Terrorism of the Rich

“Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”
– Peter Ustinov,

Last week I mentioned America’s addiction to war. Well, our government proved it the very next day.

Last Friday, 3 days after becoming President, Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces, Barack Hussein Obama ordered his first air strikes into Pakistan killing 22 people reportedly women and children amongst them according to UK newspaper The Guardian. Another operation last Sunday killed 16 Afghans – US and Afghans disagree on how many women and children killed. Sunday Times reports 3 children were killed. But who’s counting anyway?

This is what creates terrorists. Flying around the world to kill women and children indiscriminately. The husbands of those women and the fathers of those children will want revenge. As Gandhi said – “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” This is what helps terrorist organizations recruit people.

But because we have spiffy uniforms, cool billion dollar weapons, made by defense contractors who pay off our politicians, who in return vote for war and Israel – our killing of women and children is praised with a flag waving frenzy and anyone who speaks out against killing by our soldiers is called a traitor and asked to shut up. We use fancy words like “military operations” like “Operation Iraqi Freedom” or “Operation Enduring Freedom” to carpet bomb civilians with depleted uranium.

President Obama first bombed remote villages which were no threat to us, where they cannot even spell America much less know where it is on the map, then after bloodying his hands decided to sign his first piece of legislation yesterday. This is a slap in the face to those Americans who voted for “change”. It shows that war and aid to Israel are more important than the needs of Americans.

What does it matter anyway? Our government will dismiss those women and children as “Collateral Damage” and then the Obamafest will continue through Superbowl weekend, screw those ragheads.

Our country is bankrupt, for the last 18 months California state has been borrowing money from Wall Street (the same people we are supposed to be bailing out) but our government somehow believes bombing countries is a bigger priority than our problems in America. Not even people in the Obama administration understand how or why. We are just ordered to “Support The Troops” like sheep while they commit these atrocities. As Judge Napolitano said, we have become a Nation of Sheep.

America has over 700 military bases in 130 countries. Many in countries whose citizens do not even want us there. If this is not an empire – what is?

There are over 70,000 homeless Americans in Los Angeles. About 14% of those are veterans – who have fought in America’s wars. One of them, a Vietnam vet, lived in a makeshift hut – kind of like those you would find in a slum in Bombay – right in North Hollywood (behind that hill with the famous “Hollywood” sign) less than few minutes away from my office – he lived there until officials demolished his hut for fear of fires. He now lives in cardboard boxes under the 101 freeway. They call him the Godfather…..of what… only God knows. Usually he’s out near the ramp with a sign that says “Will work for food” and sometimes does odd jobs for a few dollars or a meal.

This is how our government treats the people who fight for its wars.

President Obama, while you can look into the loving eyes of your own beautiful daughters and smile, take a moment and think about that grieving family you bombed somewhere in a village in Afghanistan. They will never look into the loving eyes of their children again.

Homeless Veterans

“America’s Most Wanted Cartoonist” – www.bendib.com
The pen is funnier than the sword. Cartoons that speak truth to power.

Gaza 2009 – We Will Never Forget

Here is a brief montage documenting the genocide committed by Israel in “Operation Cast Lead”. It also shows the war crimes as well as the the brave and noble people who stood up, who spoke out, who demonstrated (like my dear friends the Viranis and Peeras) against the Israeli Slaughter Machine.

Bear in mind – it is your taxes that are paying for these crimes:

President Obama if you are reading this blog, I’d like tell you that you are siding with the wrong people in this conflict.

“It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”
— Albert Camus.

The Ron Paul Cage Fight

If you want more education in economics in under 10 minutes than Ben Bernanke got after spending four years at Harvard and a PhD at MIT – watch this video:

It is from this morning’s MSNBC show – Morning Joe.

It was a bare knuckled cage fight on the economy!

Ron Paul was the star. He kept knocking down every Keynesian expert, one after another as they kept coming at him. As they got up and came at him again he’d give them another beating. The hosts, like many other clueless Americans, seem to believe that the answer to America’s economic problems today is for government to spend more money. It is like saying we’re stuck in this hole – let’s dig deeper or now that we set the house on fire – let’s pour gasoline on it to save it.

“Fight Club was the beginning, now it’s moved out of the basement, it’s called Project Mayhem.”
– Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt in the 1999 film “Fight Club”)

Obama Is Wrong on Afghanistan

America has an addiction to war. Like a crack cocaine addict who becomes psychotic if he doesn’t get his fix. He will do anything – beg, steal, kill even sell his soul, to get it – so will Uncle Sam. Many crack addicts are so dependent on crack cocaine that they ultimately die of a fatal overdose. History shows that many war addicted empires have crumbled in a similar overdose of war and this is what can happen to America if its addiction is not treated.

Over extended and bankrupt, this year my home state California – the Golden State – will send out IOUs instead of State Tax Refund checks. Yet the government has money to bomb Afghans.

President Obama made promises during his campaign to increase the military, reduce troops in Iraq and send the rest into another mindless war in Afghanistan and in his first week is already preparing to move troops into Afghanistan. Over a million Iraqis have died due to the US invasion we will spend over $3 trillion in Iraq, according to the country’s top Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, and now another escalation with the war in Afghanistan is looming on the horizon.

Carpet bombing Afghan villages is not going to reduce terrorism. We have seen over the last 8 years of Bush wars that those missiles and bombs do not distinguish between terrorists and innocent villagers, women and children. I have mentioned in earlier posts – “War is terrorism…with a bigger budget.”

While we engage in debates over which way of killing people is more moral – it doesn’t matter to those who are killed whether the cold blooded murderer wore a suicide belt and used an MP5 machine gun (like in Mumbai) or shot million dollar missiles from a $70 million dollar F-16 jet and used white phosphorus (Gaza). Sending troops to bomb Afghanistan will only breed more terrorists – just the way it turned Iraq into a terrorist haven.

Former Democratic Candidate for President in 1972 – George McGovern is offering President Obama a great solution to keep us out of war and prevent terrorism:

Excerpt:

“So let me suggest a truly audacious hope for your administration: How about a five-year time-out on war – unless, of course, there is a genuine threat to the nation?

During that interval, we could work with the U.N. World Food Program, plus the overseas arms of the churches, synagogues, mosques and other volunteer agencies to provide a nutritious lunch every day for every school-age child in Afghanistan and other poor countries. Such a program is now underway in several countries approved by Congress and the United Nations, under the auspices of the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Act. (Forgive the self-serving title.) Although the measure remains painfully underfunded, with the help of other countries, we are reaching millions of children. We could supplement these efforts with nutritional packages for low-income pregnant and nursing mothers and their infants from birth through the age of 5, as is done here at home by WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

Is this proposal pie-in-the-sky? I don’t think so. It’s food in the stomachs of hungry kids. It would draw them to school and enable them to learn and grow into better citizens. It would cost a small fraction of warfare’s cost, but it might well be a stronger antidote to terrorism. There will always be time for another war. But hunger can’t wait.”

Read the rest of the article by clicking below:

Obama Is Wrong on Afghanistan

George McGovern is a former United States Representative, Senator, and Democratic presidential nominee. McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election in a landslide to incumbent Richard Nixon. As a decorated World War II combat veteran, McGovern was noted for his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was way ahead of his time. When he was opposing the Vietnam war – he was laughed off – only to be right after the USA left Vietnam humiliated. If the country had listened to him then, we would have saved many lives and our country’s resources – and maybe saved the country from the Nixon and Agnew scandals of corruption, bribery, money laundering, removal of the gold standard, Watergate scandal, etc, etc.

Reminds me of that song by Robert Palmer (modified – “war” instead of “love”):

…its closer to the truth to say you cant get enough,
you know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to war
Might as well face it, you’re addicted to war…

IDF Shoots Father, Two Brothers – Then Prevents Ambulance

Here is a truly shocking story that our propaganda machine – the “fair and balanced” US mainstream media – would never show. Thumbs up to NYC based independent news program “Democracy Now!” for taking on this story of Amer Shurrab, a Palestinian from Khan Yunis living in the United States:

“On Friday, his dad and two brothers were fleeing their village when their vehicle came under Israeli fire. His brother, twenty-eight-year-old Kassab, died in a hail of bullets trying to flee the vehicle. His other brother, eighteen years old, Ibrahim, survived the initial attack, but Israeli troops refused to allow an ambulance to reach him and his father until twenty hours later. By then, it was too late. Ibrahim had bled to death in front of his father.”

You can watch, read or listen to the whole interview here.

In Gaza, Ambulances have to give coordinates to the IDF to be able to get to rescue civilians otherwise they are shot like the many who tried to without IDF approval. This is a war crime. Simply inhuman.

The next time you look at your pay stubs and complain how much taxes you are paying or when you sit down and write that check to the IRS on April 15 – just remember that a portion of that money is paying for this.

“America’s Most Wanted Cartoonist” at www.bendib.com.

Open Letter to Obama – From an Israeli Woman

This letter was written by an Israeli woman, a member of Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch) which is a voluntary movement of Israeli women, founded in 2001, dedicated to monitoring and reporting human rights violations in the West Bank and Jerusalem. It brings together Israeli women who are united in their opposition to the occupation and their commitment to human rights.

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Inauguration

80 percent of the inaugural contributions have been raised by just over 200 wealthy donors including executives from Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, UBS Americas, Goldman Sachs, Wachovia.

Public Citizen, a non-profit public interest group reports:

Many prominent Wall Street executives have bundled large amounts for the inauguration, including:

• Louis Susman, vice chairman of Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking and managing director, vice chairman of investment banking, Citigroup ($300,000);

• Mark Gilbert, senior executive, Lehman Brothers ($185,000);

• Robert Wolf, chairman and CEO, UBS Americas ($100,000);

• Jennifer Scully, vice president, private wealth management, Goldman Sachs ($100,000);

• Bruce Heyman, managing director of the Private Wealth Management Group, Midwest region, Goldman Sachs ($50,000);

• Kobi Brinson, senior vice president and assistant general counsel, Wachovia ($35,000)

“It’s no wonder that Wall Street is pouring so much money into this inauguration,” said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “The executive branch has given bailouts worth trillions of dollars to Wall Street firms and is considering trillions more. Wall Street has a lot at stake.”

Wall Street is supposed to be bruised, bankrupt and facing their worst financial crisis ever – yet they are funding the largest and most expensive inauguration in the history of the United States of America. Maybe they don’t know there is a deep recession/depression going on in America?

Wall Street banks caused the financial mess we are in. They should be paying for the mess – instead they are bribing Obama to ensure he robs the taxpayer blind to pay for the personal jets and condos of the rich robber bankers.

Compare Obama’s inauguration with that of Thomas Jefferson, who was the first president to take the oath of office in Washington, D.C., the location chosen as the permanent capital of the U.S.A. Jefferson walked to the Capitol in 1801 for his swearing-in, and then returned to a modest boarding house afterwards for dinner.

Kucinich: Half of Gazans Are 13 or younger

Congressman Dennis Kucinich tells the House of Representatives that half of the Gaza population are children.

Call your elected Representatives today to put a stop to this!

Welcome to Gaza, Mr. Dershowitz!

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”
– South African Bishop, Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for non-violent resistance and struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.

Alan Dershowitz, apologist for the Israel lobby in the US, put out an op-ed column in the LA Times, January 10, 2009 titled “Hamas’ War Crimes” defending the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and ignoring every crime Israel has committed from the economic blockade to violation of the ceasefire to its deliberate targeting of civilians using bombs banned by international law such as the DIME bombs and use of white phosphorus.

Jim Doody wrote back responding with a profound but accurate scenario of the situation in Gaza. Thanks, Shai, for sharing it.

Here is Jim’s correspondence to the LA Times:

Consider another related situation: An armed robber breaks into your house. He kills several family members and forces the rest of your family into a closet. If you want to eat, you have to ask him. You can’t go to work. The kids he hasn’t killed cannot go to school.

When you complain, he opens the door and fires his gun into your closet — and don’t hold your breath for medical aid. The police won’t help because they’re on his side. They’ll even lend him more bullets.

Welcome to Gaza, Mr. Dershowitz!

Jim Doody

Our government may support the mass murderers and baby killers, may even take our taxes and use it to fund the baby killers with missiles, jets, choppers, but they can’t control our minds. We will not be silent.

“America’s Most Wanted Cartoonist” – Visit http://www.bendib.com

Joe the War Pimp in Israel

Remember Joe the Plumber? Well, he’s switched careers and now has become a war pimp for the Zionist state of Israel. Currently he’s in Israel defending their war crimes:

Joe the Plumber Reporting from Israel.

In the meantime, while our media gets their reports from Joe, continue to brainwash Americans with Israeli propaganda, and cover up the Israeli massacre – here’s a glimpse into day 17 in Gaza: