Friday, April 04, 2008

The Two Faces of A Deceiver

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As Martin Luther King said, silence is betrayal. The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government... This way of settling differences is not just. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. This madness must cease. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation, the initiative to stop this war must be ours.


On Tuesday April 8, 2008, Norman Solomon will be the guest on the Basham & Cornell Radio Show, heard weekday mornings at 8 a.m. on 1230 AM KLAV in Las Vegas.

Norman Solomon is the founder and executive director of the “Institute for Public Accuracy,” a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts. The latest collection of his columns won the 1999 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. He has authored eleven books, including The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media and Target Iraq: What the Media Didn’t Tell You.

His book “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” was published in 2005. It has recently been turned into a documentary film, narrated by actor Sean Penn.

The Los Angeles Times called “War Made Easy” "brutally persuasive" and "a must-read for those who would like greater context with their bitter morning coffee, or to arm themselves for the debates about Iraq that are still to come."

The film “War Made Easy” exposes a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.

War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon’s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past.

The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 am Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern). All shows are simulcast on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at www.BashamAndCornell.com


Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has been making his rounds across America getting the public “introduced” to John McCain. This tour is filled with stories of war, clips of violence and a continued emphasis on John McCain the “warrior.”

It was the “Straight Talk Express” as portrayed verbally by McCain and his comrades in the media who have seemed to enhance the image of glamour regarding McCain and his desire for war.

McCain has strangely embraced the policies of George W Bush who essentially gutted the candidate McCain in the 2000 primaries, thus ending his first saga of power and dominance of America.

McCain boasts of a legacy of service and war, having a father and grandfather who were supposedly admirals in the Navy. McCain grew up with the proverbial daddy getting him through life syndrome.

It was the angry McCain who needed his daddy’s help to get him into the naval academy, and it was with his daddy’s help that made sure he graduated since he was a less than stellar cadet.

McCain has constantly been called a hero for his prisoner of war status in Vietnam, when in reality he is said to have gave the enemy secrets and in return they gave him favorable treatment. McCain no longer was tortured and the enemy found a source of information.

McCain did vote against Reagan’s decision to deploy troops to Lebanon in 1983 in his first year of congress. McCain made other similar votes of opposition in the early years of his political career, hoping to be noticed by the media for something greater in the future.

McCain became an adulterer having an extended affair during his first marriage, with wealthy heiress Cindy Hensley, whose father was a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor.

In fact Cindy McCain is said to have a fortune exceeding $100 million and growing. The Hensley family virtually funded McCain’s early campaigns to the point McCain was forced by the Federal Election Commission to give part of it back.

Few know but in 1993, McCain blocked the release of classified documents relating to the Vietnam war in fear that the release, and subsequent revealing of his aiding the enemy would hurt his political ambitions, as his quest for power grew.

McCain is among the richest senators. A prenuptial agreement has kept assets in his wife's name. That arrangement served as a defense for McCain when the Senate ethics committee scrutinized a real estate deal involving his wife, her father and disgraced savings and loan owner Charles Keating Jr.

McCain escaped his fate through connections of power and wealth, and thus claimed the mantle of favoring campaign finance reform, when in reality McCain is one of the biggest abusers.

McCain openly supports the Iraq war, an attack on Iran and other acts of aggression that would bring the U.S into world dominance. He recently made the statement “there will be more wars, lots of wars.”

McCain like Bush opposed a bill to protect overtime rights of workers. McCain like Bush opposed an increase in unemployment benefits, and they oppose an increase in the minimum wage.

McCain voted to allow privatization and outsourcing of government jobs. McCain wants to tax your health care benefits and allow employers to eliminate benefits without the knowledge of the worker.

McCain like Bush supported NAFTA and CAFTA, fast track on all trade deals and the outsourcing of federal contracts overseas, eliminating unions for government employees and the elimination of worker rights in the workplace.

McCain supports the privatization of Social Security, raising Medicare age requirements, the raiding of the Social Security fund and he voted against protecting senior citizens from higher Medicare premiums.

McCain voted for Bush’s policies eighty-nine percent of the time, he supported the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest in America and he says the U.S will be in Iraq for at least one-hundred years.

John McCain has many faces. He has the face of an angry tyrant who cannot control his temper. He has the face of an adulterer, a philanderer, a money chaser. McCain has the face who opposes policies that will help the poor and elderly, while embracing policies that favor the rich.

Perhaps the “Two Faces of a Deceiver” that best describe John McCain is the face of a Traitor, and the Face of a Deranged War-monger. Thus another epic tale of the Deceiver John McCain.


You can find greater detail on the "Real John McCain" at the following sites:

Pissed on Politics

Also Listen to Lydia Cornell interview on this topic at:

Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk