Israeli Settlement Expansion

The Israeli government has now announced plans to build more than 6,000 new homes in the West Bank. This is in defiance to the Bush administrations official policy, however I am certain this new announcement will elicit only mild chastizing from them, if any at all. It does, however, jeopardize the fragile peace that has been negociated by the newly elected Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

The Israeli withdrawl from the Gaza Strip is part of a plan to essentialy annex the entire West Bank. By building the wall and preparing for withdrawl from Gaza, they have adopted a familiar Bush administration public relations strategy of making a minor, essentially worthless concession and touting it as evidence of their fair-mindedness. To them, the goal of peace has always been secondary to expansion. This is why they refused to abide by the Egyptian plan for peace in 1979, which required Israel to withdraw its troops to its pre-1967 borders.

Peace is impossible as long as Israel continues its occupation of the West Bank. They are well aware of this, but they are unwilling to give up its economic resources.

Journalistic Privilege

I have revised my previous opinion regarding journalistic privilege in the Valerie Plame case. This is a very unique case because the actual leak itself constitutes a crime. Because of this, any privilege, were it to exist, would not apply. Existing privileges, such as attorney-client privilege, have this provision. For example, communications between a lawyer and client for the purpose of furthering a crime is not privileged. Since it is a crime to deliberately leak the name of an undercover CIA agent, no privilege should apply.

Journalistic privilege is difficult to legislate since unlike doctors and lawyers, there is no licensing process to determine who is a journalist. By writing this blog, am I to be considered a journalist?

Again, I understand why Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper wish to protect their source, but their source was using them illegally as a means of getting retribution against Joe Wilson for discrediting the Bush administration's justifications for the war in Iraq. Since they did not print the name, they have committed no crime. Robert Novak should be the one going to prison to protect his source and co-conspirator, not these two reporters.

Iran, Syria, Israel and the US

It seems that new wars in the Middle East are drawing closer every day. It has been clear for quite some time that the US has plans to go to war with Iran, either directly, or through the Israeli military, which is essentially the US military with Israeli personnel, and now those plans appear to include Syria as well.

As with the months leading up to the overt campaign for war with Iraq, anti-Iranian propaganda is now a regular occurance in the mainstream US press. According to Fox News, Iran and Syria have united against the US. These assertions are always vague and unprovable, and serve only to incite a general resentment and fear among the public.

Also, in response to the assasination of the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, the United States has recalled it's ambassador from Syria. The former Prime Minister had recently become increasingly critical of the Serbian troop presence in Lebanon. This troop presence has led to an anti-Syrian political movement, and they have blamed Syria for the assasination, although I can find no credible link between Syria and the group Victory and Jihad, who have claimed responsibility. It seems unlikely that the Serbian government would wish to ignite such anti-Serbian sentiment in Lebanon, and the assasination reminds me very much of the CIA's covert actions in Chile in the early 1970's, specifically the assination of General Schneider, who was a right wing leader and popular among those who would eventually stage a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government. In order to unite the factions in Chile who opposed the socialist government, the CIA ambushed the general, attempting to kidnap him and blame it on government repression, but he faught back, and was killed.

Also, there were the CNN stories which ran two satelite photos of the same facility, with one story claiming the facility was in Iran, and the other claiming the facility was in North Korea. CNN claims that both photos were taken from the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website. The RFE/RL is a news organization funded by the US government, and the language of their mission statement seems eerily reminiscent of the Office of Strategic Influence, a program set up and officially disbanded by the Department of Defense in 2002, although Donald Rumsfeld admitted that most of the programs of the OSI would continue under various other offices within the Department of Defense (for more info and documentation, see my previous post "Media Manipulation" from 2/11/05).

Now today, there was an unexplained explosion in Iran near the Bushehr nuclear power facility. Although it has been officially denied, US officials have reported that unmanned surveilance drones have been flying missions over Iran for the past year, and there has been speculation that the explosion may be related to these surveilance activities. I found it curious that the Israeli air force was quick to deny any involvement.

It was also reported by Seymore Hersh, the reporter who broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, that US special forces have been conducting operations in Iran for the past six months.

I find it almost unbelievable that the Bush administration would be planning new wars while the war in Iraq continues. Do they really have the military strength to fight another war? Presumably, with Donald Rumsfeld in charge, they will again seriously underestimate the size of the force necessary to accomplish their goals, and in a few years we will find ourselves embroiled in not one but three bloody wars in the Middle East.

CIA Leak

Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper have been called to testify before a grand jury investigating whether a Bush administration official, presumably Karl Rove, intentionally leaked the name of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, to conservative columnist Robert Novak. The leak immediately followed criticisms by her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, of Bush administration claims that Iraq had attempted to purchase Uranium from Niger. His criticisms were proven to be true, and the documents that supported the Bush administration's claims were found to be obvious forgeries.

These developments are somewhat puzzling, since although they both had the information, neither chose to publish it, unlike Robert Novak, who has not as yet recieved a subpoena. Perhaps it is believed that they will be more likely to cooperate.

Regardless, I do not believe that they should be forced to reveal their source. While it truely pains me to side with the Bush administration, I believe that it is important for journalists have the right to keep their sources confidential. I do think that Karl Rove, along with every other member of the Bush administration, should be sent to prison for the leak, as well as a long list of other crimes, too numerous to name here.

While in this case a journalist's refusal to reveal a source has shielded one or more criminals from prosecution, in the past this confidentiality has allowed individuals to come forward with information without fear of retribution. Bob Woodward has still not revealed his source that broke the Watergate story. Were it not for that confidentiality, that individual would not have been able to come forward.

This leak was intended to serve as an example to all those who would criticise the Bush administration. In the future, individuals like him may need that confidentiality in order to expose the lies of the Bush administration without fear of retribution.

