est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

,

Barack Obama's Run For POTUS

Barack ObamaThe most popular discussion around the water cooler, lunch rooms, talk shows and in the blogosphere is the Barack Obama run for President of the United States of America. Many Barbadians are in awe that a Black man in the year 2008 could be challenging for the presidency. Last week, we heard talk show host David Ellis admonished callers who dared to doubt that the Black Obama has a legitimate shot at going all the way. We understand the generalization offered by David Ellis to support his argument at the time that Barbadians are a doubting people. However, the surreal experience which has overwhelmed Barbadians, and dare we say, Black people around the world is a phenomenon to behold. Unlike David Ellis, we can understand why Barbadians could be lulled into thinking that a Black man who is running for the presidency of the USA in 2008 on a anti-Washington and anti-insider platform would doubt a positive outcome.

Our friends over at Barbados Free Press (BFP) wrote a blog last week with the headline, President Barack Obama Would Destroy Barbados Offshore Banking Industry – He Said So!. We understand the thrust of their argument but we don’t agree. To understand why Obama co-sponsored legislation in the US Senate:

Obama and Levin identified us here in Barbados as an “Offshore Secrecy Jurisdiction.” And they were adamant that their law will shut down our international business program. Obama wants all that business done in the United States where he can collect taxes. Mr. Obama’s called us an oasis for abusive tax havens and tax shelters and the emphasis of his bill was to shut down the services, banking and businesses that we provide to offshore investors. He wants to declare these activities illegal and put a stop to them.

We should accept that Obama is an American first who is working to rollout legislation which protect the interest of Americans. The recognition that the United States of America has now become a debtor nation in the world has heightened concern in their legislature about the need to curb the outflow of capital to places they have termed ‘tax havens’. The excess capital which the USA government would have ignored in the old days when they were sitting on a thriving economy is long gone. Of course the mind-set of Obama and other legislators in the USA is also being influenced by the strategy of the 30 richest countries dubbed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of which the USA is a member. It is no secret that the OECD has embraced a strategy of ‘combating international tax evasion by promoting transparency and exchange of information both within and outside the OECD’. The fact that the Barbados authority feels that its offshore legislation does not encourage tax avoidance by US companies is of little comfort to US legislators, who are reacting to stem the flow of capital outflows rather than the plight of politically insignificant states like Barbados.

petreus

Related Links

Obama Supporter In Mega-Inspirational Interview

Barack Obama Is The One

Why Can’t Oprah Winfrey Support The Barack Obama Campaign?

Barack Obama’s Journey Continues ~ Iowa Caucus Victory Speech

David Thompson Suffering From Barack Obama Sickness

Getting back to the doubting Barbadians. Obama is currently being compared to a former President of the United States, John F Kennedy. He was assassinated. He is also being compared to the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King. He was assassinated also. The fear by many is that Obama is currently walking a path which extremists in the USA have shown that they are prepared to resist. The big question is whether the landscape of the USA has changed enough to stomach a Black man running for President. The reality is that Obama like Tiger Woods cannot hide from his Black heritage. However, the ability of Obama to capture the Presidency of the United States can only be accomplished by a broad based support from Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and others.

The quiet hope by countries like Barbados is that Obama will co-op the existing political machinery to go all the way. Then and only then will he respond to the expectations of the developed world by departing from the traditional foreign policy of the United States. The problem with this thinking maybe that the USA has developed visible and invisible institutions which exercise more influence on the governance system in the USA than one man ever can.

54 responses to “Barack Obama's Run For POTUS”

  1. Democrat Avatar
    Democrat

    Obama can never become President. He is untested against the likes of MCCain and even Clinton. White America if he were to win the primaries when they can take a closer look at his ‘nothing’ record will shut him out. Did we say that he is Black to boot?

  2. Linchh Avatar
    Linchh

    David:

    You said:

    “the quiet hope by countries like Barbados is that Obama will co-op the existing political machinery to go all the way. Then and only then will he respond to the expectations of the developed world by departing from the traditional foreign policy of the United States. The problem with this thinking maybe that the USA has developed visible and invisible institutions which exercise more influence on the governance system in the USA than one man ever can.”

    This is one of your better contributions, and is a refreshing read, for some of us who have been fed up with the nonsense spewed by BFP and NFTM on this topic.

    Having lived for a while in the USA, including the years of the Clinton presidency, I feel that having the two Clintons in the White House again would subject countries like Barbados to another round of “smoke and mirrors” diplomacy.

    As to those who look at the foreign policies of other countries purely in terms of what they feel is good for Barbados, I say: get real! The interactions of nations on a global scale is more complex than that. Perhaps, what we need is a course in International Politics 101 for the ordinary man in the street.

