After a decade of decline, violent crime is on the rise across the United States. Assault rose 2 percent between 2004 and 2005, according to the FBI’s latest report of national crime trends. Murder and robbery are up nearly 5 percent — the sharpest increase since 1991. Medium-sized cities of between 50,000 and 500,000 have been the bloodiest.
Gun-related crime rose 25 percent last year in Seattle, and it's up another 12 percent this year. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14137625/>1=8404
Republican Congress gives gun industry a lawsuit shield http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9762564/
Gun rights groups have given more than $17 million in individual, PAC and soft money contributions to federal candidates and party committees since 1989. Nearly $15 million, or 85 percent of the total, has gone to Republicans. The National Rifle Association is by far the gun rights lobby's biggest donor, having contributed more than $14 million over the past 15 years.
The NRA alone spent nearly $11 million lobbying elected and government officials from 1997 to 2003. But it wasn't the gun rights lobby's biggest spender. That was Gun Owners of America, which spent more than $18 million on lobbing over the same period.Since 1989, the NRA has spent more than $22 million on communications costs and independent expenditures, with more than $18 million spent in support of Republican candidates. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/guns/
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
HURRICANE GEORGE- The anniversary to another one of his failures
When Hurricane Rita’s projected route threatened Bush’s home state of Texas, he raced to the aid of Texans, or at least he wanted it to look that way. The BAD published pictures of Bush leaning over in a conference room in “action” trying to prevent another act of genocide like Katrina. The pictures showed Bush and FEMA director Chertoff “working hard.” Too bad they hadn’t worked so hard at helping out the 150,000 African Americans trapped in New Orleans. Pictures of someone doing something other than what their actions really are don’t cut it.
Bush was vacationing at his ranch in Texas and then flew to southern California to give a speech at a convention. Meanwhile, blacks were drowning and begging for their lives from their rooftops. In his speech, he happened to fit in the New Orleans disaster. He said that people shouldn't return to their houses until crews could do their work. What houses? What crews? Little did he know there were no homes to return to and no crews to do any work. He hadn't even bothered to turn on a television to watch the news footage for the first four days. Later on, a white house aid had to provide a DVD of the news footage to fill him in on the crisis. The president then had the nerve to make a plea to the American people to donate money to the hurricane disaster; meanwhile every American has been paying for his illegitimate war in Iraq where his friends in big oil have profited. When Bush finally arrived in New Orleans, what did our "respectful" leader do? He reminisced with laughs and chuckles about how he used to party and get drunk there!
On September 15, 2005 in a primetime speech to the nation on the recovery of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Bush said, "Please call this number." He proceeded to read off a toll free phone number for the victims to call. Like the victims even had telephones or televisions to watch his speech? They had nothing. No phones, no TVs, no electric, no homes. Yet the president is telling these poor people more than two weeks later to call a phone number for help! But that's not all. Bush even went on to mention his battle against weapons of mass destruction. WMD in a speech about hurricane recovery? Completely inappropriate.
It took four days for George W. Bush to even acknowledge the December 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the worst natural disaster in world history. He was too busy still celebrating Christmas and drinking the spiked eggnog. When Bush finally emerged he offered a measly amount of aid to the affected 12 nations: $12 million. This measly amount of aid was an utter disgrace to the United States.
It took another four days for Bush to acknowledge the wrath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. The deadly storm had killed and injured thousands of already less fortunate African Americans and others who were obviously not a priority to the president. People lay trapped in contaminated water without food or shelter for over four days, dying from starvation, heat, and disease, all reminiscent of a third world country. Some roamed the streets searching for food. Others looted the stores for food or what was left of it. Thousands more had died because they didn't have the money to fill up their expensive gas tanks or because they were turned away from shelters that didn't allow their pets.
While the dead floated to the surface and the survivors roamed searching for food, Bush circled over the devastation at 2,500 feet in his presidential jet, his shoes too shiny to get out in that kind of muck. He then continued on his trip back to the White House returning after a long one month vacation where he proceeded to send his sympathy via satellite from the Rose Garden; too bad no one in Louisiana and Mississippi even saw it.
Former President Bill Clinton offered criticism of the Bush team and their botched up disaster relief:
"You can’t have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up…This is a matter of public policy and whether it’s race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that’s a consequence of the action made. That’s what they did in the ‘80s; that’s what they’ve done in this decade. In the middle, we had a different policy."
With Hurricane Katrina, both the war and the budget had an affect on preparation and post-disaster aid. More than one third of the Mississippi and Louisiana National Guard were in Iraq and Afghanistan, which slowed recovery efforts after the disaster. In 2003, federal funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project pretty much came to a halt. The SELA was created in 1995 in response to serious flooding. In early 2004, Bush proposed spending less than 20% of what the Corps recommended for preparing Lake Pontchartrain for a hurricane. As a result of these poor judgments and under-funding, levees were not repaired and emergency resources were not readily available. And as a result of the lack of troops due to the war (as well as Bush's own neglect) people in effected areas suffered. At least one million people became homeless and over a thousand were killed in the category 5 hurricane.
It's not like the warnings weren't out there for a disastrous hurricane like Katrina to hit the Gulf Coast. In early 2001, FEMA declared a future Louisiana hurricane as one of the top three potential U.S. disasters. Several newspapers ran national stories on the subject. Eric Berger reported in the 12/01/01 Houston Chronicle KEEPING ITS HEAD ABOVE WATER: New Orleans faces doomsday scenario:
"New Orleans is sinking… In the face of an approaching storm, scientists say, the city’s less-than-adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill one of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20 feet of water. Thousands of refugees could land in Houston. Economically, the toll would be shattering. The only solution, scientists, politicians and other Louisiana officials agree, is to take large-scale steps to minimize the risks." [i]
Yet, no steps were taken and Americans died. A Republican Congress stalled Senator Mary Landrieu's legislation for a preventative proadministrationng. Moreover, the adminsitration ignored local pleas to issue a plan and cut funding, all because they were too worried about funding their Iraq war.
President Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Nobody, except a generation of scientists and the Army Corps of Engineers and local politicians who pleaded for years for funding and assistance. Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans in 2004. The White House refused to fund it, yet they approved a wasteful $286 billion highway bill that builds bridges to nowhere.
In the weeks that followed the disaster, congressional Republicans responded to Hurricane Katrina by proposing to cut nearly a trillion dollars from vital national services, like student loans, health care for the poor and elderly, and elimination of Public Broadcasting. When Congress asked the state of Alaska to give back some of the unnecessary funds from the Highway Bill, to put towards the effort in New Orleans, the Republican governor of Alaska refused. Republicans obviously care more about unnecessary funding for bridges to nowhere, rather than helping out fellow Americans in need of assistance.
Hurricane Katrina's damages were at an estimated $70-130 billion, which tops Hurricane Andrew as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles, an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. Environmentally speaking, the New Orleans area was a toxic mess of pollution. Toxic household chemicals from destroyed homes floated through the flooded streets mixing with other chemicals, which unfortunately led to the death of thousands of loose animals. Other toxic chemicals from plants and factories also added to the pollution. In addition to the chemicals, there were 44 oil spills in southeast Louisiana, most of which polluted the Mississippi River. One spill was as large as 4 million gallons. The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana. This is about two-thirds as much spilled oil as the Exxon Valdez tanker in 1989.
Most importantly and most depressingly were the number of human casualties caused by the hurricane and its disastrous aftermath. The estimated death toll was 1,302. Close to half of those deaths were estimated to have occurred in the days that followed the hurricane, due to starvation and disease. Most of these deaths and some of the damages could have been prevented, if only the federal government hadn't had so many unqualified appointees.
Hurricane Katrina showed us how dangerous hiring friends can be. Five of the top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters. This is not post-9/11 progress in preparation. The extent of Director Michael D. Brown's experience was heading the International Arabian Horse Association. Even though African Americans and others were dying and suffering, while Brown was more concerned about his wardrobe and when he'd be returning home because he was "tired," Bush still had the gall to say to him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Ok, so we know why there was no prevention: incompetence and under-funding.
But what about the stalled recovery preparation for Katrina? Maybe it was because the administration was too busy with other more important things like vacation. Bush was at his ranch in Texas and then at a convention in southern California. Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming. Andy Card was up in Maine. Condoleezza Rice was spending thousands shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Vacation, ah, nothing like it! But wait a minute, this sounds too familiar. Oh yeah, 9/11.
Four years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the federal government failed to enact crucial homeland security reforms that could have saved lives and improved the sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, according to a report issued by former members of the 9/11 Commission. "The federal government still has no clear system of command and control for responding to a crisis, and authorities have faltered in enacting basic border controls designed to keep out terrorists," said the report's findings.
In a November 1, 2005 MSNBC poll, 87% of Americans did not trust the government for protecting them from the Avian Bird Flu. On the same day, Bush also happened to outline a $7.1 billion strategy to deal with apharmaceutical (which of course is making the pharmecutical corporations richer). Rushing to beat the press? The problem: we can't trust this guy when he says there's a threat. In the same speech about a hurricane disaster he brings up WMD. In the same speech about bird flu he brings up WMD. In every one of his speeches, WMD WMD WMD. There were no WMD! We know he's slow, but when is he going to get it?
To some people, Hurricane Katrina may be the worst natural disaster in history to hit the United States of America, but they're wrong. There was one storm that began in Texas many years ago and in 2000 it expanded, blanketing the skies above the entire United States--
Hurricane George-- the most destructive disaster to strike America.
If you don't believe me, just look around or read the rest of this blog.
Bush was vacationing at his ranch in Texas and then flew to southern California to give a speech at a convention. Meanwhile, blacks were drowning and begging for their lives from their rooftops. In his speech, he happened to fit in the New Orleans disaster. He said that people shouldn't return to their houses until crews could do their work. What houses? What crews? Little did he know there were no homes to return to and no crews to do any work. He hadn't even bothered to turn on a television to watch the news footage for the first four days. Later on, a white house aid had to provide a DVD of the news footage to fill him in on the crisis. The president then had the nerve to make a plea to the American people to donate money to the hurricane disaster; meanwhile every American has been paying for his illegitimate war in Iraq where his friends in big oil have profited. When Bush finally arrived in New Orleans, what did our "respectful" leader do? He reminisced with laughs and chuckles about how he used to party and get drunk there!
On September 15, 2005 in a primetime speech to the nation on the recovery of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Bush said, "Please call this number." He proceeded to read off a toll free phone number for the victims to call. Like the victims even had telephones or televisions to watch his speech? They had nothing. No phones, no TVs, no electric, no homes. Yet the president is telling these poor people more than two weeks later to call a phone number for help! But that's not all. Bush even went on to mention his battle against weapons of mass destruction. WMD in a speech about hurricane recovery? Completely inappropriate.
