Teddi Curtis:  Did you watch THE HILL on Sundance last night?  They showed footage of Kerry supporters down in Florida standing on street corners and offering to anyone who passed by a flyer about what Kerry was saying about the Iraq War.  If you saw the program, you know what happened:  One of them got chased on the street by the police!  It may be very well and good to describe the facts and distribute those descriptions, but be careful if you try to do it in Bush country!

I like the idea of printing flyers describing the facts and spreading them far and wide!
While Molly’s wise columns attract those of us who abhor the current mess, those who applaud or have created the mess won’t be affected by her columns.
If all of us who admire Molly’s work were to print it up and pass them out in parking lots, staple then on telephone poles, hang on doorknobs, stand on street corners and offer them to passersby, maybe then those who can’t be bothered to defend our country from the fascists will find it is in their own best interests to stop the corporate cabal currently running the country….. maybe.

Pardon my naivete, but could it be that WWIII plays right into the Republicans need to win the upcoming midterm elections?  After all, security is the only leg they still have to stand on - shaky as it is.  The Administrations economic policies have put us $8 Billion in debt, their “Peace” policies have us at war with an entire world that loved us after 911 but is, at the least, very skeptical if not downright unbelieving, in us.  The average american - to paraphrase the Republican god Reagan - is decidedly NOT better off since the advent of this appointed, not elected, administration.  Not financially, not spiritually, not Constitutionally… in no way is the average american even par with his status during Clinton, no matter how they wangle the numbers for the mass media.  Now the average CEO. especially of any business associated with the Military-Industrial compex is MUCH better off - I guess they’ve changed the definition of “equal” now too.  Us regular Joes aren’t as “equal” as big campaign contributors.  I hear that that’s the way it’s always been, as if that’s any excuse for bad behavior - shouldn’t we be better after all America’s been through?
If you go on using that kind of logic -“that’s the way it’s always been” - then we wouldn’t have the woman’s vote - we’d still have slavery and child labor - our government would be run for their fellow business guys instead of the average citizen….OOPS!  Hmmm.  The only way to change things is to CHANGE, folks.  Make changes - vote - force elections officials to enforce the law, not just mouth it - get out and care about your communities, because that’s what a nation is - a whole bunch of inter-related communities working together for the common good, in theory.  Throw the bums out,then take them to court - The Truth will truly set us free, or at least clear up a lot of questions.
I know this enquiring mind sure still does want to know what was in all those blacked out pages of the 911 report, for one thing.  I want to know the truth about a lot of things.  I’m tired of being treated like a child who is not responsible enough to know what’s going on in my homeland, but still adult enough to pay my hard-earned money to finance it, and adult enough to send our children to be killed in foreign lands without ever really knowing why.  Haven’t we earned the right to know what’s really going on up there in D.C.?  “National Security” is sounding more and more like the perfect way for these neo-conmen to cover their asses and fill their bank accounts at our expense.  I’m only one vote - we need lots of votes, and honest elections to change this fiasco.  Get started, folks!  Time’s a wastin’.

Thank you again Molly for getting down to the nitty gritty. I get my news from truthout, common dreams, truthdig The NY times, La Times and several other publications, and my own investigations on the internet. What is dispayed on Television is worse than a sham, by my own mathematics they don’t cover 1/100 of the major stories, they are like spending 10 days (or months) covering 1 shallow story, many times with a patriotic spin. I believe the stories they cover are diversions to keep you from learning the real story. Wake up America, TV is messing with your mind!

In the toxic world of American politics everything must be subservient to the Party in Power’s need to be re-elected.

Because of its flawed Constitutiopn America can’t remove a government that has failed to serve the people.

So once again the spectre of foreign nationals being slaughtered for the greater good of the Republican or Democratic parties election chances has appeared.

