Thanksgiving Truth

I cannot celebrate a day that stands for murder of a people. I am not some single chosen person by God. My color of skin does NOT make me chosen, I am sadden that the truth of this holiday is racism and genocide. We still celebrate racist holidays then wonder why we can't defeat this problem here in our country? Please.......wake the fuck up..............

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“When we met with the Wampanoag people, they told us that in researching the history of Thanksgiving, they had confirmed the oral history passed down through their generations. Most Americans know that Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoag, had welcomed the so-called Pilgrim Fathers—and the seldom-mentioned Pilgrim Mothers—to the shores where his people had lived for millennia. The Wampanoag taught the European colonists how to live in our hemisphere by showing them what wild foods they could gather, how, where, and what crops to plant, and how to harvest, dry and preserve them.

The Wampanoag now wanted to remind White America of what had happened after Massasoit’s death. Massasoit was succeeded by his son, Metacomet, whom the colonists called “King” Philip. In 1675-1676, to show “gratitude” for what Massasoit’s people had done for their fathers and grandfathers, the Pilgrims manufactured an incident as a pretext to justify disarming the Wampanoag.

The whites went after the Wampanoag with guns, swords, cannons and torches. Most, including Metacomet, were butchered. His wife and son were sold into slavery in the West Indies. His body was hideously drawn and quartered.

For twenty-five years afterward, Metacomet’s skull was displayed on a pike above the whites’ village. The real legacy of the Pilgrim Fathers is treachery. Most Americans today believe that Thanksgiving celebrates a boar harvest, but that is not so.

Massasot Treaty
By 1970, the Wampanoag had turned up a copy of a Thanksgiving proclamation made by the governor of the colony; the text revealed the ugly truth: After a colonial militia had returned from murdering the men, women, and children of an Indian village, the governor proclaimed a holiday and feast to give thanks for the massacre. He encouraged other colonies to do likewise—in other words, every autumn the crops are in, go kill Indians and celebrate your murders with a feast.

The Wampanoag we met at Plymouth came from everywhere in Massachusetts. Like many other eastern nations, theirs had been all but wiped out. The survivors found refuge in other Indian nations that had not succumbed to European diseases or to violence. The Wampanoag went into hiding, or joined the Six Nations, or found homes among the Delaware Shawnee nations, to name a few. Some also sought refuge in one of the two hundred eastern-seaboard nations that were later exterminated.

Nothing remains of those nations but their names, and even some of those have been lost. Other Wampanoag, who couldn’t reach another Indian nation, survived by intermarriage with Black slaves or freedmen. It is hard to imagine a life terrible enough that people would choose instead, with all their progeny, to become slaves, but that is exactly what some Indians did.”

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One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.

But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.

One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.

Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.

The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians' land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving "wild beasts" from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, "both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."

Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the "merciless Indian Savages" -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn't stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, "[W]e shall destroy all of them."

As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process "due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway."

Roosevelt also once said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."

How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here's how "respectable" politicians, pundits, and professors play the game: When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations' lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history.

In the United States, we hear constantly about the deep wisdom of the founding fathers, the adventurous spirit of the early explorers, the gritty determination of those who "settled" the country -- and about how crucial it is for children to learn these things.

But when one brings into historical discussions any facts and interpretations that contest the celebratory story and make people uncomfortable -- such as the genocide of indigenous people as the foundational act in the creation of the United States -- suddenly the value of history drops precipitously and one is asked, "Why do you insist on dwelling on the past?"

This is the mark of a well-disciplined intellectual class -- one that can extol the importance of knowing history for contemporary citizenship and, at the same time, argue that we shouldn't spend too much time thinking about history.

This off-and-on engagement with history isn't of mere academic interest; as the dominant imperial power of the moment, U.S. elites have a clear stake in the contemporary propaganda value of that history. Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures -- such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- as another benevolent action.

Any attempt to complicate this story guarantees hostility from mainstream culture. After raising the barbarism of America's much-revered founding fathers in a lecture, I was once accused of trying to "humble our proud nation" and "undermine young people's faith in our country."

Yes, of course -- that is exactly what I would hope to achieve. We should practice the virtue of humility and avoid the excessive pride that can, when combined with great power, lead to great abuses of power.

History does matter, which is why people in power put so much energy into controlling it. The United States is hardly the only society that has created such mythology. While some historians in Great Britain continue to talk about the benefits that the empire brought to India, political movements in India want to make the mythology of Hindutva into historical fact.

Abuses of history go on in the former empire and the former colony. History can be one of the many ways we create and impose hierarchy, or it can be part of a process of liberation. The truth won't set us free, but the telling of truth at least opens the possibility of freedom.

As Americans sit down on Thanksgiving Day to gorge themselves on the bounty of empire, many will worry about the expansive effects of overeating on their waistlines. We would be better to think about the constricting effects of the day's mythology on our minds.

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The people who now describe themselves as ..Americans' actually stole their country from the Native Americans. They put the Indians in reservations (which got smaller and smaller). The Indians were civilised and spiritual but they had no guns and were an easy target. America was stolen by force.

At a meeting in New England in 1640 the following motions were put to the assembly.

1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
2. The Lord may give the earth or any part of it to his chosen people.
3. We are his chosen people.

Naturally the assembled bunch of smug, barbarians voted ..yes' to all these motions, and thereby sanctified (in their minds) the theft of a nation.

It was generally agreed that the Indians were savages with no rights and yet both the American constitution and the Declaration of Independence were based on texts devised and used by Native American Indians - texts which included fundamental ideas on liberty, freedom and even legislature.

The American Government signed 370 treaties with the Native Indians but violated provisions in every one of these treaties.

The Americans now celebrate the theft of the country they call their own with a feast called Thanksgiving.

How Shock Musician Marilyn Manson Lost his Christianity

By Paul Coughlin

In his fuming autobiography, The Long Road Out of Hell, shock musician Marilyn Manson reveals how years of false teaching about the return of Christ—and the apocalyptic conspiracy theories that enhance such teaching—left him feeling abused, cheated, and eventually caused him to reject Christianity. He, like so many within the church today, endured pounding lecture upon lecture about receiving the Mark of the Beast during these “last days.” “Those that don’t receive the mark, the number of his name (666)” warned Ms. Price, Manson’s Friday-night teacher at Heritage Christian School during the early 1980s, “will be decapitated before their families and neighbors.”

Then, as today, the Goth protagonist was told that the mark was concealed as the Universal Product Code that appears on everyday items in your grocery store, which, with the help of blatantly false reporting, works out to be the same demonic numbers, 666. All this was presented as fact—not opinion and never speculation—drawn straight from the Bible. Writes Manson, “They didn’t need proof; they had faith.”

Nightmares soon visited his 12-year-old mind. “I was thoroughly terrified by the idea of the end of the world and the Antichrist. So I became obsessed with it, watching movies like . . .A Thief in the Night, which described very graphically people getting their heads cut off because they hadn’t received 666 tattoos on their forehead.”

Manson’s landfill lyrics, lashing instrumentals and caustic stage sets were cited by damp-handed critics as propelling the murder and suicides at Colorado’s Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Indeed Manson canceled a Colorado concert soon after the shooting, reportedly in an attempt to avoid hostile demonstrations.

The study of End Times conspiracy theories shows we are hardwired to search for simple answers to overwhelming tragedy, especially when it involves the loss of children. Though we put our finger upon correct influences, we often overplay their import, which is understandable. So just as it is thin-headed to blame Manson for the sinister plans of vengeful, trench-coat-wearing youth there in Columbine, it would be equally wrong to blame the architects of today’s pop End Times prophecy as the sole cause of Manson’s descent; a dive made more likely in the pursuit of riches than to display his melding of transvestite and pro-wrestling outfits.

Though popular End Times prophecy is not the sole cause of his descent, its role cannot be easily dismissed. How we live and mis-live our lives is the result of many influences. When it comes to apocalyptic conspiracy theories shared by numerous Christians across America, those influences must not be discounted as irrelevant. End Times conspiracy theories have influenced millions of ordinary people and more noted ones such as David Koresh, his followers, the Weaver family on Ruby Ridge and Christian conspiracy theorists such as Norman Olson and Dean Compton, two of America’s more noted militia leaders who express End Times angst.

Popular and contemporary Bible prophecy and the conspiracy-prone political interpretation of the John Birch Society are dovetailed by influential church leaders such as Don McAlvany, Chuck Missler, Y2K doomster Gary North and others in this community of charismatic and self-appointed experts. It is a mindset that brought us the belief that the U.S. government intentionally killed civilians on Ruby Ridge, in Waco and at Oklahoma City as part of what they believe is a one-world government plot found in the book of Revelation, or what is commonly called the “New World Order.”

