are definitely in for some shocking times if we keep eroding our civil liberties. I'll leave that unhappy topic for now....

I took a few pictures of some of the thousands of Blue Agave my cousin planted after he found out I wanted to retire and learn how to distill Tequila. Those fields make me very happy.

Anyway, I'm registered here in Austin for Netroots. I'll be trying to take notes and pass on some reflections of what I find here. The goodie bag was cool. I got a great ActBlue bottle opener that I promise to use often. There was also a Dennis Kucinich inspired pocket Constitution that I will treasure forever. And I got a small "protect your constitution" condom from the Center for Constitutional Rights. They should get magnum size. That's what I think.

THE FOURTH


THE FOURTH. by maggiesboy aka Johnson from BlueRootsRadio.

Don't just sit there. Go to My.BO and tell him what you think about Telecom Immunity in the FISA capitulation bill. Or if you don't know about this attack on your Constitutional Rights granted by the Bill of Rights then read Glen Greenwald before it's too late.

SUNDAY MORNING




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