Axis Of Evil Defeats NeoCons

One of the best things that could come of this nightmare called the Bush administration:


The word 'neoconservative" would become as despised as the term 'fascist" and held as with as much contempt as "nazi" or "communist."



More than once, I have heard said, in their defense, "but you would have to agree, that they do believe in what they are doing; they believe they are doing the right thing?



Say what? Hypocrisy is not the only high crime available to the powerful.


Some of the most evil actors on this planet believed that what they were doing was right. Hitler believed in what he was doing. He was delusional as hell but he believed his on B.S.


Admittedly, this gang of Bushites have major hypocrisy going for them, but that is the least of our worries, at this juncture.

Olympic Foreign Policy Games

By SAUL LANDAU and FARRAH HASSEN

The Olympic spectacle dictates a sports metaphor. In 2002, high level neocons dominated much of Bush’s National Security Council and Defense and State Departments, challenging US enemies across the world in a slugfest, which they did. Now, years later, the tally is clear. The fiendish foes have won the Gold. The neocons-- those who remain in government and have not resigned, been canned or gone to jail – have proven themselves big time losers.

Unlike the athletes, the neocons, unfortunately, represented the US public, the real losers. The neocon strategy, the use of --or threat of-- military power to create a US dominated world order, has left its legacy: wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a stumbling, debt ridden US economy. They have left the country weaker and more pessimistic.

Vice President Dick Cheney relied on Scooter “The Felon” Libby and Douglas Feith. Whispering into Bush’s ear, Defense intellectuals Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle charted a disastrous course. Supposedly steeped in history, they apparently did not understand that all power – even that of the USA-- has limits.

Reversing Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum, they have screamed loudly and carried a twig. They roared threats at “Axis of Evil” members North Korea and Iran. In June 2007, US officials engaged in direct talks with North Korea regarding its nuclear weapons, as the Koreans had demanded in the first place. In July 2008, Under Secretary of State William Burns met with Iranian negotiator Said Jalili and EU envoys in Geneva to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. Once again, Bush felt forced to abandon the neocon stand of “no negotiating with evil.” The Iranians seated at the table smirked at the US officials.

In 2002, the neocons, intent on invading Iraq no matter what, pressured Saddam Hussein to readmit UN weapons inspectors to verify the presence or lack of WMD. They apparently convinced Bush and the US media that facts did not matter. So, Bush spent five years with WMD egg on his face – which he joked about at national press dinners -- while neocon reporter Judith Miller left the New York Times and will skulk forever in journalistic purgatory.

The much fabled surge has or hasn’t worked. Think of the promise after five and a half years! The neocons assured US troops to expect greetings with flowers. Instead, they still get shot and bombed. Over 2.4 million refugees have fled mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan, with another 2.7 internally displaced. Gen. Petraeus told Congress that war had to stop between ethnic groups. It has not stopped. Kurds and Arabs continue fighting in the north, around Kirkuk, and Turkey makes regular incursions into Iraqi territory to fight Kurdish rebels. It is also unlikely that the Iraqi Parliament will get its act together in time to stage regional elections, which they swore they would hold this year.

The bright eyed neocons also promised a “new” and “democratic” Middle East, with Iraq as step one. But the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime has not ushered in democracy and human rights to Iraq—or inspired a democracy “domino effect” throughout the region. Before the invasion, Wolfowitz had asserted that Iraq as the “first Arab democracy” would “cast a very large shadow, starting with Syria and Iran, across the whole Arab world.” (BBC News, April 10, 2003)

Instead, in the wake of a broken Iraq, the Bush administration’s “democratizing” mission for this turbulent area of non-democracies has morphed into a combination of hand-wringing, begging and cajoling U.S.-allied states in the region. Rather than increasing political participation, the non democratic state rulers, like Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, have cracked down on democratic opposition. Because Bush did not keep his promises or carry out his threats, Washington has lost friends and influence and gained hostility. The downhill slide has not ended.