It took four days for George W. Bush to even acknowledge the December 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the worst natural disaster in world history. He was too busy still celebrating Christmas and drinking the spiked eggnog. When Bush finally emerged he offered a measly amount of aid to the affected 12 nations: $12 million. This measly amount of aid was an utter disgrace to the United States.
It took another four days for Bush to acknowledge the wrath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. The deadly storm had killed and injured thousands of already less fortunate African Americans and others who were obviously not a priority to the president. People lay trapped in contaminated water without food or shelter for over four days, dying from starvation, heat, and disease, all reminiscent of a third world country. Some roamed the streets searching for food. Others looted the stores for food or what was left of it. Thousands more had died because they didn't have the money to fill up their expensive gas tanks or because they were turned away from shelters that didn't allow their pets.
While the dead floated to the surface and the survivors roamed searching for food, Bush circled over the devastation at 2,500 feet in his presidential jet, his shoes too shiny to get out in that kind of muck. He then continued on his trip back to the White House returning after a long one month vacation where he proceeded to send his sympathy via satellite from the Rose Garden; too bad no one in Louisiana and Mississippi even saw it.
Former President Bill Clinton offered criticism of the Bush team and their botched up disaster relief:
"You can’t have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up…This is a matter of public policy and whether it’s race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that’s a consequence of the action made. That’s what they did in the ‘80s; that’s what they’ve done in this decade. In the middle, we had a different policy."
With Hurricane Katrina, both the war and the budget had an affect on preparation and post-disaster aid. More than one third of the Mississippi and Louisiana National Guard were in Iraq and Afghanistan, which slowed recovery efforts after the disaster. In 2003, federal funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project pretty much came to a halt. The SELA was created in 1995 in response to serious flooding. In early 2004, Bush proposed spending less than 20% of what the Corps recommended for preparing Lake Pontchartrain for a hurricane. As a result of these poor judgments and under-funding, levees were not repaired and emergency resources were not readily available. And as a result of the lack of troops due to the war (as well as Bush's own neglect) people in effected areas suffered. At least one million people became homeless and over a thousand were killed in the category 5 hurricane.
It's not like the warnings weren't out there for a disastrous hurricane like Katrina to hit the Gulf Coast. In early 2001, FEMA declared a future Louisiana hurricane as one of the top three potential U.S. disasters. Several newspapers ran national stories on the subject. Eric Berger reported in the 12/01/01 Houston Chronicle KEEPING ITS HEAD ABOVE WATER: New Orleans faces doomsday scenario:
"New Orleans is sinking… In the face of an approaching storm, scientists say, the city’s less-than-adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill one of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20 feet of water. Thousands of refugees could land in Houston. Economically, the toll would be shattering. The only solution, scientists, politicians and other Louisiana officials agree, is to take large-scale steps to minimize the risks." [i]
Yet, no steps were taken and Americans died. A Republican Congress stalled Senator Mary Landrieu's legislation for a preventative proadministrationng. Moreover, the adminsitration ignored local pleas to issue a plan and cut funding, all because they were too worried about funding their Iraq war.
President Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Nobody, except a generation of scientists and the Army Corps of Engineers and local politicians who pleaded for years for funding and assistance. Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans in 2004. The White House refused to fund it, yet they approved a wasteful $286 billion highway bill that builds bridges to nowhere.
In the weeks that followed the disaster, congressional Republicans responded to Hurricane Katrina by proposing to cut nearly a trillion dollars from vital national services, like student loans, health care for the poor and elderly, and elimination of Public Broadcasting. When Congress asked the state of Alaska to give back some of the unnecessary funds from the Highway Bill, to put towards the effort in New Orleans, the Republican governor of Alaska refused. Republicans obviously care more about unnecessary funding for bridges to nowhere, rather than helping out fellow Americans in need of assistance.
Hurricane Katrina's damages were at an estimated $70-130 billion, which tops Hurricane Andrew as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles, an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. Environmentally speaking, the New Orleans area was a toxic mess of pollution. Toxic household chemicals from destroyed homes floated through the flooded streets mixing with other chemicals, which unfortunately led to the death of thousands of loose animals. Other toxic chemicals from plants and factories also added to the pollution. In addition to the chemicals, there were 44 oil spills in southeast Louisiana, most of which polluted the Mississippi River. One spill was as large as 4 million gallons. The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana. This is about two-thirds as much spilled oil as the Exxon Valdez tanker in 1989.
Most importantly and most depressingly were the number of human casualties caused by the hurricane and its disastrous aftermath. The estimated death toll was 1,302. Close to half of those deaths were estimated to have occurred in the days that followed the hurricane, due to starvation and disease. Most of these deaths and some of the damages could have been prevented, if only the federal government hadn't had so many unqualified appointees.
Hurricane Katrina showed us how dangerous hiring friends can be. Five of the top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters. This is not post-9/11 progress in preparation. The extent of Director Michael D. Brown's experience was heading the International Arabian Horse Association. Even though African Americans and others were dying and suffering, while Brown was more concerned about his wardrobe and when he'd be returning home because he was "tired," Bush still had the gall to say to him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Ok, so we know why there was no prevention: incompetence and under-funding.
But what about the stalled recovery preparation for Katrina? Maybe it was because the administration was too busy with other more important things like vacation. Bush was at his ranch in Texas and then at a convention in southern California. Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming. Andy Card was up in Maine. Condoleezza Rice was spending thousands shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Vacation, ah, nothing like it! But wait a minute, this sounds too familiar. Oh yeah, 9/11.
Four years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the federal government failed to enact crucial homeland security reforms that could have saved lives and improved the sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, according to a report issued by former members of the 9/11 Commission. "The federal government still has no clear system of command and control for responding to a crisis, and authorities have faltered in enacting basic border controls designed to keep out terrorists," said the report's findings.
In a November 1, 2005 MSNBC poll, 87% of Americans did not trust the government for protecting them from the Avian Bird Flu. On the same day, Bush also happened to outline a $7.1 billion strategy to deal with apharmaceutical (which of course is making the pharmecutical corporations richer). Rushing to beat the press? The problem: we can't trust this guy when he says there's a threat. In the same speech about a hurricane disaster he brings up WMD. In the same speech about bird flu he brings up WMD. In every one of his speeches, WMD WMD WMD. There were no WMD! We know he's slow, but when is he going to get it?
To some people, Hurricane Katrina may be the worst natural disaster in history to hit the United States of America, but they're wrong. There was one storm that began in Texas many years ago and in 2000 it expanded, blanketing the skies above the entire United States--
Hurricane George-- the most destructive disaster to strike America.
If you don't believe me, just look around or read the rest of this blog.
Monday, August 28, 2006
DEATH
Despite their devotion to God, the majority of Republicans still support the death penalty. The United States happens to be one of the only countries in the world still practicing this ancient barbaric style of execution. Not to defend the guilty savages that some of these prisoners are, but what disturbs me is that since 1976, twenty five prisoners on Illinois’ death row were found to be innocent due to DNA testing. 13 were released but 12 had already been executed. This is only one state. How many more innocent people died in the death penalty capital of Texas? Want some more disturbing statistics? 75% of all people on death row are non-white and more than 75% of all executions since 1976 took place in southern states. Is slavery still alive in the south? Certainly not in the obvious physical sense, but how about in other ways? Think about it. Lack of education, lack of community support, lack of guidance, lack of government funding, lack of proper criminal defense.
Speaking of Texas, the capital of capital punishment, the state executed 18 people in a span of thirteen years from 1982 to 1995. In just six years from 1995 to 2001, Governor G.W. Bush signed a record 152 executions! And the majority of executions— black and Hispanic. Governor Death also vetoed legislation to provide funding for legal defense for the poor. In a 1999 Talk Magazine interview, Bush went as far as impersonating a mentally retarded woman he executed, “Please don’t kill me,” he pleaded with a grin.
Bush’s executions have also continued over into his presidency, which includes the first televised execution in U.S. history on 6/11/01 and the executions of several Gulf War veterans, one of which had suffered brain damage as a result of exposure to nerve gas. While the crimes of the guilty are unforgivable, Bush has not only stooped to the level of these criminals, but he has also done them a favor by relieving them of their punishments.
If executing people on death row wasn’t enough, Bush used his radicalism as president to start a war and kill thousands. Bush made the claim that God, of course, told him to invade Iraq. He even confessed this to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003. Shaath, now the Palestinian Information Minister, said President Bush said, “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan,’ and I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq,’ and I did. Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how Bush told him, “I have a moral and religious obligation.” Isn’t it wonderful to have the grim reaper in the White House?
Speaking of Texas, the capital of capital punishment, the state executed 18 people in a span of thirteen years from 1982 to 1995. In just six years from 1995 to 2001, Governor G.W. Bush signed a record 152 executions! And the majority of executions— black and Hispanic. Governor Death also vetoed legislation to provide funding for legal defense for the poor. In a 1999 Talk Magazine interview, Bush went as far as impersonating a mentally retarded woman he executed, “Please don’t kill me,” he pleaded with a grin.
Bush’s executions have also continued over into his presidency, which includes the first televised execution in U.S. history on 6/11/01 and the executions of several Gulf War veterans, one of which had suffered brain damage as a result of exposure to nerve gas. While the crimes of the guilty are unforgivable, Bush has not only stooped to the level of these criminals, but he has also done them a favor by relieving them of their punishments.
If executing people on death row wasn’t enough, Bush used his radicalism as president to start a war and kill thousands. Bush made the claim that God, of course, told him to invade Iraq. He even confessed this to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003. Shaath, now the Palestinian Information Minister, said President Bush said, “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan,’ and I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq,’ and I did. Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how Bush told him, “I have a moral and religious obligation.” Isn’t it wonderful to have the grim reaper in the White House?
Sunday, August 27, 2006
GAY BASHING
It bewilders me that a man in prison for brutally killing his parents and siblings can marry a woman, but harmless gay couples who love each other and contribute to society are not allowed to wed? There are ruthless killers and criminals in prisons all across America married and still getting married right inside their jails, yet the church nor Bush seem to have a problem with that. The bottom line is Bush’s push for marriage-values is nothing more than a festival of gay-bashing.
In 2005 the Vatican began a review of each of the 229 Catholic seminaries in the U.S. for “evidence of homosexuality.” In their mission to ban gay priests to counter the sex-abuse scandal, they actually made a worse situation by discriminating against gays and claiming that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” The priests who molested and raped thousands of children (mostly male due to the fact that girls weren’t generally allowed to work as altar girls) are pedophiles not homosexuals— there’s a difference. There are many gay priests who live faithful lives in celibacy, but due to ignorance, they are now in danger.
