Most know Michael Jackson well enough to know he really wanted to help kids, paying for desperately needed medical care. This, whether or not he actually also did things that hurt children. If we knew others who were accused of pedophilia as well as we do Michael Jackson, we’d fine that many are similar to Michael. He thought of himself as a warm and loving human being, proud of giving real warmth and comfort to dying and desperate kids. Whether he actually did something wrong becomes problematic, because our society is switching to orientation as a value for right and wrong. So just finding a child stimulating (according to some people) is good reason for a person to stay away from a child.
Michael Jackson fought for the right to be near kids. Unlike Michael Jackson, most accused of being pedophiles, end up accepting the idea that they are a bad person. He managed to spread his belief that he is a good person to many of his friends and admirers. If someone defends another person without the thousands of other defenders as with Michael Jackson, they would often be accused of pedophilia themselves. I feel we have been going though something like the Joe McCarthy witchhunts, and the once hysteria against gays.
Perhaps I am wrong that support for Michel Jackson has something to do with a lot of people being tired of the pedophile witchhunts.
Had Michael been born 50 years earlier, he would not have to defend himself. Neverland would be a respectable shine for kids like Hershey Park, Pennsylvania, where adults and children alike enjoy the amusement park and candy tours and samples of Hershey’s historic and current candies.
Back 50 years ago, people didn’t care about sexual orientation. Certain very specific behavior was considered awful and disgusting and immoral, like anal and oral sex. Age made no difference. Back then, where Michael might have touched a sick child he was paying for the medical care for wouldn’t be important, but whether semen was touched or spread around or a greater horror back then, anything anal that might have touched human manure.
Straight sex was likewise considered dirty, but became clean somehow though the marriage vow.
There were some horror stories back then. At college, 35 years ago, there was a small student who looked like perhaps he never went through puberty. He was always clean and neatly dressed but had a weird chemical odor about him. He never used the shower room. It turned out in high-school he was forced to give a blow job to another boy in the bathroom at knife-point. Afterwords all the kids teased him as a little girl. He stopped going to high-school, but managed to get into college without finishing highschool. Today things can go in the opposite extreme. A young child after seeing a film warning of molestation, play acting slightly resembling rape or incest on an infant, ending up in reform school or hassled and monitored for many years if not his entire life.
The West thinks it is getting more and more sexually tolerant. But perhaps we are just finding new people to condemn and vilify. Once it was gays, now it’s pedophiles. Clearly if a little girl met a warm and loving sugar-daddy then suddenly feels intense pain between her legs, she would be traumatized by both the pain and the fact that somehow, she looked up to, was hurting her. But most of the traumatized kids face trauma that is caused by the trials, and seeing a friend or relative incarcerated. Some children feel guilty about opening their mouth, and getting a friend or relative in trouble adding to their pain. This feeling of guilt, the convicted person is also blamed for.
We have been going though 40 years of an ever increasing witchhunt. With what was done wrong can get extremely vague. In Scotland, one elementary school teacher accused a summer camp owner of being a pedophile because he always insisted in the camp photos that the boys had their shirts off. Many kids stopped attending camp. The camp went bankrupt. Somehow he got an automatic gun and shot up the classroom, killing the teacher and many of her students. But most of the time those accused of being pedophiles without committing anything specific that could be considered a crime, just learn to stay away from children, or end up punished by sometimes trumped up charges if they don’t.
,
In Philadelphia a woman with extreme mental problems gave her children away to a man who had been years earlier convicted, or processed for, an incident with a child. The city had an alert but it took over a week to find him. The arresting officer found two dirty, toy endowed kids, the man afraid to give them a bath. And the arresting officer insisted the man never did anything wrong to the kids, but he was arrested and jailed anyway from and old Camden bench warrant, on a minor unrelated matter that turned up.
Some dare to suggest that legalizing all consenting sex, regardless of age would be the solution. But Michael Jackson was denied a childhood just as surely as if he lived in India and was married at the age of seven. If everything was legal, many children would be denied a childhood. A child with an older lover would be afraid to make new friends because his lover would be jealous. There has been incidents in the past where an adult got extremely jealous of a child, who they thought was stealing the favors of a lover. There were incidents where a jealous person was a care-giver responsible for the child, and the child was made to feel miserable.
Today kids in the slums dream of being basketball stars or glamorous diamond studded drug dealers when they grow up. Or in India, due to the movie, Slum Lord Millionaire, India’s poor kids dream of being a movie star. If all sex was legal, a few of them, as children, could become wealthy sex gods and goddesses. But become failures in life as soon as they grow up.
I don’t have a solution. We can’t go back to the old values but the so-called new values don’t add up.
One thing that is clearly not a solution is Megan’s Law. Megan’s laws were started when Megan Kanka was murdered. In the house next door lived three convicted pedophiles. The neighborhood boys used to throw rocks at them. One of them Jesse Timmendequas was a total milk toast who agreed with everything anyone ever told him to. And confessed to the crime because the police told him to.
Maureen Kanka insisted that no one told them that three pedophiles lived in the neighborhood which, (according to the Courier Post) the neighbors were suspicious of. Timmendequas’ lawyer said one of Jesse Timmendequas’ two roommates might have committed the murders. Maureen Kanka ran the courtroom and ordered the cameras out. The judge complying with her every demand. The mother was never accused of being involved. However ever since Megan’s death, parents who are too loud in complaining become the pace of the investigation, or the trial become suspects themselves, even going back before Megan’s death to the Charles Lindbergh child’s murder two generations ago.
According to Wikipedia, and it seems to me doctored evidence, Jesse Timmendequas was bitten by Megan on his hand. But if so his lawyer’s attempts to implicate his roommates instead made little sense and most of the other attempts at proof wouldn’t have been necessary, if he had a child’s bite on his hand, he would have been arrested right away hand instead of the police searching his house twice before arresting him. It seems to me someone is messing with the historic record. Had Timmendequas actually had a child’s bite on his hand, e-rays of his teeth and pictures of the bite marks would have been part of the official record.
In hindsight both before Megan’s death and afterwords, parents are often a primary suspect. It reminds me of the Timothy McVeigh Federal Building bombing. On fleeting conspiracy theory, with McVeigh that one of the conspirators discovered that they were watched and quickly drove a bomb down during the day instead of the original plan at night. The only real evidence is the police have been catching plots early ever since rather than trying to catch people in the act. I wish someone would retrieve the old motor vehicle record’s information to check if Timmndoequas owed a truck I don’t remember this in the original trial. On another mater, the Tylenol Tampering incidents (containing cyanide), which I believe that the Philippine Dictator Marcos was involved in, I purchased the expensive Historic Newspaper Archives issue of the NY Times, 10-7-82, that had an article on William Pascual that differed from the on-line version, and the University of Penn., Daily Pennsylvanian article, only to be reminded that newspapers sometimes have more than one version of an article on the same day. So rather than ask that anyone prove that articles on Megan Kanka were tampered with I ask everyone to wonder why pictures of Timmendequas’s hand with Megan’s teeth marks was not part of the trial.
Thanks to the precedent started by Megan’s Law, Guantanamo Prison might not be closed down and Obama’s desperately needed efforts to befriend the Muslims and prevent currency collapse might not work.
We rightly get upset that vigilantes in Somalia were trying to create their own vigilantes justice by calling to the execution of a school teacher for allowing a child to name his teddy bear the name of a Prophet. But we in the west, in our own way, are trying to hold on to social order by adopting, not just vigilantes demanding, Megan Laws.
Michael Jackson has given the west an opportunity to try to figure out how to end, a 40-year witchhunt with ever expanding interpretation of subtler and subtler versions of child abuse. Perhaps we can find a way of ending this witchhunt without children being intertwined in the adult dating networks.
By Richard Kane
http://RamblingsFromTheHornetsNest.blogspot.com http://RICHARDKANEpa.blogspot.com
+ Read more
July 8, 2009
This is Richard Kane again
My philosophizing and that other others, is partly based of experience. Back in 1973 when I moved to Philadelphia, a new casual acquaintance asked me to give him a blow job I refused because giving blow jobs was considered wrong back then. In hindsight he was possibly under 18.
In 1980 at a news stand where I worked, for several days a very friendly young teen hung around the stand. Then three of his younger friends came around cupping their hands going back and forth from their pants like they were beating off. The friendly kid exclaimed to them “You ruined everything”. I continued to help him several times but from then on only a little.
In 1982, there was a homeless beggar who lived on the street with her kids. A young friend of hers asked to sleep on the floor of my apartment. The pedophile hysteria was too great for me to say yes. I suggested to her the next day that I go to the authorities for help but she warned me that this wasn’t what he wanted and would only run away again. At one point in my life I felt my attitude toward just puberlesing teenage boys was wrong and felt that if I worked with them I might convey the wrong attitude for them to have. At another point I felt a longing to help homeless Brazilian street kids.
I have a friend whose then girlfriend’s daughter used to get undressed in front of him hoping to entice him. He told me, he only found big breasted women attractive. I don’t know what year this all happened in maybe it was before the 70's when the witchhunt started but there was no hint of fear of getting in trouble back then when he was lamenting on his early life. My experiences might have been one-sided but I’m sure not all incidents involve adults pushing kids into an encounter.
I know of one lady who as a child was badly scared by a care giver jealous of her because the adult thought her husband was attracted to the child and I indirectly know of and read about other horror stories. One stated as “that little slut stole my man”. The abuse hurled at a child by a jealous care giver can be terrifying and be overwhelming. I have an urge to ask for the passing of laws controlling adults who are jealous of a child, but realize that this would be about as effective as anti-abortion laws. To a certain extent allowing a jealous adult to call for and obtain punishment on the adult in a relationship with a child, probably cuts down on the jealous rage a child might receive, so to a certain extent the current witchhunt against pedophiles prevents some kids from being badly hurt by jealous adults. But again, we don’t need to change our justice system toward Megan’s Law type laws and other permanent punishment toward certain areas of crimes.
Because we know Michael Jackson personally we know of the tremendous pain the accusation against him have caused him to feel, but there are many thousand of others who have experienced intense pain because they have been branded a pedophile. This in no way equals the small amounts of pain directly caused by these adults. But I guess if you include the pain that children who would have been hurt by jealous adults, if things were legal, a lot of pain children would otherwise experience has been prevented.
I guess I am pretending to be a know-it-all, but if others would open up we could get other real information on this very little understood subject.
Richard Kane
http://RamblingsFromTheHornetsNest.blogspot.com
http://RICHARDKANEpa@blogspot.com
+ Read more
In 1980 at a news stand where I worked, for several days a very friendly young teen hung around the stand. Then three of his younger friends came around cupping their hands going back and forth from their pants like they were beating off. The friendly kid exclaimed to them “You ruined everything”. I continued to help him several times but from then on only a little.
In 1982, there was a homeless beggar who lived on the street with her kids. A young friend of hers asked to sleep on the floor of my apartment. The pedophile hysteria was too great for me to say yes. I suggested to her the next day that I go to the authorities for help but she warned me that this wasn’t what he wanted and would only run away again. At one point in my life I felt my attitude toward just puberlesing teenage boys was wrong and felt that if I worked with them I might convey the wrong attitude for them to have. At another point I felt a longing to help homeless Brazilian street kids.
I have a friend whose then girlfriend’s daughter used to get undressed in front of him hoping to entice him. He told me, he only found big breasted women attractive. I don’t know what year this all happened in maybe it was before the 70's when the witchhunt started but there was no hint of fear of getting in trouble back then when he was lamenting on his early life. My experiences might have been one-sided but I’m sure not all incidents involve adults pushing kids into an encounter.
I know of one lady who as a child was badly scared by a care giver jealous of her because the adult thought her husband was attracted to the child and I indirectly know of and read about other horror stories. One stated as “that little slut stole my man”. The abuse hurled at a child by a jealous care giver can be terrifying and be overwhelming. I have an urge to ask for the passing of laws controlling adults who are jealous of a child, but realize that this would be about as effective as anti-abortion laws. To a certain extent allowing a jealous adult to call for and obtain punishment on the adult in a relationship with a child, probably cuts down on the jealous rage a child might receive, so to a certain extent the current witchhunt against pedophiles prevents some kids from being badly hurt by jealous adults. But again, we don’t need to change our justice system toward Megan’s Law type laws and other permanent punishment toward certain areas of crimes.
Because we know Michael Jackson personally we know of the tremendous pain the accusation against him have caused him to feel, but there are many thousand of others who have experienced intense pain because they have been branded a pedophile. This in no way equals the small amounts of pain directly caused by these adults. But I guess if you include the pain that children who would have been hurt by jealous adults, if things were legal, a lot of pain children would otherwise experience has been prevented.
I guess I am pretending to be a know-it-all, but if others would open up we could get other real information on this very little understood subject.
Richard Kane
http://RamblingsFromTheHornetsNest.blogspot.com
http://RICHARDKANEpa@blogspot.com
+ Read more
June 12, 2009
Senator Specter, a Statesman Promoting Compromise, but Haunted by his long-ago Kennedy Assassination Theory
Arlen Specter changed the political map. The Republican party blacklisted three Republicans, and Specter responded by becoming a Democrat. Specter, is still trying to mediate (even between Republicans and Democrats), be a healer, and promote civil liberties as he did before. Specter also urges caution and soberness in the pro-Israeli lobby. I, for one, think shrill politics is bad news.
But for those with long memories, something doesn’t fit. Specter, is the author of the Single-Bullet Theory that rushed to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald had no accomplices when he killed President Kennedy.
Specter, currently is pushing Congress to urge the Supreme Court to directly hear ACLU civil liberties appeals (bypassing lower courts), like it once did flag-burning issues. Similarly, he much earlier, grilled Attorney General Gonzales over the firing of six prosecutors and politicalizing the courts. Locally, President Obama is emailing Obama’s former campaign donors to support Specter.
Philadelphia and its suburbs knew Specter for a long time. Many in Bucks and Delaware County leaned toward being Republican or Democrat depending partly on what they thought of Specter.
But events long-ago scramble this picture. After President Kennedy was assassinated, some quickly screamed that Oswald once renounced his citizenship and emigrated to Russia. Suddenly there were pictures of him handing out“Fair Play for Cuba” leaflets. Conservative Cubans claimed that Fidel Castro did it to get even, because the CIA tried to kill Castro, something the American people back then knew nothing about. The Cuban air force was under high alert for a US attack. Specter came up with the idea that three bullets from Osward's gun could have been responsible for all of Kennedy's and Governor Connelly’s wounds, even though two bullets clearly missed. And weirdly in the Twilight Zone that the world was back then. Chief Justice Warren of the Warren Commission went along with it (Earl Warren, the last person one would expect to help cover anything up).
We have to assume that Specter and Earl Warren are the people they dedicated almost their entire lives at being. So something is terribly wrong with US history. Some like Vice President Dick Cheney at first see wrongdoing, such as torture, as a desperate necessary, but it becomes routine and eventually something Cheney brags about advocating. Perhaps Specter’s life is just the opposite. If Specter was somehow involved with wrong, he then spent the rest of his life trying to make sure similar wrongs weren’t repeated. Today, Specter acts like he is trying to save the country without explaining why.
Wrong doing didn’t start with Cheney. Some think it started with the Cold War, but I want to go back to the desperate days of World War II, where horrible precedents got set. During World War II the allies were top-secretly eavesdropping on the Nazi and Japanese secret codes, creating the habit of most people in the government not knowing what was going on. Some wonder if President Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time, and Winston Churchill likewise possibly knew that the Nazi’s were planning to level Coventry, but worried about the Nazis guessing that the west was listening.
Ominously the Mafia was also part of the war effort. They exposed Hitler’s agents pretending to be Italian-Americans slipping in at the docks. This was very important. In Europe the anti-fascist underground dropped leaflets off of school stairwells, but when Churchill sent in agents they began to sabotage instead. Nazis in the US could have been taught to slash tires since there was a phony gas shortage to make people conserve tire rubber. Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia were allowed to seize the Internationalist Teamsters Union to prevent a wartime strike.
Then during the Cold War without any thought of long-term consequences the Mafia flooded the entertainment industry to chase the radicals out, then Joe McCarthyism finished the job.
