Word Definition

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, the word "condemn" means, "to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil usually after weighing evidence and without reservation."

According to the United States Constitution, the First Amendment says that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Today, the House of Representatives voted to condemn - to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil - MoveOn.org's Petraeus ad that was in the New York Times. Last week, the Senate voted to condemn - to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil - MoveOn.org's Petraeus ad.

In effect, what we have here is Congress saying that - because they did not like the ad - it is wrong. Since when did freedom of speech become wrong? When did it become so important for Congress to stop work on actually running this country (Iraq war, health care, infrastructure), to find time to condemn freedom of speech?

And not once - not once - was this idea of condemning free speech brought up when the republicans placed an ad in Georgia where Sen. Max Cleland, a veteran who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, was placed in a TV ad with Saddam and Osama.

There are numerous ads, both on television and in print, that I have seen and read and in no way, shape, or form like or agree with. Yet I do all I can to ensure that they are able to say what they believe and have a viable avenue to express it.

The actions by the House and the Senate I condemn. This is something one would expect from China or Stalinist Russia; not from the supposed "leader" of the free world. Not from the country who invades other countries to bring "liberty" and "freedom."



But then again, this same country engages in revising history. Compare what the White House website says Bush said yesterday here with what he actually said here. One may say they were just fixing a mispronunciation, but that is still changing the official record of what was said. If you can fix it in print, why not edit it out of the video as well? When does it stop?

I barely know what to say...how can this be allowed to happen? And this isn't the first time. Look here. The official White House press transcript has words purportedly said by the President that were NOT said by the President! Why doesn't the House and Senate condemn this?

Is this not what Winston did in 1984, for Big Brother?

"Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record."

How soon will it be before the White House changes what facts and figures Bush (or any president) said? How long before the president has always been correct and said the right things?



It is actions like this that make me truly proud to be an American. There is hope -- better 6 years late than never.



Here we have devoutly peaceful monks staging protests against a military junta (government by a committee of military leaders). In 1990, the military junta called a general election, which the National League for Democracy won decisively. Being the NLD's candidate, Aung San Suu Kyi under normal circumstances would have assumed the office of Prime Minister. Instead, the results were nullified, and the military refused to hand over power. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest - and is still there today.

Why isn't President Bush sending into troops to Burma? Here is a total crackdown on peaceful, nonviolent protesters demonstrating for democracy (which was stolen from them); something Bush loves to say he is bringing to the world.

Why, then, are we doing nothing for these people? Sorry noble citizens of Burma, maybe if you weren't so geographically close to China or maybe if you had some oil under your land, we'd actually care about you.



Here are true American patriots. In a time of war, in a time of need, they show us what sacrifice really means.

So Much Work for Patriots

A lot of important things have been brought to my attention in the past few days. So much so that I would have a week's worth of blogging if I talked about every issue. At the end of this blog - and maybe all future blogs - I will have a section titled: Must Read Articles. These are articles I find very important that should be on the nightly news at least once - if not repeatedly. It will also contain articles pertaining to subjects that I have previously written about. You could consider them follow-up articles.


This morning I received an email from George W. Bush. Well, from GOP.com - one of those HTML form letters trying to rally people to vote for them and give money. I get them from the Democrats as well. While reading today's email, this struck me as particularly interesting:

"After the enemy attacked us, I vowed I would rally this nation and use our resources to protect you. And that is exactly what we have done. We have reformed our intelligence services to make sure we can find the enemy before they strike. We have fought to deny them safe haven in Afghanistan and Iraq so they cannot plan and plot again.

"The fight for freedom in Iraq is the fight for the security of the United States of America and we must prevail. If we leave before the job is done, the enemy that attacked us would be emboldened."


The GOP write that "the enemy" attacked us. Who is this "enemy?" If it was al Qaeda, why wouldn't you write that? This is nothing more than a continued blurring of the lines between what really happened and what the Republicans want people to think happened.

More to the point on this is the last sentence saying that we denied them safe haven in Iraq. GOP = Grand Ol' Phibbers? Everyone - all together: al Qaeda was NEVER in Iraq prior to us invading! In fact, our intelligence communities all tell us that our being in Iraq has actually caused al Qaeda to go to Iraq.

And finally, the last sentence is very telling. The fight for freedom in Iraq is now not for WMDs, it is not for the toppling of Saddam, it is not to bring democracy to Iraq, it is not to bring freedom and liberty to the people of that nation. No, the fight for freedom in Iraq is "the fight for the security" of the U.S.

What? Our invading a sovereign nation actually caused people to hate us more and has become a rallying cry for al Qaeda. It's what they wanted. It proved their point that all we do is stick our big, bullying bombs and guns into the politics and business of nations in the Middle East. Ron Paul has said it best:

"Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there- we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East - I think Reagan was right. We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we're building an embassy in Iraq that's bigger than the Vatican. We're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. "

MUST READ ARTICLES

1.

"The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials."

and

Activist Silenced for Fear of Surveillance

-----Repeat after me: P O L I C E S T A T E. If you don't really know what that means, simply put, it means that you have no privacy and everyone is a suspect for everything. Go read 1984.

2.

"The White House approved a Transportation Department campaign to lobby against California's application for a waiver to combat global warming through auto emissions limits tougher than federal standards, a lawmaker charged Monday."

-----While growing up, I was taught that the government was here to protect us and help make our country a better place to live. Oh my how the tides have turned....


3.

"US soldiers are luring Iraqis to their deaths by scattering military equipment on the ground as "bait", and then shooting those who pick them up, it has been alleged at a court martial."

----- So this is how we get to say that we are killing more "insurgents." Amazing.


4.

"The US Senate is expected to vote as early as Tuesday on a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife."

----- Why are WE making their decisions? What happened to the whole "democracy" and "elections" thing? We go in and destroy their country, kill 700,000 civilians, and then vote to break up their country? Amazing.


5.

"Bush: We Can’t Spend $22 Billion On America Because We Need $200 Billion For Iraq War"

----- Reminds me of my favorite bumper sticker: It Will Be A Great Day When Our Schools Get All The Money They Need and The Air Force Has to Hold a Bake Sale To Buy A Bomber. There's ALWAYS money to kill people...amazing...

History the Media Neglects

The drums are getting louder...Bush, Cheney, and their war machine's fear-mongering about the imminent threat from Iran are all over the news. (Why wasn't Iran an imminent threat when Iraq was an imminent threat?).

All of a sudden, Iran is the new Iraq, they want nuclear weapons that Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea, and the U.S. have, and they're supposedly training Iraqi's - a people who are their religious enemies.

They are enriching uranium which can be used for two things: 1. nuclear power and/or 2. nuclear weapons. The funny thing is that Iran has signed the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which allow it to enrich uranium for nuclear power.

In any event, aside from the very astute Ron Paul, I have yet to hear any politician or major media news outlet bring up the history between Iran and the United States. My presumption is that when one does this, it becomes easy to see that we bear a lot of the fault for the Middle East in Crisis.

Excerpts from the main story (1) in this month's edition of Adbusters tells the tale simply:

1953: After an economic blockade and the presence of British warships in the Persian Gulf failed to break Mohammed Mossadegh's will, the British government persuaded the incoming Eisenhower administration to send in the CIA. (Mossadegh was a liberal democrat who believed fervently in national independence - Time magazine's Man of the Year - and was democratically elected as Prime Minister in 1952). A CIA operative named Kermit Roosevelt helped bring about this cautionary note in an official CIA report: "Possibilities of blowback against the United States should always be in the back of the minds of all CIA officers involved in this type of operation."


1954: Anglo-Iranian (Oil) changes its name to British Petroleum and regains its assets, but must share its monopoly with American oil companies. Mohammed Reza Shah is restored to the throne with help from the American-trained SAVAK secret police who torture and disappear even the most timid of dissidents. (Mossadegh had nationalized Iran's oil industry in 1951).


1971: The Shah throws himself a $100-million party at Persepolis to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire...the party must be held behind barbed wire, guarded by men with machine guns as protests erupt at Tehran University.


1979: After enduring a long reign of terror, a broad-based popular revolution overthrows the Shah. Five million Iranians crowd the streets of Tehran to welcome the revolution's symbolic leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on his return from exile in Paris.


November 1979: Fueled by the belief that the U.S. is about to launch another coup after allowing the Shah to take refuge there, militant students seize the American embassy in Tehran, holding 52 hostages for 444 days. Ayatollah Khomeini, who was not involved in the hostage-taking, nevertheless lends his support and uses the distraction to consolidate power. Students piece together hundreds of pages of secret documents outlining the extent of former American control of Iran and its plans to destabilize the new regime.


1980: President Jimmy Carter orders a hostage rescue operation that goes terribly wrong. With Carter's popularity plummeting, Ronald Reagan wins a landslide victory in the presidential election. The hostages are released six minutes after Reagan is sworn in, contributing to allegations that his emissaries secretly negotiated to extend the hostage-taking until after the elections.


1983: Saddam Hussein, who invaded Iran in 1980 with the quiet encouragement of the U.S., has begun to use poison gas on Iranians on an almost daily basis. According to the Washington Post, "The administration of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague."


1983: Donald Rumsfeld visits Saddam Hussein in Baghdad as special envoy of Ronald Reagan to discuss common interests and Iraqi oil shipments. Rumsfeld was previously involved (along with Dick Cheney) in promoting the development of Iran's nuclear program under the Shah.


2005: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, is elected president of Iran. Within days of his election, the country announces it is proceeding with uranium enrichment.


2007: As Iraq descends into chaos with 700,000 Iraqis dead, the U.S. administration issues a troop "surge" in hope of regaining control, and makes the unusual argument that Tehran is arming anti-US insurgents - most of whom are Sunni and traditional enemies of the Shia Iranians. In January the U.S. raids an Iranian consulate in Kurdish Iraq, capturing low-level Iranian diplomatic staff; Iraqi troops working for the U.S. later capture an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad. Soon after, Iran captures 12 British sailors on an intelligence mission in disputed waters. The sailors are released a day after the Iranian diplomat, who claims to have been tortured by the CIA, is returned to Iran.


