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For anyone interested in Kucinich's stance on Israel here is an interesting article complete with direct quotes and a video of him speaking on the floor of congress. Apparently Dennis isn't too fond of Israel or the idea of supporting them blindly:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/israel-revolt/dennis-kucinich-takes-facebook-express-hatred-israel
Alberto and Aliceinwonderland ~ I think if you reread the second to last paragraph in the quote above, Kucinich mentions that just this morning Israel shot down a Syrian warplane and that could lead to the "...terrible possibility of a wider regional conflict." Kucinich was pretty good at targeting all the players in this lethal game with precision and accuracy. I'm surprised you both missed that one. That's one of the biggest tidbits in the article.
Thanks, Marc! Great commentary by one of my all-time favorite senators. If he ran for prez again, he'd have my vote again. The guy shoots straight, takes no prisoners and is spot-on.
Alberto, your comment is a little presumptuous. To assume Kucinich is an Israel supporter just because Israel isn't mentioned in one particular article is taking quite a leap. - AIW
Where does Dennis speak against Israel's aggression, destruction and killing? "Oh well, heh, heh, Israel is our friend, heh, heh, the M.E.'s only democracy, heh, heh."
Dennis Kucinich, once a decent person, no longer is.
Dennis Kucinich is great...even though he validated the existence of chemtrails.
Thanks for that. I've always felt there was something creepy about that term. And now I know why.
Use of the term "homeland" implies that there's some other land that we would occupy. I.e., there's our homeland and then there're our subject lands.
I'm often frustrated by such polls, which give only 2 options, including rationales that may not be mone. In this case, I'm reluctant to support bombings, but mainly because of their likely ineffectiveness and collateral damage, NOT because of fear of retaliation.
Not sure how to address this, except for suggesting you ask responders for THEIR reasons for positions, not assume all think alike.
Dennis Kucinich is great....he validated the existence of chemtrails.
I work in Jefferson County, CO, and a friend of mine is a teacher here who was laid off a few months ago at the end of the school year. This situation is the same as what happened in neighboring Douglas County--the slight majority of Republicans on the school board has instituted an autocratic totalitarian regime. They vote down everything the minority members propose, hold meetings without including them, and shut out the teachers, the parents, the students, the tax payers and the electorate from informing any debate. Their ultimate goal is to destroy the teachers' union and public education, and then privatize (and profitize) education.
I attended a screening of a documentary called "The Reformers" that was made to expose the Douglas county situation. It may be available somewhere. I highly recommend it.
"The Real Reason We Are Bombing Syria" A great article by Dennis Kucinich
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-j-kucinich/syria-isis-war_b_5869964.html
I have not watched. "scorpion".
DAnneMarc: I think that you are mostly correct but might mostly apply to the upper echelon, the ones in charge. They do, however, hire people proficient in what they do....like hackers. And I've read that they are hiring a lot of them nowadays. I'm sure they have some very super intelligent people working for them ... although, I suppose, one could argue that they can't be all that intelligent if they work for the intelligence agencies that use and manipulate them to do terrible things. I've heard that many are very conflicted about it and they have a high turn over of employees. Some employees are trapped into working for them because they had been caught at some crime... like hacking into a computer network...or perhaps some other non-related criminal activity. Either way it is a form of blackmail or coercion. Work for us or we will put you away for a long time...type of thing. The FBI agents in the field had done some excellent work tailing and reporting on the 9/11 "terrorists" but their bosses in DC chose, for whatever reason (and I suspect it had to do with making sure the attack took place), to bury the reports.
Use of the term "homeland" implies that there's some other land that we would occupy. I.e., there's our homeland and then there're our subject lands.