  3. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    In recent years there has been a modest amount of coverage in certain sections of the media in Barbados concerning the battle that some Senators in the US Senate, the Canadian Government, the OECD and the Paris Club, has been waging to reverse the fairly well established trend of many corporations previously headquartered in the US, Canada, and Europe, taking anew their headquarters to other places like the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, in order to fundamentally rightly avoid these naturally inhuman and murderous taxation systems that happen to be found in particular Western countries. What must correctly be said at this stage, though, is that wheresover, taxation systems are found across this world, there are indeed fundamentally inhuman, immoral, tyrannical and of imperial design!! So that when these corporations do actually transfer the headquarters to these other relevant countries that still possess such dreaded TAXATION systems, they do so primarily in their own politico-corporate financial interests, interests which have at their core monstrous schemes ” to continue accumulating greater wealth and power on the basis of dominating and exploiting” other weaker corporations, regions and countries, and NOT primarily because they are so bitterly opposed to these TAXATION systems in their own countries or in other countries, and because they are so fundamentally against esp. in regard of other countries’ TAXATION systems, such TAXATION systems that inevitably ultimately help to underwrite the entire huge industrial military complexes and communication enterprises of this Western world of which they are really so intertwined with. What frightening ironies, indeed!!

    Hence, it must be no surprise therefore that many people, many think tanks and many other entities – within the ruling regimes, the core combinations and ideological biases of the elite-dominated hierarchical structures of those big Western societies would constantly be seeking to mainly falsely bring other issues and effects into the picture like: the portraying and labelling negatively of some of these governing authorities that have been headquartering these Western corporations in their countries as TAX HAVENS, in a world where some people still falsely misbelieve that TAXATION is right, and therefore any handing over of money/value by citizens to these wicked states is a matter of their performing a civic duty; the resorting in a nefarious fashion to the compiling of some so-called negative list of countries (Barbados, Cayman Islands included) that provide this Harmful TAX Competition, and thus the proposing of sanctions against countries on the list; the branding of many of these countries as prime targets for money laundering via drug and other illicit activities, so that their own countries and their supranational bodies must make sure that transparency and information sharing regimes by these countries (like said Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda) are put in place in association with these said bigger jurisdictions; altogether these and many more issues in order to deliberately obfuscate the central and indisputable fact that TAXATION SYSTEMS are disgustingly anti-democratic, anti-masses and middle classes in ALL societies in which they operate, and therefore how they primarily exist to callously allow the political economic elites and their supporters to unfairly and wickedly continue their dominance and exploitation of the other classes within these societies.

    Finally, whereby it is clear that US Senators, the Canadian Governments, the OECD, and the Paris Club think they have the power and authority to punish Western corporations for transferring their headquarters to other countries to avoid any specified TAX robberies, we in Barbados and elsewhere have the power and authority to make SURE that these wicked and evil TAXATION Systems are ABOLISHED and replaced by other fairer and more modern ways of States/Governments arriving at their own revenues to pay their own bills and do other things.

    PDC

  4. Kadri Avatar
    Kadri

    did you know too that the secret service back down from the vehicle just before JFK was assassinated? watch the videos and tell me that I was dreaming, it was an inside job obviously. martin luther had no secret service. the current president also suffered an assassination attempt when a guy threw a grenade on his visit to Georgia, but i bet you guys did not know that either, so what is the argument? Obama clearly knows that job takes a risk of being killed, but he is overlooking it and its kinda foolish to be worrying about his assassination possibilities, why? whether you like it or not every single US president’s life is always at stake. its like part of the job description.

    we people tend to think something will happen to us if we meet that great moment of being on top, simply because this is how our minds were fashioned, that if you are black, something bad will happen. my question is, how long are we gonna sit and say we cannot and we will never because of challenges. you people who keep saying its impossible should be still in chains on the plantations, bcos past slaves doubted the existence of emancipation, and today we are free thank god, only if all slaves thought like you doubters, i know today we wont be able to come here and blog,

    just think about it for a while, give de black man a chance, and forget about a word called can’t.

    there is no such word called can’t or never.

  5. Global Voices Online » Barbados, USA: Black President?

    […] are in awe that a Black man in the year 2008 could be challenging for the presidency,” says Barbados Underground. Share […]

  6. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    Linchh i am a little confuse by your comments.

    BFP and NFTM agrees that under a democrat control whitehouse Barbados has not feared well, they both gave policies and initiatives to support their case i.e shiprider, and OECD. You have suggested that their comments are nonsense yet you say that another Clinton in the Whitehouse would subject the caribbean to more “smoke and mirrors”. Are you suggesting that Obama dispite being a Democrat and voting the same as Clinton on OECD would undo what has become traditional Whitehouse policy towards the caribbean?