When are the American people going to throw out these two massive frauds and actually elect representatives that serve the American people not their corporate owners??

apologies for the double post

>>>>Israel on the other hand did what was the only avenue opened to them. With Iran’s leader calling for Jew extinction, and Hezbollah ready for the jihad along with Hamas, and Syria willing to enable all who will kill Jews, what were they to do. Where was the treaty makers like Carter and the Egyptian-Israel treaty?
To me the scary items of importance is the reluctance of America allowing North Korea and Iran to play with the nuclear toys of destruction. Coward that we are no way will our fearless leaders willing to tackle the big issues.Hell, we can’t even take on the rag-tag insurgencies of Iraq. <<<<<

This type of poisonous crap is harming all of us.  Not only people who don’t want to take part in the lies of warmongers but also the warmongers themselves. Even they themselves will die in the wars they start. Somehow we who believe an ethical culture is possible will have to do something to stop this type of “free speech”.  Many websites censor cursing but don’t censor people who promote violence. Why are fascists/conservatives who promote war allowed to speak their mind freely yet if I say that fascists should be killed or at least confined—-I have committed a crime and will be censored?

When I started to write this I thought I should refute every lie and half truth that the above author wrote;—-Every crackpot idea about the world we live in spread by the far right and not so far right and by many of the so called liberals. 

But these people will not believe me. They have their own truth, partly disseminated by the American government.  I have just read that now half the people in this country believe that there were WMD in Iraq.  It is hopeless! The author of the above quote is hopelessly and willfully ignorant.  He doesn’t know what a fact is. He has not read history or if he has it is a Reader’s Digest version of history.  He obviously doesn’t understand context nor does he have empathy with his fellow man.  He probably doesn’t mean to be, but he is a threat to my life and a threat to everyone around him.  Is there anyway to constrain such stupid ignorance?

>>>>Israel on the other hand did what was the only avenue opened to them. With Iran’s leader calling for Jew extinction, and Hezbollah ready for the jihad along with Hamas, and Syria willing to enable all who will kill Jews, what were they to do. Where was the treaty makers like Carter and the Egyptian-Israel treaty?
To me the scary items of importance is the reluctance of America allowing North Korea and Iran to play with the nuclear toys of destruction. Coward that we are no way will our fearless leaders willing to tackle the big issues.Hell, we can’t even take on the rag-tag insurgencies of Iraq. <<<<<

This type of poisonous crap is harming all of us.  Not only people who don’t want to take part in the lies of warmongers but also the warmongers themselves. Even they themselves will die in the wars they start. Somehow we who believe an ethical culture is possible will have to do something to stop this type of “free speech”.  Many websites censor cursing but don’t censor people who promote violence. Why are fascists/conservatives who promote war allowed to speak their mind freely yet if I say that fascists should be killed or at least confined—-I have committed a crime?

When I started to write this I thought I should refute every lie and half truth;—-Every crackpot idea about the world we live in spread by the far right and not so far right and by many of the so called liberals.  But these people will not believe me. They have their own truth, partly disseminated by the American government.  I have just read that now half the people in this country believe that there were WMD in Iraq.  It is hopeless! The author of the above quote is hopelessly and willfully ignorant.  He doesn’t know what a fact is. He has not read history or if he has it is a Reader’s Digest version of history.  He obviously doesn’t understand context nor does he have empathy with his fellow man.  He probably doesn’t mean to be, but he is a threat to my life and a threat to everyone around him.  Is there anyway to constrain such stupid ignorance?

Molly—good lord, woman, you’re a national treasure. Aren’t we glad you’re carried by the commercial corporate media? Aren’t I tired of the continual confusion in the public mind between print media and television? Seems to me that television is the entity that has worked the change on American culture where we prefer to read about the Natalee Holloway tragedies and world shattering arrivals of celebrity babies. Newspapers have had to shift their emphasis or disappear. They must not disappear: where would the rest of us get our information?

Indeed, Mr. Smoliar, the BBC has been reporting what the Western media hasn’t. Sharon, the butcher of Basra, showed his inhumanity when he massacred the town of Jenin. Olmert’s barbarism has exceeded Sharon’s. Ms. Ivins’ commentary featured the overshadowing of Iraq’s collapse this week by the carnage in Lebanon. And the civilian deaths are being under-reported there, with few pictures making it out to the U.S. media. What to speak of using white phosphorous on human beings. It is Dresden all over again.

Unfortunately, we’ve gone too far and like Rome, we will not be able to stop the flood and right our empire again. This is the Fall of the Roman Empire, part 2. We are hopelessly in debt(8.4 trillion), have no manufacturing base, earnings for college graduates have plateaued and are now going down, the middle class is becoming a thing of the past and the era of living in suburbs and commuting to work has past us by. This march the Fed ominously stopped publishing the M3 numbers(the amount of dollars outside of the US), many feel the only reason for doing this is to hide the fact that they are now wantonly printing dollars to bail out some struggling US corporations and pay down some debt. Unfortunately, if we ever face a time when the world at large no longer sees the US as a good investment, those dollars will come flooding back to the US and will create a catastrophic inflation not seen in centuries. Currently the dollar is the only currency you can purchase barrels of oil with, if that changes(and it surely will), we are finished. Our economy is based on the petrodollar, because up until now, it was the US that safeguarded the orderly flow of oil from the middle east and it is now becoming abundantly clear to the rest of the world that that is no longer true.

Molly, of course big media has joined big oil and big weapons manufacturing in making sure their marionettes-the Republicans-manage to remain in control of both houses of congress. But when will those few, but potentially effective in closely divided states, decent people/voters (mainly the left) get the basic fact of the middle east conflict from day 1. Israel doesnt fight—Israel fights BACK. Israel has an absolute right to exist safely behind secure, unwalled(because they would not be needed)borders. If every Arab entity, and their contollers in big oil/big weapons, and it would now seem, big media, would simply agree from the starting point of negotiations that ANY end point would include a safe Israel, Israel would stop fighting and sit down to negotiate today. Would hezbollah or al quaeda? Perhaps, if they knew they would not be sold/given any more weapons, or ANY safe place to hide/train for attacks, whether against Israel or the World Trade Center, by any state, for any reason-political, financial, religious fanatical, or even just plain avarice. Just last night even Howard Dean, the succesor to the hero of the Naderite nuts who gave us the Cheney/Ashcroft/Murdoch regime, condemned the vile anti-semitic statements made by Bush’s “ally” the puppet president of Iraq. Democrats ARE showing some spine, and Iraq or the new Syrian/Lebanese/Iran-backed attacks on Israel, and Israel’s being forced AGAIN to DEFEND itself, and the extreme, looney-left/Naderite-like criticism of Israel because they can and do, do so effectively, are not the only issues in November. For the sake of our country and humanity, let the left unite now. 2 more years of Cheney/Frist/Hastert/Rove/Hannity/Coulter (and the spectre of yet another Nader run) and it really may be too late.

>>Fascism is a violent movement promoting violence. I can not think of anything that will work but counter violence.>>>>>

I fear you are correct.

Anyone who hopes to dislodge this criminal and fascist regime with votes are likely to get a nasty shock. After having rigged the last three elections and committing a multitude of crimes, including war profiteering and war crimes, these fascist thugs have gone way beyond the “normal” corruption Americans have come to accept as a timed honored tradition.

Just as Democrats buried Reagan’s war crimes against Nicaragua, today’s Democrats will bury Bush’s war crimes. So Democrats don’t worry Republicans. What does worry them is losing Congressional power to spineless Democrats who won’t protect them from the World Court. As long as they control America and it’s military, Republicans think they can control the world.

Other than rightwing governments in the U.K., Canada, Israel and Australia, fascist America has few dependable allies left in the world. Most countries now see the U.S. as the greatest threat to peace and stability. Russia and China don’t care and won’t interfere with American fascism as long the Bushites don’t try to monopolize Arab oil. But if they do, the shit hit’s the fan.

Republicans greatest fears are losing their power and key to Fort Knox, along with their immunity. They will do ANYTHING, to cover their ass and maintain dominance.

Amicusbriefs, unless I am mistaken, Hezbollah managed to prevail over Israeli forces the last time they had one of their “adventures” in Lebanon (led by Ariel Sharon, wasn’t it?).  The one media organization that has included this in their reports seems to be the BBC.  Is the word “background” in the working vocabulary of the American news media any more?