During World War II radicals were given much coverage in the media. Woody Guthrie once sang former antiwar songs the words changed to fight Hitler songs on all there networks at once. Communists opposed the war during the Hitler-Stalin Pack days, then became the most gung ho. Communists gave the image of now everyone is against Hitler no matter what they thought before.
Anyway with the last CIA declassifications we now know that Oswald had amazingly frequent contacts with the US, Russia, Leftists and extreme Rightist. Only those who were pro-Castro openly didn’t trust him, and attempted to avoid him.
The British declassify documents after 30 years with a lot of fan fair. US secrets dribble out, sometimes a parent or grand parent having no idea that historic events can be depicted differently until someone they get involved with their childrens’ homework, though history now is much less taught.
I contend America is suffering from something a little like a cross between cancer and Alzheimer's. I believe Senator Specter can do something to change this simply by coming clean about all the tension back then, and why he rushed to proclaim, there was a lone assassin. Specter bringing up JFK history will be more likely if us locals urge his to do this, especially those who support most of the things he does.
http://richardkanepa.blogspot.com/
By Richard Kane
Helpful links
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/morley.6htm
If the above link sticks, Google, (“What Jane said” “page 6") Jane Roman was a CIA official who knew Oswald before Kennedy died. Jefferson Morley, the above link author was with the Washington Post.
The Mafia and World War II,
http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/08.htm
Some think E, Howard Hunt’s deathbed claims that Lyndon Johnson was involved explains everything but he played too many games in his life, to trust what he said, thus the main thing he accomplished is to stop people from looking further.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt/7
Links my material elsewhere,
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/05/lingering-coup-from-kennedy.html
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/blog/2419
http://ramblingsfromthehornets.blogspot.com
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/17849
http://ramblingsfromthehornets.blogspot.com
http://richardkanepa.blogspot.com/
+ Read more
But for those with long memories, something doesn’t fit. Specter, is the author of the Single-Bullet Theory that rushed to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald had no accomplices when he killed President Kennedy.
Specter, currently is pushing Congress to urge the Supreme Court to directly hear ACLU civil liberties appeals (bypassing lower courts), like it once did flag-burning issues. Similarly, he much earlier, grilled Attorney General Gonzales over the firing of six prosecutors and politicalizing the courts. Locally, President Obama is emailing Obama’s former campaign donors to support Specter.
Philadelphia and its suburbs knew Specter for a long time. Many in Bucks and Delaware County leaned toward being Republican or Democrat depending partly on what they thought of Specter.
But events long-ago scramble this picture. After President Kennedy was assassinated, some quickly screamed that Oswald once renounced his citizenship and emigrated to Russia. Suddenly there were pictures of him handing out“Fair Play for Cuba” leaflets. Conservative Cubans claimed that Fidel Castro did it to get even, because the CIA tried to kill Castro, something the American people back then knew nothing about. The Cuban air force was under high alert for a US attack. Specter came up with the idea that three bullets from Osward's gun could have been responsible for all of Kennedy's and Governor Connelly’s wounds, even though two bullets clearly missed. And weirdly in the Twilight Zone that the world was back then. Chief Justice Warren of the Warren Commission went along with it (Earl Warren, the last person one would expect to help cover anything up).
We have to assume that Specter and Earl Warren are the people they dedicated almost their entire lives at being. So something is terribly wrong with US history. Some like Vice President Dick Cheney at first see wrongdoing, such as torture, as a desperate necessary, but it becomes routine and eventually something Cheney brags about advocating. Perhaps Specter’s life is just the opposite. If Specter was somehow involved with wrong, he then spent the rest of his life trying to make sure similar wrongs weren’t repeated. Today, Specter acts like he is trying to save the country without explaining why.
Wrong doing didn’t start with Cheney. Some think it started with the Cold War, but I want to go back to the desperate days of World War II, where horrible precedents got set. During World War II the allies were top-secretly eavesdropping on the Nazi and Japanese secret codes, creating the habit of most people in the government not knowing what was going on. Some wonder if President Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time, and Winston Churchill likewise possibly knew that the Nazi’s were planning to level Coventry, but worried about the Nazis guessing that the west was listening.
Ominously the Mafia was also part of the war effort. They exposed Hitler’s agents pretending to be Italian-Americans slipping in at the docks. This was very important. In Europe the anti-fascist underground dropped leaflets off of school stairwells, but when Churchill sent in agents they began to sabotage instead. Nazis in the US could have been taught to slash tires since there was a phony gas shortage to make people conserve tire rubber. Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia were allowed to seize the Internationalist Teamsters Union to prevent a wartime strike.
Then during the Cold War without any thought of long-term consequences the Mafia flooded the entertainment industry to chase the radicals out, then Joe McCarthyism finished the job.
During World War II radicals were given much coverage in the media. Woody Guthrie once sang former antiwar songs the words changed to fight Hitler songs on all there networks at once. Communists opposed the war during the Hitler-Stalin Pack days, then became the most gung ho. Communists gave the image of now everyone is against Hitler no matter what they thought before.
Anyway with the last CIA declassifications we now know that Oswald had amazingly frequent contacts with the US, Russia, Leftists and extreme Rightist. Only those who were pro-Castro openly didn’t trust him, and attempted to avoid him.
The British declassify documents after 30 years with a lot of fan fair. US secrets dribble out, sometimes a parent or grand parent having no idea that historic events can be depicted differently until someone they get involved with their childrens’ homework, though history now is much less taught.