Howard Dean

Although I do profess to be non-partisan, I must say that I am encouraged by the election of Howard Dean to the chairman of the DNC. It seems that finally a liberal who is not afraid of being labled as such has found a position with the power to enact real change, and despite what many Republicans and conservative Democrats have expressed, I believe that it will only help the Democrats in the future. Howard Dean has the opportunity now to bring those like me, on the far left, back to the Democratic party, while at the same time winning the vote of the more moderate swing voters by showing strength and leadership.

The repeated failures of the Democrats in recent elections can be attributed in a large part to a sense among the public of a lack of backbone. The Republicans had a great deal of success in portraying John Kerry as a "flip-flopper" because he was too careful to not alienate anyone, and therefore never chose a decisive stance on any issue. The Republicans did not win the vote of the right-leaning moderates by pandering to the left, and watering down their stances on issues. They won votes by taking strong stances on issues. While many did not agree with most of Bush's policys, they liked him as a candidate because they knew what he stood for. They were able to see him as a leader because he was not afraid to take a stand on issues. Republicans right now have an ultra-conservative platform, and are doing better than ever.

The greatest failure of the Democrats has been in allowing the Republicans steal the position as the "moral" party. The party who's foreign policy consists of sending our troops to war under false pretenses to ensure economic dominance throughout the world is now accepted as the "moral" party. The party who's economic policy consists of eliminating social welfare programs and creating record deficits to fund tax cuts for the rich and billion-dollar-a-day wars in multiple countries is now known as the "moral" party. The party that opposes abortion under all circumstances while at the same time advocates eliminating sex education in schools, and funding for programs to take care of unwanted children is known as the "moral" party. The party that is in favor of eliminating the right to overtime pay for millions of workers is the "moral" party. The party who's plan to fight forrest fires is to open national parks to logging companies is the "moral" party. The party who appointed Antonio Gonzalez as Attorney General, the man who called the Geneva conventions "quaint" and helped create a list of acceptable forms of torture when interrogating foreign prisoners, is known as the "moral" party. This list can go on and on. What Howard Dean needs to do is stand up, as he has done in the past, and scream that these corporate, neo-conservative imperialists do not represent American morality.

Media Manipulation

The attempts to manipulate the media by various means since they took office, to me, are one of the most troubling acts that the Bush administration has committed. The General Accounting Office has in the past found similar acts by other agencies to be a violation of regulations against using public funds for "publicity or propaganda" purposes. I will sum up the Bush administration's efforts here:

2002: The Office of Strategic Influence was created by the Department of Defense for the purpose of feeding misinformation to foreign press to attempt to improve the image of the United States abroad, specifically in Muslim countries. The program was officially disbanded in February 2002, but not for moral reasons, but rather because the public attention focused on the program had compromised its effectiveness. Essentially, according to Rumsfeld, misinformation is only effective if the press that is being manipulated is not aware that the information in not genuine. He also states that although the office itself was officially closed, its programs will continue under various other functions within the Department of Defense.

2004: The Department of Health and Human Services, through the production company, Home Front Communications, produced a video intended to appear as an actual news broadcast, promoting the Bush administration's Medicare plan. The video, with a voice-over by "reporter" Karen Ryan, depicted George W. Bush receiving standing ovations for his Medicare plan. Karen Ryan is not a reporter, but an actress hired by Home Front Communications. The press release also included a suggested script for news anchors to read when introducing the video.

2004: Dick Cheney's office refused to allow reporters access to a press briefing without first signing a "loyalty oath" stating that they support George W. Bush in the presidential election.

2005: Conservative columnist Armstrong Williams accepted $241,000 to help promote the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind program. This was part of a $700,000 payment to the public relations firm Ketchum, Inc. The firm also produced a video on No Child Left Behind which was used by some television news programs as if it were an actual news report.

2005: Right wing "reporter" James Guckert, presumably working for the Bush administration directly, received a press pass and was admitted to White House briefings under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon. His purpose seems to have been to ask the questions that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan wanted to have asked. He posed as a homosexual, apparently so that any criticism of him could be dismissed as simply anti-homosexual.

These are just the events that I can recall specifically. I think that what is most disturbing is the media's complicity. I know something is horribly wrong when I routinely see stories which reflect badly on the Bush administration on the Daily Show before they make it into the mainstream press. The only mainstream media coverage I saw regarding the loyalty oaths was when CNN showed part of The Daily Show's story about it, focusing only on the spelling and grammatical errors in the oath as a sort of comical mistake, and essentially dismissing the oath itself as being un-newsworthy.

First Posting

This is my first posting, and I am entirely new to this. Hello Everyone. I have called my blog Immoral Majority, which was apparently already taken, but since I am sure that no one will be reading anyway, I don't think it matters. My reasoning for creating this blog is to give me an outlet to rant about all that I see as wrong with the world, including all factions in society from religious conservatives to the two business parties in Washington. I typically vote for the democrats, but I rarely support them enthusiastically, and I consider myself non-partisan. I feel that both parties represent elite interests, and have "manufactured consent" by limiting the discourse to certain "hot-button" issues, while ignoring the more relevant, pressing needs of society and the world; needs which conflict with their interests, such as the rising disparity between their economic status and that of the working poor.
I do not believe in conspiracies. I do, however, believe that economic and social factors have contributed to create a prevailing ideology among those in power. While the right and the left fight bitterly with one another about certain, largely irrelevant issues, there is an unspoken agreement with the economic imperialism practiced by U.S. corporations, demonstrated through support of world leaders who are friendly to such interests, and everything from direct or indirect subversion to outright military confrontation with those who are unfriendly, i.e. those who place the interests of their own people above those of American corporations.
I welcome any comments here, or through email at immoralmajority13@yahoo.com.