Small correction about Murdoch, who IS more responsible than anyone else for the current fascist U.S. administration. He owns newspapers in Oz, and a piece of the main cable TV network. But he doesn’t own any TV stations. He had to give them up when he became a U.S. citizen in the 90s. He became an American, of course, so he could own U.S. stations.

Unfortunately, John Howard’s party now controls the Commons and the Senate down here, and they’re ramming through a law to “reform” media ownership regulations. That means foreigners (read Murdoch) will be allowed to own broadcast stations, and they can own multiple newspapers, TV and radio stations in the same media market. All very fascist.

But Murdoch will not be coming back to Oz. It’s too small a market—only 22 million population. His interest is in China, where he owns cable operations that knuckle under to the communist party. He has no agenda other than making money. His latest wife is Chinese too, and he’s setting up the empire so it will pass to their children.

Alas, I caught the mucker, Tucker, doing stand-up from…Cyprus? I guess he didn’t want to get TOO close, and who can blame a guy who sports a bow tie back home? He was saying something to the effect that Christians are central to the security of the region. Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Tuck. Otherwise, at least Anderson Cooper was to be observed trudging up a recently burned hillside in northern Israel, pointing out that forest fires DO happen, as a few flames shot up just a few yards above his position! I suppose they DO when a rocket lands on a brushy hillside, one that bore a startling resemblance to any here in Malibu. I wonder if the not-so-subtle similarity wasn’t deliberate, speaking of fear. Course, we were then presented with the words of Howard Dean—well-known “fiscal conservative” (like that makes him an okay kinda guy. As opposed to whom, one might reasonably ask?), who declared critics of Israel anti-Semites. Meanwhile, Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Schumer and the rest of that particular crew had succumbed to apoplexy as a result of comments made by the Iraqi Prime Minister—what’s-his-name, the latest guy (brave man, one has to admit) to take a chance. Pending an apology, the aforementioned would not attend the PM’s speechifyin’ at a joint session. Blustery grandstanding seems to have become a plague, one we might all fear as that substitutes for what must once have been “substance,” or am I naïve?  So much to fear—not by now, “fear itself,” but fear of ourselves! We elected, and continue to elect these people! Okay, a few were selected, but not most. We SHOULD be afraid, very afraid. I recommend to any who’ve not seen it an old film featuring Peter O’Toole in the lead role, and entitled “The Ruling Class,” albeit the movie is less hilarious than it once was, as it strikes just a little too close to home.

Israel and the neo-cons are backpedaling somewhat on Lebanon as they experience the fierce resistance from a better-armed Hizbollah than they anticipated. No major media has reported the truth-that the Israeli soldiers were in Lebanon when captured. That the four Israeli soldiers initially killed were in a tank dispatched by the IDF that ran over a land mine. It was not hit by a Hizbollah rocket. For the truth from a former U.S. intelligence employee, go to waynemadsenreport.com. Then check out
whatreallyhappened.com and lookingglassnews.org

I see that Bush is admitting to being ‘troubled’ about the Israeli atrocities (which he must have sanctioned in advance) in Lebanon. Not for the first time he is a dollar short and a day late.

Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14244.htm

Hizbullah support tops 80 percent among Lebanese:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html

Even Liberals are backing Hizbollah
Only Hizbullah can defend against an Israeli invasion :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831961,00.html

Word of Mouth and facts on the ground are still the most important communication method.

Getting out in the street in very very large numbers is about the only way to change a political reality and that reality has to be enforced with bombs.  Bombs change the perception of reality.  Killing per se is not necessary.

Here is someone changing reality but the change is not being caused at the rally but n the minds of people seeing it on the net,

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14235.htm

Anyone follow Clotaire Rapaille, the French anthropologist slash psychiatrist turned Fortune 100 marketing guru? He does work for the Republican Party too, I think. He’s called “The Wizard of Lizard” because he successfully markets to our most primal of ternary brains. Hence, “fear” and of course “sex” sells.

I believe it was Marilyn Manson who observed that corporate news uses “Scare-n-Sell,” scare you with a story then go to commercial, and that’s why he doesn’t watch. Unfortunately, whether you watch or not, you support them if you buy products advertised on those programs.