Palindromedary ~ From what I've heard I'm not surprised that DHS would have to outsource their intelligence. From what I've heard most intelligent agencies are anything but that. The most accurate TV depiction goes back to the sixties sitcom "Get Smart." If you recall, Maxwell Smart, agent 86, worked for an intelligence agency called, Control. If you ask me, the DHS is more about "Control" than anything else; and, an agent numbered "86" would be an adequate description of the staff. Essentially, people with college degrees who were eighty sixed from lucrative careers in the private sector and had to settle for this stupid work. (Classically, the number 86 refers to official banishment from something.*) At least that theory fits the stories I've heard; and, it sure does explain why they have to outsource their intelligence. Remember, I told you this under the 'cone of silence.'
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86_(term)
And, please, when referring to the United States do not use the word "America." Yes, I know, but there are a good many Americans who do not live in the USA and who detest USA's policies. If you must then at least qualify it to this degree: "North America" although Mexicans and Canadians might, properly, object.
Yes the Coalition of the Killing, as some have called it.
And it isn't and never was correct to use ISIS, the USA's war hawks attempt to smear Syria with the terrorist label. Originally it was ISIL, now IS.
And have we (I hope) heard the last of "Israel, the M.E.'s only democracy?"
That's correct, Alberto. The Neo-Pagans have declared that use of ISIS to refer to a terrorist group disrespects their Goddess Isis.
Could not agree more with you, Kalevala! Is this a nation of stupid, lazy victims or what?
That we had Nazi in our highest office speaks perfectly of our morals and mind set. America is the biggest monster on this planet.
I was reminded of the book "1984" and movie after the 9-11 attack upon America by the Rightwing Nazi among us. Today we are to believe the BS of ISIS which was created in answer to the coming budget cuts to "defense" spending. Sadly the criminals who run this nation will again have their way and profit to the tune of trillions from our never ending war on sanity----------I am ashamed of being an American!
To understand Libertarian, some people need to go though this writing. I had a bad concept about it. But now I got it.
So, if I understand Thom’s article correctly, his big problems with Department of Homeland Security is the name? The fact that DHS is publicly subsidized center for distributing public funds to private corporate security firms, and you’d think, this would be Thom’s initial problem with this unjustifiable institution of power. Rebranding DHS does make more sense than actually fundamentally changing the institution, or eliminating its illegitimate existence altogether, but hey, who has time for that?
How about changing the name to the Department of Fluffy Kittens and Big Eyed Puppies Security; does that make Chris Matthews more comfortable? Philip Morris and Blackwater changed their name, and still operate their institution in same profit over people fashion. DHS could change its name to DFKBEPS, and still operate as a fascist institution of public funding to private corporations, but Mr. Matthews will now have the peace of mind knowing that Kittens and Puppies are safe under the protection of DFKBEPS.
Thom this article is a fail. Boo!
The terror of 9/11 was not from the attack - something that was known and preventable - and relied on words like "homeland" and the first thing we might see is a mushroom cloud. The 900 page Patriot Act was dusted off the shelf and nearly unaminously adopted by Congress in a reach of power that should make any Tea Partier shudder while Saudis were quietly ushered out of the former United States - now simply referred to as the homeland. From the first moment I heard the word, it rang the theme of the Nazis - leading to the invasion of a country which had not hung to do with 9/11.
I am NOT RIGHT WING. My spouse and I enjoy the show Homeland. It had a love story and teenagers dealing with life, etc. it can even be humorous. The CIA operatives have a f**k you attitude to there upper bosses. Defiance.
We watch it ^ purely for entertainment. I don't see how we are doing anything wrong by watching it......I mean we are not right wing and we still do not ever watch FAUX NEWS. WE SEE CLIPS ON THE DAILY SHOW AND Colbert making fun of FAUX news..
How will the current bombs, missiles, etc. FIND "ISIS? Or as Stephen Colbert says: the French call them all "Daesh"
There is a new show called Scorpion that is also about "Homeland Security". I watched the premier show last night and although it was big on all the things I'd be interested in (except Homeland Security)...computers...hackers...very smart people...I was immensely disappointed. The plot was crap and all of the references to various technological ideas they posited were totally ridiculous.
