Who controls America?

[Kulindahr]

If I'm so cool, how come you have a bf and I don't?

 

[swerve]

If I'm so cool, how come you have a bf and I don't?

What a COOL trick question...

Being COOL and "having a bf" DON'T EQUATE...

And I'm sure all the guys in your neighborhood are GLAD that you're COOL AND SINGLE...

 

[Nishin]

( maybe your big *gun* scares them away )

 

[sparky95]

I thought that the liberal media, and the Socialists controled everything. That is usally all we hear on this forum.

 

[unclaimedblessing]

The power of the vote?
Gore won the popular election with a majority of votes.

 

[69Strat]

The Cabal of Three sounds like a mix between the black helicopter theories and the masonic behind the scenes domination of America.

You mean those black helicopters don't really exist?

 

[greydog]

its just a re-wording essentially of the report i produced only last week. The stats used in this article are taken from that report which came from a BBC survey.

You gotta be kidding! -- I fail to see any comparison.

re. your post of Mar 6th--"US needs to listen more"
Originally posted by BBC news.
Graphs; Anti American
US influence
US handling of climate change
US handling of war in Iraq

 

[Chalchalero]

The oil cartel, the military-industrial complex

and the Israel lobby are the three

most powerful lobbies in America

They are the beneficiaries of the devastation of Iraq

I agree. One has only to research the backgrounds and resumes of the loudest and most determined voices behind starting the war in Iraq to see that this is true. Remember folks, this war was planned a long time before 9/11. Paul Wolfowitz wrote that infamous memorandum as GHW was still packing to leave the White House. So anyone who believes that we are in Iraq for some higher purpose is plain naïve.

The combined power of these lobbies

makes it impossible for Congress to respond

to the American people and end the war

Don't believe what you read in your high school civics class, kiddies. It is not the primary duty of a Congressman to listen to the American people. It is to be re-elected. And, forget about that silliness wherein votes elect congressmen, because it is money that elects these people, pure and simple. The majority of people who vote on election day look at the names of the president and vice president only. A few may recognise the names of people running for governor, even fewer for mayor. But legislative races are about as foreign and uninteresting to most Americans as, say...well, foreigners I guess! Legislators get elected because they kiss the butts of the lobbyists, who inturn then encourage their own membership through mailings and phone banks to support the candidate who has promised them their bridge to nowhere. Because most (I DID NOT say ALL) people couldn't care less to investigate the candidates for themselves and are entirely apathetic about the entire process, they think to themselves, "Hey, AIPAC likes this guy, so he must be good" and another vote is cast.

US casualties (dead and wounded) have now reached 27,000 in a war that was supposed to be a “cakewalk” over in a few weeks.

If what four-star general Wesley Clark, former supreme commander of NATO, told Amy Goodman in a March 2 interview is correct, US casualties are yet in their early days.

The White House and Congress were warned by people all over the world, many of whom, such as Britain and France had vast more experience in the region than the US and were quite certain that a "cakewalk" was not to be had by any means. But Bush and his cohorts had an agenda and would not be swayed. Dissenters were fired from the Administration or were shut out in the cold and discredited. No opposing views or counsel was accepted or even tolerated. If you think that these people are moved by casualties, whether our own or even less, Iraqi, then you are sorely mistaken.

The media have done a good job for the government of keeping the blood and gore out of the living room.

Except for close friends or relatives of one of the 27,000, Americans have not been impacted by the war. They are even less aware of the consequences for Iraqis.

Every day 100 or more Iraqi civilians are killed and 100 or more are maimed and injured. For example on Tuesday, March 6, the US lost 10 GIs killed. Iraqi casualties totaled 535, 152 killed and 383 wounded.

This was precisely the intention of the Bush Administration from the very start. For instance, when he banned the press from filming scenes of coffins arriving from Iraq, because he was aware of the PR nightmare that created during the Vietnam War. The fact that people are dying isn't what bothers Bush and his cronies. It is the idea that people will become aware of it and all of its implications. It is one thing to read a bunch of figures from a newspaper. It is quite another altogether to be bombarded on a daily basis with visions of coffins arriving one after another after another after another after another......

Despite the unrelenting US propaganda against Iran and North Korea, a poll of 28,000 people in 27 countries for the BBC World Service (March 6) found that Israel, Iran, and the US in that order are regarded as the most negative influences on the world. Even North Korea is regarded as a less negative influence than America.

Japan, Canada, the EU, France, China, and India are all regarded as more positive influences on the world than the United States.

The Bush Cheney-Regime has achieved this deplorable result in a mere 6 years.

This is particularly remarkable considering the overwhelming support America received after 9/11. Bush managed to completely erode all of that good will within two years and actually push us in reverse over the next three years, to where North Korea is considered less of a threat to the world than the United States. The good news is that I believe that these polls reflect the disdain most people feel for Bush personally and this administration and not for America as a whole. I believe that in 2009 you will see dramatically different numbers, but only if the next administration takes a dramatically different course over the disastrous one this Administration has taken.

Yet the Democrats cannot even pass a toothless resolution against committing more US troops in Iraq.

