Columnist – John Sammon
America is a country of illusions, or like a desert mirage, what you think you see is what you don’t necessarily get. This extends from the watered-down Obama health care package that in reality is so weak it isn’t a national health package at all, and will likely be repealed by Republicans anyway, to the idea that the country is fighting a war on drugs when epidemic drug use in this country fuels demand, to the recent government-promoted notion that the country is in an economic recovery.

America is a country of smoke and mirrors, one of the reasons we were so successful at founding Hollywood and Disneyland. Both are mythological kingdoms.

America is a country of ideas, often the false kind, that for reasons of our own we’d like to believe, or we need to believe. In other words, the truth is whatever we say it is. This really took off under Bush and unfortunately, despite the initial promises and good feelings, still holds true under Obama. Here are 10 examples:

The withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan are withdrawals.

The president announces the withdrawal of 10,000 troops out of 100,000. Some actually come home, but thousands more stay. Five years goes by and you forget all about the promises. Five years later, there are still 50,000 troops in those countries. By now you can’t remember how it all started anyway. The government created for you a successful illusion. It’s the withdrawal that isn’t.

The government honors and takes care of veterans.

Every July 4 veterans gather with flags to honor the fallen. Every year television channels like the oil-company-corporate-backed History Channel run movies showing the glories of war and bumper stickers on cars proclaim how we owe our freedoms to these sacrifices. And every year veteran’s health care for disabled veterans is abysmal. An airline charges returning veterans huge fees to ship their luggage. The government fails to provide flak vests for soldiers going into combat. The G.I. Bill no longer is gifted to veterans for their loyalty, but is instead taken out of their paychecks while they are on duty. Representatives on Capitol Hill and especially the Republican Party, who have never served in the military (neither have their children), always threaten to cut benefits. Civil War battlefields are lost to the development of Walmart stores and school children don’t know what World War II was. The sacrifices except among a few old men are forgotten.

America is the patriotic country that really isn’t.

America is a democracy, or a republic, or whatever.

Americans traditionally love to believe this is a free country, even though the founders with the exception of John Adams owned other human beings as slaves.

Take down a pad of paper and with a pencil jot down the things that you as a citizen have any say over with your single vote in the off-year and general elections. You can vote for a local school bond. You can vote for a mayor, a senator, even the president. You can vote for many things. But there are many you can’t vote for, whether or not to go to war, or extend forever war, the space program and its billions spent, the amount of federal tax you pay. The basic premise of the country was that an elite cadre of representatives (Congress) needs to make decisions for you, because you’re not smart enough to, and chaos would result. In fairness, there is some truth to this. But look up the definition of democracy in the dictionary, “government by the people and through elected representatives.” Go ahead and try to vote to repeal the Patriot Act.

America is the democracy that isn’t.

America is not a racist country because Oprah Winfrey has a television show.

Using television to pacify African Americans has a long history after networks got the message in 1962. The theory is, like giving beads and trinkets to natives in the old days, picking representatives of the race for glorification on the TV tube convinces members of the race that progress has been made. Though it is better than seeing African Americans only portrayed on TV as butlers and maids, jails are still full of black men, inner city schools still lag behind, and most whites if they were honest would admit they don’t want to live in a black neighborhood. Most whites still associate black people with crime, poverty, ignorance and violence.

America is the racist country that isn’t, but still is.

Our elected officials represent us.

During his recent announcement of the troop withdrawal that isn’t, Obama used the usual vague terminology presidents use to describe what has been accomplished in Afghanistan, and what our exact goals are, by not doing those things. It’s kind of like a shell game, which shell is the pea under. In other words, he stated the accomplishments and goals in such a vague off-hand way as to not state them. Nothing concrete. Iffy words like “be patient,” “light at the end of the tunnel,” their “influence has been weakened,” are used to convince you. Convincing you is what’s important. Recently, the American public found out in a surprising revelation that negotiations are in progress with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the announcement not disseminated through our own government, but because of a public statement made by the corrupt puppet ruler we set up in Kabul.

Apparently, all we’ve accomplished after 10 years, millions of Iraqi and Afghan lives lost, billions of dollars bankrupting the economically tottering U.S., and over 6,000 American dead, is to kill bin Laden, whom we set up in a leadership role way beyond his actual influence in the first place.