  7. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    Democrat // March 26, 2008 at 6:35 am

    Obama can never become President. He is untested against the likes of MCCain and even Clinton. White America if he were to win the primaries when they can take a closer look at his ‘nothing’ record will shut him out. Did we say that he is Black to boot?
    =================================

    I am sorry but the majority if not all of the Barbadian political pundits i.e. David Ellis, Linchh, Peter Wickham etc have demonstrated their lack of detail knowledge of the American political scene. To understand why Barack could never win in November even if there was no Jerimiah Whright, or Nafta flap or Resco controversy is the states he won, understanding the difference between a causus vote and primary vote (he won more caususes than primaries) The fact that in the last 50 years no Democrat who lost the primary in Ohio became the president. I am predicting that McCain is most likely to win in November, if there is no Clinton/Obam ticket, and that he will ine if he chooses and gains the acceptance of Colin Powell as his VP inspite of a Clinton Obama Ticket, the odds of which seems very unlikely. 😀

  8. notesfromthemargin Avatar
    notesfromthemargin

    I have to say that people seem to think that an Obama POTUS would be somehow less single minded in pursing the sole interests of the USA than any other democrat president.

    As far as we are concerned in this regard Mr. Obama’s race is (in our opinion) irrelevant, you have to evaluate the prospect of an Obama presidency in the same light as you would any other democrat in the white house.

    Marginal

  9. Linchh Avatar
    Linchh

    Adrian:

    Shame on you for concluding that I have demonstrated my lack of detailed knowledge of the American political from my comment, which you admitted confused you. I was going to explain that what I have learned about the analysis of foreign policy, and my dopelganger wrote a book about it, tells me that a focus on the predelictions of individual Presidents is misguided.

    Incidentally, I did not venture an opinion on Barack Obama’s chances of winning the Presidential election in November 2008, since I have long learned not to confuse my own wishes with reality.

  10. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    The fact that in the last 50 years no Democrat who lost the primary in Ohio became the president.
    ===============================

    My mistake —- this is not true. I should have confirm my recent memory with the real history of Ohio caucuses since 1912. I am wrong.

  11. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    Linchh // March 26, 2008 at 10:47 am

    Adrian:

    Shame on you for concluding that I have demonstrated my lack of detailed knowledge of the American political from my comment, which you admitted confused you. I was going to explain that what I have learned about the analysis of foreign policy, and my dopelganger wrote a book about it, tells me that a focus on the predelictions of individual Presidents is misguided.

    Incidentally, I did not venture an opinion on Barack Obama’s chances of winning the Presidential election in November 2008, since I have long learned not to confuse my own wishes with reality.
    =================================

    Sorry about that my friend. You are correct that you did not address what i use to conclude on your lack of knowledge on American Politics.

  12. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    notesfromthemargin // March 26, 2008 at 10:44 am

    I have to say that people seem to think that an Obama POTUS would be somehow less single minded in pursing the sole interests of the USA than any other democrat president.

    As far as we are concerned in this regard Mr. Obama’s race is (in our opinion) irrelevant, you have to evaluate the prospect of an Obama presidency in the same light as you would any other democrat in the white house.

    Marginal
    =================================

    hey Marginal i did not understand where the objection to your correct Obama assessment was coming from, but then i read Peter Wickham’s false prophesy this morning and it was very clear that there is a lack of real understanding of the facts of past Democratic White houses regarding Caribbean foreign policy, and an even further ignorance of the details of US election methods. I think people rather than look to the facts of your assessment did the simpleton thing of assuming that your are backing the republicans. I say whatever your position, it is irrelevant to the facts of past US Barbados relations under democrat control whitehouses.

  13. The Truth Avatar
    The Truth

    White America will never let this happen….

  14. samizdat Avatar
    samizdat

    Let’s be clear:

    If Obama becomes President, he won’t be the first black man to hold that office.

    He’ll be the first mixed-race man to do so.

    An obvious point maybe, but one that’s not made often enough…

  15. David Avatar
    David

    samizdat that Black President who held office back then does not count!

  16. SISTER BABY Avatar
    SISTER BABY

    Well Samizdat, I don’t know if you know this, but in America you are black even if you only have an once of black blood in you. If you are are black and white or black and chinese, all the white man in Ameica sees is black. A long time ago Walter White the head of the NAACP was struck down by a motor car in Altanta, (in those days the US had hospitals for black people and others and hospitals for white people) and Walter, who was a person that looked like PM Thompson was rushed to the white section of Grady Hospital, but when Walter’s black family came to see him the white doctors sent him to the coloured section. So the point is here is that when it comes to black people it does not matter whether you are a 1/4 black 1/8 black 1/16 black, the white people in America only see black. And by the way I am a black Guyanese writing this, black and Guyanese and proud.

