Both Sides
This is the man that America needs right now. He's not available. He has his own battles at the moment. Whether you know it or not, for the most part, they are your battles too.
His name is George Galloway. He is a Member of Parliament in the U.K.
When is the last time American politics has seen a plain-spoken, intelligent person that studies and really knows all sides of an issue, takes a side and fights for it with strength and eloquence? A person that isn't afraid of the media (or the U.S. Senate) but nevertheless finds his/herself with a public forum.
Before you can even answer that, you need to start looking into
both sides of every issue that is important to you...and not just just both sides as reported by one side. Knowing what's happening in the world takes more than a click on the remote. For that matter, knowing what's happening in the U.S. requires more than a remote.
Don't believe what you hear about MP Galloway (if you
have heard of him). Don't believe what you hear about
anyone...check them out for yourself...multiple sources/multiple countries. You are never informed unless you know what the other side thinks...from their own thoughts. You are reading this now, check out MP Galloway on the computer. I can point you in the direction of some excellent video clips.
If you have ever heard MP Galloway in a debate, you would know that the reason he wins is because he does know both sides of issues he is concerned about and can speak from his beliefs. Like him, love him, or hate him...just know
why, and be able to defend your opinions. I personally find his strength and honesty unsurprisingly lacking in U.S. politics.
Side Note: Strength and Honesty are sell-points for Bush too...he has neither. Fact after fact is just ignored while lie after lie spouts from his mouth. He doesn't even know what he's saying most of the time; just check out his response to serious (unscripted) questions (I can point you to more than a few video clips). Honesty is something of a fairy-tale in the current U.S. administration (debate me with facts, and be prepared to back them up with proof).
If you believe nothing of what you read here, fair enough. If you believe nothing of what you read here and look to sources (from both sides) to refute me....We both win!!!
Here's some advice: Want to know what Iran thinks about things? (do not listen to U.S. news sources) Check an Iranian English language website, check respected European and/or Asian news sites. You'll find things you have never seen or heard about. You want the insights into Gaza or Lebanon and what the people there think? You'll never get it unless you get it from the source...their source. Again, check non-American third party sources...you'll be surprised if you don't just disregard all of it as crap because you haven't heard about any of that stuff before.
You don't have to believe any of it. You don't have to believe me. I could be as full of crap as that Fox News journalist you watch every night. Compare what you read and see from abroad to sources you trust. Ask yourself why they are so different. Open yourself to the truth that maybe your sources aren't the pinnacles of Truth and Fairness. Make your own mind up.
That's the point of this whole site. I generally give you my slant on things and really hope it causes you to check it out for yourself!
Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear. -Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Fascism American Style
Bush lies - Proven
Bush lies badly - Proven
Bush (and his administration) lies knowingly and repeatedly - Proven
Bush has knowingly broken constitutional laws - Proven
Bush refuses to follow court orders to obey the constitution he is sworn to obey - Proven
Bush signs laws into being while at the same time issuing statements saying he doesn't have to abide by certain sections of them. - Fact
I can give multitudes of factual references to backup all of the above...but would prefer you to check it out for yourself if you don't believe. I don't make this stuff up.
United States citizens in the name of The War on Terror, have lost more rights guaranteed them in the Constitution than could have even been imagined just ten years ago.You think I'm kidding, I don't know what I'm talking about, or am just stupid enough to believe everything I read on the internet? Try this: Read the Patriot Act(s). Read them both (yes there is one to augment the first one). Read them line-by-line...it should only take a few weeks (longer if you really think about everything you read). Do that, and will be way in advance of pretty much everyone in the government voted to represent you (the same ones that voted to pass these laws).
Imagine that one day you were declared to be an "enemy combatant" (and the president can declare anyone to be one...pretty much at his whim). Ridiculous of course (unless you happen to be Muslim). Your phones were tapped (no warrant), computer use monitored and logged (no warrant), house searched (no warrant)...and then you are taken captive. Even jokes with your friends were given sinister meanings. You are kept here (or sent abroad...which is REALLY bad) with no charges against you, denied the use of a phone, legal counsel or any chance of a fair trial (or any trial at all)...and can be held captive (and under harsh interrogation defined by most of the world as torture) indefinitely.
