ancient_paztriot

Weapons of Mass Deception The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton John Stauber($9) It was a day for the history books. On April 9th, 2003, millions of Americans sat glued to their television sets as U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens joined together to topple the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad’s Firdos Square. Like the fall of the Berlin wall, the fall of Saddam’s statue appeared to be one of those iconic moments that proved - spontaneously and undeniably - that democracy would always triumph over totalitarianism, that freedom was the great equalizer. "If you don’t have goose bumps now," said Fox News anchor David Asman as the extraordinary footage rolled, "you will never have them in your life." "Jubilant Iraqis Swarm the Streets of Capital," read the New York Times headline. Or did they? In their eye-opening new exposé, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq, Rampton and Stauber take no prisoners as they reveal - headline by headline, news show by news show, press conference by press conference - the deliberate, aggressive, and highly successful public relations campaign that sold the Iraqi war to the American public. April 9th seemed to confirm what Washington and pro-war pundits had been saying for months: that the Iraqi people would eventually come to see America as their liberator, not their enemy. Yet the American media chose to focus on headlines such as "Iraqis Celebrate in Baghdad" (Washington Post) rather than on a Reuters long-shot photo of Firdos Square showing it to be nearly empty, or the Muslim cleric who was assassinated by an angry crowd in Najaf for being too friendly to the Americans, or the 20,000 Iraqis in Nasiriyah rallying to oppose the U.S. military presence. We’ve always known what good PR and advertising could do for a new line of sneakers, cosmetics, or weight-loss products. In Weapons of Mass Deception, Rampton and Stauber show us a brave new shocking world where savvy marketers, "information warriors," and "perception managers" can sell an entire war to consumers. Indeed, Washington successfully brought together the world’s top ad agencies and media empires to create "Operation: Iraqi Freedom" - a product no decent, patriotic citizen could possibly object to. With meticulous research and documentation, Rampton and Stauber deconstruct this and other "true lies" behind the war: * Top Bush officials advocated the invasion of Iraq even before he took office, but waited until September 2002 to inform the public, through what the White House termed a "product launch." * White House officials used repetition and misinformation - the "big lie" tactic - to create the false impression that Iraq was behind the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, especially in the case of the alleged meeting in Prague five months earlier between 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence officials. * The "big lie" tactic was also employed in the first Iraq war when a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah told the horrific - but fabricated - story of Iraqi soldiers wrenching hundreds of premature Kuwaiti babies from their incubators and leaving them to die. Her testimony was printed in a press kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a PR front group created by Hill and Knowlton, then the world’s largest PR firm. * In order to achieve "third party authenticity" in the Muslim world, a group called the Council of American Muslims for Understanding launched its own web site, called OpenDialogue.com. However, its chairman admitted that the idea began with the State Department, and that the group was funded by the U.S. government. * Forged documents were used to "prove" that Iraq possessed huge stockpiles of banned weapons. * A secretive PR firm working for the Pentagon helped create the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which became one of the driving forces behind the decision to go to war. Weapons of Mass Deception is the first book to expose the aggressive public relations campaign used to sell the American public on the war with Iraq. It is a must-read for those who want to know how and why they bought this war. ------ TABLE OF CONTENTS *ACKNOWLEDGMENTS* *INTRODUCTION: Liberation Day* *CHAPTER 1: Branding America* *CHAPTER 2: War Is Sell* *CHAPTER 3: True Lies* *CHAPTER 4: Doublespeak* *CHAPTER 5: The Uses of Fear* *CHAPTER 6: The Air War* *CHAPTER 7: As Others See Us*

Robbing us Blind The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America by Steve Brouwer ($12) Steve Brouwer is on of the nation's best front-line reporters from the ongoing class war. You won't find any academic evasions in this book. The operative terms are "robbery" and "piracy," and the message is, "Wake up America, and reclaim your country before it is too late!" -Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed In this blazing attack on the fiscal policies of both Bush presidents, Steve Brouwer lays bare the robbery behind the rhetoric in Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America. From the tax cuts for the rich to the deadly health care policies for the pharmaceutical companies, Brouwer details the damage-not just from George W. but from his father as well. Packed with statistics yet woven into a gripping story, Brouwer tackles the central question head on: Can We Really Call Them Robbers? Showing exactly how the Bush Gang is a throwback to the "Gilded Age," Brouwer delineates the devastating evidence: The share of the national income that goes to the bottom 90% of the American people shrank from 67% of the total in the late 1970s to about 52% twenty years later. Almost all of the missing income was redistributed to the very richest Americans, the top 1%. Their take of the loot-already a robust 9.3% in 1979-had more than doubled to 20.8% by 2000. And that's before George Jr.'s tax cuts... Yet Brouwer takes on a further question: Why blame this on "The Bush Gang?" From 1981, when George Sr. became Reagan's vice president, through 2004, the Bush family has effectively been at the helm of our country most of the time-16 out of the last 24 years. If George Jr. gets re-elected, asks Brouwer, how much of our national income will be left in the hands of the people by 2008?

This is the title of a new book out by Larry Everest (only $12 paperback) This unique volume compiles in one place a history of US intervention against Iraq and the devastating consequences for the people and the region. It shows the ways in which war today is a continuation of that history, but also a radical leap to more direct military control in Iraq and around the world. The “Bush Doctrine” is both built on our imperial history and yet new and far more dangerous. In Oil, Power and Empire, Everest rips away the shroud of Bush pretext. He 1. Exposes the true U.S. agenda: war on Iraq is part of plan for U.S. global domination, monopolizing world energy sources, and restructuring the Middle East. 2. Dissects Bush Administration arguments -- “weapons of mass destruction,” the al-Qaeda connection, violations of UN resolutions -- as pretexts for pre-planned agenda. 3. Shows that for 80-some years, U.S. actions in Iraq and the Middle East, often Machiavellian in the extreme, have been guided by considerations of oil, power and empire, have brought horrendous results for the peoples of the region (including helping Saddam Hussein to power), and led not to justice and stability, but a deepening spiral of U.S. military intervention. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. PLOTTING WAR AS THE TOWERS BURNED How the Bush Administration decided to go to war on Iraq within 2 months of Sept. 11, despite the lack of an Iraqi connection. 2. IMPERIALISM AND THE CREATION OF IRAQ. A history of imperialism shows how the conflicts and tensions of today arose and why a U.S. colony would be no better. 3. 1945-1979: BUILDING A MIDDLE EAST PILLAR OF EMPIRE After World War II the US moved in initiating a spiral of greater military involvement and intervention in the region, which is now going to take another leap. 4. THE 1980s: DOUBLE-DEALING DEATH IN THE GULF Encouraging the IRan-Iraq war, arming Iraq, assisting in chemical warfare; everything Bush charges Hussein with, the US was complicit in. 5. NEW WORLD ORDER, TAKE 1: DESERT STORM & KILLER SANCTIONS The Persian gulf war was the first conflict after the collapse of the Soviet Union and intended to send a global message more about that than any concern about Kuwait. 6. IRAQ and THE BUSH DOCTRINE September 11 gave the U.S. an opportunity to achieve a long-held agenda and it forcefully and deliberately and step-by-step nothing less than an imperialist master plan for world domination. 7. CREATING PRETEXTS: THE POST-9/11 CAMPAIGN FOR WAR. As they were preparing pretexts, they had already decided to attack and were already positioning materials. 8. AN UNJUST WAR OF EMPIRE. [[bLURBS} “An excellent book with analytical discussions of all the relevant matters of foreign policy which all to often in the current era are left undiscussed or are framed in slogans and propaganda. Should be made 'required reading—especially for policy makers in Washington.” --Dwight Simpson, Prof. International Relations at San Francisco State University.