This mindset is one-part flesh (as with Waco, conspiracy theories often form around a grain of truth) and nine-part poltergeist (but as with Waco, around this grain of truth are many leaps in logic and selective reporting), graze upon our fear of the future. There is no better contemporary example than the recent Y2K hysteria that burned throughout Evangelical and Fundamentalist media. They also offer the allure of exclusive information, similar to their twin, psychic readings. Both provide a patterned and coherent world if only one is willing to truckle to their leadership and claims of exclusive knowledge. Both are accompanied by a reasonable price tag and bulging marketing, and both create a kind of crystal ball but with one telling difference; conspiracy theories appeal to the head while psychic readings appeal to the heart. They tickle the ears of those willing to pay for the newest tape or book on how to survive economic hell on earth, and those who will gladly spend two dollars a minute to discover if love is in their future.

Christian conspiracy theories are the modern-day equivalent of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As in the Garden of Eden, we long for such inside information and magic formulas of faith. But seeking solace in secret formulas was always forbidden by God—not because this shortcut worked, but because it did not. Mere knowledge of good and evil will never satisfy our longings or calm our fears. (Secrets, Plots & Hidden Agendas, What You Don’t Know About Conspiracy Theories p.199)

After a year passed, then another, then another, and the End-Times predictions of his youth panned out to be false, the young Marilyn Manson, who says he still has End-Times nightmares, felt cheated and lied to. “Gradually, I began to resent Christian school and doubt everything I was told.” He wrote in his notebook when he still went by his suburban birth name Brian Wardner, “Fools aren’t born. They are watered and grown like weeds by institutions such as Christianity.” Not exactly, Brian. Orthodox Christianity has always warned us not to call a conspiracy what others call a conspiracy (Isaiah 8:11-13). Also, many End-Times scenarios have more in common with a complex dualistic religion called Manicheism than a vibrant Christian faith (Secrets, Plots pp. 167, 198).

Brian and countless other forming boys and girls throughout the last 30 years have been caught in a net tied with earnest hands and hearts. Their innate fear of the future, mine included, was exploited in an attempt to drive them into the arms of a loving Savior. But perfect fear often casts out love. It was a message created by those who believe that there are no atheists in fearful Sunday School classes, but who refuse to acknowledge that a kid’s mind often changes when he walks into the sun of a new day. Worse, troubled Brian Wardners resent the fear and manipulation and curse the little god who they were told is behind it all. God-shock is inevitable and perhaps preacher David Hawking said it best:

“ . . .Oh, some of the prophecy preachers got a little out of hand . . .and we were even told that . . .when Israel became a nation in 1948 it would be forty years and then the Lord would come. So we back it up seven. So the rapture is coming in 1981. I’ve met people all over this country who believed that, followed that, anticipated that. It did not come and as a result many of them bombed out, dropped out, copped out; they’re not around anymore (emphasis added).” (Secrets, Plots, p.141)

It’s fitting but still distressing that Marilyn Manson, who adopted the names of two pop culture icons as his own—the first a likely victim of pop-culture fame and power, the second a sinister predator hell-bent on fame and power at any price—is himself an example of pop culture’s corrosive nature. There is the ever-present question of obligatory drug use. His lyrics rationalize that sturdy self-centeredness which he exploits so well, the same quality found in daytime soaps that are tailored toward a more sophisticated self-absorption. His body is a canvas of scars, reported to have more than four hundred. His mind, like all of ours, is a canvas as well. It began with a base layer of abuse by those who violated his young body with brutal blows and bewildering sexual acts. Then came his spiritual abuse at the hands of earnest pop-prophecy teachers, which on this canvas of the mind should be understood as splashes of blood red. They do not represent Redemption to Manson (pray that they will) but rage and disappointment with God. And the Devil walks laughing.

Paul Coughlin is a freelance journalist, photographer and former talk show host. He is author of Secrets, Plots & Hidden Agendas, What You Don’t Know About Conspiracy Theories (InterVarsity Press 1999), which investigates the political, psychological and theological components behind conspiracy thinking in America. The unabridged audio version is available through Blackstone Audiobooks.

Bible Reference: Isaiah 8: 11-13
11 The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: 12 "Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. 13 The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread,

Inside the Mind of Manson

Do not think I am insane, or I am a new fan of this man. I am only giving my opinion about him. Telling you what I believe is significant about this man and the things we all can learn from him. I am looking at this man in a non-judgemental view.

I love a world a no absolutes! Open your mind....it is so beautiful. You learn so much more...anyway......