What a system they’ve figured out for us, eh?

And where is the Aljazeera Channel in the US? Even the Middle East can watch Fox News and CNN. Freedom of censorship???

>>> Murdoch smuggled fascism into the U.S. via Fox News and used it to brainwash millions of morons into electing fascists to subvert our democracy.>>>>

<<<< Let’s deport him to Australia in a fifty gallon barrel.>>>>

Better cut him up and put him in a 30 gallon barrel.

FIGHT FASCISM

  Now what is the best way to fight fascism?

Fascism is a violent movement promoting violence.  I can not think of anything that will work but counter violence.

No analysis of the relationship of the media to the current Israeli conflict is complete without accounting for the AIPAC factor.  I think we all owe a great debt to Michael Massing for his article (in the June 8 NEW YORK REVIEW) that summarizes and analyzes the FOREIGN AFFAIRS essay published by Mearsheimer and Walt under the title “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.”  Also, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then the editorial team at THE NEW YORK REVIEW should be praised for selecting some very telling photographs, not just the one of Bush but also the one of Hillary with Sharon.  The bottom line is that both Democrats and Republicans are well-tarred by this brush (although anyone who claims that there is tar, or, for that matter, a brush, runs the risk of being labeled an anti-Semite).  Back when I was teaching at the Technion (in Haifa) in the early Seventies, there were lots of jokes about Israel being the 51st state.  These days it is beginning to feel as if the United States is a colony of Israel, all because AIPAC can play the fear factor VERY well, whether it is lobbying our government or influencing how the media chooses to tell its stories about the Middle East.

American fascists could never have taken over our government and country without Rupert Murdoch‘s, the chairman of News Corp., 24/7 help. He owns newspapers and TV Networks in Australia, England, and the United States.

Murdoch smuggled fascism into the U.S. via Fox News and used it to brainwash millions of morons into electing fascists to subvert our democracy.

Let’s deport him to Australia in a fifty gallon barrel.

Interesting story in today’s L.A. Times

At Murdoch’s Retreat, Titans Speak
By Sallie Hofmeister
The guest list for News Corp.‘s five-day getaway reads like a Who’s Who in the halls of world power.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp. (FOX), the most influential man in the world, and a FASCIST, has summoned the Powerful to Pebble Beach for a confab.

“The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
—Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg trials

Once you have read & understood the ramifications of this quote, when applied to the Neo-Con desire to control the world, AND watched “Loose Change: 2nd Edition” (Google it to see scientifically what really happened on 9/11) it becomes readily apparent the extremes facists will seek in their power lust.

Fear is the factor Neo-Con radicals will use to enslave us—-if we let them—-and they will do anything, kill anyone, lie to everyone, shamelessly destroy this country for power & money, break treaties, rip the Constitution to shreds, murder their own people if they resist the tyranny or dissent, torture without conscience, and financially rape numerous future generations—-so it is imperative we draw a line in the sand NOW!

The first step toward regaining our stolen democracy is having the courage to refuse to submit to this manufactured fear. Where would we ever have gotten, or be now, if the Founding Fathers had hidden trembling under their beds? Or if the Kennedy brothers & MLK had refused to leave their homes for fear of injury? Or even if Viet Nam protesting patriotic citizens had chosen to run fleeing into the nearest woods? We wouldn’t have enjoyed the fruits of a constitutional democracy for the past two-hundred plus years, Civil Rights would be denied tens of millions of our fellow human beings/countrymen, and that impeached deceitful president would likely have raised the death toll of America’s brave fighting men & women to over a quarter million by now.

All these true patriots understood the line drawn in the sand comes when conscience becomes more important than the primal directive of self-preservation. Theirs was the true noble effort, and we all would be worse off if they let themselves be swayed cowering fearfully to tyranny & injustice.

Have courage, fellow Americans, the nightmarish Bush administrations meglomaniacal grip on our throat is weakening, but beware because the snake is still dangerous. The light at the end of the tunnel is truth, but will never be seen if you are afraid to step from the six years of darkness we have endured.