The Israelis, heartened by the exuberance shown by Bush for their own aggressive impulses, played their neocon role in July 2006 when they attacked Lebanon in response to a Hezbollah incursion. The IDF and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still lick their wounds from their defeat in that war. Indeed, they inadvertently helped enhance the popularity of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah throughout the Arab region. According to the 2008 Arab Public Opinion Poll, conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and the UAE, Nasrallah, followed by Syria’s Bashar al-Asad and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, topped the list of popular leaders. The same survey found that 83% of Arabs hold an “unfavorable view” of the US. (Shibley Telhami )

Another serious neocon fiasco occurred in Israel. Instead of achieving a settlement with a weak PLO leadership that would not insist that Israel revert to its 1967 borders as dictated by the UN, the neocon attempts to destroy Hamas contributed to its electoral victory in Gaza in January 2006. The US choice to represent all Palestinians is a widely rejected Abbas government that cannot mobilize support for any initiative. In addition, the Israelis followed neocon chutzpah and kept expanding settlements on Palestinian land, a serious obstacle to any peace agreement:

The US military has shown it has power -- to kill lots of people in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this fact of possessing unparalleled air, sea and ground power has not brought victory in either place – just as it didn’t in Vietnam and Korea. By making war its substitute for diplomacy, Washington abrogated its diplomatic role in the region. Instead, less than prestigious regimes have taken the initiative that logically belonged to the great power to help negotiate settlements with Iran and Syria, in Lebanon with Hezbollah and in Palestine with Hamas,

The 18 month political crisis in Lebanon, pitting the Western-backed government against the Hezbollah-led opposition, ebded last April thanks to the Doha Agreement. Qatar—alongside the Arab League and Syria—and not the US, helped broker a diplomatic solution leading to the formation of a national unity government. Under the agreement the opposition maintains its veto power over cabinet decisions—fulfilling a key demand from Hezbollah. This embarrassed Bush (thanks to his neocon strategy), who sought to undermine Hezbollah’s power.

In June, Egypt mediated a truce between Israel and Hamas, in which Israel agreed to allow a limited flow of goods to and from Gaza, in exchange for Hamas halting rocket attacks against Israeli targets. The truce is fragile, but significantly Israel recognized the failure of the Bush administration and neocon approach to isolate Hamas. As Menachem Klein, a former nongovernmental Israeli negotiator, stated, “Israel is acknowledging, in effect, that its blockade has not worked and Hamas is here to stay.” (Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2008)

The Israelis also ignored Washington’s admonition about responding to Syrian peace feelers. So, Israel turned to Turkey, leading to the beginning of indirect talks between Syria and Israel. Even with many neocons gone from the upper echelons, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could still not define a controlling US space in the volatile region. The members of this power-minded clique did their damage.

Even in its own “backyard,” Washington has lost power and prestige. The US government pays hundreds of millions of dollars to Colombia each year – using the never ending “war on drugs” as a pretext – to insure Bogota’s minimal obeisance.

Alan Garcia in Peru would like to kiss US butt; however, anti-US sentiment prevents him from fully bending over. In the rest of the lower continent, Fidel Castro’s disciples run Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. In early August, President Evo Morales won an important referendum against US-backed elitists who wanted to divide – and then conquer -- Bolivia. More than 62 percent of voters in this Andean nation ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia.

Castro’s political cousins head governments in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Even Honduras and Guatemala have moved away from US control in Central America. Only El Salvador – polls show it will change in the next year’s election – remains obedient.

Using force and threat proved unsuccessful in the extreme. Bush’s policies have made the world more dangerous. As grisly photos of the Russian-Georgian conflict put new blemishes on TV screens, a neocon who advised the Georgian government on its disastrous course emerges as John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser. Randy Scheunemann, paid by Georgia for four years to lobby – until March 2008--had helped design the Iraq war strategy when he directed the Project for a New American Century. He also assured them of US support against Russia. Like the other neocons, he assumed the façade of toughness. When Russian planes and tanks hit, Bush sent humanitarian aid to Tbilisi and made more empty threats to Moscow.

