From The Ramparts

Business Goes On As Usual

Business Goes On As Usual

“In that sense, the outcome of the 2006 elections is pre-ordained. Top Democratic Party officials moved systematically, after their defeat in the 2004 presidential election, to recruit candidates committed to more openly right-wing policies on social and political issues: opponents of abortion and gay rights, advocates of fiscal austerity and intensified domestic repression in the name of the “war on terror,” open defenders of militarism and war. The result is that if a massive antiwar and anti-Bush vote does place the Democratic Party in control of Congress, the new congressmen and senators will be supporters of the war in Iraq, advocates of budget-cutting rather than any expansion of social services, and sympathetic to the reactionary views of the Christian fundamentalists who dominate the Republican Party.” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/elec-n07.shtml

The Democrats riding the wave of massive discontent with the Bu$h administration and their fascist policies and the out and out rejection of perpetual war swept both the Congress and US Senate promising to “take the country in a new direction”. Alas it seems the Democrats have revealed themselves to be merely the flip side of the same policy coin. For the hapless, frustrated and naïve AmeriKKKan voters who held their noses and voted for the Democrats it is a clear case of being duped and hoodwinked one more time. On Thursday the Democratic caucus chose their leadership electing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and Steny Hoyer as majority leader. The AmeriKKKan people lost big time or more correctly were sold out big time by the Democrats. After staging a dog and pony show about nominating John Murtha a prime critic of the Iraq war and a man who openly calls for a timely withdrawal of AmeriKKKan forces from the Mesopotamian quagmire as Majority Leader, the Democrats promptly rebuffed Murtha’s supposed patron Nancy Pelosi and instead chose Steny Hoyer of Maryland a cold blooded warmonger who has not seen fit to vote against any AmeriKKKan imperialist military action during his tenure as a congressman; ever! Hoyer is a staunch supporter of Bu$h’s bogus war on terror; meaning he sides with the fascists and warmongers.

So much for change! Don’t expect this upcoming Congress to do anything to reward the anti-war sentiment that swept them into office! In fact the Democrats make no bones about the fact they will shuffle to the tune of the big defense contractors, the corporations and the Zionist lobby that funded their campaigns just as the Republicans did. An anti-war former military man who sees the dangers and folly of the Iraq occupation got kicked to the curb and a warmonger gets elected second in command in the Democratic caucus?! “Arrayed against Murtha was a united front of the Democratic Party establishment, from a George Soros-backed "liberal" consumer-complainer group to an anonymously run YouDontKnowJack.org, featuring replays of the infamous Abscam tapes. In the video, Murtha rejects an offer of a bribe while FBI agents disguised as wealthy Arabs – the Borat-style mustaches are a riot – try to lure him into a compromising position, without much success. Murtha was completely exonerated in a subsequent investigation – but that didn't stop the smear brigade from surfacing this age-old sludge…The Great Realignment of 2006 lasted a little over a week before it turned into the Great Sellout. It is a perfect illustration of how the War Party controls the leadership of both major parties and maintains its grip on the levers of power. Given near-monopoly status on account of repressive ballot access laws in most states, the parties can thwart the popular will. Given a mandate for peace, the Democratic Party leadership has effectively rejected it and reversed the election results. Americans voted for peace, and they're going to get more war.” The Mugging of Murtha Congressional Democrats Betray the Antiwar Movement Justin Raimondo http://antiwar.com/justin/ The Democratic leadership sold its anti-war constituency out again. The honeymoon with the AmeriKKKan voters appears to be over quickly and irreconcilable differences now loom on the horizon.

Now that the mid-term elections are history, it’s back to business as usual with the corporate media mind control apparatus beating the drums for continued carnage, corruption and waste in Iraq. “The American media establishment has launched a major offensive against the option of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. In the latest media assault, right-wing outfits like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page are secondary. The heaviest firepower is now coming from the most valuable square inches of media real estate in the USA – the front page of the New York Times. The present situation is grimly instructive for anyone who might wonder how the Vietnam War could continue for years while opinion polls showed that most Americans were against it. Now, in the wake of midterm elections widely seen as a rebuke to the Iraq war, powerful media institutions are feverishly spinning against a pullout of U.S. troops. Under the headline ‘Get Out of Iraq Now? Not So Fast, Experts Say,’ the Nov. 15 front page of the New York Times prominently featured a ‘Military Analysis’ by Michael Gordon. The piece reported that – while some congressional Democrats are saying withdrawal of U.S. troops ‘should begin within four to six months’ – ‘this argument is being challenged by a number of military officers, experts, and former generals, including some who have been among the most vehement critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policies.’ ” http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/?articleid=10024

The ruling plutocrats are pulling out all the stops to prevent their puppets in Congress from thwarting their imperialist agenda or doing anything they don’t approve of; like ending the carnage in Iraq. Obviously they have instructed the corporate media to spin the notion withdrawing AmeriKKKan troops and ending the war is unwise. This tactic is an exact replay of how the establishment media went along with the military industrial complex’ tales the Vietnam War was winnable as long as AmeriKKKan military stayed the course. “Contrary to myths about media coverage of the Vietnam War, the American press lagged way behind grassroots antiwar sentiment in seriously contemplating a U.S. pullout from Vietnam. The lag time amounted to several years – and meant the additional deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and perhaps 1 million more Vietnamese people. A survey by the Boston Globe, conducted in February 1968, found that out of 39 major daily newspapers in the United States, not one had editorialized for withdrawing American troops from Vietnam. Today – despite the antiwar tilt of national opinion polls and the recent election – advocacy of a U.S. pullout from Iraq seems almost as scarce among modern-day media elites.” ibid

The con game continues this time with the Democrats serving as shills for the establishment oligarchy. The twelve step program’s definition of insanity is doing he same thing over and over with the same people expecting things to turn out differently. If we want peace we will have to do things differently. We cannot depend upon the politicians to do it for us. Selective patronage, economic boycotts and massive civil disobedience are the only ways the plutocrats will take notice and be forced to alter their policies. Anything else is business as usual.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:51 AM