xocetaceans
xocetaceans's JournalRemembering the Conservative (Republican) Position Regarding Apartheid...
This is an old article, but it does clearly point out how then-prominent US conservatives regarded both apartheid and Nelson Mandela:
Conservative whitewash
Dick Cheney is relying on our cultural amnesia to wipe away his record on South Africa.
Joe Conason
Whitewashing is the only word to describe the weak explanations offered by Dick Cheney about his votes on South Africa during the apartheid era. Ever since the peaceful advent of democracy in Pretoria, politicians like Cheney who habitually coddled the old racist regime have escaped accountability for their actions. And he is still relying on our customary national amnesia to wave away the questions raised by his vice presidential nomination.
For American conservatives who misused their influence to defend apartheid, the controversy over Cheneys congressional voting record actually presents an opportunity to own up to their terrible mistakes. Unfortunately, however, Cheney and his supporters have prevaricated and obfuscated rather than admitting forthrightly that they were on the wrong side. This disingenuous response is a poor start for a man who boasts that he and George W. Bush will restore straight talk and integrity to the White House.
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Contrary to his sentimentalized recollection of that period, some people were indeed in favor of keeping Mandela behind bars and keeping South African blacks in bondage. The roster of infamy begins with Ronald Reagan, who upon becoming president in 1981 immediately reversed the Carter administrations policy of pressuring the Afrikaner minority toward democracy and human rights. In an early interview with CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, Reagan called South Africa a friendly nation whose reliable anticommunism and wealth of strategic minerals justified stronger ties between Washington and Pretoria.
Overtly and covertly, the Reagan administration moved to strengthen the apartheid regime. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, fought every attempt to impose sanctions. The late William Casey, as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, intensified cooperation with the South African Bureau of State Security and military intelligence agencies. He went so far as to secretly visit Pretoria to confer with the racist murderers who ran those agencies.
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http://www.salon.com/2000/08/01/south_africa_3/
History Retrieved in Spite of the NYT: The iconicity of “peaceful resistance”
by Three Fingered Fox on December 6, 2013
Before it falls down the memory hole, it should be noted that the online US edition of the New York Times marked the sad passing of the great Nelson Mandela with this odd headline: Nelson Mandela, South African Icon of Peaceful Resistance, Dies. (Theyve since changed it to South Africas Moral Center, which sounds like a place FIFA could have held business ethics conventions during the last World Cup.)
Icon of Peaceful Resistance makes it sound like Mandela was an advocate and practitioner of nonviolence. He wasnt. Apartheid was above all a socioeconomic system of structured viciousness: the whites were not going to give up their advantages without a fight. The struggle against Apartheid was necessarily bloody. The symbolic force of an icon, no matter how noble its martyrdom, could not have defeated Apartheid. It had to be defeated at the cost of lives. Mandela always knew this.
Mandela founded and ran Umkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the ANC, which carried out armed resistance and a bombing campaign. The bombings mostly targeted high-profile pieces of property, but were nevertheless responsible for many civilian deaths. Umkhonto we Sizwe also executed collaborators.
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http://threefingeredfox.net/?p=98
History from the site South African History Online (http://www.sahistory.org.za/)
On 16 December this year, it will have been 50 years since Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) was launched as an armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).
To mark this anniversary, SAHO will be updating this feature, specifically, the organisations history in exile; focusing on its activities in numerous countries in Southern Africa. Countries that will be covered in this series include Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania.
The presence of MK in countries like Angola and Lesotho has been covered in some detail in the past, so it was easy to start off this series of histories with these 2 countries. Our challenge is now to develope material on those exile histories that have not been covered in detail. If you have any information that you feel should be added to this feature, from names of unsung heroes to information about certain campaigns and camps.
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http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/umkhonto-wesizwe-mk
It is interesting what is forgotten.
Saturday, December 07, 2013
In 2008, just before his 90th birthday, the United States gave Nelson Mandela a special present, striking him from a decades-old terror watch list and ending what US officials called a rather embarrassing matter.
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In the 1980s however, late Democratic US senator Ted Kennedy drafted legislation with senator Lowell Weicker that would eventually become one of the global catalysts leading to the collapse of the apartheid system.
President Ronald Reagan sought to bury their 1986 anti-apartheid bill aiming to impose economic sanctions on South Africa, by imposing his veto, saying he believed it would only lead to more violence and repression for black South Africans.
But for the first and only time that century, Congress rebelled and overrode Reagans veto on a foreign policy issue, passing legislation that slapped sanctions on Pretoria, snapped direct air links and cut vital aid.
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http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/us-embarrassment-at-terror-list-inclusion-251982.html
Here is the US government record of the US Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 and some of its legislative history:
Latest Title: Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986
Sponsor: Rep Gray, William H., III [PA-2] (introduced 5/21/1986) Cosponsors (106)
Related Bills: H.RES.478, H.RES.548, H.R.997, H.R.1098, S.2701
Latest Major Action: 10/2/1986 Became Public Law No: 99-440.
MAJOR ACTIONS:
5/21/1986 Introduced in House
6/11/1986 House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Discharged by Unanimous Consent.
6/13/1986 Reported to House (Amended) by House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Report No: 99-638 (Part I).
6/16/1986 Reported to House (Amended) by House Committee on Ways and Means. Report No: 99-638 (Part II).
6/18/1986 Passed/agreed to in House: Passed House (Amended) by Voice Vote.
8/15/1986 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate in lieu of S. 2701 with an amendment by Yea-Nay Vote. 84-14. Record Vote No: 252.
9/12/1986 Resolving differences -- House actions: House Agreed to Senate Amendments by Yea-Nay Vote: 308 - 77 (Record Vote No: 381).
9/12/1986 Cleared for White House.
9/15/1986 Presented to President.
9/26/1986 Vetoed by President.
9/29/1986 Passed House over veto: Passed House Over Veto by Yea-Nay Vote: 313 - 83 (Record Vote No: 425).
10/2/1986 Passed Senate over veto: Passed Senate over veto by Yea-Nay Vote. 78-21. Record Vote No: 311.
10/2/1986 Became Public Law No: 99-440.
Note: Public Law enacted over veto.
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http://thomas.loc.gov/home/bills_res.html
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX): Slipping Down the Slide of History into the Dustbin of History
Rep. Louie Gohmert is a shining example of American exceptionalism.
Reported pipeline explosion rocks parts of Missouri
Source: WDAF-TV Kansas City, MO
NEAR HOUSTONIA, Mo. An overnight explosion at the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company, near Houstonia, lit up the sky for miles around. Fox 4 viewers from more than 30 miles away have reported seeing the fireball in the sky.
Emergency crews have reported evacuations following the explosion. As of early this morning, there had not been any injuries reported however the situation is still developing, and local police and media are being swamped with calls for information.
Fox 4 has crews working on this story and will provide updates here and on Fox 4 as soon as they come in. In the meantime, if you have photos to share, please send them to news@wdaftv4.com.
Posted on: 1:16 am, November 29, 2013, by Troy Diggs, updated on: 01:59am, November 29, 2013
Read more: http://fox4kc.com/2013/11/29/reported-pipeline-explosion-rocks-parts-of-missouri/
Why Is Jay Leno Coddling/Rehabilitating the War Criminal?
What recent US Administration practiced torture, Jay?
What recent US Administration invaded Iraq, Jay?
How many US soldiers were killed in Iraq, Jay?
How many US soldiers were wounded in Iraq, Jay?
How many Iraqi civilians were killed, Jay?
How many people were tortured, Jay?
Do you condone torture, Jay?
Do you condone wars of aggression, Jay?
Well, Jay?
Have you conveniently forgotten all of this, Jay?
Who knew that timecube had a flag?
Senator Paul Claims to Have Written Scientific Papers....
Of how many papers may Sen. Rand Paul claim authorship? I am unfamiliar with the journals in which he may have published and would not know which medical database(?) would yield an all-encompassing list of his publications (PubMed?).
It would be interesting to read his papers and see what sort of research he has done. Any help in finding the papers that he authored would be appreciated - he does not seem to include a bibliography of his writings on his Senate website.
So far, it seems that at least one review paper from 1988 may be credited to him:
(PMID:3285693)
Paul RH
Department of Ophthalmology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
American Journal of Ophthalmology [1988, 105(5):519-522]
Type: Journal Article, Review
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/3285693/reload=0;jsessionid=bhFWioQtO1jf8eRearmB.50
Sen. Paul claims to have written scientific papers though:
By Imtiyaz Delawala
Nov 3, 2013 1:00pm
...
When I wrote scientific papers, I sometimes had statements with eight footnotes for one sentence. Is that what you want me to do for my speeches? If its required, Ill do it, Paul added. But I think Im being unfairly targeted by a bunch of hacks and haters. And Im just not going to put up with people casting aspersions on my character.
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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/11/sen-rand-paul-wishes-he-could-challenge-plagiarism-critics-to-a-duel-calls-them-hacks-and-haters/
Has he actually written more than this one article?
CNN - The Most Trusted Name In Editing...
By Greg Botelho and Dan Simon, CNN
updated 9:01 PM EDT, Sat November 2, 2013
Los Angeles (CNN) -- The suspected Los Angeles International Airport gunman walked up to a security checkpoint, shot a TSA officer "at point-blank range," went up an escalator, then came back down to shoot his victim again, a federal prosecutor said Saturday.
That TSA officer, Gerardo Hernandez, died of his wounds.
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If convicted, Ciancia would face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, according to the federal prosecutor. The U.S. attorney general would decide if a death sentence would be sought.
According to Birotte, the suspect walked up to a TSA checkpoint in Terminal 3 around 9:20 a.m., pulled a "Smith & Wesson .223-caliber M&P15 assault rifle out of his bag and filed multiple rounds" at the uniformed officer.
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http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/02/us/lax-gunfire/
Really...a CNN editor was proofreading this article when a barking dog may or may not have done something distracting....
"Edward Snowden is a Patriot": Ex-NSA CIA, FBI and Justice Whistleblowers Meet Leaker in Moscow
"Edward Snowden is a Patriot": Ex-NSA CIA, FBI and Justice Whistleblowers Meet Leaker in MoscowMonday, October 14, 2013
In a Democracy Now! special, we spend the hour with four former U.S. intelligence officials all whistleblowers themselves who have just returned from visiting National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden in Russia. They are former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, former National Security Agency senior executive Thomas Drake, and former U.S. Justice Department ethics adviser Jesselyn Radack, now of the Government Accountability Project. On Wednesday, the group presented Snowden with an award from the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. "In our visit, we told Edward Snowden that he had begun the debate by disclosing to American citizens what was going on this massive spying upon American citizens," Rowley says. "We were happy to tell him the debate has begun, but he is very concerned, and this is actually the reason he has sacrificed so much: He wants to see these laws, these secret interpretations of the law, I should say, fixed."
--video at the link--
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http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/14/edward_snowden_is_a_patriot_ex
Red Bull Stratos FULL POV - Multi-Angle + Mission Data
Here is the remarkable video of Felix Baumgartner's jump. It is absolutely awe-inspiring:
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