The Bush/Cheney/Rove propaganda machine may be on the fritz, but it has not broken down altogether. The Democrats are still living in mortal fear of standing up on their own two feet and taking a stand against the war because they are afraid the Republicans will paint them as weak on terror and homeland security and accuse them of not supporting the troops. Their fear of doing something which could possibly be spun as wrong has made them cowardly and so they have chosen to do practically nothing. Basically they are continuing to play into the hands of the Republicans, the Republicans are still setting the agenda, and the Democrats are squandering the good faith and will the American people placed in them in November. It's really quite pitiful actually, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

Far from making Americans safe by attacking a country that posed no threat to the US, Bush-Cheney have alarmed the Russians and the Chinese.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and General Yury Baluyevsky, Chief of the Russian General Staff, have both warned that the Bush regime’s military aggression and drive for hegemony are setting off another arms race.

General Baluyevsky says that Russia might pull out of the 20-year-old Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty.

China has announced a 17.8 percent increase in its military budget for 2007.

China is America’s most important banker. How long will China fund America’s wars and trade deficit when it finds itself so threatened by America’s “leaders” that it has to accelerate its military spending?

If you think that Russia and China needed America in order take these stances, then you are naïve as well. China has been increasing its military budget exponentially for over a decade now, mainly because of its fear of a showdown over Taiwan in the not too distant future, but also because it has long aspired to replace America as the dominant force in the region.

Putin is a tyrant and a bully and has long dreamed of re-establishing what he sees as Russia's dominance on the world stage. When he complains of America's hegemony, he is really calling for the return of the days when there was a system of checks and balances between the US and the Soviet Union and he is basically warning the world, Schwarzenegger-style that "I'll be back".

America and its present policies are a great smokescreen for Putin, as he has always had these ambitions, but now can cloak them as necessities for national security and appear justified. Putin, unlike Bush, is a brilliant strategist and manipulator. He is also very patient and will not strike until he knows he can win. He lulled Bush into a false sense of security when they first met (and Bush saw into his soul apparently ) by befriending him and pretending to support him for as long as Putin felt it necessary. Now that Bush is weakened somewhat at home, it is more advantageous for him to position himslef as sort of the world's anti-Bush. It is all manoeuvring and nothing more than that.

If any two countries have less of a right to moral outrage against the United States, it is China and Russia.

And you needn't worry about China doing business with America. America is China's largest trading partner. And when all is said and done, politics, and even national security always take a back seat to the money.

When citizens of other countries turn their eyes toward America, they see evil.

There are some people in the world who will see America as evil no matter what we do, so I wouldn't lose sleep over that. But otherwise, I generally support the majority of what you have said here.

 

[Chalchalero]

I really don't understand why someone needs a source. You either agree or disagree with the ideas, it doesnt much matter where they come from except for the statistics.

Anyone that does not believe that the Oil interests, Military/industrial interests and the Israeli lobby are not the most influential lobbies in the US simply has not been paying attention.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020610/massing

Great article! Unfortunately, it doesn't touch upon the very salient issue of when anyone does attempt to speak out on such issues, they are immediately branded an anti-Semite and shouted down. The Israeli lobby is one of those taboo topics that in a democracy which guarantees your freedom of speech you are not free to speak about.

 

[Chalchalero]

Source? How about the Walt Mearshimer study of the influence of AIPAC, the American Israel Public affairs Committee? How about the report in the current Economist magazine (it's British I know but some Americans can read) on the awesome power of the Israel lobby? Or check out today's New York Times editorial, suggesting it's time Americans started debating this influence, even if they run the risk of being vilified and branded anti-semitic, as, inter alia, the great historian Tony Judt of ex President Carter were when they dared criticise Israel's very own home-grown Holocaust, the campaign to eliminate the Palestinians. In Israel there is open debate on the policies of the right wing government of killers. Not in the good old USA. AIPAC boast of having thirty Jeiwsh house members and a record thirteen in the Senate. There are now more Jews in Congress than Episcopalians. And if you don't think they influence policy, why do they they pony up $56.8 million for candidates of their choice. The fact is that American foreign policy is run by pro-Zionists. And for Olmert to assert we won't bow to terrorism, has he forgotten that Israel was founded on terrorism.

Get a grip and look beyond Fox News for your information. And read a little more widely for four sources.

Walt and Mearsheimer were crucified for that study also, which basically confirmed everything they said in the report. Apparently there was a big stink because Harvard allowed the study tobe published along with a rebuttal from Alan Dershowitz, something they had never allowed before. While Walt and Mearsheimer were erudite, clear and precise in their points, Dershowitz's "rebuttal" was little more than and a whole lot of disinformation and spin in an attempt to somehow rewrite history and discredit these two distinguished professors.

Anyone interested in reading the report and Dershowitz's rebuttal can find them and a WHOLE lot more here: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

 

[Kulindahr]

What a COOL trick question...

Being COOL and "having a bf" DON'T EQUATE...

And I'm sure all the guys in your neighborhood are GLAD that you're COOL AND SINGLE...

The guys in my neighborhood... think I must be a pervert because I'm single and past 25 without three kids and a dog.