The Catholic Church is the least of the gay community’s worries though. It’s the radical evangelicals in the red states who have the real excessive hatred for gays and see them as a group of evil sinners dangerous to society. These organizations of hate dominate states like Kansas and Nebraska and are Bush’s second largest supporters. The intensity of their hate is equivalent to that of the KKK or the Nazi regime, yet they call themselves people of God (The KKK and Nazis were Christian too.) These evangelical haters pushed Bush to propose a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and he followed though. The proposed amendment was providentially squashed by the Senate 48-50, but the battle isn’t over; you’d better believe these warriors of hate are brewing up a new plan.
Why people like Bush are so afraid of gays, we’ll never know. Maybe they’re afraid of something they don’t want to face? Tom DeLay just happens to have a little bit of a strut when he walks— I wonder? Maybe they’re not secure with their own sexuality? Maybe they’re not educated enough? Or maybe they’re just listening to their church again?
In 2005 the Vatican began a review of each of the 229 Catholic seminaries in the U.S. for “evidence of homosexuality.” In their mission to ban gay priests to counter the sex-abuse scandal, they actually made a worse situation by discriminating against gays and claiming that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” The priests who molested and raped thousands of children (mostly male due to the fact that girls weren’t generally allowed to work as altar girls) are pedophiles not homosexuals— there’s a difference. There are many gay priests who live faithful lives in celibacy, but due to ignorance, they are now in danger.
The Catholic Church is the least of the gay community’s worries though. It’s the radical evangelicals in the red states who have the real excessive hatred for gays and see them as a group of evil sinners dangerous to society. These organizations of hate dominate states like Kansas and Nebraska and are Bush’s second largest supporters. The intensity of their hate is equivalent to that of the KKK or the Nazi regime, yet they call themselves people of God (The KKK and Nazis were Christian too.) These evangelical haters pushed Bush to propose a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and he followed though. The proposed amendment was providentially squashed by the Senate 48-50, but the battle isn’t over; you’d better believe these warriors of hate are brewing up a new plan.
Why people like Bush are so afraid of gays, we’ll never know. Maybe they’re afraid of something they don’t want to face? Tom DeLay just happens to have a little bit of a strut when he walks— I wonder? Maybe they’re not secure with their own sexuality? Maybe they’re not educated enough? Or maybe they’re just listening to their church again?
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Brain Damage
In the final two weeks of March 2005 we saw a particular group of people rallying behind the parents of Terri Schiavo and protesting the courts and government to bring their daughter back, even though their daughter was long gone. The reality was that Terri Schiavo’s life sadly ended fifteen years earlier along with the pretty photographs of her the media kept showing on the news. The shriveled up 2005 Terri on the verge of physical death had been in the process of demise the last fifteen years, and which was only prevented by an artificial plastic tube that fed her artificial food. It’s hard for parents to let go of a daughter, no doubt, but they were only hanging onto a shell of what was their daughter. This is the first problem: America’s fear of death, contradictory to the fact that we consume violence in our entertainment and bomb other countries with no regard when all the while the people who protest this are called “crazed and unpatriotic.” We fear death as if we were tied to the tracks in a dark tunnel and we never knew when the next train without headlights would come thundering through.
When Terri Schiavo finally did die, after ten years of her poor husband fighting to free her of the artificial feeding tube, her family was forced to face her death, the entropy they couldn’t face fifteen years earlier. The protestors then put down their signs that read “Terri is not brain dead,” (even though her brain had reached atrophy according to seven of the top neurologists in the world.) Other signs read “Stop starving Terri” (even though no one starved her except nature). And these protestors continued on with their mission, marching to the next abortion clinic to harass poor women who are in fact still alive, while today another soldier will die in Iraq, and tomorrow another person will die because they don’t have any health coverage, and next month another criminal will be put to death in America on death row for killing someone else. The nuts are fighting the wrong battle.
This brings us to the next problem— America’s addiction to hypocrisy. We showed the world how one American woman, kept alive artificially, is worth more than 500,000 Iraqi children killed in the 1990’s because of the Gulf War and its resulting sanctions, worth more than the 1 million civilians killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, worth more than the 2 million civilians killed in Vietnam by Americans, at least in terms of press and acknowledgment.
This country continues to amaze the world. Everyone pays more attention to one dying woman than all of the soldiers who have died in Iraq. How come the soldiers don’t get 24-hour television coverage? How come we aren’t allowed to see and salute the flag draped coffins of our heroic troops as they’re shipped home? How come the people protesting the war to save these soldiers are disregarded by many as unpatriotic? Of course, our president hops on an immediate flight in the middle of the night to try and save Terri, when it took him 3 days to call Asia after they had just suffered the worst human casualties from a natural disaster ever. Are the Asians not as valuable too? As the president was rushing off to save one woman in his brother Jeb’s state, an entire community was grieving in Minnesota over the worst school shooting in history since Columbine. Why didn’t Bush hop on an immediate flight to Minnesota? Is it because the school happens to be predominantly Native American; are they too not as valuable? Or is it because Bush supports the right to bear arms, hence someone else’s right to take another’s life? Instead, Bush went running to his conservative-Christian supporters to save a life, even though he didn’t save any lives in Iraq when he lied about WMD, even though he didn’t save any lives when he executed more inmates than any other governor in history, executions that include a mentally retarded woman and a majority of blacks and Hispanics. Now once again, Bush couldn’t save a life. He must have felt like a failure, a phony that let down the very people who made sure he became president.
The truth is that Terri died from irreversible brain damage. The Schiavo autopsy later proved the skeptics wrong. She was in a persistent vegetative state with “massive and irreversible brain damage and she was blind.” So much for those who said she was visually responding to family members. The autopsy also found no evidence of abuse or strangulation, which many of the extremists had accused Mr. Schiavo of. Furthermore, the brain weighed 615 grams, about half of a normal human brain, which proves the massive loss of neurons. Yet despite the evidence, many religious groups including the Roman Catholic Church disagreed and still disagree with the final decision to free Terri of her artificial life.
If I’m ever in a horrible situation where I’m being artificially kept alive for a period of over six months with no chance of returning to a functional life and this is agreeable by more than one doctor, please pull the plug or cut the tube. Now it’s in writing. Any longer than six months is a burden to the world, a waste of energy, and a down-right nasty tease to the hope of my loved ones. If I can’t feed myself and chew my own food after a few months of recovery, then I don’t want to survive. If you, on the other hand, wish to be propped up and artificially kept alive, let us all know— we’ll find someone sadistic enough to hold onto you and keep you dangling on by a thread for decades. Chances are we’ll find them in the Bush administration.
When Terri Schiavo finally did die, after ten years of her poor husband fighting to free her of the artificial feeding tube, her family was forced to face her death, the entropy they couldn’t face fifteen years earlier. The protestors then put down their signs that read “Terri is not brain dead,” (even though her brain had reached atrophy according to seven of the top neurologists in the world.) Other signs read “Stop starving Terri” (even though no one starved her except nature). And these protestors continued on with their mission, marching to the next abortion clinic to harass poor women who are in fact still alive, while today another soldier will die in Iraq, and tomorrow another person will die because they don’t have any health coverage, and next month another criminal will be put to death in America on death row for killing someone else. The nuts are fighting the wrong battle.
This brings us to the next problem— America’s addiction to hypocrisy. We showed the world how one American woman, kept alive artificially, is worth more than 500,000 Iraqi children killed in the 1990’s because of the Gulf War and its resulting sanctions, worth more than the 1 million civilians killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, worth more than the 2 million civilians killed in Vietnam by Americans, at least in terms of press and acknowledgment.
This country continues to amaze the world. Everyone pays more attention to one dying woman than all of the soldiers who have died in Iraq. How come the soldiers don’t get 24-hour television coverage? How come we aren’t allowed to see and salute the flag draped coffins of our heroic troops as they’re shipped home? How come the people protesting the war to save these soldiers are disregarded by many as unpatriotic? Of course, our president hops on an immediate flight in the middle of the night to try and save Terri, when it took him 3 days to call Asia after they had just suffered the worst human casualties from a natural disaster ever. Are the Asians not as valuable too? As the president was rushing off to save one woman in his brother Jeb’s state, an entire community was grieving in Minnesota over the worst school shooting in history since Columbine. Why didn’t Bush hop on an immediate flight to Minnesota? Is it because the school happens to be predominantly Native American; are they too not as valuable? Or is it because Bush supports the right to bear arms, hence someone else’s right to take another’s life? Instead, Bush went running to his conservative-Christian supporters to save a life, even though he didn’t save any lives in Iraq when he lied about WMD, even though he didn’t save any lives when he executed more inmates than any other governor in history, executions that include a mentally retarded woman and a majority of blacks and Hispanics. Now once again, Bush couldn’t save a life. He must have felt like a failure, a phony that let down the very people who made sure he became president.
The truth is that Terri died from irreversible brain damage. The Schiavo autopsy later proved the skeptics wrong. She was in a persistent vegetative state with “massive and irreversible brain damage and she was blind.” So much for those who said she was visually responding to family members. The autopsy also found no evidence of abuse or strangulation, which many of the extremists had accused Mr. Schiavo of. Furthermore, the brain weighed 615 grams, about half of a normal human brain, which proves the massive loss of neurons. Yet despite the evidence, many religious groups including the Roman Catholic Church disagreed and still disagree with the final decision to free Terri of her artificial life.
If I’m ever in a horrible situation where I’m being artificially kept alive for a period of over six months with no chance of returning to a functional life and this is agreeable by more than one doctor, please pull the plug or cut the tube. Now it’s in writing. Any longer than six months is a burden to the world, a waste of energy, and a down-right nasty tease to the hope of my loved ones. If I can’t feed myself and chew my own food after a few months of recovery, then I don’t want to survive. If you, on the other hand, wish to be propped up and artificially kept alive, let us all know— we’ll find someone sadistic enough to hold onto you and keep you dangling on by a thread for decades. Chances are we’ll find them in the Bush administration.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Dear God
Dear God,
I know you are busy and have much to attend to, but I just needed to ask you a few important questions because there are many people in this world who are very upset right now.
Have you given permission to George W. Bush and the Republicans to go to war with Iraq and send thousands of Americans off to die? Is it also all right to kill thousands of Iraqis? God, did you tell them to lie about the reasons to go to war and then say it was all right when they didn’t apologize? God, do you approve of the death penalty, you know, the law where George W. Bush as Governor of Texas executed 152 prisoners, some of whom were veterans and mentally retarded? God, did you give permission to the administration to weaken the protection of wildlife habitat and endangered species for the benefit of the timber and mining industries? Is it also ok to put corporations before families? God, do you approve of a Constitutional Amendment that would ban two people who love each other from getting married? God, do you force one religion on everybody? God, is it ok now that America is so divided? Is it all right now that the world is even more divided? Because there are some who say they are people of God and Morals, and they say you approve of all of these things. God, I hope not. I pray you haven’t commanded these acts. The God I’ve always known wouldn’t do those things. Please answer us.