Given Scheunemann’s – and fellow neocons – proven record of bungling, a McCain victory presages a continuation of the course that has led the country downhill. Imagine President McCain surrounded by neocons! Wouldn’t it behoove the Obama campaign to publicly draw some obvious lessons?

Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow, author of A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD (A/K-Counterpunch) and producer of many films. See http://roundworldproductions.com/Site/Films_by_Saul_Landau_on_DVD.html

Farrah Hassen is the Carol Jean and Edward F. Newman Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Huckabee; Surrounded By Hypocrisy

Arkansas Car Tags should read, State Of Hypocrisy

ARCHIVES

Huckabee Spokesman Voted for Clinton Impeachment While Having an Affair with a Staffer

Jon Ponder | Jan. 12, 2008

Mike Huckabee campaigns as an ardent upholder of traditional marriage. On his website he says he led the move in Arkansas to adopt the practice of "covenant" marriage, and that he supports amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit gay people from marrying. He and Mrs. Huckabee say they believe in the New Testament edict that “a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”

But if you can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps then it appears that Huckabee’s moralizing about the sanctity of marriage is mainly just for show. For example, he takes advice on political strategy from Dick Morris, the sleazy Fox News Clinton-hater who was outed in the nineties by his paid mistress in a tabloid magazine — and who was one our nominees last year to the GOP Adulterers Hall of Fame.

Huckabee has tried to keep his relationship with Morris on q.t. (He even lied about it to George Stephanopoulos.) On the other hand, he was brazenly unashamed to have former Sen. Tim Hutchinson, one of Arkansas’ most notorious adulterers, serve as his surrogate in television interviews in Iowa and New Hampshire.

What makes Hutchinson’s betrayal of his wife particularly scandalous is the fact that, like Huckabee, he is an ordained minister as well as a Republican politician who won elections by presenting himself as an adherent of moral values, including, of course, the sanctity of marriage.

But what makes Hutchinson notorious is the timing of his of his affair with a much-younger member of his Senate staff:

Scant weeks after voting to remove Bill Clinton from office, the one-time Baptist preacher made a fortuitously timed announcement of his impending divorce from his wife of 29 years. Having cast a stone at Clinton, he called his own divorce “intensely personal” and refuses to answer questions. Also unavailable for comment was the much younger member of Hutchinson’s staff with whom he’d been “romantically linked,” as people said in a politer era. Reporters couldn’t find Randi Fredholm anywhere. She’d flat disappeared. A suspicious person might wonder if she’d gone into hiding.

After Hutchinson spent a relatively brief interval as a Washington bachelor, Randi reappeared as the new Mrs. Tim Hutchinson.

(Tim’s even more holier-than-thou brother, then-Rep. Asa Hutchinson, was one of the Impeachment Managers in the House.)

Hutchinson was defeated for reelection in 2002 by David Pryor, a Democrat. Pryor did not make Hutchinson’s adultery — or hypocrisy — a campaign issue, at least in part because he didn’t have to. Both were common knowledge. Hutchinson was the only Republican

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Techtonic Plates Shift Under Family Values Party

Hypocrites!

September 28, 2007

Moral High Ground Collapses for the Party of Family Values

By Alan Hurwitz

I would liked to have been a fly on the wall in the Senate cafeteria when Sen. Larry Craig showed up for lunch for the first time since his run-in with the law, the media and ultimately his own party comrades. That scene must have been in contention for "Frosty Moment of the Year."

It was just what the Republicans didn’t need – to be reminded, and worse, have the public reminded, of the deep hypocrisies in their positions and actions on the so-called “social issues” – gay sex, adultery, abortion and perhaps matters of law and order in general.

Repeatedly, mean-spirited critics of these activities have turned out to be perpetrators themselves. Mark Foley, the protector of congressional interns; Jim Bakker, the keeper of marital fidelity; Ted Haggard, the keeper of sexual standards; Rudy Giuliani, the guardian of family values (New York style). We shouldn’t leave out Henry Hyde and the rest of the Clinton impeachment posse, a number of whom it turns out were playing out a version of “Desperate Senators” (not to mention more desperate senators’ mistresses) while chastising the president.