Don’t impeach—-indict with/by your vote!!!

days worth of thinking from reading your column. as per usual.

ah, the curse of awareness. 

But it’s not enough to know the truth of things and have to keep watching an empty stage. We don’t live in a participatory democracy, we have to choose someone to represent us. Is additional proof required to show what an unmitigated disaster this way of doing things is, and only getting worse?

I couldn’t imagine a more capable intellect than Bill Moyers or a more insightful observer than Molly Ivins. It would be a totally different world led by people such as these. Imagine if similar sensible citizens with compassionate hearts and no bullshite brains had positions of authority in a majority of the worlds power centres.

One thing is clear from such an idealistic vision. There would be far less fear in our hearts. We wouldn’t be looking over our shoulders anymore but straight ahead into the real world.

The fear and hate mongers have to be driven back into their caves and their almighty patronic system with them. They and It is the yoke, chain and anchor afflicting all human progress.

A common sense world. Relationships large and small founded on creativity, compassion, fairness and equality.

Maybe we’ve never had it but many are coming to see, in the face of all this madness, it’s time we demanded it.

Dear Molly,
I’d LOVE to see Moyers in, but I join the skeptics who wonder if the Democrats are very much better. Yes, better, but enough? Maybe he could get in then we could reform it all? Maybe heat waves will prove to be our salvation, because discomfort that will certainly get worse if we do nothing and might be ameliorated if we all jump into changing our habits and actually pulling together could distract us from shopping and change our politics as a byproduct!

Unwittingly the Right is preparing a wide open platform for the Left.  The Right has twisted truth until it is no longer recognizable.  We are beginning to slowly unravel the truth, and while the Right has the microphone and the votes, the Left needs to take its place and sieze the moral high ground.  That is, if they dare.  Then comes the hammering.  It does not matter if it is the truth, just hammer away.  Eventually you get that nail to lie flat in the minds of Americans.  So it is with the Left.  This time, though, the Left needs to pull out some nails and show them for what they really are, and then begin nailing that coffin shut with a little talk about the Truth. 
Go Molly!

I miss Bill Clinton too.
I can accept a president that screws his secretary.
I cannot accept a president that screws his country. And thousands of civilians in a far away country,,,,,,and thousands of young American boys and girls in uniform.

Never mind what party he was with.>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>Eisenhower warned the country in his final address that America should not allow a
“political/industrial"power to take control of America.
Seems pretty clear that’s what we have now.
Big oil, big auto, big chemical, big drug, big insurance, big telecom, big IT, big rich, big poor. Big businessmen sucking big money from every place they can get away with it. Big politicians sucking big money from the big businessmen. Big businessmen and big politicians giving themselves big pay raises and bonuses.
Big politicians refusing to raise the minimum wage for the big poor. Big politicans cutting money for the big poor and big elderly.
ETC…...........
annoy a conservative,,,think for yourself !!!
God bless
az

It is a sad irony that the Israeli conflict, and its heavy coverage will help Bush even though it is a microcosm of our own blunders. Because of its diversity, the Democratic party will lose votes whether they defend, or condemn Israel’s actions. So far they have defended Israel more strongly than they questioned Bush on Iraq.

While I agree about the engine of fear sponsored by the republicans I must say the demos haven’t been too quick to chase away the ghosts and goblins. Mild and meek they sit there shivering form ” What might Be” and ” What should we do now” syndrome.
Israel on the other hand did what was the only avenue opened to them. With Iran’s leader calling for Jew extinction, and Hezbollah ready for the jihad along with Hamas, and Syria willing to enable all who will kill Jews, what were they to do. Where was the treaty makers like Carter and the Egyptian-Israel treaty?
To me the scary items of importance is the reluctance of America allowing North Korea and Iran to play with the nuclear toys of destruction. Coward that we are no way will our fearless leaders willing to tackle the big issues.Hell, we can’t even take on the rag-tag insurgencies of Iraq.

