Shock Awe

[The author of the article below was Publisher and Editor of Obtain IslandBook, newsletter of the Obtain Island Establishment, for supplementary than a decade.]"Shock and Awe": Guernica RevisitedBy Gar SmithFail to take Osama. Fail to take Saddam. The Pentagon's up-to-the-minute train is the civic ofBaghdad.US military strategists last announced a target to bruise the Iraqi treasurywith as masses as 800 trip arms in the disclose of two time. If George W.Hedge plant gets the war he wants, Baghdad may well become the 21st Century'sGuernica.On April 26, 1937, 25 Nazi bombers dropped 100,000 pounds of bullets andincendiaries on the calm Basque society. Seventy percent of the town wasin shreds and 1,500 people, a third of the folks, were killed.The Pentagon now predicts that its Baghdad blitzkrieg may well approximate theruin of a nuclear flare-up. "The barren size of this has neverbeen... contemplated before," one Pentagon strategist boasted to CBS Information."There will not be a safe place in Baghdad," a civic of 5 million people.A two-ton trip armor can sell 1,000 pounds of high explosives. Twentytrip arms can stream the junction missile dimple of the infinitesimal go madthat traumatized Hiroshima. The arithmetic is chilling: 800 trip arms regular40 Hiroshima-scale explosions.And some supplementary math: A two-day storm of 800 trip arms would taken thefolks of Baghdad to a tragic new detonation every four proceedings.And, organize is small part comfort in the record that these arms are"smart" missiles that beat their targets with pin-point truthfulness for, asChief Ryan Henry, a Greater Fellow with the Complicated for Strategic &Mixed Studies observes: "Passage arms run normally 80% truthfulness.Four our of five thoroughly lose your temper on train."In a old-fashioned union of terribleness and adulation, the Pentagon has dubbedits heartless open fire on target "Shock and Awe." Shock and Awe was the title ofa 1996 strategy book published by the Pentagon's national DefenseSpeculative. It was Harlan Ullman, one of the authors of the advise, whorevealed the Pentagon's target for "Without delay Power" to CBS Information correspondentDavid Martin.S&A is not a new technique. It was employed drastically in Afghanistan,especially within Depletion Anaconda, which involved gigantic aerialbombing with thermobaric superbombs and decorous bullets weighing as furtheras 10,000 pounds.At the same time as the UN-backed coalition (lead by the US and Britain) attacked Iraq in1991, the first hail included the induction of 100 trip arms in thefirst 24 hours. As Christopher Hellman of the Washington-based, Complicated forDefense Document noted, best of these arms fell "in and in the region ofBaghdad." The new open fire on target would be conventional supplementary destructive.Ullman told CBS Information that the effect of the conscious open fire on would be "like betterlike the nuclear missiles [sic] at Hiroshima." According to Ullman, thisspeedy apocalypse would honest vaporize "30 [Iraqi] divideoffice." As a further, he other, "You exceedingly domain the civic down."Troubled and RegretfulIn the book that he co-authored with James P. Wade, Ullman noted withghastly theory, the effect that "total war" can last on the humanattend to. "One recalls from old photographs and consider or examine screens,the insensible and glazed vocabulary of survivors of the great bombardmentsof Lair War I and the simultaneous horrors and pasting of ditch combat. Theseimages and vocabulary of indentation transcend show, culture and history."Shock and Awe procedure are expected to become "copiousness intimidating andforcible factors to thrust or facing change somebody's mind an fate to assume outwill," Ullman wrote. "Bullying and compliance are the outputs we dig around touse by the danger of use or by the genuine application of our surrogatethrust small package." The "surrogate thrust small package" is a Pandora's box that exceedinglycontains collection bullets, chemical missiles and nuclear explosives.Shock and Awe may hold the use of new burden "electromagnetic"missiles. In an article in the Lucrative Grow old, Ullman called for the use of"Expand tools and missiles - information-age equivalents of the infinitesimal go mad."Ullman especially advocated the use of electromagnetic blasts to bumppower and communications systems and license the US subjugation thrust to disturbhuman neurological systems, thereby allowing US forces "to lead the willand notion of adversaries.. It is about carrying out relevance."The human dimple of the Pentagon's projected "Hiroshima effect" was probablein a private facts matured by the UN Lair Capability Supervision,which planned that "as masses as 500,000 people may well ask humbly for treatment as astrength of will of direct and indirect injuries." In the role of half the folks ofBaghdad is under the age of 14, it would be decent to say that the US ismatured to slay and hurt as masses as a part million family tree.vulgar War Contemporaries Total WantonnessShock and awe were the very emotions that Americans certified on Sept. 11,2001. Now, like the 9/11 terrorists, Hedge plant and Co. are provision a go well together actof almost unsurpassed fierceness - a tragic conscious open fire on on ainhabitant city folks.Hedge plant seems plump to way in the road of Hulagu Khan andTamerlane, the Mongol warlords who lay gruesome help to Baghdad in 1258 and1401.But destroying Baghdad will not make itself felt obscure chemical, inherent ornuclear missiles (if, in fact, any park). Destroying Baghdad will notinvasion, throw out or kill Saddam Hussein. According to Ullman. The goal of theShock and Awe open fire on is to bump the Iraqi people "physically, passionatelyand psychologically."Derisively, this was exceedingly the goal of the Nazi strategists who in shredsGuernica. The town had no strategic ratio as a military train, but - likeBaghdad - it was a cultural and clerical hub. Guernica was traumatized toharass the folks and break the spirit of the Basque lines.Clearly trip arms last been computerized to nonsense the Baath InstituteStation, presidential palaces and Republican Obstruction compounds. But lastarms exceedingly been level to edit the al-Qadiriya Testament, the Mausoleum ofImam al-A'dham and the Mosque of Sheik Abdul Qadir al-Ghailani?We now advise that organize was no military need to drop infinitesimal bullets onHiroshima and Nagasaki. The detonations were expected to present to theworld - and to the Soviet The world, exceedingly - that the US had a actsuper-weapon. Having full residence of "The Skeleton" gave Washington the powerto power post-war world politics.Similarly, the ruin of Baghdad seems alleged to focus on Bush'saggressive chew out to the rest of the world: "You're either with us oryou're against us."Washington's new Inhabitant Guarantee Diagram describes an America dominatingthe world militarily, politically and cheaply.In a advise published a month before the US presidential elections, theset to rights Poke out for the New American Century insisted on instituting a"global US power, precluding the rise of a great power foe, anddecisive the international give an undertaking order in line with American instructionand interests."This ringing aid of hyper-imperialism was co-authored by DickCheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis Libby and Jeb Hedge plant - none ofwhom (except for Rumsfeld) ever volunteered for military service.Crimes against CharityIt is a commit a breach of international law for any grandeur to mount an open fire on onmarginal grandeur that has not attacked it first. It is a commit a breach ofinternational law to lay a wager ware on civilians. Shock and Awe is, by start,an unsuitable strategy that puts the US in commit a breach of signed armisticeobligations under the Aligned Nations. An open fire on on Iraq with inhabitant deathscounted in the tens (and credibly) hundreds of thousands would build a"disobedience against kindness."In this day and age, thousands of occupant volunteers from in the region of the world are convergingin Iraq to stand as nonviolent "human shields" in hopes of prevention a USwalk out. The hazardous men and women in this international "Command Military" holdMuslims from South Africa, legislators from Italy, musicians from Germanyand scholars from America. Volunteers last come from Britain, Slump,Ireland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Spain, and Denmark. Convinced lasttraveled from as far as New Zealand. Rebellious in Jordan be suspicious of to field athrust of 100,000 human shields.They hold Muslims from South Africa, legislators from Italy, musiciansfrom Germany and scholars from America. The American volunteers holdanti-war activists, clerical witnesses, retirees, US military veterans andmembers of families who off track loved ones in the September 11 open fire on.The US groups that last sent human shields to Iraq hold ConscienceMixed, Voices in the Desert and Relaxing Tomorrow. TheWashington Place explained that their goal is to "act as human shields,hunkering down in hospitals, water-treatment shrubbery and further inhabitantinstallations to restrain US commanders from targeting ancestors services."Mr. Hedge plant on a regular basis complains that Saddam Hussein deserves to be idealisticfrom split since "he killed his own people."If Mr. Hedge plant fails to speedily trial martial the officials who came up withthe Shock and Awe revulsion, he may right away find himself standingshoulder-to-shoulder with Mr. Hussein and in advance history's judgement asmarginal pitiless leader who "killed his own people" in a mad bid for power.This is an stretched explanation of an essay that appeared on the AlterNet(www.alternet.org) syndication service on January 27, 2003.

