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Dr. J.'s Short Takes: Murdoch Changes; Palin on Africa; Obama and Afghanistan

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 3:57pm.
Straws in the Wind: Murdoch

If your neck got turned around watching "Fox and Friends" on the Fox "News" Channel almost immediately following the Obama victory, you are likely not alone. I can't say that they did a 180-degree turn, but they went at least 90 degrees, at least in what I saw. No more Ayers/Rezko/Wright 24/7. All of a sudden they were doing three things. The President-elect was being treated with a modicum of respect. They were back to spending lots of time on "schoolgirl gets dumped from school bus two miles from home" stories. The "anti-Democrat Party" red meat that they regularly feed their loyal listeners (such as the soon-to-be-former Vice President) came in smaller amounts and was hardly so red anymore.

Why, one might ask? Since, in the New York City area at least, there was a similar change in tone at the F "N" C's sister organ, the New York Post, it is fair to surmise that the hand of the uber-owner of both, Rupert Murdoch, was reaching down the chain of command. Murdoch knows the political climate has changed in Washington, possibly for some time to come. For a variety of reasons (primarily related to his hopes for the reinvigoration of American capitalism that could come only with the election of Barack Obama, not with John McCain), he would like to be on good terms with the new administration. And hey, if Mr. Murdoch can be on friendly terms with real Communists (or at least people who call themselves Communists) in China, how can he not get round to being on good terms with good capitalists (even if some of his minions label them as reds -- they're not) right here in the US of A.

Palin on Africa

So as far as we know, Gov. Palin really didn't know that Africa is a continent, not a country, and she really couldn't name off the top of her head the three countries that are parties to NAFTA. Her denials about the leaked reports of her intellectual inadequacies were made in general, not specific terms. Isn't just awful that the Republican candidate for the vice presidency has such an abysmal level of general knowledge, especially when it comes to geography? (At least she knew the big country on the other side of the Bering Strait -- you can't actually see the mainland -- is Russia.) But let's stop for a moment to reflect that one candidate for the Republican nomination, Gov. Mike Huckabee, couldn't exactly place Afghanistan, and that the Republican Presidential candidate for the presidency at one time said that Iraq and Afghanistan bordered on each other. So let's not be too hard on Palin. Her past running mate and a possible future one don't do too well on geography either. Perhaps that's just a modern Republican-candidate trait.

Obama and Afghanistan

We hear things are getting worse and worse in Afghanistan. A recent National Intelligence Estimate (AP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 9, 2008) concluded that it is heading for a "downward spiral." During the presidential campaign, President-elect Obama said on numerous occasions that he would "send more troops" to Afghanistan and would "do something about Pakistan." Whether this was real, well thought-out policy or more of a cojones show for the crowd and the Republican Scream Machine we don't know. However, we do know that one of Obama's principal foreign policy advisors is Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, a foreign policy anti-Soviet hard-liner who was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor.

The Afghan/Soviet battle of the 1980s was not "Charlie Wilson's War" from the outset although it became that later, under Reagan, a convenient way to make sure that there was no apparent link between the Reaganite policy and Carter's (which were actually the same). In 1978, a communist-led coup had overthrown the Afghan monarchy. Soviet assistance to native, especially anti-British, forces in the country dated back to the early days of the USSR. Thus they moved quickly to support the new government, but there was significant resistance to it in various parts of the country. By 1979, the Afghan government was requesting Soviet military aid, in progressively larger amounts. U.S. support for the anti-Soviet resistance began during this time. It was recommended to President Carter by none other than Dr. Brzezinski, who correctly predicted that if the resistance were maintained, Afghanistan would eventually become the "Soviet Union's Viet Nam." That it did was a major factor in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

One wonders what Dr. Brzezinski is advising Pres.-elect Obama to do about Afghanistan. Let's hope that it is not to do what the Senator said he would do, during the campaign. Otherwise, sure as shootin', Afghanistan will become Obama's Iraq. Within the past month, the Taliban have proposed peace talks with the NATO forces currently fighting in their country. They offered up front, as part of a deal, to cut their ties to al-Qaeda. To be effective, such an agreement would have to enforceable, but that could likely be worked out. Such an agreement would surely make it much easier to come to an agreement with Pakistan for how to go about stabilizing their Northwest Frontier. The President-elect will have to move in this direction just as soon as he firms up an agreement with the Iraqis for the complete withdrawal of American forces in that country. If he does not, and falls into the former "Brzezinski Trap" in Afghanistan just as the Soviet Union did, the irony of such a happening would be the least of its long-term negative outcomes.

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and a www.TPJmagazine.us Contributing Author; a regular Columnist for BuzzFlash; a Special Contributing Editor for Cyrano's Journal Online; a Contributing Columnist for the Project for the Old American Century, POAC; and a Featured Writer for Dandelion Salad http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/.
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F'N'C may be lightening up... NOT Hannity!

Submitted by vvvc1 on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 9:42am.
F'N'C's "Fox & Friends" show may have become a tad more respectful & accomodating of the Obama campaign/transition team this past week... but over on Murdoch's junkyard attack-dog Sean InSanity (Hannity) show, there is NO such respect. Hannity starts his show with an audio loop of Rev. Wright's ill advised "NO, GOD DAMNED AMERICA!" comment - and Hannity just keeps pounding, pounding, pounding the theme that "OBAMA PALS AROUND WITH TERRORISTS!" from there.

NO CONTEXT is given from the vile, cowardly Hannity or any other Right-Wing hate merchants. For example, in the movie "Braveheart", white audiences cheer as rebel Scots and Irish fighters oppose the ruthless English overlords. In one scene, the British commander cuts the throat of "Braveheart's" girl friend. Audiences cheer as Gibson's character and fighters overwhelm the English garrison and wreak revenge, cutting the throat of the English commander in turn. But here in America, no such sentiment is allowed for Blacks who faced a century of similar (if not worse) oppression, ironically at the hands of descendents of those very Scots & Irish warriors who so objected to being treated as chattel and serfs (defacto slaves) by the English armies for over 300 years.

Technically, Rev. Wright was correct - during the Civil War, the most popular song sung by Union fighting soldiers, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" held the refrain, "He [God] is trampling out the vintage where the GRAPES OF WRATH are stored" - "GRAPES OF WRATH" as in divine wrath, vengeance, retribution, DAMNATION! for the sins (of slavery) that brought America to that war. IF one believes in divine guidance for America, then "He" indeed DAMNED America with the bloodshed and tremendous loss of life from that great war during those terrible years.

Also, both Democrats and Righty/Republicans fail to remember, that Rev. Wright was driven to his misbegotten "No, God DAMNED America!" comment by the clear and obvious RACE-BAITING of the Hillary Clinton for president campaign in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Up till then, Senator Obama had had NO problem winning over WHITE, RURAL, working-class VOTERS, in IOWA, in NEW HAMPSHIRE, and in other states. (Obama won a majority in Iowa, and came in a close second in NH.) But the Hillary campaign came up with the LYING theme that White voters would be terrified of an Obama campaign - a predication the Hillary camp then TRIED TO MAKE REAL by EVERY MEANS POSSIBLE in Ohio, PA, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Since the Clintons (both Bill & Hillary) would never have won a single election without massive support from Black voters, Rev. Wright had every right to be OUTRAGED, and thus his inner angst drove him to make that ill advised "No, God DAMNED America!" sermon.

More CONTEXT that the Right-Wing hate merchants FAIL to give...is that Rev. Wright has SERVED A FULL TOUR of HONORABLE DUTY as a US MARINE, and that he had personally endured and survived the SEGREGATION ERA in America... a time when Wright and thousands of Blacks like him could have been JAILED, beaten, or worse for DRINKING FROM A "Whites Only" water fountain. There is not a white person in America who would not remember with rage and resentment such oppression, but it is a sentiment today's Right-Wing haters will FORBID American Blacks to hold.

From what we have seen, it is THE ONLY TIME that Rev. Wright has made such an outrageous sermon - despite all of Rev. Wright's sermons being for sale on video, the Right-Wing media has NOT found more similar comments to pound down the throats of their rabid listeners.

There you have it. The Right-Wing media - most certainly including RUPERT MURDOCH's FOX 'news' channel - IS WHIPPING UP RIGHT-WING HATRED AND RESENTMENT in America, and will, in short order, BLAME THE BUSH-2 RECESSION on DEMOCRATS in general, and the BARACK OBAMA ADMINISTRATION in particular.

We already have the template for this: TIMMY McVEIGH BLEW UP the Oklahoma government building
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
in April of 1995, because after he was involuntarily discharged from the US Army (after meritorious service in Gulf War 1) three years earlier, he COULD NOT FIND A JOB in up-state New York. He could not find a job because of the BUSh-1 RECESSION, brought about by the 12 years, TWELVE YEARS of DEFICIT SPENDING, and, even worse, Reagan/BushSr./PHIL GRAMM et al "DEREGULATION" of the Reagan/Bush era, which DEREGULATION allowed well-connected INSIDERS to loot America's Savings & Loans -
http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Job-Looting-Americas-Savings/dp/0070502307
just as today, America's big banking executives are requesting taxpayer bailouts with one hand, while writing themselves multi-million dollar BONUSES with the other.

Today, during the Bush-2 Recession, the RIGHT-WING HATE RADIO _WILL BLAME_ the incoming Obama administration for the massive lies, fraud, and economic self-destruction of the Bush-Cheney administration.

With so much audio ammunition for Democrats to rebut Right-Wing radio - President Bush telling one audience of well-heeled Republicans in an early 2001 fundraising dinner "Some people call you the elite... I call you my base" to snickers, laughter, and applause - it is a shame that the Democrats have neither the radio/TV network, nor even the inclination, to PUT THE BLAME for this Bush-2 ECONOMIC CRISIS squarely where it belongs.
Sad to say, FAILURE to DEFLECT blame from themselves, to those who should bear the blame, could easily result in TRAGEDY in the coming months, the Right-Wing appetite for hate & destruction knows no bottom.
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Oops! As long-winded as my rant was, above, I forgot to mention - the TWO RIGHT-WING POLITICAL MURDERS _already_ THIS YEAR, one Right-Wing gunman walking in to the Arkansas state Democratic Party headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas... and shooting Party Chairman Bill Gwatney to death
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/13/arkansas.shooting/index.html
and in an even MORE HEINOUS murder, another deranged GUNMAN walked in to a Knoxville, Tenn. CHURCH one Sunday morning (in middle of a children's play!), and started shooting with a SHOTGUN - with the intention of killing _everyone_ in the church!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5463260&page=1
According to several sources, the Tennessee gunman - was a fan of HATE MERCHANTS Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Michael Weiner (Savage).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kim/right-wing-tn-church-shoo_b_115789.html

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