The show is based upon a real life person that was hired by Homeland Security and is supposed to have the 4th highest IQ in the world. In the show, he said that Einstein only had an IQ of 160 but he had an IQ of 194. He hacked into a NASA computer when he was just a young teen and was arrested. But then eventually went to work for Homeland Security.
So, as the show begins, O'brien is having his daily coffee at this cafe where his girl friend worked as a waitress. She was mother to a young 8 year old boy who was playing imaginary chess, at the counter, with some salt and pepper shakers and nobody knew what he was doing...they all thought he was mentally handicapped but O'brien watched him and started to play chess with him realizing, of course, that he was not handicapped but super intelligent...but in his own little world thinking of super intelligent things in his head.
When O'brien joins his other friends in the place where they hack...the Homeland Security guy, the same guy that arrested him as a young boy who hacked into NASA, now wants to hire him and his friends to figure out a way to stop 60 airliners from crashing because of a computer malfunction that affected the Air Traffic Control computers and the on board airliner computers ability to land. So, they all get into cars and find they don't have enough time to make it to the airport so they decide to set up a command center in the cafe where Obrien always has his coffee. Then O'brien has two of his group go to what looks like a garage with a heavy drop-down accordion style metal door, where a supercomputer that controlled all of the aircraft and ATC computers was located. They couldn't open the door so O'brien told the girl, over a cell phone, to find the nearest power control box and make sure that she made a 500,000 volt spike ...it couldn't be less or more...had to be 500,000 volts....so she rotated the main power switch which did the trick. They opened the door and found the module, among many modules ...a server module. They pulled it out and rushed it to the "command center"..the cafe...but they found that the contents was erased by an electrical signal when they had exited through the door. I won't even tell you what comes next...it's so stupid. O'brien and his girl friend manage to save the day...I mean, the planes, in the nick of time.
Oh, well, at least Person of Interest is back on for it's season premier tonight. That is a show that tends to try to make spying on us not such a bad thing because it saves lives...even though it snoops on people. I wonder if Homeland Security was behind that Show as well. But I like it and the plots are fairly reasonable and really not too far fetched in light of what we know "they" are capable of now.
Mr. Hartman wrote: "...they'd always referred to Germany as 'the Fatherland' or 'the Motherland' or 'our nation.'"
Alas, this is incorrect. Only in Russia -- "Mother Russia" -- is the nation referred to as "the Motherland," rodina (pronounced rodin-ah) in Russian. This is significant for several reasons, not the least that it is a relic of pre-Christian times, even pre-patriarchal times, when the supreme deity was a goddess and the planet was her womb and physical body. More to the point, it establishes a psychodynamic connection between the motherhood provided by the environment and human motherhood the expressions of which are many and complex. Three examples should suffice: (1)- the event that triggered the Russian Revolution was a wildcat strike, on International Women's Day (by our calendar, 8 March 1917), by the 5,000 women employed by Petrograd's Lesnoy Textile Works; (2)-the Soviet Union was the first nation in the world (1918) to grant universal suffrage to women; (3)-during World War II, the Red Army's female corps of snipers became the deadliest such soldiers in all human history.
Quoth Lenin: "the experience of all liberation movements has shown that the success of a revolution depends on how much women take part in it."
By contrast, note how in the German Fatherland, the worst, most misogynistic aspects of patriarchy prevailed, even before the rise of Nazism -- which, as Shirer shows in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich -- was a specific product of German history rather than the anomaly it is claimed to be today.
Moreover, in the context of the direct, linear descendency from patriarchy to capitalism and thence to fascism and finally to Nazism, the notion of Germany and now the Western Ukraine as "Fatherland" is eerily appropriate. (Yes the same label is now applied by the supporters of the government in Kiev.)
As to the official U.S. Government use of "homeland," I find that particularly inapproprioate given we are a nation of immigrants who stole the land from its original inhabitants. Nevertheless, particularly given the fascist undertow in which our last vestiges of democracy are being methodically drowned, I cannot doubt the term is here to stay.