And let’s certainly not forget Rush Limbaugh, the scourge of those drug-addict types – people who do anything to get their fix and need to be severely punished. I confess, the self-righteous and mean-spirited arrogance of these individuals makes their come-uppance a satisfying treat.

The “Party of Family Values” (PFV) doesn’t need more reminders of these hypocrisies, especially when poised to nominate for president a New Yorker on his third marriage, whose second wife didn’t even know she was being replaced until she heard it on the news. Give me an occasional men’s room encounter anytime.

To make this even more embarrassing, the PFV shows its stripes also as the “Party of Compassion,' as one Republican after another lost no time distancing themselves from their former colleague, faster than anyone could say Max Cleland. Jesus stood next to the woman who was about to be stoned. “Let he who is without sin . . .” No Jesus-like responses here for these modern-day agents of the faith.

Larry Craig became an anathema to the PFV and a scapegoat for American social mores. Not that he didn’t help things along a bit, in ways of which he didn’t seem aware.

It used to be that a U.S. Senator playing footsie meant he was considering changing parties. Senator Craig may owe no explanations to his constituents for being gay, or for being open to unorthodox fun, preferably in private. But if stupidity were a capital crime, his life wouldn’t be worth much.

Senator Craig used his first press conference to emphatically deny being gay, as if that were his worst apparent transgression, much less crime. Never mind dissing the legal system he supposedly oversees by pleading guilty to something he subsequently says he didn’t do. Never mind flashing his senator’s business card at the first opportunity, to let people know he wasn’t just playing footsie with them, yet again.

Mostly, I am appalled by the lack of respect for the legal process by this law-and-order zealot. The senator denies the allegations of being gay – “not that there would be anything wrong with being gay” – he pulls off this line better than Jerry Seinfeld ever could. This seems far more important to him than any alleged violations of our criminal justice system, not to mention the sacred culture of airport men’s rooms.

The recorded interchange between Senator Craig and the undercover policeman in the next stall, doing whatever they were doing, is a most incredible piece of recorded dialogue of a public official. Let’s get to the bottom of it. Did he really try to pick up the piece of toilet paper with his left or right hand? Another question keeps coming into my head – pending questions about possible criminal acts notwithstanding – is this the best we can do in choosing the 100 individuals to make the laws of our great country?

The fact that he represents yet another gay-basher turning out to have some dubious sexual-identity credentials of his own adds to the irony, and certainly to the credibility of the next Foleys, Bakkers, Haggards, Hydes, Gingriches, Agnews, Nixons, et al, and other self-appointed guardians of our family values. How many more scandals are yet to be uncovered among these folks?

It’s time we put our moral attention on real moral issues – war, poverty, health, violence in the world, and let these self-righteous, would-be moral leaders play their silly games on their own time.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

The GOP and Rampant Hypocrisy

Published on Friday, May 4, 2007 by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

‘Family-Values’ Cloak Lifted From GOP
by Bonnie Erbe

President Bush’s budget-busting, spendthrift tactics have robbed the GOP of its claim to the title, “Party of Fiscal Conservancy.”

Now the perverse antics of some high-level Bush appointees and his party’s power elite are lifting the cloak of “family values” from the GOP, too.

The “D.C. Madam” scandal is the latest in a string of stories revealed during Bush’s second term showing that the private lives of some of his most powerful appointees bear little resemblance to the Ozzie-and-Harriet-like ideal the party tries to mimic.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey is in court battling charges of running a high-class prostitution ring from California. She maintained a 46-pound Rolodex that has caused the resignation of one State Department potentate and reportedly contains the names of more elite administration officials and Republican Party donors. The first resignation was that of Randall Tobias, who last week fled a top State Department perch. While there, he not only managed foreign-assistance programs but also, according to The New York Times, “ran agencies that required foreign recipients of AIDS assistance to explicitly condemn prostitution, a policy that drew protests from some nations and relief organizations.”

