campion's Blog

Re: Hitler's Nobel

2009-10-10T18:39:39Z

That's been corrected--but my fear:

Wilson's Nobel

Torture memo

2009-05-15T00:57:00Z

As I've noted before, the torture was used NOT to "gather evidence" about a supposed Iraq/al Queda link, it was used to create the intelligence that would then provide a means of manufacturing consent of Congress and the American people to grant tacit acceptance of their pre-determined plan to attack Iraq. That the information obtained through torture was going to be suspect was not relevant to the consideration of creating "actionable intelligence" (i.e. cover). They knew the evidence would be a lie, but even so, it would serve to open a path for the attack and simultaneously serve to protect the "principles" after the truth emerged. (e.g. the Weapons of Mass Destruction)--killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

ARREST OF AMY GOODMAN AND OTHERS AT RNC

2008-09-02T04:46:29Z

Forwarded to my friends at TPM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2008

Contact:
Mike Burke: mike@democracynow.org

**UPDATE**

Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar
Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC

Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against
Kouddous and Salazar

ST. PAUL--Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel
Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody
in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on
Monday afternoon.

All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel
Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms
scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back.
Salazar's violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she
was slammed to the ground while yelling, "I'm Press! Press!," resulted
in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman's arm was
violently yanked by police as she was arrested.

On Tuesday, Democracy Now! will broadcast video of these arrests, as
well as the broader police action. These will also be available on:
www.democracynow.org

Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful
detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried
out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the
Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been
defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and
Salazar were arrested on suspicion of rioting, a felony. While the three
have been released, they all still face charges stemming from their
unlawful arrest. Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion
of felony riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with
obstruction of a legal process and interference with a "peace officer."

Democracy Now! forcefully rejects all of these charges as false and an
attempt at intimidation of these journalists. We demand that the charges
be immediately and completely dropped.

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this
action by Twin Cities' law enforcement as a clear violation of the
freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested,
law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion
grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several
dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, including a
photographer for the Associated Press.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists
in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her
reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The
arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and the subsequent criminal
charges and threat of charges are a transparent attempt to intimidate
journalists.

Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program
that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.

Video of Amy Goodman's Arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

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ABOUT DEMOCRACY NOW!
Democracy Now! airs on over 650 radio and TV stations, including
Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public
access, PBS, satellite TV stations (DISH network: Free Speech TV
ch. 9415 and Link TV ch. 9410; DIRECTV: Link TV ch. 375); on the World
Radio Network's European Service and on the Community Broacasting
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M-F at 8am EST at www.democracynow.org
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You can also view/listen/read all Democracy Now! shows online:
http://www.democracynow.org
To bring Democracy Now! to your community, go to:
http://www.democracynow.org/get_involved/bring_to_station
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Beauty Queens and Other Strange Attractors

2008-08-30T18:22:24Z

The bizarre GOP choice for VP has everyone giddy with disbelief. But why this person? The chief points have been identified: Christian, Maverick, Women, Inexperience, Celebrity, Reform, Change, Sex, Power, Crime, Communication, Scandal, Danger, Terror, Hope, Safety, ETCETERAS....

But why this choice? begs the more revealing question: How does the selection of Palin function?

From a macro-propagandistic and even cybernetic- process perspective, the function is to create short-circuitry in the political spectrum and confusion in the electorate, which can thereby be reconditioned along the preferred lines of thought. We are in the midst of a process of the reproduction of the necessary illusions and a significant maneuver in the manufacture of consent.

The choice of Palin has already succeeded in shifting the headlines from the 40 million Americans who watched one of the best acceptance speeches ever given (Please note that I've never been won over by the conservative content of Obama's policies), to the bold or strange or inexplicable choice.

The central zone of discharge for this exercise is a sexy (or at least in memory) beauty queen--her Daddy's prize spread on a dead bear, a celebrity with an appalling lack of experience--who charges the atmosphere with myriad and diverse attractants and repellents. It does not matter which--only that they be hypercharged in this our political hyperreality. First come the simulation of effects; later the people will be made to understand which description goes with which candidate.

(I recall that Reich posited a psychological conditioning among the electorate similar to the way an abused child inexorably and uncontrollably identifies with his abuser and thereby grows up to be an abuser. The lessons become cathected and beyond the re-call of mere reason. Think of his portrait of the sexy ignorant young Nazi hailing the Fuehrer or the deluded white males in the deep South who performed the ghastly bitter-fruit works of their masters and then constantly voted for these same bastards, who would make life for their families a living hell, but full of pride, patriotic enthusiasm and psycho-sexual fervor.)

Remember how The Manchurian Candidate's mother browbeat her Senator Husband, when he asked her to give him a specific and fixed number of the communist in the defense department instead of changing it every time he spoke. He said he felt like an idiot. Her response was for him to DO JUST WHAT HE'S TOLD, THAT THE PAPERS AREN'T ASKING IF THERE ARE COMMUNISTS ONLY HOW MANY. Under the right force of energies the delegates would insist that this idiot Senator be named the presidential nominee.

Strange attractors seem to pull the fields of forces into a new different form. That is what Rove has in mind here. We are dealing with an entirely different way of thinking: a propagandistic application of chaos theory applied to mass politics. Once the high-charged wires are crossed, and the energies are translated, confusion sets in, a new-pattern emerges, and it is the GOP that brings change, reform, and SAFETY. It doesn’t bloody matter that it's false. In fact, the bigger the lie the more people will believe it.

The surge is working.

John Kerry is a hero John Kerry is a coward.

Just the shift of a few words charged with the alchemy of the media in the cauldron of human psychology.

Now tell me just how does she turn you on somehow with her particular perversities?

Processes will reorganize themselves about the strange attractor (howsoever low or laughable) if said effects are not neutralized.

Campion

MORE ON LAST BLOG--Hillary as VP

2008-08-20T07:05:08Z

Several of you asked if I'd been drinking when I said Indiana was all that stood between McCain and Obama.

NOW READ IT AND WEEP:
RealClearPolitics Electoral College

(270 Electoral Votes Needed To Win)

* RealClear Electoral Count
* No Toss Up States

Barack Obama 264 John McCain 274

WHY WE NEED HILLARY AT VP

2008-08-18T17:15:00Z

look at these two Prospects from Real Clear Politics--MY SOLLUTION: Hillary as VP

If Indiana goes to Obama:

RealClearPolitics Electoral College
(270 Electoral Votes Needed To Win)

RealClear Electoral Count
No Toss Up States
275 John McCain 263

If Indiana goes to McCain

RealClear Electoral Count
No Toss Up States
Barack Obama 264 John McCain 274

Obama's speech brave, new, and true

2008-03-18T16:46:01Z

What may I ask is so brave, honest, and true about this?

The speech begins with an idealized view of the founding fathers

(many of whom were slave owners and were definitely not believers in equality.) They believed that the people who owned the country ought to run it--from the first chief justice, John Jay.

Wrapping yourself in the American flag is not new.

And what about this:

"Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."

What is so new or great about demonizing radical Islam or of praising stalwart allies like Israel?

It's the same ole shit, isn't it?

Brave would have defended the Reverend, not because he's mainly good, but because he's mainly RIGHT.
Campion