I am not buying any of the media Kool-Aid. The Israelis are no less terrorists than Hezbolloh. Plus all those news people over their from our 24/7 networks are under the control of Israel censorship law. Shep Smith mentioned that several times last week. Which means they make Israel look like a saint or they go to an Israel jail. How stupid! And we call them our friends? Not my friend. Their soldiers are children, not men. It is not right to fight wars by putting
child soldiers, 14, 15, 16 year olds on the front lines. Of course they are going to hit the wrong targets and kill innocent diplomats. This is actually the only way the cable news can get ratings by focusing on a subject as atrocious as this. I use to have respect for some of the shows, but no more any of them. They are the real terrorists, these 24/7 news. They just do it subliminally working on our minds and our trust.

Molly, do you include NPR and PBS?

The silent majority knows our nation
is truly at risk, as you, and others do.

If Moyers accepts the nomination, will
you be vice our president, please?

Actually, fear is only one horse pulling the troika, as I realized when I found on the Web (<http://facultystaff.vwc.edu/~nramsey/snspch.htm>) an address that Neil Ramsey had given at a Virginia Wesleyan College Senior Banquet.  I discovered Ramsey in the course of my attempts to revive interest in the virtues of Liberal Education (one of my more quixotic efforts, reinforced by the URL I have attached to this comment).  Here is the passage that stuck with me:  “Some insist that Liberal Arts refers to the kind of education that is appropriate to all free citizens; others hold that it is not a so much a set of subjects as a perspective that can liberate the mind from fear, superstition and pettiness. How ever it is defined, whatever its form, the Liberal Arts mission is one that focuses on creating persons who care and who dare to see and weigh alternatives to life’ significant questions, who are learning to see life critically, appreciatively and whole, who are learning how to live wisely and abundantly.”

So, yes, we definitely need to “liberate the mind from fear;”  and, as I indicated in my comments about supporting Bill Moyers, there are reasons why the mass media are waging that 24/7 campaign against such liberation.  However, liberation from pettiness is equally important, since it is media preoccupation with pettiness that continues to distract the public from the issues that are really at stake (which is why it is so important that Moyers can be so good at keeping pettiness out of discourse when everyone else keeps trying to pile it on).  As far as superstition is concerned, I read that as a reflection of the danger of hiding behind simplistic readings of religious profundities.  I do not seem to be the only one to have remarked that Moyers can home in on the same truths that Jesus had revealed, which is why he is as much an enemy of superstition as Jesus was;  but, superstition provides a basis for dramatizing fear and pettiness, which makes it integral to the fodder being dished out by the mass media.  So do not expect any liberation from fear, superstition, and pettiness any time soon!

I completely agree, the U.S. government has taken the American people hostage with fear tactics.

Fear puts people in a heads down position and while we are busy cowering, scrambling to make a living, overburdened with debt, strung out with no time to think,  we cannot see that our rights are slowly being eroded from us.

Thank you for finally saying something about this.

MOVEON CENSORED BY CORPORATE MEDIA
Joel Bleifuss, In These Times

In a new series of TV ads, the group MoveOn exposes GOP lawmakers’ fealty to the corporations that fund their campaigns. Now if only the stations would run them. http://www.alternet.org/story/39473/

Republicans control public opinion with a double edged sword, using the corporate media to bury us in lies and authoritarian propaganda, while at the same time suppressing any facts or opinions that threaten their agenda.

Democracy without an informed electorate is impossible. Which explains why we have a totalitarian government and society.

Victory over fear will only occur when the American people realize that they do have the power to effect change. When oil executives can testify before congress without being under oath, when the President can order that half the estate tax auditors working for the I.R.S be eliminated(which benefits only the wealthy), when Congress regularly raises its salaries while ignoring the minimum wage, it’s easy to see why Americans are disillusioned. 

Americans need to believe in America again. Yet the best that the Democrats can come up with is, “Together, America can do better”.  “Believe in America” is not a promise but a commandment.  It speaks of our need to restore faith in the constitutional process, encourage greater involvement by the citizenry in politics and counteract the growing plutocracy that is assuming near total control over the federal government. Money and corruption will always rule in Washington if the people let it. The United States has the lowest voter turnout of any Western industrialized nation and that is as grave a threat to the well-being of this country as anything Al Qaeda could throw at us. “Believe in America” essentially says that we matter, that we can have faith that the government can be made to do the right thing if enough of us demand it. It is not just another empty promise. It is optimism triumphing over cynicism. All the signing statements in the world can’t stop that.

Molly, I have seen it your way for a long time.  Maybe we are the only two who do.  I had to laugh and say, ‘Oh, let’s all be afraid now.  It’s the end of the world’ and go on with daily life because I knew it was all hype.  Have you ever listened to the tone and the tempo of the ‘news’ reporters.  Its a practiced blend of unnatural timing and a perfected rythmn of crescendos.  It doesn’t matter what words they choose, their speech is built to sensationalize the ‘news’.  Especially Bill O’Reilly is good at this.  I am tuning it all out consciously and subconsciously.  I wonder if more Americans are beginning to do the same.  Trying to find real news is a challenge.  Let us know where and when you find it.  Its a rare thing.  And speaking of Natalee, I am still riveted by her disappearance because of the growing existence of global human trafficking.  Is no one paying attention to this real problem fueled by pornography carried around the world by higher technology?  Making her seem like the ‘bad girl’ for celebrating her high school graduation with 130 other classmates in a beach locale just isn’t going to convince me that she deserved what has happened.  Read her Dad’s book for the real details.

Fear has been the text and the subtext of every Republican campaign since 9/11. Endless replay of the footage from 9/11 has graced every Republican campaign since. Could it be that 9/11 is beginning to pall, to feel as overplayed as Natalee Holloway?

Molly,

Since 9/11? I don’t think so. Remember the Bear in the Woods? Didn’t matter that the Bear was dying in its own cancerous waste, the Republicans beat that old Horse ..er Bear till it was deader than a doornail, and still blew billions to “defend” against it, till they were all laughing stock. They really missed that ole Bear.

So they had to make a new and more vaporous bear. Tim McVeigh wasn’t good, too much like their base.

What better frame than a religion that is sorta like but opposed to Fundie Christians. Now we have Wolves in the woods. What better to force Christofascism as the antidote to Islamofacism?

One forgets what it was Republican elephants were about, oh yeah, it was to remember that right wing jackasses had killed millions in a treasonous attempt to hold on to the cheapest possible labor.

Since they switched sides on everything else, and memory is the last thing they want to encourage, maybe Democrats should be the elephants now.

Thank you Molly for stating some facts that are important. Your article inspired me to think that maybe we all should be passing out flyers that list the facts of what this administration is doing to our Country. Try to start with someone who you know already gets it, it’s real difficult when you come up to someone who’s been “drinking too much Cool-Aid” so to speak.
Good Luck and God bless (if you beleive in such things). Mark

Sure glad Clinton isn’t still in office. Remember all the wars under Clinton. How our boys were dying overseas. How we were spending billions, throwing our money into a black hole in a desert half way around the world. Remember all those terrorists running around the country when Bill was in office. How Bush had to come in and valiantly kick ‘em out before they did any damage and kill any people.

No, it’s a good thing Clinton or some other democrat isn’t in office. Things would really be falling apart. After all, he’s a “cut and run” democrat. I feel so much safer now that we’re blowing up countries before they have a chance to blow us up. Yea, the republicans really have this foreign policy thing down: bomb first and do the diplomacy thing later, especially since they don’t have anybody who can communicate with the rest of the world. Well, except maybe Britain and Israel.

Because I was so worried that a terrorist would kill me in my sleep, I suffered countless sleepless nights under the democrat Clinton. 

Thank you, George, I can finally get a good night’s sleep without having to worry about the world blowing up.

the purpose of the commercial media is to formulate and control public opinion ...  it is never the policy of the corporate media magnates who oversee everything that is published by their organizations   to simply report things as they are and let the chips fall where they may ... you will only find the real truth in statistical information, as far as you can tell from the statistics you have ... everything else is someone’s line ... sensationalizm drives the media ratings machine ... can it be that the whole geopolitical fear-mess is about competition for ratings ???