As “AIDS czar,” Tobias alienated many AIDS-plagued, developing nations by requiring recipients of U.S. foreign aid to sign a pledge against prostitution. Donee nations complained the pledge effectively prevented organizations from befriending sex workers so as to teach them HIV/AIDS prevention. Tobias also promoted faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent AIDS transmission.

Now the joke’s on Tobias, who has the gall to claim his patronage of the D.C. Madam’s women involved “no sex” and that he paid a reported $300 per session for “the gals” (as he put it) to give him massages. Yeah, right.

Even in pricy Washington, in my humble opinion, $300 seems like an awful lot for a garden-variety massage. And Bush is a uniter, not a divider.

Would that the D.C. Madam scandal were the only example of family-unfriendly behavior by powerful GOP Washingtonians. Let’s ignore, for the moment, the congressional page scandal in which disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley traded lewd e-mails with young male pages. Let’s ignore, too, the resignation of former Food and Drug Administration appointee — and evangelical Christian gynecologist (whatever that is) — Dr. W. David Hager.

Hager urged his female patients to pray for relief from medical conditions. Worse yet, The Nation Magazine reported that Hager’s ex-wife said that while he publicly sermonized and moralized on sexual matters, he repeatedly sodomized her without her consent over a seven-year period.

Let’s focus, instead, on the post-resignation antics of the man Bush appointed to lead the Office of Population Affairs. This office is in charge of doling out almost $300 million worth of contraceptives to low-income women. Yet appointee Eric Keroack once described contraceptives as “demeaning to women.” And he came to the administration’s attention due to his management of an affiliation with a string of crisis-pregnancy centers. These are the “centers” that lure pregnant women in by masquerading as women’s health service providers. Instead, they proselytize and show women ultrasound images of fetuses to dissuade them from having abortions.

Keroack resigned abruptly about a month ago, after less than five months in the job, because (as The Boston Globe reported) he was “notified that the state’s Medicaid office had launched an investigation into his private practice.”

Don’t get me wrong. Democrats have their famous foibles, too. I still say former President Clinton should have resigned for having oral sex with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office, rather than drag the nation through the trauma of impeachment proceedings. But the lesson of Bush’s GOP and its agglomeration of perverse appointed and elected officials is that neither party should ever lay claim to that mantle again.

Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail bonnieerbe@CompuServe.com.

© 2007 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

The Hypocrisy of The Christian Right Never Ceases to Amaze

Earlier this month, Rev. Tim Ralph, one of the ministers charged with degayifying self-hating homo evangelist Ted Haggard announced that Haggard had been completely cured, and anyway, he only had sex with the gay prostitute and no one else:


We have verified the reality of that struggle through numerous individuals who reported to us firsthand knowledge of everything from sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships.

In investigating Haggard’s assertion that his extramarital sexual contact was limited to former male escort Mike Jones, the board talked to people close to Haggard and found no evidence contradicting him, Ralph said.


“If we’re going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly,” he said. “We’re into this thing over 90 days, and it hasn’t happened.”

Well, Rev. Tim, it has now.

The people in charge at Haggard’s former mega-church have done what they say is a “reality verification” on their former leader, and it appears Ted may need further degayification:

“[We] have done extensive fact-finding into his lifelong battle with a ‘dark side’ which he said in his confession letter has been a struggle for years,” Pastor Larry Stockstill, part of the church’s board of overseers, told the 14,000-member congregation Sunday.


“We have verified the reality of that struggle through numerous individuals who reported to us firsthand knowledge of everything from sordid conversation to overt suggestions to improper activities to improper relationships. These findings established a pattern of behavior that culminated in the final relationship in which Ted was, as a matter of grace, caught,” he said.

Stockstill did not elaborate…


None needed.

Ted was perving on men in his church, and even leading some of them astray.

Looks like Pastor Ted has a lot more gay to pray away.


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.