by Michael Boldin

Joshua Frank and Jeffrey St. Clair point out the obvious in their latest CounterPunch article - something we don't hear enough about:

The nation's biggest polluter isn't a corporation. It's the Pentagon. Every year the Department of Defense churns out more than 750,000 tons of hazardous waste -- more than the top three chemical companies combined.

That's important enough that it's worth repeating.

The biggest polluter in the US is the Pentagon.

So, what's all the hysteria about regulating the actions of you and I?  Why are the actions of individual people all the rage in regards to protecting the environment? 

Because a lot of people still falsely believe that government actually protects us.  Frank and St. Clair remind us of just another example of how the federal government not only can't protect us, but it chooses not to, and goes to great extent to cover it all up.  Here's more:

Yet the military remains largely exempt from compliance with most federal and state environmental laws, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pentagon's partner in crime, is working hard to keep it that way. For the past five decades the federal government, defense contractors and the chemical industry have joined forces to block public health protections against perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been shown to effect children's growth and mental progress by disrupting the function of the thyroid gland which regulates brain development.

Sadly, people still want to spend their time trying to get the government to force us to use certain kinds of energy, certain kinds of bottles, drive certain kinds of cars, and on and on and on.

The sick irony of it all is that the government itself is the greatest threat to our environment.  The Pentagon isn't the only culprit, the US Mint has been destroying our waterways for quite some time too.

Harry Browne warned us of the dangers of government pollution and destruction of the environment some time ago.  His article "Saving the Environment from Political Destruction" published in 2000 still rings true today.

Here's an excerpt:

From raw sewage flowing into the lakes and streams of Yellowstone National Park to U.S. Navy oil spills in Washington's Puget Sound to PCBs making fish inedible in the Shenandoah River, government managers have devastated government facilities without concern. And why should they care? Government agencies are exempt from almost all the harsh, expensive laws the politicians have imposed upon private companies.

The EPA estimates the cost of cleaning up all the sites the federal government has polluted to be at least $280 billion - five times the cost for all the privately polluted SuperFund sites.

All this devastation isn't an accident. It isn't a case of hiring the wrong people to manage government property. It is the direct result of putting property in the hands of people who have no personal interest in its future value.

What's the solution?  Well, it isn't easy, but we need to strike the root of the problem.  If we're ever to be good stewards of this earth, we'll have to stop the US Federal Government from destroying it.

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States to Homeland Security on REAL ID:  No Thanks

By the end of last year, seven states had passed laws prohibiting implementation of REAL ID in their state: Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, New Hampshire, and Georgia. That number became eight on April 9 of this year when Idaho joined up. Ten states had laws that were passed in one house but not the other. Eight more states had introduced such laws. Twelve had passed nonbinding resolutions denouncing REAL ID. That's a 38-state rebellion!.......
http://www.newswithviews.com/Yates/steven36.htm

(h/t John Thurman)

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by Clay Barham

Senator John McCain has finally given the kiss-off salute to all conservative republicans and libertarians. He has joined with Al Gore, Barack Obama and the red and green Marxist environmentalists to bring America back into the fold of Old World politics, where the all-knowing elite few rule the many.  By standing on the mythology of man made climate change and a means of people management by government, in the name of global warming, McCain has turned his back on free market economics and the prosperity of the New World.

In spite of evidence the world is cooling, McCain wants America to apply its economic brakes by backing away from the use of energy.  The human energy of free people, coupled with the energy applied to machines, as tools, made America the most prosperous nation in the world, the by-product of its individual freedom. McCain's political allies on the left have already poisoned the pool of human energy promoting envy, anger and depression. All of America's freedom and prosperity is to be sacrificed for a centrally managed system of economics which has always proven a disaster where tried.  McCain promises, as does Obama and Clinton, to bring America to the standards of Darfur.

McCain is an ignorant and arrogant bureaucrat who has accepted the role and accolades of great leader before being crowned, which makes his loss at the polls this Fall a given.  He has placed his head well into the clouds with Obama as elite to supervise the great American unwashed.

Where does this leave concerned Americans in the elections of 2008?  Unless a third party can gather momentum sufficient to attract reasonable, freedom-loving Americans to the poles, our New World principles may be permanently lost to humanity. 

Freedom and prosperity will leave with it.

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by Michael Boldin

No matter how far society progresses, we'll always have thieves, thugs...and tyrants.  The founding fathers, however, recognized that the most dangerous of these come right from our own governments.

