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05/14/2007

Quality stuff like these comes to my inbox from Information Clearing House, the best newsletter subscription I've had since becoming an online participant.

Why Bill Moyers is worth all the Fox Common Taters, Flush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck combined:

Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed overlords of politics and government. The White House, the Congress and, increasingly, the judiciary, reflect their interests.

We appear to have a government run by remote control from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute.

To hell with everyone else:  - Bill Moyers - PBS Commentator

This one made sense I suppose at the time but has done nothing more than prove that human nature is not instinctively altruistic once capitalism commences.

Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down.

Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process.

Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused. : Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, 1919

And here comes James Baldwin with a not-so-pious response to that notion.

"The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo;

are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their "vital interests" are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death:

these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the "sanctity" of human life, or the "conscience" of the civilized world. " James Baldwin - page 489 of COLLECTED ESSAYS (1998), from chapter one of "The Devil Finds Work" (orig. pub. 1976)

And this guy knew more about it a longer time back.

The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors. : Plutarch (46 A.D.-127 A.D.) Historian of the Roman Republic

On immigration in an insane reversal of roles, read what the father of Dorothy and the Tin-Man-Without-A-Heart wrote:

The tale of the slaughter at Wounded Knee in South Dakota is [an] example too well known to require detailed repeating here, but what is less well known about that massacre is that, a week and a half before it happened, the editor of the South Dakota's Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer

-- a gentle soul named L. Frank Baum, who later became famous as the author of The Wizard of Oz --

urged the wholesale extermination of all America's native peoples:

"The nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.

Why not annihilation?

Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they should die than live the miserable wretches that they are."

Aw gee, those dang founding fathers and presicence.

"The country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and monied corporations, and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling and riding over the plundered plowman and the beggar.... Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. -- James Madison, April 20, 1795

Eisenhower speaks from the past about known war and fear-mongers - you know ... future Reflublican leaders:

In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Einstein on our Christian President and Vice President and rubber stamp Republicans casual about war and reality.

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt.

He has been given a large brain by mistake, science for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignorable war is;

I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." : Albert Einstein

Clarence Darrow agreed:

The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery: Clarence Darrow, Resist Not Evil

And here's one of the most accurate definitions of patriotism:

"Patriotism is the belief your country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." : George Bernard Shaw

And when we fail to elect our best and brightest we get our worst and dumbest:

One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry. President G. Bush Washington, D.C., Mar. 29, 2006

We support the election process, we support democracy, but that doesn't mean we have to support governments that get elected as a result of democracy. President G. Bush - Washington, D.C., Mar. 29, 2006

© Arthur Ruger 2007

© Arthur & Lietta Ruger 2002-2008. The American Choice is a  political internet journal based in Bay Center, Washington. The views expressed not authored by Arthur or Lietta Ruger are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of The American Choice or SwanDeer Productions. Permission of author required for reprinting original material, and only requests for reprinting a specific item are considered.

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