Quote

[GreenEarthAl]

In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war
is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of
war is not to make or prevent the conquests of territory, but to keep the
structure of society intact.

[GreenEarthAl]

Uh. It's kind of a rare opportunity that we get to speak to this many people at once. So uh, if you guys will forgive me I just want to speak my mind for a while.

I think it was a real mistake that the U.S. chose to fire missiles into the middle east. I think that was a huge mistake. And I think that it's very important that the United States start to look towards non violent means of resolving conflicts. because I think... hold on..hold on give me one second here. Becuase I feel that those bombings that took place in the middle east were thought of as a retaliation by the terrorists. And if we though of what we did as retaliation soon we're going to find more retaliiation from people in the middle east, uh from terrorists specifically I should say because most middle eastern people are not terrorists.

And. I think... that's another thing that America really needs to think about is our racism. Racism that come from the United States toward muslim people and towards Arabic people and that's something that has to stop. And the United States has to start respecting people from the middle east in order to find a solution to the problem that's been building up over many years.

So I thank everyone for your patience and letting me speak my mind on that.

-Adam Yauch
[Mtv Video Music Awards - September 1998]

[GreenEarthAl]

"Civil disobedience . . . is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.
That's our problem."

--Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit", page. 45.

[GreenEarthAl]

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something
that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows
what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of
the masses...In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I
was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of
the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service.
My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of
higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service...I helped make
Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make
Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits
of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for
the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 . I brought light to
the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to
see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as
the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel
that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate
his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

-Major General Smedley Butler (twice awarded Medal of Honor and described by General
MacAruther as "one of the really great generals in American history") 1933

[Parkey]

If you haven't already, you should really try and check out the BBC series Power of Nightmares (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm). It's stunning.

[GreenEarthAl]

Coincidentally, we're playing it on our radio station (http://www.radiofreebuffalo.org/#Schedule) here, Mondays at 9am.

Even more coincidentally, that's what time it is here and I'm listening to it now.

[D_Raay]

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
--various quotes from Noam Chomsky

[yeahwho]

I was supposed to be on the Larry King Live show last week. I was asked to be on the show to offer my opinion on the election in Iraq from the perspective of a mom whose son was killed in the war prior to the elections. One of the questions I was going to be asked was: Do I think my son's sacrifice was "worth it?" Well, I didn't get a chance to be on the show, because I was bumped for something that is really important: The Michael Jackson Trial.

Cindy Sheehan, Mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan (KIA, Sadr City, 04/04/04)

Her 4th of July 2005 statement, link (http://www.lewrockwell.com/sheehan/sheehan10.html)

[GreenEarthAl]

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as independent
press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest
opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am
paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others
of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish
as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I
allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours
my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to
lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country
and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting
an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the
jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our
lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
- by John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff for the New York Times

[SobaViolence]

Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
-J. Bartlett Brebner

The more rapidly a civilization progresses, the sooner it dies for another to rise in its place.
-Havelock Ellis

A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.
-Benjamin Disraeli

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
-Mark Twain

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
-Blaise Pascal

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
-Edmund Burke

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
-Thomas Paine

[GreenEarthAl]

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates. -Gore Vidal.

[kaiser soze]

huh [quoting] doesn't seem to work?

anyways...here a few comments from our war, ehem..I mean peace president

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier." Describing what it's like to be governor of Texas.
(Governing Magazine 7/98)

-- From Paul Begala's "Is Our Children Learning?"

"I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator," Bush joked.

-- CNN.com, December 18, 2000

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it, " [Bush] said.

-- Business Week, July 30, 2001