Do not pay attention to the reporters. They only are giving their uneducated opinions about this man. Neither has a degree in psychiatry and they are discussing his mind as if they do. They have an agenda.

To understand Manson's anger, you must understand the 60's. Movies that can help in this is "Steal this Movie: The Abbie Hoffman Story" and "The US vs John Lennon".....

Manson was a very intelligent man. Super genius. So smart it made him literally crazy.....or does he act crazy just for the public eye? I think it is an act myself.

Manson is nothing more than a man who has been shit on from society his entire life. His mother was a prostitute. He is a product of society. He understands though some key things about society that many of us never get unless we experience a rough upbringing....

Manson is so far ahead of himself and us in thought. He understands our society because of what he has been through. He understands they want only robots, slaves to do their work. He understands society is rigged through who knows who and who has the most money. He as most artists is angry that in a "FREE" society it is anything but "FREE"...

He also understood that we allow the blood of our children to be on our hands with the wars and the crime we create. That it is our responsibility, a responsibility that we refuse to ackknowledge.

Was it the drugs that opened his mind and gave him the ability to give this insight? Or is he just insane and rambling? Watch the interview. It is amazing...........

This is only a clip. See the whole thing....it has been on MSNBC.

World's Biggest Pre-Release Pirate Music Site Netted

British and Dutch police said they shut down Tuesday the website OiNK, the world's biggest source of pirated pre-release chart albums.

OiNK distributed albums often weeks ahead of their official release date. More than 60 major album releases had been leaked onto the Internet so far this year.

The site had an estimated membership of 180,000. People were only invited to become members if they could prove they had music to offer and had to keep posting tracks to maintain their membership.

It is alleged the site was operated by a 24-year-old man who lived near Middlesbrough in north-east England. He was arrested Tuesday. The site's servers, based in Amsterdam, were seized in raids last week.

The Interpol-coordinated raids followed a two-year investigation by the British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry bodies.

"OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online," said Jeremy Banks, head of the IFPI's Internet anti-piracy unit.

"This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online."

New Drug Resistant Bacteria Killing More Than AIDS

Drug-Resistant Staph Germ's Toll Is Higher Than Thought
By Rob Stein

A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported yesterday.

The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated.

Although mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common, the estimate published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first national assessment of the toll from the insidious pathogen, officials said.

"This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried," said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

Other researchers noted that the estimate includes only the most serious infections caused by the germ, known as methicillin-resistant S taphylococcus au reus (MRSA).

"It's really just the tip of the iceberg," said Elizabeth A. Bancroft, a medical epidemiologist at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health who wrote an editorial in JAMA accompanying the new studies. "It is astounding."

MRSA is a strain of the ubiquitous bacterium that usually causes staph infections that are easily treated with common, or first-line, antibiotics in the penicillin family, such as methicillin and amoxicillin. Resistant strains of the organism, however, have been increasingly turning up in hospitals and in small outbreaks outside of heath-care settings, such as among athletes, prison inmates and children.

On Monday, Ashton Bonds, 17, of Lynch Station, Va., succumbed to MRSA, prompting officials to shut down 21 Bedford County schools today for cleaning to prevent further infections. The infection had spread to Bonds's kidneys, liver, lungs and the muscle around his heart.

The MRSA estimate is being published with a report that a strain of another bacterium, which causes ear infections in children, has become impervious to every approved antibiotic for youngsters.

"Taken together, what these two papers show is that we're increasingly facing antibiotic-resistant forms of these very common organisms," Bancroft said.

The reports underscore the need to develop new antibiotics and curb the unnecessary use of those already available, experts said. They should also alert doctors to be on the lookout for antibiotic-resistant infections so patients can be treated with the few remaining effective drugs before they develop serious complications, experts said.

MRSA, which is spread by casual contact, rapidly turns minor abscesses and other skin infections into serious health problems, including painful, disfiguring "necrotizing" abscesses that eat away tissue. The infections can often still be treated by lancing and draining sores and quickly administering other antibiotics, such as bactrim. But in some cases the microbe gets into the lungs, causing unusually serious pneumonia, or spreads into bone, vital organs and the bloodstream, triggering life-threatening complications. Those patients must be hospitalized and given intensive care, including intravenous antibiotics such as vancomycin.

In the new study, Fridkin and his colleagues analyzed data collected in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Tennessee, identifying 5,287 cases of invasive MRSA infection and 988 deaths in 2005. The researchers calculated that MRSA was striking 31.8 out of every 100,000 Americans, which translates to 94,360 cases and 18,650 deaths nationwide. In comparison, complications from the AIDS virus killed about 12,500 Americans in 2005.

