We used to say, during each election; "It's the economy, stupid!" Now, we just say it's the size. Today, the size of the dog in the fight counts. It is no longer the fight in the dog. For Americans, it means the size of government in the fight counts. It is no longer the fight and spirit of the people.
America grew prosperous when the people had the fighting spirit and freedom to charge ahead and chase their dreams and aspirations. They had that spirit because they were free and with freedom came responsibility for their own, their families and community's success and prosperity. They lost it along the way and now see big government as the new source of their happiness and health.
Government is mommy, daddy, uncle, aunt, doctor, teacher, disciplinarian and counselor. Government does it better and knows best how to spend your money, so we are told.
The present group of candidates for President, in both major parties, tells voters they can run the incompetent giant better than the others can. Each has a plan for making government better at providing for the daily needs of each person.
Government is so big it is like a mountain that cannot be moved. It is so large it has acquired a course that cannot be changed. Nevertheless, they tell us they can change here and there and still guarantee us a bit of freedom to make our own decisions.
All we have to do is pay for it.
Will the dog ever get the fight back? Can Americans ever get back their independence and desire to stand on their own, to live and let live?
I received this link from a friend. This essay is extremely well thought out and well documented. It is rather long, so I formatted it in a full page format in pdf so it prints out in about 31 pages instead of about 48.
It is well worth the read and certainly explains well, many of the ills we are currently suffering in our society.
This is just one of the many identifications of the problems we suffer, but if We the People don't start fighting back soon, the Corporatocracy wins and we become no more than the ciphers they consider us to be.
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of going to the opening of Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue's new film, Body of War. It's a powerful documentary about the personal costs of war - I strongly recommend seeing it when it's in your area.
Here's the "official" synopsis:
Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.
Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and features two original songs by Eddie Vedder. Body of War is a naked and honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man.
Watch the preview:
Following the film, we had the great experience of hearing both Spiro and Donahue speak and take questions. Plus, there was the added bonus of hearing a short unprepared speech by "Born on the Fourth of July" author and antiwar activist, Ron Kovic.
Outstanding. Seeing the face of God, the God of Business, of profit and loss, Mr. Beale is swept in.
When the narrator spoke of Linear programming and min-max solutions, it reminded me of my days studying Linear Algebra, Multiple Goal Prioritization, Maximization of Product Mix...i.e. Scientific Management or simply managing by the numbers.
In this philosophy, there is no moral or path of fidelity, all decisions are a reaction to the statistical returns (numbers) from the process. Use of Pareto Analysis and ANOVA are powerful tools. But they won't be needed in the factory of the future.
Many, many years ago I wrote an Article "The Factory of the Future." In this paper, I predicted that the day would come when Mega Corp would consist only of a Cadre of Management. Everything else, and I do mean everything else, would be outsourced...i.e, the classical resources land, labor, facilitization, would all be rented and paid for with borrowed money.
The Mega Corp would risk only their time and its value to them.
People would never work for this Corporation. They would work for the Sub-Contractors.
"The military adventurers in the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room" -- the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.
As a result, going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. Its government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expenses of maintaining huge standing armies, replacing the equipment that seven years of wars have destroyed or worn out, or preparing for a war in outer space against unknown adversaries. Instead, the Bush administration puts off these costs for future generations to pay or repudiate. This fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through many manipulative financial schemes (causing poorer countries to lend us unprecedented sums of money), but the time of reckoning is fast approaching."
This article goes on for seven pages. The last paragraphs read as follows:
"Some of the damage can never be rectified. There are, however, some steps that the U.S. urgently needs to take. These include reversing Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the wealthy, beginning to liquidate our global empire of over 800 military bases, cutting from the defense budget all projects that bear no relationship to national security and ceasing to use the defense budget as a Keynesian jobs program.
If we do these things we have a chance of squeaking by. If we don't, we face probable national insolvency and a long depression."
First question: What do you think the chances are that the Republicans and Democrats will do all the right things and avoid national insolvency and a long depression?
My answer to this question is: In my opinion, based on past experience, the chances range all the way from zero to nothing!
Second question: What do you think the social and political consequences will be of national insolvency and a depression? That is, do you think there will be political and social unrest?
My answer to this question is: In my opinion, there will be social and political unrest, possibly even massive social and political unrest.
Third question: What will be the reaction of the oligarchy to political and social unrest?
My answer to this question is: The oligarchy will view any political and social unrest as threatening to their power. Therefore, they will probably respond by labeling any demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes, marches, etc. as "domestic terrorism." Of course, their response to domestic terrorism will be the enforcing legislation that already exists to create a fascist military/police state.
I've been looking for, and finally found, this cut. I wondered at the time that this scene was ever put on the screen. How much more truth there is in it now.
Harry Reid, in this recent interview, tries to tell us that the income tax is somehow "voluntary." But, at the same time he tells us that if we don't volunteer our money, we'll get fines or prison.
Watch it:
In my opinion, Reid clearly knows the difference between freedom and force, but just doesn't want to admit the true nature of our "voluntary" tax system in America. But, isn't that just what politicians do?
Just in case you think he's not trying to obfuscate, here's a few definitions:
vol·un·tar·y:
1. done, made, brought about, undertaken, etc., of one's own accord or by free choice: a voluntary contribution.
More interesting this next definition, which is relevant when discussing law:
4. acting or done without compulsion or obligation.
How about this one?
co·er·cion:
1. the act of coercing; use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance.
It all seems pretty cut-and-dry to me. If it walks like a duck...
Long-term estimates of the financial costs of the Iraq war range from one trillion to three trillion dollars. That is not a misprint. The number is actually" trillion," that is one thousand billion, an astronomical number difficult to comprehend when translated into dollars.
Here are some of the costs components: soldiers pay, cost of equipment and military materiel, subsidies for training and equipping the Iraqi military, reconstruction of destroyed Iraqi infrastructure, replacement of U.S.military equipment destroyed or worn out in combat, extended care of U.S. wounded soldiers that may last a lifetime, bribery of the Sunni Sheiks, no-bid contracts to favored companies and much more.
After more then five years of warfare, invasion and occupation without resolution, American taxpayers should be angry about this waste. Eighty percent of Americans believe the war was a mistake. Two thirds believe American troops should leave Iraq. Why aren't they acting out as their ancestors did in 1776 against the stamp tax and the tax on tea? For the first time in U.S. history, there is no war tax. As a consequence, people do not see the vast amount of GDP that goes to the war as the lost output that it is. Nor do they feel the cost of the borrowing that will be paid in years to come. If every American was required to pay a war tax for the Iraq War, the war would end tomorrow.
The question naturally arises of what else our country could have done with the money. Barack Obama told voters in West Virginia" that the war was costing each American household $100 a month. Just think about what battles we could be fighting instead of fighting this misguided war."
Hillary Clinton said in Indiana recently that the war was costing $12 billion a month "and was crowding out urgent national needs. We've got to begin not only to withdraw our troops, but bring that money back home."
On the other hand, John McCain says repeatedly that success in Iraq justifies any cost and that overspending in other areas is causing the strain on the federal budget. He says that the government can afford whatever the war costs as well as a big corporate tax cut if it reins in wasteful federal spending.
Whether the cost of the war is current or deferred, Obama and Clinton are correct. Bring home the troops. Bring home the money. Care for the veterans. Care for the American people. Rebuild America's infrastructure. Restore America's reputation. It can be done and will be done.
An open letter to Arizona Governor Napolitano on HB2870
Please VETO HB 2870. I write to you as a loyal Democratic State Committee person, lifelong Democrat and as a member of Orangewood Presbyterian Church. I ask that you veto this very cruel and racist legislation HB 2870 that punishes undocumented workers by dragging the family members of their American children out of their homes (like a gestapo type of law officer would) and sending them to Mexico where it will be almost impossible for them to reunite.
The poorest of the poor will not be able to afford the solution to the cruel separation, nor be there to educate their American children to be good citizens. This law will have the effect of creating a huge burden on the state to care for these innocent Americans and it is inhumane. Where did this inhumanity come from?
Yes, people who do not get green cards are at fault. But, did our ancestors from other countries have to pay $5,000. to work here? Were the numbers of people we allowed to work here so limited? Were our ancestors exploited like these Mexican workers are exploited? Certainly not!
