Humpday Humor: Orwellian Speak

There is a long history of Orwellian speak during times of war.  Joe Rogan explains the manipulation of language goes all the way back to Genghis Khan...

Listen to the full podcast with Abby Martin here.  

The World Said "NO" to War

Twelve years ago today the world said "NO" to war.

War Zone Soldier Says: "This is All Stupid"

A soldier speaks his mind about stupid politicians.

*Clip from Mort Sahl Live

Martin Luther King Gets Angry About Media Hypocrisy

"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war." 

- Martin Luther King Jr.

One year before his death Martin Luther King Jr. began speaking out against the U.S. attack on Vietnam.  Not only did he defend the rights of brown people in Southeast Asia but he also grasped the economic devastation that militarism brings to residents of both sides of the war.  

"And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor.  

 So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such." 

In addition to his grievances with racism, militarism and economic exploitation King also criticizes the press.

"They Hate Democracy" so said Bill Clinton

After sending 75 tomahawk cruise missiles in the general direction of Afghanistan and Sudan, Mr. Clinton said this about Osama bin Laden and the "terrorists"....

Mr. Clinton neglected to mention the "terrorists" clearly stated reasons for their hatred towards the U.S.  These include quotes from bin Laden himself which outline his 3 major grievances towards America:

1. "The ordinary man knows that [Saudi Arabia] is the largest oil producer in the world, yet at the same time he is suffering from taxes and bad services.  Now the people understand...that our country has become an American colony.  They act decisively with every action to kick the Americans out of Saudi Arabia. 

2. "The evidence overwhelmingly shows America and Israel killing the weaker men, women and children in the Muslim world and elsewhere.  A few examples of this are seen in the recent Qana massacre in Lebanon..."

3. "...and the death of more than 600,000 Iraqi children because of the shortage of food and medicine which resulted from the boycotts and sanctions against the Muslim Iraqi people"

Content and Osama bin Laden quotes from 1996 as reported by PBS Frontline

Humpday Humor: The "Illusion of Choice" by George Carlin

Ten years ago George Carlin sat down with Alan Colmes to discuss voting, the U.S. war of terror and the "illusion of choice".

Colmes was selling the idea that once Democrats were elected to the White House the occupation of Iraq would come to an end.  We are still waiting for John Kerry to come out in strong opposition to the bombing of Iraq.

As you see in this short clip Carlin already knew that Fox News was on the side of the political propagandists....

Bill Clinton: An Early Champion of the Iraq WMD Rumour

Sixteen years ago Bill Clinton was spreading rumours that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction...

As John Pilger detailed in The Iraq Cover-Up: History Did Not Begin Yesterday.

Humpday Humor: How CIA Sabotages Torture Report

For years U.S. taxpayers have been trying to find out the truth about the CIA's decade long torture program.  In response CIA agents have attempted to sabotage the public's view into their crimes.

The Huffington Post outlines one of their cover-up tactics:

According to sources familiar with the CIA inspector general report that details the alleged abuses by agency officials, CIA agents impersonated Senate staffers in order to gain access to Senate communications and drafts of the Intelligence Committee investigation. 

Putting War Casualties in Perspective

52,000 U.S. soldiers suffered serious physical wounds during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.  These are the men and women who were lucky enough to make it out of the war zones alive.

52,000 is a hard number to comprehend.  Here are a few attempts to put the number of war casualties in perspective:

• 52,000 is nearly identical to the entire student body at the University of Texas in Austin    
• 52,000 is slightly more than the total number of adult males in Jackson, Mississippi (the state capital)
• 52,000 almost equals the combined number of people working in the U.S. forest, conservation and logging industries
• 52,000 is the total number of employees at Google

Now imagine a scenario where each subset of people listed above have all sustained serious injury. 

The potential ingenuity, productivity, enjoyment and resources created by these 52,000 people at full strength is immense.  Thanks to these two invasions we have all sustained a great magnitude of loss with the steepest burden felt by the surviving war veterans.

  

Battle of Fallujah, Ten Years On

"The hypocrisy is absolutely stinking."

-Alice Mahon, British Labour Party on U.S. actions in Iraq


Six days after Mr. Bush was re-elected in 2004 the U.S. & Britain began their attack on Fallujah.

For a few weeks in November the United States used white phosphorus as a weapon against human beings in the "Battle of Fallujah".  A few politicians spoke out against the attack including Alice Mahon...

Supporting evidence on the use of white phosphorus can be found at Democracy Now! here ...the BBC here ... GlobalSecurity.org here

  

Humpday Dark Humor: Bill Clinton's Spin on Terrorism

Way back in 1998 Bill Clinton said they hate us because "we act to advance peace and democracy".

By Mr. Clinton's logic if the U.S. were to begin a war or two "the terrorists" will no longer hate us because we aren't peaceful anymore.  

Bombs Away U.S. of A.

How many countries has 'the United States of America' attacked this month?

Humpday Humor: Obama Following Rick Perry Into Iraq?

Do you remember when Rick Perry made some really outlandish comments at the 2012 Presidential debate?

Here is a brief clip to jog your memory...

That's funny because voters were so disgusted by Perry's comments on Iraq that he lost all hope to become President.  Could you imagine America electing a President in 2012 who supported re-starting the failed invasion of Iraq?  That would be unthinkable!

Censored: U.S. Congress Respond to 9/11 Attacks

Two meaningful speeches on the U.S. House floor given three days after the attacks on New York, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA.

First, Why was the U.S. the target?

Second, How can further attacks be prevented?

*Ron Paul video on C-SPAN

Comedian Doug Stanhope on Puppet Leaders

After 9/11 comedian Doug Stanhope put the "leader" of the U.S. back into perspective....

The Root Cause of Bin Laden's Anti-Western Crusade

A PBS documentary titled "House of Saud" is a must-see for anyone wanting an understanding of Saudi Arabia.   Produced in 2005, the show provides an overview of the founding of the kingdom, points of tension within the citizenry and it's crucial relationship with the U.S.

The producers also do a great job summarizing the root cause of Osama bin Laden's beef with the U.S.  See this fact-filled clip to learn more:

Also, of special surprise are interviews with former executives of the largest oil company on earth, ARAMCO.  

Link to the doc here.

Schizophrenia as Explanation for U.S. Policy Toward Syria

7,500 miles separate the cities of Damascus and Los Angeles.  Despite the vast geographical divide the people of each region are tied together via their central state.

To summarize Washington, D.C.'s policy toward Syria:

1. A decade long regime of sanctions prohibiting the people of Syria trading for American made goods.  
2. Two years of supplying automatic weapons to Syria's "moderate Islamic militants" in order to topple the Assad-led state of Syria. 
3. Two week long bombing campaigns in Iraq in order to kill "extremist Islamic militants" (members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
4. Newly announced drone surveillance flights over Syria in order to spy on ISIS.   

Imagine Non-Intervention in Iraq

 "If we developed a non-interventionist foreign policy in 1990 there would be no death's in Iraq".

-Ron Paul


With the U.S. once again attacking Iraq with military force it is a good time to review history.

How could the lives of 4,804 coalition troops have been saved?

*data from iCasualties.org 

16 Years Ago the U.S. Starting Bombing Afghanistan

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the initial attempts by the U.S. to kill Osama bin Laden.  In 1998 Mr. Clinton ordered 75 cruise missiles to be launched at Afghanistan and Sudan with the hope that one of them would hit bin Laden.

They missed, he escaped.

21 other people were reported killed by the missiles.

Mr. Clinton explains that there was "compelling evidence that bin Laden...was planning further attacks against...freedom loving people"....

Teaching Kids Violence

An interesting blog post by Michael Kaplan at The Forward.

Israel

Of course it is not just in Israel that adults encourage children to "pretend" violence.  Kids playing army is common the world over.

Iraq

Russia

What are the repercussions of these games?  Are they meaningless?  Just boys being boys or does "acting" out pretend violence breed the potential for real violent acts?