Jacob Hornberger covered this issue in his recent article, "The Constitution Protects Us From Them."  Here's an excerpt:

The Framers understood the most important point about the nature of government: It constitutes the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the citizenry. Unfortunately, it is a point that has been lost among many modern-day Americans, who have come to view government as their friend, protector, provider, and savior.

No doubt about it - many good-meaning people believe it's the government, instead of everyday people, that's supposedly going to protect us.  But, the reality is quite different.  It's the government that we need to be most wary of. 

Hopefully, the tragedy that is the "war on terror" awakens a few more people to this sad reality.

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by Steve Osborn

I got a message from the Save Darfur Coalition. This was in a text box:

Violence in Darfur escalates. The world's inaction persists.

On June 1, the U.S. assumes the presidency of the U.N. Security Council.

We can help keep our promise to Darfur.

Help us reach our goal of sending 75,000 messages to President Bush before June 1.

I can't believe it! The bloodthirstiest fascist dictatorship on the planet today is going to be in charge of the UN Security Council?

The government that has spent the last eight years bashing the UN and emasculating every one of its programs?

And the world and the UN is going to go along with this? Who is going to be the "President, Bolton?

Can you say "We're f*&ked?"

I knew you could.

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by Clay Barham

Liberals, like Obama and Hillary, always refer to people as part of a group or community and never as individuals. This is a common characteristic of liberals, because they see everyone below their level of elite-hood as part of a community. To the liberal, the world is broken into two parts. They are the few elite who really matter. We are the many non-elite who really do not matter, other than as a herd to be moved here and there en masse and trimmed as needed.

When Hillary speaks of Black Americans supporting Obama and working class White Americans supporting her, this is a natural thing for a liberal to do. There is nothing racist about it at all. A community or herd, in which many belong, according to liberals, determines how people will perceive, think and vote. Individuals are non-existent, non-entities, except to the American Conservative raised to see everyone as potentially great including himself or herself.

If Hillary seems confused when accused a racist, just understand she cannot be racist except in the way she looks at all people who are not members of the small number of elite. Even Barack would have to admit to that, as he has placed himself among that small, special class of people who tend the herd. Not all elite are allies in their rush to power over the herd.

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by Cliff Carson

In response to "Words from the Spiritual Guide"

When I wrote "Christian Fascism in America,"  I had both the Reverend Rod Parsley as well as Hagee in mind - among many others - because I know that every Sunday in America, some Preacher who wants to strut his "Macho" in front of the Congregation will support the vile and ungodly war against Iraq.

• A country that did us no harm. 
• A country who's worse crime was to be setting on top of a pile of oil that was lusted after by ungodly people who would murder and wreak carnage to increase the size of their bank account.

There are good Pastors and there are good Christians in America; and there are also moral people who don't frequent the church.

But as they say, the proof is in the pudding.  I remember my preacher during my young years used to proclaim that a man can make a sign that reads "I Am A Christian" and wear it around his neck every day, but that sign won't make him a Christian. 

Sometime ago, I forget in which article, I mentioned a Church Deacon who was openly advocating the complete destruction of Iraq and the killing of every Iraqi.  And he was damn proud of himself.
 
I asked him why he believed what he said and why he thought that God might approve of his thoughts and actions.  He told me that "those" people don't believe in God, they worship Allah.  And on a scale of 1-100 he is about a 101 in favor of Bush.  I swear, I believe that if he ever got to touch Bush he would be convinced that he had made physical contact with almighty God himself.
 
This is what the good people of America are up against.  There is not an insignificant group of madmen enabling the chief madman and his cohorts.  Ignorance is a terminal blessing for them.  They won't be influenced by facts.  They are proud that they listen only to Limbaugh "to get the truth".
 
These two preachers are charlatans, and I know at least three people who are absolutely sure of it - me and the two of them.
 
Why didn't the MSM jump on McCain for having two preachers guiding him that were much more dangerous to the world than Reverend Jeremiah Wright?  Why were they more dangerous?  Because they want to destroy the world, and Wright only wants to get his message of residual discrimination out for the record. 

But the real reason the MSM is for McCain is the same reason that they were for Bush.  Both are Damn fools who can be easily manipulated by our Shadow Government.  I think that if you added Bush's and McCain's IQ together it would still be somewhat short of Kermit's.  McCain is the worst excuse for a candidate that has been on the stage in my lifetime. 

I'm voting for Ron Paul.

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by Jerome Grossman

A major disappointment in the presidential race has been the failure of the three surviving candidates to address nuclear weapons, the greatest existential threat to planet Earth, to the human race itself, and of course, by extension to the United States of America.

The failure is extraordinary because the abolition of nuclear weapons has been raised recently and repeatedly by some of the most respected and powerful personages in the U.S. military, the federal government, and corporate America. How could a serious election virtually ignore this powerful initiative?

A January 2007 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Senator Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry called for a "world free of nuclear weapons" and urged the United States to lead an international effort to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles. They argued for a multilateral verifiable plan with strong enforcement mechanisms. They stated: "Nuclear weapons today present tremendous dangers, but also an historic opportunity. U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage -- to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands, and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world."

Last month, in response to a question about her reaction to Iran attacking Israel with nuclear weapons, Hillary Clinton said that she would "obliterate" Iran in that eventuality. In a later interview she again threatened "massive retaliation."

Her remarks were unwise and destabilizing, echoing the irresponsible statements of President Ahmadinejad of Iran who has threatened to "wipe Israel off the map" and then tried to modify the statement. Hillary knows not to answer a hypothetical question, particularly when Iran does not have nuclear weapons according to the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that stated that Iran ended its unsuccessful program to build them in 2003. Clinton should have used the question to rally support for stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the reduction of nuclear arsenals that exist in eight countries. She might have pointed out that such an attack was unlikely because Israel deters other countries with its own nukes, some of them on submarines constantly patrolling the Mediterranean.

Overt threats like those by Ahmadinejad and Clinton to use nuclear weapons are dangerous because they initiate a process that might become uncontrollable. Nuclear war must never happen and even to contemplate it weakens international inhibitions of their use.

Most importantly, Clinton wasted an opportunity to rally support behind the well-documented and responsible proposal to reduce and eventually eliminate all nuclear weapons. That is the crucial issue for the survival of America.

Will the next president accept the challenge?

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by Steve Osborn

"McCain's "Spiritual Guide" Wants America to Destroy Islam"

Watch it

Wheoooo! the nuts don't fall far from the jar, do they.

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by Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait

This past weekend, World Can't Wait held a national meeting in Berkeley CA.  Here is how I began the meeting:

About six weeks ago, Bush got approval and funding from the Congress for a secret directive authorizing a range of operations, including assassinations, against the Iranian government.  According to Andrew Cockburn on May 2, the area "covers actions across a huge geographic area - from Lebanon to Afghanistan - but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines - up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. A Marine amphibious force, originally due to leave San Diego for the Persian Gulf in mid June, has had its sailing date abruptly moved up to May 4."  That's tomorrow.  It'll take them about a month to get there.  

This preparation is real, the threat of a new attack must be taken extremely seriously - and there is NO opposition to this coming from within the halls of power or from the democratic presidential contenders.  Hillary Clinton threatened to "totally obliterate" Iran and Obama's only objection was that "using words like obliterate doesn't actually produce good results.

"I think the Iranians can be confident that I [too] will respond forcefully." Vanity Fair wrote a month ago that the only thing standing between the US and an attack on Iran was General Fallon - and just days later he was forced to resign.

The Bush program is still shaping the world - and everything they have put in place for the last seven years is what is setting the stage and the terms for all of official politics today.

As we said in January, "George Bush is unrelenting in his determination to drive the savageness of his agenda into the next administration".  Politics as usual will not meet the enormity of the damage that has been done.  Can the world wait?  Hell, no!  And do we still need to bring to a halt this whole program and direction?  Hell, YES!

This is a time for moral clarity and fearless determination.  The horrors that we came together to stop are not over - and we can't be over either. Read more.

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by John Stoltenberg

Apparently, the fascist Bush regime expects the Iraqi's to pay for the fascist American war machine:

• murdering 1,205,025 Iraqi men women and children
• forcing between 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 Iraqi's to be refugees living in poverty in foreign nations
• the destruction of much of the Iraqi infrastructure
• the cost of maintaining a foreign army in their country
• the cost of financing an American puppet government
• the human cost of millions Iraqi's being forced to live in filth and poverty in their own country
• and much more.

True empires can do just exactly that.  They can force the nations they conquer to pay the cost of the war required to conquer them.

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by Steve Osborn

From Jason Leopold, US Military Coordinated Day of Prayer Events With Christian Right Group

At least half-a-dozen active-duty military officials have been working closely with a task force headed by the far-right fundamentalist Christians planning religious events at military installations around the country to commemorate [last] Thursday's National Day of Prayer.

In working directly with the National Day of Prayer (NDP) Task Force and agreeing to work as event coordinators, these military officials not only violated constitutional provisions governing the separation of church and state but they also signed an oath that states they "believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of The Living God" and that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only One by which I can obtain salvation and have an ongoing relationship with God," according to materials posted on NDP Task Force's website.

If this can go on, are non-Christian pogroms far away? What have we become in the name of the "Prince of Peace?"

One has to wonder why Jews and Muslims can't be allowed to organize and pray together with Christians on a military-sponsored Day of Prayer.  It's not a clash of cultures, it is outright sectarianism. 

Will a Jew coming to this event have to identify him/herself with a Star of David pin on the lapel, or be considered a non-Christian if not wearing a cross, as public folks are criticized as unAmerican if they don't wear a flag?

Considering the overt discrimination against non-evangelical Christians and non-Christians that has been exposed in the military in recent years, I fear we are rearing a new bunch of fanatical crusaders that have many megatons of persuasion to use, should they finally run amok, not to mention a "leadership" that has shown itself more than ready to use them.

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by John Thurman

Attention:  To our [or] the lobbyist owned Legislators:
 
You may have noticed that the constituency who abides in the district you now supposedly represent, no longer places a blind trust in your integrity to represent that which  is written in the Constitutional Contract between the States. 

You may remember...that's the document on which you swore to defend we the people against all enemies both foreign and domestic. 
 
It may be possible (though I wouldn't count on it) that those, who have violated our sacred trust; will be able to circumvent the punishment of treason by trying to use the self-serving laws which they have so cunningly enacted to protect their sponsors and themselves.
 
The peoples' proxies that you now hold which is a vested trust in the office you currently occupy, requires that you uphold your oath to us.  Make no mistake about it!  

If you are relying on the so-called mainstream-media "polls"  to measure your value and integrity to your voting neighbors---you may discover that (their polls) only reflect their integrity.
 
We the people do NOT trust them!!  Should you ?    
 
A major change has already taken place regarding where we get our news. The antiquated printed newspapers and the television network corporations are all controlled by the same old tired dozen or so manipulators.  Most of you, in political office have known that since your own campaign.  Since the Internet we are now able to objectively [and] subjectively identify who is telling the truth.  You might want to consider conducting yourself accordingly.
 
Historical true Statesmen were spawn at the Old Concord Bridge.   Will there be a deja-vu and a re-birth of our once Blessed Republic?   Let it be so! ...if not---
 
Put it in the bank!!  There WILL be change!!!

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by Michael Boldin

From the blog at DownsizeDC.org we see why Big Business loves Big Government:

Politicians tell us that government protects the people from the cut-throat practices of Big Business. But in truth, Big Government is in bed with Big Business. If I were CEO of a major corporation - let's call it the Big Widget Corporation - I would love Big Government. That's because I could:

• lobby Congress to subsidize the widget industry, explaining how vital widgets are to the economy.

• lobby for tariff protection against imported widgets. This will allow my company to gouge American consumers with higher prices.

• lobby for regulations that would drive my smaller competitors out of business.

What's that word...when Government and Business work as one?  I think it starts with an "F"

DownsizeDC has introduced a number of ways to limit this "cooperation" - or is it corporatism?  It all starts with the Read the Bills Act - which is part of the Populist Party's 10 Planks.

Read more from DownsizeDC here.

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by Steve Osborn

I'm not sure who this gentleman is, but methinks he doth hitteth the nail on the head!

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by Clay Barham

Six billion people inhabit the earth and five billion are in poverty.  Just over 300 million people live in North America, the United States.  Senator Barack Obama has introduced Senate Bill 2433, and the House has a similar bill, HR1302, each called the Global Poverty Bill. 

Those bills become a bill for almost one trillion dollars taken from American taxpayers, as a UN tax, to give to leaders of all those nations wherein poverty prevails. The just over 300 million are expected to feed the five billion, as if they are required to do it as a punishment for their being successful and prosperous on their own, without elite managers telling them how.

Translating this political-speak into real language means that the tyrants, their families and supporters, will be enriched by the American Taxpayers each year by a UN Tax supposedly to feed those impoverished living under those dictators.

This is the old story of giving a fish to a hungry man feeds him for a day, while Americans pay for the daily feeding, just as long as they do not try to teach the hungry man to fish.

How would America ever presume to teach a hungry man to fish, or anyone to be prosperous?  The only way they could ever teach people in the Old World how to feed themselves is to teach them what Americans did in the early days of their settling America, which is to pursue their own interests, talents and skills and be productive beyond the dreams of those who manage them.

That means individual freedom, instead of the common good and the interests of their community as defined by the tyrants managing them. 

Does any reasonable politician, supporting Obama's Global Poverty initiative, really believe in feeding people with taxes plundered from the Americans?  Certainly not, it is simply to make Obama look like a world leader before being elected as an American president.

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