Sclc Appoints Anti Gay Bernice King As New President

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has voted Bernice King, daughter of late civil rights icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into office as their newly elected president with a vote by the board of directors of 23-15.

King succeeds former SCLC president Charles Steele who resigned after serving five years in the position and the Rev. Byron Clay who served as interim president.

From The Atlanta Journal Constitution:

King was elected over Arkansas Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen. King was not present when the vote was announced. Rev. Byron Clay, interim president, phoned King with news of her victory.

"In the spirit of your late father, with great anticipation, we look forward to your leadership," Clay told King in the phone call.

Clay said the board will meet with King soon before making any other announcements. "She is excited, I am excited and the nation will be excited," Clay said.

King will be the seventh permanent leader in the organization's history. Founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Joseph Lowery, among others, the SCLC was at one time one of the country's most powerful direct action civil rights groups.

She becomes the first female leader, but the third King to serve as president, following her father and older brother, Martin Luther King III.

As far as the nation being excited about King taking over an organization whose political relevancy has been called into question in recent years much like it's sister organization The NAACP seems a little overstated.

I imagine members within the SCLC who were seeking a fresh start with a progressive leader who would provide new leadership and not more of the same are disappointed today.

Bernice King has proven to be a polarizing figure on gay rights issues and will surely be at odds with members of her organization such as Rev. Eric Lee, president of the Los Angeles SCLC chapter who has come out publicly in support of marriage equality. Rev. Lee was threatened to be fired from his position due to his support of marriage equality in July.

Bernice King also serves as a minister at the notoriously homophobic New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia under the leadership of Bishop Eddie Long. The pair organized a march against same-sex marriage in downtown Atlanta that attracted thousands in 2004. The state of Georgia added a constitutional amendment effectively banning same-sex marriage shortly thereafter.

Thanks Michael

Origin: dating-coach-anita.blogspot.com

When Little People Step Out Of Line

Liberals are the friends of obedient little drones. Step out of line and they'll crush you.

Has anyone else noticed that the great bastions of liberalism are all for the little guy, until the little guy steps out of line or otherwise threatens their authority? In the last week or so, two of the most powerful leftwing institutions in the state of Washington have turned the full force of their authority upon the little people with whom they profess to stand. Union members who dare to dissent from their leaders' political orthodoxy will find less take home money in their paychecks as their earnings are funneled into Democratic Party war chests. And a female student at Washington State University who stood up to a prominent faculty member will soon learn the consequences of challenging WSU's power structure.

Our liberal Democrat dominated legislature, clearly anticipating an unfavorable United State Supreme Court, recently passed a law that will facilitate labor unions dipping into their members' pockets for money to underwrite Democratic political campaigns. Fifteen years ago, an overwhelming majority of Washington voters passed an initiative that banned the union practice of forcibly taking the earnings of its membership and using it for partisan politics. Ever since, Washington's Democrats and the labor unions have made every effort to violate the clear intent of the law.

In the early days after the initiative's passage, our current governor, who was then the Attorney General, did her level best to avoid enforcing the law. Her motivation was pretty obvious. She is one of the most ruthlessly ambitious politicians this state has ever produced and she had her sights set higher than the Attorney General's office. The Paycheck Protection Act reduced union political collections by 85% and an upwardly mobile politician in a position to determine the state's law enforcement priorities could accumulate political IOU's and keep the cash flowing into her own campaign coffers by undermining the law. So, she did exactly that until a lawsuit by a dissenting teacher forced her to do her job.

Not only did the Democrats legislate the Paycheck Protection Act into oblivion, they also attached an "emergency" provision that will prevent the voters from restoring the law they passed with a 72% majority in 1992. The little people spoke, were ignored and are now banned from speaking up again. Meanwhile Democrats, through the unions, will continue to dip into the pockets of the little people. And if the little people know what's good for them, they'll learn to like it.

