Friday, July 16, 2004

Anti-War Voter Bloc FEATURED ARTICLES - Advertiser Drops Whoopi After Bush Sex Joke,The Guardian - Unilever Has History of Using Corporate Clout to Punish Free Speech, Democrats.com - The Selection Trail, The Guardian - The Incredible Lying BushCo, Information Clearing House - The Push, By William Rivers Pitt QUOTE OF THE DAY "American elections are not about morals, or ethics, or principles, but power." - - William Rivers Pitt (From today's Rhino's Bottom Line) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JULY  16th 1835 -- 2,400 Cherokee force marched out of Montgomery Alabama to territories west of the Mississippi River. Consolidation of a century of theft of all Indian lands to the east, primarily through bribery, murder, cheating, looting & an unending string of broken legal treaties. Overseen by America's own Hitler; President Andrew Jackson, The Trail of Tears is preparation for more of the same to come in the states to the west in coming decades. 1945 -- First atomic bomb exploded, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico. Detonation was not made public for 3 weeks, when 2 others like it devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Powered by a sphere of plutonium the size of an orange, it produced a fireball that rose 8,000 feet in a fraction of a second, pushing a mushroom cloud 41,000 feet high. The Manhattan Project was top secret in 1945 & nearby residents were told an ammunition dump had exploded. 1987 -- Nicaragua: In their first major action since Oliver North's efforts to make them folk heroes, the Contras kill three children & a pregnant woman.  President Ronald Reagan illegally & surreptitiously financed the Contras, & urged American citizens to aid them, bizarrely comparing them to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of the 1930's (Americans who fought against Franco & his fascist insurgents). These are the same Contras who ran a drug ring to finance their attempt to overthrow the government. In America it's called the "War on Drugs". RHINO HERE: For those Rhino readers with access to Direct TV Satellite service, know that beginning this week,  Link TV will began broadcasting the daily news program Democracy Now! Monday-Friday at 11AM ET (8AM PT). Hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now! offers international news coverage and analysis unlike any of the tri-letter networks who we should all remember acted like pom pom girls and cheerleaders when the shrub gang sent our youth off to kill & die for oil & war machine profits. For more information and broadcast times check out: http://www.linktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?code=demo Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is an important piece by Truthout Editor William Rivers Pitt , a teacher & author of two books; 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'  In this piece, he ponders the power this November of the "Anti War Left" wondering if the activists who make up this potentially scale tipping voter bloc will use their influence to get rid of the most corrupt US administration on decades.   But first Rhino offers tidbits on 2 current stories; "Whoopi Gate" and the Senate Intelligence Committee's Investigation Report which concluded that no pressure was put on the CIA by the shrub gang to give them the "intelligence" conclusions they needed to justify their dirty wars. One interesting angle on the hullaballu being whooped up by the Repug-licans over Whoopi Goldberg's recent jokes about the shrub, is that  Unilever, the company that owns Slim-fast, who fired Whoopi as their spokesperson after her comments, also cancelled their sponsorship of the Dixie Chicks tour back when they spoke out against the war saying, "it's wrong to be for peace." Unilever is also one of the top 25 Bush/GOP donors. Below is info on all this. Advertiser Drops Whoopi After Bush Sex Joke by Stephen Brook, The Guardian, July 15, 2004 Slim-Fast has dropped Whoopi Goldberg from its advertising after the comedian made a sexual joke about George Bush. The Unilever-owned diet food brand acted after Goldberg made fun of the US president at a Democratic fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York last week. "We should keep Bush where he belongs," Goldberg said, gesturing at her genitals, "and not in the White House."... MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1261911,00.html Unilever Has History of Using Corporate Clout to Punish Free Speech Democrats.com ...Lipton is listed as one of the 25 top Bush/GOP donors. http://www.boycottbush.net/consumers.htm Unilever is currently conducting voter registration drives targeting Hispanics. Gee, we wonder what party they will be pushing? | Contact Unilever | www.unilever.nl | Weena 455 3013AL Rotterdam | Email: tom.gordijn@unilever.nl richard-van-der.eijk@unilever.nl alexandra.middendorp@unilever.nl Victims of a Republican Plot - The Dixie Chicks Cross the Road By The Editors of Rock and Rap Confidential http://www.opednews.com/rockRap%20victims_of_a_republican_plot.htm Here's coverage from the UK's Guardian on the recently released white washed Senate Intelligence Committee report on the so called flawed intelligence which was really just a pack of Shrub Gang lies.   "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" The Selection Trail by Julian Borger, The Guardian, Wednesday July 14, 2004 ...the Senate investigation, chaired and authored by Republicans, came to the conclusion that there was "no evidence" that the catastrophic distortion of pre-war intelligence "was the result of political pressure".  It is a remarkable conclusion that can only have been based on a politically selective reading of the available evidence, a bit like the pre-war intelligence. The Republicans pointed to interviews with CIA analysts who denied having changed their reports under political pressure. Such denials are unsurprising. To admit deliberately distorting intelligence analysis under oath before a committee would be much more damaging career-wise than merely admitting to having got it wrong like everyone else. The Senate committee, however, seized the CIA denials with relish, and put off its examination of the White House role until a later, "phase two" of its investigation, by which time the electorate will have made its choice.  The Senate report was intended to learn from the pre-war mistakes of the US intelligence agencies. All it has done is to repeat them. The first time was definitely a tragedy. This time has all the elements of farce... MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1261199,00.html And here's a link to the Information Clearing House which has collected a sampling of the gang's lies about Iraq in a single audio file. Listen a few times until the point sinks in - BUSH LIED AND THOUSANDS DIED. Bill Clinton was impeached for one sound bite lie for which no one died. How many sound bites will it take to remove the Shrub Gang & send them all to jail for their war crimes? The Incredible Lying BushCo More irrefutable proof that Dubya's is the slimiest administration in 100 years. Like you needed more proof. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5115.htm 7:33:09 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The Push "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" The Push By William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, Monday 12 July 2004 ...Today, few groups have more power to throw the race one way or another than what could be deemed the 'Anti-War Left.'  There is no single description to encompass this voter bloc. They are the people who were against the Iraq invasion from day one, the people who know the 'War on Terra' is an advertisement for incalculable profiteering by corporations in the business of war. They are the people who see corporate supremacy in America as a cancer affecting the air, water, soil and soul of the nation and the world entire.  They are also the most undependable voter bloc in the country. They are nobody's base, because they hold principle above all else when it comes to politics. They will not cast a ballot for someone who has acted against the principles which are at the core of that anti-war sentiment. If a candidate appears to have gone against those principles, that bloc will bolt. In many respects, this is what politics in America should be about. Pragmatism should take a back seat to virtue, and people should be encouraged to vote their hearts instead of their fears and prejudices. Unfortunately, in this corrupted age, voting on the basis of principle alone allows the unprincipled to win the day. Voting with a strict moral code solely in mind allows those without morals to kick down the door and pillage at will. When confronted by problems that cannot be immediately fixed, the only solution is to focus upon the problems which can be fixed. In the matter of the 'Anti-War Left,' the problem which must be fixed is this: The idea that American elections are not about morals, or ethics, or principles, but power, must be seated firmly in the mind of any and all who see the country charging towards dissolution.  It comes down to power. Not who is good, or bad, or evil, or right, or wrong, or who fits a particular code of principled leadership. 'Who rules?' is the only question that matters today. If you doubt this, if the very idea sends you surging into a rage, consider the reality... READ IT ALL AT: http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/071204A.shtml "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:34:17 AM    comment

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