You’ll never learn the truth unless a fluke like Wikileaks happens or until documents are declassified sixty years from now.

The case of Wikileaks and the government’s apoplectic response proves that the government believes the less you know the better, for your own good. In other words, ignorance is bliss.
Here are five more:

China is our friend.

Corporate America is concerned about the extinction of the American middle class.

Mexican immigration is a threat to the U.S.

This is curious in light of the fact that the entire Western part of the country was once owned by Mexico and was taken from them by war, and that Mexican immigration has been a factor in the country for over 100 years, and that the American economy absolutely depends on Mexicans to do the work Americans won’t, flipping burgers, making beds, mowing grass, landscaping yards.

Rich white businessmen and government bureaucrats, those who complain the loudest, use low-paid Mexican laborers the most.

I guess that ties into the next one.

Americans aren’t hypocrites.

And lastly.

Americans are better than other people.

Whether it’s Teabaggers chanting “USA” “USA” like rooting at a football game, or intoning “God bless America,” asking God to bless only about five percent of the world’s population and ignoring the rest, there is plenty of evidence that we think we’re better. Because of money and power, we look down on other lesser peoples, people with less money and power. Money and power are what matters, not integrity and morality. My favorite is still the old Vietnam-War-era saying, “America, love it or leave it.” In other words, if you see wrong, ignore it.

That is truly a mark of superiority.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————

Last night, Fox’s syphilitic LIAR, Sean Hannity oscillated between gushing over New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie and falsely claiming that “it only took 72 days” for Obama administration to accept international assistance with oil spill.

In a June 23 post, FactCheck.org reported that contrary to right-wing media claims, “international assistance has been accepted.” From FactCheck.org:

Also, contrary to reports such as the one on “Fox & Friends,” international assistance has been accepted. To date, 25 countries and four international organizations have offered support in the form of skimming vessels, containment and fire boom, technical assistance and response solutions, among others. A chart provided by the State Department shows that as of June 23 five offers had been accepted and 50 were under consideration — including multiple offers from a single country or entity. One offer had been declined: France offered a chemical dispersant that is not approved for use in the United States.

[ READ MORE AT MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA ]

Hannity falsely claims “it only took 72 days” for Obama administration to accept international assistance with oil spill

Fox & Friends call GE executive passing out a Biden “gaffe“

Ding-Bat Brian Kilmeade sets a standard: No fixating on “inconsequential things” during two wars, oil spill

WAR CRIMINAL Karl Rove: Obama pushing immigration reform only to “jazz up Latinos” to vote for him in 2012

Project 21′s Deneen Borelli: Bill Clinton’s “probably still upset because he’s not first lady”

Fox hypes GOP activist’s “explosive new allegations” against Obama DOJ

————————————————————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————

The US military were once proud men who fought with the Founding Father’s courage, determination and goals. The individual soldier still tries his or her best to do so today, but now the military-industrial complex (US Chamber of Commerce a/k/a Corporate America) has taken over and senior officers, like the members of Congress, are now just an extension of the long arm of lobbyists.

Since the Korean War, the American military has been used as corporate rent-a-cops. The consequence of this is showing up in the won/loss column, and it can be seen on many of our soldiers’ faces and heard in their voices. They’re like zombies, disinterested without liability or high merit. If ordered, or left to believe that torturing people is acceptable, they will do it calmly as if they had done nothing at all (Abu-Ghraib). After their military tours are over, there is a hopeless lack of resourcefulness in them which makes them some of the least determined people I’ve ever met. The Veteran Affairs hospitals and homeless shelters are overflowing with these once proud Americans.

When I arrived in Vietnam in 1968, the very last things on earth that a person needed in order to think clearly and calmly were in abundance. Cases of candy, soft drinks, and cigarettes were stacked from floor to ceiling. Then there were the bags of unmentionable stuff without labels. All of these things, void of one iota of concern, were provided free of charge by the corporate butt boys in our nation’s capital. We were delivered into the hands of our enemies for them to do as they pleased with us; and should we survive, we would return home to fight yet another war, a war of hostility, bureaucracy and self-loathing.

