Four Plus Years

It's the dull period between the Garden of Eden and the day Planet Earth at last keels over and bites the dust, not able to recoup from the high temperature of the debilitated ozone layer, the toxic substances buzzing around and water, and the immaculate disgrace of being connected with those unpleasant animals known as individuals.

I was one of the professors, holding out trust until the end, or at any rate until Hope herself ended up being one more tricky prostitute bound to deceive you at the most vital minute. At the same time there did appear to be motivation to accept. John Zogby anticipated a Kerry win. The Senator trounced Bush in three back to back open deliberations. Ronald Reagan's own particular child talked at the Democratic tradition. Seeker S. Thompson guaranteed that the Dems would walk on a street of bones. Indeed a nattering chihuahua like Tucker Carlson and the sexually freak Bill O'reilly, long time adherents of the elephant party communicated ambivelance at the possibility of voting in favor of an awkward liar like W. John Kerry was uncovered to be in any event a couple of inches taller than Bush.

There was one heavenly minute at around midnight when CNN published Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire for Kerry inside a compass of five minutes. The race had at long last limited. In the event that you listened nearly, and if the wind was simply right where you were, you could here Karl Rove's minor dark heart avoid a thumped. At the same time at the same time there was Ohio, throwing a shadow over the race like God's close to home sledge of demolition. I had floated into a delightful slumber for a couple of minutes, however Ohio was the ruthless reminder that kept me up until five in the morning.

I attempted alternate systems, trusting that some of them had it closer. NBC was my last trust, notwithstanding a closer edge, then in any event for some anecdote about voter intimidation, fixed machines, or Jeb Bush's mournful admission that he brought on the sea tempests to reinforce help for his sibling. I pressed the catches on my remote and gazed into according to Rudy Giulianni, the one I despise above all.

Giulianni looks like a ventriliquist sham who has changed into a true individual through some mysterious function and got away from his ventriliquist expert to seek after a lifetime of tormenting little creatures and attacking anything remotely great or truthful. Shrubbery is President." Do you imagine that when Kennedy was being assasinated in Dealey Plaza 41 years prior that Jackie Kennedy screamed, "thank God for the Secret Service!" She didn't say that, on the grounds that that would be crazy. Obviously, the pack in New York, the teary looked at, blue grass music cherishing riffraff, the living extreme lethargies patients slurped up the soft pablum like the wiped out men and ladies that they are.

Playing at a theater close you, 'The Godfather Part III.' I adored that film yesterday, yet today the main thing about it I like is that the Godfather at last drops dead at the end. Regularly Giulianni was correct. Retreat. Surrender. Fate.

Hedge is President."

Four years prior things were diverse. Not great, however far, far superior than today. Squatting laws did not make a difference. Exuberant security gatekeepers were sent to one of the numerous annonymous protester camps that dab the nation so unfavorably.

"Anyway sir, by what method would you be able to take office in these conditions?"

They stole the Strength of the most influential nation on the planet. Yet they didn't take the spirit of the nation. They didn't need to. It was a blessing. They'll need to proclaim it on their 1040's, yet Haliburton has enough bookkeepers to verify no assessments will must be paid on the souls.

Soccer Moms, Nascar Dads, and an unusual faction calling themselves 'the Evangelical Christians' doled out the spirit of a country that had the opportunity to do something extraordinary. Whatever you may say in regards to our Massachussets flip flopper, our lesser of two indecencies, he has said one incredible things throughout his life, and I couldn't care less on the off chance that it was thirty years back, its still one more than any other person in the race.

"How would we ask somebody to be the last individual to bite the dust in Vietnam? How would we ask somebody to be the last individual to pass on for an error?"

On an alternate note, the military vote is relied upon to influence intensely for Bush.

There are different components in the race, Terresa Heinz Kerry getting an abundance of negative exposure for being a ridiculously wealthy ketchup beneficiary who swears at the odd columnist and Lynn Cheney getting almost no reputation for sitting on the Board of titan weapons foreman Lockheed Martin in a glaring clash of investment. If she had advised somebody to push it.

Jesus, John Lennon and the everlasting seperation nervousness. I understand they may not appear as though they have much in like manner, what with John Lennon saying things like 'Give peace a chance,' and Jesus Christ supporting a preemptive strike in Iraq and pardoning the Abu Grai

The Minority Report

"The Minority Report" is a 1956 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in Fantastic Universe. The story is about a future society where murders are prevented through the efforts of three mutants who can see the future. Paradoxes and alternate realities are created by the precognition of crimes when the chief of police intercepts a precognition that he is about to murder a man he has never met. The story also touches upon the dangers of a powerful post-war military during peacetime. Like many stories dealing with knowledge of future events, "The Minority Report" questions the existence of free will. In 2002, the story was adapted into a film directed by Steven Spielberg.

Minority group

A minority group is a sociological category within a demographic. Rather than a relational "social group", as the term would indicate, the term refers to a category that is differentiated and defined by the social majority, that is, those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society. The differentiation can be based on one or more observable human characteristics, including, for example, ethnicity, race, gender, wealth or sexual orientation. Usage of the term is applied to various situations and civilizations within history, despite its popular mis-association with a numerical, statistical minority. In the social sciences, the term "minority" is used to refer to categories of persons who hold few positions of social power.

The term "minority group" often occurs alongside a discourse of civil rights and collective rights which gained prominence in the 20th century. Members of minority groups are prone to different treatment in the countries and societies in which they live. This discrimination may be directly based on an individual's perceived membership of a minority group, without consideration of that individual's personal achievement. It may also occur indirectly, due to social structures that are not equally accessible to all. Activists campaigning on a range of issues may use the language of minority rights, including student rights, consumer rights and animal rights.

Iran new U.S. whipping boy

Did Iran help al-Qaida stage the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States?

Perhaps, suggested the U.S. 9/11 commission. It claimed Iran allowed eight al-Qaida future airplane hijackers to pass through Iran from Afghanistan between seven and 11 months prior to the attacks on America.

Unnamed senior Bush administration officials also claim Iran proposed collaborating with al-Qaida in 2000, but was rejected by Osama bin Laden. "Maybe we attacked the wrong country," one of the dimmer lights in Congress ruefully observed.

There has been no real evidence produced that Iran knew of the 9/11 attacks or assisted them. In fact, the Bush administration has still never produced the white paper promised by Colin Powell in late 2001 proving bin Laden and al-Qaida were behind 9/11.

Why would Iran, knowing it was in Bush's gunsights, join in a monstrous terrorist attack that, if linked to Tehran, could have conceivably brought U.S. nuclear retaliation?
This column has long predicted the Bush administration would orchestrate a pre-election crisis over Iran designed to whip up patriotic fervour in the U.S. and distract public and media attention from the Iraq fiasco.

The growing clamour over Iran's nuclear intentions, with rumblings about air strikes against Iran's reactors in the fall, may prove to be a part of just such a manufactured crisis.
Remember, these latest fevered claims about Iran come from the same "reliable intelligence sources" and neo-conservative hawks who insisted Iraq had a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that threatened the U.S., with intimate links to al-Qaida.

The Iran-Afghan border is 1,000 km of wild, broken terrain that is extremely difficult to police. Large numbers of smugglers cross this border on countless hidden trails, bringing hashish and gems into Iran. The U.S., with fleets of planes, helicopters and sensors, cannot stop a flood of undocumented Mexicans crossing its own southwestern borders.
Why should the poorly equipped Iranians do any better?

Didn't these same 9/11 hijackers also enter the U.S. unchallenged? Of course. They slipped unnoticed into Iran and the U.S. No one knew their intentions. This is the most likely explanation.

Iran does not have a unified government. This nation of 72.5 million is afflicted by feuding factions that have produced a state of political chaos. Iran has certainly been involved in acts of terrorism, notably against Jews in Argentina.

And militants from the intelligence service or Pasdarann (Revolutionary Guards), might have let al-Qaida mujahidin slip across the border without Tehran's knowledge.
But far more important are two key facts that most media and the government aren't telling you.

First, Iran and al-Qaida were bitter enemies.

In Afghanistan, al-Qaida ardently backed the Pushtun-dominated, Sunni Taliban movement, which hated Shia as heretics and killed large numbers of them. Shia Iran (and Russia) armed and supported the Taliban's greatest foe, Ahmad Shah Massoud and his Northern Alliance, composed of Dari (a Persian dialect)-speaking Tajiks, Afghan communists, and Shia. Massoud was a long-time collaborator with Soviet/Russian intelligence.

After the Taliban killed a group of Iranian intelligence agents, Iran almost invaded Afghanistan to overthrow them.

Just before 9/11, al-Qaida assassinated Massoud.

Iran quietly aided the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that overthrew the Taliban, and jailed scores of al-Qaida members, including one of bin Laden's sons.

Active Iranian co-operation with al-Qaida seems illogical. Of course my enemy's enemy is my friend, and collaboration was theoretically possible, but Iran derived no benefit whatever from the 9/11 attacks -- quite the contrary.

Second, the Bush administration and former Clinton officials are trading accusations that the other was responsible for failing to take action against al-Qaida and its Taliban allies prior to 9/11.

But what no one admits is that both administrations sent millions in aid to the Taliban until four months before 9/11.

How May I Help You?

"They know we own their country. We own their airspace...We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need.” US Brig. General William Looney (sic), Washington Post, 24/6/1996.

Last Tuesday while working at my parent’s business I came upon the most interesting customer.  Since business was a bit slow at the time, I indulged in a conversation with a client, which ranged from talking about everything from Canada Day to Euro 2004.  The highlight of the conversation was upon her finding out that I was a student, and she asked me, what it was that I was studying? To this question I replied like always, “Middle Eastern Studies.”  She seemed both puzzled and surprised at my response.  Then she uttered a statement, which I will not forget for at least a little while to come, she asked, “Why would you want to study something like that…I mean there is always a war going on there and the people are always going around bombing and killing one another?”

The first thought that entered my mind was, bravo to CNN and the rest of Western media, they surely were doing a great job of portraying the Middle East as a place where its only export to the world was violence and terrorism.  Truth be told, I am tired of playing the role of ambassador to the Middle East and more specifically to Iran.  I no longer have the patience to explain that the Islam of Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, or that of the Iranian government is not the same religion practiced by millions and millions of Muslims around the world.  Secondly, I no longer have the endurance to explain the difference between an Arab and an Iranian, or a Turk, and/or any other diverse ethnic group that makes up the one billion adherents of Islam.  Thirdly, I no longer have the energy to explain that just because someone is from the Middle East it does not make them automatically a practicing Muslim.  Lastly, I no longer have the will to explain that just because someone is Muslim, it does not mean that he or she wakes up each morning and opens up the Koran, to check on its instructions on how to go about their regular daily activities.

As time seemed to freeze at that moment, I was reminded of an email one of my friends had sent me not to long ago; and it asked the most vivid questions one could imagine…

 “Why a nun can be covered from head to toe and she's respected for devoting herself to God, but then a Muslim woman does that, she's considered oppressed?”

“When a western woman stays at home to look after the house and kids she is sacrificing herself and doing good for the household, but when a Muslim woman does so; why does she need to be liberated?”

“When a Christian kills someone, religion is not mentioned, (i.e. Ireland and the IRA) but when a Muslim is charged with a crime, why is it that Islam goes to trial?”
Finally, as I glanced up at the woman I noticed she had realized I was not too pleased by her question.  Even worse by now she had become conscious of the fact that I may have had a Middle Eastern background.  Much worse was the fact that I am sure she had concluded I was also Muslim; thus at any moment now I could blow up both of us into pieces.

Ultimately, I decided to put her nerves at ease and spoke, “The reason as to why I am interested in the Middle East is to answer the question, as to what direct consequences European and American imperial interests have had in the development of the region in conjunction with political, economic, and social spheres of life.”

Before she had the opportunity to reply, a number of other customers walked into the premises.  Hence, whether it was her fortune or mine our conservation came to a close.  In the end, I am still amazed at the propaganda that the Western media is able to portray about the Middle East.  And I wonder if there will ever be any medium that will be able to combat the sheer strength of this disease?