  17. SISTER BABY Avatar
    SISTER BABY

    I read an article yesterday in the New York Times, (you see I am worldly Guyanese) which said Senator Obama’s family is quite international. Barack senior, the Dad upon divorcing Barrack’s white American mother went back to Nairobi and married an English woman and from relation Barrack has a half brother who is married to a Chinese woman and they live in Beijing China. It went on to say that his Indonesian half brother is married to a Japanese and lives in Tokyo and then he has a half sister that lives in Nairobi. Very interesting, you should go to New York Times and read it. They also said that Senator Obama is a cousin to US Vice President Cheney and cousins to the present US president and his father the former US president and cousin to American movie star Brad Pitt.

  18. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    In the world of politics – like life – evaluation of situations should be made in order to take appropriate action.

    Barack Obama is a skilled politician that is undoubtedly the case, he certainly would not be in his present position unless he was, he is also inexperienced but that is not always a handicap, victory often depends on circumstances and time.

    To try and evaluate his chances of becoming President of America, as one would any other candidate running for presidential office, is not necessarily having doubt about black people’s abilities or Obama in particular. It is making an objective analysis of the situation, without being influenced by other irrelevant factors, that is what professionals do daily in their professional capacity… or should do.

    As a black person I would like him to become president, I must confess my desire for such a victory goes beyond the objective analysis I previously mentioned. However I know that Obama if elected will be President of America and his allegiance will be to the American people who elected him, and so it should be.

    To believe his politics will be dictated only by the colour of his skin, is not to give him any credit at all.

    He will be expected to be president of a people all of them, his skill and ability will be determined by how he includes the movers and shakers in Washington, in a cycle of change which through fairness and equality will give real meaning to the lives of many black Americans.

    Within a global context ,a spin off will be a perception that people of colour are able to competently manage the affairs of state, of a “major” country on the world stage.

  19. samizdat Avatar
    samizdat

    David….:)

    And yeah guys, I know what you mean – that he’s perceived as black.

    But Obama seems (like me) to be at ease with both sides of his family – and that seems to me a point worth remembering (and hopefully will be by the electorate come November…)

  20. Supporter Avatar
    Supporter

    Interesrting that Obama the JUNIOR Senator was way behind the SENIOR SENATOR at the start of the race. Interesting that a Black man was behind a WHITE woman in the USA in the race. Interesting that Obama was behind Clinton by double digits earlier in the race but now she is playing catchup. What does this tell you?

    CLINTON IS A WEAK CANDIDATE!

  21. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    They are both weak candidates. If Barack was not a black man he wouldn’t have gotten this far, and if Hillary was not a woman with the last name Clinton she would not be this far either. All three candidates are weak. McCain’s pandering to the international community does not sit well with Americans either.

  22. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    It seems that the Democratic contest has become too acrimonious and thus divisive to the party, in as much as whoever wins the loser’s supporters will not vote for the chosen one.

    So McCain will beat either of the damaged winners.

    At least that is the Democratic Party leadership’s judgement.

    So their answer is to instruct the super delegates to withold their endorsement of the two combatants and roll out the annointed Al Gore, the man who went out with a whimper when George Bush blatantly stole the crown from him in 2000.

    Their solution Gore-Clinton or Gore-Obama, don’t matter which to them because the shadow government will retain the final say.

    Not saying it will happen, just that it could ‘cos that is how power works in the US.

  23. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    Where is this talk about Gore coming from?????

  24. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    Where is this talk about Gore coming from?????

    Adrian, just reading between the lines for their Plan B.

  25. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    From what I read, the latest Democrat Party private polls suggest that, following these bruising primaries, over 30% of each candidate’s supporters would refuse to vote for the other in November.

    This, should it happen, would lead to a clear run in for McCain.

  26. Citizen First Avatar
    Citizen First

    to Adrian Hinds re Gore

    see
    http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1725678,00.html

  27. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    In the Youtube video above PBS host Tavis Smiley, a guest on Bill Mahr’s show “Real Time”, explains to Bill that Obama’s Pastor Wright’s comments re. the US are not out of line with the teaching and words of Martin Luther King. Mahr also gets a bit of a shock when Tavis refuses to endorse the conventional lone assassin explanation of the MLK shooting. I guess Mahr was unaware that a jury determined that MLK was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy in which US government agencies were involved. More details on that here if anyone is interested
    http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKactOstate.html
    Also some excerpts from this jury trial are also posted on Youtube. You can see them here:
    http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=reprehensor

  28. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    CF:

    Had not read that article, yet it seems to be an idea that has been widely spread to the media for them to float, and check on the reactions.