Watching the Iraq War and the soldiers returning is nothing but a rerun of the Vietnam War for me. To believe the Arabs in the Middle East are our friends is to believe Feisal adored Jemal. Every Arab in Iraq who is not trying to kill Americans is being paid by the Pentagon and the CIA not to kill them. It’s not the surge of soldiers; it’s the surge of U.S. dollars that has reduced American casualties. Every American in the Middle East has a price on his or her head. Stop paying the price, and off will come the heads.

"This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations." -Rutherford B. Hayes

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Amazon.com Widgets

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

 Somebody ought to CASTRATE this racist blowhard – Lou Dobbs!
CNN’s chief in-house bigot, and “nativist compost thrower,” Lou Dobbs, last Wednesday (Nov. 28) referred to businesses countrywide as “corporate supremacists,” Democrats as “a pack of fools,” and pro-immigrant movements as “anarchists.”

This is the same individual who recently claimed that executives at CNN (a.k.a corporate supremacists) are getting nervous about him running for president!

LOL!

Said Dobbs, with “presidential importance,”…. “I don’t know where this is coming from.” “I have no interest in running, and I’ve said that throughout.”

Yeah right!…you would love to…punk!, but you would be mired at 2% rating like your comrade-in-arms — The permanent, mediocre fixture in Washington D.C. — Tom Tancredo, Congress’s resident “Nativist Orang Outang,” and an ignorant anti-immigrant hate-mongering thug….. A Colorado Terrorist!

| Can’t See Video(s)? – Click Here To Refresh Page |

Dan Abrams of MSNBC summed up Lou’s hallucinations perfectly:

“Yes, Lou, I’m sure the execs at CNN are about as worried about you running for president as the porn industry was about Mary Kerry running for governor of California.”

Broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois, America’s modern day Joseph Goebbels continued his pompous and merciless “career hammering” of immigrants.

In a segment of the program, one of Dobbs’s “hand-maidens,” Christine Romans, interviewed Mr. Joshua Hoyt of the “coalition for immigrant rights,” who said: The immigration debate has descended into the realm for bigots and bullies and demagogues…..adding: “There is a legitimate debate to be held about what should be done to end illegal immigration. We want to end illegal immigration. The question is how. But the debate, as it’s being held, panders to those people who are bigots.”

According to Romans, Joshua singled out Lou Dobbs’s program, noting that the show, in particular, panders to racial extremism.

To which Joseph Goebbels a.k.a. Lou Dobbs responded:

“Well Josh Hoyt, you know, what you pander to, partner, you are part of a coalition of the Catholic Church, corporate America, special socio-ethnocentric groups who are working to subvert the will of the majority of the people of this country. You’re working with corporate America and some other misguided abject fools who believe that your reasons are superior to our democracy, our system of government.” And you, sir, are going to lose, and you’re going to lose big to the American people on this issue. You had your run at introducing the concept of race instead of reason, introducing race instead of putting forward facts. Your day is done.

Mr. Dobbs — If the majority of “The People” subscribe to your hateful anti-immigrant agenda, why are your “comrades in hate,” presidential candidates Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter consistently pulling in less than 2% in the national polls?

Why are they not “top-tier” candidates?

To pile-drive his NAZI rhetoric, Lou Dobbs quickly switched to the most self-serving “People’s Email.”

Here goes:

“Let’s take a look at some of your thoughts now.” …And let’s turn to Larry in New Jersey.

“Lou, when I see the results from all the polls on illegal immigration, it seems pretty obvious what the American people want. Is our government blind, deaf and dumb? Have they seen their approval ratings lately? When are they going to wake up and listen to the people?” They’re going to wake up and listen when you force them to. And with 2008 upon us, this is a great time to make your views known.

Ed in Oregon said, “Lou, there are two things that legal citizens can do to send a clear message to our government and the Mexican government. Register Independent and boycott Mexican goods until Mexico and the United States stop illegal immigration.” That’s a thought.

And Gerry and Bev in Illinois said, “My wife and I are now registered Independents thanks to you. It’s never felt better to be free of the yoke of two-party politics. However, now where do we focus our efforts to make the changes in Washington we so desperately need? You’ve already begun and even if you don’t run yourself, they say your guidance is desperately needed.” Well we’re going to offer you a little food for thought. And one of those things is registering as an Independent is just the beginning. Now, let’s start taking over our local government, our local neighborhoods and communities and making sure they’re working. The rest will fall in order.