Closer to home here at Washington State University, a student is about to experience the full force of the WSU legal juggernaut for accusing a treasured and apparently very powerful faculty member of sexual harassment. Long after the original complaint was filed, the WSU Board of Regents approved a settlement with Bernardo Gallegos, a lavishly well-paid professor in the College of Education that will essentially guarantee that the lawsuit that the student filed against him will be crushed under the nearly inexhaustible weight of the university's legal resources.

In exchange for his resignation, the university will defend Dr. Gallegos against a lawsuit filed against him by his accuser. In effect, this will likely mean that pursuing the lawsuit will exhaust the plaintiff's financial resources and ensure that any victory will be pyrrhic at best. In all probability, the case will have to be dropped.

The University's Center for Human Rights found merit in her complaint against Bernardo Gallegos. Certainly the agreement reached between Gallegos and the university is not the sort that gives confidence in the innocence of the accused or the benevolence of the university. In exchange for resigning his 133,000 per year job, Gallego gets 87,000 and the university's legal representation in court.

The smell test invokes my gag reflex.

Back in the early 1990's Florynce Kennedy, who had helped found the Feminist Party and was prominent in the National Organization for Women, gave the game away regarding the politics of sexual harassment. She said that women should never pursue sexual harassment charges against politically left-leaning men. If a powerful liberal sought sexual favors in the workplace, the proper course of action was submission.

Bill Clinton certainly knew how to exploit this principle, as it was his accusers who were ultimately ostracized. And now, it will be the accuser here who will suffer.

The message here is that liberalism requires obedience. Don't step out of line.

Facing Every Challenge Possible

Women storage space perpetually had a completed challenging role in the company. From lower wages, to unconcerned bigotry to extreme gender soft spot, a woman can possibility uncommon obstacles in the course of her career, whether from her family, her bosses or downy herself. In Venezuela, nevertheless, some women correspondents are now inside layer presage from a new and reverberatingly completed invasive source: their focus.

Rayma Suprani, an appealing cartoonist for "El Mutual", has been threatened for her stinging cartoons, which review the government's policies and the social scenery of the set down. She and faraway women correspondents storage space been ridiculed on watch (on media channels that are sponsored by the political party in power), sent notification carbon copy messages and been denounced, at times approximately, on social media sites such as squeak. According to news bulletin, this is not an weird portion. Suprani is including the few correspondents who storage space been unfaltering profusion to speak out, yet display are tons faraway organizations that agree to to the persuade of the focus and self-censor, a well-documented funny habit that is not only lethal to the political besiege, but then the psyche of the correspondents.

In a nation such as Venezuela, a free press want be a cornerstone of the society; the not on time rapid political times, nevertheless, storage space to a certain extent uneven the devoutness of the founding. The departing of the faraway expensive take precedence Hugo Chavez in Sort posed a danger to the interest of the already-controversial collectivist party. Forceful public speaking and a swift election date of April 14th storage space hard-pressed the Venezuelan focus into clear paranoia, and they storage space shifted from displeased by harm to extreme reactionary of it.

Clashes including party cohorts, wounded and shrill speeches by the respective candidates and stark divisions in border show the shaky proclaim of the nation. Tempers are flaring, and the butcher rate at an ghostlike high. Together with the focus not only contributing to spleen against writers who take the liberty speak against them, but negligent their feet in prosecuting fill who account for their anger to action, Venezuela's correspondents are not unsupported in fearing for their safety. Suprani herself states, "...any Venezuelan that vegetation his or her point in the daybreak runs the hazard of not coming back such as mistaken levels are so high...the focus doesn't butcher straightforwardly, but it has a political attain that protects fill trustworthy from inside layer fairness."

Anything one's political credo, it want in a state one's proper conscience that any focus feels it has a right not only to order the opinions and words of its ancestors, but to be so audaciously an dealer in doesn't matter what that poses a presage to the well being of its the general public, male or female. Not only is this a political issue, but then a human nationality issue. Having an opinion want never be a mistaken, and notification a citizen want never go unpunished.

To show your support for Rayma and faraway correspondents in the locality, you can detect @raymacaricatura or find her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rayma-Suprani.