"This indicates these life-threatening MRSA infections are much more common than we had thought," Fridkin said.

In fact, the estimate makes MRSA much more common than flesh-eating strep infections, bacterial pneumonia and meningitis combined, Bancroft noted.

"These are some of the most dreaded invasive bacterial diseases out there," she said. "This is clearly a very big deal."

The infection is most common among African Americans and the elderly, but also commonly strikes very young children.

"We see these cases all the time," said Robert S. Daum, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the University of Chicago. "In the last five weeks, I've taken care of five children who were sick enough to be hospitalized and require intensive care."

Studies have shown that hospitals could do more to improve standard hygiene to reduce the spread of the infection. Individuals can reduce their risk through common-sense measures, such as frequent hand-washing.

In the second paper, Michael E. Pichichero and Janet R. Casey of the University of Rochester in New York documented the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant strain of another bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes common ear infections. Although all 11 children identified in the Rochester area with the microbe so far were successfully treated, five required an antibiotic approved only for adults, and one child was left with permanent hearing loss.

The researchers attributed the emergence of the strain to a combination of the overuse of antibiotics and the introduction of a vaccine that protects against the infection.

"The use of the vaccine created an ecological vacuum, and that combined with excessive use of antibiotics to create this new superbug," Pichichero said.

Voting for Your Party, or Race or So On.........

There is actual people on TV that have said they do not care what Republican candidate wins the primary, they will support them and vote for them....

How fuckin' dumb are people???

If you vote for anyone based on what party they belong too and do not educate yourself about who you are voting for, then you deserve to lose every right that you will lose for making such a blind ignorant decision.

You should not vote for Fred cause he owns a red pick up. You should not vote for Hillary cause she is a woman. You should not vote for Obama cause he is black.....that is just sheep mentality....

I can see now that we will only move farther backwards as long as this country has ignorant people who vote like this....

THINK!

Use your brain and learn something. If you reading this, you have access to a mole hill of information...Google these people!

Or keep being sheep and this country will end up a police state that will be run by corporations, and you will have no rights unless you pay for them.....keep it up America!

As Russia predicted during the Cold War, we as Americans will destroy ourselves....

Go Another Great Dan the Man! Mr. Rathers!

Go Dan! Don't let them silence you. Make them fuckin' kill you if you have too. Do not shut up! Bring it out how the media has been the propaganda machine for the government and corporations for years now!

If you don't think that TV is propaganda. There is a new commercial that shows that users of a card such as debit or credit is faster than cash. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS BULLSHIT! It is not faster. You must wait for it to connect, approve and sometimes you must sign. People hate me when I pull my card over cash in line in a store. To be honest, I hate others who pull the card too when I am in line with cash! They want to know what you are buying with cash. This is why there is talk to put RFID chips in cash. To track it all........

Rather: Government Influencing Newsrooms
Sep 21, 12:39 AM (ET)
By SAMANTHA GROSS

NEW YORK (AP) - Dan Rather said Thursday that the undue influence of the government and large corporations over newsrooms spurred his decision to file a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and its former parent company.

"Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

In the suit, filed a day earlier in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Rather claimed CBS and Viacom Inc. (VIAB) used him as a "scapegoat" and intentionally botched the aftermath of a discredited story about President Bush's military service to curry favor with the White House. He was removed from his "CBS Evening News" post in March 2005.

"They sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News," he told King.

Rather didn't mention other instances in which he believed news organizations bowed to corporate and government pressure.

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock did not return an after-hours call seeking comment Thursday. He has called Rather's complaints "old news" and said the lawsuit was "without merit." A spokesman for Viacom declined to comment.

Journalism ethics scholar Bob Steele said Rather would have a difficult time proving that the White House or other political operatives exerted undue influence on CBS.

"It would be naive for us to believe that there was no influence from powerful institutions and individuals on journalism," said Steele, a scholar at the Poynter Institute, a journalism foundation in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Still, he said: "For the most part, the journalists who run news organizations and who report the news fight hard to protect the independence of the journalism, and most of the time succeed."

Rather narrated the September 2004 report that said Bush disobeyed orders and shirked some of his duties during his National Guard service. It also said a commander felt pressured to sugarcoat Bush's record.

The story relied on four documents, supposedly written by Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. Critics questioned the documents' authenticity and suggested they were forged.