I contend America is suffering from something a little like a cross between cancer and Alzheimer's. I believe Senator Specter can do something to change this simply by coming clean about all the tension back then, and why he rushed to proclaim, there was a lone assassin. Specter bringing up JFK history will be more likely if us locals urge his to do this, especially those who support most of the things he does.
http://richardkanepa.blogspot.com/
By Richard Kane
Helpful links
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/morley.6htm
If the above link sticks, Google, (“What Jane said” “page 6") Jane Roman was a CIA official who knew Oswald before Kennedy died. Jefferson Morley, the above link author was with the Washington Post.
The Mafia and World War II,
http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/08.htm
Some think E, Howard Hunt’s deathbed claims that Lyndon Johnson was involved explains everything but he played too many games in his life, to trust what he said, thus the main thing he accomplished is to stop people from looking further.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt/7
Links my material elsewhere,
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/05/lingering-coup-from-kennedy.html
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/blog/2419
http://ramblingsfromthehornets.blogspot.com
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/17849
http://ramblingsfromthehornets.blogspot.com
http://richardkanepa.blogspot.com/
+ Read more
May 23, 2009
Obama-Cheney debate revisited, with a conclusion that may surprise both sides
Did Bush’s war on terror policy stop a second terror attack? Is Obama right that US policy tended to help al Qaeda grow? Is Cheney an ogre? Is Obama a naive fool?
Maybe the right answers don’t fit neatly into place. Maybe US policy back under Bush both tended to empower al Qaeda, by making Muslims more militant, and discourage an attack on the US at the same time. Perhaps, bin Laden's success at making the Muslim World more militant, made him in no hurry to attack the US a second time. However, was giving al Qaeda space to grow something really worth cheering about?
Yes, I agree with those who claim Bush made the world a mess, but in 2003 he withdrew US troops from Saudi Arabia. Troops there, was the main reason bin Laden vowed to attack the US a second time. Bush starting to withdraw some troops from Afghanistan, to fight in Iraq, pleased bin Laden in two ways. Bin Laden was far more interested in US troops leaving Afghanistan, where he spent many years then in mostly Shiite Iraq, and he was happy to see a secularist, Saddam Hussein, out of power. The first time President Bush might have really upset bin Laden was perhaps when he started sending a few drone aircraft into Pakistan, which might have not been enough for bin Laden to renew his desire to follow up 9/11 with a bigger attack just because of the drones.
When George Bush first became President, he wanted to look tough while avoiding war with Russia and China. Thus he came out with his “Axis of Evil” rhetoric. After 9/11 US troops in Afghanistan also made Bush look tough but it also whittled away Afghans being fed up with the Taliban. After 2003 Bush withdrew US troops from Saudi Arabia. US troops there was the main reason bin Laden stated for the 9/11 attack and why he vowed to attack again.
One of Bin Laden's basic goals is to make moderate Muslims militant, craving a world of the 8th century where Muslims were quick to attack. Not that anyone in the 8th century would have used their child or helpless old mother as a combatant. Or attack where noncombatant Muslims could get hurt such as at two US Embassies in Africa at rush hour. Or get Muslims to fight with each other like al Qaeda is doing between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, or get drunk before a battle assignment like 9/11, or tax Opium.
When, then Majority Leader, Bill Frist was about to call for bipartisan prison detention reform after reviewing the secret additional Abu Ghraib photos, al Qaeda derailed it by posting Nick Berg's beheading when Frist's press conference was about to start, which derailed the reform efforts, meaning the torture of suspects is what bin Laden wanted the US to do so he could use it as a recruiting tool,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-05-11-iraq-beheading_x.htm
The day after the January 22, when Obama announced the decision to close Guantanamo, al Qaeda announced that a former terror detainee was to be second in command in the Arabian Peninsula (it turned out only nominally),
http://wcbstv.com/national/guantanamo.bay.detainee.2.916216.html
Again it seems to suggest bin Laden wanted US torture facilities to stay open for it’s propaganda purposes.
I personally think it is a mistake for the peace movement to assume that the al Qaeda threat is over, and that thus Cheney doesn’t know what he is talking about when he claims there will be another terror attack where Cheney can claim “I told you so”.
I got some more sober assessments. More likely then not, a real possibility of peace in the Middle East or a quick agreement with moderates, or semi-moderates and a US withdrawal from Iran and Afghanistan would make al Qaeda desperate to attack instead of waiting for the US to bankrupt itself.
We need to deal with the possibility that as soon as bin Laden's dreams seem hopeless is when he will be the most desperate. Why should bin Laden just smash his own brains out when he loses like the al Qaeda member did in England when he bashed his truck into a strong steel gate at a military base where he had not much hope of killing anyone but himself, when other al Qaeda members can al least attack take a few vacationing Americans, on perhaps cruise ships in the Caribbean, with them. As al Qaeda diehards commit suicide in defeat, they will want to take as many of the enemy with them as the go.
Anyway, Bush policy of getting US troops out of Saudi Arabia shows that appeasement works even if done by someone who pretends to be tough all the time.
http://capitolhillblue.com/blog/2419
http://ramblingsfromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5423
RichardKanePA
+ Read more
Maybe the right answers don’t fit neatly into place. Maybe US policy back under Bush both tended to empower al Qaeda, by making Muslims more militant, and discourage an attack on the US at the same time. Perhaps, bin Laden's success at making the Muslim World more militant, made him in no hurry to attack the US a second time. However, was giving al Qaeda space to grow something really worth cheering about?
Yes, I agree with those who claim Bush made the world a mess, but in 2003 he withdrew US troops from Saudi Arabia. Troops there, was the main reason bin Laden vowed to attack the US a second time. Bush starting to withdraw some troops from Afghanistan, to fight in Iraq, pleased bin Laden in two ways. Bin Laden was far more interested in US troops leaving Afghanistan, where he spent many years then in mostly Shiite Iraq, and he was happy to see a secularist, Saddam Hussein, out of power. The first time President Bush might have really upset bin Laden was perhaps when he started sending a few drone aircraft into Pakistan, which might have not been enough for bin Laden to renew his desire to follow up 9/11 with a bigger attack just because of the drones.
When George Bush first became President, he wanted to look tough while avoiding war with Russia and China. Thus he came out with his “Axis of Evil” rhetoric. After 9/11 US troops in Afghanistan also made Bush look tough but it also whittled away Afghans being fed up with the Taliban. After 2003 Bush withdrew US troops from Saudi Arabia. US troops there was the main reason bin Laden stated for the 9/11 attack and why he vowed to attack again.
One of Bin Laden's basic goals is to make moderate Muslims militant, craving a world of the 8th century where Muslims were quick to attack. Not that anyone in the 8th century would have used their child or helpless old mother as a combatant. Or attack where noncombatant Muslims could get hurt such as at two US Embassies in Africa at rush hour. Or get Muslims to fight with each other like al Qaeda is doing between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, or get drunk before a battle assignment like 9/11, or tax Opium.
When, then Majority Leader, Bill Frist was about to call for bipartisan prison detention reform after reviewing the secret additional Abu Ghraib photos, al Qaeda derailed it by posting Nick Berg's beheading when Frist's press conference was about to start, which derailed the reform efforts, meaning the torture of suspects is what bin Laden wanted the US to do so he could use it as a recruiting tool,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-05-11-iraq-beheading_x.htm
The day after the January 22, when Obama announced the decision to close Guantanamo, al Qaeda announced that a former terror detainee was to be second in command in the Arabian Peninsula (it turned out only nominally),
http://wcbstv.com/national/guantanamo.bay.detainee.2.916216.html
Again it seems to suggest bin Laden wanted US torture facilities to stay open for it’s propaganda purposes.
I personally think it is a mistake for the peace movement to assume that the al Qaeda threat is over, and that thus Cheney doesn’t know what he is talking about when he claims there will be another terror attack where Cheney can claim “I told you so”.
I got some more sober assessments. More likely then not, a real possibility of peace in the Middle East or a quick agreement with moderates, or semi-moderates and a US withdrawal from Iran and Afghanistan would make al Qaeda desperate to attack instead of waiting for the US to bankrupt itself.
We need to deal with the possibility that as soon as bin Laden's dreams seem hopeless is when he will be the most desperate. Why should bin Laden just smash his own brains out when he loses like the al Qaeda member did in England when he bashed his truck into a strong steel gate at a military base where he had not much hope of killing anyone but himself, when other al Qaeda members can al least attack take a few vacationing Americans, on perhaps cruise ships in the Caribbean, with them. As al Qaeda diehards commit suicide in defeat, they will want to take as many of the enemy with them as the go.
Anyway, Bush policy of getting US troops out of Saudi Arabia shows that appeasement works even if done by someone who pretends to be tough all the time.
http://capitolhillblue.com/blog/2419
http://ramblingsfromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5423
RichardKanePA
+ Read more
May 12, 2009
Senator Specter - the key to our future
Specter has changed the political map by becoming a Democrat. It’s a new chapter in the political system and in the many twists and turns of his life. He has had so many roles that most of us in Philadelphia have at least one point in our life cheered him and at another point criticized him. Many appreciated him during the Gonzales hearings, but not so his Single Bullet Theory. Many more would appreciate Specter but for the albatross of the JFK assassination around his neck.
When then Attorney General Gonzales was being grilled about the firing of eight federal prosecutors, many Americans helped along by Specter’s evenhanded style joined in fear of our rights slipping away, like during the attempt to impeach Nixon. This, was very different then later impeachment efforts where both sides became shrill. In the last Congress, Chuck Hegel, and John Warner also played a bipartisan role. This, now replaced by ever more shill partisan argument. It may seem hopeless, but Specter somehow trying to hold on to bipartisanship is important.
However, many especially locally, whose minds are more on Specter than the rest of the country, are still upset with Specter’s Single Bullet Theory and it’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy. People upset about this, often lash out on other issues and constantly say how sneaky Specter is, as if it was a plot to allow assassins to go free, which I think I can prove, originally at least, wasn’t true, but an attempt to delay publicizing a false trail leading to Cuba.
One of the things that mystifies many assassination buffs is why Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Warren Commission, and some of Kennedy’s friends wanted to believe that Oswald was the lone assassin. Specter’s heavy involvement with the Kennedy Assassination investigation may mean he has valuable tidbits, especially since President Bush declassified Lee Harvey Oswald’s very extensive back and forth dealings with the US Government, Russia, far rightists and far leftists. Somehow I never heard anyone publicly beg Specter to tell more, or ask him such things as, “Since President Bush declassified Oswald’s extensive dealings with both sides of the Cold War, does this effect your single bullet theory”. They just condemn Specter for allegedly wanting assassins not to be punished. Those in Philadelphia, or who are part of causes Specter participates in, have less problems reaching him or talking to people who might be able to, then those far away.
Today many Americans including, President Obama are renouncing secret government. Some think more would be accomplished if former Vice President Cheney were indicted for his torture memos, but Cheney’s lack of respect for democratic principles, has many historic precedents. Due process and most other rights were infringed upon under Nixon, Reagan, McCarthyism, and during both World Wars. If the JFK assassination came back into focus many more Americans would wake up to the dangers of secret government.
Specter’s role as healer between the Republican and Democratic Parties is now over, perhaps he could be encouraged to become America’s educator on history instead.
Specter’s Single Bullet Theory of the Kennedy assassination was suggested to delay the government having to publicly examine the false trail that led to the erroneous conclusion that Fidel Castro was involved to get even with the CIA for trying to assassinate him, as the Miami anti-Castro community was screaming. This back when the average American had no idea that the US government was involved in assassination attempts. President Johnson several times indicated in the JFK Assassination archives expressed fear that this blaming of Castro might lead to war with the Soviets.
Among other things the government hired the Mafia to kill Castro. Several Mafia leaders were disturbed that both JFK and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy were making a concerted effort to put crime leaders in jail. They felt it was a betrayal of trust.
Using gangsters for political purposes dates back to World War II when after the Mafia was very helpful to the war effort by exposing the agents that Hitler had infiltrated on the docks in the guise of pretending to be Italian-Americans. The Mafia and Jimmy Hoffa were encouraged to take over the then internationalist antiwar Teamsters Union to stop a wartime strike. Then at the start of the Cold War, without contemplating the long-term consequences, the Mafia was encouraged to infiltrate the entertainment industry to chase radicals and communists out. Communists during World War II were the most gung-ho for the war after the Hitler-Stalin Pack ended, and it was part of the war effort to encourage haters of Hitler who had been slow to join the war effort to have prominent places in the media. Anyone who was once ideologically opposed to fighting Hitler, but who changed their mind was a media star. Former pacifist Woody Guthrie at one point sang on all three networks at once. Accusing Communists of infiltrating, or claiming Senator McCarthy had a big imagination is a past example of the blame game distorting understanding history, just as was later the blaming of Specter for everything that went wrong with the JFK assassination investigation. Much later during Contra-gate the US government sold drugs to gangsters to raise money to support the Contras in Nicaragua.
Today, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh claim that it keeps us safe that the government had been able to keep secrets and engage in what they claim is only supposedly illegal activities like warterboading Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to make him falsely claim that Saddam was involved with 9/1l. I hope I can squeeze in the possibility that after US troops withdrew from Saudi Arabia in 2003 bin Laden, quite possibly, had no intention of risking an adrenaline-charged, from another terror attack, US troops returning to sacred Muslim soil. If so the US falsely believing otherwise would have confused US intelligence gathering skill, even leading to more false conclusions through torture. I wonder if Dick Cheney is enticing bin Laden to want to attack to get Obama in trouble. My belief is that the Kennedy Assassination is partly responsible for much of what has gone wrong more recently.
Returning to the earlier point, the carefully concocted false trail to Castro, though ridiculous might have looked quite explosive when Specter was examining it, which may be why Chief Justice Earl Warren, and several close friends of Kennedy wanted to believe the possibility that Oswald acted alone. So I actually see something heroic in the original ruse. I just wish the truth came out before Carter lost. And I fear that Obama is being sabotaged the way Carter was.
President Bush declassified very pertinent documents and E. Howard Hunt, before he died named names of others involved including Lyndon Johnson. Johnson, however, did so much to carry on the Kennedy’s agenda, it’s like discovering your favorite uncle killed your older brother, or after being smashed in an accident discovering the benefactor helping you was the hit and run driver you were looking for. If we, or Specter, put this history in the country’s focus it would help many Americans know that Cheney and Limbaugh’s call to return to secret government endangers us all.
End Notes: Dealing with Specter’s saga can help us understand that history is important in understanding current events, can help Specter supporters get the albatross away from Specter’s neck, and people handing printed pieces of paper, though perhaps emails to people they know instead of just emailing strangers around the world can restore a sense of community in dealing with this troubled world of ours. Thank you Alan Specter for alerting the country, during the Gonzales hearings, of the danger of too many secrets. Please everyone urge Specter to continue to alert this country that it is in danger, like he did back during those hearings.
Tension with Cuba after Kennedy was shot,
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/morley6.htm
The Mafia and World War II,
http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/08.htm
E. Howard Hunt’s deathbed statement,
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt/7
Critical response follows article in next link,
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5113
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/17849
+ Read more
When then Attorney General Gonzales was being grilled about the firing of eight federal prosecutors, many Americans helped along by Specter’s evenhanded style joined in fear of our rights slipping away, like during the attempt to impeach Nixon. This, was very different then later impeachment efforts where both sides became shrill. In the last Congress, Chuck Hegel, and John Warner also played a bipartisan role. This, now replaced by ever more shill partisan argument. It may seem hopeless, but Specter somehow trying to hold on to bipartisanship is important.
However, many especially locally, whose minds are more on Specter than the rest of the country, are still upset with Specter’s Single Bullet Theory and it’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy. People upset about this, often lash out on other issues and constantly say how sneaky Specter is, as if it was a plot to allow assassins to go free, which I think I can prove, originally at least, wasn’t true, but an attempt to delay publicizing a false trail leading to Cuba.
One of the things that mystifies many assassination buffs is why Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Warren Commission, and some of Kennedy’s friends wanted to believe that Oswald was the lone assassin. Specter’s heavy involvement with the Kennedy Assassination investigation may mean he has valuable tidbits, especially since President Bush declassified Lee Harvey Oswald’s very extensive back and forth dealings with the US Government, Russia, far rightists and far leftists. Somehow I never heard anyone publicly beg Specter to tell more, or ask him such things as, “Since President Bush declassified Oswald’s extensive dealings with both sides of the Cold War, does this effect your single bullet theory”. They just condemn Specter for allegedly wanting assassins not to be punished. Those in Philadelphia, or who are part of causes Specter participates in, have less problems reaching him or talking to people who might be able to, then those far away.
