Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Gulf of Tonkin, 2004 FEATURED ARTICLES -  U.S. Schedules Naval Exercises Off Coast of North Korea in October, www.wagingpeace.org -  North Korea Insults Bush, in Seeming Talks Ploy, NY Times -  Washington accused of ignoring nuclear terror threat, Independent UK -  America's Next War?, by Patrick J. Buchanan QUOTE OF THE DAY "George W Bush has been the worst president in US history for working people, for women, for the environment, for our reputation among the nations of the world, for our financial future, for the advancement of science, for the independence of the judiciary, for the rule of domestic and international law, and for the safety and security of our citizens both at home and abroad." Ben Hudnall, (National Coordinator, Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, AFL-CIO) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - August 2nd 1948 -- Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors founded in Philadelphia. 1968 -- "The Battle of Lincoln Park" outside the '68 Democratic Convention in Chicago: 10,000 or so demonstrators vs. 11,000 Chicago police, 6,000 National Guardsmen, 7,500 U.S. army troops & 1,000 FBI, CIA & army/navy intelligence services agents. The Dems nominate "Dump the Hump", Hubert Humphrey on a platform supporting the Vietnam War and Nixon ends up beating him. 1985 -- The White House confirms that Ronnie Reygun was an FBI informant in Hollywood in the late 1940s while heading the Screen Actors Guild. His area of expertise was Communist influence in post-World War II Hollywood. RHINO HERE: First off today, The Rhino wants to urge all left leaning activists to volunteer some time in swing state cities registering new voters. Some friends from Northern California have been spending time at the Reno, Nevada bus station registering 100 people a day, saying California should adopt Nevada & other sure states' progressives should be adopting other swing states. They say that for them, at this time in history, manning the registrar tables seemed the best possible thing to be doing. Report at your nearest swing state Democratic headquarters. More on this soon.   Rhino hopes many of you saw John Kerry on John Stewart's "The Daily Show" on Wednesday night.  Key for me was his emphasis on "We should never go to war because we want to. We should only go to war because we have to."  As you read today's blog, please bear this in mind & then convince your friends & rels to vote Kerry for President. This has been an unpaid political announcement by your friendly neighborhood Rhino. Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is, ironically, by Patrick J. Buchanan, (of Ali G fame).   Enough said. U.S. Schedules Naval Exercises Off Coast of North Korea in October www.wagingpeace.org Buried in an article in today's International Herald Tribune, without any particular emphasis, was a significant item of information: -- The United States has scheduled naval exercises off the coast of North Korea at the end of October. What could explain a decision to schedule such naval exercises (by definition, optional) but at precisely that time. Bush-Cheney-Rove wants to have the option, if Bush's election does not appear assured in the week prior to election day, to either (1) seek to provoke a genuine North Korean attack on an American ship -- and retaliate or (2) in good Gulf of Tonkin style, claim a non-existent North Korean attack -- and retaliate or (3) launch a frankly "preventive" or "pre-emptive" attack against North Korea. Where such courses of action would lead the region and the world cannot be determined in advance but, presumably, would be of limited concern to Bush-Cheney-Rove. Any of such alternative approaches to war would almost certainly assure the election of the Commander-in Chief on November 2. Tell your representatives to be heads up on this.     Congressional Switchboard: 877-762-8762 &  202-224-3121. Senate: http://www.senate.gov House: http://www.house.gov North Korea Insults Bush, in Seeming Talks Ploy By JAMES BROOKE, NY Times, August 23, 2004 SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 23 - North Korea called President Bush an "imbecile" and "a tyrant that puts Hitler into the shade" in a vituperative stream of insults today that seemed to rule out any serious progress on nuclear disarmament talks before the American election is decided in November. "The meeting of the working group for the six-party talks cannot be opened because the U.S. has become more undisguised in pursuing its hostile policy toward" North Korea, a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry told the nation's state-controlled news agency. New talks were to be held in Beijing in September or October, as North Korea's neighbors and the United States seek to persuade the Stalinist nation to stop making nuclear weapons. Today's tirade was apparently set off by a campaign stop remark last week by Mr. Bush, who referred to Kim Jong Il, North Korea's hereditary leader, as a "tyrant."   MORE: North Korea Insults Bush Washington accused of ignoring nuclear terror threat By Andrew Gumbel, Independent UK, 22 August 2004 The Bush administration insists that its top priority is keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists. But in a withering new book, one of America's foremost nuclear weapons experts argues that the White House has been so heedless of the threat that nuclear armageddon in one or more US cities is now "more likely than not" over the next decade. Graham Allison, a former defence official under both Republican and Democratic administrations and now a leading researcher at Harvard, describes the Bush administration as "reckless" for its failure to secure fissile materials around the world and its apparent lack of interest in preventing North Korea and Iran from becoming nuclear powers. In his book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, Mr Allison lays out a series of measures to minimize the risk that al-Qa'ida or another group could either build or buy a nuclear weapon and then smuggle it into the United States. He demonstrates that the Bush White House, for all its bullish rhetoric, has taken none of them. MORE:  Washington Accused 7:50:04 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - America's Next War? "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" America's Next War? by Patrick J. Buchanan, August 23, 2004 ...So it appears that the decisive test of the Bush Doctrine will come in Iran. And that test is probably not far off.  The Israelis have reportedly practiced strikes on Iran by crossing Turkish airspace and have special forces in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. There are rumors Sharon has told the White House that if we do not effect the nuclear castration of Iran, Israel will do the surgery herself, because she cannot live under the cloud of an atomic bomb in the possession of the patrons of Hezbollah. Enter the "cakewalk" neoconservatives. Though disastrously wrong about Iraq's receptivity to U.S.-imposed democracy, and though they face disgrace and oblivion if Bush loses, they have one last card to play: That is to have America widen her wars with Afghanistan and Iraq with a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. For the neoconservatives, Iraq was simply Phase II of "World War IV" for imperial domination of the Middle East and serial destruction of the regimes in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The neocons have not abandoned this imperial project. Nor has Bush removed a single one from power, though they may yet cost him his presidency. And the neoconservative commentariat is again beating the drums for war -- this time on Iran. This is their hole card. If they can ignite a new war, the country may forget how they bungled the old war. In escalation lies vindication... READ IT ALL AT:  http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan11.html "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 6:43:23 AM    comment

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