Then he plugs his book:

“We’ll have more of your thoughts here later in the broadcast.”

… Each of you whose e-mail is read here receives a copy of my new book, “Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit.”…..TRANSLATE THAT TO: “Awakening the American Racist Spirit.”

Says Dobbs, “I believe the person elected a year from now will be an Independent populist,”….”I believe that independent Americans will demand a far better choice than any of the candidates now seeking their party’s nomination. I believe next November’s surprise will be the election of a man or woman of great character, vision and accomplishment, a candidate who has not yet entered the race.”

That’s Dobbs hallucinating again! …and Lou, we already have “populist racism” institutionalized in the ReTHUGlican party.

Outside the “SANCTUARY” of CNN studios
| Can’t See Video(s)? – Click Here To Refresh Page |

Lou Dobbs has likened immigrant advocates to Nazis before — a pathetic pre-emptive move to deprive his opponents the opportunity to call him the same, and rightly so — another NAZI tactic.

One such utterance prompted the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to call for his immediate dismissal from CNN.

At one point he also criticized San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, saying that he and immigrant protection advocates “might as well work for Hermann Goering,” — leader of the Nazi air force — but he apparently meant to refer to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi chief of propaganda.

Nope! Mr. Dobbs — You are the one drunk with NAZISM, and you have perfected the Nazi propaganda principles:

• Lou Dobbs dehumanizes — He describes immigrants them as “terrorists” or “aliens” or “drug dealers,” …done with such cunning causticity, that his viewers ultimately believe that all immigrants are rotten good for nothing thieves and drug dealers.
• Lou Dobbs lies and creates fear — Mr. Dobbs has claimed in his show that there have been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the U.S. in recent years, attributing the increase to “illegal immigrants.”
• Lou Dobbs demonizes & provokes — Lou facilitates oppressive actions against immigrants by repeatedly pontificating “one-sidedly” that immigrants are solely responsible for low wages and lack of jobs — without bothering to look at the other side of the coin.
• Lou Dobbs red-baits — He accuses, denounces, and attacks the pro-immigrant lobbies, or anybody wanting to handle the immigration issue with reason, including the clergy, as the “illegal alien amnesty lobby,” or as “anarchists,” or as “corporate supremacists,” or “a pack of fools,”……
• Lou Dobbs vilifies, arrogates & terrorizes — In concert with right-wing talk-show hosts, who he touts as “the best in America,” Dobbs & co have issued vicious and defamatory statements about immigrants. [See Doug McIntyre video below]

All the above are propaganda tactics perfected by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Regime.

“If you tell a lie big enough and coat it with ‘some truths,’ and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it. The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed.” — A Nazi guiding principle

No wonder NOOSES are popping up everywhere in the United States.

Racist extortionists like Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Tancredo, and Doug McIntyre of KABC 790 Radio(California), validate racism through appropriation, shamelessly quoting iconic figures like Martin Luther King, or simply calling “normal people” racists or supremacists — The video below demonstrates this NAZI tactic.

“There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion.” “Message to the Grass Roots,” speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965).

| Can’t See Video(s)? – Click Here To Refresh Page |

What this moronic imbecile calls “the majority of Americans” is actually a fringe of die hard racists and bigots, the “TV coerced,” and the confused illiterates. For, poll after poll across America indicates that citizens are legitimately concerned about immigration, but most would like to see the matter handled speedily and comprehensively,… but as Joshua Hoyt, of the coalition for immigrant rights quite correctly states: The immigration debate has descended into the realm for bigots and bullies and demagogues…..led by Nazi propagandist Extortionist – Lou Dobbs, and funded by Big Business: CNN

Here is another example of Lou’s propaganda:

Fat Lou gloating (spit spilling out of his stinking mouth): — “The Liberal New York Times says Lou Dobbs is winning” — referring to a recent OP-ED by David Brooks(November 27, 2007) in which David states: “Lou Dobbs is winning. He’s not winning personally. He’s not going to start winning presidential awards or elite respect. But his message is winning. Month by month the ideas that once prevailed on the angry fringe enter the mainstream and turn into conventional wisdom.”

