America Right Or Wrong: An Anatomy Of American Nationalism

"On the Middle East, both of the American parties are, frankly, crippled above all by their inability to confront the question of America's relationship with Israel. Indeed not just to confront it, but even to mention it, as we saw in the presidential debate." - Anatol Lieven see Interview with AsiaSource. Mr Lieven addresses the urgent foreign policy issues confronting the United States

American lives have been lost for this shit: Israel 'To Build More Than 6,000 West Bank Homes' (and we will lose more American lives because of this extremist agenda)
Israel planinng more than 6,000 new homes in West Bank

"The Israeli government is planning to build more than 6,000 new homes in the West Bank this year, and to legitimize some 120 illegal outposts, the Yediot Ahronot daily reported Friday, citing the Israel Land Administration's 2005 working plan." -AP

Note that the AP takes the Israeli viewpoint! The fact that Israel's actions are illegal is not reported. You may argue that the news doesn't report on whether something is illegal or not. But this is not the case! Look at the story, it mentions "120 illegal outpost." The article says "illegal" but "illegal" according to who? Illegal according to the Israeli government which likes to determine what settlements can be set up in the West Bank and those not authorized by the Israeli government are "illegal" according to Israel. But the fact is ALL the settlements are illegal according to International Law, regardless of if Israel "legitimizes" them or not. The AP article omits this fact and distorts what is legal and illegal. The AP article is written conforming to an Israeli government agenda. The settlements are illegal regardless of what the Israeli government says.

does the President support efforts to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount?

White House Press Briefing with Scott McClellan
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 12:15 PM
Mokhiber: Scott, on the Middle East - many evangelical Christians in the United States are supporting right-wing Jews in Israel who want to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They (Evangelical Christians) believe this is a prerequisite for Christ's return to earth.

They believe that when Christ returns to earth - they call this the rapture - he will take back with him the true believers. And the rest - the non believers - Jews, Muslims - will be left behind to face a violent death here on earth.

My question is, as a born again Christian, does the President support efforts to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount?

Scott McLellan: Russ, we can sit here and talk about religious issues. I will be glad to take your question, and if there is more, I will get back to you on that.

Mokhiber: Is he a born again Christian?

Scott McLellan: Thank you. (McLellan abruptly ends the press briefing and walks out.)
http://www.commondreams.org/scottie/120604.htm

You wrote, "I respectfully disagree with you based on historical precedent and common sense. Whenever anyone has ever capitulated to terrorist demands, the terrorist demands *increase*."

WHAT "historical precedent"?!? The facts of history prove that when legitimate grievances are addressed that the terrorist violence stops. Look at South Africa. THe US called Mendela and his group terrorists.

The bottom line is that wrongs must be stopped. Two wrongs don't make a right. What the terrorists did on 9/11 was wrong but that doesn't make what the US has been doing right!!

Terrorists like Nat Turner attacked and killed whites, that didn't make slavery OK. Can you get that? And ending slavery DID end that terrorism.

the bottom line is you are trying to shield specific foreign policies form being debated and changed.

Our lives are not only on the line, the ugly fact is our lives are on the line for horrible and unjust and immoral policies. That really makes it doubly horrifically sad. Stop trying to dupe the victims and targets of terrorism into risking their lives further over policies that are wrong.

What you are doing is devious and wrong. We Americans do not deserve to be treated the way you are treating us. http://www.representativepress.org/whylie.html

Z Magazine

If you are interested in examples of censorship regarding Israel, the following books are recommended. See this page:
Killed, Censored 2005, Tell Me Lies

You wrote, " NO.. I want to save my own money. I want out of the system. I will take responsibility for my own future, thank you.
Why can't I have it? And why should my taxes go up to fund it? Screw everyone, it is my money and I want to do with it what I want, whether bonds or stocks or widget futures. Cut me off now. They did it in a town in Texas and it works. They did it in Chile and it works. Now do it here. "

look you selfish creep, we have a society and we intend on having a decent and just society. We are not going to dismantle society because you are greedy (one of the seven deadly sins but that is forgotten by many.). Seems many of the loudest mouths talking about "morals" have a "screw everyone" attitude. Truly disgusting and anti-social. You have problems.

The bottom line is a human society should consist of people participating decently and morally. As a good people we want a fair society that isn't callous and shitty. "Screw everyone" is an extremely ugly attitude.
"They did it in Chile and it works." What the hell is wrong with you?

BUSINESS/FINANCIAL DESK | January 27, 2005, Thursday

Chile's Retirees Find Shortfall In Private Plan

By LARRY ROHTER (NYT) 2142 words
Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 1 , Column 2

"Chileans find that pension privatization plan launched 25 years ago, which Pres Bush has cited as model for his plans to overhaul Social Security, is falling far short of what was originally advertised under authoritarian government of Gen Augusto Pinochet; under program, millions of people have been paying 10 percent of their salaries to private investment accounts that they control; many lower-paid workers' contributions were not large enough to ensure even minimum pension of $140 a month; others--those working in underground economy, self-employed or working only seasonally--remain outside system altogether; even middle-class workers who contributed regularly are finding that their private accounts--burdened with hidden fees that may have soaked up as much as third of their original investment--are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received under old system; government continues to direct billions of dollars to safety net for those whose pensions are below minimum" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A13FC3C5F0C748EDDA80894DD404482

It is only our "democracy"

Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies by uscountvotes.org
February 01, 2005

http://www.uscountvotes.org

Press Release:

Monday, January 31, 2005

Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of U.S. Presidential Election Results


President Bush won November's election by 2.5% yet exit polls showed Kerry leading by 3%. Which was correct?


"There are statistical indications that a systematic, nationwide shift of 5.5% of the vote may have occurred, and that we'll never get to the bottom of this, unless we gather the data we need for mathematical analysis and open, robust scientific debate.", says Bruce O'Dell, USCountVotes' Vice President.


The study, "Response to Edison/Mitofsky Election System 2004 Report," was co-authored by a diverse group of professors and academicians specializing in statistics and mathematics affiliated with University of Notre Dame, Unversity of Pennsylvania, University of Utah, Cornell University, University of Wisconsin, Southern Methodist University, Case Western Reserve University and Temple University. Their study does not support claims made by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International that exit poll errors were to blame for the unprecedented 5.5% discrepancy between exit polls and official 2004 election results.


According to this analysis by a group of senior statisticians, the new data just released by the exit-pollsters shows that the possibility that the overall vote count was substantially corrupted must be taken seriously. "Now we have statistical evidence that these reports were the tip of a national iceberg. The hypothesis that the discrepancy between the exit polls and election results is due to errors in the official election tally is a coherent theory that must be explored," said statistician Josh Mitteldorf.


Their paper titled "Response to Edison/Mitofsky Election System 2004 Report" notes that the Edison/Mitofsky report offers no evidence to support their conclusion that Kerry voters "participated in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters". In fact, the data provided in the Edison/Mitofsky report suggests that the opposite may have been true: Bush strongholds had slightly higher response rates than Kerry strongholds.


The statisticians go on to note that precincts with hand-counted paper ballots showed no statistical discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results, but for other voting technologies, the overall discrepancy was far larger than the polls' margin of error. The pollsters at Edison/Mitofsky agreed that their 2004 exit polls, for


whatever reason, had the poorest accuracy in at least twenty years.


USCountVotes, a nonprofit, non-partisan Utah corporation was founded in December 2004. Its mission is to create and analyze a database containing precinct-level election results for the entire United States; to do a thorough mathematical analysis of the 2004 election results; and to fully investigate the 2004 Presidential election results.


USCountVotes actively seeks volunteers and accepts donations to help make this unprecedented civic project a reality – visit uscountvotes.org