  29. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    WHO RULES AMERICA

    It is no coincidence that Eisenhower waited until three days before leaving office to warn America about the US military-industrial complex. A military man himself, Eisenhower felt it necessary to warn the country of the unwarranted influence and intrusion of military and industrial [sic business] interests that were then colluding to hijack the future liberties and prosperity of America.

    Eisenhower’s warnings were not conclusions he had reached just before his presidency ended. They were conclusions Eisenhower had reached during his eight years as president, years spent observing how the business of government was conducted and who profited by its activities.

    Eisenhower knew that even as President of the US, he did not possess the requisite power to openly oppose the powerful interests that were even then spending the US into insolvency. So President Eisenhower waited until the very end of his last term to warn America of the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

    Eisenhower was right not to openly challenge the military-industrial complex. The man who succeeded Eisenhower as president, John F. Kennedy, did. But those who wield the real power behind the government’s facade of democratic fair and equal rule were not to be trifled with then. They are not to be trifled with now.

    REAL RULERS REAL POLOTIK

    The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.

    US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter

    US President Woodrow Wilson also spoke of the real rulers in Washington DC decades before Eisenhower and Kennedy were to encounter them. In his preface to The New Freedom: A Call For The Emancipation Of The Generous Energies Of A People, Wilson wrote:

    Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

    These are not words of an imprudent man. They are the words of a US President who cared enough about his country to warn of the dangers lurking behind its illusory façade of law, liberty, justice and equality for all. Dangers of which Americans were unaware of then—and of which the vast majority are still unaware of now.

    http://www.kitco.com/ind/schoon/mar312008.html

    As well as reading the above article, everyone should watch the video documentary, “The Money Masters.” If you have a high speed internet connection you can watch it on linr here.

    http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.12.%20MoneyMasters.htm

  30. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    Straight Talk: there buried in that article are the words of the Author which you should use to premise this talk about Gore,…and i want to stress on his use of “PROPOUND FOOLISH THEORIES”

    “It’s the moment when pundits demand action—”Drop out, Hillary!”—and propound foolish theories. And so I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I’m slouching toward, well, a theory: if this race continues to slide downhill, the answer to the Democratic Party’s dilemma may turn out to be Al Gore.
    =================================

    There is no basis in the rules of the Democratic National Party from which to realize this theory. To concider it is to give it a thought that it does not warrant, and what of the man himself? On last night 60 minutes show he pretty much said that there isn’t much of a possibility of him reentering politics, he does not miss it, and given his fame and fortune both coming after politics why shoud he?

  31. David Avatar
    David

    We watched a very interesting documentary on one of the channels recently which highlighted the intrigue and clandistine manuverings by the power brokers in the Bush administration leading up to the Iraq war and even in the post war situation. The sidelining of Rice and Power as the expense of Rumsfeld, Tenet and Cheney was a revelation. It begs the question how can rice continue to function given her dismal role as National Security Advisor during that period. In fact we can question why Powell is still a Republic after the huniiation which he had to endure when he delivered the now famous fabricated speech. This is recommended viewing for all those who are naive in the ways of world politics.

  32. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    Colin Powell has a record going back to his days in Vietnam of not being a boat rocker and being willing to provide cover for his bosses.

    Behind Colin Powell’s Legend — My Lai

    By Robert Parry & Norman Solomon

    SNIP

    By late 1968, Powell had jumped over more senior officers into the important post of G-3, chief of operations for division commander, Maj. Gen. Charles Gettys, at Chu Lai. Powell had been “picked by Gen. Gettys over several lieutenant colonels for the G-3 job itself, making me the only major filling that role in Vietnam,” Powell wrote in his memoirs.

    But a test soon confronted Maj. Powell. A letter had been written by a young specialist fourth class named Tom Glen, who had served in an Americal mortar platoon and was nearing the end of his Army tour. In a letter to Gen. Creighton Abrams, the commander of all U.S. forces in Vietnam, Glen accused the Americal division of routine brutality against civilians. Glen’s letter was forwarded to the Americal headquarters at Chu Lai where it landed on Maj. Powell’s desk.

    “The average GI’s attitude toward and treatment of the Vietnamese people all too often is a complete denial of all our country is attempting to accomplish in the realm of human relations,” Glen wrote. “Far beyond merely dismissing the Vietnamese as ‘slopes’ or ‘gooks,’ in both deed and thought, too many American soldiers seem to discount their very humanity; and with this attitude inflict upon the Vietnamese citizenry humiliations, both psychological and physical, that can have only a debilitating effect upon efforts to unify the people in loyalty to the Saigon government, particularly when such acts are carried out at unit levels and thereby acquire the aspect of sanctioned policy.”

    Glen’s letter contended that many Vietnamese were fleeing from Americans who “for mere pleasure, fire indiscriminately into Vietnamese homes and without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves.” Gratuitous cruelty was also being inflicted on Viet Cong suspects, Glen reported.

    Fired with an emotionalism that belies unconscionable hatred, and armed with a vocabulary consisting of ‘You VC,’ soldiers commonly ‘interrogate’ by means of torture that has been presented as the particular habit of the enemy. Severe beatings and torture at knife point are usual means of questioning captives or of convincing a suspect that he is, indeed, a Viet Cong…

    SNIP

    The letter’s troubling allegations were not well received at Americal headquarters. Maj. Powell undertook the assignment to review Glen’s letter, but did so without questioning Glen or assigning anyone else to talk with him. Powell simply accepted a claim from Glen’s superior officer that Glen was not close enough to the front lines to know what he was writing about, an assertion Glen denies.

    After that cursory investigation, Powell drafted a response on Dec. 13, 1968. He admitted to no pattern of wrongdoing. Powell claimed that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were taught to treat Vietnamese courteously and respectfully. The Americal troops also had gone through an hour-long course on how to treat prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, Powell noted.

    “There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs,” Powell wrote in 1968. But “this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the Division.” Indeed, Powell’s memo faulted Glen for not complaining earlier and for failing to be more specific in his letter.

    Powell reported back exactly what his superiors wanted to hear. “In direct refutation of this [Glen’s] portrayal,” Powell concluded, “is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent.”

    Powell’s findings, of course, were false. But it would take another Americal hero, an infantryman named Ron Ridenhour, to piece together the truth about the atrocity at My Lai. After returning to the United States, Ridenhour interviewed Americal comrades who had participated in the massacre.

    http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

  33. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    Adrian:

    Contrary to your understanding that there isn’t much of a possibility of him reentering politics, Gore went on record recently stating that there was only one job, the presiency, which would entice him back to politics.

    As to no possibility, what would happen, in your opinion, if say a hundred super-delegates withheld their support from Clinton and Obama?

  34. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    David, if the documentary on the Iraq war you are referring to in your post above is the one from “Frontline” on PBS, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern wrote a review on it and was not impressed. He felt it did not go far enough.

    Too Timid, Too Little and Too Late

    Frontline’s War

    By RAY McGOVERN
    Former CIA Analyst

    Frontline’s “Bush’s War” on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players’ trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing, and limitless incompetence of the occupation.

    Except for an inside-the-beltway tidbit here and there-for example, about how the pitiable secretary of state Colin Powell had to suffer so many indignities at the hands of other type-A hard chargers, Frontline added little to the discussion. Notably missing was any allusion to the unconscionable role the Fourth Estate adopted as indiscriminate cheerleader for the home team; nor was there any mention that the invasion was a serious violation of international law. But those omissions, I suppose, should have come as no surprise.

    Nor was it a surprise that any viewer hoping for insight into why Cheney and Bush were so eager to attack Iraq was left with very thin gruel. It was more infotainment, bereft of substantive discussion of the whys and wherefores of what in my view is the most disastrous foreign policy move in our nation’s history.

    Continued at:
    http://www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern03262008.html

  35. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    Straight talk // March 31, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    Adrian:

    Contrary to your understanding that there isn’t much of a possibility of him reentering politics, Gore went on record recently stating that there was only one job, the presiency, which would entice him back to politics.

    As to no possibility, what would happen, in your opinion, if say a hundred super-delegates withheld their support from Clinton and Obama?
    =================================

    I don’t know what the DNC rules call for, in such a case, but i would guess that from your scenario that the remainder 700 super-delegates votes would count, bu whatever the empasse that you may conjur up to possibly occur with in the Halls of the DNC will not stop the November national election, and if John McCain appears on the Ballot without a Democratic contender, and there isn’t a “write in” candidate gathering more votes than him, then the Electorial college will have no other choice than to rubber stamp the will of the people.

    There is nothing within the rules of the DNC that produce a Democratic Presidential contender name Al Gore at this very late stage. Without a Legal challenge, and with super delegates enforcing the will of caucuas, democratic primary voters, and elected delegates, Barack will emerge as the nominee. He will then go on to lose in the national election. He won the democratic primaries and caucuses in majority republican states.

  36. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    Adrian,

    Thanks for your take on it.

    Che sera sera.

  37. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    Who would Martin Luther King support for president today?

    By Weldon Burger

    I ask who among our current-day political leaders Martin Luther King might support; the more appropriate question is who among them would have the courage to embrace a living King as eagerly as they drape themselves in the dead one’s memory. I’m drawing a blank.