Sincerely,
Little Billy
Take a critical look at what Bush’s “faith and compassion” have accomplished for the nation since 2001:
· over 2 million Americans have lost their jobs.
· 4 million more Americans are living in poverty.
· 6 million have lost their health care coverage - bringing the total uninsured to a record 46 million.
· over 2,500 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq; over 25,000 have been seriously wounded.
· an estimated 15,000 civilians have been killed by U.S. military operations in Iraq since 2003.
· the federal debt reached $8 trillion, the highest in U.S. history.
· air pollution has increased due to weakening of the Clean Air Act.
Is the above destruction the work of God? Well, the radical Republicans will tell you it is because they’ll tell you they’re the work and party of God. Does God really work that hard at wrecking America? I guess this would be true if you go by what some of the Christian fundamentalists said about the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 Hurricane Katrina. According to these nuts, the tsunami occurred because that region of the world is mostly Muslim. How benevolent of God to get rid of all of those non-Christian Asians! Likewise, the hurricane struck where it did because one area hit by Katrina had several abortion clinics. That would have been the logic of God: knock out an entire region and kill thousands because there were a couple of clinics in the area. Give me a break. I won’t stand for this kind of hatred and neither should you. But those hateful and obnoxious statements were from Bush’s second biggest supporters— the radical evangelicals.
I know you are busy and have much to attend to, but I just needed to ask you a few important questions because there are many people in this world who are very upset right now.
Have you given permission to George W. Bush and the Republicans to go to war with Iraq and send thousands of Americans off to die? Is it also all right to kill thousands of Iraqis? God, did you tell them to lie about the reasons to go to war and then say it was all right when they didn’t apologize? God, do you approve of the death penalty, you know, the law where George W. Bush as Governor of Texas executed 152 prisoners, some of whom were veterans and mentally retarded? God, did you give permission to the administration to weaken the protection of wildlife habitat and endangered species for the benefit of the timber and mining industries? Is it also ok to put corporations before families? God, do you approve of a Constitutional Amendment that would ban two people who love each other from getting married? God, do you force one religion on everybody? God, is it ok now that America is so divided? Is it all right now that the world is even more divided? Because there are some who say they are people of God and Morals, and they say you approve of all of these things. God, I hope not. I pray you haven’t commanded these acts. The God I’ve always known wouldn’t do those things. Please answer us.
Sincerely,
Little Billy
Take a critical look at what Bush’s “faith and compassion” have accomplished for the nation since 2001:
· over 2 million Americans have lost their jobs.
· 4 million more Americans are living in poverty.
· 6 million have lost their health care coverage - bringing the total uninsured to a record 46 million.
· over 2,500 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq; over 25,000 have been seriously wounded.
· an estimated 15,000 civilians have been killed by U.S. military operations in Iraq since 2003.
· the federal debt reached $8 trillion, the highest in U.S. history.
· air pollution has increased due to weakening of the Clean Air Act.
Is the above destruction the work of God? Well, the radical Republicans will tell you it is because they’ll tell you they’re the work and party of God. Does God really work that hard at wrecking America? I guess this would be true if you go by what some of the Christian fundamentalists said about the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 Hurricane Katrina. According to these nuts, the tsunami occurred because that region of the world is mostly Muslim. How benevolent of God to get rid of all of those non-Christian Asians! Likewise, the hurricane struck where it did because one area hit by Katrina had several abortion clinics. That would have been the logic of God: knock out an entire region and kill thousands because there were a couple of clinics in the area. Give me a break. I won’t stand for this kind of hatred and neither should you. But those hateful and obnoxious statements were from Bush’s second biggest supporters— the radical evangelicals.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
DRUGS
DRUGS
Instead of fighting the growing heroin and crystal-meth epidemics, the BAD has instead focused on the activities of severely ill and crippled users of medical-marijuana. In Santa Cruz, California on September 5, 2002, more than 20 armed federal agents raided a hospice without warning, holding their rifles to the heads of cancer, AIDS, and other patients and their caregivers.[i] When a paraplegic named Suzanne Pfeil was awakened at gunpoint and ordered to stand and could not oblige for quite obvious reasons, she was handcuffed to her bed like a criminal. Federal agents terrorized these people, some of which were dying and suffering from various maladies such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer. These patients and their innocent caretakers were terrorized because they were marijuana users with doctor’s approval in a state and city where medical marijuana is legally permitted. (California is one of ten states that have so far legalized medical marijuana.) In another example of abusing the ill, a quadriplegic named Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10 day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington D.C. in September 2004. (46) The jail was unequipped with the medical technology Magbie needed in order to breathe; he could not breathe on his own and so he died. Or should we say he was killed by the BAD and their crusade to stop marijuana?
So while there are now more crack dealers in the projects, more ecstasy in the nightclubs, more heroin in our suburbs, and more crystal-meth in our schools, there are now also less cancer patients with marijuana! The BAD is wasting money and time on the one drug that’s never killed anyone— marijuana. Meanwhile, thousands die every year from drunk driving incidents. Well, Bush wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite and stop those drunk drivers, now would he? Here’s a president who has a drunk driving record, is a known confessed alcoholic, as well as a rumored past cocaine user, yet he’s bothering the people who choose the one drug that never hurt anyone else. The worst part of this hypocrisy is they’re bullying around a group of unfortunate people who have diseases and permanent injuries. Some of these permanently injured medical marijuana users are veterans, so now they’re even disrespecting the troops who fought and suffered for this great country. What a slap in the face!
This mistreatment of disabled civilian and veteran Americans can be blamed on the BAD drug czar John Walters, who has some strange vendetta with marijuana and has linked its use to terrorism, claiming it supports the likes of Al Qaeda. What if I told you the truth right now, that our government sanctioned millions of aid to Afghanistan farmers in 2001 just prior to 9/11, which directly helped the revitalization of their heroin crops—Heroin that went directly to our American youth? (10) That is the truth, yet this Walters character has the gall to link marijuana to terrorism cells! The BAD has capitalized on terrorism 110% in every department haven’t they? The sad part is Afghanistan has once again become the world’s biggest producer of opium.
There are roughly 700,000 marijuana arrests every year in the United States now under the BAD. Prisons are overcrowded with people caught with a minimal amount of marijuana. Lives are ruined and many of these lives had legal prescriptions in states where it is legal to use marijuana. You may ask whether I am promoting marijuana or not, but that is not the question you should be asking. In case you really want to know, I am not promoting marijuana; I know it has many negative effects on people if misused. The questions you should really be asking are, why isn’t the BAD doing they’re job and protecting our children from the really serious drugs? Why is the BAD mistreating the ill and dictating how they should spend their last days? Why is the BAD wasting precious time and energy on a drug that’s never killed anyone and doesn’t come close to the damage that someone does to their life when abusing heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, alcohol, or even food. Is it because those drugs are too profitable for our government to attack them?
Perhaps the BAD should go after the fast food companies instead of marijuana, a crusade that is urgently needed in America. More than 65% of Americans are overweight and thousands are dying due to weight-related illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and stroke. President of the American Obesity Association, Dr. Richard L. Atkinson, M.D. even acknowledged, “We know now the health effects of obesity are similar or greater than smoking, problem drinking and being poor… One would think, then, that the health care industry including programs of the federal government would be actively involved in stemming the obesity epidemic. But they are not. If one looks at research, education, prevention, treatment, consumer protection or discrimination, the health care field treats obesity as a second-class citizen.” The BAD, especially Dick Cheney, won’t touch this crisis though; too much money and too much satisfaction in the fast food industry for the government to interfere.
A February 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that 83 percent of American adults believe “public schools need to do a better job of limiting children’s access to unhealthy foods like snack foods, sugary soft drinks and fast food.” Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy recently proposed a Prevention of Childhood Obesity Act, and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin proposed a Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention (HeLP) America Act, but how far will these bills go when there are millions of dollars at stake? Millions of dollars of profit for the big junk-food companies and millions of dollars that go to the GOP in the form of contributions.
Coke lobbyists Kirk Blalock and Marc Lampkin are both hundred-thousand-dollar contributors. Joe Weller, CEO of Nestle is also a huge contributor. Altria also gave $250,000 to Bush. According to research in an article published in The Nation, “Junk Food Nation” by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor, these contributions are all in addition to substantial sums given during the 2000 campaign. The article further states, “For their money, the industry has been able to buy into a strategy on obesity and food marketing that mirrors the approach taken by Big Tobacco,” which is to claim they’re helping people quit while they’re really still feeding the addictions. The BAD can’t be bothered with fighting real American problems like obesity and health; there’s too much money in it for them.
Republicans on a whole don’t have the time for real issues that affect real Americans. They’re too busy pretending to go to church. Too busy with their own lives. Too busy to worry about “vagrants in the bad section of town” or the unemployed who should “get a job,” even though they can’t because there aren’t any left. Too busy to worry about wildlife and environmental safety. Too busy to worry about anything that happens outside of their own backyards. Apathy is their greatest weapon.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the divided states of America
And to the Republicans for which it stands now
one nation under their God
invisible
with no liberty
and injustice for all.
Instead of fighting the growing heroin and crystal-meth epidemics, the BAD has instead focused on the activities of severely ill and crippled users of medical-marijuana. In Santa Cruz, California on September 5, 2002, more than 20 armed federal agents raided a hospice without warning, holding their rifles to the heads of cancer, AIDS, and other patients and their caregivers.[i] When a paraplegic named Suzanne Pfeil was awakened at gunpoint and ordered to stand and could not oblige for quite obvious reasons, she was handcuffed to her bed like a criminal. Federal agents terrorized these people, some of which were dying and suffering from various maladies such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer. These patients and their innocent caretakers were terrorized because they were marijuana users with doctor’s approval in a state and city where medical marijuana is legally permitted. (California is one of ten states that have so far legalized medical marijuana.) In another example of abusing the ill, a quadriplegic named Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10 day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington D.C. in September 2004. (46) The jail was unequipped with the medical technology Magbie needed in order to breathe; he could not breathe on his own and so he died. Or should we say he was killed by the BAD and their crusade to stop marijuana?
So while there are now more crack dealers in the projects, more ecstasy in the nightclubs, more heroin in our suburbs, and more crystal-meth in our schools, there are now also less cancer patients with marijuana! The BAD is wasting money and time on the one drug that’s never killed anyone— marijuana. Meanwhile, thousands die every year from drunk driving incidents. Well, Bush wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite and stop those drunk drivers, now would he? Here’s a president who has a drunk driving record, is a known confessed alcoholic, as well as a rumored past cocaine user, yet he’s bothering the people who choose the one drug that never hurt anyone else. The worst part of this hypocrisy is they’re bullying around a group of unfortunate people who have diseases and permanent injuries. Some of these permanently injured medical marijuana users are veterans, so now they’re even disrespecting the troops who fought and suffered for this great country. What a slap in the face!
This mistreatment of disabled civilian and veteran Americans can be blamed on the BAD drug czar John Walters, who has some strange vendetta with marijuana and has linked its use to terrorism, claiming it supports the likes of Al Qaeda. What if I told you the truth right now, that our government sanctioned millions of aid to Afghanistan farmers in 2001 just prior to 9/11, which directly helped the revitalization of their heroin crops—Heroin that went directly to our American youth? (10) That is the truth, yet this Walters character has the gall to link marijuana to terrorism cells! The BAD has capitalized on terrorism 110% in every department haven’t they? The sad part is Afghanistan has once again become the world’s biggest producer of opium.
There are roughly 700,000 marijuana arrests every year in the United States now under the BAD. Prisons are overcrowded with people caught with a minimal amount of marijuana. Lives are ruined and many of these lives had legal prescriptions in states where it is legal to use marijuana. You may ask whether I am promoting marijuana or not, but that is not the question you should be asking. In case you really want to know, I am not promoting marijuana; I know it has many negative effects on people if misused. The questions you should really be asking are, why isn’t the BAD doing they’re job and protecting our children from the really serious drugs? Why is the BAD mistreating the ill and dictating how they should spend their last days? Why is the BAD wasting precious time and energy on a drug that’s never killed anyone and doesn’t come close to the damage that someone does to their life when abusing heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, alcohol, or even food. Is it because those drugs are too profitable for our government to attack them?
Perhaps the BAD should go after the fast food companies instead of marijuana, a crusade that is urgently needed in America. More than 65% of Americans are overweight and thousands are dying due to weight-related illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and stroke. President of the American Obesity Association, Dr. Richard L. Atkinson, M.D. even acknowledged, “We know now the health effects of obesity are similar or greater than smoking, problem drinking and being poor… One would think, then, that the health care industry including programs of the federal government would be actively involved in stemming the obesity epidemic. But they are not. If one looks at research, education, prevention, treatment, consumer protection or discrimination, the health care field treats obesity as a second-class citizen.” The BAD, especially Dick Cheney, won’t touch this crisis though; too much money and too much satisfaction in the fast food industry for the government to interfere.
A February 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that 83 percent of American adults believe “public schools need to do a better job of limiting children’s access to unhealthy foods like snack foods, sugary soft drinks and fast food.” Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy recently proposed a Prevention of Childhood Obesity Act, and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin proposed a Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention (HeLP) America Act, but how far will these bills go when there are millions of dollars at stake? Millions of dollars of profit for the big junk-food companies and millions of dollars that go to the GOP in the form of contributions.
Coke lobbyists Kirk Blalock and Marc Lampkin are both hundred-thousand-dollar contributors. Joe Weller, CEO of Nestle is also a huge contributor. Altria also gave $250,000 to Bush. According to research in an article published in The Nation, “Junk Food Nation” by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor, these contributions are all in addition to substantial sums given during the 2000 campaign. The article further states, “For their money, the industry has been able to buy into a strategy on obesity and food marketing that mirrors the approach taken by Big Tobacco,” which is to claim they’re helping people quit while they’re really still feeding the addictions. The BAD can’t be bothered with fighting real American problems like obesity and health; there’s too much money in it for them.
Republicans on a whole don’t have the time for real issues that affect real Americans. They’re too busy pretending to go to church. Too busy with their own lives. Too busy to worry about “vagrants in the bad section of town” or the unemployed who should “get a job,” even though they can’t because there aren’t any left. Too busy to worry about wildlife and environmental safety. Too busy to worry about anything that happens outside of their own backyards. Apathy is their greatest weapon.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the divided states of America
And to the Republicans for which it stands now
one nation under their God
invisible
with no liberty
and injustice for all.
Monday, August 21, 2006
CONTRASTS AND COMPARISONS (red & blue states)
Republicans are constantly insulting the blue states. Bush even referred to John Kerry as “just another northeast liberal.” It is no wonder that police and emergency funding was cut in blue states under Bush. It’s back to the selfish 6th grade mentality: “Why should I help them; they didn’t help me?” We could just see him right now snickering to his cronies in Crawford, “Ha, they don’t want to vote for me, they’ll see what they get.” However, did they forget that there are many liberals in red states as well, states like Arizona and even Texas? Unfortunately, there are not enough liberals where we need progress the most— red states. But before we let the BAD get away with insulting the blue states let’s remind the nation about a few important historic details.[i] Who founded this nation? New York? Philadelphia? Boston? Which states get the most federal funding and pay in the least? (Nine of the top ten are red.) Which states get the least federal funding and pay the most? (Eight of the top ten are blue.)
Of course they’ll bring up other issues like morals and values. Well, what state has the lowest divorce rate? (Massachusetts, the home of “just another northeast liberal.”) In fact, 9 out of the 10 states with the lowest divorce rate are blue. Where are the top ten states with the worst divorce rates? You betcha! (10 out of the 10 worst are red states.) (43)
How about criminals? Who has 500 or more prisoners per 100,000 population (the highest prison population in the U.S.)? Yes, you guessed it: TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, & SC. Murder and other violent crime rates are also higher in the red states. Obviously there’s no crime prevention or initiative of education in those states, and if there is it hasn’t been working.
Speaking of education; red states are also lagging in this department too. Texas is actually inching its way up to the #50 spot (last place) for worst education ranking. (43)
What about health? Who has healthier citizens with less rates of disease? According to the Congressional Quarterly Press and State Fact Finder, 8 of the top 10 healthiest states are blue states. This could have something to do with the fact that 9 of the 14 best environmentally ranked states are also blue states, according to the North Carolina Institute for Southern Studies. And according to past and recent United States EPA reports, red states like TX, LA, and UT release the most toxins in the nation (100 million or more pounds of toxins.) Red states like MS, AL, GA, and SC are in 2nd place for releasing 50 to 99 million pounds of toxins into the air. It’s no wonder that they also have extremely high cancer rates. So much for church. So much for gays threatening the sanctity of marriage. Perhaps it’s something else, like maybe the polluted drinking-water? Or better yet, maybe it’s time we finally hold accountable the Republican government managing these red states. They’re the ones threatening the sanctity of marriage.
Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska all come in at the top for states with highest Republican population. However, Utah is at the very top of the list, yes, the same state where polygamy is widely practiced, the same state that’s dictated by a radical religion where women are degraded to servants and child-bearers, the same state that denied the dangerous effects of above-the-ground nuclear testing in the 50’s and 60’s where thousands died of cancer. Utah is a scary place. Granted, there are many free-thinking Democrats who live in Utah, whom I have sympathy for, but Democratic presidential candidates shouldn’t even waste their time there, unless it’s at the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, don’t sell this book there unless it’s to someone looking to get out, in which case I’ll now provide directions to the nearest blue state: Go west until you can’t go west anymore. From Oregon you can go up or down; it’s your liberal choice.
The list of contrasts and criticism goes on, but I only wanted to demonstrate that we can play “divider” too. Democrats don’t ever bring up these facts when they debate because Democrats stand for all people. Only Republicans like Bush could use divisive language because they don’t care about anyone other than themselves and their cronies. I honestly hope citizens of Utah do read Broken Nation.
Of course they’ll bring up other issues like morals and values. Well, what state has the lowest divorce rate? (Massachusetts, the home of “just another northeast liberal.”) In fact, 9 out of the 10 states with the lowest divorce rate are blue. Where are the top ten states with the worst divorce rates? You betcha! (10 out of the 10 worst are red states.) (43)
How about criminals? Who has 500 or more prisoners per 100,000 population (the highest prison population in the U.S.)? Yes, you guessed it: TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, & SC. Murder and other violent crime rates are also higher in the red states. Obviously there’s no crime prevention or initiative of education in those states, and if there is it hasn’t been working.
Speaking of education; red states are also lagging in this department too. Texas is actually inching its way up to the #50 spot (last place) for worst education ranking. (43)
What about health? Who has healthier citizens with less rates of disease? According to the Congressional Quarterly Press and State Fact Finder, 8 of the top 10 healthiest states are blue states. This could have something to do with the fact that 9 of the 14 best environmentally ranked states are also blue states, according to the North Carolina Institute for Southern Studies. And according to past and recent United States EPA reports, red states like TX, LA, and UT release the most toxins in the nation (100 million or more pounds of toxins.) Red states like MS, AL, GA, and SC are in 2nd place for releasing 50 to 99 million pounds of toxins into the air. It’s no wonder that they also have extremely high cancer rates. So much for church. So much for gays threatening the sanctity of marriage. Perhaps it’s something else, like maybe the polluted drinking-water? Or better yet, maybe it’s time we finally hold accountable the Republican government managing these red states. They’re the ones threatening the sanctity of marriage.
Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska all come in at the top for states with highest Republican population. However, Utah is at the very top of the list, yes, the same state where polygamy is widely practiced, the same state that’s dictated by a radical religion where women are degraded to servants and child-bearers, the same state that denied the dangerous effects of above-the-ground nuclear testing in the 50’s and 60’s where thousands died of cancer. Utah is a scary place. Granted, there are many free-thinking Democrats who live in Utah, whom I have sympathy for, but Democratic presidential candidates shouldn’t even waste their time there, unless it’s at the Sundance Film Festival. In fact, don’t sell this book there unless it’s to someone looking to get out, in which case I’ll now provide directions to the nearest blue state: Go west until you can’t go west anymore. From Oregon you can go up or down; it’s your liberal choice.
The list of contrasts and criticism goes on, but I only wanted to demonstrate that we can play “divider” too. Democrats don’t ever bring up these facts when they debate because Democrats stand for all people. Only Republicans like Bush could use divisive language because they don’t care about anyone other than themselves and their cronies. I honestly hope citizens of Utah do read Broken Nation.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Distortions to believe
Just some of the distortions you would have to believe in order to still be a Republican today:
1. George W. Bush won the elections.
2. Dick Cheney is not connected to oil.
3. It is unpatriotic to question a Republican President on public issues, but all right to question a Democratic President on personal issues.
4. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
5. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
6. Nuclear radiation, chemical pesticides, and tobacco’s links to cancer are just junk science. But, creationism should be taught in schools.
7. The U.S. should drill as much oil as possible. We won’t destroy delicate ecosystems and endanger all forms of life.
8. Global Warming is not true. The hottest years ever recorded in history, forest fires in Alaska during the winter, and melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland are just coincidental.
9. Everything you see and hear on FOX News is true.
10. The world is flat.
1. George W. Bush won the elections.
2. Dick Cheney is not connected to oil.
3. It is unpatriotic to question a Republican President on public issues, but all right to question a Democratic President on personal issues.
4. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
5. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
6. Nuclear radiation, chemical pesticides, and tobacco’s links to cancer are just junk science. But, creationism should be taught in schools.
7. The U.S. should drill as much oil as possible. We won’t destroy delicate ecosystems and endanger all forms of life.
8. Global Warming is not true. The hottest years ever recorded in history, forest fires in Alaska during the winter, and melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland are just coincidental.
9. Everything you see and hear on FOX News is true.
10. The world is flat.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
MASS DYSFUNCTION OR DISTORTION?
Despite the questionable results of the 2004 election, millions of Americans did certainly vote to reelect him. So why did these people vote for Bush after such a record of incompetence and abuse? A variety of reasons exist such as poor self-esteem, addictive personalities and other behavioral dysfunctions, people gullible enough to believe everything they hear from the media, over-loyalty regardless of the facts, fear created by the abuser, and loyalty for religious morals. Nevertheless, there are deep psychological reasons why so many people voted for Bush this time around. Our dysfunctional relationships have now affected us as a whole. Like abused women and men in personal relationships, the collective nation as a whole has been engaged in an abusive relationship with this dangerous president. Only until we open our intellectual awareness will we be free.
There is no doubt though that our social dysfunctions help define us a culture. For thousands of years, literature has been written on the social ills of society, from Homer to Dan Brown. Our records of these ills are usually what helps societies improve and grow. Books like 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley made people aware of political misuse of power. Of course these books didn’t save the world— new problems are always born and not everyone read the books or believed them to be feasible realities. It also doesn’t help us now that the number of people who read is down. Perhaps this is the key problem: Intellectual awareness is sparse among the general public. Books are less meaningful to the majority who now prefer movies and television dramas as their source of information. It also doesn’t help that teenagers are growing up in a world of videogames, cell phones, and the internet. These new habits of the 21st century may be the real culprits in the abusive relationship we have been engaged in.
What if the abuser or the people around him studied the social ills in the literature of the past and are now using it as a strategy to keep their power? It just so happens, Lynn Cheney published a book in 1996 titled “Telling the Truth.” Talk about irony! Cheney’s book is about the abuse of political power and uses George Orwell quotes to preface each chapter. I wonder who else in the Bush circle has studied the works of writers who wrote about political abuse and power? It's not difficult to see the administration’s use of mass manipulation through repetition of key words that induce fear such as “evil” or “terrorist” or “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” It is also not difficult to see the metaphors of authoritative paternal images they sell to the public such as “permission slip,” e.g. “We don’t need a permission slip.”— George W. Bush
As ignorance is one of the elements that contributed to the reelection of George W. Bush, manipulation of the media is another attribute. Take the color-coded terrorist alerts the administration used on various occasions to distract the public while an anti-environmental or pro-war bill was being pushed through Congress. Many are now skeptical of the terrorist alerts and their authenticity. For example, in late 2005 as Bush’s job approval ratings hit an all time low and fear circled the White House in the wake of “Scooter” Libby’s indictment, a terrorist alert was issued for New York City. Guess what? The threat was later dismissed as “not credible.”
U.S. News and World Report did a story on the anatomy of a terrorism alert in their August 16, 2004 issue. Their “anatomy” back-tracked the origins of a terrorism alert starting with the capture of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan on July 13 in Pakistan. This capture and information obtained from Khan, lead to the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. This next suspect provided new information in regards to a plan of attack. By the time the information of this attack plan made it through the president and came out of the lips of Tom Ridge as an elevated threat alert on 2pm of August 1, nineteen days had passed.[i] But wait! I thought the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to speed up the process of closing down these types of terrorist schemes? The truth is that the Department of Homeland Security is just another wall of bureaucracy the Bush administration built to protect themselves. -BROKEN NATION
There is no doubt though that our social dysfunctions help define us a culture. For thousands of years, literature has been written on the social ills of society, from Homer to Dan Brown. Our records of these ills are usually what helps societies improve and grow. Books like 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley made people aware of political misuse of power. Of course these books didn’t save the world— new problems are always born and not everyone read the books or believed them to be feasible realities. It also doesn’t help us now that the number of people who read is down. Perhaps this is the key problem: Intellectual awareness is sparse among the general public. Books are less meaningful to the majority who now prefer movies and television dramas as their source of information. It also doesn’t help that teenagers are growing up in a world of videogames, cell phones, and the internet. These new habits of the 21st century may be the real culprits in the abusive relationship we have been engaged in.
What if the abuser or the people around him studied the social ills in the literature of the past and are now using it as a strategy to keep their power? It just so happens, Lynn Cheney published a book in 1996 titled “Telling the Truth.” Talk about irony! Cheney’s book is about the abuse of political power and uses George Orwell quotes to preface each chapter. I wonder who else in the Bush circle has studied the works of writers who wrote about political abuse and power? It's not difficult to see the administration’s use of mass manipulation through repetition of key words that induce fear such as “evil” or “terrorist” or “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” It is also not difficult to see the metaphors of authoritative paternal images they sell to the public such as “permission slip,” e.g. “We don’t need a permission slip.”— George W. Bush
As ignorance is one of the elements that contributed to the reelection of George W. Bush, manipulation of the media is another attribute. Take the color-coded terrorist alerts the administration used on various occasions to distract the public while an anti-environmental or pro-war bill was being pushed through Congress. Many are now skeptical of the terrorist alerts and their authenticity. For example, in late 2005 as Bush’s job approval ratings hit an all time low and fear circled the White House in the wake of “Scooter” Libby’s indictment, a terrorist alert was issued for New York City. Guess what? The threat was later dismissed as “not credible.”
U.S. News and World Report did a story on the anatomy of a terrorism alert in their August 16, 2004 issue. Their “anatomy” back-tracked the origins of a terrorism alert starting with the capture of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan on July 13 in Pakistan. This capture and information obtained from Khan, lead to the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. This next suspect provided new information in regards to a plan of attack. By the time the information of this attack plan made it through the president and came out of the lips of Tom Ridge as an elevated threat alert on 2pm of August 1, nineteen days had passed.[i] But wait! I thought the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to speed up the process of closing down these types of terrorist schemes? The truth is that the Department of Homeland Security is just another wall of bureaucracy the Bush administration built to protect themselves. -BROKEN NATION
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Ned Lamont Wins!! A real victory for America!
Thank you, Connecticut!!!! You voted for a candidate who is against the war, the war where our American soldiers are suffering all for the purposes and profits of defense & oil contractors and old family vendettas.
Now let's urge Joe Lieberman to give up his selfish bid as an independent
and help the Democrats:
http://ga4.org/campaign/joelieberman/63wkwd2h53ttix?
Americans don't need someone who voted for and supported a fraudelent war,
all for WMD and links to terrorism that didn't exist (until we got there).
Demand that Joe Go!
Now let's urge Joe Lieberman to give up his selfish bid as an independent
and help the Democrats:
http://ga4.org/campaign/joelieberman/63wkwd2h53ttix?
Americans don't need someone who voted for and supported a fraudelent war,
all for WMD and links to terrorism that didn't exist (until we got there).
Demand that Joe Go!
New Registration Rules Stir Voter Debate in Ohio
By IAN URBINA
CLEVELAND — For Tony Minor, the pastor of the Community of Faith Assembly in a run-down section of East Cleveland, Ohio’s new voter registration rules have meant spending two extra hours a day collecting half as many registration cards from new voters as he did in past years.
Republicans say the new rules are needed to prevent fraud, but Democrats say they are making it much harder to register the poor.
In the last year, six states have passed such restrictions, and in three states, including Ohio, civic groups have filed lawsuits, arguing that the rules disproportionately affect poor neighborhoods.
But nowhere have the rules been as fiercely debated as here, partly because they are being administered by J. Kenneth Blackwell, the secretary of state and the Republican candidate in one of the most closely watched governor’s races in the country, a contest that will be affected by the voter registration rules. Mr. Blackwell did not write the law, but he has been accused of imposing regulations that are more restrictive than was intended.
Under the law, passed by the Republican-led state legislature in January 2006, paid voter registration workers must personally submit the voter registration cards to the state, rather than allow the organizations overseeing the drives to vet and submit them in bulk.
By requiring paid canvassers to sign and put their addresses on the voter registration cards they collect, and by making them criminally liable for any irregularities on the cards, the rules have made it more difficult to use such workers, who most often work in lower-income and Democratic-leaning neighborhoods, where volunteers are scarce.
“In Washington, D.C., Congress may have passed the voting rights bill to extend voter participation,” said Katy Gall, organizing director of Ohio Acorn, an advocacy group that focuses on poor neighborhoods. “But out here at the grass roots, things are headed in the opposite direction.”
Republicans are in an uphill battle in the face of investigations involving Gov. Bob Taft, who has pleaded no contest to charges of failing to report thousands of dollars in gifts given to him, and of Representative Bob Ney, who has been linked to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Backers of the new regulations say they were needed, pointing to the fake names that appeared on voter registration cards in 2004, like Jive Turkey Sr.
To comply with the rule, Mr. Minor has created an elaborate system so the cards do not leave the possession of the canvasser, and so he can make copies of them to get reimbursed by the People for the American Way, which is financing his voter registration drive.
Another rule requires that all paid workers take an online training course. “The problem there is that we’ve got a computer that freezes up every time we try to load the online program,” Mr. Minor said.
Politics have also ratcheted up the debate. In 2004, Mr. Blackwell was a co-chairman of President Bush’s re-election committee, and while the new law would prevent him from holding such a position in the future, his dual role as electoral overseer and candidate for governor has become a favorite target of his opponents.
CLEVELAND — For Tony Minor, the pastor of the Community of Faith Assembly in a run-down section of East Cleveland, Ohio’s new voter registration rules have meant spending two extra hours a day collecting half as many registration cards from new voters as he did in past years.
Republicans say the new rules are needed to prevent fraud, but Democrats say they are making it much harder to register the poor.
In the last year, six states have passed such restrictions, and in three states, including Ohio, civic groups have filed lawsuits, arguing that the rules disproportionately affect poor neighborhoods.
But nowhere have the rules been as fiercely debated as here, partly because they are being administered by J. Kenneth Blackwell, the secretary of state and the Republican candidate in one of the most closely watched governor’s races in the country, a contest that will be affected by the voter registration rules. Mr. Blackwell did not write the law, but he has been accused of imposing regulations that are more restrictive than was intended.
Under the law, passed by the Republican-led state legislature in January 2006, paid voter registration workers must personally submit the voter registration cards to the state, rather than allow the organizations overseeing the drives to vet and submit them in bulk.
By requiring paid canvassers to sign and put their addresses on the voter registration cards they collect, and by making them criminally liable for any irregularities on the cards, the rules have made it more difficult to use such workers, who most often work in lower-income and Democratic-leaning neighborhoods, where volunteers are scarce.
“In Washington, D.C., Congress may have passed the voting rights bill to extend voter participation,” said Katy Gall, organizing director of Ohio Acorn, an advocacy group that focuses on poor neighborhoods. “But out here at the grass roots, things are headed in the opposite direction.”
Republicans are in an uphill battle in the face of investigations involving Gov. Bob Taft, who has pleaded no contest to charges of failing to report thousands of dollars in gifts given to him, and of Representative Bob Ney, who has been linked to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Backers of the new regulations say they were needed, pointing to the fake names that appeared on voter registration cards in 2004, like Jive Turkey Sr.
To comply with the rule, Mr. Minor has created an elaborate system so the cards do not leave the possession of the canvasser, and so he can make copies of them to get reimbursed by the People for the American Way, which is financing his voter registration drive.
Another rule requires that all paid workers take an online training course. “The problem there is that we’ve got a computer that freezes up every time we try to load the online program,” Mr. Minor said.
Politics have also ratcheted up the debate. In 2004, Mr. Blackwell was a co-chairman of President Bush’s re-election committee, and while the new law would prevent him from holding such a position in the future, his dual role as electoral overseer and candidate for governor has become a favorite target of his opponents.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
U.S. Slipping towards Fascism
As Thomas Jefferson warned, U.S. slipping toward fascism
Craig Etchison, Center for Nonviolent Alternatives, Fort Ashby, W.Va.
“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.” As I watch what’s happening to our Republic, I find Thomas Jefferson’s words prescient. In the last 25 years, the near-perfect Republic has been all but destroyed by the forces of fascism.
Impossible? Evidence overwhelms. Scholars have identified common characteristics of fascist regimes, from Hitler to Mussolini, from Suharto to Pinochet. Looking at the major characteristics of fascism in terms of the U.S. today is illuminating — and depressing.
Nationalism and disdain for human rights characterizes fascism. In the U.S.? How about illegal wire tapping by the NSA? American citizens such as Hamdi and Padilla arrested and denied all constitutional protection. Torture OK’d by the president and his attorney general, who calls the Geneva conventions “quaint.” Thousands of prisoners held in secret detention. Nationalism? You’re either for us or you’re against us. Wave the flag and thoughtlessly worship the country’s leader. U.S.A. number one, always.
Control of the media — and especially censorship of war making — characterizes fascist regimes. U.S. corporations, who reap massive profits, own the mass media, so the media ignore news that might embarrass those in power. Remember the Downing Street Memo, where Bush admitted fixing the intelligence to scare the country into war? U.S. media ignored it. Remember Armstrong Williams, paid to shill Bush policy as real news? The GAO reports that government videos paid for by tax dollars and sent out by Bush people to television stations “constitute covert propaganda.” Lies heaped on lies, a given in fascist regimes.
Obsession with national security is also characteristic of fascism. Note how we’ve been hammered by national security fears in order to pass laws such as the Patriot Act, which deprive us of basic constitutional freedoms. Note the staggering increase of government documents now classified and the increased difficulty of freedom of information requests. Fear mongering is a given with fascists — keeps the populace in line — and the Bush fear-mongering never ceases. Remember how he didn’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud? Speech after speech offering security if we give up our freedom.
In fascist regimes, corporate power is protected, cronyism and corruption is rampant, and elections are fixed. Did anyone notice that Congress rejected a proposal to investigate Iraq war profiteers? Even though Halliburton — the V.P.’s company — is serving meals with expired dates and dirty drinking water. What about the new bankruptcy law written by credit card companies that hammers honest working people while leaving loopholes for the wealthy? Anyone notice Exxon’s profits after energy policy was written by energy executives behind the V.P.’s closed doors? Mussolini was right to equate fascism with corporatism.
Cronyism and corruption? Jack Abramoff. Iran-Contra felons with top Bush jobs. Billion dollar no-bid Iraq contracts to the V.P.’s company. Enron.Fair elections are anathema to fascists. An actual hand count of Florida votes proved Gore the 2000 winner. One in every nine votes of people of color was tossed out in Florida. The irregularities in Ohio in 2004 boggle the mind. We’re now saddled with electronic voting machines that are easily manipulated and have no paper trail. The more e-machines, the more illusory fair elections.
The military reigns supreme in fascist states. The U.S. military-industrial complex holds unparalleled economic and political sway. In 2004, the U.S. spent almost half of the $1 trillion the world spent on arms. If 2006 war spending continues, we will waste $2.8 trillion in the next five years, leading to more terrorism and more people hating us. Economists J. Brauer and N. Anglewicz recently calculated that 68 cents of every tax dollar is spent on war and war-related activities. This war economy, mostly funded by massive borrowing from Japan and China, results in slashing social programs and not renewing crucial infrastructure.
Will Jefferson’s words be prophetic or will the people rise up against this fascist disease? The latter, I hope, though corporate forces and a greedy few arrayed against us and the Republic are considerable. Change will require a major change in our thinking and in our actions.
http://www.times-news.com/opinion/local_story_214090906.html
Craig Etchison, Center for Nonviolent Alternatives, Fort Ashby, W.Va.
“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.” As I watch what’s happening to our Republic, I find Thomas Jefferson’s words prescient. In the last 25 years, the near-perfect Republic has been all but destroyed by the forces of fascism.
Impossible? Evidence overwhelms. Scholars have identified common characteristics of fascist regimes, from Hitler to Mussolini, from Suharto to Pinochet. Looking at the major characteristics of fascism in terms of the U.S. today is illuminating — and depressing.
Nationalism and disdain for human rights characterizes fascism. In the U.S.? How about illegal wire tapping by the NSA? American citizens such as Hamdi and Padilla arrested and denied all constitutional protection. Torture OK’d by the president and his attorney general, who calls the Geneva conventions “quaint.” Thousands of prisoners held in secret detention. Nationalism? You’re either for us or you’re against us. Wave the flag and thoughtlessly worship the country’s leader. U.S.A. number one, always.
Control of the media — and especially censorship of war making — characterizes fascist regimes. U.S. corporations, who reap massive profits, own the mass media, so the media ignore news that might embarrass those in power. Remember the Downing Street Memo, where Bush admitted fixing the intelligence to scare the country into war? U.S. media ignored it. Remember Armstrong Williams, paid to shill Bush policy as real news? The GAO reports that government videos paid for by tax dollars and sent out by Bush people to television stations “constitute covert propaganda.” Lies heaped on lies, a given in fascist regimes.
Obsession with national security is also characteristic of fascism. Note how we’ve been hammered by national security fears in order to pass laws such as the Patriot Act, which deprive us of basic constitutional freedoms. Note the staggering increase of government documents now classified and the increased difficulty of freedom of information requests. Fear mongering is a given with fascists — keeps the populace in line — and the Bush fear-mongering never ceases. Remember how he didn’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud? Speech after speech offering security if we give up our freedom.
In fascist regimes, corporate power is protected, cronyism and corruption is rampant, and elections are fixed. Did anyone notice that Congress rejected a proposal to investigate Iraq war profiteers? Even though Halliburton — the V.P.’s company — is serving meals with expired dates and dirty drinking water. What about the new bankruptcy law written by credit card companies that hammers honest working people while leaving loopholes for the wealthy? Anyone notice Exxon’s profits after energy policy was written by energy executives behind the V.P.’s closed doors? Mussolini was right to equate fascism with corporatism.
Cronyism and corruption? Jack Abramoff. Iran-Contra felons with top Bush jobs. Billion dollar no-bid Iraq contracts to the V.P.’s company. Enron.Fair elections are anathema to fascists. An actual hand count of Florida votes proved Gore the 2000 winner. One in every nine votes of people of color was tossed out in Florida. The irregularities in Ohio in 2004 boggle the mind. We’re now saddled with electronic voting machines that are easily manipulated and have no paper trail. The more e-machines, the more illusory fair elections.
The military reigns supreme in fascist states. The U.S. military-industrial complex holds unparalleled economic and political sway. In 2004, the U.S. spent almost half of the $1 trillion the world spent on arms. If 2006 war spending continues, we will waste $2.8 trillion in the next five years, leading to more terrorism and more people hating us. Economists J. Brauer and N. Anglewicz recently calculated that 68 cents of every tax dollar is spent on war and war-related activities. This war economy, mostly funded by massive borrowing from Japan and China, results in slashing social programs and not renewing crucial infrastructure.
Will Jefferson’s words be prophetic or will the people rise up against this fascist disease? The latter, I hope, though corporate forces and a greedy few arrayed against us and the Republic are considerable. Change will require a major change in our thinking and in our actions.
http://www.times-news.com/opinion/local_story_214090906.html
Books Not Bombs
I am not a member of any religious group, but the following email that landed in my inbox today makes a lot of sense:
The images are horrifying – children by the hundreds killed by U.S. made bombs lobbed into Lebanon. Thousands of homes, hospitals, schools, and houses of worship leveled. Hundreds of thousands of frightened families displaced. In Israel Hezbollah’s random rockets terrorize communities and kill innocent civilians. On both sides of this out-of-control war, it is the children who are the victims.
At the very hour Lebanese officials were pleading with the U.S. to negotiate a cease-fire, the U.S. government was instead delivering fresh shipments of bombs to Israel to rain down even more terror on the innocent people of Lebanon.
We believe America can do better. Our faith teaches that love is more powerful than hate. That is why FaithfulAmerica is launching a response to help deliver shipments of love, not hate, and we’re calling it:
Books, not Bombs
I spoke this morning with Aline Papazian, a Lebanese relief worker in Beruit with the Middle East Council of Churches. (listen to our conversation here) She told us that last night the city was shaken by Israeli bombs exploding all around them, though thankfully they remained safe through the night. Aline told me that the greatest need at the moment is for children, who were about to begin their school year, to experience some semblance of a normal life. The volunteers serving in shelters, refugee centers, hospitals, and makeshift schools need, among other things, educational supplies as they try to minimize the trauma of this war.
You can help right now by buying “back to school kits” for children provided through our partner organization, Church World Service. While it is doubtful that "school" as they know it will begin anytime soon, volunteers are doing all they can to help make life as normal as possible. School kits can help children gain some measure of control by focusing on learning. With each school kit we will include a message of hope and love from you so that the children will know that they remain in our hearts and minds.
Note: We will endeavor to provide kits for children on both sides of the border.
https://secure.ga3.org/03/books_not_bombs
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:21*
The images are horrifying – children by the hundreds killed by U.S. made bombs lobbed into Lebanon. Thousands of homes, hospitals, schools, and houses of worship leveled. Hundreds of thousands of frightened families displaced. In Israel Hezbollah’s random rockets terrorize communities and kill innocent civilians. On both sides of this out-of-control war, it is the children who are the victims.
At the very hour Lebanese officials were pleading with the U.S. to negotiate a cease-fire, the U.S. government was instead delivering fresh shipments of bombs to Israel to rain down even more terror on the innocent people of Lebanon.
We believe America can do better. Our faith teaches that love is more powerful than hate. That is why FaithfulAmerica is launching a response to help deliver shipments of love, not hate, and we’re calling it:
Books, not Bombs
I spoke this morning with Aline Papazian, a Lebanese relief worker in Beruit with the Middle East Council of Churches. (listen to our conversation here) She told us that last night the city was shaken by Israeli bombs exploding all around them, though thankfully they remained safe through the night. Aline told me that the greatest need at the moment is for children, who were about to begin their school year, to experience some semblance of a normal life. The volunteers serving in shelters, refugee centers, hospitals, and makeshift schools need, among other things, educational supplies as they try to minimize the trauma of this war.
You can help right now by buying “back to school kits” for children provided through our partner organization, Church World Service. While it is doubtful that "school" as they know it will begin anytime soon, volunteers are doing all they can to help make life as normal as possible. School kits can help children gain some measure of control by focusing on learning. With each school kit we will include a message of hope and love from you so that the children will know that they remain in our hearts and minds.
Note: We will endeavor to provide kits for children on both sides of the border.
https://secure.ga3.org/03/books_not_bombs
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:21*
Thursday, August 03, 2006
CRIMINAL INTENT (BAD = Bush ADministration)
Dick Cheney had a crucial role in devising the scheme to invade Iraq. This plan began in the mid-nineties. Cheney, along with Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, founded the PNAC (Project for A New American Century.) The organization’s purpose was to influence American foreign and defense policy. Their first major mission was to push President Clinton to invade Iraq. Here are excerpts from their Statement of Principles from June 1997 as posted on their website: [i]
June 3, 1997
American foreign and defense policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks…they have not fought for a defense budget that would maintain American security and advance American interests in the new century…
We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership…
We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration’s success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad…
Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.
The above statement was signed by the following: Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle, Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, Norman Podhoretz, Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P.Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Vin Weber, George Weigel, I. Lewis Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, and Dick Cheney.
They failed at getting Clinton to agree with their war-mongering, but on September 20, 2001 the PNAC offered their proposal to President Bush:
We agree that a key goal, but by no means the only goal, of the current war on terrorism should be to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, and to destroy his network of associates… It may be that the Iraqi government provided assistance in some form to the recent attack on the United States. But even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism. The United States must therefore provide full military and financial support to the Iraqi opposition. American military force should be used… (30)
The PNAC was well prepared for an Iraq invasion by the time 9/11 occurred. Cheney had brought in his radical buddies (many of who received contributions from oil companies) to control the Defense Department. Their ultimate purpose in taking Iraq was, “Iraq occupies some of the most strategically important and well-endowed territories of the Middle East… Whoever inherits Iraq dominates the entire Mid East,” said a Cheney assistant in 1996. With the fear of Iran or Syria overtaking Iraq in the near future, since Iraq was a crumbling society, and the desire to open new military bases in the region, the PNAC helped their president achieve their agenda.
We all remember the 2003 State of Union speech where we were warned of Iraq, but what about the 2001 address? Who remembers that one? Where Bush said,
“We will confront weapons of Mass destruction, the enemies of liberty…”
Mind you, this was all way before Iraq, way before Afghanistan, way before 9/11. It is quite evident that WMD was on Bush’s mind right from the beginning of his presidency.
What about Bush’s address to Congress and the nation on September 21, 2001 following the 9/11 attacks? Bush set the stage for war in the Middle East calling the 9/11 terrorist attack an “act of war,” while also conveniently mentioning how “America has no truer friend than Great Britain.” It is no coincidence that Great Britain would be the prominent nation to stand beside the BAD and all of their decisions, following the U.S. right into battle. Bush also went on to state how the “enemy… hates what they see… a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote…” Wait a minute! Who was Bush referring to? It sounds like hypocrisy at its best. After all, the BAD was not democratically elected, it was self-appointed. The BAD and the radical right-wing also do not respect other religions, they actually discriminate against them. The BAD also doesn’t like freedom of speech either, especially when it comes to reporters or Liberals asking questions. (There were more than several incidents where reporters were removed from the room for asking the wrong questions.) The BAD also doesn’t like the freedom to vote; for they stepped all over that freedom in 2000. (See Election 2004 for more on abuse of voting rights.) It seems to me that the BAD has a lot more in common with the “enemy” of our freedoms than any of us ever thought. After all, the BAD has already surpassed Osama Bin Laden’s death toll. Between the U.S. soldiers wrongfully killed in this wrong war and the innocent Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians, Bush is a far more dangerous than some angry and sickly man in a cave. And while Bin Laden may have been the one to plan the attack on America, Bush is the one who let it happen. Never forget it.
June 3, 1997
American foreign and defense policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks…they have not fought for a defense budget that would maintain American security and advance American interests in the new century…
We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership…
We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration’s success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad…
Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.
The above statement was signed by the following: Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle, Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, Norman Podhoretz, Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P.Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Vin Weber, George Weigel, I. Lewis Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, and Dick Cheney.
They failed at getting Clinton to agree with their war-mongering, but on September 20, 2001 the PNAC offered their proposal to President Bush:
We agree that a key goal, but by no means the only goal, of the current war on terrorism should be to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, and to destroy his network of associates… It may be that the Iraqi government provided assistance in some form to the recent attack on the United States. But even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism. The United States must therefore provide full military and financial support to the Iraqi opposition. American military force should be used… (30)
The PNAC was well prepared for an Iraq invasion by the time 9/11 occurred. Cheney had brought in his radical buddies (many of who received contributions from oil companies) to control the Defense Department. Their ultimate purpose in taking Iraq was, “Iraq occupies some of the most strategically important and well-endowed territories of the Middle East… Whoever inherits Iraq dominates the entire Mid East,” said a Cheney assistant in 1996. With the fear of Iran or Syria overtaking Iraq in the near future, since Iraq was a crumbling society, and the desire to open new military bases in the region, the PNAC helped their president achieve their agenda.
We all remember the 2003 State of Union speech where we were warned of Iraq, but what about the 2001 address? Who remembers that one? Where Bush said,
“We will confront weapons of Mass destruction, the enemies of liberty…”
Mind you, this was all way before Iraq, way before Afghanistan, way before 9/11. It is quite evident that WMD was on Bush’s mind right from the beginning of his presidency.
What about Bush’s address to Congress and the nation on September 21, 2001 following the 9/11 attacks? Bush set the stage for war in the Middle East calling the 9/11 terrorist attack an “act of war,” while also conveniently mentioning how “America has no truer friend than Great Britain.” It is no coincidence that Great Britain would be the prominent nation to stand beside the BAD and all of their decisions, following the U.S. right into battle. Bush also went on to state how the “enemy… hates what they see… a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote…” Wait a minute! Who was Bush referring to? It sounds like hypocrisy at its best. After all, the BAD was not democratically elected, it was self-appointed. The BAD and the radical right-wing also do not respect other religions, they actually discriminate against them. The BAD also doesn’t like freedom of speech either, especially when it comes to reporters or Liberals asking questions. (There were more than several incidents where reporters were removed from the room for asking the wrong questions.) The BAD also doesn’t like the freedom to vote; for they stepped all over that freedom in 2000. (See Election 2004 for more on abuse of voting rights.) It seems to me that the BAD has a lot more in common with the “enemy” of our freedoms than any of us ever thought. After all, the BAD has already surpassed Osama Bin Laden’s death toll. Between the U.S. soldiers wrongfully killed in this wrong war and the innocent Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians, Bush is a far more dangerous than some angry and sickly man in a cave. And while Bin Laden may have been the one to plan the attack on America, Bush is the one who let it happen. Never forget it.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Connecting the dots: 200+ Smoking Guns
200+ 9/11 'Smoking Guns'
Found in the Mainstream Media
Connecting the dots. Where do they point to?
http://killtown.911review.org/911smokingguns.html
Found in the Mainstream Media
Connecting the dots. Where do they point to?
http://killtown.911review.org/911smokingguns.html
A confused Republican email
"Quite an interesting perspective considering that the coward terrorists do their business out of civilian neighborhoods. They hide there and fight there just so bleeding hearts idiots around the world will take their side against the actual victims of the terrorism. I suppose we deserved the World Trade Center. Did you know Hezbollah bragged responsibility for several acts against the US including the Beirut bombing of our military base? I find it absolutely amazing that the freedoms our country has bestowed upon us can yield such total ungratefulness and irresponsible thought processes. I could go on forever with this, as I'm sure you could but it seems that somewhere in your consciousness you should find the morsel of truth that you a blessed to be free and many people have sacrificed and are presently sacrificing for that freedom. Maybe you would be happier in a theocratic monocracy where you wouldn't have the pressures of these decisions." -Dean Pullicin
MY RESPONSE:
Ooh, you people are so angry! Wow, calm down. You're angry at people who care "bleeding hearts." Your radical anger is the same mentality of the terrorists. And now you're saying "I suppose we deserved the World Trade Center." I can't believe the un-patriotic words that come from some Americans. Speaking of the WTC, did you know how much Republicans spent on the investigation of the collapse? $600,000 The 9/11 Commission: $15 million. Still nothing compared to what Republicans spent on investigating Clinton's sex life: $65 million! Many great
American heroes sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we now have. The American Revolution, the Civil War, even the world wars have some credibility. But Korea? Vietnam? Gulf? Iraq? Who was liberated in those wars? The only people liberated in Iraq were the big oil companies and Halliburton. Opertaion Iraqi Liberation (OIL)! It's completely disgusting that people use "freedom" and "terror" to defend a corporate war where thousands of Americans suffer for no reason at all. Now that's something to get angry about.
"As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.”-George Washington
MY RESPONSE:
Ooh, you people are so angry! Wow, calm down. You're angry at people who care "bleeding hearts." Your radical anger is the same mentality of the terrorists. And now you're saying "I suppose we deserved the World Trade Center." I can't believe the un-patriotic words that come from some Americans. Speaking of the WTC, did you know how much Republicans spent on the investigation of the collapse? $600,000 The 9/11 Commission: $15 million. Still nothing compared to what Republicans spent on investigating Clinton's sex life: $65 million! Many great
American heroes sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we now have. The American Revolution, the Civil War, even the world wars have some credibility. But Korea? Vietnam? Gulf? Iraq? Who was liberated in those wars? The only people liberated in Iraq were the big oil companies and Halliburton. Opertaion Iraqi Liberation (OIL)! It's completely disgusting that people use "freedom" and "terror" to defend a corporate war where thousands of Americans suffer for no reason at all. Now that's something to get angry about.
"As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.”-George Washington
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