NYPD's finest at work.

The flexibility of human nature never fails to amaze! The NYPD (along with many others) will never be forgotten for their selfless and heroic acts on 9/11 and the weeks that followed.

And now we have THIS.

Top conservative talk shows often FAKED.

This is for real….check it yourself. (Thanks to John Stroebel for passing it along.)


From the Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/premiere_plants.php

This is Google's cache of http://www.premiereradio.com/shows/view/premiere_on_call.html. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Mar 9, 2011 23:48:25 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more

(Note that the site went down about the same time this article came out. ;-)

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Our Democracy

And Still It Continues; For Adnan and His Family and Friends.

I have taken time off from writing. The sheer inundation by the (mostly) untruthful media coverage on these subjects had begun to eat away at both my soul and my faith in humankind.

I am moved to reprint several older posts since having recently had the honor of meeting and getting to know another very decent, caring, highly intelligent and well-reasoned human being from the Middle East. As my new friend shared his experiences in his country of birth, I was sadly reminded of my writings from the height of the Iraqi war under the Bush regime. And, once again, it becomes that much more obvious that, even under our current administration—one our nation fought hard to win with voters coming out in recently unhearalded numbers—NOTHING HAS CHANGED. “Wars and rumours of wars” persist as our politician-puppets continue to bend over at the command of their rich, criminal masters (American and otherwise) which actually run our nation and aspire to run the world at any price, including the lives of innocent mothers and children.

The issue is made that much more personal by the fact that the beautiful, perfect, first-born son (the one I failed) is now serving in Afghanistan, possibly forced (whether he understands it or not) to commit some the same atrocities once done against the Iraqi people.

I invite you to read the posts that are copied in the following….and tell me that anything has changed--or weep with me.


And Dearest Adnan….your video haunts me so that I cannot sleep tonight. I pray your friends and family are safe this night and that you find peace, yourself, in sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Letter to an Iraqi Mommy
http://sheeplerecovery.blogspot.com/2008/03/letter-to-iraqi-mommy.html
Reprinted in Salon, Café Mom, Al Jazeera
Author: Ranee Decker 2007
Fair Use reprints permitted

For some time now, as I’ve tucked the clean, warm bedtime blankets around my well-fed, sleeping, 5-year-old son who is almost never bothered by nightmares, a picture of you has flashed in my mind. It is one of the pictures published on the internet. One of those websites that attempt to show the TRUTH of what is happening in your country despite the lies of my country’s leaders. It is the face of a wailing mother holding her dying child who was mutilated by a bomb blast in the night. Often it brings me to tears.

My child knows no want, his belly is always full, he always has clean water, he wears clean clothes every day, he is healthy and happy and has almost no idea what the word “war” means. When I go to sleep, I have no fear of a militia burning down or bombing my home in the night.

I cannot imagine your anguish and fear and rage at watching precious, tiny lives and good families destroyed all around you—cannot imagine the fear for your childrens’ lives each moment, each day, each night as you attempt to sleep. I cannot begin to imagine what it is like for you who have held maimed and dying children, victims of this unjust war. It would kill me to be in your situation. I could not live after losing my child or having him so violated.

It’s NOT fair!

It’s not that I’m not grateful to live in a country where relative safety is, so far, not a major issue. I thank God every night that my child knows no real want and lives in a peaceful land. What I grieve for is the fact that EVERY mother should have the pleasure of watching her child sleep peacefully and comfortably, with full bellies, beloved blankies and no nightmares. No mother should huddle in fear, her child in her arms, awaiting death and impotent to protect her babies. No mother should hold a child dying of war injuries in her arms and feel his life slip away.

President Bush would say that it is for this very end—to ensure that no American or Iraqi mother or child suffers in this way—that we are currently occupying your country in a sustained “peace keeping” mission. We’re there, he’d claim, to protect you and your children as well as our own way of life. Believe me when I say that only the stupid or blind believe his lies any longer. He is an out-of-control, mentally unbalanced tyrant who has lied repeatedly and who MUST BE STOPPED. He is responsible for more deaths of innocent human lives than Saddam Hussein and deserves to hang for his crimes at least as much as we were told Saddam Hussein did. I am American—and I know this is true. I also know that if the sad small remainder of our “democracy” fails to reign in this mad man we call our leader, he will soon cause many more nations to retaliate against us and justifiably so. And then my child will also be at risk. And then I will be the one crying for the loss of his innocence or—god forbid!—his life!

I don’t blame you at all for your anger toward our country. I ask only that you try to remember that this war is being fought with the support of only a very small portion of our nation’s citizens and I’m not one of them! And at this point in our history, we regular citizens are just about as powerless as you are there to make decisive changes in our government. But most of us want it all to end and are doing what little we can do to see that happens. MANY MANY of those who still believe this war is just are only of that opinion because they are sheep trained—and trained well—to follow the leader and believe what the media or the generals tell them. I, like many, are truly ashamed of the title “American” right now. I want desperately for you to sleep unafraid at night after tucking the blankets around your well-fed sleeping babies. We are not very different, you and I. We both only want happiness and safety for our children. Please know that you have a sister across the ocean that truly grieves for you and your precious children. Please forgive us—at least those of us (and there are many!) who hate this war and what it has done to your country, your families and your children’s lives.

You will remain in my most ardent prayers for peace and prosperity and health. I will continue to do what little I can to help end this unjust war more quickly with my votes and my signature on polls and petitions, even though it can never be enough to erase the horrors you’ve already lived through. May God, (our Creator—yours and mine—merely known by different names) surround you with his angels and give you strength.

With sincerest respect and love,

Your sister in Florida, USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next post, a month or so later, was not a direct address to my first writing. However, the timing of its publication was too syncronititous not to post.

Sister to Sister
Copyright 2007 Samih Ossaily, reprinted with permission at http://sheeplerecovery.blogspot.com/2008/03/sister-to-sister.html
Fair Use reprints permitted


A month or so ago, I wrote a piece entitled, “Letter to an Iraqi Mother from An American Mother. My sole purpose in doing so was to express my deep pain and sympathy for the situation our goverment mis-led us into. I do know that it has been reprinted several times, including once in a french publication, but do not know if it has reached it’s intended audience yet. (A long-shot, considering the problems of translation and the fact that so few Iraqi’s actually have access to reading materials.)
You can read it here: http://ovinedetox.blogspot.com/2007/03/letter-to-iraqi-mommy.html

Today I came across this and wanted to share it with you. It’s not a reply, but it’s the other side I so often stress MUST BE VIEWED. We cannot understand each other, and thus dispel fear, without knowing how “the other half lives.”

A Letter from an Iraqi Mother to the Mothers of the Americans Killed in Fallujah by Samih Ossaily, www.sosiraq.orgApril 19th, 2004

Dear Sisters,
1 call upon you because we are sisters in motherhood.

The American media described us with as “barbarians”, “savages”, and “criminaIs” in the . aftermath of the mob lynching scenes of the bodies of charred Americans in Fallujah, as Iraqis beat on dead bodies then hung them off a bridge. But the american media does not want you to know the true picture against which those scenes took place, nor does it want to let you know why Iraqis did this thing. The media does not want you to know the extent to which Iraqis have come to hate the soldiers of the occupation for them to act like this. I address you as American women, as mothers, sisters; wives, and daughters.

Sisters, I know how painful it is for a woman to lose someone dear. I can feel your pain. For we, Iraqi women, have lost too much, and have suffered what no mother on the face of the earth has. For example, when your governement imposed the injust embargo on our country, we had to watch our children everyday dying from lack of medicine. Because of the weapons of mass destruction your soldiers used, especially depleted uranium, we had to carry babies in our wombs for nine months only to see them born severely deformed.As if all this was not enough for your governement, it topped all it off wich a war that is launched under false pretexts just to control our wealth, our oil and resources. And it was a brutal war in which many of our cbildren were killed and many others were arrested, both sons and daughters.

As of today, your governement continues to kill and arrest our sons and daughters. So, after all this, do you still wonder why Iraqis carry such hatred in their hearts towards your kids?! You sons, dear sisters, were not exactly angels or missionaries preaching the religion of mercy! Your sons have killed our fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. Your sons have stolen, pillaged, raped, polluted the earth and the water, and burnt the fields. In fact, dear sisters, your sons are the real barbarians, the murderers, and criminals. Therefore, please don’t blame us for hating them..

Dear sisters, I call upon you, as someone just like you who has experienced the pain of Iraqi brothers and sons being killed by the invaders in the worst possible way: if you want our collective pains not to increase and multiply, and if you want the return of your sons and husbands back home safe and sound, PLEASE LET THEM LEAVE IRAQ, for they are NOT welcome here. And, therefore, I teIl you that nobody can possibly promise you that the Iynching scenes of yesterday in Fallujah won’t be repeated again, okay?

Why do you let your loved ones be sacrificed like this, dear sisters? So murdering beasts like Bush, Rumsfeld, Sharon, and Halliburton would get richer and more powerful? Is that a good reason for them to die? We think not. We want it all to stop, for us and for you. So please let your children leave lraq alive.
Sincerely.
An Iraqi Mother

Come back later, OK? I’m sitting here in tears and need to clear my head before I reply to my sister’s letter.
Blessings,
Jesse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This final post in the series is my response to the Iraqi mother and writer of Sister to Sister.

Sister to Sister 2
http://sheeplerecovery.blogspot.com/2008/03/sister-to-sister-2.html
Copyright 2007 Ranee Decker
Fair Use reprints permitted


Dear Sister,

I read your letter a little while ago. It’s taken me awhile to dry my tears and attempt to write back to you—to let you know your voice has been heard.

I heard the anger in your “voice” in your letter. I understand it, I accept it and I agree with you. No part of this war was justified except in the minds of those who sought to profit from your country’s resources and, as a result, your pain. I guarantee our leaders never thought of you as in individual or what all of this would inflict upon you and your loved ones.

I, like the growing number of American civilians being added to this movement each day, am ashamed of being associated in any way with the current (and some of the past,) leaders of our nation. I, like many more, am taking what actions are available to me to cause our government to stop this war and bring our sons and daughters home. I want so much for both our children and yours to live in a peaceful nation. More than anything I wish that no mother ever cries for the loss of her beloved child lost to the stupidity, greed and dishonesty of those who govern the nations.

I promise I will not stop fighting in any way I can to bring our troops home. I assure you that I am far from the only one trying to end this unjust war. IF there is still such a thing as democracy, we will prevail. Perhaps one day, your son and mine will work and play together as friends with deep respect for one another. If democracy is a lie, and the current government refuses to listen to our voices, our government deserves your hatred and the retaliation that is sure to follow one day soon. Just PLEASE try to remember there are many of us who truly grieve for your plight.

I’m so very sorry, my sister. Please forgive those of us who never wanted this war to begin with. Please forgive those of us who cry with you. I’m sorry…….so damned sorry….

With deepest sorrow and respect,

Jesse, an American mom.

A Great Video Analogy of US Government and We The Sheeple

Was that Obama I saw bottom left? (The lead dog.)

Obama Changes Definition of Change

Art credit: raphaelschild (free for use)

Need a laugh...check out The Onion's article.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/obama_revises_campaign?utm_source=onion_rss_daily