Okay, you say, they made those laws to fight terrorism. "It doesn't affect people like ME! I have nothing to hide! Only criminals and terrorists have something to hide!" Fair enough...
but, if I checked
everything you saw on the internet, what would I find (and I mean to even read all your e-mail and instant messages even under any aliases you may have)? If I listened in on your every phone call (both home and cell phones)
while suspecting you of something, what would I "discover"? What about if I did the same to everyone you know...all your family and everyone you know...and all of their families...and hold you accountable for that too?
Sounds like a fictional novel, huh? It couldn't happen to you (unless you are Muslim)! That's not the way America works!
Do yourself and everyone else in the U.S. a favor: Read the laws, read some news that doesn't come from Fox or CNN, read the Patriot Acts, check multiple sources for all the stuff that is bound to surprise you...and most importantly,
think about what you read. All of this does/can/will affect your everyday life! Educate yourself...and I really do mean from multiple sources! Pick a story (any important story) and read an article about it (or watch a news segment on it) from your usual source, then read about the same thing from six other sources from at least three continents. Try not to be biased into believing only the U.S. source must be correct (in fact, that is the
least likely case). You will be amazed.
The Bush administration right now is actively thumbing their noses at a court order to stop what the Constitution states and the court has pronounced to be illegal wiretapping. They are pushing through a bill that will retroactively make war crimes non-prosecutorial for U.S. citizens (meaning them), and this is just the tip of the iceberg! Afghanistan, Iraq (going well?)...ask yourself why we are even there. 9-11? Do you really approve of where
your money is going and what it is being used for? At the rate it's being spent on wars started with lies (and Israel), your great-grandchildren won't even be able to pay off the money being spent by the government right now...and
none of that benefits you...unless you have stock in Haliburton or a major oil company. What exactly is the role of Israel in American politics...and how is it they have any role at all (Hint: Follow the money)?
Find out what is going on in the world. Find out why. Take it in small easy steps. Trust no single source completely. Every time you think you found the answer, see if other people in other places agree. In short, be skeptical.
Last question: What do you think it was like in Germany in the 1930's?
Be Mad! Start paying attention! Be informed! It's your money being spent. This is your life, your safety, your quality of life.
Imagination
Imagine that one of the world's leading news organizations poorly doctored a photo, then used the controversy around it to discredit a photographer and cast doubt on every other photo out of a region that desparately needs public support?
People in southern Lebanon have been informed by Israel that they should flee if the wish to avoid being targeted. They have also been told by Israel that they should avoid roads and bridges or they would be targeted. Add to that, the fact that a great deal of roads and bridges have already been destroyed. What option is there but to find the deepest hole possible and dig even deeper? Oh yeah...food, water and other basic needs...and keep in mind that there is no longer any electricity.
My overactive imagination leaves me shivering at the thought. Anyone with a shred of imagination should just try thinking themselves in that situation. Thousands upon thousands are living it as I type this.
To paraphrase from, and expand on an article I recently read:
Imagine that most of the Catholics in the world moved to Vatican City this year. They’d need to expand the borders a little for living conditions, etc. They would. They’d need to create the infrastructure to accommodate them...along with a very powerful army to make sure things go smoothly. Imagine that the Italians wouldn’t be too happy about that. Then comes the the hostilities, the settlements, the safety zones, the walls....oh yeah, the newly settled Catholics would need (internal) fresh water supplies and some kind of port access. No worries though, because Catholics around the world will help them in any way possible (especially financially). The U.N. wouldn’t be too happy about all this (not to mention the Italians now displaced from where they once lived). They would likely issue many various resolutions...which the Catholics would then ignore because of their powerful friends (and hey, safety of Us First!, right?!). During the course of this, a law would enter the books that Catholics in Vatican City were forbidden to marry non-Catholic Italians. Anyone that has anything to say about ANY of that is Anti-Christian! In fact You would be anti-christian even to even imagine that this isn't the way God intended things to be!
Absurd to imagine such a thing, huh?
Imagine this: The actual “start” of the Lebanon “hostilities” was the “kidnap” (funny how different the word "kidnap" is from "capture", huh?) of several soldiers that were actually WITHIN Lebanon borders. Imagine that other leaders (read: U.S., U.K.) were informed well in advance.
Imagination can be a bitch, huh?!