Followed your advice. All I get for the video is different shades of pixelated square boxes. Trying zooming, no help. Would've been nice to see the dieties this morning. They're lovlier than the sun.

gHari, thanks very much for that post. The bold highlights I understand. The rest… ? You position is now clear to me. Hare Krsna! Guest, I don't think Shiva's intention is so subversive. He's just expressing his understanding. I enjoy many of his comments. Shiva, I've read much of what you posted. All of that oneness can be understood in terms of yoga or love. That's how many of us see it. No victory claimed… perhaps you're right. But let's agree to disagree. I see no point in pursuing this. Peace.

Most of us have probably heard that Saddam is caught by now. I saw it on the newspaper stand. My tv is dead. He's a monster! Always admitted that. But what are they gonna do with him? They didn't kill him on the spot as the American rhetoric suggested. What can they blame him for? Will they keep him locked away from the light and forgotten (as time passes)? … A proven political ploy? Rather, Saddam should be able to appeal to international sanctimony and have his country and oil restored. America can't let that happen!

Shiva, gHari, and others, Read replies above. Still doesn't explain the reciprocation. I agree with the general nature of this thread in terms of oneness, but I still think (personally) that Radha is an individual just like you and me. Simultaneous one and difference… You don't reciprocate between yourself. Do you? We are one and the same! Why can't Radha be similar… like Balarama or Visnu or even something more? (Don't really want to hear different) (One with Govindaram here).

Thanksgiving is a celebration of the Indians helping our forefathers get through the winter? Isn't it ironic there are no Indians around while we celebrate? Christmas and Christianity? Christianity has mainly been a tool for subjugation in the West. Never mind what the people had at the time. Just go in and show them your self-rightious attitude: You are heathens and only we know! Manifest destiny? Hey, if we can take it… it's meant to be! But when we get hit as retribution for our world exploitation and domination? Oh, that's terrorism! And what has become of Christianity since (in the West)? A secular state! And now that America has made so many machines and conditioned people to make and maintain them, they are scientific in their world view. Appeal to people's desires; not through substance, but through mind control! Titillate them… but satisfaction is for me - your glorious leaders - at your expense. Live the American Dream! God bless America!

Testing avatar. Background should look better.

This was copied from the Newletyters and Journals section. I didn't know this. Should be inspiration to us outside. Prabhupada: Yes. Anyway, follow the instruction. That is required. Follow the instruction. Wherever you remain, it doesn't matter. You are secure. Follow the instruction. Then you are secure anywhere. It doesn't matter. Just like I told you that I saw my Guru Maharaja not more than ten days in my life, but I followed his instruction. I was a grhastha, I never lived with the Matha, in the temple. It is practical.

So if there are no serious objections, I'll post some transcript essays from Hridyananda's lectures (around the world). I'm not promoting Hridyananda in any other way than giving him credit for his material. I personally think it is some of the best around. But I will not be discussing him unless asked. Hope you guys enjoy them. Hare Krsna. Whether Or Not There Is A Soul 3 June 1984, Atlanta, Georgia: Sunday Feast lecture So here we are confronting death and we have to make a decision about what position we are going to take. It's called in modern terms an existential decision. We have to decide what position we are going to take in the face of impending nonexistence, at least nonexistence of our present state of affairs. Now since material things all end, it is doubtful some material thing is going to save us, although modern science promises us that we'll invent some medicine or some pill and you won't die. But all that glitters in not gold. Uh that hasn't happened yet. That's not really an option in 1984. So as I said, the real issue is whether or not there's an eternal soul. We may say Well there are other ideas also. But if we study the history of human thought it really boils down to that. Just like in the baseball season or the football season there are so many different teams and so many different leagues, it all boils down to the world series or the superbowl. That's really what it comes down to – or not. Do we really cease to exists or is there some type of perpetual existence, some soul? Even Aristotle… Aristotle is known as the father of modern science. Those of you who know a little bit of the history of philosophy know that Plato insisted that there is an eternal soul, although of coarse his definition was a little muddled. But he said that there is an eternal soul which is different from the body. Then Aristotle came along and said well no, actually the soul is somehow inseparable from the body. Then again he said But well actually there is some kind of soul that survives the body. So he chickened out so to speak. Anyway if you study Greek philosophy or Decarte or anyone, that's really what it's all about. Is there or is there not an eternal soul? Now since we are talking about something which is not physical, physical experiments are not going to solve the problem and neither is speculative philosophy. All the big philosophers have taken their best shot and all they can really tell us is their opinion. So philosophy, speculative philosophy is not really going to answer the question authoritatively and much less dull material science which can't… which according to their own ground rules and boundaries which they themselves have defined, they're not even relevant to the discussion. So obviously what is involved is a decision on our part based on experience and based on faith and faith is also really inseparable from experience, unless we're talking about blind faith, but that also… anyway, I won't go into the psychology of faith as a separate discussion. But what it does come down to is we as free souls and as free citizens, uh we have the opportunity to experience and ultimately we have to make a decision. Now you can leap… you can make a leap of faith to believe or you can make a leap of faith and not believe. They are both leaps. So why leap to something which has no possibility of helping you? It's not to deny the existence of the soul is a scientific position or a logical position or a hardheaded pragmatic position. It's actually rather stupid position because it involves exactly the same type of faith as believing in the soul and has absolutely no possibility of doing anything for you. So it's actually not at all pragmatic or rational or empirical. It's stupid actually. If we have to make a leap of faith somewhere, why not try to get over the chasm instead of just deciding Well I won't make it anyway, I'll just dive headfirst into the pit. So somehow or other our modern society in the uh… with a type of pseudo rationality and pseudo logic has actually become spiritually suicidal. As I've already explained, if you say only things which we can see with our senses can be verified. If you make that statement, that statement is in itself cannot be empirically verified because if you try to bring in empirical evidence, that's circular reasoning. In other words, you cannot demonstrate the validity of empiricism within an empirical proof, that's begging the question. To demonstrate the validity of empiricism as a system, you have to bring in evidence from outside, but empiricism itself states that evidence is invalid. So empiricism is a system which by definition cannot be validated. It's pretty stupid, isn't it? Whereas if within your system you admit the existence of God, then at least within your epistemology or within your concept of life there are elements or entities which – as you define them – are capable of validating experience. So this whole empirical tendency of the modern world is a complete collapse of common sense and what to speak of rationality. It is actually gross ignorance and irrationality. And therefore being in a grossly irrational, nonsensical position, it has produced a society which is basically irrational, repressive, both in the leaders and the followers and we achieving record-breaking levels of anxiety. Stress has become so prominent that it is practically killing off the entire population, heart-attack, cancer, all these things increase exponentially due to anxiety. This perhaps is the most neurotic society in history and hence the most miserable society because as Lord Krsna says ??? How can a person who is not peaceful be happy? So this neurotic, bordering on psychotic civilization is the result of accepting a totally irrational world-view which is that only things that we can experience with the gross body are real. As I said an assertion… according to what I just said is not true itself because it can't be verified. So our society has chosen to make this leap of faith into a spiritually suicidal, dead-end world view. And it is the purpose of the Krsna Consciousness movement to extricate human civilization from this hopeless, ridiculous position. It is just like a child who jumps