The stupid part is that if there was any genuine concern with stopping the flow of heroin out of Afghanistan, the Taliban would still be in place. They had all but stopped the production of poppy. Yet the first season after the Taliban was ousted the production went from 180 tons to nearly 4000 tons.

Read Crossing the Rubicon in it there's a good explanation why the drug war is so important to the world economy. Basically, the drug cartels use big business to launder their money, big business uses the drug money to make major purchases at lower cost to them than if they borrowed the money from banks, and the prison/law industries need the drug users to keep their prisons and court rooms full, so they can keep the public thinking they need more cops and jails.

There's far more money to be made for everyone concerned if the Drug War continues, so don't expect to see it change any time soon.

There will be prosecutions but not in the next few years but let's say 20 years from now and ecveryone will confirm that these guys ruined the american empire...

wich is a bad thing ....

This should be titled "Beginnings of the downfall of the American empire"

>> ^therealblankman:
And people wonder why the American Empire is on the wane.

Yeah, I'm not so sure anyone's wondering about that.

"...'cause that's what they tell you in biology class".

This whole damn family is a biology experiment.

And people wonder why the American Empire is on the wane.

What Ritter doesn't seem to get is the islamofascists--not necessarily Iranians--want to nuke an American city NOW, not in "retaliation" for anything. I'm sure if the wackjobs were crazy enough to make a statement afterward they'd mumble something about Israel.

The islamofashies are certainly crazy enough to use nukes, and it's this "craziness" that other countries don't like in nuclear-capable countries.

If Iran is as "sophisticated" as liberals claim, then the Iranians already know better than to f--k with the USA and they'll assassinate Amadinnawackjob for us when he runs his beard one too many times.


A troll is someone who disrupts an internet thread for attention.

A "sift troll" is anyone who reminds liberals the emperor wears no clothes.

Leftist historical fiction known as the 'American Empire' is your problem.

Depends how you define "false." I'm not saying he's a "liar", I'm saying he's a "liberal" and his number is up, thanks to the new media.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/009475.php

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mithridate-ombud/2007/08/24/moyers-spanked-again-pbs-ombud

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/05/14/moyers-tavis-smiley-discuss-fall-american-empire-pbs

I really don't mind Moyers, except for his on/off denial of his own bias and his using taxpaid PBS as his pulpit.


In reply to this comment by jwray:
Give three actual examples of false statements Bill Moyers has publicly made in the last 10 years, if you can.

Nice find Feduip. While I think it's great to conserve historical monuments like the Wall, it is not sacred. In fact, I think all of the famous walls throughout history are a testament to stupidity of walls. China's Great Wall never stopped the the Mongol invaders. The Berlin Wall eventually fell to political pressure. Hadrian's Wall didn't deter Pictish incursions. Some day the American Empire might finish it's wall along the Mexican border. I predict that it will fail as well.

Whenever I think of walls like this I recall Frost's "The Mending Wall".

"Good fences make good neighbors."

*promote
It was that highly voted on Howard Zinn video that influenced me to put a call out for help on building a Howard Zinn page on Mahalo (couldn't believe they didnt already have one) a few internetters sent me some links and we laid the foundation for a nice Howard Zinn net archive.

>> ^choggie:
No.
this blame-game shit is getting old, especially when you don't look in a mirror and point that finger at yourselves-


ok...your right choggie, I apologize.
I am looking the mirror, I am looking at myself and for some reason I still don't think I am responsible for invading all those countries, what am I missing here?

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Do you ever wonder why they fill your head with so many things to be afraid of? Commies, "Hemophiliacs", Terrorists, 'Islamofascists', Old Europe, France, Fags, Feminists, Liberals, Socialists, Illegal Aliens, Educated people, Poor people, etc............

Wait, we're not supposed to be scared of Hemophiliacs? But, I was told to hate Hemos. Hate them. Them and their stupid non-coagulating blood.

>> ^gorgonheap:
It amazes me how people interpret U.S. history as either being rife with darkness and deceit and scandal or noble and virtuous. The world is made up of imperfect people. Some are evil or selfish in their intentions or choices. Others take great responsibility and pride in their achievements. If you don't like your country, do something about it now. Don't try an warp history to better suit your ideals.

oh, come on, if you're gonna accuse anyone of warping history, blame your government and the media sock puppets. Zinn's not trying to be black&white, these are simply the facts that you and so many others choose to ignore, facts that will never be televised or found in school books because they are inconvenient and not very amusing either (except when briefly mentioned in some comedy talk show, accompanied by a live audience laughing their passive ignorant asses off).

>> ^jwray:
>> ^gorgonheap:
It amazes me how people interpret U.S. history as either being rife with darkness and deceit and scandal or noble and virtuous. The world is made up of imperfect people. Some are evil or selfish in their intentions or choices. Others take great responsibility and pride in their achievements. If you don't like your country, do something about it now. Don't try an warp history to better suit your ideals.

You just get a false impression of that black-and-white thinking when you hear people talk about one topic , and it's a particularly dark topic. The USA's invasion of lands inhabited by people who didn't want to join the USA, is not pretty.


Your right about the not pretty part. Supplying chemical weapons to Saddam, encouraging his war with Iran, continual funding of violent coups... But there are also things like WW2 and North/South Korea that aren't pretty either, but reflect well on America.

The parent poster was correct about distorting history and black/white thinking. Even the particular topic of American foreign policy is only black/white through biased glasses distorting the true shades of gray.

>> ^gorgonheap:
It amazes me how people interpret U.S. history as either being rife with darkness and deceit and scandal or noble and virtuous. The world is made up of imperfect people. Some are evil or selfish in their intentions or choices. Others take great responsibility and pride in their achievements. If you don't like your country, do something about it now. Don't try an warp history to better suit your ideals.


You just get a false impression of that black-and-white thinking when you hear people talk about *one topic*, and it's a particularly dark topic. The USA's invasion of lands inhabited by people who didn't want to join the USA, is not pretty.

>> ^Jordass:


I don't know how old you are nor where you grew up, but Zinn was one of the first to denounce the bad history taught in U.S. schools. So you own him at least a part of that. Also, fustigating the bad southern slave owners is a favorite past-time of everyone who don't want to look deeper into the causes and motives of the slave trade and the much more serious segregation problems the U.S.A. still faces (not to mention that in the South, many don't even talk about slavery as a problem!). When you emphasize a problem so much that you don't look at the other side's point of view, it's usually because you want to hide something: that the solution to that problem brought new as yet unresolved problems of its own, problems that you don't want to confront. What you're saying then is, "We were bad, but now we're good!". Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.