It is we the people and mostly the employers who have failed to provide the leadership to solve these immigration hardships in a humane and economical compromise which is what good legislation is. California and Arizona Democratic Parties have passed Resolutions on Immigration which answers the problems on all sides, including the side of the least of and the poorest of the people. We are a country of compassion, of just laws and our shining star is our ability to chip away at discrimination like Martin Luther King, Jr. did when he lead the movement to increase our rights instead of going in the wrong direction like this law does.
We Americans have been the inspiration to the whole world in the past. Please do not go down the road of racism! Please do not bow to the cruel racist element who are at the heart of this punishing legislation. Please VETO HB 2870!
You also must be aware of the myths that surround this issue. We need these undocumented workers because they are good for our economy! NAFTA has taken it's toll on Mexico's workers and have forced them North to feed their families. And, why burden our law enforcement officers who are already stretched beyond their abilities. This is a U.S. problem so why should Arizona take the burden on alone? Stand up at be counted as one Governor who remembers what discrimination feels like, since surely we all have those experiences of injustice in our lives or in our family history!
And even more hardship is coming and the plans already laid and being implemented without the democratic process in secrecy by President Bush, the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico, along with 27 of the HUGE Major Corporations who met a few days ago in New Orleans to work on "harmonizing" the rules to the least beneficial level for the people and the most beneficial to big money, for instance, "harmonizing" US and Canadian pesticide standards to Mexico's. At the end of this letter, I am sending you the article by Greg Palast.
As trade expert Maud Barlow explained to him about the The North American Competitiveness Council , the new expansion of the worse than the NAFTA on steroids highway that will allow Chinese stuff dumped into Mexico to be hauled northward as duty-free "Mexican" products. That's one of the quiet agendas of this "Summit for Security and Prosperity", (SSP) the official Orwellian name for this meet. Think of the SSP "harmonization" as the Trojan Taco of trade.
Increasing the cruel separation of undocumented parents like this from their innocent American children reminds me of the consequences of SLAVERY more than anything else. While there is no actual sale of the children, the results are just as tragic.
I beg of you, do not make this your legacy to Mexican parents and their American children. We must find a better solution because we are a better people than that!
An open letter to Michael Moore on his endorsement of Barack Obama
Love your films, Michael. But this!
This is just as foolish as your endorsement of Wesley Clark in '04.
I cannot figure you out Michael, or can i? Perhaps the 'hollywood' illusion has gotten to you. Too many 'yuppie liberals' out there - and in NYC where you hang out ( and live ) - who have alienated you from your ( supposed) working class roots.
I know you never lived in flint, and used that as a means to an end. Yet, your films border on genius man! Why continually sell out and disregard your own 'conscience'?
You stand up and give great, impassioned speeches railing against the War Economy and the Military Industrial Complex. Then, in ' 04 you support a believer in it, Wes Clark. Now, you support Obama because he is the 'lesser of two evils' candidate once again?
Ghandi would, in all candor, roll his eyes and look at you with a shocked and disappointed gaze.
The hindus teach that this is all an illusion - this 3rd dimension and these physical forms we are immersed in. They tell us, as Christ did, to 'live in truth' and 'the truth shall set you free.' Obama is not part of that truth...he represents the part of the lie that the elites that you, Michael Moore, have been railing against for selling it to us for so long.
Brezinski is his top foreign policy advisor, Michael! This is the guy who sold Jimmy Carter his "Grand Chessboard" theory to justify a permanent US military presence in the Middle East. Brezinski, who advises Obama to continue to use private military contractors aka mercenaries, throughout the world to protect US interests and "US business interests."
This is the guy you support to simply 'stop' Clinton and McCain?
If this truly is an illusion, Michael, and what the Hindus define as 'delusion' or 'Maya,' then let's all live in truth, especially you and I, two guys who know better!
It's time we get the big picture. Greg Palast is one of the few journalists you can believe in has a hideous story about what's going to happen to your money and freedom if Bush's latest secret plan for a new worse-than-NAFTA scheme succeeds.
The North American Competitiveness Council is meeting now - (Bush, the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico + chief executives of Wal-Mart, Chevron Oil, Lockheed-Martin and 27 other multinational masters of the corporate universe. This Security and Prosperity Summit is worse than the "NAFTA on steroids" ) Never heard of The Council? That's because it's secret!
...And why did the landlords of our continent order our presidents to a three-nation pajama party? Their term is "harmonization."
Harmonization means making rules and regulations the same in all three countries. Or, more specifically, watering down rules - on health, safety, labor rights, oil drilling, polluting and so on - in other words, any regulations that get between The Council members and their profits.
Trade expert Maud Barlow said that the US Ambassador to Canada told her the legal changes wrought in New Orleans will not be put before the three national Congresses for a vote. "We don't want to open up another NAFTA." So, they'll skip the voting stuff. Democracy is so, like, 20th Century.
So there is no United States of America nor Canada nor Mexico - at least as we like to imagine ourselves in our national fairy tales: self-governing democracies run by we the people or nosotros el pueblo. There's just the diktats of the North American Prosperity Council. Get used to it.
A writer, "The Lorax," wrote a comment that I thought was very apropos in response to the article "Clinton Threatens to 'Obliterate' Iran" - by Robert Scheer:
"We really need to do some remodeling to the Statue of Liberty. The torch needs to be removed and replaced with a sword. The tablet needs to be replaced with a shield with the date January 20, 2001 emblazoned across it.
The entire saying at the bottom should be removed and replaced with 'Give us your gas, your oil, your pooled resources as we force you to be free.'
"That would be much more realistic."
Sadly enough, Lorax, I fear you hit the nail on the head.
This is not the nation I once knew, and I fear it never will be again. We were never perfect, but at least we tried, many years ago.
Now, we have degenerated into a rogue state which should be a global pariah.
What we are witnessing is a no-holds-barred power struggle between the fascist faction that has control of the Republican Party and the fascist faction that has control of the Democratic Party. These opposing fascist camps are merely using institutions that are relics from a former democratic political process.
This is not democracy in action.
Once again, the original definition of fascism by Giovanni Gentile is as follows:
Fascism, a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.
From Citizens For Legitimate Government:
Paper ballot bill goes down in House after White House intervenes -- A bill that would have helped states pay to switch to paper-election balloting systems and for random audits after elections died out of a House committee this week, but its prime sponsor said he is not giving up the fight. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said the bill he sponsored, House Bill 5036, the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act, would help make the nation's elections more accurate and secure by helping states move to paper ballots over touch-screen electronic machines. On Tuesday, the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, went down to defeat in the House 239-178, with 223 Democrats in favor and 176 Republican opposed, after the White House sent out a statement opposing the measure.
U.S. government propaganda has Cuba as a nation of downtrodden, starving peasants dreaming of being invaded by the US to bring them freedom. When they lifted the travel ban briefly a few years ago, Americans found out what the Canadians have known for years. When they began to speak of it, the travel ban was reimposed.
Canadians have traveled back and forth to Cuba for many years. Times are tough because the Cubans have suffered greatly under our embargoes and sanctions. However, they have learned to live together and work together to make their country work. They are universally literate, have excellent health care, have sent well-qualified health teams to assist in disasters around the world.
Remember, they offered to send a fully equipped medical team to help after Katrina, but Cheney/Bush Co said, "No, we'd rather have our people die than give them medical care from Cuba."
And many did.
I have not been to Cuba since 1957, but I understand it is not the mob owned whorehouse and gambling den it was then, and the people have their dignity and pride back. I hope they keep it. It would be wonderful to normalize relations with Cuba.
They have a lot we could trade for that would be of mutual benefit, as long as we keep our damned noses out of their business.
Anyway, that's my two cents worth on Cuba. Their government may not be my cup of tea, but it is their business and they seem to do reasonably well, considering close to sixty years of harassment, embargoes, attempted invasions, commando raids and assassination plots.
I want to be sure all of you saw, heard, or read some of the testimony from the Winter Soldier hearings last month.
This testimony may be particularly disturbing to those that are against this war but think that recruitment centers have free speech rights and that U.S. troops should be supported. World Can't Wait does NOT support the recruitment of young men and women into a military that commits these crimes against humanity.
*Scott Ewing, who served for three years as a cavalry scout in the U.S. army, described his unit's "block-by-block" raid of the entire city of Talafar in September of 2005. Ewing said tactics were particularly brutal in the Sarai neighborhood of the city, which the U.S. military had identified as an insurgent stronghold. "We were told to search aggressively to teach the residents a lesson not to harbor terrorists," Ewing testified. The result of those orders was doors kicked in, homes ransacked-and nothing found in the way of weapons. The Army then moved northward, and continued to terrorize innocent Iraqis.
Ewing described one incident in which the military rounded up every male of military age and detained about 500 Iraqis in a barbed-wire enclosure as their families watched across the street. A "masked man," as Ewing described him, then walked the line of detained Iraqis and gave either a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. In the end, 50 men were zip tied and taken away, with the crimes they were accused of written on their hands. Ewing said he had no idea what happened next to these 50 men . "It's hard for me to believe," Ewing said, "that the Iraqis who witnessed this could take seriously our version of justice and democracy."
Ewing concluded his speech by noting, ironically, that "The only war our country has really waged well is a propaganda war on its own people."
*Chris Arendt's strikingly youthful appearance was made all the more chilling when he referred to himself as a former "concentration camp guard" at Guantanamo. With disgust, Arendt recalled the dehumanizing absurdity of practicing to shackle detainees, in preparation for the "big game" of shackling actual detainees. He said , to applause from the audience, that he considered imprisoning human beings for five years away from their friends and families, without ever explaining why, to be torture in and of itself. "If that wasn't enough," Arendt said, "there were other methods to make sure we got around to torturing people."
Arendt testified that detainees were kept in rooms 10 to 20 degrees in temperature, blasted with loud music, and shackled to the floor by their hands and feet. Arendt also described how detainees viewed as unruly would be pepper sprayed and forcibly removed from their cells. "These are all on tape," Arendt noted. "The government makes sure all of these are on tape." As he began to describe a prisoner who was subjected to such a procedure, he seemed to abruptly stop his testimony, and it seemed unclear exactly why-if he had simply run out of time, if he was too emotional to continue, or if another factor was at play.
For the next several weeks, World Can't Wait will be publishing testimony from the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan hearings that recently took place in Washington, DC. This testimony is an accurate and disturbing account of what has happened and continues to happen daily in these countries.
Here is a factual film that is a genuine horror story. The World According to Monsanto - a movie that Americans will never see. It is about an hour and forty-eight minutes.
If you have the time, sit down and watch it. This may be worse than nukes, or at least as bad, but boy does Monsanto coin the loot for its stockholders at the expense of poor farmers everywhere, not to mention cancers and other horrors.
It also traces how the governments have covered for them, and of course NAFTA raises its ugly head. It involves Dioxin, Agent Orange, Roundup, and genetically modified crops.
Earth Day is the day when the chickens dance and sing, proclaiming the beauties of nature, and the day the foxes that guard the chickens dance and sing, celebrating the blind gullibility and stupidity of the chickens.
Like Arbor Day, Earth Day has become a day of pretending that "all is good on Planet Eden." On Arbor Day, the foxes line up before the cameras of the media, sprig and shovel in hand, pretending that the sprig will make up for the thousands of beautiful ancient trees that will be destroyed that very day.
Earth Day has become an even greater event that deceives the public into believing that corporate America has changed colors from brown to green. Why else would Earth Day events be sponsored by big oil, big military/industrial, big power, big chemical, and big automotive?
In actual fact these corporate chameleons paint their faces green, and paste on their toothy plastic smiles for the media and the gullible public, while their millions of corporate slaves go glibly about their jobs of destroying our air, our water, our forests, our soil, and ultimately our future.
It is their day now and thus the name should be changed to Earth Killers Day in order to expose the almost total emasculation of the environmental movement. The EPA has been sold to polluters by the political whores that now seem to control America.
Even the greatest destroyer of America the Beautiful' in history, the Army Corps of Engineers, has joined as sponsors of the Earth Day folly.
America has never been in graver danger. We have allowed dirty corporate money to purchase the loyalty and allegiance of those whom the people have elected to protect us, our children, and future generations from harm.
We are constantly bombarded with fear-mongering politicians, into focusing on terrorists living in caves on the other side of the world, while the most dangerous terrorists are our own eco-terrorists - the immoral mega-corporations and their political hacks that are hell bent on destroying our forests, our streams, our wetlands, our health, and our future as a viable nation.
William Volker, almost 100 years ago, said, "I've learned something about government..Government must be restricted to those activities which can be entrusted to the worst citizens, not the best."
His statement was in reaction to the way politicians took over private welfare activities of NGOs at that time. Ward heelers like Thomas J. Prendergast, and those leading the political machines in the big metropolitan centers, recognized the potential of welfare as an instrument of political power.
If we were to follow the advice given by William Volker, we would have to accept that those running for public office are the worst available. Then, we would have to back up and pare down the roles they can play, by reducing the size of government. Remove all the tasks, responsibilities and programs they can run, giving them only those we can afford for them to corrupt.
It would appear that the Founders of the American System of Government realized that Volker was right. They built into our system a method of separating functions so few could create havoc with their corruption.
Prior even to the new structure, the County was the seat of government throughout the United States. The county government was closest to the people living in it. Where corruption rose to power in a county, the infection was isolated to that county. Either the people living in it could overcome it, or the productive people could leave it, as was the case for Louisiana under Huey Long.
The notion that all things could work better if they were concentrated in the hands of a larger central government has already proven false. The infection of political power having risen from the counties, collected in the states, only to be collected again in the Federal Government, has all but ruined America.
It is time to begin the march back, by taking the accumulated powers away from the Federal Government, sending them back to the states and apportioning them to the counties, from whence they came. To do otherwise, believing in the logic of big government simply opens the door to moving all powers and functions to the United Nations.
If you think they are screwed up now, wait until that happens.
Did you ever notice that, in photos from space, there are no national boundary lines, no flags, just a beautiful blue-green marble to be loved, cherished and enjoyed by all?
Understanding the patterns of history is essential when discussing politics. Chalmers Johnson (one of my favorite authors) is one of today's leading experts on foreign policy and political history, and in today's video post on the home page, you can see a great analysis by Johnson entitled "Decline of Empires: Signs of Decay"
There's certainly some ominous signs for our own future.
Like ancient Rome, America is saddled with an empire that is fatally undermining its republican government, argues Johnson (The Sorrows of Empire), in this bleak jeremiad. He surveys the trappings of empire: the brutal war of choice in Iraq and other foreign interventions going back decades; the militarization of space; the hundreds of overseas U.S. military bases full of "swaggering soldiers who brawl and sometimes rape." At home, the growth of an "imperial presidency," with the CIA as its "private army," has culminated in the Bush administration's resort to warrantless wiretaps, torture, a "gulag" of secret CIA prisons and an unconstitutional arrogation of "dictatorial" powers, while a corrupt Congress bows like the Roman Senate to Caesar. Retribution looms, the author warns, as the American economy, dependent on a bloated military-industrial complex and foreign borrowing, staggers toward bankruptcy, maybe a military coup. Johnson's is a biting, often effective indictment of some ugly and troubling features of America's foreign policy and domestic politics.
Where he makes the statement about regulations and how they are always for the benefit of the Corporations, I am reminded of a time years ago when I was asked to give a speech to a county group. I asked them "What subject are you interested in? They said we would like you to speak on Ozone regulations". Since I didn't know anything about such I decided it would be prudent to get a lot of info and study it.
Did I ever get an education. My 45 minute speech ( way too long ) illustrated that the Ozone algorithm had such a fudge factor in the denominator that no Industrial, urban, or rural area should ever fail the standard. Actually even the Government Agency that wrote the Spec stated that there was a lot of unsure need for regulation in the document, but since there was a regulation, there had to be a penalty for "Non-Compliance" .
Low and behold the county was Non-Compliant to the regulation.
The penalties (1) First offense: All Automobiles in the county would be required to have emission controls (2) Second offense: All factory emissions would be required to be controlled (3) Third offense: Automobile traffic volume would be restricted (4) Fourth offense: Automobile traffic would banned (5) Fifth Offense: Removal of all industry from the county
As I said earlier, the measurement procedure had enough fudge factor that no one should ever fail.
But the county I was reporting on had never passed - even one inspection
For your information. It appears that the inevitable is about to happen.
Paper printed with green ink may be recycled into toilet tissue. In my humble opinion, food and commodities are the safest investment. At least it's edible.
Continuing on my previous post on inflation - it seems that the environmentally-conscious DailyGreen has gotten a pretty good understanding of just what inflation is...a drop in the value of money.
Ron Paul, in his presidential campaign, has been talking about the negative results of Federal Reserve policy - arbitrarily low interest rates resulting in cheap credit, and the printing of new money. These policies result in a de-valuation of the dollar.
That means everything you buy - everything - costs more.
One of the best ways the results of this is shown is throught the price of oil. In US Dollars - and the Euro - oil prices are going up quickly.
But, if you buy in gold, the price stays the same.
Why? More money in the marketplace means it's worth less:
"If the US dollar had remained strong in the global economy, oil might, in theory, be around $65 per barrel. However, oil is priced in dollars, and oil prices continue to rise. The impact of increased oil prices can not be ignored in the US economy, and, in turn, can further weaken the dollar. Resource economics is a complex feedback loop where today's resource boom is driven by many external factors."
Inflation. It's been an enemy, it's been a friend (well, not really), it's been around for a long, long time. But do we really know it - this thing that lives with us every day?
If we decide to live with someone, we generally do a little background check. But yet, we live with the effects of inflation our whole lives, but most of us don't have a clue about it - where it comes from, what it does, how to get rid of it if we want to, and on and on.....and on.
Leave is to Mises.org to give an excellent introduction to our life-partner - inflation. Henry Hazlitt writes:
The cure for inflation, like most cures, consists chiefly in removal of the cause. The cause of inflation is the increase of money and credit. The cure is to stop increasing money and credit. The cure for inflation, in brief, is to stop inflating. It is as simple as that.
He marches in rhythmic step Across a Country border With his pack and rifle slung In precise Military order.
He knows not why, he goes there He is just doing as he is told Following his mounted General Who looks so proud and brave and bold.
The General knows not why he goes But once given the Command From those Politicians back at Home He'll march his Troops across the Land.
They would search out others of their ilk Sometimes they will come face to face With the same from "the other side" Who wish them moved from that place.
The politicians would talk and debate Though they knew not, of what they spoke But they could say, "Well, we tried!" Although all knew, that was a joke!
There might be something "over there" That the opposite side thinks it needs Maybe sometimes, land or riches Or just merely, hatred's bitter seeds.
The leaders of those Nations Will say, "Peaceful options are all gone!" And each one will point their finger And blame it all on the other one.
But the Generals and their Soldiers Who really don't hate "the enemy" Stand nose to nose and toes to toes With weapons held, at the ready.
If no one blinks or turns away Or says, "Let's try to make things work." Then the awful truth about Mankind Will most surely show its deadly quirk.
And through the smoke from the guns And above the screams of fear and pain The sounds of the Soldier's cadence Is heard through the fog of War, again.
And then Parents will be grieving Spouses will weep through the night Politicians pat the children's heads And say, "Oh yes, this War is right!"
Then, eventually the fog will clear And all might seem right and well But too soon it will roll in, once more To shroud us in our own man made hell.
"No doubt nearly all bankers want the broad foundations of the existing banking system to be maintained. That system is their bread and butter and it has served them well."
No doubt about it. Regulation of the banking industry has only given benefits to those at the top. Here's how Rozeff sees it:
"Bank regulation is actually in the interests of the banks, not the public. The banks are running an operation in which they print fiat money and lend it out. Their goal is to run that system as long as possible so as to make as much profit as possible for themselves. The goal of regulation is the survival of this arrangement and the sustenance of the banks' ability to print fiat money and lend it out at interest indefinitely."
If you're interested in a different perspective on the banking mess, Rozeff's is an excellent read. Find the full article here.
Michael, your piece "The American-Haters Strike Again" reminded me of what President Eisenhower stated in a speech in Boston in 1952: "America is Great because America is Good; If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be Great!".
For all those who think blind obedience to a corrupt government is patriotic, I say - take a look at Germany in the early thirties. Or maybe you might remember Lyndon Johnson's famous Gulf of Tonkin ruse to lead this nation into war. Now what was it we gained from that fiasco that led to the death of over 57,000 American soldiers?
It is beyond my understanding how people of the United States (and there are about 30-35%) could support such a war as the Iraqi debacle. And these same people gladly support a corrupt government - and will continue to do so. They are the ones who send you the hate mail Michael.
I received one once who told me that I was affected with Psychobabble. He called me a pinko liberal Democrat.
What he didn't know was that I voted for Bush the first time because I was utterly sick of a corrupt government headed by Bill Clinton. I truly believe that America deserves better than it is currently getting from our elected representatives.
Currently I am reading about the Intelligence run-up that lead to the invasion of Iraq, and one of the most telling things I have found (although the number of malfeasance to choose from is huge) is that the day after 9/11 Paul Wolfowitz set up a special intelligence unit to ferret out data that could be used to make a case for invading Iraq!
It later became known as OSP (Office of Special Plans) and was used to "stovepipe" data that could be fashioned into propaganda disguised as "Intelligence" that could be used to justify invading Iraq. The Staff was filled with NeoCons who had been looking for an excuse to invade Iraq that the American public would accept and had been planning the invasion since the mid 90's.
This subterfuge long since exposed as Lies and Mis-information has lead to the deaths of over 4,000 American soldiers, over 60,000 wounded, a financial burden of $3 Trillion, death of over 1,000,000 Iraqis, exodus of over 4,000,000 Iraqis from their country, a totally decimated infrastructure, and a deposit of depleted uranium that will continue to infect citizens of Iraq for thousands of years.
I call this criminal.
Those who would call Michael or me Un-American don't know what being an American really is.
I really do not want a recession and I want a depression even less. It would be perfectly acceptable to me if the American oligarchy and their political elite could keep the American economy humming along without war or the preparation for war.
Unfortunately, that is becoming more and more of a pipe dream.
When you read this article you become much more aware that American capitalism is in a very serious crisis. That ever more desperate measures to keep the American capitalist economic system functioning are yielding poorer and poorer results.
Next, you also become much more aware that the oligarchy and their political elite are running out of options to keep the American economy functioning at even a very low level of performance.
Finally, you realize that America is in the early throes of a colossal economic disaster. That is a depression.
The major question before us is: What will be the political consequences of this economic disaster?
I think I know the answer.
The American oligarchy, being unable to maintain their economic and political power, by solving the economy's problems, will try to maintain their economic and political power by having our current de facto fascist state impose a fascist military/police state.
All of the legal groundwork has been done to create a fascist military/police state. That is, all of the legislation required to do this has been written and passed. Now, all the fascist Bush regime, or its fascist Republican or Democratic successor, has to do is have an excuse to use it.
It is becoming more widely accepted that the intention behind creating the legal groundwork for a fascist military/police state never was to cope with a national emergency created by a terrorist attack or a pandemic. That the real intention was to cope with massive social and political unrest caused by a national economic crisis. That is the social and political unrest caused by the depression that the ruling hierarchy knew was becoming more and more unavoidable.
Featured in the commentary section today is a classic from the late Harry Browne, Freedom from the Income Tax. But, this is far from the only great article Harry wrote on the need and benefit to getting rid of the income tax.
Another that's a "must-read" is Why the Income Tax Must Go. Here's an excerpt:
Perhaps the most important benefit of all is simply this:
Politicians will no longer have the resources to cripple the economy and run everyone's life.
Without the income tax to finance them, the politicians can't interfere with health care, education, charity, farming, business or any other area of society.
Before the income tax began in 1913, the politicians sometimes raised rates on tariffs and excise taxes to finance their harebrained schemes. But people simply bought less of the products that were taxed - reducing the government's revenue and forcing the politicians to give up their grand plans.
But with the income tax, there's no limit to how much they can tax us. You can't stop earning a living whenever the tax rate is too high. As a result, the top rate reached 94 percent during World War II - and it didn't fall below 70 percent until 1982.
In 1912, the federal budget (in 2002 dollars) was $12 billion. Today it's $2 trillion - only because the income tax makes it possible.
Amen, Harry. I don't think there's many that have put it as clearly as you did. I only hope that more will open their eyes to the principles of freedom too.
Then, maybe we can move on to getting rid of another federal tyranny - and finally make our neighborhoods safer.
- The puppet regime in Iraq wants U.S. troops to stay to protect it from the insurgents and other dissatisfied groups, to supply money, and to act as a cover for "the most corrupt government in the Middle East."
- The Sunni Awakening Councils in Anbar Province are heavily subsidized by U.S. dollars supplied by the U.S. military. We pay 90,000 Sunnis $30 a month and supply them with weapons, a subsidy far higher than the average wage in Iraq.
- The U.S. invasion was in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, hence in violation of U.S. law.
- Al Qaeda in Iraq is only a small fraction of the insurgency, between 1000 to 2000 fighters. It is fueled in large part by nationalist and anti-foreigner sentiment.
- The so-called bloodbath after U.S. withdrawal is questionable and is being used as an excuse by the Iraqi puppets and the U.S. hard-liners for an extended occupation.
- The U.S. residual force to protect infrastructure, to train Iraqis and to fight insurgents is a continuation of the occupation by another name and must be repudiated.
- The U.S. must not maintain any military bases in Iraq.
- U.S. withdrawal must not depend on the situation in Iraq and the region because there will always be a reason to stay.
- There is no way to prevent Iranian influence on the Iraqi Shiite government. From an imperial standpoint, this is the greatest U.S. mistake. During the Saddam Hussein Sunni regime, Iran's Shiite government gave sanctuary to Iraq's religious and civil Shiite leaders. When President Ahmadinejard of Iran visited Baghdad recently, he was greeted by Iraqi officials with kisses, embraces, music and flowers.
- The U.S. should try to make a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan whom we subsidized after the Soviets left. Let us try to avoid the failed experiences of USSR and UK in Afghanistan.
- Some smart policemen have suggested treating terrorism as a criminal conspiracy rather than a military attack, more effective and less expensive in lives and money. Regimes across the globe will be overthrown. We must not react automatically in defense of the status quo.
- The financial costs of the Iraq war are staggering. That has special relevance now given the recession, the banking crisis, the aging U.S. infrastructure, the health-care crisis, etc. The Iraqi government has billions of surplus funds due to the high price of oil. They should be paying for U.S. forces in Iraq. Instead, the U.S. continues to finance the Iraqi government with outright grants rather than loans to be repaid.
- For diplomatic credibility, for decent respect for popular opinion at home and abroad, for avoidance of a boycott of American products abroad, it is crucial that the U.S. places a total ban on torture, live up to the Geneva Conventions, eliminate the rendition program, and eliminate the secret prisons and the assassination program.
- There are in Iraq about as many U.S. sponsored contractors as there are U.S. troops. Many are armed and trigger-happy, not really accountable to the U.S. and Iraqi governments. They should be withdrawn with U.S. troops. The jobs should go to Iraqis, now suffering from high unemployment, even if they are less efficient, in the interest of social stability by reducing unemployment.
- The Iraqi Congress voted by a large margin for U.S. military withdrawal. Yet, a Status of Forces Agreement has been negotiated between Iraq and the U.S. delineating rights and procedures for American military. This agreement was passed by the Iraqi Congress but was never submitted to the U.S. Congress for approval, a violation of the U.S. Constitution and an indication of a long U.S. occupation.
The Associated Press article reports -- in a series of meetings coinciding with the period of the torture memos --that Cheney, Rice, George Tenet and others discussed and approved a wide range of torture methods, including waterboarding. ABC says they investigated for five months, and found "senior and influential advisors" "discussed specific and high value" prisoners and how they would be interrogated. SEE video
A friend wrote me tonight, "Yes, we all already knew that Cheney and other top officials were approving and ordering torture.... but I still feel it's a big deal that the mainstream press -- with a former senior intelligence official as their source-- is reporting it.
AND that government officials deliberately took steps to insulate Bush from these meetings to prevent him from being prosecuted for war crimes, showing that they knew they were committing war crimes!"
The AP reports, "At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least detail how they worked, to make sure the small group of "principals" fully understood what the al-Qaida detainees would undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding. This technique involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning."
Ashcroft is reported to have asked "Why are we talking about this out loud in the White House?" And, "History will not judge us kindly."
The movement to drive out the Bush regime has a lot to do with how the Bush "prinicpals" will be judged by history. We've hammered for almost three years on the war crimes and crimes against humanity that are part of the Bush program. As I travel around the country, people tell me they've seen the waterboarding demonstrations on TV, and the people in orange jumpsuits on the street.
George Bush has his hands still firmly on the reigns of power and only a politically independent movement acting on principle can bring what the Bush "principals" have done to a halt.
It begins with you taking personal responsibility to show how you feel and where you stand: wear orange daily, spread orange everywhere, protest and speak out in every way you can. As this orange resistance spreads to millions who represent the majority sentiment, Bush and Cheney's illegitimacy to rule will stand out vividly before the world.
This week's video post (updated on the home page every Friday) gives a different perspective on those "heroic" and "honest" generals of the Iraq occupation. Ron Paul gives them the questioning that the media should've been doing for years.
Ron Paul asks the two proconsuls of the province of Iraq, Petraeus and Crocker, the questions all decent people want answered. Catch Petraeus's fury in response. In our militaristic system, the hard-faced, violence-purveying generals must never, ever hear a discouraging word, let alone a question they don't like.
Watch It
Will we ever get answers? Undoubtely we won't - especially when it comes to the Constitutionality of the president - like a dictator - being the sole person to send the nation to war with Iran.
With "Generals" like these, we don't have a military that defends the nation - we have a terrorist organization that needs to be shut down because it's doing this country far more harm than good.
The "Mainstream Media" is all in an outrage that one Barack Obama would presume to have the "authority" to speak about wedge issues in Pennsylvania.
They have dissected his statements about folks turning to God, Guns, and Bitterness when things don't go Politically right (no pun intended) and they have scrutinized what he said. And - surprise, surprise - have found him unfit to be President because he didn't - say it politely?
To observe that the MSM has hopped on the wagon to discredit Obama is akin to observing, "Obama ain't white"!
And yet this same Media just can't seem to summon the energy to examine, dissect, and scrutinize a sitting president that lied America into a war that has cost America its soul. Not to mention over 4,000 of its finest young men and women. Or the $3 Trillion left for our progeny to pay.
And who is to speak for the Iraqis?
The only question the Media needs to answer is WHY?
Michael, At the risk of committing hyperbole, I am going to go ahead say that your point is brilliant,and has far greater implications than simply environmental degradation. The current processes through which the sovereignty of the nation-state is being eroded, in order to make space for enlarging dominions of "free"-trade; a condition that is imposed upon communities by the trans-national ultra-political consortia, which justifies their effects upon localized pockets of humanity, through reference to the same slogans that you illumined in your analysis of the forces responsible for polluting our planet.
In the case of multinational economic interests, we have our critical faculties eventually rendered inert through the unceasing exposure to the mind-numbing mantra "Free trade policies always benefit society at large."
However, if you disaggregate the concept, society, then we see winners and losers, and the losers come in greater numbers than the winners. Additionally, to add insult to injury, we are told that someone displaced due to the flattening of labor markets only needs to retool himself, often through the enrollment in a community college and through the procurement of an Associates Degree.
This remedy, however, that is proffered to those who lose livelihoods as a result of freer trade is disingenuous. The skills that one would need to compete in a world with a collapsing geography and an increasing accessibility of cheaper - although skilled - labor markets situated in developing countries, one would need a doctorate in a specialized field; not an Associates Degree that only prepares for entry level employment, which is, itself, already subject to outsourcing.
Of course, a freer trade fundamentalist will dismiss the wage stagnation of the last three decades under the pretext that it is a temporal condition appropriately interpreted as epiphenomena. However, when will the displacement stop? When will the race to the bottom finally end as the global economy enters into this fairytale, neoliberal Utopia that is marked by its economic equilibrium?
In order for these Whiggish arguments to even be taken seriously, they must specify what, finally, would entail the falsification of their freer trade historicism? The answer is never, because the theory of freer trade is an argument of convenience designed to justify the interests of the few and the evermore multinational.
Freer Trade absolutism is not a theory, it is a false ideology.
The world has a responsibility to help put an end to the genocide...
In Iraq and Afghanistan.
The people of Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered for too long at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians.
The whole world has called these actions by their rightful name.
Those believing a few elite are necessary to rule the many, are afraid the many will not accept their rule, which accounts for their need to deceive and lie. Those who are angered by, and envy the happy and successful people in America, are where the elite get their supporters.
I can also see those who assist the elite to power do so in hopes of cashing in without having to work hard. In short, those who want the elite few to rule the many are not the kind of people who, left on their own, would ever build a great nation like America.
I guess the deception will continue until it has produced its promised benevolent tyranny.
At DissidentVoice.com today (one of my favorite "leftist" websites), Ernest Partridge writes about Global Warming and how freedom and free markets are the cause:
Simply put, global warming is the by-product of the unconstrained "free market" that is celebrated by the libertarians.
The solution, of course, is that more government regulation is needed to "protect" us. If the "War on Terror" hasn't taught us yet how much government "protection" actually harms us - we can look to the environment too.
In reality (and clearly not taught in our government schools), the greatest cause of the environmental problems we face today - be they air pollution, water pollution, and the like - is not unconstraind freedom, as the author suggests.
It's our unrestrained government - governing in the form of corporatism.
The industrial revolution was the start of the whole mess, quite true. In Britain, new factories were spewing soot like we can't even imagine. Farmers and other small property owners tried to sue the many factories for damaging crops, homes and their livelihood.
What was the result? The government - as usual - sided with the factories because it was in the "best interests of the whole community"
These decisions were the legal foundation used to nearly the same ends in the US. In short, the right of individuals to seek redress for pollution of their homes (and their selves) was eliminated.
All this was done in the name of the "community"
When you give the government the power to decide what's "best for the community" you end up with results like this - plenty of unintended consequences, and in this case, ruinous consequences for the entire world.
Instead of respecting the rights of each individual that tries to sue - we allow judges, politicians, and bureaucrats to tell US whether it's in our interests or not to allow that.
When you give such a small number of people such vast power - what do you get? Well, those politicians become quite beholden to their corporate friends.
Sounds pretty fascist, doesn't it? Well, it is.
So, for all this time, instead of corporations having to absorb the full cost of their operations, government has given them pretty much a free pass. Regulations and laws that they've passed have been nothing but window dressing.
Every day your home and my home is filled with pollutants, and our own government doesn't give us the right to put a stop to it, or to even sue for it.
Think you can sue a coal plant? Good luck!
If property rights were supreme instead of corporate power - we wouldn't be having this discussion at all, because such plants would've been sued into near oblivion a long time ago. Or, they would've had to innovate much, much faster than they've done.
Turning to the government to solve the problem that IT creates - and perpetuates - is a poor choice. (especially seeing that the government itself, through the Pentagon and the US mint, does more pollution than virtually anyone)
When we start protecting the rights of individuals instead of giving politicians and judges the power to determine what's supposedly "good" for all of us, we'll end up with far fewer problems like we're facing today.
You really do not have to look any further than this article for an explanation as to why the fascist Bush regime is hell-bent on militarily attacking Iran.
The Iranians, in the minds of the Bushies, are conducting economic warfare and attacking American "capitalism" where it is most vulnerable.
They are attacking the American dollar as the de facto global currency. They are encouraging oil producing and exporting countries, who already are being hurt because American inflation is reducing the value of their dollar reserves, to stop trading oil in dollars and trade oil in currencies other than the dollar.
This reduces the need for American dollars, which makes it much more difficult, maybe even impossible, to finance the American war machine and wars of aggression.
That poem about where "poppies blow" And, "the crosses, row on row" Still rings true, these ninety years After written, still brings tears.
We still have Dead, "amid the guns" And lose our young and our loved ones Those who lived, "short days ago" Who, "felt dawn, saw sunset glow".
In Flanders Fields, "the poppy red" Still grow where the blood was bled They, "Take up our quarrel with the foe" And still die for Freedoms that we know.
They pass, "The torch" to, "hold it high" And not, "break the faith with us who die" For they, "shall not sleep, though poppies grow" Beneath all those, "crosses, row on row" In Flanders Fields.
Of all the important quotes on the evils of war, I believe this one, from Madison, to be one of the best.
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.... [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and ... degeneracy of manners and of morals.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
If only our government-run education system would stress these kinds of principles instead of glorifying the warmongers...
This is what I expect from General David Petraeus. General Petraeus will continue to provide whatever testimony the fascist Bush regime needs to justify their up-coming military attack on Iran. Put another way, he will serve the interests of the totally corrupt fascist Bush regime and supply whatever lies they need to expand their disastrous war in the Middle East.
Bottom line: General Petraeus is only there to totally prostitute himself to the fascist Bush regime or he will see his career as a high ranking officer in the fascist Bush regime's war machine will come to an end.
That being said, I see his testimony as yet another demonstration of the of the less than honorable officer class, in the less than honorable American military, prostituting themselves to the world's most dangerous fascists to save their sordid military careers.
An absolute gem from Lysander Spooner, 19th century abolitionist, philosopher, and libertarian:
But this theory of our government is wholly different from the practical fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: 'Your money, or your life.' And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat. The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the roadside, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets.
But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful. The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit.
He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a 'protector,' and that he takes men's money against their will, merely to enable him to 'protect' those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these.
Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful 'sovereign,' on account of the 'protection' he affords you.
He does not keep 'protecting' you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands.
He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave.
Did you see or read what Dick Cheney replied to an interviewer's question about polls showing that two-thirds of Americans don't think the fight in Iraq is worth it -- about a week before U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached 4,000?
Cheney's response: "So?"
Do you recall from back in mid-June, 2006 the reply of then-White House Press Secretary Tony Snow to a reporter remarking that "American deaths in Iraq have reached 2,500," before asking, "Is there any response or reaction from the president on that?"
Snow's response: "It's a number, and every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks, people want something."
The replies seem to kinda add up to -- So? Who's counting? -- don't they?
It seems that tragic milestones such as the 4,000 American deaths in Iraq have generally gone unremarked by George Bush. But he chose on Easter Day to note the losses, albeit briefly and without taking questions from reporters. Bush had little to say, except to offer sympathy to the dead servicemen and servicewomen's families and to repeat his mantra that the occupation of Iraq must continue until some unspecified victory is attained so that the deaths will not have been "in vain."
What's here also can remind folks that the tanking U.S. economy -- caused in large measure by Bush's Iraq adventure destabilizing the oil market and running up the national debt; leading to the dollar's devaluation -- is not the only issue of significance facing the U.S. in this presidential election year.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama offer the voters the same agenda: their positions on issues are quite similar and match the Democratic Congressional stands. As long as their centrist positions differ from the right wing conservative positions of the discredited Bush administration, they can rally enough Democrats and Independents for victory in November.
This situation gives a significant edge to Obama, whose personality, charisma and oratorical skills completely overshadow Clinton. Hillary compensates by producing details of the issues, acting as the smartest girl in the class, but not offering new approaches to old problems. For example, she could break the impasse on health care by offering a single-payer government-run system including every American, a system used by virtually every industrial nation. But Hillary would rather offer an improved version of the current system, staying within the Democratic consensus.
Supporters of Barack Obama praise him for his foreign policy. In The American Prospect magazine, April 2008, the entire front cover blazes in multicolor with the message, "The Obama Doctrine, Barack Obama's challenge to the foreign policy establishment."
Some challenge. The article offers "the most sweeping liberal critique in decades." Examples offered: dignity promotion, enlightened global leadership, freedom from want, freedom from fear, elimination of misery, promotion of liberty, justice, and prosperity. The only specific policy listed is the destruction of Al Qaeda as though that is all that is necessary to achieve these worthy objectives.
Across the 50 states, more than 100 candidates ran for president although only 18 of them were selected by the presidential commission to appear on the televised debates. They represented a wide spectrum of parties and views. It is fair to say that virtually every candidate would agree with the generalities, the bromides attributed to the Obama campaign. Do these motherhood goals constitute a foreign policy challenging the establishment?
An authentic challenge to the foreign policy establishment would be to advocate specific changes to accomplish the stated objectives. The devil is in the details. The credibility of any program is in the "how to." Please, beloved candidates, tell the American voters what you will actually do. The people are fed up with generalities without content.
Offering bromides without policy is an insult to the voters and a failure of democracy, one of the reasons why 81% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. One of the candidates should break this logjam by offering credible specifics. From the history of politics, we know that person will be the one running behind the others. But if that doesn't happen, it is the responsibility of the media to stir the pot, to demand relevant answers. Where are they?
Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, might be one of the most inflammatory "rhetoricians" among church leaders, but he is far from being alone in that august group in his pro-nation and anti-govt stances.
I never forget that it was church leadership that seemed to tilt the balance from compromise and patience with England in the 1770s to the fiery brimstone of American Revolution -- before the Declaration of Independence, but with sermons that breathed the fire of everything that Thomas Jefferson would pack into the DOI.
The most Reverend Wright has stepped out of the time-warp, fully fleshed.
We need a revolution -- peaceful if possible, but a revolution nontheless.
Now, as then, only predator elitists and the blinded servile object to pronouncements of the gross immorality and illegality of the Regime. It was far-away and insane King George then. It's up-close, insane, and utterly fascist Usurper George now.
I take Rev Wright's thundering as a good sign, pointing into the American future.
The US Government repeatedly tells us that possession of many, many items, according to them, is a crime - and punishable by fines, prison, or death (if you refuse to go along with their "punishments")
Possessing marijuana is a crime, possessing all of your income is a crime, possessing guns without their "permission" is a crime, possessing a cigar from Cuba is a crime.
But in all reality, just having these items in your possession is not a real "crime" - it's just a way for the state to collect more fines and imprison more people. What you DO with these (and other items) is what truly makes a crime or not.
On the other hand, when reading an article by Anthony Gregory, I was reminded of one "possession" that really is a crime - a very grave crime. And unsurprisingly, all through history, the only time this crime was committed was by....you guessed it - governments.
What is that crime of possession?
Nukes.
While things like drugs, guns and cuban cigars can be used in many ways, nuclear weapons can be used for one thing - and one thing only - the mass murder of innocent people.
Let's look at marijuana, for example.
You may choose to smoke a joint at home and go to sleep afterwards. Or, maybe you smoke it and then drive a car. Let's say you get in an accident and hurt someone. Are those two activities the same? Do they really carry the same criminal action?
Not at all. On the one hand, you got a little buzzed and went to sleep. Maybe you burned away a few brain cells, but that's your choice. In the 2nd example, you made a bad decision and hurt another person in an accident. That's clearly a crime.
Nuclear weapons are an entirely different story.
There is no way that they can be used responsibly. It is not possible to use a nuclear bomb without murdering countless innocents. Thus, the mere possession of these weapons is a threat against innocent lives, and threatening to murder should be considered a crime in any free society.
The point here is simple.
The substances and items that the government tells us we can't possess can be used responsibly, or they can be used irresponsibly. But, we get a good stiff punishment from our "protectors" no matter how we choose to use them.
Those same "protectors" in government get to run around threatening lives of every single person on earth.
So, in the end, while you and I are threatened with fines, prison or death for merely owning things - the government can threaten the entire world with mass murder - women, children, fathers, mothers, grandmothers, babies - they can point their nukes around the world and threaten to murder whomever they want...
".As he spoke, the stock market was steady, holding onto its Tuesday gains. Still, Bernanke and others point to risks on the down side for the US economy."
Here is expression of feudalism at its best; when the Federal Reserve Chairman (Emperor) Ben Bernanke speaks, all slaves "hold their breath."
I am writing about this because it is not clearly visible to some Americans anymore that the Money Changers are really in charge of their lives.
"In addition to almost unlimited usury, the bankers have another method of drawing vast amounts of wealth. The banks are able to approve or disapprove large loans to large and successful corporations to the extent that refusal of a loan will bring about a reduction in the selling price of the corporation's stock. After depressing the price, the bankers' agents buy large blocks of the company's stock. Then, if the bank suddenly approves a multi-million dollar loan to the company, the stock rises and is then sold for a profit. In this manner, billions of dollars are made with which to buy more stock.
This practice is so refined today that the Federal Reserve Board need only announce to the newspapers an increase or decrease in their "discount rate" to send stocks soaring or crashing at their whim. Banks collect billions in interest by loaning to Government and the Corporations!" - Pastor Sheldon Emry
We remember today that Forty years ago, at 6:01PM, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot down on the balconey of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.
So much has been written about Dr. King, what he meant and continues to mean to our perceptions and definitions of justice and nonviolence, to where we've been and the promises and possibilities of today and tomorrow, that we don't need to add to those words today. On this day, instead, how about if we remember and attempt to connect with the meaning of the life, message, and hope that was shot down forty years ago today.
There are any number of websites that you can visit - just google Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - to remember Dr. King on this day and discover the meaning of Dr. King in your life.
Is Bush-Cheney, Inc. preparing to start another war?
Is the recent chatter on the Internet about the Bush-Cheney administration's plans to attack Iran in the next few days accurate? Or is it a well coordinated leak campaign to frighten the Iranians into ending their program of uranium enrichment?
Are Bush and Cheney just sending up a trial balloon to see what kind of response (if any) they get from the docile American media?
After searching Yahoo world news listings, the first article mentioning possible war on Iran was dated March 11 - well before the recent flurry of international assertions of an April 4-6 attack date, arising after Cheney's visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East (to personally warn them of his plans?).
So, it's fair to say that the sleeping US media are not taking the latest predictions seriously. Will their non-reaction embolden the Dynamic Duo?
Perhaps the last paragraph of the March 11th TIME magazine article on Admiral Fallon's "resignation" gives a clue as to why the American media aren't taking seriously the possibility of an unprovoked US attack on Iran...
Militarily, it is too insane too even consider.
Here's what TIME said:
"The betting inside the Pentagon is that despite Fallon's departure, war with Iran is no more likely next month than it was last month. The U.S. military, its hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, could only engage in an air war against Iran's nuclear sites. The ramifications of attacking a third Muslim nation since 9/11 are so extreme, military officers believe, that no President would launch such a war in his final months in office."
Oh, really?
What sensible Americans need to ask themselves is, "What do we do if TIME magazine IS underestimating how unconcerned Bush is, regarding trivialities like international law and American popular sentiment?"
We know Congress will do little to protest an attack on Iran. By the time they find out about it, the damage will be done and the repercussion throughout the Middle East will have begun.
The real question is will the American people mount any coordinated protests to signify their displeasure with such a lawless attack in the first week of April or at any other time?
Actually, for the elite class, food stamps are a very wise government expenditure Food stamps help to lower the level of anger and frustration in the working class. Therefore, they reduce the risk of massive social and political unrest.
At least that is the way it has worked to date.
Meanwhile our smiling fascist President Bush is up-beat about the economy. And why not, all of his top supporters are making fat profits while being sheltered from taxation.
In addition, America is fighting two wars at enormous human and economic cost to the nation all for the benefit of the oil magnates, and their oil companies, that have financed his political campaigns. The other big financial backers of the fascist Bush regime, the war profiteers in the military/industrial complex, also are reaping enormous profits from these wars.
To understand and appreciate the full measure of the fascist Bush regime's success to date consider that they have done all of the above, and also have managed to placate an increasingly economically disenfranchised working class by literally feeding them a few crumbs off the table.
The literal crumbs off the table, of course, are food stamps.
As a reminder, the original definition of fascism by Giovanni Gentile is as follows:
Fascism, a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.
Giovanni Gentile's definition of fascism was the source for the definition of fascism in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language which is as follows:
Fascism, a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.
The definition of fascist in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is as follows:
Fascist, a person who advocates or practices fascism.
By the way, here is an interesting question that should be asked to better understand how important food stamps are in placating an increasingly economically disenfranchised working class:
How many of those twenty-eight million Americans on food stamps also are part of the forty million Americans without health insurance? My guess is probably most of them, if not all of them.
Ed Thompson had been a boxer, professional poker player, tavern owner, construction worker, and salesman, but unlike his older brother, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, Ed hated politics.
When his Monroe County supper club was raided for illegal gambling activities, Ed faced 8 years in prison and a $40,000 fine for paying an undercover agent $5 from a penny video poker machine. He was outraged.
For the first time in his life Ed got involved in politics - and he got even. That's only the beginning.
Ed Thompson's story is about the determination of a not-so-ordinary guy who refuses to bow to injustice, battling for both himself and others against the forces of a powerful political machine. You can't help but like him.
Ed is gregarious, witty, shrewd, lovable and compassionate - and he's one heck of a fighter.
Watch the trailer to this new film (h/t Rolf Lindgren):
On 04/01, I responded to Code Pink's "April Fool" directed at Conyers, where he was reputed to have said he was putting Impeachment back on the table. I had quite a talk with one of his aides. She explained to me at some length why impeachment would just get in the way of important things. She said the judiciary was responsible for getting rid of Gonzales.
No answer to the fact that they just put another clone in in his place.
I told her I had written my own alleged representatives and as many others as I could reach (most stay totally isolated) asking why we couldn't have the Constitution and Bill of Rights, intact and functioning, in the halls of government. I told her I have never received an acknowledgment or answer to any of those letters. I asked her why our representatives won't discuss the Constitution?
She asked me why I thought the Constitution was no longer in force.
I said because virtually all of the checks and balances put into the Constitution were now ignored. The Bill of rights was totally trashed and in its place, we had the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, authorization to torture, habeas corpus eliminated, warrantless searches, renditions, etc.
I reminded her of the oath that every Senator and Congressman takes to "protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Those of you who read my articles know what I said to her.
Her final answer to me was, "Remember, the Patriot Act was voted into law by the United States Congress. I'll pass your concerns on to the Congressman."
Frankly, I think we're toast.
We'll never see a Constitutional Republic in the United States again, and God, do I fear these lunatics having nuclear weapons.
Justice is supposed to be blind, but in Pennsylvania, and now in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice lifts its blindfold, peeks, and then puts a thumb on the scale to make the "facts" support a pre-determined conclusion in one death row prisoner's case.
Normally if you made such statements about WWII, most of the people of America would just laugh at you at best, or call you un-American at worst. And that would be an indication that they were woefully unaware of history.
During 1934 and 1935 American and Anglo-Dutch oil interests surreptitiously, but with the encouragement of American government officials, attempted to prevent the shipment of petroleum to Manchukuo and Japan in order to effect favorable changes in Japan's commercial policy. The oil companies' attempt to institute an informal embargo produced tensions which led to further deterioration in already strained Japanese-American relations. Long before the official American policy shifted to one of open hostility and embargo, Western oil companies were involved in low-level economic warfare against Japan, with what can be termed semi-official sanction.
There is much more to be read about the pre WWII Oil sanctions. It was one of the main reasons Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
There were also Oil Cartel involvements occurring in 1935 in the European theatre before the war, harmful to both Italy and Germany. Those who would dismiss Oil instigated wars, as "Conspiracy Theories" need to do some serious reading.
We need to learn to hold accountable those that cause wars to collect Blood Profits.
How many millions of people have died to feed the bank balances of Big Oil. Big Oil didn't just start yesterday.
I invite all skeptics to do some research and read up on the history of Neocolonialism, the precursor to today's NeoCons.
This weeks' video post (updated on the home page every Friday) was "War Made Easy - How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death."
It's a documentary featuring Norman Solomon and narrated by Sean Penn..and it chronicles how propaganda has been used to sell wars to the US public over the past 50+ years.
If you wish to have some idea as to what is really going on in the world, use the internet. The mass media stinks of its corruption and its use as a propaganda arm of our alleged government.
Bookmark these sites and take a look, occasionally at least, to get an idea of what is going on on our beleaguered planet.
War is the time where lies seem to spread endlessly - and history's greatest militarist societies have been able to perpetuate many of their lies and propaganda - now called spin - even in times of peace.
The US Government and their Prussian-styled public education system have been giving us war spin for decades - such as the Lusitania and the Gulf of Tonkin, for starters.
Many people are misled by formalities. They assume, for example, that the United States went to war against Germany and Japan only after its declarations of war against these nations in December 1941. In truth, the United States had been at war for a long time before making these declarations. Its warmaking took a variety of forms.
For example, the U.S. navy conducted "shoot [Germans] on sight" convoys, which might include British ships, in the North Atlantic along the greater part the shipping route from the United States to Great Britain, even though German U-boats had orders to refrain (and did refrain) from initiating attacks on American shipping. The United States and Great Britain entered into arrangements to pool intelligence, combine weapons development, test military equipment jointly, and undertake other forms of war-related cooperation.
The U.S. military actively cooperated with the British military in combat operations against the Germans, for example, by alerting the British navy of aerial or marine sightings of German submarines, which the British then attacked. The U.S. government undertook in countless ways to provide military and other supplies and assistance to the British, the French, and the Soviets, who were fighting the Germans.
The U.S. government provided military and other supplies and assistance, including warplanes and pilots, to the Chinese, who were at war with Japan. The U.S. military actively engaged in planning with the British, the British Commonwealth countries, and the Dutch East Indies for future combined combat operations against Japan.
Most important, the U.S. government engaged in a series of increasingly stringent economic warfare measures that pushed the Japanese into a predicament that U.S. authorities well understood would probably provoke them to attack U.S. territories and forces in the Pacific region in a quest to secure essential raw materials that the Americans, British, and Dutch (government in exile) had embargoed.
It appears to me that the US government simply cannot be trusted in matters of life and death. We've given them massive power - the power to wage wars and kill millions - and they repeatedly twist, lie, and obfuscate in order to use that power.
There are some, such as John F. Kennedy, who believed that the perpetuation of such spin, or myths, is an even greater threat to the truth than outright lies. He made this quite clear when he said:
"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic."
I hope this gives people a little pause before cheerleading the next "evil" enemy, which is looking more and more like it's going to be Iran.
Thomas Palley is recommending a major reform to the American capitalist economic system to end the Federal Reserve's special deals for special interests. This is truly laughable. The man really doesn't have the foggiest idea of what American capitalism is all about.
It is all about special interests, unfair advantages, egregious abuses of position and power, unregulated markets, manipulated markets, monopolies, exploitation of workers, obscene profits, subsidies and tax breaks for capitalists and corporations that do not need them, plundering natural resources for profit, raping the environment for profit, wars of imperialist expansion for profit, covert destruction of foreign governments for profit, corruption of our government, corruption of churches, corruption of news media, etc, etc., etc.
We have been adding reform after reform to American capitalism for decades - generations - and we still have corporatism and all of its corruption and abuses. We can keep adding reforms, and probably will, but we should not deceive ourselves into thinking that reforms are ever going to end the corruption and abuses.
We should not deceive ourselves into thinking that they will ever provide a truly equitable form of economy that works for the betterment of all of society.
As a 65 year-old white man, I thought I "got" Barack Obama's celebrated speech on race when he gave it. But I didn't. Not until yesterday, when a black stranger walked into the changing room at the gym I go to on South Whidbey Island, Washington. The man commented on my new cowboy boots and asked me if I rode. We got to talking and he said he worked with show horses.
The instant he said that I pictured this black man as a groom - the guy who walks the horses, brings in the hay and shovels out the shit. That picture stayed in my consciousness for no more than a second but most surely it was there, and it was the first picture I had. Of course I did not voice it. It turned out that the man was a professional rider and trainer.
Damn that one-second picture!
My politics are left of center. My friends would say I'm a thoughtful and compassionate person.
But not for that one second.
I'm getting better. Ten years ago I would double-clutch when I saw a black pilot walk into the cockpit of the 747 I was boarding. I would stare just a little when the black woman at the cocktail party said she was a scientist or engineer.
Still, it's there. The racism that Obama called me on. Called all of us on, black and white. Called on us to talk about it and work through it and fix it.
I grew up in a totally white-bread part of Tacoma, Washington. There were no black families within a mile. There was a quiet uproar when the first Jewish family moved into the neighborhood. There was one black kid in my (Catholic) high school, an IQ 200 super-genius that the Jesuits had recruited.
I nodded in agreement when Obama, after disassociating himself from the words of Rev. Wright, called on us to understand the injustices that had led many black people of Wright's generation to carry around the kind of anger that makes white people nervous.
Then Obama had the audacity to suggest that he also knows how whites feel and what might be lurking in our cultural DNA. How he understands white anger and resentment over busing and affirmative action. How he cringed when his beloved white grandmother voiced racist remarks.
All the while I didn't think he was talking about me. But he was.
*Scott Ewing, who served for three years as a cavalry scout in the U.S. army, described his unit's "block-by-block" raid of the entire city of Talafar in September of 2005. Ewing said tactics were particularly brutal in the Sarai neighborhood of the city, which the U.S. military had identified as an insurgent stronghold. "We were told to search aggressively to teach the residents a lesson not to harbor terrorists," Ewing testified. The result of those orders was doors kicked in, homes ransacked-and nothing found in the way of weapons. The Army then moved northward, and continued to terrorize innocent Iraqis. 
*Chris Arendt's strikingly youthful appearance was made all the more chilling when he referred to himself as a former "concentration camp guard" at Guantanamo. With disgust, Arendt recalled the dehumanizing absurdity of practicing to shackle detainees, in preparation for the "big game" of shackling actual detainees. He said , to applause from the audience, that he considered imprisoning human beings for five years away from their friends and families, without ever explaining why, to be torture in and of itself. "If that wasn't enough," Arendt said, "there were other methods to make sure we got around to torturing people." 