Today many Americans including, President Obama are renouncing secret government. Some think more would be accomplished if former Vice President Cheney were indicted for his torture memos, but Cheney’s lack of respect for democratic principles, has many historic precedents. Due process and most other rights were infringed upon under Nixon, Reagan, McCarthyism, and during both World Wars. If the JFK assassination came back into focus many more Americans would wake up to the dangers of secret government.
Specter’s role as healer between the Republican and Democratic Parties is now over, perhaps he could be encouraged to become America’s educator on history instead.
Specter’s Single Bullet Theory of the Kennedy assassination was suggested to delay the government having to publicly examine the false trail that led to the erroneous conclusion that Fidel Castro was involved to get even with the CIA for trying to assassinate him, as the Miami anti-Castro community was screaming. This back when the average American had no idea that the US government was involved in assassination attempts. President Johnson several times indicated in the JFK Assassination archives expressed fear that this blaming of Castro might lead to war with the Soviets.
Among other things the government hired the Mafia to kill Castro. Several Mafia leaders were disturbed that both JFK and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy were making a concerted effort to put crime leaders in jail. They felt it was a betrayal of trust.
Using gangsters for political purposes dates back to World War II when after the Mafia was very helpful to the war effort by exposing the agents that Hitler had infiltrated on the docks in the guise of pretending to be Italian-Americans. The Mafia and Jimmy Hoffa were encouraged to take over the then internationalist antiwar Teamsters Union to stop a wartime strike. Then at the start of the Cold War, without contemplating the long-term consequences, the Mafia was encouraged to infiltrate the entertainment industry to chase radicals and communists out. Communists during World War II were the most gung-ho for the war after the Hitler-Stalin Pack ended, and it was part of the war effort to encourage haters of Hitler who had been slow to join the war effort to have prominent places in the media. Anyone who was once ideologically opposed to fighting Hitler, but who changed their mind was a media star. Former pacifist Woody Guthrie at one point sang on all three networks at once. Accusing Communists of infiltrating, or claiming Senator McCarthy had a big imagination is a past example of the blame game distorting understanding history, just as was later the blaming of Specter for everything that went wrong with the JFK assassination investigation. Much later during Contra-gate the US government sold drugs to gangsters to raise money to support the Contras in Nicaragua.
Today, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh claim that it keeps us safe that the government had been able to keep secrets and engage in what they claim is only supposedly illegal activities like warterboading Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to make him falsely claim that Saddam was involved with 9/1l. I hope I can squeeze in the possibility that after US troops withdrew from Saudi Arabia in 2003 bin Laden, quite possibly, had no intention of risking an adrenaline-charged, from another terror attack, US troops returning to sacred Muslim soil. If so the US falsely believing otherwise would have confused US intelligence gathering skill, even leading to more false conclusions through torture. I wonder if Dick Cheney is enticing bin Laden to want to attack to get Obama in trouble. My belief is that the Kennedy Assassination is partly responsible for much of what has gone wrong more recently.
Returning to the earlier point, the carefully concocted false trail to Castro, though ridiculous might have looked quite explosive when Specter was examining it, which may be why Chief Justice Earl Warren, and several close friends of Kennedy wanted to believe the possibility that Oswald acted alone. So I actually see something heroic in the original ruse. I just wish the truth came out before Carter lost. And I fear that Obama is being sabotaged the way Carter was.
President Bush declassified very pertinent documents and E. Howard Hunt, before he died named names of others involved including Lyndon Johnson. Johnson, however, did so much to carry on the Kennedy’s agenda, it’s like discovering your favorite uncle killed your older brother, or after being smashed in an accident discovering the benefactor helping you was the hit and run driver you were looking for. If we, or Specter, put this history in the country’s focus it would help many Americans know that Cheney and Limbaugh’s call to return to secret government endangers us all.
End Notes: Dealing with Specter’s saga can help us understand that history is important in understanding current events, can help Specter supporters get the albatross away from Specter’s neck, and people handing printed pieces of paper, though perhaps emails to people they know instead of just emailing strangers around the world can restore a sense of community in dealing with this troubled world of ours. Thank you Alan Specter for alerting the country, during the Gonzales hearings, of the danger of too many secrets. Please everyone urge Specter to continue to alert this country that it is in danger, like he did back during those hearings.
Tension with Cuba after Kennedy was shot,
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/morley6.htm
The Mafia and World War II,
http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/08.htm
E. Howard Hunt’s deathbed statement,
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions_of_e_howard_hunt/7
Critical response follows article in next link,
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5113
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/17849
+ Read more
October 1, 2007
Cyber-Prison
Activists may face cyberprison rather than roundups like the Japanese during World War II. Selectively blocked calls, mail and email. Then in the dark, when bills are falsely marked unpaid. Little hassles to encourage people to block span and keep phone and address private, that will end up making it easier to block important communication.
Fight cyberprison. Crunching contact info discourages advertising junk mail and calls, but doesn’t hide from friends, or total enemies who will find you anyway.
+ Read more
Fight cyberprison. Crunching contact info discourages advertising junk mail and calls, but doesn’t hide from friends, or total enemies who will find you anyway.
+ Read more
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