Adding: “So it’s worth pointing out now more than ever that Dobbsianism is fundamentally wrong. It plays on legitimate anxieties, but it rests at heart on a more existential fear — the fear that America is under assault and is fundamentally fragile. It rests on fears that the America we once knew is bleeding away.”

To an idiot sitting behind a TV, with no research capacity — LOU DOBBS MUST BE WINNING!

David Brooks is essentially saying the same thing I am saying, albeit in a much more “courteous manner” — Lou Dobbs is a racist prick!

….as racist and hopeless as all other right-wing talk-show morons who spread malicious rumors about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

For example, Michael Savage noted in June that Obama’s “background” in a “Muslim madrassa in Indonesia”, and Rush Limbaugh said in September that he occasionally got “confused” between Obama and Osama bin Laden. Others have repeatedly used the senator’s middle name, Hussein….in an effort to unleash anti-muslim bigotry.

At the end of Lou’s program (Nov. 28),… in came the Republican Presidential candidates to debate — introduced by the Florida governor as “patriots,” and “men of honor,” as the “Rambos” paraded into the hall.

…. and the immigrant bashing continued, relentlessly, with Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo leading the way.

(click here to view)

Joel Pett Lexington Herald-Leader Dec 3, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

I turned off my TV, because I knew what was coming (also see references below): “Flip-Flops“…”Somersaults”…”War-Mongering”…”911!“…”119!”…”Red Alert!”…”999!”…”119!”…”It’s The Law!”…”Throw The Immigrants In Jail!”…”Torture!”…”Alkaida Is Here, Walking In This Hall!“…”Water-Boarding!”…”Water-Feeding!”…”Gay Bashing!”…”We Are Winning In Iraq!”…”Sanctuary Cities!”…”The Death Penalty!”…and more LIES and immigrant bashing.

The way Republicans subscribe to the death penalty sounds to me a lot like…“DEATH TO AMERICA!”, a favorite radical Islamist chant.

The Republican Party: Experts at distorting reason, and propagating politics of fear, hostility and hate — The party of Lou Dobbs, even though he claims to be an “Independent Populist THUG.”

Columnist Bob Herbert sums up the Republican Party and the current crop of presidential candidates most eloquently:

The Republican Party has won a lot of elections in recent years. So maybe this crop of candidates knows something about American voters that many us would rather not acknowledge, that too many of them are small-minded, fearful, bigoted and too shallow to recognize policies that are against their own — and their country’s — best interests.

I concur.

REFERENCES:

1. Republican Know-Nothings Who Know Better
2. Rambo and the G.O.P. — “The Republican Party has won a lot of elections in recent years. So maybe this crop of candidates knows something about American voters that many us would rather not acknowledge, that too many of them are small-minded, fearful, bigoted and too shallow to recognize policies that are against their own — and their country’s — best interests.” the Republicans, far more than the Democrats, go out of their way to present themselves as 21st-century Rambos — a childish, cartoonish posture that solves nothing and can easily lead to tragedy in a world that is in fact quite dangerous.
3. Penny Foolish
4. The Newest Nativists: Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney show how fast common sense can be discarded.
5. TRANSCRIPT – LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: Illinois Refuses to Allow Feds to Enforce Immigration Laws; GOP Candidates Prepare for CNN-YouTube Debate — Aired November 28, 2007 – 19:00 ET
6. ReTHUGlican Candidates Debate in New Hampshire While Bush ‘Kicks Ass’ in Australia
7. Comments on the ReTHUGlican Iowa Debate – August 5, 2007
8. Fear Mongering Republicans Hold CNN Debate
9. The Republican Presidential Debate: Like A Convention Of Morticians
10. Foes Use Obama’s Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him
11. “This is a one-eyed portrait,” said Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California who has studied immigrants’ use of public services. “It is a profile of immigrants’ dependency without any profile of their contributions.”
12. SATIRE – BREAKING NEWS: EIGHT MENTAL PATIENTS ATTACK HILLARY! – By Don Davis
13. Republican shooting matches – GOP contenders strike at anything that moves
14. CNN: Corrupt News Network – A self-serving agenda was set for the Republican presidential debates — So, why did CNN make immigration the keystone of this debate? — CNN intentionally directed the Republicans’ debate to advance its own interests. Make immigration a bigger issue and you’ve made a bigger audience for Dobbs.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

—————————————————————————————————————————–