A panel selected by the network to investigate the story determined that it was neither fair nor accurate. CBS fired the story's producer and asked for the resignations of three executives because it could not authenticate documents used in the story. Rather was forced out of the anchor chair he had occupied for 24 years.

On CNN, Rather dismissed the panel's review, claiming it was not impartial.

"This was in many ways a fraud. It was a setup," he told King.

Louis D. Boccardi, the retired chief executive of The Associated Press who made up the two-man investigative panel with Richard Thornburgh, the former U.S. attorney general, defended the panel's work Thursday night.

"Our report was independent, and it speaks for itself," he said, echoing comments made by Thornburgh on Wednesday. Both declined to comment further.

This Just Is Not Right.....

Can you say brutality?


Police taser wheelchair-bound black woman to death

And its not becoming an authoritative / police state? The state has all the power anymore to do what they want....especially when the public stays quiet.

Democrats Failing to Pass Anti-War Bill

The Senate was able to vote about the ad moveon.org posted in the New York Times about General Petraeus, condemning it. But they cannot vote to stop the war?

They were willing to vote to condemn free opinion by a grass roots organization about one of our generals. They were willing to vote on condemning free speech.....think about it....

Why in a free country is our Government saying you cannot express an opinion publicly? Why in a free society, any time a civilian criticizes the war or the military presence it is looked down upon and they call those who do this not supporting the troops?

President Bush has made the tours of duty longer, from 12 to 15 months, plus made the time between coming home and going back to war shorter. Do you think that is supporting the troops? By over working them and stretching our defenses to the breaking point is support for the troops?

WTF???

The dems hands are tied. Big business has too many of them in their pocket. The core is rotten. No new president will change shit till we get money out of the picture in our politics.

It is suppose to be our world.........not theirs.....

Democrats Failing to Pass Anti-War Bill
Sep 21, 4:27 AM (ET)
By ANNE FLAHERTY

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats are unable to pass legislation that would challenge President Bush on the Iraq war, despite public opinion polls that show the war remains deeply unpopular with voters.

Failing to muster the support, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the war now belonged to Republicans and vowed they would have to go on record again and again as siding with President Bush. He scheduled a vote Friday on legislation by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., that would order combat troops home in nine months.

"Back home they assert their independence, but in Washington they walk in lockstep with the president and continue to support his failed policies," said Reid, D-Nev.

Friday's vote caps off a week of disappointing roll calls for the Democrats, who had hoped that more Republicans would have jumped on board by now.

Recent polls show that American views of the war largely have not changed since Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, testified last week.

A poll released this week by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 54 percent of Americans still favor bringing troops home as soon as possible. And despite slight improvements in the public's view of military progress, more said the U.S. will likely fail in Iraq than succeed by 47 percent to 42 percent, about the same margin as in July.

On Wednesday, the Senate blocked legislation by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would have guaranteed troops more time at home; it fell by a 56-44 vote with 60 votes needed to advance. On Thursday, the Senate blocked legislation sponsored by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., that would have cut off funding for combat in June 2008. That measure failed by a 70-28 vote, 32 votes short of 60.

Levin's bill too was expected to fall short of the 60 votes required, with Republicans saying they still oppose setting a firm deadline on the war.

"If we leave, we will be back - in Iraq and elsewhere - in many more desperate fights to protect our security and at an even greater cost in American lives and treasure," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

On Thursday, Republicans successfully pushed through a resolution condemning an advertisement by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org. Displayed in The New York Times, the ad taunted Petraeus as "General Betray Us."

The resolution, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, passed by a 72-25 vote.

House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House should consider a similar measure. But when asked if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would allow it, spokesman Nadeam Elshami said in an e-mail: "The House is going to devote its full attention to providing health care to children, promoting energy independence to improve America's security, reducing global warming, and responsibly redeploying U.S. forces now in Iraq.

"These are the priorities of the American people," he said.

Great Example of Why Religion is Bullshit

Carlton Pierson as most logical minds began to question the teachings of the bible as literal truth as written by God. He began to make realizations of the contradictions within the religion itself.

Anyone with any type of intellect will question the bible. They will question God. How can a God blame you for using what was given to you in the first place? Can you imagine such a sadistic and irrational being?

His conclusion was that we cannot assume that a God that is of pure love would create a torture chamber such as hell. He began to teach this and his career as a preacher was ended.

Watch as Ted Haggart tells the reporter that Carlton Pierson will be going to hell. Let me remind you that good ole' judgemental Ted was having an affair with a homosexual while he was using amphetamines.