    Much of the commentary on the anniversary of King’s assassination focuses upon the direction he took in the last years of his life, speaking out against the Vietnam war specifically and state-sponsored violence in general, and attempting to broaden the movement that coalesced around him to include economically oppressed people of every color, not just the racially oppressed ones for whom he advocated so powerfully. He wanted to recast the political and social values of the country to the benefit not just of the disenfranchised here, but for those abroad who suffered from our own and similar military and corporate depredations.

    Among the leading presidential contenders, only John Edwards brought even a fraction of King’s outrage and conscience to bear on the economic inequalities that continue to plague and, in many ways, cripple the US. None of the candidates show any sign of feeling the grief and rage King would have felt at what we have done and continue doing to the people of Iraq: hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, millions more robbed of fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers, many millions more robbed of their livelihood, their security and any semblance of a normal life.

    Can anyone imagine Martin Luther King failing to address the debt we’ve incurred to the Iraqis? or failing to note the uses to which the hundreds of billions of US dollars and tens of thousands of US lives thrown away on the occupation could have been put? or failing to speak out in the strongest possible terms against US policies of kidnapping, torture and perpetual detention beyond the rule of law?

    And now, can you imagine Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama embracing what King would have to say? (Never mind John McCain …)

    http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/13883

  38. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    Some will always walk in the shadows of great men, but in their foot steps “never” but perhaps we ask too much of others, there are only a few great men, that is why they are great.

    Perhaps the great man Dr. Martin Luther King would embrace one who could honestly say he/she was about:

    “…No we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down the waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”…

    Dr. Martin Luther King
    August 28, 1963

  39. David Avatar
    David

    History will indelibly record the courage which MLK would have demonstrated for nearly eleven years in his civil rights struggle. No many mortals would commit their lifes to such a life of struggle using unconventional means to do so i.e.non-violence.

    John McCain and other leading law makers in the US should be called to account for initially opposing the national posthumous recognition bestowed on MLK. Seems opportunistic that McCain would want to jump on the band wagon at this stage. This is a man who knew that he was doomed to die at any minute. The thought of it increases the respect we have for what the man has achieve in such a short time of life.

  40. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    Martin Luther King? Who dah was?

    Coleen Rowley: “…Just Denounce the Pacifists for Lack of Patriotism…”

    How uncanny that exactly 40 years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated during the Vietnam War (and some think possibly because of his opposition to the Vietnam War), we would turn on our radios to hear a Twin Cities radio host re-applying the principles of Hermann Goering to plans for the upcoming anti-war march on the Republican National Convention (RNC). If you listen (here), you won’t hear anything resembling “Minnesota Nice” on Chris Baker’s show yesterday, the program that comes on before Rush Limbaugh’s. His vitriolic, denouncing rants came in bursts between interviews with a Minneapolis Assistant Police Chief and Minneapolis Police Federation President John Delmonico as to how the right-wing radio host “can’t stand these protesting varmints”, “these spitting, frothing at the mouth lunatics”, including his opinion that “protesting is an industry funded by billionaires and communist organizations (and) they are well coordinated and incredibly dangerous.”

    Baker’s tirades were sparked by a Star Tribune newspaper article that reported apparent disagreements between Minneapolis police officials as to whether police officers patrolling at the time of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul should be armed with riot helmets, chemical spray and Taser guns for use on protesters.

    The radio talk host demonstrated little effort to engage in legitimate debate on these issues and soon transcended from merely disparaging remarks to something far worse, coming very close to, if not crossing the line, of basically inciting violence against those he called the “stinky protesters.”

    After Delmonico agreed that “one of the (protesters’) main missions is destruction,” Baker added, “You must have order, you cannot have a civilized society without order and if that means cracking a few skulls, so be it…a good ole boy network is what you need and hand out some ax handles.”

    The absolutely worst tirade, however, comes towards the end of the program after the interviews with the police, when KTLK host Chris Baker lets go with this ostensible incitement to violence: “So we’ve been talking about police protection during the upcoming convention when all those stinky protesters are coming. There seems to be a big debate over whether or not police officers will be able to wear helmets, carry shields, use pepper spray and tasers on this crowd. You know, I’ll tell you what works on a crowd like this–a machine gun, that always works very well.”

    “Mow ’em down, baby!” excitedly adds Baker’s co-host “Jordan”.

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3113201&mesg_id=3113201

    In case anyone doesn’t get the reference in the title, “just deonounce the pacificst for lack of patriotism”. It refers to a post-war statement by Nazi Luftwaffe chief and Hitler henchman Herman Goering to a French author, Gustave Gilbert, as Goering explained how easy it was to get a country’s population onside for a war.