into a hole thinking he sees something shinning down into the hole and jumps in and can't get out. So our society has simply jumped into a pit of blind irrationality based on the premise that there is no soul, there is no God, therefore let us simply dedicate ourselves to the pleasures of the body. So if you want to… When people sometimes say Well prove there's a soul, prove there's a God… But of course sometimes they use the word prove in a very immature way. Sometimes people think the word prove indicates some type of material demonstration. So requesting a material demonstration of spiritual entitites is not a very intelligent request. It doesn't indicate a very reasonable person. Now we do have however, the capability of perceiving spiritual reality. But we have to purify ourselves. We can see spiritual things, we can hear them. But they are not strictly speaking empirical because they are not physical. It requires that we purify our consciousness. Now if someone was born without the ability to see colors… Apparently some animals cannot see colors. And if somehow animals could speak as they appear to do in our society. If somehow animals could speak and they requested proof of color, what would you show them? If a blind man demands to see, if a blind man denies that there is any such thing as a physical world, how would you demonstrated it to him? What if a blind man demands that visible things be demonstrated to him? That the proof that visible things are in fact visible is that they can be demonstrated to someone who is blind and therefore cannot visualize? Somehow visible things, their quality of being visible should be demonstrated in a way that has nothing to do with seeing. And this is the proof of their existence as visible objects. Now that request would be uh meaningless. Similarly, the burden of proof is not on God. Our society has become so arrogant in our humanistic delirium… we think that we are so important as human beings that we have become so outrageous that we think that we can place the burden of proof on the Supreme Lord. The result is that we are simply creating a situation in which was are gonna get a bunch or A burdens on our head. A burdens and H burdens, all kinds of nuclear burdens. We are just about to annihilate ourselves, we have created a gross, frustrating, irrational society in which people are about to kill each other on an unprecedented scale and in our blind neurotic ignorance we dare to place the burden of proof on God. So this is another act of irrationality. Even if we accept God's existence as a hypothetical proposition that we are investigating Does God exists or not, even in order to adequately examine the issue, we would have to devise a proof or a demonstration which if the phenomenon existed it would be appropriate. Isn't it? You're a scientist (…spiritual scientist) For example if they are making an experiment to try to demonstrate the existence of an atom, obviously you design an experiment which if the atom exists, the experiment will be appropriate. You don't try to fake out the atom. Similarly if you are trying to conduct research to find out if God exists and if you have half a brain in your head, then you try to do something so that if God exists you can detect him. Now if God does exists, He's obviously not your… He's obviously not gonna come and kiss your boots. If God does exists, he's in charge – not you. Therefore, if you want to search for God, do something so that if He does exists you're experiment is appropriate. That means try to surrender to God, try to be devoted to God and then see what happens. Otherwise if conduct so-called experiments to see if God exists, experiments designed in such a way that if the object of our search exists, the experiments immediately become inappropriate and irrelevant, then that means that our whole methodology is idiotic. And this is exactly the type of idiotic thinking and methodology which is implicit if not explicit in those people who have the gall to say prove that there's God. So rather than being a rational approach toward the subject, these people are demonstrating their ignorance and their total lack of intellectual ability. So if anyone actually wants to understand what God is, then he should chant Hare Krsna… as these are names of God and by chanting Hare Krsna we are calling to God in a devotional submissive frame of mind which is appropriate to the reality that God is infinitely great and we are infinitesimally or infinitely infinitesimal. So this is an appropriate process. Those who know that God exists of course are in a good position and even those who are trying to figure it out, it is a very appropriate way to find out if you understand anything about scientific research. So anyway, getting back to my main point that those who have discovered the soul and those who have discovered God and who have molded their existence around these things, they become infallible in the sense that they are developing, evolving an existence based on eternal things and therefore their existence becomes eternal and in that sense they are infallible. And their infallible in the sense that their very existence and the quality of their existence will not perish. Certainly if we speak about fallibility, the worst kind of fallibility is dying because that's a loss of your existence itself – at least as you know it. So preserving your existence certainly is the first step in achieving infallibility because it is achieving the infallibility of existence as existence. Of course, everyone is an eternal soul, but the particular nature or particular quality or type of existence that we create in bodily identification is temporary. For example if you think that I am an American or I'm Russian or I'm a fireman or I'm the world champion bottle washer or whatever you think you are, these activities are all based on the material body and they will perish with the body. And if you mold an existence based on the soul that I'm an eternal servant of God, that will be an eternal existence. Anyway, these are some of the points I wanted to make. So I hope I've stimulated some of you to further thinking. Now are there any questions?

Nevermind. I think I'm set.