2007: U.S. fleet carriers gather in the Persian Gulf; Mohammad ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announces that a military attack on Iran would be "an act of madness," and stresses that nonproliferation efforts are undermined as long as the "big boys" - such as the U.S. and Israel - are permitted to have nuclear weapons. The U.S. president authorizes the CIA to engage in covert operations to destabilize the Iranian regime.

In the media coverage, comparisons to the 1953 CIA regime change in Iran are nowhere to be found.





1. Campbell, Deborah Iran vs. The United States of Amnesia; Adbusters #73, Volume 15 Number 5; 2007.

Where Are We Heading?

Sunday night, my roommate and I were playing some football on our Playstation 2. The game was ESPN 2K5. It's a regular football game - just like Madden - however there are some twists to it. One being that there is a cool halftime report where they talk about key plays made in the first half. The other involves "crib credits." You get crib credits - money essentially - for making touchdowns, sacking the QB, playing for certain amounts of time, and other such activities. What can you use these crib credits for? Only one thing: pimping out your crib!!

That's right. You have no choice but to buy more and more expensive furniture, TV's, DVD players, home theaters, etc. You are given no option to save your "money," no option to invest it or even give some to charity. The entire goal of the game is to get "money" so that you can buy things; buy really expensive and honestly unnecessary things. What kind of message are we sending to our children? We give them no options but only point them in the direction of consuming more and more and more.

There was a time when this nation was above that - wasn't there?


I read an interview today with a woman who has written a book on the luxury industry and how it impacts our society. This part really struck me:

"Yesterday, after a signing, I went to have dinner with friends out in Mill Valley and they showed us the town and the town square, and there was a young boy selling lemonade, and my daughter wanted to get some, so I gave her a quarter and she went to buy it. I went with her, and one of the little girls there was about 8 years old -- about the same age as my daughter -- was standing there with a little Louis Vuitton handbag on her shoulder. I said 'Well, that's a nice handbag," and she turned to me and said, "Thank you, it's Louis Vuitton." Eight years old! That is how they are realigning our social network and our self-worth."

It doesn't matter what you do for a living. It doesn't matter if you are devoting your life to picking up all of the trash I and my neighbors generate; it doesn't matter if you devote your life to researching a cure for cancer (both extremely noble, by the way). No, no, no. This little girl didn't have such lowly ambitions. She's already at the top of her game, respected among her 8-year old peers. She has a Louis Vuitton handbag. THAT is making it American style. That is success, accomplishment, and truly making something of yourself.


Here is it comes. Are you ready? It's being done just the way it was before. Subtle hints of deception along with public pronouncements - more each month - that we're doing all we can, we're trying our best but it's really their fault that our diplomacy is failing. I don't blame the Administration anymore. I blame the media - and unless you protest this, I blame you.

A Great and Wise Man Once Said...

During my 3rd and 4th grade years, I was living in southern New Jersey and a distinct memory I have during that time period is quite poignant for today. Driving around, I would look out the window from my usual seat in the back and stare at huge smoke stacks with endless columns of smoke pouring into the air I was breathing. I couldn't help but notice thick black clouds of exhaust coming out of buses and trucks. As a 9 year old I thought: this can't be right, how can adults let this happen and be OK with destroying the air I'm breathing?

The only answers I can come up with are ignorance and greed.


A great and wise man once said:

The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water; how can you buy them from us? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people....

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities; no place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frog around the pond at night?

The Whites too shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view to the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the eagle? Gone. Where is the buffalo? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt, the end of living and the beginning of survival?


Chief Seattle to President Franklin Pierce, 1855

We're becoming the Borg

Part of what makes a democracy a democracy is the ability of citizens to be given facts and figures for all sides of an issues. Especially with the war in Iraq, there is all kinds of howling on the Right that the media is unfair to Bush & Co. and that it's a vast wasteland of Liberal thought. Oh, if only it were true.

Here's a study released today that analyzed Syndicated Op-Ed columnists in papers all across the country. And guess what they found:

• Sixty percent of the nation's daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.

• In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 153 million.2

• The top 10 columnists as ranked by the number of papers in which they are carried include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.

• The top 10 columnists as ranked by the total circulation of the papers in which they are published also include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.

• In 38 states, the conservative voice is greater than the progressive voice -- in other words, conservative columns reach more readers in total than progressive columns. In only 12 states is the progressive voice greater than the conservative voice.

• In three out of the four broad regions of the country -- the West, the South, and the Midwest -- conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists. Only in the Northeast do progressives reach more readers, and only by a margin of 2 percent.

• In eight of the nine divisions into which the U.S. Census Bureau divides the country, conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists in any given week. Only in the Middle Atlantic division do progressive columnists reach more readers each week.

There is NO liberal media. 99% of all newspapers and television stations are owned by only 10 HUGE corporations. What's the #1 goal of a corporation? It's bottom line. Not democracy, not hearing all sides of an issue and obviously not letting all sides have equal air & print time.

Same ol', Same ol'

Am I the only one that hears the end of our society as we know it approaching? In 45 years, almost all polar bears will be gone. Gone. These penguins are going, too. In one week - that's 7 days - a portion of the Arctic Ice shelf the size of Florida has melted away. Gone. If you don't care or understand why the loss of a species is bad, then lets think about ice - when it melts it becomes water. More water in the ocean makes the oceans rise. From the same report by ABC News - it gets worse because, "2007 has already broken the record for the lowest amount of sea ice ever recorded, say scientists, smashing the old record set in 2005."

Honestly, I don't care about universal health care right now. I don't care about Osama bin Laden or the Iraq war. Because what is about to happen; what we are on the verge of crossing into, will make us wish we only had those things to argue about.

What is going to happen to the coastal cities once the ice starts melting faster and faster? Pretty soon, we won't even be measuring the sea ice melting - we'll be measuring how fast the seas are making their way into our cities; our business and our homes.

Remember Katrina? Remember how completely unprepared we were? Remember how we had thousands and thousands of people displaced with no food and no water? Well, what happens when that same situation presents itself in Miami and Tampa and Houston and San Francisco and Seattle and Honolulu and New York City and -- hopefully you get the picture.

Am I the only one who doesn't want to look into our children's eyes and say I'm sorry. That I'm sorry for not doing enough to help others from screwing up your future?

I do not want to have to say that. But I do and I shall.

I'm sorry I couldn't help convince my fellow humans that Hummer H3's really aren't cool - that whoever has the fattest crib, takes up the most space, throws away the most garbage, and buys the most crap every weekend aren't really those people we should be modeling our society on. I'm sorry I couldn't stop Exxon and Chevron and other oil companies from paying millions of dollars to lie to people about global warming.

However...

I am the change I seek in the world. I have passed the word on and been an example for others to see. I have been laughed at and asked if I had a job (yes I did - and while going to graduate school at the same time). I have done - and many others like me have done - all we can. But it looks like it's still not nearly enough. And I'm sorry it wasn't enough.

You Can't Keep Keepin' Us Down

The more I hear Ron Paul talk and the more I see the MSM ignore him, the more I know he's onto something and the more I truly respect him. I don't know if I'd vote for him because some of his Libertarian views are just too far of a stretch for me to take, however, he's smart, articulate, full of integrity and has a firm grasp on the issues -- which is a lot more than I can say for any other Republican candidate and quite a few of the Democratic ones. I'd like to include those from the Green, Libertarian, or other third parties in this discussion, but for some odd reason, we in this country like to limit our freedom of representational choice to two sides of the same coin.

Outstanding Ron Paul at the recent Republican Debate can be seen here with some transcripts and a blog by Eric Garris about it here.



Now this (and this) has been making me smile all day. I truly love good ol' fashioned checks and balances. Let's hear it (finally) for some democracy in the USA!



This just really amazes me. It amazes me not only that the MSM doesn't report on this, but that Congress allows it to happen. If you have this revolving door of people who work for the government, then go work for major corporations, then back to the government - are they really going to represent the people and do what is in our best interest? Or are they going to bend over backwards to please those who gave them these cushy loyalty jobs?



I get a very dark, sinister feeling about this. (Another Eric Garris blog - the original story is here.) Bush has already admitted that his plan is to keep troops in Iraq up to, and hopefully after, he leaves office. Iraq is without question a gigantic illegal and immoral disaster. Maybe some quick strikes on Iran will help bolster the GOP's chances for a favorable outcome in 2008. We wouldn't bomb people just to win elections...would we?




Kudo's to Sony (and Japan) for pushing the limits and boundaries of human ingenuity. This is just awesome! Our imaginations are the only boundaries to our creativity.

That's why not for one second do I buy into this crap that Bush & Co keep polluting our national discourse with regarding CO2 limits and reduction: It'll hurt the economy or Other nations pollute, too! What are we, only the greatest nation when it comes to bombing people? News flash - creating new energy resources through research, development, and productions WILL CREATE NEW JOBS AND HELP THE ECONOMY! Why is no one throwing this back at Bush when he repeats the same tired lies?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

If any teacher of mine, or parent or other person in a position of leadership, kept changing their reason for doing something - whether it be where they ate lunch or how Einstein's theory of relativity worked, I'd be highly skeptical of their trustworthiness. You'd be hard pressed to get me to accept much of anything they said after that.

So why is it so hard for the MSM to question our President. They keep parroting everything Bush says regarding his rationale for the war like he's never changed it! Unbelievable. We've had WMD's, democracy for Iraq, democracy for the Middle East, liberty, liberation, human rights, oil, strategic advantage, Libyan disarmament, blah blah blah.

However, with the release yesterday of a new book on Bush by Robert Draper called Dead Certain, it seems that, maybe, we are finally getting some truth out of Bush. At least about why we're staying in Iraq. And that is "To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence."

So, it's all political, isn't Mr. Bush. It's all so that you and your neo-con friends' political ambitions can be carried out. You're a sick man and I'm very ashamed that the American people tolerate having you represent us -- because in no way do you represent me.


Thanks Keith.



I love my planet. It's amazing how diverse it is (we're still discovering new species) and how wonderfully it all fits together. Truly the most beautiful and awe-inspiring experience of my life is my life on our planet Earth. That's why I'm upset, angry, and really pissed off that the majority of people in our self-proclaimed "greatest nation in the world" are doing absolutely nothing about this. It's like watching a fully-loaded airliner crash in slow motion - only multiply it by 15 million times.



What more can I say about this? The airwaves that CBS, NBC, and ABC use are OURS. They belong to the American people, by law, and are rented to the networks provided they serve community interests. When they don't do that, when they stifle dissent and American public opinion - how is our country any different than Stalinist Russia or Communist China?



The Pentagon supports our troops! Ok....honestly, they don't.



A little light hearted truth: "It's called the American Dream...because you have to be asleep to believe it!"

Things that go bump in the day

Under the United States Constitution, citizens are given "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

In other words - we can protest, write, call, petition, etc., our representatives (Senators, Congressmen and women, the President, Vice President: those people that we hire to represent us) in order to persuade them change laws, policies, and the like.

How are we to do this if they can't see or hear us? How can we get proper redress if peaceably protesting American citizens are arrested? How can we persuade our leaders if they never see or hear that a large segment of citizens, let alone other democratic countries, disagree with their (our) policies?

You expect me to believe that our goal is to bring democracy and liberty to Iraq, when it's slowly being eroded here? When Bush & Co. can't even export our First Amendment to Australia, how am I to believe they're going to do that in Iraq? John F. Kennedy said it best:

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."



I do not know how true this is - and the author readily admits as much. However, they did it for the Iraq War and there are telltale signs of it starting up up again, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least. What with General Petraeus's report coming up next week, it makes sense. The Iraqi government is now the fall guy for our disaster there, but do not be surprised if they start saying, or some other mouthpiece for them (read that: a Bush Administration official), starts saying that it's not their fault after all. If Iran would just stop interfering, then the Iraqi government could get their act together. It's all Iran's fault now. The evidence will be there, just like the WMDs.


This one is for all of those people who still trust Bush to tell us the truth. And if he honestly just doesn't remember something so vitally important about the invasion of a sovereign nation, among all other things, he doesn't deserve to be President.

Oh the Humanity

It does not matter if you are Asian; Japanese, Chinese, or from Hong Kong. It does not care if you are American; North or South, Peruvian, or an Eskimo. There is no difference between a German, an American, a Russian, or an African. Every single one of us is human.

A human being.

We're trying to be better. But war does not discriminate hate it prescribes it for us all. Like ripples caused by throwing a pebble into a pond, those waves at the epicenter are largest. Those at the center of this war are having their souls drenched in gasoline and set on fire. Our fellow humans are in hell and here is what hell does to people.





What kind of humanity lets this happen? If any country came into ours and caused this, in no way, shape, or form would it be seen as liberation, democracy, or freedom. Maybe that's not really why our government, and those who agreed with this disgusting pre-meditated homicide, invaded. Do drunk-with-power, arrogant, selfish "leaders" care about anything besides their stock price?

From my August 8th post:

I can't help but think of the scene from Fahrenheit 9/11 where Blaine Ober, the president of a company that makes armored vehicles, said, "Unfortunately, at least for the near term, we think it's going to be a good situation. Er, a dangerous situation. Good for business, bad for the people."

Privatization

It's when privately owned corporations increasingly buy things the government used to own. For example, the "privatization of Social Security" means that the government sells its shares and control of our national pensions to people who run the stock market. Another example of privatization is when corporations buy the water supply in communities. The public no longer owns them, the public no longer has a say in how they are run; and the services that were bought become the means to a profit-driven end.

This is not good for America. Or any society for that matter. The people, communally, should have stakes and a say in how common necessities like water, sewer, roads and our wars are run and organized. For a good take on this and the privatization of our military, read this.


Close to 7 years later, "9/11 changed everything" is still being used as political smoke and mirrors to justify the legal destruction of our rights, liberty, and democracy. We have held American citizens in jail with no access to a lawyer. This is against the constitution. We have held American citizens in jail and not presented any evidence as to why. This is against the constitution. Where is our collective outrage? This man killed no one - but is being killed by the American government. (Updated). Where is our concern? An "Impeach Bush" sign-waving man is arrested. Who are we? If you are not yet awake, maybe this will help you.

Just remember, this is nothing new.


One last thing. In case you haven't heard, the family-loving, job-creating President Bush is trying to allow trucks from Mexico into our country to deliver goods. What about American trucking jobs? What about the safety of those trucks - mechanically and insurance-wise? Whose side is he on? Yours, mine - or those companies that will get to pay Mexican truck drivers much lower wages than they can pay American truck drivers. If you don't believe that, ask yourself -- why else would they do it?

Equal pay for equal work

Let's say there's this guy named Tom. Tom works for a cell phone company's call center. He is the voice of the cell phone company - especially when dealing with irate and upset customers. Tom is the one who customers will remember. Tom has the ability to win over or lose customers.

He processes orders, fixes billing mistakes, calms down customers, files reports, talks to customers and potential customers 8 hours day, and (for some companies) must meet a certain quota of sales or retentions in order to keep his job. Tom sits in front of a computer all day - with an hour for lunch and 2 15-minute breaks. (In a lot of call centers - there are no windows or natural light).

Then there's Mike. Mike works in a factory that builds cars. He is a robot technician and he is responsible for programming the robots that build part of the cars. Mike is also the troubleshooter and repair man whenever any robot fails or malfunctions. Mike too works 8 hours a day in a loud and noisy environment. His breaks are the same as Tom's.

I know these are very simplistic profiles - but go with me here...

Without these employees (and thousands others like them) companies wouldn't able to function. It is these people who actually make the corporations products or carry out their services. What does Ford do? They make cars. Who actually makes the cars that earn Ford so many millions of dollars in profits? Mike - and thousands of others like him.

So why is it that CEOs feel entitled to make millions of dollars per year? They get posh offices, private jets, lush compensation packages, health care, life insurance, guaranteed pensions, and other benefits. At the same time their employees - those who make the company the company, take pay cuts, and lose pensions and benefits; some after 35 years of dedication to the company.

Are they really that much more important than the Toms and Mikes? No way. That's why this is pretty disgusting.

And you'd be mistaken to buy into the fabrication that our economy is growing and we're all doing well. For a good breakdown of American income gains, poverty levels, and the state of our economy, read this.

Central Office Matrix

Year after year, our prisons grow. More and more of our fellow citizens are behind bars - many of them with only minor infractions, yet they are now neighbors of gangs, rapists, and murderers. How does this make them better? Effectively shut out of society and thrown into an even more violent place - how can we even imagine that upon release, they're going to be better? Sounds pretty crazy to me.

Even crazier when you see that locking people up doesn't stop crime. Hell, even killing people to show that killing people is wrong doesn't work. People are still killing each other.

But check this out. Beautiful. Now, who knows if it will work or not. But, at least they're trying something new because it is quite obvious that locking people up (we have more people in prison than any other country in the world) does not work.

We used to be a forward thinking nation, we use to rise above. What happened? Our bridges are falling down, our own kids can't find the U.S. on a map, our President is a C student, New Orleanians drown and we watch it on TV.

Educate, learn, teach, repeat.

One of my biggest pet peeves is lying. Whether it be from family, friends, teachers, or government. You know, even more so if the lie is from teachers or government. This is because we heavily influence our children about justice and truth and the American way and how great we are because of it. So, what does one do when you find out that the American way is lying; is deception, and anything but total justice?

While growing up, I was taught that Christopher Columbus was a great guy. I mean, we close the banks and government and get a holiday because he discovered a land that people had already discovered and that I don't even live on! He must be swell! Let's just not teach our children that he stole a bunch of people and enslaved them back in Spain; on plantations in the Caribbean, and that his crew beat, raped, and killed countless others. Why are we teaching an outright lie and celebrating a disgusting criminal?

Fast-forward to today. If we can't believe the "truth" about Columbus, what else is out there that we've been lied to about? Why are we told over and over again that we support democracy and justice and liberty; but continually act to deny those enlightened freedoms to other people?

Here are some examples, since our C-student of a President got confused with his Iraq is like Vietnam speech last week:

Vietnam: We invaded because the South Vietnamese were going to become communist. By voting for it. Democratically.

Democracy: We don't have one according to Presidential candidate Edwards who last week said, "Real change starts with being honest - the system in Washington is rigged and our government is broken. It's rigged by greedy corporate powers to protect corporate profits." (p.s. democracy is not voting for a President every 4 years).

Socialism: We live in a partly socialist country already. A very, very simplistic explanation of socialism is when everyone in a community helps pay for things that benefit everyone. Some examples are roads and schools. So, why is it so bad?



Truth is painful. It has wounded me deeply to find out that my country - the one I've been taught to view as the best in the world - tortures people, celebrates a rapist and enslaver, tested toxic chemicals on its own military, plotted the death of a hundreds by blowing up a Navy ship to get public support for war, invaded a country because they were going to vote in a way we didn't like...

Until the light of day is shone upon truth - none shall be free. Educate yourselves; knowledge is power - it's harder to walk all over a smart person. Teach someone what you've learned.


Here's some books to start out on:

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins

American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips

A Preface to Economic Democracy by Robert Dahl

Does the consumer decide?

We hear all the time that corporations do not choose to make this or that product and news companies only air the stories that we the people want to hear about.

Really? I've never had any corporation or any news media outlet question me about what kind of product I would like them to make or what I feel should be on the evening news.

Maybe I'm just one of those who didn't get polled, but I don't know anyone who has ever been polled in such a manner.

It's just a nice little ploy to get you to believe you're in control. How many of us really want more commercials, for example?

For some straight facts and analysis, this can't be beat.


An unrelated note:

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain.....For purple mountains majesties...

Democracy and Representation Part II

The White House doesn't care about people who support their views either. (Walter Reed or 15 months in a war-zone anyone?) They care about your vote, that's about all. If they did care about you, why would they hide a potentially VERY dangerous situation from you and your family? Like they did here. And why would they not rush armored vehicles to Iraq?


If they cared about you and "family values" so much, why would they bail out the shady mortgage companies instead of helping the families who are losing their homes?

First, read this and learn what these sub-prime mortgages are all about. There's even a cool video go to with it.

Then read this to see the fallout this is generating.



If the people who run the government are also the people who own huge corporations, including almost every major media outlet - will we ever see all sides to a story?

First - check this out to learn how 10 corporations own all of our newspapers, television stations and internet access points.

Then watch this to see how even ABC news (part of the big 10) manipulate us.

Then watch this and and see what propaganda looks like. Josef Goebbels couldn't be prouder.

Do something.

The time is now.


Nazi Germany didn't just happen. People didn't just wake up one day to find Jews in concentration camps and the SS asking for allegiance to Hitler. It was a slow, gradual, and legal maneuver. The National Socialists actually brought much needed relief at first. But, slowly, things changed. Everything they did was legal - passed into law by the government. And it was all for their safety. Just trust us, they said. There's an evil enemy out there, let us protect you.

Well, here in America we have no-fly lists - that Senator's and 4-year olds are on; a national ID card is in the works; the Pentagon keeps track of you if you support peace; the Patriot Act allows federal agents to track what books you borrow, access your health records, and search your house without you ever knowing it. We had TIPS - which asked neighbors and friends to spy on each other; our elected President has signing statements where he chooses which laws he wants to obey; we have a President who has the power to call anyone, even a U.S. citizen, an "enemy-combatant," thereby stripping them of all rights guaranteed in our Bill of Rights. This is all to keep us safe. There's an evil enemy out there, let them protect us.

Just turn your iPod back on and stop paying attention.

or

DO SOMETHING!

Democracy and Representation Part I

Growing up, I learned that we live in a democracy. I was taught that one of the reasons the Revolutionary War was started was because our voices weren't being heard in England.

No taxation without representation.

In other words, unless I have a say in how I am governed, I do not consent to you governing me. Like Thomas Jefferson said, government is the servant of the people. We pay their salary, they are supposed to do what we the people want. We are their bosses. They work for us.

What happens when this breaks down? What happens when people in government go out of their way to prevent representation? Actively and deliberately throwing a dark blanket over those who want their voices heard. Didn't Stalin do this? Didn't the Taliban do this? Didn't all of those people we say are so bad and so anti-democratic and so full of hate for our freedoms do stuff like this?

How do we explain to our children, and each other, that we're fighting in Iraq for their democratic liberties, for their right to be represented, when we don't have that right ourselves? This White House manual, finally released under the Freedom of Information Act, bluntly shows Bush does not care about representation nor what others have to say, and will suppress it at all costs.

We do not live in the land of the free anymore. Yes, a lot of things changed since 9/11 - one of the biggest being the slow and steady destruction of our constitution and way of life.

What kind of democracy says that if anyone pulls out a sign or says anything against White House policies, they are to be shouted down by "rally squads." What kind of a democracy writes this:

"If it is determined that the media will not see or hear them and that they pose no potential disruption to the event, they can be ignored. On the other hand, if the group is carrying signs, trying to shout down the President, or has the potential to cause some greater disruption to the event, action needs to be taken immediately to minimize the demonstrator's effect."

Sadly, I know a lot of people won't see anything wrong with this. The president needs to be safe, they'll say, or protesters always disrupt speeches. This guidebook says nothing about disruption or safety, however. It's all about opposing viewpoints.

--- (continued)

Small-Time Tuesday

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2006 here, for a family of four, the poverty-level income threshold is $20,444. (That comes out to $5,111 per person per year. Can an adult in today's world live off of that in a year?)

Per month that's $1703.66.

Let's analyze this real quick. Let's say that this family lives in a two bedroom apartment, one room for the adults and one room for the kids. They have no pets and try to live as frugally as possible.

Rent: $850 (Price of a 2-bdrm I found on apts.com in Austin, Tx.)

Food: $400


Phone: $100


Electric: $100


Gasoline: $ 300


Uh Oh... wait..

We're at $1750.00 right now. The above are necessities. Just to have a roof over your head, food in your belly, and gas to get to work. (and lets just assume a family member gave them a car or something). I haven't even begun to list clothing, bedding, school supplies, medical and dental and vision bills....

And this is the poverty level? On what planet? If I make more than this, I'm ok? From the above, unscientific mini-analysis, even if I made more - I still couldn't make it! This is sub-poverty. And we're giving tax cuts to the rich? No wonder people get sucked up in drugs and alcohol. Can you imagine the amount of stress and frustration put upon the parents (to say nothing of the kids) in this situation? There's something REALLY wrong in this country, folks.

The people who run our government are very wealthy individuals who do not have to worry about health care or pensions. (You and I pay that for them.) These wealthy individuals are mainly concerned with one thing - making more money and helping their friends make more money. If they weren't they would be moving right now to help out all of those families losing their homes through foreclosure. But they're not. Government is not the problem. It's the people we keep voting in office year after year.

Don't believe me? Then why would you not - at the very least - give innocent, young children health care?

Why? I don't know. Ask Bush. (And remember - this is based upon the poverty level i wrote about above).




Because some people think that the war is going well and that they hate us because of the same freedoms that most of the rest of the world has, read this.




When I turn on my TV, I'm bombarded with ads. When I'm watching a TV program - I'm shown ads for other programs. When I use my cell phone, call the surf report, go outside, ride a bus, get in a taxi, use the ATM, etc, etc, etc...I am bombarded with ads! When is it going to stop? For the world's fourth-largest city, it already has. This makes me smile.



Favorite Timely Quotes

A Republican president said it best, followed by true American patriots.

" If all Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government."
-Pres. Dwight Eisenhower


"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our` servant, not our master!"
-Thomas Jefferson


"If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
-Samuel Adams

What about upgrades?

How's this for an upgrade? I'm always looking for ways to consolidate all the gadgets, appliances, and the like into one nice, neat package. This is nice, this is neat, and after a few hours my work will definitely be more creative!
Just one thing - will it automatically notify the beer company when I'm low and place an order?



One of my friends, who is in the Army, received a letter from one of her friends; a pilot over in Iraq. He talked about how great things were going, especially north of Baghdad. (He failed to mention the car bombs killing over 400 people). I have also talked with other people who are under the impression that things are really great and that the media just isn't reporting the good stuff. However, all of these people only point to broad generalizations about what "good" things are happening over there - without ever really naming anything. (Yes, some good things are happening - but not near enough to counteract the enormous amount of horrible disasters happening).

When you bring up the fact that women are prostituting themselves to buy food for their children, hardly any water or electrical supply, millions of refugees, and that the Iraqi people have said time and again that they would like us to leave, well...these things don't matter.

What matters is if we "cut and run" and don't "fight them there" then they are going to "fight us here." Leaving Karl Rove's pedantic talking points aside, lets look at a few things.

If we were doing the right thing ( like we did by going after Osama in Afghanistan ) then why does the rest of the world disagree? Is it because they get the full picture.? The media in their countries, before, during, and after the war, analyzed the WMD claim and found it severely lacking. Every major media outlet in this country argued for war in Iraq and believed everything the government said without question. How is that any different than State-run media?

(State-run media: when what the government says and does is taken as fact, truth, and the right way of doing things without question.)

Speaking of without question. When a public health expert went to Afghanistan to document reconstruction programs, he found many of them unfinished. When he tried to report this to the Pentagon, they didn't want to hear it. ""I was brought aside and they told me, don't tell that story," Warner said. "I said why not. And they said well, this is one of our success stories."" The whole story can be found here.

I grew up in a very pro-military family; my father was in Vietnam as well as one of my grandfathers, my other grandfather was in World War II. I went to military school for high school. But then something happened. I began to read reports (and articles and books) about how our government would make sailors line up on the deck of ships, spray them with chemicals, and then test them to see what happened. I read about Operation Northwoods, which is where members of our government wanted to get the American public to back a war with Cuba. How did they propose to do this? One of the ways was to blow up a ship. A Navy ship. Our own, manned Navy ship.

WTF??!!

And you want me to trust the government? You want me to believe that we went into Iraq and invaded a country that did nothing to us because they had WMDs? Wait, I'm sorry, it was for regime change. Wait, sorry again, it was really because of Iraq's violations of U.N. resolutions. Wait...read this and pick your own reason - just like Bush and Co. did.

For an on-the-ground report of the situation in Iraq - don't just take my word that things are bad. Take Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray, and Jeremy A. Murphy's words here. They know better than I.




The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, wrote in a book recently that he was told by the U.S. that if he did not cooperate with us after 9/11, we would bomb him back into the stone age.

We weren't kidding. We're liberating Iraqi's from the 21st century and ruining our military in the process.


Drugs are bad kids, mmmKay? Stay away from Drugs. Hugs not Drugs. War on Drugs. Drugs are bad kids, mmmKay?

But some drugs are good you say. They take my pain away. They sure do. But they also mask the symptoms - like Prozac. It doesn't end your depression - it puts it in a closet where it's not dealt with and where it festers and grows. What we need to be doing is actually treating the causes of our ailments - not masking them with a pill that makes a select few people disgustingly rich at our expense. (While outlawing and imprisoning people who use an all-natural plant that takes pain away, too).

Why don't we start by getting rid of all the chemicals in our food? Lessen our stress levels by giving us more vacation days, socialized health care, more and better access to top-notch day care for our children. Let's face it, Americans are fed-up and stressed out and the result is that we're losing it. Just like our national infrastructure, our bodies need continual maintenance, care, and up-keep to be happy and healthy human beings. I don't care what Bush says, health care is NOT an emergency room.

Give me health care where i can get preventative care, help me attain a life less stressful where I can exercise and play in the middle of the day and not be stuck in a building behind a desk for 8 1/2 hours. Give me security and the dream of a world better for our children - and I'll give you my vote. Hell, I'd even work for your campaign!