THINKING ABOUT OBAMA
by Sam Smith

Once again I’m in trouble and once again it has little to do with politics or ideology. I just don’t think right about Obama.

Most people of power are inherently deductive thinkers. They have learned a set of respected principles by which those of power can continue to have power by applying these principles to the facts they find around them.

These principles change from time to time, which is why we have things like the op ed pages of the Washington Post that helpfully inform us, for example, when the age of the “free market” is over and it’s okay to quote Keynes again.

Sometimes key principles have to be dispensed with in a less elegant manner, such as the “domino theory” of the Vietnam war or the “weapons of mass destruction” that took us into Iraq.

And sometimes key principles prove a bit shaky at which time it is fitting and proper to have them undergo thoughtful reexamination by approved theorists as is happening now with the “war on terror.” These theories are typically either reconfirmed or replaced with others, preferably of three or less words.

In each instance, the key element is a theory that is presumed to be true, even if lacks empirical confirmation.

For example, in the case of Barack Obama, one theory is that he will be a great president because he is our first black president. Everyone is either too polite or too enthralled by the theory to ask such simple questions as: would this be true if our first black president were Clarence Thomas?

Another theory is that he will be a great president because he is a great man, a subset of the theory that history is the purview of great men [sic], which overlooks the role of chance, culture, the environment, and lesser souls such as those who created the decline in the birth rate or the anti-slavery, women’s, labor and environmental movements.

Another theory, particular popular among the Washington elite, is that he will be a great president because he preaches centrism, even though there is no historical evidence that centrism produces anything much more than the status quo and even though, in America’s case, most profound and progressive improvements have been the result of a raucous and irrepressible left.

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This week Visibility 9-11 welcomes singer and songwriter Jesse Goplen.  Jesse’s debut CD Cowboy is organically home grown and is a raw, impassioned and above all brutally honest all-acoustic set that marks the emergence of an important socially conscious musical voice of our time.

Although Cowboy is Jesse’s first official full-fledged release, he received great notoriety for September Eleven Blues, his 2007 EP of 9/11 “truth songs” which featured the powerful title track and another called Controlled Demolition. Both tracks received air and podcast play and were popular within the 9/11 truth movement as well as on stations like KRCB.

This episode features many of Jesse’s greatest hits from the new CD as well as his 9-11 anthems September 11 Blues and Controlled Demolition.

Visibility 9-11 Welcomes Singer/Songwriter Jesse Goplen Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Direct download: visibility911_jesse_goplen.mp3

Dear 9/11 Truth Advocates,

As 2009 arrives, 911Truth.org wishes you all the best, and extends our gratitude to each of you for your persistent courage and dedication to hard truths!

For nearly five years, 911Truth.org has served as your portal to reliable information about 9/11, its precedents and consequences, as an umbrella for hundreds of local truth activism groups, as a catalyst for national campaigns and new 9/11 truth special interest groups, and so much more. We are at a very critical juncture right now, as monthly donation pledges total about $500. We need to raise $15,000 for this first quarter of 2009 if we are to continue to provide these valuable services.

Please take a moment right now to help.

As we enter a new year, with a new administration coming into office, we are excited to continue this important work with some new opportunities–though admittedly, significant challenges remaining–in front of us!

Having witnessed the international reaction to the election of Barack Obama, we believe that a new dawn in political responsibility may be approaching. We therefore encourage the 9/11 community to take an optimistic, and persistent, educational approach to the new administration, one which will speak truth to power in a new relationship based on positive expectations of honesty and good faith. The approach we envisage continues to be based on the expectation that individuals within the United States Government and its citizens, once educated about 9/11, will recognize that only strength and respect would flow from a thorough and complete accounting. Further, this would lead to correcting the enormous fallout (both domestically and internationally) from this horrendous deed that is such a stain on US history. Only when real integrity has been ensconced in our leadership–which must be held to account by the people it represents–will the US, and indeed the world, have a chance to become whole again.

Thus, we intend to work with other organizations to continue to press for this integrity. Of course, we don’t yet know what specific course will finally be successful — perhaps a special prosecutor within the U.S., perhaps it will require an international war crimes tribunal or criminal court, or maybe some other mechanism not yet considered will be necessary. So we must explore every opportunity and pursue those with merit, while drawing on the wisdom, creativity and dedication of compassionate, truth-loving people everywhere if we are to achieve these lofty goals. In 2009, we intend to do just that.

FBI Acknowledges Thorough Research and Analysis of AE911Truth

Michael J. Heimbach, Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division, FBI

The FBI’s Michael J. Heimbach, Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division, says: “Mr. Gage presents an interesting theory, backed by thorough research and analysis.”

Click here to see the letter from Assistant Director Heimbach to Harold Saive of the Florida-based gators911truth.org.

The New American Dream
a new website from Mike Palecek

Hey!  Look! It’s morning!

Dude.  We were sleeping.

…Dreaming, talking in our sleep, some jibberish…about the Warren Commission, landing on the moon, the 9-11 Commission, Sirhan-Sirhan, Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin.

Time to wake up.

It’s a new day.

Time to get to it.  There’s work to be done.

Please join us.

www.newamericandream.net

-Mike Palecek

Also hear my interview with Mike Palecek here:  Visibility 9-11 Welcomes Author Mike Palecek

In a companion essay (reprinted below), I discussed the response of some articles in the mainstream press to the claim, made by some defenders of Israel, that Professor Richard Falk should be removed from his current position of UN rapporteur on human rights abuses in the Palestinian Territories — a claim that was reflected in the refusal of Israel on December 14, 2008, to allow him to enter the country. I included in this essay a discussion of an article by reporter Joel Brinkley because, although it was published before Israel’s action against Falk¹, it could be read as a defense of that action. Brinkley, who had previously worked for the New York Times, argued that Falk did not have the right “frame of mind” for his UN position. In the present essay, I will focus on Brinkley’s argument for this charge, suggesting that it shows that he does not have the right frame of mind for his own current position as visiting professor of journalism at Stanford University.

Brinkley’s Discussion of 9/11

Brinkley’s charge that Falk is unfit for his UN role is quite remarkable, given Falk’s stature. He is Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has had published (as author or editor) over 60 books by academic and other mainstream presses. He is also widely respected and sought after as a speaker and conference participant.

NY Times Reporter Joel Brinkley

Brinkley’s case against Falk rests on linking him to the millions of Americans who believe the “unusual theory,” as Brinkley calls it, that the 9/11 attacks were a “false flag” operation — “a conspiracy planned and executed by the Bush administration.” This is a theory of which Brinkley, he admits, had been unaware “until a row broke out last month between Falk and U.N. monitors who try to defend Israel.”

Is it not extraordinary that Brinkley, a former New York Times reporter deemed qualified by Stanford University to teach its journalism students, had not been aware that many Americans believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation, carried out to provide a pretext for attacking Muslim countries? Mainstream newspapers, magazines, and television shows have for years been reporting this belief, especially on the anniversaries of 9/11. TV talk-show hosts have debated members of the “9/11 truth movement” who advocate the false flag theory, including former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.

Nation-wide polls, moreover, have shown this belief to be shared by millions of Americans. In 2006, for example, a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll found that 36% of Americans considered it likely that “federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them ‘because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.’”² This poll, which shows that this theory is not as “unusual” as Brinkley claims, was widely reported in the press, including Time magazine.

When I saw that Brinkley had been completely unaware of the 9/11 controversy, I could not help wondering how his reading habits differ from those of Sarah Palin.

Early in his article, Brinkley suggests that Falk is unsuited for his present UN position because he advocates this alternative theory of 9/11. Brinkley wrote: “U.N. monitors who already view Falk with grave distrust are now throwing up his advocacy of the 9/11 conspiracy theory as further evidence that he is not qualified to serve as an important U.N. envoy.”

But a few paragraphs later, discussing a Scottish newspaper article by Falk about 9/11 that angered an organization called UN Watch,³ Brinkley writes: “In it, Falk does not say flatly that the [9/11 conspiracy] theories are correct—just that they warrant further investigation.” So, without pointing out that the “U.N. monitors” who said otherwise were wrong, Brinkley concedes that Falk is not a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. This means that the title of Brinkley’s article as published in the San Francisco Chronicle –”9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Should Leave U.N. Job” — is misleading.

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Tyrants Are Cowards
December 31, 2008
from George Washington’s Blog

Tyrants make themselves out to be fearless and all-powerful.

But they are really cowards.

For example:

• Virtually all of the neocon warmongers are chickenhawks who dodged service to their country

• When the mother of a dead soldier showed up at Bush’s ranch, he was too cowardly to even meet her

• Current Attorney General Mukasey – who is stomping on the rule of law and trying to prop up dictatorship as fast as he can – literally collapsed when a judge called him a “tyrant” at a public event

• Former AG Alberto Gonzales – who did the same as Mukasey – whines that he can’t find a job: “for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror.”

• Hank Paulson – the financial dictator who unilaterally has decided who who is getting trillions in government bailouts, refuses to disclose the names to anyone (including to the Congressional oversight committee for the bailout or in response to media lawsuits), and who arbitrarily changed laws without the consent of Congress – is crying about not having enough tools to work with

• Mastermind of many nefarious crimes Karl Rove snivels that Bush-haters were responsible for ruining Bush’s reputation

• Former Navy Judge Advocate General Admiral John Hutson said of the Bush torture program: “Torture is the technique of choice of the . . . pseudo-tough.”

As R. Eddington wrote:

When I was a young boy, I was always taught “scratch a bully, find a coward”. And here we have not one but two cowards at the head of the current administration. One of which – when it was his turn to offer his military service to his country – ran and hid in the Texas Air National Guard (complete military records NOT available upon asking!) and another who got at least FIVE deferments so he wouldn’t have to bring his sorry behind to Vietnam.

Scratch a tyrant, find a coward.

On the other hand, real men stand up to tyrants.

Also see:  In 100 Years, the Neocons Will Be Recognized as the Tyrants They Are

Original article here.