    Goering: “Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

    http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.asp

  41. Adrian Avatar
    Adrian

    David // April 6, 2008 at 7:34 am

    History will indelibly record the courage which MLK would have demonstrated for nearly eleven years in his civil rights struggle. No many mortals would commit their lifes to such a life of struggle using unconventional means to do so i.e.non-violence.

    John McCain and other leading law makers in the US should be called to account for initially opposing the national posthumous recognition bestowed on MLK. Seems opportunistic that McCain would want to jump on the band wagon at this stage. This is a man who knew that he was doomed to die at any minute. The thought of it increases the respect we have for what the man has achieve in such a short time of life.
    =================================

    A politician being opportunistic, wuh David you seem surprise. Are you still wondering why Hillary keeps telling lie after lie? Landing in Bosnia under fire, wanting to join the Marines at some point in her life, etc. These three candidates are extremly poor candidates, and as such i expect Ralph Nader to gain his highest number of votes ever, come November. 😀

  42. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    John McCain and other leading law makers in the US should be called to account for initially opposing the national posthumous recognition bestowed on MLK. Seems opportunistic that McCain would want to jump on the band wagon at this stage. This is a man who knew that he was doomed to die at any minute. The thought of it increases the respect we have for what the man has achieve in such a short time of life.

    If Martin Luther King were alive today, you can be sure that most if not all the prominent politicians and commentators who, now that he is dead, sing his praises and make fine speeches about him and his movement would at best avoid associating with him and at worst probably call for him to be locked up and interrogated at Guantanamo.

    If you have a high speed connection, watch this unedited video of a Fox reporter interviewing a Catholic priest who was defending Obama’s pastor Rev. Wright on camera. About the last 30 seconds is the best part when the reporter tries to compare Rev. Wright negatively to Martin Luther King. The Catholic father really lets the Fox guy have it as he enlightens him as to what Martin Luther King stood for in his life and how in his death his memory has been sanitized by the media and politicians to avoid dealing with the entirety of his message.

    http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?videoId=1fd1c0cf-5c80-4d75-996f-bd53b2461ae0&sMPlaylistID=

  43. The scout Avatar
    The scout

    What MIXED race? Obama Is a black man. Most of us bajans who call ourselves black are tainted with european blood.

  44. Maxine Cadogan Avatar
    Maxine Cadogan

    All Obama is trying to do is to see. If he can help the younth people of this country and the old people, becuse things over past years. Has go down hill for many of the poor people, and he sadden to what happing in the USA. With the jobs, Health care and social security. And the wealth people is rich. And as for Ted the senior of Mass my prays go out him we need people like him around for the people I hop he will get over his cancre problem , and be back on his feet because the people need a good man like him for the people in the senate.

  45. Maxine Cadogan Avatar
    Maxine Cadogan

    All Obama is trying to do is to see. If he can help the younth people of this country and the old people, becuse things over past years. Has go down hill for many of the poor people, and he sadden to what happing in the USA. With the jobs, Health care and social security. And the wealth people is rich. And as for Ted the senior of Mass my prays go out him we need people like him around for the people I hop he will get over his cancre problem , and be back on his feet because the people need a good man like him for the people in the senate.

  46. how can i learn electronics Avatar
    how can i learn electronics

    This excellent website truly has all the information and facts I needed concerning this subject and didn’t know
    who to ask.

  47. fat burner Avatar
    fat burner

    Hi! I know this is kinda ooff topic but I was wondering if you knew wherfe I could find
    a captcha plugtin for my comjent form? I’m
    using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having trouble finding one?
    Thanks a lot!

  48. hatchback buyers Avatar
    hatchback buyers

    Fantastic point. Couldn’t agree more.

  49. Kidseurofestival.org Avatar
    Kidseurofestival.org

    In order to work 50 weeks a year, you’re going to have
    to work 30 weeks; in order to work 30 weeks, you’ll likely have
    to work 10. If I knew how to bake cookies, I would do that and send
    over a care package but Im much better at telling
    jokes so I go there and entertain, shake hands and thank the men and women
    who serve our country. These surgeries are a matter of personal preference, peer pressure from fellow entertainers and the need
    to maintain an unrealistic image that is associated with them.

  50. http://thehotzoneusa.com Avatar
    http://thehotzoneusa.com

    True, there are comedians that cuss a lot, but
    you got to earn that right before you do that. his comic roles in movies like Hungama, Waqt: The Race against Time, Malamaal.
    Do some research and find out as much as you can about each open mic –
    try to find the one that is most positively reviewed, gets the
    biggest crowd and that is attended by the most comedians.

1 2
Newer Comments

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading