The danse macabre of US-style democracy

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger looks back on the US presidential campaigns he has reported and draws parallels with the current ‘ritual danse macabre’ that covers for democracy and the veiled propaganda that accompanies it.

The former president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere once asked, “Why haven�t we all got a vote in the US election? Surely everyone with a TV set has earned that right just for enduring the merciless bombardment every four years.” Having reported four presidential election campaigns, from the Kennedys to Nixon, Carter to Reagan, with their Zeppelins of platitudes, robotic followers and rictal wives, I can sympathise. But what difference would the vote make? Of the presidential candidates I have interviewed, only George C Wallace, governor of Alabama, spoke the truth. “There�s not a dime�s worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans,” he said. And he was shot.

What struck me, living and working in the United States, was that presidential campaigns were a parody, entertaining and often grotesque. They are a ritual danse macabre of flags, balloons and bullshit, designed to camouflage a venal system based on money power, human division and a culture of permanent war.

Travelling with Robert Kennedy in 1968 was eye-opening for me. To audiences of the poor, Kennedy would present himself as a saviour. The words “change” and “hope” were used relentlessly and cynically. For audiences of fearful whites, he would use racist codes, such as “law and order”. With those opposed to the invasion of Vietnam, he would attack “putting American boys in the line of fire”, but never say when he would withdraw them. That year (after Kennedy was assassinated), Richard Nixon used a version of the same, malleable speech to win the presidency. Thereafter, it was used successfully by Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and the two Bushes. Carter promised a foreign policy based on “human rights” � and practised the very opposite. Reagan�s “freedom agenda” was a bloodbath in central America. Clinton “solemnly pledged” universal health care and tore down the last safety net of the Depression.

Nothing has changed. Barack Obama is a glossy Uncle Tom who would bomb Pakistan. Hillary Clinton, another bomber, is anti-feminist. John McCain�s one distinction is that he has personally bombed a country. They all believe the US is not subject to the rules of human behaviour, because it is “a city upon a hill”, regardless that most of humanity sees it as a monumental bully which, since 1945, has overthrown 50 governments, many of them democracies, and bombed 30 nations, destroying millions of lives.

If you wonder why this holocaust is not an “issue” in the current campaign, you might ask the BBC, which is responsible for reporting the campaign to much of the world, or better still Justin Webb, the BBC�s North America editor. In a Radio 4 series last year, Webb displayed the kind of sycophancy that evokes the 1930s appeaser Geoffrey Dawson, then editor of the London Times. Condoleezza Rice cannot be too mendacious for Webb. According to Rice, the US is “supporting the democratic aspirations of all people”. For Webb, who believes American patriotism “creates a feeling of happiness and solidity”, the crimes committed in the name of this patriotism, such as support for war and injustice in the Middle East for the past 25 years, and in Latin America, are irrelevant. Indeed, those who resist such an epic assault on democracy are guilty of “anti-Americanism”, says Webb, apparently unaware of the totalitarian origins of this term of abuse. Journalists in Nazi Berlin would damn critics of the Reich as “anti-German”.

Moreover, his treacle about the “ideals” and “core values” that make up America�s sanctified “set of ideas about human conduct” denies us a true sense of the destruction of American democracy: the dismantling of the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus and separation of powers. Here is Webb on the campaign trail: “[This] is not about mass politics. It is a celebration of the one-to-one relationship between an individual American and his or her putative commander-in-chief.” He calls this “dizzying”. And Webb on Bush: “Let us not forget that while the candidates win, lose, win again… there is a world to be run and President Bush is still running it.” The emphasis in the BBC text actually links to the White House website.

None of this drivel is journalism. It is anti-journalism, worthy of a minor courtier of a great power. Webb is not exceptional. His boss Helen Boaden, director of BBC News, sent this reply to a viewer who had protested the prevalence of propaganda as the basis of news: “It is simply a fact that Bush has tried to export democracy [to Iraq] and that this has been troublesome.”

And her source for this “fact”? Quotations from Bush and Blair saying it is a fact.

FONTE: http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=471

IL NUOVO SECOLO AMERICANO

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Zeitgeist: The Movie

Pharmageddon: The Global War on Women

Pharmageddon: The Global War on Women
The global war on women has for many years been an extremely hard-to-recognise war. For decades, it has carried a nice face, actually looking like just the opposite of war. But now, it gets another face – an ugly one. Just like the face of the other wars: That of terror and that of man-made global warming. These have long been recognizable as false and staged. Now, the global war on women is becoming visible.

For me, it started as a wondering: How come that more and more vaccination campaigns are targeted on women? Recently in Denmark, the media have been strongly marketing the HPV vaccination against cervical cancer, not as given to women of exactly that age where cervical cancer occurs, no, they are about to be included in the normal children’s vaccination scheme, targeting girls at the age of 12 – where it has absolutely no positive effect. How come

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Genova 2001

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NAOMI KLEIN: The Shock Doctrine

Preview of the upcoming book.

Circo 9/11

BAMBINI PALESTINESI

Con riferimento all’Ordinanza Militare n. 132, dal 29.09.2000 ad oggi, oltre 3000 bambini palestinesi sono stati arrestati, processati ed incarcerati dalle autorità israeliane, in violazione delle leggi e delle convenzioni internazionali. L’Ordinanza Militare n. 132, oltre a permettere di arrestare un bambino dall’età di 12 anni, stabilisce che un palestinese diventa adulto all’età di 16. Si tratta di una normativa razzista, in quanto gli israeliani diventano adulti a 18 anni. Tra l’altro, l’età viene attribuita all’imputato, NON in base al momento dell’arresto, ma il base al momento della sentenza. Gli arrestati sono giudicati SEMPRE da Tribunali Militari i quali operano senza rispettare i diritti minimi stabiliti dalla IV Convenzione Di Ginevra e dalla Convenzione ONU. Le seguenti immagini, a cura di Adriana Sabbatini, documentano la brutalità ed il trauma di tali momenti. Al 18 luglio 2007, i minori palestinesi detenuti in carceri israeliane (fonte Defence for Children International) erano 384.

Guarda anche il video Intervista ad Alessandra Antonelli

L’AVVISO di KENNEBUNKPORT

L’AVVISO di KENNEBUNKPORT

(Segue il testo originale)

Al popolo americano, e a tutti gli individui amanti della pace nel mondo:

Siamo a conoscenza di pesanti indizi che suggeriscono come i sostenitori, i controllori, e gli alleati del Vice-Presidente Dick Cheney abbiano intenzione di imbastire e mettere in atto un nuovo evento terroristico come l’11 settembre, e/o una nuova provocazione bellica, simile al Golfo del Tonchino, nelle prossime settimane o nei mesi a venire.

Tali eventi verrebbero usati dall’amministrazione Bush come pretesto per scatenare una guerra di aggressione contro l’Iran, molto probabilmente con armi nucleari, e per imporre un regime di legge marziale qui negli Stati Uniti.

Ci appelliamo alla Camera dei Deputati perchè proceda al più presto con la incapacitazione (impeachment) di Dick Cheney, come misura urgente per evitare una guerra ancora più ampia e catastrofica. Una volte che il processo di impeachment fosse iniziato, sarebbe più facile per gli ufficiali leali e fedeli alla nazione rifiutarsi di eseguire ordini illegali da parte della squadra di Cheney.

Avvisiamo in maniera perentoria la gente di tutto il mondo che qualunque attacco terroristico con armi di distruzione di massa che avesse luogo, …

… nel prossimo futuro, negli Stati Uniti o in qualunque altro posto al mondo, dovrà essere automaticamente addebitato (prima facie) agli uomini di Cheney.

Invitiamo i leader politici più responsabili, ovunque nel mondo, ad iniziare a preparare l’opinione pubblica del loro paese a queste minacciate azioni di terrorismo “sotto falsa bandiera” (false flag).

Firmato: Un gruppo di leader politici americani all’opposizione, riuniti per protesta al Bush Compound di Kennebunkport, stato del Maine.

24-25 Agosto 2007

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, ex-deputato della Georgia al Parlamento americano.

CINDY SHEEHAN, candidata della California al Parlamento americano.

JAMILLA EL-SHAFEI, Dipartimento di Pace di Kennebunk

ANN WRIGHT, ex-diplomatica USA, Colonnello delle Riserve dell’Esercito americano

DR. DAHLIA WASFI, di www.liberatethis.com

JOHN KAMINSKY, avvocato, promotore dell’impeachment, presidente della Associazione Legali per la Democrazia del Maine

GEORGE PAZ MARTIN

WEBSTER G. TARPLEY, scrittore

CRAIG HILL, candidato del Vermont al Parlamento USA (Green Party)

BRUCE MARSHALL, Partecipante, Philadelphia Platform

(traduzione: www.luogocomune.net)

°°°

Testo originale

THE KENNEBUNKPORT WARNING

To the American people, and to peace loving individuals everywhere:

Massive evidence has come to our attention which shows that the backers, controllers, and allies of Vice President Dick Cheney are determined to orchestrate and manufacture a new 9/11 terror incident, and/or a new Gulf of Tonkin war provocation over the coming weeks and months.

Such events would be used by the Bush administration as a pretext for launching an aggressive war against Iran, quite possibly with nuclear weapons, and for imposing a regime of martial law here in the United States.

We call on the House of Representatives to proceed immediately to the impeachment of Cheney, as an urgent measure for avoiding a wider and more catastrophic war. Once impeachment has begun, it will be easier for loyal and patriotic military officers to refuse illegal orders coming from the Cheney faction.

We solemnly warn the people of the world that any terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction taking place inside the United States or elsewhere in the immediate future must be considered the prima facie responsibility of the Cheney faction. We urge responsible political leaders everywhere to begin at once to inoculate the public opinion of their countries against such a threatened false flag terror operation.

(Signed) A Group of US Opposition Political Leaders Gathered in Protest at the Bush Compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, August 24-25, 2007

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, FORMER US CONGRESSWOMAN, GEORGIA

CINDY SHEEHAN, CANDIDATE FOR US CONGRESS, CALIFORNIA

JAMILLA EL-SHAFEI, KENNEBUNK PEACE DEPARTMENT

ANN WRIGHT, COLONEL US ARMY RESERVE, FORMER US DIPLOMAT

DR. DAHLIA WASFI, www.LIBERATETHIS.COM

JOHN KAMINSKY, LAWYER, IMPEACHMENT ACTIVIST, PRESIDENT, MAINE LAWYERS FOR DEMOCRACY

GEORGE PAZ MARTIN

WEBSTER G. TARPLEY, AUTHOR

CRAIG HILL, CANDIDATE FOR US CONGRESS, VERMONT GREEN PARTY

BRUCE MARSHALL, CONVENOR, PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM