Burma: Sylvester Stallone speaks out “hell beyond your wildest dreams”

by Geezer Power …1:54 pm

Daily Mail Last updated at 13:21pm on 2nd October 2007

Sylvester Stallone said he witnessed “a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams” while filming on the Burma border.

The actor and his movie crew were shooting “John Rambo”, the fourth movie in the action series, on the Salween River separating Burma and Thailand.

“I witnessed the aftermath – survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off.

Sylvester Stallone was shooting the latest Rambo movie on the border of Burma

“We saw many elephants with blown off legs. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific,” he said.

“This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams,” Stallone said. “All the trails are mined. The only way into Burma is up the river.”

Shots were fired over the film crew’s heads and there were threats, he said.

“We were told we could get seriously hurt if we went on,” Stallone added.

He had first hand accounts, too, from the Burmese extras whose families were imprisoned.

Stallone returned eight days ago – before the crackdown last week against the largest pro-democracy protests in Burma in two decades.

He has faced criticism for his choice of location. “I was being accused, once again, of using the Third World as a ‘Rambo’ victim.

“The Burmese are beautiful people. It’s the military I am portraying as cruel,” he said.

Now Stallone is finding the editing process difficult, and finds himself asking the question “Are you making a documentary of a ‘Rambo’ movie?”

He wants to retain the violence in the film – and is prepared to face the challenge from the film board, the Motion Picture Association of America, over the rating.

“This is full scale genocide. I want the violence in there because it is reality. It would be a whitewashing not to show what’s over there,” he said.

“I think there is a story that needs to be told,” Stallone said. The film will be released in January.

~MORE~

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World War III (or is it IV) Special Edition

anthony @ 21:45 BST

A few articles on the worsening situation in US-Iran relations and its repercussions for the rest of Planet Earth

US militarism threatens to unleash regional conflagration

Bill Van Auken | World Socialist Web Site | October 24, 2007

Following on the heels of President George W. Bush’s warning last week that those countries “interested in avoiding World War III” should align themselves with Washington’s escalating threats against Iran, a series of unfolding developments point to the danger of armed violence engulfing a broad swath of the Middle East and Central Asia and, indeed, posing the threat of a new world war.

Six years after the US invasion of Afghanistan and four-and-a-half years after the invasion of Iraq, the continuation and deepening of the conflicts in both of these countries is setting into motion a political chain reaction of incalculable dimensions.

It is igniting military conflict in a region that extends from the borders of Europe in the West to those of India in the East, including the countries of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, while threatening to draw in other major powers with strategic interests in the region.

The stage is being set for armed confrontations that threaten the deaths of hundreds of millions and, indeed, the destruction of the entire planet.

[More…]

Bush the Liar Escalates War Threats Against Iran

Larry Everest | rwor.org | October 24, 2007

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush clashed over Iran, highlighting just how extreme tensions are and the danger of a U.S. attack (as well as the sharpening imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and Russia overall).

Putin, on the first visit to Iran by a Russian head of state in over 60 years, denounced U.S. threats, declaring, “We should not even think of making use of force in this region…. Not only should we reject the use of force, but also the mention of force as a possibility.” Putin, who has so far resisted U.S. demands for more punitive sanctions against Iran, also stated there was no evidence that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.

Two days later, President Bush hit back and took the war threats to a new level: “I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War 3, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” The White House tried to downplay Bush’s remark, claiming it was just “a rhetorical point.” But the threat of world war was out there (implicitly directed at Russia as well!). And Bush was clearly demanding that Russia go along with his insistence that Iran be prevented from having even a nuclear energy program (which is legal under current treaties), because the technology needed could be used for weapons.

[More…]

Bomb Iran? U.S. Requests Bunker-Buster Bombs

White House Bomber Request Leaves Some Wondering if U.S. Is Preparing Action in Iran

By JONATHAN KARL | abcNEWS | October 24, 2007

Tucked inside the White House’s $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.

[More…]

I, Podhoretz: Mr. World War 4 Tutors Giuliani

Neocon Patriarch Sells Rudy on Islamofascism And Thirty Years’ War

Jason Horowitz | New York Observer | October 23, 2007

Norman Podhoretz believes that America needs to go to war soon with Iran. As far as he knows, Rudy Giuliani thinks the same thing.

“I was asked to come in and give him a briefing on the war, World War IV,” said Mr. Podhoretz, a founding father of neoconservatism and leading foreign policy adviser to Mr. Giuliani. “As far as I can tell there is very little difference in how he sees the war and how I see it.”

During a long interview this week in his bookcase-lined East 81st Street home, Mr. Podhoretz, 77, explained the very straightforward proposition he has been proposing to Mr. Giuliani from the start of the campaign: “The choice before us is either bomb those nuclear facilities or let them get the bomb.”

[More…]

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Clinton Rejects ‘Bush-Cheney Power Grab’

anthony @ 21:15 BST

Joe Conason | New York Observer | October 24, 2007

Hillary Clinton rarely surrenders a juicy quote without a struggle, as any journalist who has tried to interview her can attest. Yet her familiar preference for caution over candor is gradually changing with each step that she takes toward her party’s presidential nomination.

Back during her first campaign for the Senate in 2000, she would sometimes tell a reporter to turn off the tape recorder—and then talk with the salty frankness that endeared a politician like John McCain to the press corps. Everything interesting would be off the record, making editors sigh over the bland tedium of her authorized remarks.

Running for president, however, she is obliged to speak forthrightly on issues of war, terror and constitutional authority, especially if she hopes to present herself as a fresh alternative to a failed regime. For a senator who went along with too many of that regime’s excesses, articulating a credible critique of the current presidency is essential.

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Bush pledges to keep Cuba embargo

US President George W Bush has vowed to maintain the trade embargo on Cuba for as long as the government in Havana keeps its “monopoly” on power.

Mr Bush said he looked forward to a world without Cuban leader Fidel Castro and urged greater global action to promote democracy in Cuba.

He denounced present-day Cuba as “a tropical gulag”.

Cuba rejected Mr Bush’s appeal and accused him of promoting violence to bring about a change of regime.

In his first major address on Cuban policy in four years, Mr Bush adopted an uncompromising stance towards the leadership of Cuba.

“As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the embargo in place,” he said in a speech at the US State Department.

[More…]

Now watch the idiot rock out to The Girl from Guantánamo

President Bush pays tribute to Hispanic heritage month by headbanging along with a live performance of “Guantanamera.” Interestingly, the song’s title means “girl from Guantánamo,” a reference the president would probably rather avoid.

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Spineocrat

anthony @ 10:40 BST

By Mark Fiore

Animation

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