Bruce Lays it Out Good B.L.O.G.

The US Military: Destroying Our Society $1 Trillion At A Time

2009-04-01T09:51:00.023-04:00

I must give credit for this post to Jim Quinn and The Burning Platform dot com for providing the color commentary, data and charts of our disgusting military spending... which continues to increase despite the collapse of the U.S. and world economies. While many of us wonder whether this country will ever recover, the military continues to rake in billions. The charts below tell the story... and remember, these are not stimulus's, nor are they one time budget allocations. This is taxpayer money that is supplied in perpetuity, robbing our country of badly needed resources in the name of building ever more expensive and sophisticated killing machines.

Quick, can you name just ONE true enemy that we have in the world?

Please note, I am freely republishing Mr. Quinn's words in "" as I could say it no better. You can also read what I am publishing and more from his original article here.

“You can't say civilizations don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way.”

Will Rogers

THE COST OF OUR GLOBAL EMPIRE

"Any doubt that the Military Industrial Complex is as strong as ever should be removed after examining Obama’s 2010 budget just put forth. It calls for 26% more in spending on Defense than President Bush spent in 2006. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, leaving the United States as the only remaining superpower on earth. Since 1990, the United States has depleted the U.S. Treasury of $7 trillion for spending on Defense.

With no military on earth capable of challenging us why would there be a need to spend this much on the military? Over this same time frame the U.S. spent $360 billion on science, space & technology and $52 billion on energy, a mere 6% of the spending we use for building killing machines. Military expenditures benefit humanity in no way. If these trillions had been invested by the private sector or devoted to energy and scientific research, our economy might not be a hollowed out shell dependent on China and oil exporting countries.

Nationalists argue that the Defense industry employs millions and benefits the country. These companies employ brilliant engineers and scientists who spend their days developing things that kill people more efficiently. If they had been employed developing electric cars, solar power, wind power, nuclear power, an efficient electric grid, infrastructure upgrades, or finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, would the United States be better off today?"

"You would think we must be trying to keep up with our enemies by spending $765 billion per year on the Military. But one look at the following chart reveals that the United States is spending as much as the rest of the world combined. The two countries considered potential rivals, Russia and China, spent $192 billion combined in 2008. This is 27% of U.S. spending. From a foreign perspective, one must wonder why the U.S. is spending such vast quantities on our military. They can only conclude that it is for offensive intentions rather than defensive. The United States soil has not been attacked by a foreign power since December 7, 1941. Prior to that surprise attack, a foreign power hadn’t attacked the U.S. since the War of 1812. With this level of spending (see below), our leaders feel compelled to interfere in the business of sovereign nations."

"As the world spends $1.5 trillion per year on new methods of killing, millions die the old fashioned way.

13 million people per year die from starvation in the world.

The FAO says that 854 million people worldwide are undernourished.

The World Bank has estimated that there were an estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less.

For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.

Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year--six million deaths.

1 child dies every 5 seconds as a result of hunger - 700 every hour - 16 000 each day - 6 million each year - 60% of all child deaths (2002-2008 estimates)

What kind of a civilized society allocates 44% of the taxes taken from its people to war? Only 2.5% of your taxes go to science, energy, and environment. Only 2.2% of your taxes go to education and jobs. With a population of 304 million, the U.S. spends $59 billion ($194 per person) annually on education. Saudi Arabia, with a population of 28 million, spends $33 billion ($1,179 per person) on education. You produce the results that you would expect from your investments. A full 15% of our population doesn’t have a high school diploma (20% of African Americans & 43% of Latinos) and only 27% have a college degree. How do we expect to lead the world in technology and research with these figures?"

“My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.”

George Washington

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Fun with Jon Stewart and CNBC

2009-03-12T16:53:00.005-04:00

The war between the comedy news world and the comedy financial news world is heating up. Jim Cramer has attacked back and is now in a full on bloody war of words with Jon Stewart. This one he can't possibly win.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

In Cramer We Trust

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Jon Stewart Eviscerates CNBC

2009-03-06T14:46:00.006-05:00

In what is clearly the best reporting anyone has seen on our financial catastrophe is (no surprise) Jon Stewart. He exposed CNBC for their inept reporting and outright criminal misrepresentation of our system's financial collapse. From HuffPo:

The most talked-about journalism of this week wasn't produced in the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek or NPR. It was Jon Stewart's epic, eight-minute takedown on Wednesday night's Daily Show of CNBC's clueless, in-the-tank reporting of inflatable bubbles and blowhard CEOs as the U.S. and world economies slowly slid into a meltdown. You can quibble about Stewart's motives in undertaking the piece -- after he was spurned for an interview by CNBC's faux populist ranter Rick Santelli -- but you can't argue with the results.

But that's not all. The Stewart piece also got the kind of eyeballs that most newsrooms would kill for in this digital age -- planted atop many, many major political, media and business Web sites -- and the kind of water-cooler chatter that journalists would crave in any age. In a time when newspapers are flat-out dying if not dealing with bankruptcy or massive job losses, while other types of news orgs aren't faring much better, the journalistic success of a comedy show rant shouldn't be viewed as a stick in the eye -- but a teachable moment. Why be a curmudgeon about kids today getting all their news from a comedy show, when it's not really that hard to join Stewart in his own idol-smashing game?

Watch:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Bruce is gonna lay it out again

2009-03-05T14:47:00.003-05:00

After a 6 month hiatus, I am going to REBOOT my blog.

I know there are thousands of you out there that have been missing reading my blog on a daily basis, so this will no doubt come as welcome news.

My focus will be on global geopolitical challenges of the Obama Administration with a focus on information you WON'T SEE ON TELEVISION.

In the meantime, enjoy the new "freak of nature" reported by our friend at Fox Snews.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287938,00.html

What's Really Happening in Georgia and Why Should We Care?

2008-08-12T19:24:00.013-04:00

I haven't posted in a while... I'm preparing to reshape my blog into a series of "chapters" about my thoughts on the how the world really works, how we relate to that world view, and then provide some thoughts on how we can overcome what is clearly a world careening toward catastrophe.

Today, I have to reference a bit of B.L.O.G. history about Caspian Sea oil and the South Asia Basin... the largest field of untapped oil and gas in the world. By understanding the immense geo-strategic importance of Georgia, we can have a glimpse at what is the real motive behind the Russian attack and perhaps peer into what can be a potentially volatile future for the Caucus region.

Mikhail Gorbachev said not too long ago "By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its 'national interest,' the United States made a serious blunder."

I'm not so sure he's correct as there is no country that is militarily even close to our catastrophically mammoth military might. Interesting to note that I have mentioned our strategic interest in this region so many times I can't even count. Our entire foreign and military policy is based on securing the riches of the former Soviet Republics, and then securing pipeline routes to move the oil and gas to U.S. dominated regions... essentially cutting off the Russians from the spoils.

In my post of May 29, "What About Those Stans, and Why Should I Care?", I posted the following pipeline map that clearly points out what informed sources are saying about the Russian invasion. The Russians are exerting their influence in the Caucus region and is acting out of frustration that the U.S. has completely taken control of the region, and thus its natural resources and potential wealth.

Note the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline going right through Georgia. Now check out what Al-Jazeera has to say about its role in this conflict:

"The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline runs through Georgia, allowing the US access to oil and gas supplies not pumped through Russia to the north or Iran to the south.

'Underlying all this is a larger, more significant contest: a geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West over the export of Caspian Sea oil and natural gas,' Michael Klare, the author of Resource Wars told the New American Media website.'

The belief in Western Circles is that the close relationship between the U.S. and Georgia is primarily based on this pipeline and other yet to be discovered energy projects between the big 4 oil companies and countries in this region.

No doubt this Russian adventure sent chills throughout all of the former Soviet Republics and while it sent a very clear signal that "Russia is mad as hell and isn't gonna take it anymore", its my belief that the very opposite of its objectives will happen. They will push the oil rich Stans and geo-politically well situated countries further into the U.S. sphere to gain protection and finances to protect them from Russian adventures. (Assuming they trust the U.S., clearly Georgia learned the hard way that we can't be trusted to provide them protection.) A more aggressive stance by the Russians will not help them one bit to exert influence... similarly how U.S. invasions of countries has produced as many enemies and problems for us as it has real strategic advantages.

I believe this will backfire so hard on the Russians that it almost feels as if Georgia provoked the attack in order to demonstrate that the Russians are nothing more than newly emboldened bullies that cannot be trusted. It smacked of Bush-like foreign policy that inevitably backfires and scares no one. I imagine that in some circles in Moscow this helped to signal an end to Russian weakness and impotence on foreign policy but also sent a powerful message to the nations of the world that the Russians are no more sophisticated at handling sensitive regional conflicts that would engender a greater level of trust from their neighbors or a signal of their maturity as a world power and power broker.

Candidly, this will inevitably serve to embolden NATO to move quickly at expanding their reach toward Russia to secure those vital energy corridors that Georgia sits right in the center of. The first and very powerful indication of this is the NATO brokered ceasefire and the presence of leaders from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia at the rally celebrating the cease fire in Tbilisi. (Picture on the left.)

Some other random thoughts about this event:

-The complete and total absence of U.S. influence once the war started. A stark and chilling reminder of our declining influence diplomatically and another demonstration of the total incompetence of Condoleeza Rice... who is supposed to be an expert in Russian affairs. (Yeah sure.)

-The clear indication that this attack was planned well in advance given the size and scope of the operation and the amount of armor the Russians had lined up along the Georgian border.

-Given the size of the Russian operation, there is NO WAY the U.S. did not know that a Russian operation was in the planning with our fleet of spy satellites watching every single ant, bee and beetle that even moves within a thousand mile range of the Caucus... now viewed as a strategic bastion of the United States

-The rising influence of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and French influence over world events in general. They seem to be at the center of the action when it comes to the Middle East (particularly Iran), and its stronger relationships with important geopolitical/military powers such as Israel and China.

Watch Putin put a spin on the military action in the video below... and his veiled threats at the United States. The U.S. military has been drooling at the possibility of a heightened threat with the Russians and I can't help but think that behind the scenes we have manipulated events to enable this to happen and will no doubt continue to bait the Russians into a self-destructive set of aggressive policies that we will use to create a more "dangerous world".

Forget This Election Nonsense, Let's Join With Al Gore

2008-07-29T19:50:00.004-04:00

The WE folks have developed a "blogger" version of the Al Gore challenge so folks like myself can get the word out. I not only want to get the word out... I want to scream it in 600 million deaf American ears... HELLO... WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM AND NO ONE BUT AL SEEMS TO BE DOING ANYTHING OF ANY REAL CONSEQUENCE!!!

By far and away, the most critically important issue of our time and even the congress can't pass a single piece of legislation providing tax relief to people installing solar panels. Its so pathetic... you know they care nothing about us or about future generations.

I want nothing more than to see the twilight of oil in the coming decade and the corner gas station to be something we remember fondly like the milkman bring glass bottles of milk and leaving it in a steel container in my garage as a child.

10 years... its not even THAT hard. The hardest part is asking lazy slobbering stupid Americans to change their slovenly, lazy habits and accept the world is no longer theirs to plunder. I'll stop... and let Al speak... he's just as brutal... but he offers a solution. WATCH IT!! I love how they have Buffalo Springfield playing in the background... it gives that 60's revolutionary spirit that we so badly need again.

Terrific New MoveOn.org Ad

2008-07-28T13:43:00.004-04:00

Just got this sent to me.... MoveOn.org is raising money to air this ad nationally (see below). I hope they raise enough because its wonderful in that it brings a new tone to political advertising with a tongue in cheek message that Americans love. Why? Everything is bad news today... I think the one who can present something realistically optimistic but also asks (nicely) for appropriate sacrifice will win. Candidly... I can't imagine a scenario where old man McCain (who has NEVER SENT AN EMAIL) could possibly win the presidency.

Yes, that's right. He's never sent an email. Oy... could you imagine this clown winning?... we'd be in deep deep trouble.

I saw a funny shirt the other day. It looked like a McCain campaign shirt... had the logo and everything. But it said, McCain, 1908. Funny stuff. Enjoy the ad and then go here and donate.

We Need Hunter S. Thompson Back, Badly

2008-07-27T21:01:00.005-04:00

I just saw "Gonzo", the documentary of Hunter S. Thompson. It made me depressed.

There was a day in America where a journalist like him could write with a style all his own and was not afraid to print whatever he thought and whatever he felt. This type of "gonzo" journalism is non-existent today, as writers must take everything very seriously, or nothing seriously at all (other than keeping their jobs), and hold dear to their hearts a world view that incorporates the existing model of reality and assumptions, and write solely within the confines of a very tightly defined world view of how and why our world runs the way it does.

Thompson stuck his middle finger up at American civilization and said, screw you... I'm gonna find this American Dream and when I do, I'm going to kick all of your asses with it. What struck me was this lack of fear that he possessed in writing what he saw, or making it all up all along the way for his own amusement. In a powerful way, this was a metaphor for the inanity of American life as well as the American dream itself, and exposes the incomprehensible ignorance of Americans about their own system of beliefs, government and the world around them. He stuck America's nose in it and laughed all along the way.

Today, there is a blight of this kind of writing, reporting and courageousness of conviction. Who would ever be courageous enough in 2003 to get up on the Tim Russert show and say the whole gang in the White House is a bunch of lyers and thieves. He did. No one else dared. And as you watch the interview below... just think about how the prevailing view at that time is so completely different now. Think about how RIGHT HE WAS... and ignorant the rest of our society was to let the criminals take over under the phony, cynical banner of Patriotism. The criminals that run our country were exposed... oh, but only on the misdemeanors. The real crimes have yet to come out. How silly and naive America was to believe that they were ever telling the truth about anything. Isn't there anyone out there that realizes that its ALL a lie? Not just SOME THINGS?

Oh yes, Al Queda brought the buildings down, that's what they say. That's true.. they only lied about the things we can handle.. such as the secret prisons and the torture and the spying on American citizens and the lies about the intelligence and blah blah blah. But oh yes, Al Queda DEFINITELY brought those buildings down. They sure did cause that's what they told us.

When... when, will anyone realize that its all a lie? None of it is true. And when will the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson come back and help to expose this lie ONCE AGAIN to a public that has no conception of its own history and how it continues a repetitive cycle of no purpose wars (other than the obvious... money and American financial hegemony... that would be GREED).

So today, I mourn for us all as we debate the same inane stupidity of wars fought by a race of beasts known as the human race. We haven't evolved an inch since we came out of the cave. Our greedy and feckless politicians seeking only to satisfy their own egos and wallets and worst of all it is so bad, that we are now living in a society in which a private citizen (Al Gore) must get up and challenge us to save our own lives from global warming while not one elected official has done a single thing to save our society from its own destruction.

Hunter, we wish you had stayed around to help us out now. We desperately need you.

Berlin Also Hopes For Sanity in America

2008-07-25T10:15:00.008-04:00

A picture says a thousand words. Perhaps, in this case, 200,000 words. If I asked you a year and a half ago if you thought that an American politician who may become president could summon 200,000 screaming Berliners to the Tiergarten for an historic speech... you probably would have thought I was crazy.

Now, try to imagine in your minds eye John McCain standing up there with all those thousands of screaming fans excited about what he has to say and what he stands for. C'mon, just try for a second.

Can't do it... why? Because it would never happen. Having gone to Berlin 2 years ago, I was powerfully struck by how this city, more than any other, represents the cornerstone of modern history. I need not go through all of the events in the past century that has made this so, but Berlin is a city that represented the dividing line of global tension and yet, has once again transformed itself into a world class city that respects art, history, and its place in the world in the most sober and reflective manner... more than any other place I have ever seen.

From the Holocaust Memorial to the Jewish Museum, to the rebuilding of the Reichstag... the city is reborn as a jewel of contemporary thought, art, architecture, progressive thinking and civic pride. The city has taken great pains to permanently enshrine its history, both good and bad, and provide a global symbol for what could be. For this very reason, it is every American politician's dream to give speeches in Berlin for it is in itself, the most powerful symbol of the best and worst of humanity.

This forms the backdrop of the Barak speech. Having watched it, I saw the same gentleman who has captivated millions here, and did so again over there. Yet, some if not most of our MSM, never to waste an opportunity to criticize even at the most inappropriate time, has found fault in his short 25 minute speech. Does the New York Times realize that there is a time and a place for everything when they say in their headline: "Obama, Vague on Issues, Pleases Crowd in Germany"? Or David Brooks in his Op Ed piece:

"But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney."

Does David Brooks think that a presidential candidate on tour in Germany is obligated to give a hard nose policy speech to 200,000 hopeful Germans that the United States has not transformed into the Nazi Germany of their past? Because from their vantage point, we have become dangerously close. What is this small mindedness? What did they expect to hear from him?

Any idiot knows that he was there to give more of the same type of beautifully spoken rhetorical speeches that has made him famous throughout the world because of one simple and elegant idea... he represents the best of our hopes and dreams, and the rest of the world's. Could the New York Times have simply acknowledged that the purpose of this speech was opium for the masses and nothing more.

This was not the time, nor the place for specific policy speeches and hard nose thinking. The distinct purpose of this speech was to let the Germans have a close up glimpse of the next President of the United States and hold a glimmer of hope that we are not the monsters that they have seen over the past 7 years. He succeeded. David Brooks... you're wrong and you're small minded. Just because you are growing tired of this rhetoric, does not mean that the Germans or anyone else is... particularly when the man is not yet president, and therefore appropriate to be short on specifics and long on values.

I'll let you make up your own mind... the speech:

Hillarious: Colbert's "Make John McCain Exciting Challenge"

2008-07-19T12:47:00.009-04:00

The full name is of the episode is "Make John McCain More Exciting Green Screen Challenge." No doubt inspired from the now infamous "Kermit the Frog green backdrop with no makeup on I look nearly dead speech" the same night that Obama won the nomination in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans. An evening for the history books. Ahhh, the good ole days.

Anyway, Colbert has put the challenge out and the videos coming in are way too hilarious. Enjoy:

ACLU Files Suit, and Publisheds NY Times AD

2008-07-19T12:15:00.006-04:00

The ACLU collected 65,000 names in a few short days and place many of them in a full page ad in the NY Times. Unfortunately, they only made it to M, and my name doesn't show up :(. But the ad is great, so I thought I'd share.

First, and intro from the ACLU email blast I got this morning:

The ACLU filed a landmark lawsuit last week to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls.

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications. And, by granting telecoms immunity, it has greatly harmed the chances of ever learning the extent of the administration’s lawless actions.

Our lawsuit was filed on behalf of an impressive array of professionals -- journalists, human rights organizations and lawyers-- whose ability to perform their work will be greatly compromised by this new law.

Our clients include The Nation magazine and two of its contributing journalists, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and more.

Because of the nature of their calls and e-mails, our clients believe that their communications are likely to be monitored under the new law. Even the looming possibility of this surveillance disrupts their ability to talk with sources, locate witnesses, conduct scholarship, and engage in advocacy.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Thursday, and asks the judge to stay the implementation of the new powers, until its constitutionality is determined. It was filed on behalf of Naomi Klein, (whose recent book "Shock Doctrine" is a must read if you want to know anything about how the corporate elite governs us.) Klein stated "if the U.S. government is given unchecked surveillance power to monitor reporters' confidential sources, my ability to do this work will be seriously compromised." (Blog Wired)

The Ad: (click on it to find YOUR name)

Wouldn't It Be Great To See Rove In Jail

2008-07-18T12:27:00.004-04:00

Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films have launched a campaign to pressure Congress to hold Rove in contempt for not honoring the Subpoena by the House Judiciary Committee. He invoked Executive Privilege and now it will be interesting to see if they have the cojones to vote to hold him in contempt and throw him in jail.

By the way, the cellar of the Capital Building has a jail cell and they actually could lock him up there. Wouldn't that be a sight... oh we can only dream. The Democrats have proven their merit... they are weak, cowardly and greedy and won't do anything, further weakening their authority. Its a pity that Congressional Democrats have proven time and again that they are truly PATHETIC and EMBARRASSING to their constituents.

A dizzying array of new organizations are being formed to hold them accountable to the people that elected them.... check out AccountabilityNowPac and Strange Befellows to see this burgeoning movement which will be placing alternative Democrats and Republicans up for election this year and it could get real interesting to make these Democrats pay dearly for pushing forward the Bush agenda. I am rooting that they every single one of the Democrats who voted for FISA be fired by the electorate.

On a lighter note, watch Brave New Films 3 minute feature on Dear Carl Rove, American Patriot and give money or make phone calls. I'm doubtful Congress will act. But I've been wrong (I think) just once before :-).

I've Got Them Tennessee Blues

2008-07-18T08:35:00.007-04:00

A friend and colleague wrote this short short story last night about a famous man from Tennessee. My friend is a Republican (yes, I have a Republican friend... don't ask) and we attempt to torture each other with propaganda from both Reds and Blues to prove each other wrong. Of course, he can never truly win this battle as I believe the Democrats are as corrupt as the Republicans, they just act like they're not.

The Republicans --- they just flip us the bird and flatten another country to seize their black gold and secretly spy on us like Nixon on steroids and Crystal Meth. I digress.

My friend/colleague wrote a wonderful story about a man from Tennessee and eloquently imagines the ghosts that haunt this man. Its probably a very accurate portrayal. So, I thought I'd share. Enjoy.

Tennessee Blues

The warm night air embraces the soft Tennessee breeze as it caresses
the white silk drapes of an unlit bathroom window.
The summer moon glows, illuminating the bathroom to reveal a man in
his late 50s, unrecognizable from the stately speeches, camera flashes
and brilliant smile. He lowers his head and the weight of the world
weighs down upon his shoulders. He thinks again of the day when his
future was before him... before the Florida waves washed away his
chances for political immortality.

The magazines, newspaper articles and editorials tout his name now in
even bigger bolder letters. He can still hear the cheers from the
recent sold out lecture halls and stadiums, shouting, chanting his
name... yet the man who has known so much popularity and public
affection stares somberly in the mirror... secretly... deeply longing
for something else, something more, a relentless, unceasing incessant
desire for another name to be chanted... Mr. President

The man sighs heavily as he closes the bathroom door and walks back to
his bed...
"There is always the environment" he mutters to himself as he closes
his eyes and attempts once again to fall asleep.

Toward a Deeper Understanding Of Our Reality

2008-07-15T23:58:00.005-04:00

In an effort to pull myself away from the distractions of day to day politics, I want to refocus my attention of theory and ideas about the challenges we face as a society and provide a range of points of view about the problems we are actually facing.

One of the theories that I espouse is that the agenda of public discourse is fed TO US... that we as bloggers, we as citizens and even we as consumers do not have control over the agenda of what is discussed nor the underlying assumptions of what is true that drives public discourse. For example, you would have to believe that there actually is a "war on terror" to have a discussion about how to "win" this war.

Yet, I firmly believe that the "war on terror" is a movie played out in the cinema of newstainment and used as a propaganda tool to make people afraid and seek help from the government to allay their fears. It works perfectly into the agenda of the bomb, plane and submarine manufacturers. No war, no bombs. War, need bombs. Real Simple Math.

I came across a paper on a site managed by a non-profit online publishing entity called "Axis of Logic". In their mission statement, they say:

Presuppositions and World View

We readily confess our own set of presuppositions: Our world view consists of ideals for world peace; democracy (i.e. self-governance by the people); self-determination of all nations (people); respect for national sovereignty; noninterference in the domestic affairs of any nation by foreign governments; fair and just economic systems; responsibility for the preservation and protection of nature and compassion for ourselves and our fellow human beings.

The Enemy

We identify "Corporate Global Empire" as our common foe and the enemy of the people. We believe that all current, viable political parties in the U.S. are in service to the empire and do not represent the people. We are not to be identified as "Democrats", "Republicans", "Capitalists", "Communists" or "Socialists", "Progressives" or with any label that can be reduced to a religion, organization or any other "ism". We offer no such target for attack by the enemies of the truth.

For those of you who have read what I have to say, you can immediately see areas of agreement here... so I have great interest in what they do and the papers they publish. One paper I came across that I wish to share is from Jason Miller. Jason is associate editor of Cyrano's Journal Online... a Marxist leaning website that talks much about the antiquated "class struggle". While I found Cyrano not to be my style, I nevertheless found Jason's paper posted on Axis of Logic to be compelling, brutally truthful and perhaps a bit harsh... but sincerely passionate and mostly right... if not a bit simplistic.

The paper is entitled "The Toddler King's Insufferable Reign Is Doomed". The thesis is that we are essentially psychologically managed by TELEVISION and have become a selfish, childish and self-righteous bunch that will see its own demise... or as he states "But there are some pretty long odds against enough of us shedding our grotesquely malformed psyches and evolving beyond our state of infantilization before the American Way of Life collapses under the weight of its own excrement or is eradicated by its hordes of victims."

Obviously, this is opinion... but its the facts that he presents that I find compelling and wish to share. Again, they are tainted...and distinctly anti-Israel (which makes me somewhat uncomfortable), but the purpose of my summer postings is to examine a range of points of view and present them in an objective manner and then discuss them on their own merits. I will plagiarize his facts and allow them to speak for themselves:

If you don’t know the stats, you’ve been somnambulating, but here are a few:

1. We are 5% of the population and siphon off 30% of the world’s goodies, while 35,000 people starve to death each day.

2. We, the land of the free, exercise a higher degree of social control than even those “tyrants” in China and Russia. We have the world’s largest prison population, many of whom are non-violent drug offenders. And then there’s our clever way of imposing our agenda in Latin America via the “War on Drugs…..”

3. We lost about 500,000 people in WWII while Russia lost over 20 million yet we arrogantly boast that WE “defeated fascism.” And that’s not to mention the fact that many of our beloved capitalists, including members of the Bush dynasty, supported Hitler until they faced potential criminal prosecution.

4. We have staged coups and incursions the world over (our interventions are far too numerous to document in this dispatch, but visit this site to familiarize yourself with the reach of our malevolent imperialist tentacles.

5. Ironically, we justify our trillion dollar a year military budget by waging wars against nations with phantom weapons of mass destruction–while we are the only nation to have deployed such weapons. Ask Japan about the devastating impact.

6. We pour billions of dollars into the support of those miserable Zionist squatters in Palestine because a very small percentage of our population (which has very deep pockets, a strangle-hold on mass media, and a juggernaut lobbying organization) has many of us brain-washed into believing “poor little Israel” is fighting for its very existence—when the reality is that it has a more formidable military than all of its alleged threats combined and has ruthlessly brutalized the Palestinians like the terrorist state that it is.

7. We slaughtered over two million Vietnamese in an attempt to keep the world safe for capitalism and are poised to consider putting one of the perpetrators in the White House.

8. We have murdered untold millions of Iraqis since the Gulf War via invasion, brutal economic sanctions, fomenting civil war and chaos, illegal occupation, and destruction of infrastructure. And neither of the performers in the theater of the absurd we call a “presidential election” has promised to bring an immediate end to this moral and legal abomination. If we enforced the Nuremberg Laws that WE crafted, all responsible would be hanged, including whoever replaces Bush and perpetuates this genocide.

And that is just a brief and very incomplete summary of the evil that we openly or tacitly support simply by being Americans, even if our role is very banal or pedestrian. As cogs in a murderous machine built on stolen land and primarily with the blood, sweat and tears of slaves and poor immigrants, we all bear a degree of responsibility for the atrocities we commit. Even those who choose to remain and fight the system from within are still buttressing the American Way to some extent.

I left in his commentary on the "facts" to provide color and help you gain more insight into his world view. I don't disagree with a single point he makes... I suppose I don't see evil in everything that's there... I see it as a reality that must change, but not something that can be judged by a higher power that we must pay for in "karma".

That said... his article had a profound effect on me in that I agree with much of what he believes, its the tone and manner that I find a bit dramatic and... perhaps... not helpful. If I go around calling people names, I'll simply turn them away. I prefer to show reality through fact, comment on it from my perspective, and then use my sense of ethics and morality to find solutions rather than screaming that we are infants. We simply ARE the result of a coming together of many forces and perhaps need to wake up to these forces to bring about positive change.

But I appreciate Jason's perspective... because I firmly believe that extremes move the middle... and ultimately its the middle that everyone seeks as we search for balance in our lives and our perspectives on reality. To read Jason's full paper, go here.

Because Freedom Can't Wait For The Next President

2008-07-12T10:41:00.008-04:00

Thanks to the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation, we the people of these United States have one last opportunity to stop the government from spying on us without redress. This is a short post today to provide you with information about the suits and links to follow their progress.

The ACLU suit is summarized on http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/faachallenge.html and go here for a conversation with Glenn Greenwalk and Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU's National Security Project.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T (Hepting v. AT&T) which may now be voided thanks to Congress, and describe their strategy post FISA signing here. Because I'm feeling patriotic today, I thought I would end this entry by providing the logo of the National Security Agency who has a SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF EAGLE on it. Oh, and that "key" that it's clutching in its talons (its prey of course)... that's the key to your front door and phone and Internet and financial information. Now, say after me... I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the National Security State.... with liberty and justice for all. I forget, am I supposed to say "amen" at the end?

FISA Signed, Feeling Blue, But Still Red With Anger

2008-07-11T22:21:00.007-04:00

The last two days have been simply an amazing whirlwind of political debate, netroots action and a groundswell of anger over the FISA bill. The FISA bill as you can see has been taking my attention... but watching the dynamics of the FISA breakaway community on MYBO has been captivating.

After a couple of days, the rhetoric and anger has settled into kind of a muted sense of lost hope and despair as progressives and people who REALLY CARE about constitutional issues seem to be settling into a "OK, there's not much I can do about this now, I'm going to send my money elsewhere and just vote for Obama".

Additionally, it appears to me that the folks at Obama headquarters looked at the sheer disaster facing them and decided to go with a sort of kind and gentle approach that sounded something like this: "OK everyone, now that you have had a chance to cool down, let's just be reasonable. He is still the same man we love and care about and he's going to revisit this once he gets into office... the bill does not do THAT MUCH harm so lets all just hold hands again and get him elected."

After nearly 25,000 people joined the Get It Right Group on MyBo, the news media started to catch wind of this. The group... in which I am a member, is the largest group on MYBO, formed a new website, http://www.getfisaright.com/, started a FISA activist wiki, started a very large Facebook group and began urging members to donate to the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Bluesky.org.

Will Mitchell, the rep for the group hand delivered a letter to the Senator that reads:

We ask that you back up your words with action by addressing your constituents on the floor of the Senate with the same oratorical power you used in Philadelphia to lay out your vision of a 'More Perfect Union.' The American people have just as much right to know of the dangerous precedent this Congress would be setting by granting retroactive immunity to those who "may have violated the law" and allowing spying on law-abiding citizens .... We ask you to reconsider your current position on the bill as a whole and strongly oppose a bill about which you said, "I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect. I wouldn't have drafted the legislation like this, and it does not resolve all of the concerns that we have about President Bush's abuse of executive power."
In your statement you also wrote, "In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people. But in a free society, that authority cannot be unlimited." We agree.

We appreciate your willingness to continue the discussion. We represent a large and vocal part of the movement you have nurtured and that has nurtured you during this campaign season, and include many of your most active and ardent supporters. As you have said time and again Senator, "we are the ones we have been waiting for," and we are here, working to bring about real change in Washington. We have grown to over 20,000 strong in the space of just a few days.

I also want to provide you with a taste of the debate going on in the group listserv... its one of the most profound netroots flash movements I have ever seen. The amazing thing is that the very tools that the campaign created to get Senator Obama the nomination could be the same that could ruin his chances if he keeps veering off course and breaking promises. Its a truly delicate situation... these are the folks that walked districts, organized grass roots, rang door bells, called caucus delegates... you just don't take these people for granted.

The internet has given new life to the progressive movement and they are now MAD AS HELL AND NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE. I would suggest that the Senator from Illinois tread lightly and not take these folks for granted again. Here is snapshot of my inbox: (click on it to enlarge)

This may die down, but on its face, this was one of the most intense couple of days I've seen in the land of politics... and while I was burning mad about "the betrayal" of the 4th Amendment, I now feel somewhat encouraged by the response of so many people to this. It could have gone unnoticed were it not for a newly politiced public. From one of the hero's of the debate, Senator Chris Dodd:

A Heavy Heart

Yesterday was a sad day for the United States Senate.

It is my hope that the courts will undo the damage done to the Constitution.

But let us stand tall, knowing that by working together we were able to make wiretapping and retroactive immunity part of the national discourse these last number of months.

We came together - all of you, Senator Feingold, bloggers like Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald, organizations like the EFF and ACLU, and untold hundreds of thousands of Americans who simply wanted to make sure that this one, last insult did not happen with ease.

I’m sorry we weren’t successful.

I just hope I’m lucky enough to have you by my side in the next fight, whatever that may be.

Thanks for all you’ve done.

Chris Dodd

Thank you Senator and thanks to Senator Feingold as well. We do have some that we can count on perhaps, but this is an issue that's going to have to go to the courts.

I was told today by one of my readers that they like the videos. So I'll end with a video. Note the particularly disturbing idea of WHY The Real News believes the Democrats approved this bill: to give them cover in the event of a terrorist attack between now and the election. Essentially, they can't be BLAMED for not doing anything to stop it. I can't even comment its so despicable and cowardly if its actually true. Now we know who really frames the debate in this country for now and forever... the NeoCons. I am rendered speechless. Enjoy and weep for us.

23,965 and Counting On the O'bama Internal Insurgency

2008-07-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

That's the number so far. By 5 times, the largest group on MYBO. Its a sad state of affairs all around... but the interesting thing is that they created a very effective social networking site and then when the candidate betrays his Progressive base... no less on a CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE... the issue that Progressives hold most dear... then your community will become your own worst enemy. Articles abound throughout the media and blogosphere about this phenomenon and I frankly find it more than fascinating to watch. I'll reprint a copy of my listserv inbox later to show the level of anger being directed at the presumed nominee for the Democratic party. It could change now.

One of the things I find most interesting is a move by the MYBO FISA group to organize and begin contacting delegates and registering their feelings. This will hit at the heart of the presumed nominee and if delegates start to bail... all hell could break loose unless Obama somehow, someway, stops the bleeding. I am now going to reprint a letter that one MYBO FISA member posted to the group. Its a letter she wrote to her delegate who happens to be in the district (I believe) where the convention is being held.

To Mari, the CD15 delegate to DENVER:)

Mari,

After today's vote in the Senate approving the passage of the FISA bill, wherein Senator Obama voted in its favor, I am withdrawing from the campaign. Many times on the campaign trail I've been asked "why should I vote for Obama?" And I've answered, "because Senator Obama will bring us back our Constitution that has been shredded by the Bush administration. I have spent most of today in tears, and have spent many more days discussing this issue with other Obama supporters. There are 30,000 of us, represented by the largest group on mybo, in shock over Senator Obama's decision: Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right.

When I called the Chicago Obama headquarters today I actually reached and spoke with two live aides. Admittedly, during the first conversation, I cried, but made my message loud and clear and coherent.

Barack was given a second chance to live up to his promise to uphold the Constitution today on the Senate floor. He failed to provide either an explanation to his supporters for his support of the FISA bill,or to to vote against it. Oddly, Senator Clinton, for whatever reason, voted against it.

Mari, you, as our elected delegate, represent the constituents and, as such, are required to listen to the voice of the people, even when we are dissenting.

A time line of Senator Obama's stand on the FISA bill, which strips our constitutional rights, follows. His most recent statement of July 3 contradicts all previous promises.

My letter to Senator Obama follows:

Dear Senator Obama,

Your decision today to support the FISA bill has nullified my belief in you and your campaign for change and hope.

My passion is gone; it has vanished having seen your behavior in the face of putting action where your mouth is. Today, you had the opportunity to speak out as a scholar of Constitutional law to uphold our Constitution, but did not. Today you had the opportunity to vote to uphold our Constitution but did not. Yet you are in fact, under oath to do so.

Senator Obama, If you do remain the candidate after the Convention, which I now believe will be a disputed and brokered convention, I will still vote for you, but only with the diminished enthusiasm of a "lesser of two evils" vote. I am appalled by your unwillingness to speak up on the Senate floor yesterday or today against this egregious piece of legislation. For whatever reason, Senator Clinton changed her mind and opposed the FISA legislation, unlike you. Supporting FISA was not necessary to win over the conservative vote; it only makes you look disingenuous in the eyes of the nation.

Please return all donations I have made to your campaign. I will give this money, and more as I can afford, to Senator Feingold's effort to support our Constitution.

What do I tell my 87 year old parents who were long time Clinton supporters who I've passionately converted to your campaign? They have too much class and compassion to say to me: "I told you so".By the way, Ralph Nader has posted "I told you so" to the mybo blog.

Since I began campaigning for you in January, I had put aside most of my efforts for my small business, and intended to do so until you were elected. Now I've now changed my mind. You are not who I thought you were. You are not the candidate who promised to support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.

I have donated countless hours to your campaign; this can't be replaced. I have entreated hours of aid from my 12 year old son for your campaign; this can't be replaced. My passion has been felt by all those I'm around; from my neighbors to the grocery store to the gas station and to hours on the campaign trail.
This too is irreplaceable.

I am heartbroken.

Good luck to you, Senator.

Jonathan Turley on Keith Olbermann about FISA

2008-07-10T08:32:00.001-04:00

Jonathan Turley is a professor of law at the George Washington University Law school where he holds the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law. He has a long history of interesting cases such as Terry Schiavo and suing the government on behalf of sick workers from none other than Area 51.

He says it as well as it can be said about what happened yesterday and then I'll move along to other topics. I will say that watching the FISA group ListServ email system light up last night was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life and I will be writing on that in great detail as I believe a new movement is emerging among progressive Americans to throw the entire Democratic Senate and House out of office. They'll need replacements and I am willing to bet that new Democrats who respect the constitution will send many of them packing. Here is Jonathan Turley:

Chaos on MyBarakObama.com

2008-07-10T01:47:00.003-04:00

To view the thousands of justifiably angry people on his website is a something to behold. I believe the number of dissenters is near 22,000 and the anger just seems to rise by the minute.

This was pure betrayal on his part. It is an inconceivable blunder that could take the wind out of the sails of this campaign. I just got off the phone with a lovely woman named Karen who was an organizer for Obama in Berkeley, California and she called me out of the blue... a total stranger because she was so upset she needed someone to talk to. I had blogged on the website to tell him that he had lost my vote and I felt there was no excuse for him voting for this bill. There is and never will be any good reason to vote away the protections guaranteed to us in the Bill Of Rights. Particularly when he had said so many times that he was against it and going to filibuster it.

Anyway, now my attention shifts to the ACLU. They are seizing this and filing suit the moment Bush signs it into law. I donated and now want to let you know that you can help them. They will be running full page ads in major newspapers with thousands of names of Americans who demand their rights. Here is the text of their call to action:

Dear Friend,

Cowed by the Bush administration's pre-election scare tactics, the Senate passed privacy-stealing FISA legislation undermining your Fourth Amendment rights.

It's outrageous, unconstitutional and un-American. That's why the ACLU is prepared to challenge this law the moment George Bush signs it -- and you can rest assured, they'll be meeting our lawyers in court.

The ACLU's lawsuit will send a powerful message to those in Congress who played it safe when they had the opportunity to defend the Constitution.

In addition, the ACLU will be taking out a full-page ad in a major national newspaper announcing their lawsuit and expressing outrage at this abandonment of our Constitutional principles. Their goal is to run an ad containing the names of tens of thousands of Americans who believe in the Constitution and want Congress to hear us loud and clear: next time, stand up for our rights.

You can sign your name to the ACLU's ad by visiting:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fisaad

I signed, and I hope you do too.

Washington Post Ad This Morning About FISA

2008-07-09T14:30:00.005-04:00

Still standing on my FISA soapbox, I'm providing a copy of the ad placed in the Washington Post this morning by Blue America and Colorofchange.org PACs. I'm enclosing the ad because it provides needed specific "soundbites" about the truth behind the cover of this bill that permanently changes the game of federally authorized spying. You can click on it to enlarge and read, and I encourage you to read Glen Greenwald's piece in Salon where he provided the downloadable pdf of the ad.

McClatchey Newspapers Gets It Right, Again

2008-07-09T09:34:00.006-04:00

As an addendum to my angry post of last night, I feel compelled to share more about WHY I, and so many other Americans, are in a state of shock and boiling anger over the FISA bill which will be voted into law today.

There is but one newspaper company that has had it right all along since the 9/11 scam and its McClatchey. They also have watched the elite trade away our rights for greater control and done so while a sleeping nation of ill informed and poorly educated "consumers" allows them to do it... believing incorrectly that they'll be "safer". (Hint: You cannot trade away your freedom to gain greater safety. History has taught us this time and again that the exact opposite is true.)

Pick up a copy of Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine" if you want to see how easy it is to fool people into thinking that giving up their rights will make them safer. If it weren't true, it would make for great comedy.

From Joseph Galloway of McClatchey Newspapers:

Early next week (TODAY) the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

That a majority on both sides of the aisle — not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties — intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Then Galloway puts this bill and the congress and our shameful recent history into perfect historical context:

We have done incalculably more and greater damage to ourselves since September 11, 2001, than a thousand bin Ladens and ten thousand al Qaida recruits could ever have done to us.

Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." Now it would seem that we have no one to fear but ourselves and our leaders.

The questions I pose are these:

How can even one senator on either side of the aisle in good conscience vote in favor of this law that does nothing to enhance our security and everything to diminish our rights as a free people?

How can both men who seek to become our next president cast such a vote when both should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder declaring that they would govern by our consent and with our approval, not by wielding the coercive and corrosive and corrupt powers that King George III and his latter-day namesake from Texas thought are theirs by divine right?

Unfortunately, I think I know the answers to his questions. (And, I think most truly informed Americans know the answer and wonder what has to happen to make it change; but don't dare speak that truth out loud for fear of their jobs and even their lives.) The congress has conveniently ignored the constitution long before 9/11 (to its own detriment) and will continue to do so. Why? Because there is a much greater power that runs this country than the voters... and they call the shots.

FISA, and the End Of The Fourth Amendment

2008-07-09T00:23:00.011-04:00

FISA... its a four letter word... it mean the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Or in slang, The United States Constitution is no loner intACT. The Democrats are to blame for this shameful day that will live in history as a key date in what could be the last vestige of protection of our privacy. And THE DEMOCRATS will go down in history for negotiating away the protections afforded to us by the constitution.

I am attaching the bill. Most people won't read or care... but if there is just one of you who will see this bill pass tomorrow... it could be YOU that is being under surveillance and you will have no legal protection against your so called democratically elected government. Its a day that all Americans should hang their head in shame.

Funny... this is authored by a Rockefeller. Strange coincidence. Obama said he would filibuster this... he's not going to. It will pass tomorrow and the Bush legacy of spying on Americans with impunity will continue unabated.

Note the amendments... these were added by those very few and brave Senators who wish to protect our rights and privacy by making the telecoms liable for handing over all of our personal communications for years. But these will not pass, and they will gain immunity... signaling to businesses and future governments that they can do the very same thing and gain immunity from breaking the law.

For some color commentary on the debate to end our rights in the Senate, read the ACLU blog as it explains the feelings of complete and utter despair by the civil rights movement about this bill: http://blog.aclu.org/category/government-spying/

From the Democratic Policy Committee of Congress

H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008

Summary and Background

Last summer, the Bush Administration came to Congress seeking emergency changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to address a gap that had arisen in our intelligence collection capabilities, according to administration officials. Democrats support giving the Intelligence Community the tools it needs to protect the nation from terrorism. However, many Democrats opposed the rushed legislation that ultimately resulted from the Administration's push, the Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA). Before passage, Democrats succeeded in adding a six-month sunset to ensure the PAA would serve as only a temporary measure to address the intelligence gap while Congress considered longer-term amendments to the statute.

Over the past year, Senate and House Democrats have worked with their Republican counterparts, the Administration, the intelligence community, and privacy advocates to develop proposals for amendments to FISA that would give the intelligence community the flexibility it needs to safeguard our nation, while also providing strong protections for civil liberties.

On June 19, Senator Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), announced that a FISA amendments deal had been reached. On June 25, the Senate voted to proceed with consideration of that legislation, H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

The bill would:

• Provide the Intelligence Community the tools it needs to target non-U.S. persons reasonably believed to be outside the United States;

• Increase the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in reviewing and approving targeting and minimization procedures, ensure that traditional FISA warrant rules still apply for purely domestic communications, require the government to establish guidelines to protect Americans against reverse targeting, and require FISA Court orders prior to surveillance or physical searches of U.S. persons abroad;

• Grant the telecommunication companies immunity from civil liability, provided a federal district court determines that the Attorney General's certification that immunity applies is supported by substantial evidence;

• Provide Court review of procedures before surveillance begins unless there are exigent circumstances, in which case they must seek approval from the FISA Court within seven days.

• Require the Inspectors General of key agencies to conduct a retroactive review of the President's surveillance program and authorize them to investigate and audit surveillance authorized in this bill, require that additional data on surveillance be submitted to the Congress in semi-annual reports, and sunset the bill in four and a half years.

Major Provisions

Title I - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance

Additional Procedures Regarding Certain Persons Outside the United States. (Section 101).

Definition of electronic surveillance (Section 701). The bill would reestablish the original definition of "electronic surveillance" in FISA and add a construction paragraph to ensure that new procedures may be used notwithstanding the definition of electronic surveillance.

Procedures for targeting certain persons outside of the United States other than United States persons (Section 702).

• Authorization. H.R. 6304 would grant the Attorney General (AG) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) the authority to target persons reasonably believed to be outside of the United States for the purpose of collecting intelligence for a period of up to one year from the effective date of the authorization.

• Limitations. H.R. 6304 includes specific limitations and prohibitions regarding the collection of information on American citizens. The bill states that an acquisition: 1) may not intentionally target any person known at the time of acquisition to be located in the United States; 2) may not intentionally target a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States if the purpose of such acquisition is to target a particular, known person reasonably believed to be in the United States; 3) may not intentionally target a United States person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States; 4) may not intentionally acquire any communication as to which the sender and all intended recipients are known at the time of the acquisition to be located in the United States; and 5) shall be conducted in a manner consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The bill would require the AG to adopt guidelines to ensure that the government does not engage in any of this prohibited conduct and obtains individual court orders when required.

• Acquisition. H.R. 6304 provides for the involvement of the FISA Court in approving procedures for targeting foreigners outside of the U.S. that could involve U.S. persons (as outlined in the targeting and minimization procedures below). The legislation would require the court to approve targeting and minimization before collection begins unless the DNI and AG determine that exigent circumstances exist. Should the DNI and AG make this determination of exigent circumstances that intelligence important to U.S. national security may be lost or not timely acquired, an acquisition would be authorized to proceed prior to a court order. The AG and DNI would be required to submit procedures within seven days and the court would be required to make a determination within 30 days. The bill would require that all relevant minimization and reverse targeting guidelines would apply during this period.

• Targeting procedures. H.R. 6304 would require the AG, in consultation with the DNI, to adopt targeting procedures that are designed to ensure that any acquisition is limited to targeting persons reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States and prevent the acquisition of purely domestic communications. It also would require the AG and DNI to submit these targeting procedures to the FISA Court for review and approval.

• Minimization procedures. H.R. 6304 would require the AG, in consultation with the DNI, to adopt minimization procedures used to address any incidental acquisition, retention or dissemination of U.S. person information, in order to protect the privacy of any Americans who might be in contact with a foreign target. The bill requires that these procedures be approved by the FISA Court.

• Judicial review of certifications and procedures. H.R. 6304 would require prior FISA Court review of minimization and targeting procedures, as specified above, and require that judicial review of procedures be completed within 30 days.

• Assessments and reviews. H.R. 6304 would require that the AG and DNI assess compliance with targeting and minimization procedures semiannually, and submit each assessment to the FISA court and congressional intelligence and judiciary committees.

Electronic surveillance of United States persons outside the United States (Section 703). H.R. 6304 would require the FISA Court to make an individual determination of probable cause before a U.S. person outside the United States may be targeted for electronic surveillance. It specifies that each court order would valid for no longer than 90 days.

Foreign intelligence collection on United States persons outside the United States (Section 704). H.R. 6304 would require the FISA Court to make an individual determination of probable cause before a U.S. person overseas may be targeted for any foreign intelligence collection. This court order also would be valid for no longer than 90 days.

Provisions included in Sections 703 and 704 are intended to ensure that Americans traveling or working abroad are entitled to the same protections from surveillance and search that they would have if located in the United States.

Congressional Oversight (Section 707). H.R. 6304 includes a provision that would require the AG to submit a semiannual report to congressional intelligence committees and the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and House of Representatives regarding compliance and noncompliance with the provisions of section 702. The bill also provides that the report must include the number of applications made, granted, modified, denied, as well as emergency acquisitions authorized by the AG under Sections 703 and 704.

Exclusivity (Section 102). H.R. 6304 restates the 1978 FISA exclusivity provision and strengthens language to ensure that domestic electronic surveillance can be done using only FISA, criminal wiretap statues, or future statutes that expressly authorize electronic surveillance. This provision effectively prevents the use of Authorizations for Use of Military Force as the statutory basis for circumventing FISA. The bill also provides that criminal and civil penalties can be imposed for any electronic surveillance that is not conducted in accordance with FISA or specifically listed criminal intercept laws.

Submittal to Congress of certain court orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (Section 103). H.R. 6304 would require the Attorney General to submit in its semiannual reports to congressional Intelligence and Judiciary committees a copy of any decision, order, or opinion issued by the FISA Court or FISA Court of Review that provide a significant construction or interpretation of any provision of this Act and any pleadings, applications, or memoranda of law associated with this decision, order, or opinion, no later than 45 days after its issuance as well as those issued during the five-year period ending on the date of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and not previously submitted in a report.

Weapons of Mass Destruction (Section 110). H.R. 6304 would amend FISA to allow foreign intelligence collection against proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The bill would narrow the definition of WMD to ensure that only weapons capable of causing serious bodily injury to a significant number of persons are included.

Title II - Protections for Electronic Communication Service Providers

Procedures for implementing statutory defenses under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (Section 202). H.R. 6304 would amend FISA to permit civil liability protection for electronic communication service providers who participated in the President's post-9/11 surveillance program, provided the district court finds that the Attorney General's certification that liability protection should apply is supported by "substantial evidence." The certification must include a showing that the companies' cooperation was in connection with a program authorized between September 11, 2001 and January 17, 2007, and designed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack, and the company received a written request or directive from the Attorney General or the head of an element of the Intelligence Community that indicated the program was authorized by the President and determined to be lawful. In making the "substantial evidence" determination, the district court will have the opportunity, in camera and ex parte if necessary, to examine these highly classified communications between the Administration and the companies.

H.R. 6304 would also amend FISA to provide a mechanism for the court to assess whether individuals who assisted the government pursuant to court order, statutory certifications, or Protect America Act directives should be entitled to immunity, even if those orders, certifications or directives are classified.

H.R. 6304 would further require that plaintiffs and defendants have the opportunity to file public briefs on legal issues and that the court include in any public order a description of the legal standards that govern the order.

NOTE: The immunity provision of the Act does not apply to any actions against the government for any alleged injuries caused by government officials, nor does the immunity provision involve any statement by the Congress on the legality or illegality of the President's program.

Title III - Review of Previous Actions

Inspector General review (Section 301). H.R. 6304 would require the Inspectors General of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, and the Department of Defense to complete a comprehensive review of the President's surveillance program within one year and submit an unclassified report to Congress, with a classified annex, if necessary. This review would provide comprehensive facts about the program to Congress and the public.

Title IV - Other Provisions

Repeals (Section 403). H.R. 6304 would repeal the Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA). Existing orders, authorizations, and directives under the PAA, however, would remain in effect until their expiration.

H.R. 6304 would sunset on December 31, 2012, to allow the next administration to evaluate how the new authorities are carried out and to ensure that abuses do not occur before authorities are further extended.

Legislative History

In August 2007, Congress passed the Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA), which provided temporary amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 while Congress considered longer-term amendments. Congress spent the next several months negotiating a bill in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. On October 26, 2007, SSCI favorably reported S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act of 2007, by a vote of 13 to 2. On November 15, 2007, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported the measure with an amendment in the nature of a substitute by a vote of 10 to 9. This vote was ratified the following day.

After an agreement was reached to return to the bill during the second session of the 110^th Congress, the Senate resumed consideration of S. 2248, with the Judiciary Committee's substitute as the pending amendment on January 23, 2008. The substitute was later tabled. On February 12, the Senate passed the bill and incorporated its text in H.R. 3773, the House version of the FISA Amendments Act, entitled the Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007, as an amendment.

Since that time, House and Senate leaders have sought to negotiate compromise legislation. On June 19, Senator Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), announced that a deal had been reached. On June 20, the House passed H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 on a vote of 293 to 129. On June 25, the Senate agreed to the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the legislation on a 80 to 15 vote.

Statement of Administration Policy

On June 19, the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence submitted a letter of support for H.R. 6304 to Speaker of the House Pelosi.

Possible Amendments

Amendments are expected to H.R. 6304, including:

• An amendment to strike Title II;

• A substitute amendment that includes Titles I, III, and IV, but does not include Title II;

• An amendment to stay all pending cases against the telecommunications companies and delay the effective date of Title II until 90 days after Congress receives the Inspectors General report regarding the President's surveillance program; and

• An amendment to require the district court to make a determination as to whether the telecommunication companies' participation in the President's surveillance program was constitutional.

As it becomes available, the DPC will distribute additional information on amendments.

Gore Vidal on The National Security State

2008-07-03T13:16:00.003-04:00

This video is a more a plug for The REAL NEWS NETWORK that has become a darling for Gore Vidal. I believe mightily in what Gore has to say as he has always had to courage to pull back the curtain back and reveal the "newstainment" that is being orchestrated to control what we think we know and believe.

He has made a new documentary with The REAL NEWS NETWORK called "The History of the National Security State" and rightly claims in this short clip what I have been saying all along. We live in a Fascist-like military controlled state that manufactures wars to feed itself.

Have a look... I may get the documentary for reference and to see if it reveals anything new. I suspect it won't, but I love to hear Gore talk about recent history that most Americans know absolutely nothing about.

Incompetence and Coincidence at GITMO

2008-07-03T11:04:00.012-04:00

Kudos to Scott Shane, reporter from the New York Times for revealing what is one of the most unbelievable stories to come out of the sad sad saga of GITMO. In his article yesterday, Scott reveals that the torture methods, or "interrogation" methods (sorry about that George and Dick, don't want to besmirch your reputations) came from a chart developed by a program called SERE. I'll let Scott tell it, he writes better than I do:

The military trainers who came to Guantanamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure". "What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and by the CIA.

Let's just call this the latest chapter of "you can't make this stuff up" from the battle front on the fake "War on Terror" that seems to be the only mission of the United States of America. Clearly, this represents a level of incompetence to a degree never imagined before and is so hilariously stupid that to actually conceive of this level of incompetence is almost unimaginable. All the while, Addington and Cheney and their crew are visiting GITMO regularly for the past 7 years and watching and lovingly adoring their brand new war and running roughshod over the laws of our land and international law.

OK, let's take short look at this one more time... the military created this chart used by Chinese Communists to gain false confessions from American Soldiers and used it as a training guide to prepare American Soldiers for what was to happen to them in the event they were tortured, and train them to deal effectively with these techniques. Then it was recycled as an AMERICAN interrogation guide for AMERICAN captors to be used on prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the secret CIA prisons strewn throughout the world to get the TRUTH about their terror plans.

As this new set of revelations begins to reverberate and get digested by those who are paying attention, it just adds to the long list of atrocities perpetrated by our military and intelligence services. As more and more information comes out about GITMO... such as the incarceration of five men known as Uighurs most of whom are Muslims, and have fought a low-level insurgency against Beijing’s rule for years. They were captured in Afghanistan and the U.S. had no case against them. So after holding them for 6 years at GITMO, they were sent to live in Albania in a deal cut with the Chinese Government. SHAMEFUL!!!

It just gets worse and worse for this sordid tale of an illegal prison paid for by American tax dollars and implemented by this administration. As Scott Shane reports, charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, suspected of being part of the 9/11 plot were dropped last May (no doubt because he was coerced into false confessions) and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a SUPPOSED Qaeda member accused of playing a major role in the bombing of the American destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000, was charged with murder and other crimes last Monday. But Mr. Nashiri was subjected to waterboarding, and has said he confessed to participating in the bombing falsely only because he was tortured.

Why is it that the rest of the world knows full well that torture produces false confessions, but we don't seem to know this? The British learned this 30 years ago when they used torture on the IRA only to receive no good information that led to further British troop deaths. Why are we so ignorant?

I can already see the hearings coming in Congress. Once again we'll hear the same story... didn't know, incompetence, lack of oversight, coincidence.

I see this a bit differently.

Each time we hear the coincidence/incompetence defense by government officials it causes changes that are FAVORABLE to the ones who perpetrated the crime. Over and over again... with each seeming blunder, "reform" is made and the end result is that more money and resources flow into the military and intelligence communities to fix the problem.

I will also argue, that this was done very much on purpose. Hiding behind the Patriot and Military Commissions Acts approved by our elected officials, these tactics and the destruction of our laws and morality as a nation have created an environment where false confessions are garnered as standard operation procedure and can be done in complete secrecy to innocent people branded "enemy combatants". Then, the "terrorists" or "enemy combatants" are sent away and the full story never gets told. And what is the full story?

There is no organized "worldwide terror network" and that this state of permanent war that is draining the resources of our society benefits those in power by keeping our incredibly ill informed citizenry in a state of constant fear of attack. It then forever justifies the need for a bloated military that builds weapons systems costing billions and billions of dollars in order to fight NO ONE. (How many nuclear subs does it take to destroy Al Queda's Navy, or B2 bombers to fight of Al Queda's Air Force?) Why doesn't anyone get this? All the money goes to weapons systems... not fighting Al Queda!! 20 minutes of basic research into the Pentagon budget and any idiot can easily see this to be true.

Our military industrial complex NEEDS FALSE CONFESSIONS to provide the necessary framework for proof of a worldwide conspiracy to attack us. The methods which we employ to garner these confessions does not matter to them... it is a means to an end. THEY NEED A WAR!! And once the confession is made, the confessor can no longer prove they were lying.

Whether or not we are our own worst enemy is not the story here... the story is that no matter what comes out of the awful recent history of our shameful behavior, the "WAR ON TERROR" will continue unabated as the propaganda machine has burnt into 300 million brains that this war actually exists. This "war" shapes every aspect of public discourse and the idea that it does not exist is not even discussed, nor the incredible sums of money spent on weapons systems to fight enemies that also don't exist. NOT EVER DISCUSSED.

I'll let you in on an open secret... we created this war and will continue to foster it, feed it and nurture it. A lot of money can be made.

Casus Belli For War With Iran

2008-07-01T14:51:00.009-04:00

For the past several days I've been dizzy trying to stay ahead of world affairs and legal wrangling on the home front. While Addington and Yoo committed perjury before Congress, the Bush Administration... or let's just admit it... The Cheney Administration is moving full speed ahead by conducting a number of actions; covert and overt to justify "regime change" in Iran. The pressure could reach boiling point as it looks from my vantage point that Cheney is becoming increasingly desperate to get something started with the Mullahs in Iran before the Republicans are booted out of the White House later this year.

Let's take a look at the larger context with which this is happening. The U.S. has now complete dominance of Iraq... building dozens of military bases and the largest embassy in the world. We have taken Afghanistan, Lebanon is pot that is about to boil over, and Syria has been completely silenced after having been humiliated by the Israeli Air Force. As part of long term initiative to "sanitize" the Middle East, the only country left that has what we want... OIL... is Iran. As we ponder Cheney's desperation to control Tehran again, its important to understand why Iran is so terribly important to U.S. financial and thus, military interests.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the strategic importance of Iran in the scheme of global oil production, wealth creation and transmission. Besides having some 138.4 billion bbl of oil reserves, Iran sits squarely dead center in the Oil producing region of the Middle East... is geographically dominant over the northern portion of the Persian Gulf, and perfectly straddles the largest untapped reserves of oil and gas in the world on its northern border along the Caspian Sea.

Combine this with an administration that is run by oil interests and we have the perfect storm. Iran is a major obstacle to Western Oil and Banking Cartels who want complete control of Middle East and South Asia oil and gas, and the plan to sanitize the entire corridor from Lebanon through to Pakistan is nearly complete except for Iran.

Dick Cheney and friends, never to be deterred by law, morality, or the threat of world war, have a new plan. First, they have successfully removed every major internal barrier to war with Iran, from demanding resignation of General Fallon, to ignoring the NIE estimate which revealed that Iran had stopped their nuclear weapons program in 2003, now claiming there is a parallel program that only the administration knows about. And most recently playing the "War on Terror" card to force the Democratically controlled congress to provide $400 Million in covert military funding to conduct operations inside Iran.

Sy Hersh broke the story last week in the New Yorker, as part of his ongoing series of articles about the U.S. obsession with Iran. Who knows how much of it is true other than the money was approved. No doubt members of Congress leaked the story as they are now realizing that they have been duped and will publicly be humiliated for funding this scheme which is completely at odds with the wishes of their constituencies.

The truly sick and scary portion is in the interview portion on the web, where Hersh describes the Democratic leadership of Reid and Pelosi as being co-opted to fund this military game by threat of being called "soft on terror". BULLOCKS... COWARDICE. Shame on them!! We do not have a two party system in this country. The Democrats do not represent our interests and are true cowards and will pay for this folly with their jobs.

I find this new set of circumstances so troubling in so many ways I can't even count. Under what rationale or justification do we have the right to stir up trouble inside Iran? Its one thing to sit at the table across from them and demand that they play nicely with Iraq and the rest of their neighbors, its another to invade their borders with covert ops... as Sy Hersh says "The former official said that, a few weeks later, a meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,” he said.

For those of you who don't speak Latin, Casus belli is a Latin language expression meaning the justification for acts of war. Casus means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while belli means "of war".

So here we sit... the economy is in the toilet, the budget deficit is $400 billion and growing, unemployment dramatically rising, the cost of the two wars we're in is a $Billion a day, and the congress and the president have approved funding to find cause to attack Iran. How on earth do they believe that we have the capability of overthrowing the Iranians? A country of 65 million people, with immense oil wealth, a highly nationalized population that is very wary of the United States and knows exactly what we are trying to do... and by our wishes and petty anti-terror rationale, remove their sovereignty and rob them of their natural resources for our gain. Sickening.

My question is what has to happen for us Americans to finally wake up and realize that we have become one of the most evil nations in history and put a stop to this endless war once and for all?

Yoo and Addington Bobbing and Weaving

2008-06-26T12:52:00.003-04:00

Listening to these two characters testify this morning on the use of torture by the CIA and US Military has been a frustrating experience. Neither is answering questions directly and most frustrating is listening to John Yoo time and again claim Attorney Client Privilege and National Security as the reasons he cannot answer questions.

Hearing David Addington "not recall" details of his visits to GITMO is so clearly a well planned lie as "not recalling" does not rise to the level of contempt or outright lying to Congress and land him in jail. He could "not recall" orders he gave to interrogators to do "whatever is necessary" to gain more information from prisoners held illegally at GITMO.

Overall, this day will lead to further subpoena's and hopefully force Congresses hand to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

From the front on the war against torture... I'm depressed.

Addington and Yoo to Testify Tomorrow Before the House Judiciary Committee

2008-06-25T13:16:00.007-04:00

The House Judiciary Subcommittee has called John Yoo and subpoenaed David Addington to testify tomorrow June 26, on their role in authorizing the use of torture by the United States Government at Gitmo and other (secret shhhhh) locations. This is an historic event and could be a touchstone for criminal investigations down the road.

I am hopeful that tomorrow could be a turning point. Again... I am hopeful. At the very least, David Addington (on the left), who is Dick Cheney's brain, strong arm bully and "constitution buster"... and who has been essentially running the government along with his morally bankrupt boss will have to FINALLY face some real questions. No doubt, much of the contentious debate we will hear will be between the Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

I can guarantee a packed courtroom and reporters from all over the world for this hearing. It is being broadcast over the radio by Pacifica on 99.5 on the FM dial or on WBAI.org. I'll be listening in and will report what I hear. Let's hope that John Yoo (pictured on the left) finds his soul and tells all.

We can only hope. Unfortunately, if we don't do it... the World Court may have to do it for us. Wouldn't that be a joy to watch the civilized world (we no longer belong) doing our constitutional duty of upholding our laws as well as long recognized international law.

My deepest hope is that John Yoo, now a professor of law at University of California at Berkeley, becomes the new John Deane and tells all to save himself from a jail term down the road. We (all of us together) are allowed to dream.

Theatre Of The Absurd

2008-06-24T19:07:00.005-04:00

In his interview with Keith Olbermann, John Cusack discussed War Inc. in terms of taking absurdity and following it along to its logical conclusion. (See earlier post) What we see in the movie (you HAVE seen the movie, yes?) is a war outsourced to a corporation and then follows the absurdity to its logical conclusion. Of course it seems totally insane.

Yet much of the horror of this scenario is truer than true. Cusack then says a great and wonderful thing in response to a question about the absurdity of the new oil contracts that were handed out to the big US and British oil companies without bids this past week. "Its hard to stay ahead of this crew".

For me, truth is always stranger than fiction, but the oil deals came as no surprise to me... why did we invade Iraq if not to take control of their oil and hand it to U.S. companies who will funnel the spoils through U.S. banks and give the Iraqis a few pennies to the barrel back. A classic modern rape and pillage scheme. I think most of America has figured this one out by now and the story will unfold along the same lines... there will be no more surprises... only the arrogance by which actions will be taken. And we the people will be left to clean up the mess.

Each and every day, I read and watch the world from as many perspectives as I have time for. From any standpoint, it seems that the level of insanity rises by the day as Bush is using the price of oil to justify offshore drilling off the California coast, opening ANWR for drilling, and filling our addicted veins with more of the good stuff. Of course, the people of California will burn down the White House before they see their pristine coastline destroyed and if he thinks that America is going to stand by and let him run rip shod over the environmental protections so hard fought to keep ANWR Alaska safe from drilling... well... its just the same old thing... words from a liar and fool.

In the category of "What Universe Do We Live In?", we get Bill the Hammer Kristol.... who is from another universe entirely and I don't know what this guy is smoking... or the people around him on FOX NEWS (nodding away) are smoking... but they talk about bombing Iran in the same vein as sportscasters speculate who will be taken in the first round of the NBA draft. Its hard to watch... words don't even do it justice. Just watch with one eye... its gonna hurt too much if you watch with both:

So, what this genius is saying is that if Bush thinks that Barak Obama is going to win, then he may bomb Iran. This is such absurdity, it defies all sense of sanity and morality. This "war quarterbacking" by people who have no sense at all about the horrors of war and of "bombing" other countries as a way to work out problems is criminal behavior. This is what our public discourse has come to? Well, I consider Bill Kristol and Fox News to be far more dangerous than anything Iran can throw in the air as these guys love war so much that they could actually seriously speculate about such an atrocity with a straight face.

If that's not enough, comes this from a Fortune Magazine interview with Charlie Black, John McCain's Chief Strategist: We saw how that (National Security issues) might play out early in the campaign, when one good scare, one timely reminder of the chaos lurking in the world, probably saved McCain in New Hampshire, a state he had to win to save his candidacy - this according to McCain's chief strategist, Charlie Black. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an "unfortunate event," says Black. "But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us." As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him," says Black.

You can't make this stuff up! Thousands of dead Americans in a terrorist attack would help John McCain. Really? Oh, thank you for that bit of great wisdom. Good thing we can be sure that there are people in power really caring about us and our safety in these DANGEROUS times. Apparently, ELECTION TIME seems to be even more dangerous than good old regular INVASION TIME.

I'm going to go and cry for America and pray that our future is not in the hands of these beasts.

Cusack on Countdown, "Now Is The Time To Speak Up"

2008-06-23T10:10:00.004-04:00

An excellent interview on Countdown with John Cusack. The best part is not the politics but the funny exchange they have about Bill O'Reilly. Is it noticeable yet how much I love John Cusack?

Also, need to make a fix... I stated that Obama had raised $100,000,000 in May. Wow, did I miss the mark! It was $15,000,000. I just fired one of my staff.

Enjoy the video, its great:

Why Obama Will Win In November

2008-06-19T20:37:00.009-04:00

Here I go again... writing about the presidential race. I can't help it. I feel that this country is on the cusp of something that I cannot quite articulate, but it feels very real, and in a sense... revolutionary.

Case in point. As Obama passed on Federal Funds for his campaign yesterday, he will no doubt be scolded by those who believe that money is all-corrupting in politics. But consider that Obama has raised this past May over $100,000,000.00 and THEY ARE STILL COUNTING! They haven't even gotten to June yet!!. The vast majority of money is coming from about 2,000,000 $50 a month donations. I would say that this looks like a true socio-political movement that represents a monumental shift in American politics. This is a movement that we cannot dismiss away... it completely overwhelmed Hillary and the poor dear is still dumbfounded at the colossal ignorance of her campaign to factor in the power of the Internet... and yes, the power of people actually starting to care again.

Hillary, what were they thinking? Can you imagine the Clinton campaign's dismay as all the big donors lined up with their checkbooks, Hillary gracefully accepting them... and then getting their clocks cleaned by hundreds of thousands of people sending in $25 at a time to Obama. Hillary... hello? We the people are OVER HERE. Not behind 40 foot hedges. How had you forgotten that?

And then there is John McCain... old man McCain will take the Federal campaign funds as nearly no one wants to put their name behind this campaign because it is so sad in so many ways that no self respecting Republican (is that an oxymoron?) will publicly embarrass themselves by supporting this hypocrite who still lives in the politics of the Cold War.

So, why do I think Obama will be elected? And yes, this is just BRUCE talking... but I believe that my thinking represents some or a portion of what millions of Americans think who may not be able to quite put it in words... because much of what I have to say is somewhat abstract. But here it goes:

1/ Obama represents the very best in America... The American Dream. As the beacon of hope and opportunity for nearly 2 1/2 centuries, America is now perhaps the most hated nation in the world. We've gone from protectors to invaders. From moral authority, to ripping up the Constitution to protect our freedoms... makes perfect sense. From the highest behavioral standards in global affairs, to torturing prisoners using contractors in secret prisons abroad.

We have fallen so far, so fast, its mind numbing to even imagine if we will ever be able to undo the damage created by Herr Bush and Emperor Cheney... and oh yes, the complicit Congress who never read the constitution and forgot that its their job to uphold its laws.

Therefore, it is my belief that the vast majority of Americans view Obama with a sense of hope and SALVATION that he can somehow heal the horrors that we have perpetrated and show a face to the world of a society that is compassionate at its core and NOT completely responsible for what our leaders have done. Just.... well... asleep at the wheel... and really really sorry for what has transpired and the mess we have made. I believe deep down that all Americans feel some degree of humiliation for allowing such awful things to happen (and continue to happen) in our names.

2/ In our heart of hearts, we are just plain tired of white men ruling us. As time goes on, and the white men continue their reign of control over this society, cracks are beginning to show. Why? Because bit by bit, Americans are electing people that LOOK LIKE THEM. Black, Hispanic, Women, Gay, Asian... the state houses, the Congress, the civic leaders look much more like America than our ruling corporate class and the White House. I believe that we as Americans are as ready to accept a minority or woman president as we are to accept that Ellen is a Lesbian and love her for being courageous enough to just admit it and move on.

3/ Obama is a true statesman, a born leader, and a motivator that moves people in real and tangible ways. Try to imagine little old creaky John McCain asking anything of you. Would you do it? Doubtful. He could barely convince a mouse to eat its cheese... he would straight talk that mouse right to sleep and then off to Iraq it goes for his 100 year war.

Now, try to imagine Barak Obama asking something of you. Better chance you'll do it. Why? He is a powerful motivator with tremendous charisma, a booming energy and aura that moves people in ways no politician we have seen in our lifetime. To see this man speak in front of sold out STADIUMS to wildly screaming audiences is a sight to behold. I don't think that even in our worst days, that this society COULD NOT POSSIBLY PASS UP the opportunity to have such a amazing statesman speaking for us on the world stage.

4/ Because WE CAN. As someone who has not turned on the television is many months, I, like millions of others am just so completely tired of the hogwash and hooey and lies and distortions of the MSM. The whole lot of them are so repugnant, so morally bankrupt and so ill informed about the lives of typical Americans (like me, sorta) that what they say holds little to no sway any longer.

Dare I say... people may actually be watching... and then doing the OPPOSITE of what they are told they should think and do... just to "stick it to them". We saw this time and again in exit polling during the primaries. People just lied and did so with a smile on their face to show them that they don't know anything.

And the truth is... THEY DON'T. So as they scrape and claw to fill air time, I beg each and every one of you: TURN OFF YOUR TV! Nothing that is said will be true or even relevant. And many of you will turn it off...except on election night... when we see the first African American elected President Of These United States Of America. Then we can once again feel that America may be that special kind of place that we can be proud of. A place we all still believe has the capability of both surprising ourselves and demonstrating that we can move beyond our perceived limits.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words - War for Oil

2008-06-19T09:46:00.005-04:00

Seeing this photo in the New York Times this morning inspired me to share with you my thoughts about this war. I don't think I've seen a picture that more symbolically describes our intentions and the feelings behind those intentions than this picture:

Is there a better way to communicate why we're there?

Is there a better way to communicate the black and white thinking that went into such as horrific adventure?

Is there a better way to express the dire circumstances by which our dependence on oil will lead to our destruction?

And could it not be more perfect that this picture is at the top of today's New York Times article "Deals with Iraq are Set" that explains that the big 4 oil companies: Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, BP and Shell, (all American and British) were given no- bid contracts to go get the oil on the behalf of their shareholders, and their protectors... The United States Military?

There is 110 billion barrels of oil underneath those Iraqi sands. Any wonder why we invaded?

Will.I.Am Obama Music Videos Wins Him Webby Artist Of The Year

2008-06-12T08:49:00.011-04:00

OK, so now you have a sense of who I support for President. Ummm... I don't just support Obama for President, I see it as the greatest necessity we have seen in our lifetimes since bringing down Hitler. Perhaps a bit strong... but I have been known to exaggerate just a bit once or twice before.

At the Webby Awards this week in New York, Will.I.Am won the Artist of the Year Award... as he has himself made two powerful music videos supporting Barak Obama. They beautifully express the hope and optimism that is sweeping across our country for a change in direction that is so dramatic and so wonderful I can barely contain my emotions.

The second video "Yes We Can" makes me weepy every time I watch it. Enjoy... and visit BarakObama.com and give $25 dollars and then watch them find a matching donor and give you their email address so you can correspond with someone who is a stranger... but a stranger no longer, as you have a common belief that there is hope for us and can communicate directly with them about your feelings, hopes and dreams.

The Obama campaign has worked the web so beautifully and artfully, they have made it a very comfortable place for every American to be an Obama supporter. They don't push or prod, they don't ram him down your throat or try to scare you out of your money. They ask for little and give in return.

Because of this approach, they believe that Obama could actually raise close to a BILLION DOLLARS for his campaign with over half of it from millions of Americans giving just $25 at a time. AMAZING is an understatement.

Enjoy the videos, they're wonderful.

Bill Moyers Keynote Address At The National Conference For Media Reform

2008-06-10T00:18:00.003-04:00

Its no secret I think that Bill Moyers is the one of the most powerful and important voices for truth and real journalism in the mass media we have in America. We owe a great debt a gratitude for his courage, intelligence and ability to rally us to awaken from our long slumber and reclaim our democracy.

I agree strongly with him that the cornerstone of a working democracy is a free and independent press... and we face that promise again with the rise of the Independent Press on the Internet and Blogomaniacs like myself always pressing for truth and pushing content out to the our friends, family and those that believe in what we say.

But I could never tell it like Bill... at least not today... this speech is one for the ages and hopefully won't fall into the dustbin of history but become a rallying cry for a democracy on the brink. Please watch, for an informed and vigilant public is the only thing we have left to save this country... and I present, Bill Moyers giving the Keynote Address at National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008:

O'Reilly Producer Harasses Bill Moyers and Then Gets a Taste of It Himself

2008-06-09T23:28:00.002-04:00

I love watching these videos. Another doughy neocon attack dog from Bill O'Reilly Truthiness show on Fox Newsiness. This schmuck harasses Bill Moyers and then gets a taste of his own medicine from the a reporting team at "Theuptake.Org. Its fun to watch as I we have seen this over and over again from Fox as they scramble to try to get real journalists to appear on their network and they refuse.

Enjoy... and a big THANK YOU to THEUPTAKE for being aware and getting this footage.

Dan Rather Speaks About Keeping the Press Independent Of Corporate Profiteering

2008-06-08T23:16:00.007-04:00

For those of you who are as insanely interested as I in the blatant degradation of the News Media (MSM) and their obvious incompetence and cowardice in confronting the major issues of our time with the leaders of this country, well then Dan Rather's speech is something you will truly enjoy.

- He talks of the enabling of the press corp in the lead up to the war
- He talks about consolidation of news organizations owned by a paltry few large corporate entities who's only motive is increasing shareholder value (on a quarterly basis) and whose news organization is an extremely unimportant pieces of their holdings... but one that can be profitable only if it does not make rich people unhappy
- He talks of fighting to keep the internet safe for free opinion and a truly independent news corp

- HE SPEAKS OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE (USING THE PHRASE) IN THE MSM!! (How could I not post this? OY... that's a little mini slam dunk for me.) About their denial of their own situation and how they feel the pressure from above and bow to it like cowards who are only interested in their personal careers, not journalistic integrity.

Sit down, relax, and enjoy Dan's speech. I don't think there is a soul in the United States that knows more about what was, and what is now the MSM, what it is really about today and is now speaking in plain english about it that every American must be aware of. As Dan notes, our first amendment to the constitution demands the press remain free. Let me help him and all of you to see what it actually says and how it is also now interpreted:

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom...of the press." Although the First Amendment specifically mentions only the federal Congress, this provision now protects the press from all government, whether local, state or federal.

Dan made this speech Saturday evening at 2008 National Conference On Media Reform in Minneapolis. Enjoy:

What Does $1.4 Billion Look Like?

2008-06-07T13:42:00.004-04:00

It looks like our friends in the Air Force crashing a B2 Bomber. Oops, sorry about that everyone.

If you want to see that much waste go up in smoke, watch this video. I can't help but wonder how many people could be fed, housed, healed and employed for those kinds of dollars. We have 20 of these!! Well, now we have 19. Guess we'll just have to buy 5 more. Enjoy watching your money disappear:

The Israeli Attack on Dayr az-Zwar, Syria

2008-06-07T10:42:00.022-04:00

I haven't written in a few days, and no doubt thousands of you have been wondering... "What's up with Bruce?" Where is my daily dose of Conspiracy? Well, wait no longer!! But this post is not about conspiracy, its about Israel and Syria.

Why am I writing about Israel and Syria? Without belaboring this, one of my fascinations is Middle Eastern geopolitical strategy and of course being Jewish, I've always been obsessed with Israel.

Let me first say that while I am the type of person who would disband every army in the world and have everyone hold hands and sing together, I also have a left brain. My left brain is often fed with a deep seated kind of "rooting" for Israel in a similar way I am a New York Jets football fan.

From birth, it was banged into my brain that Israel is the underdog and that the State of Israel and the Jews of the world are always in imminent danger and must always be in a permanent state of readiness for the worst. I appreciate this point of view given the Holocaust and continuing anti-semitism in parts of the world that is very real. But I also know that most of what we are fed about the Middle East and Israel is not true and is driven by the same desire to heighten fear and thus retain profits and control.

That said, I follow Israeli politics as closely as I follow American politics and read Ha'aretz on a daily basis as well as Debka, a purported Israeli intelligence website that is very hawkish. I believe what I am reading is THE TRUTH about as much as what I believe from Fox News, but for me its not about the facts but the AGENDA behind the information, how it is presented and how the information is supposed to try to HOOK ME INTO THINKING something about the world. But, there is an event that has really caught my eye and can't look away.

On September 6, 2007, we are told that 4 to 5 brand new F15i fighter jets fresh off the Boeing production line crossed into Syrian airspace and flew to the far northeast corner of the country and blew up a "nuclear reactor" near Dayr az-Zwar, Syria close to the Euphrates river that was being built with the help of North Korea.

Millions of words have been written about this event including Sy Hersch in the New Yorker in the February 11Th of this year where he attempts to get at the "real" story behind this event. His story could be the most believable as he wonders aloud if this really was a nuclear plant at all but closer to some other type of military facility. However, the real story is the fact that Israel was able to send very un-stealthy planes deep into Syria, successfully blow up something, and return home safely without Syria's air defenses even knowing what was happening... and if they did, not being able to do anything about it.

And I believe he's right.

I'll assume for purposes of this post (and for the sake of the GAME) that the following are true:
1/ Israel flew fighter jets over Syria on 9/6/07 and blew up something
2/ No one wants to talk about it publicly because it is so embarrassing for all involved, that talking about what really happened and why would be unacceptable to everyone, and for completely different reasons depending upon where you are standing
3/ There are probably fewer than 100 people on the planet that actually know EVERYTHING about what happened on that day... and that may be the key to why no one still knows and believes everything that has been said

Let's go to the photos as presented in the media:
The photo shows a facility before, and then nice clean earth after. The story goes that immediately following the bombing, Syria scrubbed the location clean as not to leave any traces of what was blown up and thus not to be dealt an even more embarrassing revelation that they were building a nuclear power plant... and thus upset the very delicate situation in that region as well as the unbelievable stupidity and naiveté of thinking it could build one of these puppies and not have anyone figure it out before they finished.

As I stated earlier, so much has been written and speculated about this attack that I do not want to be just another cackling voice in the noise of cyberspace. But.... there is one aspect of this event that I find terribly fascinating and believe that this event is a bell weather for what is to come strategically in the Middle East.

What I find most fascinating, is that no one is talking on the record about this event... particularly the Syrians. The Iranians... silence. The Israeli government... silence. Congress was only briefed just recently on what US intel says happened, but one wonders if the Congress is ever told the truth about anything given the Bush Administrations propensity to lie about everything all the time to everyone.

But I've spent hours and hours looking and reading and asking myself... why this attack, why this place, why this time? Well, I firmly believe (as much as I love Israel), that Israel is an Army that acts like a country. WAY MORE than the United States. That being the case, Israel doesn't want to have uncertainty about their neighbor's capabilities. Whatever was there, it almost doesn't matter. What matters is the spanking new Russian made air defense system that Syria spent nearly a billion dollars installing and is being readied for Iran. They wanted to test it out and see if it works!!

From Debka.com: DEBKAfile’s military experts conclude from the way Damascus described the episode Wednesday, Sept. 6, that the Pantsyr-S1E missiles, purchased from Russia to repel air assailants, failed to down the Israeli jets accused of penetrating northern Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean the night before.

The new Pantsyr missiles therefore leave Syrian and Iranian airspace vulnerable to hostile intrusion.

Even if only 1/10th of what we see and hear about this story is true... this is a COLOSSAL DISASTER FOR SYRIA AND IRAN as it shows they are completely vulnerable to American and Israeli technology and that nothing on the horizon can protect them. The Russians had promised that this was THE system that would keep them safe from American and Israeli fighters and bombers.

Thus... the silence. This act of war by Israel was given a big fat PASS by everyone because the real problem is much bigger... the entire balance of power in the middle east and the perception that THERE IS ONE.

Syria doesn't want anyone to know that they and Iran are powerless to stop Israel... and NEITHER DOES ISRAEL!!! But Israel couldn't help themselves from testing out Syria's new toy to see if it worked.

Landmines and Soccer Moms

2008-06-03T23:28:00.007-04:00

While this video portrays something incredibly horrible that we protected and secure Americans could not even imagine happening here. That is exactly what is so brilliant. We are so complacent and so arrogant and il informed, that our government wouldn't even sign the landmine ban. HOW MANY AMERICANS SPOKE UP?? NONE.

Well, this video portrays what it would look like if we lived in dozens of other countries where landmines are a daily factor of life and brings home to us the reality of what it is that WE pay for with our bloated military dictatorship and our uncaring attitudes toward the rest of the world.

As a matter of fact... our government HAS INCREASED THE AMOUNT WE SPEND ON LANDMINES. It so horrible... I couldn't even make this stuff up in my worst nightmares. So, enjoy the video as we are the ones who are the problem portrayed in this video. Enjoy!!!

Did you like that?? That's what YOUR tax dollars accomplish paying for landmines in many countries throughout the world and no one, NO ONE seems to know or care.

Well, don't just sit there... DO SOMETHING!

Rising Gasoline Prices, Why I Think Its a Good Thing

2008-06-02T21:19:00.022-04:00

I received a "pass it on" email calling for a one day boycott of gasoline. This due to the high price of gasoline.

I don't disagree that the price is artificially steep. No doubt the oil companies are reaping enormous profits from this "conspiracy of price". However, I believe that gasoline is way under priced in the U.S. to begin with and that this can only have positive repercussions in the near and far future.
Why?

Well first, the obvious. If gasoline prices are high, then new car buyers will not buy gas guzzlers. And from what I've read, the car dealerships are looking at lots FILLED WITH unsold SUV's and Pickups... both categories of vehicles do not face ANY fuel efficiency standards due to laws created by Congress. Are you listening? Do you see the reality of this situation?

The current and INCREASING PRICE OF GAS can only be one of the most wonderful things to happen in a long time. Please note... the United States burns 33% of the gasoline in the world!! Think about that... 300 million people, burning 33% of the gasoline of a planet of 6 billion people. And yet, Americans think they are ENTITLED TO CHEAP GASOLINE. RUBBISH!!!

This is complete ignorant and arrogant hogwash and shows the same uncaring attitude toward the environment and our own safety that we show in so many areas of our own life such as the war in Iraq. In order for me to save a few bucks today, I as an American am more than willing to put the life of the planet and my children and love ones at stake as the planet heats up dramatically each year. Nice. Truly American.

I believe this shows a colossal ignorance and short sightedness that only Americans could have. The Europeans have dealt with $6.00 and up per gallon of gasoline for decades... yet we Americans believe that gasoline should be cheap... and that this is our BIRTH RIGHT. STOOOOOOOPID AMERICANS!

I care not what the profits are for oil companies. High gas prices will force Americans to face the uncomfortable reality that our cars, our behaviors and our economy is obsolete and we must change our behavior and attitudes and buying habits NOW. And if the price of gasoline brings this about... then so be it. Candidly, we made this happen through inaction and laziness, and now we must live in our own shit.

So, for all you angry Americans who believe you are being ripped off by expensive oil, consider these:

- We use 1/3rd of the gasoline in the world and therefore spew more carbon and global warming chemicals in the atmosphere than any other country. This is totally excessive and completely unnecessary. So unnecessary that I think that rising prices are a godsend and give us what we deserve... a wake up call.

- By simply doing YOUR job as a citizen (NOT JUST AS A CONSUMER), you can pressure lawmakers to develop incentives for companies to develop alternative vehicles that have little to no carbon emissions... can you say TESLA MOTORS? The technology already exists... hello?

- This is as much a gift as it is a warning of what is to come and gives YOU time to make a change. Its only going to get worse, so get BUSY. Therefore, you have time to take action to reduce your own carbon footprint and behaviors before you go broke feeding that gas guzzler in your driveway that is ohhhh so cool and comfortable and convenient. I cry for you every time you have to fill your tank. BOO HOO!!

- At the present rate that we are putting carbon in the atmosphere... your kids and friends won't even have a planet to enjoy. So do SOMETHING NOW that ends our dependence on oil

- Stop complaining. Sell your car, or simply consider it a loss and have it crushed and the raw materials recycled for GOOD USE. You'll be saving lives by doing so as well as bringing about necessary change

- Call your car manufacturer and urge them to provide ZERO EMISSION cars NOW at an affordable price. They have the technology... they simply don't believe Americans will buy them. Why? Cause we are too stooooooopid.

- Call all of the American auto manufacturers (who are refusing to develop fuel efficient and electric cars because they consider them impractical and too expensive to manufacture) and tell them you are buying a Toyota Prius.

- Invest in clean technologies so companies WHO ARE DOING SOMETHING will have cash to make our lives and the life of the planet better and livable

- And last of all, go to wecansolveit.org and make a donation and offer your help. They will save our lives and our economy a lot faster if you help empower them. Otherwise... we are simply doomed to failure and unfortunately, failure does not seem to be an option here

And, if you think I'm exaggerating... go and see Al Gore's new slide show here and then tell me who is the blow hard on this issue.

I'm sorry everyone, I don't feel sorry for you at all. You wanted to be really comfortable and not inconvenienced. Isn't that the American way? Not any more :-).

I have a NEW AMERICAN WAY for you to consider. INNOVATION AND CHANGE!!! Don't do it for your own convenience... do it for your kids and loved ones... so they have a planet called Earth to live on past 2020.

Get busy.

WAR INC. IS WONDERFUL!!

2008-05-31T23:52:00.004-04:00

Now you know how I feel about this movie. I can't spoil it for you... but John and Joan Cusack are wonderful, the entire movie about the future of war... or... really WAR TODAY where the contractors prosecute the war in conjunction with (fill in the blank), the CIA, DIA, NRO, NSA... you get the story.

According to the liberal blogs, the corporate media is trying to kill this movie... and frankly, I think they're right. Its just too good of a movie to be ignored as if its not happening. But its most definitely happening and GO SEE IT DAMN IT!!!

And after you've seen it, post your thoughts on it below.

Just for fun, I'm giving you a present for making it this far into this post with the film trailer which gives you a hint at the zany world that the movie portrays that is not terribly dissimilar to the world we live in already and heading in this direction FAST. Enjoy the movie!!!

If Elected, Obama To Review All of Bush's Executive Orders

2008-05-30T01:53:00.007-04:00

We just may get a President who respects the Constitution and will hopefully overturn the Bush Dictatorship and his signing of dozens of executive orders (that came out of Dick Cheney's office) on the grounds that they are unconstitutional. From the Reuters Blog from May 28th:

DENVER - Maybe it’s his background teaching constitutional law.

If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.

Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama.

Other goals for his first 100 days: work out a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq; make progress on alternative energy plans and launch legislation to reform the health care system.

Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Obama talks to students during a visit to a school in Thornton, CO)

What About Those "Stans", And Why Should I Care?

2008-05-29T23:28:00.025-04:00

I discussed in an earlier post about the tragedy of Myanmar... citing the incredible might of the U.S. Military and the money we spend supporting this massive machine. I wondered why we can not have it put to good use to save lives in a situation in which our military might could have served US well as well and the people of Myanmar.

However, we live in a geo-political reality where its clear to everyone who LOOKS, that U.S. military policy exactly mirrors U.S. economic policy. Our national interests and national security are no longer a matter of nuclear annihilation, but simply a matter of using our overwhelming firepower to ensure the safe delivery of oil and natural gas through the middle east to markets in Asia. (We only get 10 % of OUR oil from the Middle East, that being from Saudi Arabia.) Note Thomas Barnett's "Pentagon's New Map For War and Peace " in the 21st Century. This map shows the focus of the U.S. military in the next century... and note that bulge in Central Asia. That's become a very important place.

I want to bring to your attention what is happening in the world that makes Central Asia the hotspot and focus of our military. Assuming that I am right (which I am) that our military protects our economic interests, then one must consider why we invaded two countries, why THOSE countries, and what we have to gain by these incredibly expensive and horrific adventures.

Earlier in B.L.O.G., I posted the strategic necessities of US Foreign Policy as outlined by the PNAC. In it, they discuss the need for a transfer of American military force from Western Europe... where it is clearly no longer needed... to Asia. Why Asia?

Its quite simple... The "STANS" HAVE THE LARGEST UNTAPPED DEPOSITS OF OIL AND GAS IN THE WORLD. Whoever controls the flow of that oil, will reap enormous benefits and be a major economic power as viewed by the current financial paradigm of the ruling elite... as well as providing a true supplementation to dwindling Middle Eastern Oil over the next decade or two.

From J ane's Foreign Report: "Intense competition for unimpeded access to the world’s natural resources is continuing and is likely to increase. The current unprecedented surge in fuel prices illustrates the growing need for a greater supply and consequently demonstrates the volatile nature of the energy market.

The Caspian Sea could meet some of that demand, because it has sizable proven and possible oil and gas reserves ("proven reserves" are defined as oil and natural-gas deposits that are considered 90 percent probable, and "possible reserves" are defined as deposits that are considered 50 percent probable). The littoral states of the Caspian Sea -- Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan -- collectively have an estimated 10 billion-32 billion barrels of proven and another 233 billion barrels of possible oil reserves."

This represents a new Saudi Arabia of Oil just north of IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN. What a coincidence!!! Just so happens to be the two countries that we invaded. Wow... what luck!! Let's take a look at the map to your left.

Notice how incredibly landlocked this region is.... you need LANES to get the oil to the sea and on to those tankers. Look closely at the map... what are the two most perfect lanes to get this out? Afghanistan (just below Turkmenistan) down through Pakistan... that pipeline deal, known as the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline has already been inked. But how do we get even closer?

The Caspian Sea is where the action is and Kazakhstan is the major player here with the most potential for oil. The only OTHER way to move that oil for us to have control of it is WEST AND SOUTH of the Caspian Sea. Look at the map and see what two countries sit to the west and south... Iran and Iraq. WHAT A COINCIDENCE!! Georgia, Azerbaijan and TURKEY would be the route for new pipelines moving the oil away from the Russians and the Chinese and ensuring our control.

Watch in the next few years as Turkey grows in importance. We will be hearing a lot more about Turkey as it is the backbone for U.S. foreign and military policy in Asia for the foreseeable future. They are the hub between Asia and Europe and provide the quickest and best means of getting to this oil other than our control of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is a map of pipelines under construction and proposed for the region... of particular note is the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline (that will move oil from the Caspian Sea west through Turkey):

I realize that this post may seem incredibly boring... and SO WHAT BRUCE!! I am in the business of understanding WHY we do what we do, and have realized that our military now ENACTS our economic policies by clearing zones of control and then acting as a force to protect those zones.

Therefore, if we want, we can now draw a new pipeline route south through Iraq on the above map. Note that Syria is now surrounded and trust me... eventually will not look anything like it does today. Economic and military realities will ensure this and already is forcing them to the peace table with Israel.

But if we are going to understand WHAT is going on and WHY in our world... we need to look at maps, and overlay the resources of the world over those maps. When you do so, you will have a glimpse of what is and what will continue to be U.S. Foreign and Military policy.

Its a good idea to know what we are actually up to... it helps us gain insight into what we have done, as well as what is potentially going to happen and perhaps even... PREVENT IT.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's "A Stroke of Insight" IS Changing The World

2008-05-27T22:00:00.006-04:00

Not long ago, I posted Jill Bolte Taylor's talk on TED.com about her stroke and her incredible experience from it. Very briefly, she experienced a hemorrhage in her left hemisphere dramatically impairing her left brain and its abilities. What she experienced is what she terms "the deep inner peace circuitry of the right brain". She realized that we can access this "space" and change who we are and how we relate to each other and to the world by choosing to access our right brains, and its innate capabilities.

What was immediately striking to me was how immensely powerful this talk is... but as I've watched it now... oh, about 25 times, (and still cry each time I see it) I've come to realize that as a former brain scientist from Harvard, she has the credentials and believability to assist in bringing about what may be the the next step in our evolution... converging science and spirituality. Here is her talk, please watch it... its truly wonderful and perhaps life transforming:

Why am I re posting this talk? For me, seeing this talk was something that I discovered alone and was a deeply personal experience. And then to discover that this experience has also touched many thousands, if not millions of other people was an astonishing and wonderful revelation. The New York Times did a story on her last Sunday that I discovered and was just blown away that this talk on TED has propelled her to a good degree of fame. The New York Times Story is here.

This was the second story the Times has written about Dr. Taylor. She was just named one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People of 2008... and it was from this talk! I just am so completely overjoyed about how a great talk like this can get noticed and recognized. I still am awe struck at the power of the web as well as the emerging influence of TED. It inspires me to be hopeful, keep writing and not to give in to pessimism.

If you want to connect directly with her... which I will certainly try to do... here is her website.

I feel as if this story is just the beginning of something really huge, and its one that I will watch very very closely.

A Soldier's Story in Iraq

2008-05-27T17:51:00.006-04:00

Today, I'm experiencing a sense of real agony over this war. It is so completely wrong I just want to scream out to the world: MAKE IT STOP, WE MUST COME TO OUR SENSES!! There is nothing good about what we are doing... its fitting that just after Memorial Day we are supposed to honor those who have protected our freedom and yet that is the exact opposite of what our war machine does now.

I have this nagging feeling that by doing nothing, we as a society will be punished irreparably for the pain that we have caused. We all know that we are sending a generation of Americans overseas to kill people for no reason other than to control the natural resources of that country and that region. (It seems so obvious to me... I still can't understand how its not to others). One FACT for everyone... Iraq has 115 billion barrels of oil underneath those sands... the second largest reserves of any country in the world.

Its a crime. Its a heavy burden that must face as a society. And we somehow must make this end. Candidly... I am not hopeful... I think that unless we Americans hit the streets and slam the lawmakers so hard to remove all the troops right now, then it won't ever happen in our lifetime. Watch this soldier's "winter tale" and then ask yourself, what can I do to stop this right now. Thank you for watching this...

Barak's Commencement Address at Wesleyan, The Full Text

2008-05-25T17:13:00.006-04:00

Today, I am providing a public service by helping to populate the blogosphere with the prepared speech by our future President Barak Obama. (Who stood in for Senator Edward Kennedy at the Wesleyan Commencement Address.) It is an inspired speech... and calls for a new generation of Americans to do SERVICE as a means for bringing about change.... not to go shopping. (Apparently, CNN cut in the middle of the speech... I'm so glad I don't have to watch that... I would have completely freaked out.) Thank you once again Wolf Blitzer and CNN for showing what you're made of. A Special thanks goes to Stephen C. Rose for posting the advanced script for people like me to disseminate.

Wesleyan University Commencement

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Middletown, CT

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, President Roth, for that generous introduction, and congratulations on your first year at the helm of Wesleyan. Congratulations also to the class of 2008, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of your graduation.

I have the distinct honor today of pinch-hitting for one of my personal heroes and a hero to this country, Senator Edward Kennedy. Teddy wanted to be here very much, but as you know, he’s had a very long week and is taking some much-needed rest. He called me up a few days ago and I said that I’d be happy to be his stand-in, even if there was no way I could fill his shoes.

I did, however, get the chance to glance at the speech he planned on delivering today, and I’d like to start by passing along a message from him: “To all those praying for my return to good health, I offer my heartfelt thanks. And to any who’d rather have a different result, I say, don’t get your hopes up just yet!”

So we know that Ted Kennedy’s legendary sense of humor is as strong as ever, and I have no doubt that his equally legendary fighting spirit will carry him through this latest challenge. He is our friend, he is our champion, and we hope and pray for his return to good health.

The topic of his speech today was common for a commencement, but one that nobody could discuss with more authority or inspiration than Ted Kennedy. And that is the topic of service to one’s country – a cause that is synonymous with his family’s name and their legacy.

I was born the year that his brother John called a generation of Americans to ask their country what they could do. And I came of age at a time when they did it. They were the Peace Corps volunteers who won a generation of goodwill toward America at a time when America’s ideals were challenged. They were the teenagers and college students, not much older than you, who watched the Civil Rights Movement unfold on their television sets; who saw the dogs and the fire hoses and the footage of marchers beaten within an inch or their lives; who knew it was probably smarter and safer to stay at home, but still decided to take those Freedom Rides down south – who still decided to march. And because they did, they changed the world.

I bring this up because today, you are about to enter a world that makes it easy to get caught up in the notion that there are actually two different stories at work in our lives.

The first is the story of our everyday cares and concerns – the responsibilities we have to our jobs and our families – the bustle and busyness of what happens in our own life. And the second is the story of what happens in the life of our country – of what happens in the wider world. It’s the story you see when you catch a glimpse of the day’s headlines or turn on the news at night – a story of big challenges like war and recession; hunger and climate change; injustice and inequality. It’s a story that can sometimes seem distant and separate from our own – a destiny to be shaped by forces beyond our control.

And yet, the history of this nation tells us this isn’t so. It tells us that we are a people whose destiny has never been written for us, but by us – by generations of men and women, young and old, who have always believed that their story and the American story are not separate, but shared. And for more than two centuries, they have served this country in ways that have forever enriched both.

I say this to you as someone who couldn’t be standing here today if not for the service of others, and wouldn’t be standing here today if not for the purpose that service gave my own life.

You see, I spent much of my childhood adrift. My father left my mother and I when I was two. When my mother remarried, I lived in Indonesia for a time, but was mostly raised in Hawaii by her and my grandparents from Kansas. My teenage years were filled with more than the usual dose of adolescent rebellion, and I’ll admit that I didn’t always take myself or my studies very seriously. I realize that none of you can probably relate to this, but there were many times when I wasn’t sure where I was going, or what I would do.

But during my first two years of college, perhaps because the values my mother had taught me –hard work, honesty, empathy – had resurfaced after a long hibernation; or perhaps because of the example of wonderful teachers and lasting friends, I began to notice a world beyond myself. I became active in the movement to oppose the apartheid regime of South Africa. I began following the debates in this country about poverty and health care. So that by the time I graduated from college, I was possessed with a crazy idea – that I would work at a grassroots level to bring about change.

I wrote letters to every organization in the country I could think of. And one day, a small group of churches on the South Side of Chicago offered me a job to come work as a community organizer in neighborhoods that had been devastated by steel plant closings. My mother and grandparents wanted me to go to law school. My friends were applying to jobs on Wall Street. Meanwhile, this organization offered me $12,000 a year plus $2,000 for an old, beat-up car.

And I said yes.

Now, I didn’t know a soul in Chicago, and I wasn’t sure what this community organizing business was all about. I had always been inspired by stories of the Civil Rights Movement and JFK’s call to service, but when I got to the South Side, there were no marches, and no soaring speeches. In the shadow of an empty steel plant, there were just a lot of folks who were struggling. And we didn’t get very far at first.

I still remember one of the very first meetings we put together to discuss gang violence with a group of community leaders. We waited and waited for people to show up, and finally, a group of older people walked into the hall. And they sat down. And a little old lady raised her hand and asked, “Is this where the bingo game is?”

It wasn’t easy, but eventually, we made progress. Day by day, block by block, we brought the community together, and registered new voters, and set up after school programs, and fought for new jobs, and helped people live lives with some measure of dignity.

But I also began to realize that I wasn’t just helping other people. Through service, I found a community that embraced me; citizenship that was meaningful; the direction I’d been seeking. Through service, I discovered how my own improbable story fit into the larger story of America.

Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story

There are so many ways to serve and so much need at this defining moment in our history. You don’t have to be a community organizer or do something crazy like run for President. Right here at Wesleyan, many of you have already volunteered at local schools, contributed to United Way, and even started a program that brings fresh produce to needy families in the area. One hundred and sixty-four graduates of this school have joined the Peace Corps since 2001, and I’m especially proud that two of you are about to leave for my father’s homeland of Kenya to bring alternative sources of energy to impoverished areas.

I ask you to seek these opportunities when you leave here, because the future of this country – your future – depends on it. At a time when our security and moral standing depend on winning hearts and minds in the forgotten corners of this world, we need more of you to serve abroad. As President, I intend to grow the Foreign Service, double the Peace Corps over the next few years, and engage the young people of other nations in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity.

At a time when our ice caps are melting and our oceans are rising, we need you to help lead a green revolution. We still have time to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change if we get serious about investing in renewable sources of energy, and if we get a generation of volunteers to work on renewable energy projects, and teach folks about conservation, and help clean up polluted areas; if we send talented engineers and scientists abroad to help developing countries promote clean energy.

At a time when a child in Boston must compete with children in Beijing and Bangalore, we need an army of you to become teachers and principals in schools that this nation cannot afford to give up on. I will pay our educators what they deserve, and give them more support, but I will also ask more of them to be mentors to other teachers, and serve in high-need schools and high-need subject areas like math and science.

At a time when there are children in the city of New Orleans who still spend each night in a lonely trailer, we need more of you to take a weekend or a week off from work, and head down South, and help rebuild. If you can’t get the time, volunteer at the local homeless shelter or soup kitchen in your own community. Find an organization that’s fighting poverty, or a candidate who promotes policies you believe in, and find a way to help them.

At a time of war, we need you to work for peace. At a time of inequality, we need you to work for opportunity. At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt, we need you to make us believe again.

Now understand this - believing that change is possible is not the same as being naïve. Go into service with your eyes wide open, for change will not come easily. On the big issues that our nation faces, difficult choices await. We’ll have to face some hard truths, and some sacrifice will be required – not only from you individually, but from the nation as a whole.

There is no magic bullet to our energy problems, for example; no perfect energy source - so all of us will have to use the energy sources we have more wisely. Deep-rooted poverty will not be reversed overnight, and will require both money and reform at a time when our federal and state budgets are strapped and Washington is skeptical that reform is possible. Transforming our education system will require not only bold government action, but a change in attitudes among parents and students. Bringing an end to the slaughter in Darfur will involve navigating extremely difficult realities on the ground, even for those with the best of intentions.

And so, should you take the path of service, should you choose to take up one of these causes as your own, know that you’ll experience frustrations and failures. Even your successes will be marked by imperfections and unintended consequences. I guarantee you, there will certainly be times when friends or family urge you to pursue more sensible endeavors with more tangible rewards. And there will be times when you are tempted to take their advice.

But I hope you’ll remember, during those times of doubt and frustration, that there is nothing naïve about your impulse to change this world. Because all it takes is one act of service – one blow against injustice – to send forth that tiny ripple of hope that Robert Kennedy spoke of.

You know, Ted Kennedy often tells a story about the fifth anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps. He was there, and he asked one of the young Americans why he had chosen to volunteer. And the man replied, “Because it was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country.”

I don’t know how many of you have been asked that question, but after today, you have no excuses. I am asking you, and if I should have the honor of serving this nation as President, I will be asking again in the coming years. We may disagree on certain issues and positions, but I believe we can be unified in service to a greater good. I intend to make it a cause of my presidency, and I believe with all my heart that this generation is ready, and eager, and up to the challenge.

We will face our share of cynics and doubters. But we always have. I can still remember a conversation I had with an older man all those years ago just before I left for Chicago. He said, “Barack, I’ll give you a bit of advice. Forget this community organizing business and do something that’s gonna make you some money. You can’t change the world, and people won’t appreciate you trying. But you’ve got a nice voice, so you should think about going into television broadcasting. I’m telling you, you’ve got a future.”

Now, he may have been right about the TV thing, but he was wrong about everything else. For that old man has not seen what I have seen. He has not seen the faces of ordinary people the first time they clear a vacant lot or build a new playground or force an unresponsive leader to provide services to their community. He has not seen the face of a child brighten because of an inspiring teacher or mentor. He has not seen scores of young people educate their parents on issues like Darfur, or mobilize the conscience of a nation around the challenge of climate change. He has not seen lines of men and women that wrap around schools and churches, that stretch block after block just so they could make their voices heard, many for the very first time.

And that old man who didn’t believe the world could change – who didn’t think one person could make a difference – well he certainly didn’t know much about the life of Joseph Kennedy’s youngest son.

It is rare in this country of ours that a person exists who has touched the lives of nearly every single American without many of us even realizing it. And yet, because of Ted Kennedy, millions of children can see a doctor when they get sick. Mothers and fathers can leave work to spend time with their newborns. Working Americans are paid higher wages, and compensated for overtime, and can keep their health insurance when they change jobs. They are protected from discrimination in the workplace, and those who are born with disabilities can still get an education, and health care, and fair treatment on the job. Our schools are stronger and our colleges are filled with more Americans who can afford it. And I have a feeling that Ted Kennedy is not done just yet.

But surely, if one man can achieve so much and make such a difference in the lives of so many, then each of us can do our part. Surely, if his service and his story can forever shape America’s story, then our collective service can shape the destiny of this generation. At the very least, his living example calls each of us to try. That is all I ask of you on this joyous day of new beginnings; that is what Senator Kennedy asks of you as well, and that is how we will keep so much needed work going, and the cause of justice everlasting, and the dream alive for generations to come. Thank you so much to the class of 2008, and congratulations on your graduation.

Truthiness and the National Security State

2008-05-24T20:30:00.050-04:00

I had a conversation today with someone who works in the New York Metro region news media, and he said they use the word "truthiness" in their banter. I believe they use it as an internal joke to describe what it is they do and perhaps use it a barometer to measure the garbage they send over the airwaves as "news" and "the truth" with "the facts on the ground".

They lovingly refer to this newstainment as "truthiness"... perhaps to make fun of what they report, of themselves and also perhaps to work through their own guilt at having once dreamed of an admirable profession that informs, enlightens, and by doing so helps to define and remind us of who we are.

The Urban Dictionary definition of TRUTHINESS: The quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts. ... and this seems eerily similar to what we hear from all parts of our governing bodies. Stephen Colbert claims ownership to this word and its fitting as he uses so wonderfully. Below is video where people were voting to make truthiness the Merriam Webster word of the year in 2006.

So today, with truthiness in mind, I want to ask the question, can we fix the mess we're in, or are we doomed to be the shortest living Empire in history, destroyed by its own greed, folly, arrogance, ignorance, laziness, fear and of course, pervasive TRUTHINESS?

As I listen to people talk, they whine on about the Bush Administration in the hopes that this administration is the purpose of all the ills, and once they're gone... our Utopian society will re-emerge.... mmmmm.... NO, ain't gonna happen.

I'm sorry to let you all in on a couple of truths that may hurt your feelings, but I like to say it like it is... that the truth about this country and the system we are in and are told is "democratic" is anything but... and that will not change short of a complete 'makeover', or 'do over'. The past three generations have never lived in a true democracy... and I see it as a reality that was created by a series of actions on the part of the ruling elite... but two stand out as particularly powerful in taking over the country.

1/ The Federal Reserve Act of 1913

In one single piece of legislation, United States currency, banking system, lending system and nearly all control over the financial levers of the economy was turned over to the Federal Reserve Board, a PRIVATE BANK made up of BANKERS who are appointed to 14 year terms and are not bound by the Constitution of the United States... just so happens that the Constitution says that the creation of a Central Bank is ILLEGAL.

Woodrow Wilson, the dimwitted president primed and placed into power by the Morgan's, Rockefellers and Warburg's and other bankiing families... was President from 1913 - 1921. Remember, as I stated in an earlier quote: he who controls the money system of a country controls that country.

Later in his life, Woodrow Wilson would say the following (realizing he had signed away American Democracy): A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men ... [W]e have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.
The New Freedom: A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People (New York and Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913)

Later in same document: Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

What power is he referring to?

2/ Fast forward to post World War II, and another dimwitted President, Harry S. Truman signs into legislation the National Security Act of 1947.

In one piece of sweeping legislation (the likes we have not seen since the creation of the Department of Fatherland Security), we created the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and The Air Force. One piece of legislation created the secret apparatus and the foundation of the National Security State we live in. It created two secret organizations involved solely in intelligence gathering and one who perhaps was created to develop the machinery to collect the information.

The purpose behind the creation of the Air Force in this legislation is one that is still open to debate. But using the simple principle of "follow the money" and using my favorite chart "Death and Taxes" , space based operations of the Air Force add up to roughly $30 Billion for satellite creation, deployment and operation. It appears to me that the Air Force was created to develop nuclear bombers, nuclear global strike aircraft and SPACE CAPABILITIES that could then be used by the NSC and the CIA for intelligence gathering and ensuring American hegemony into the next century. By the way, this happens to be twice the size of NASA's (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin) budget which will be in the area of $17 Billion.

The National Security State (formerly known as the United States of America) that was put into motion by this single piece of legislation... and along with a private banking system controlling the purse strings of the country... set in motion the cabal that rules our country today and has for the past 60 years.

Quite simply, the Military Industrial Complex (essentially the permanent arms industry of vast proportions and codified with an ironclad partnership between the Pentagon and a few enormous companies (the top 5 being Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman) seeks and successfully maintains the flow of unlimited Federal Budget by ensuring that the citizenry is always faced with an enemy and is therefore kept in a permanent state of fear and is forced to agree to fund permanent war.

The banking system reaps immense profit from this permanent war by funneling the spoils of it (cash and debt from the absolute control of the world's natural resources by the military) into American and American controlled banks. This includes the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well.

There's bad news and good news... the good news is that this system will crush under its own weight as it seems to be doing now. Also, Americans are becoming aware of this cabal and their agenda and beginning to rumble aloud. Sadly, I think its going to take much more than that to dismember this system permanently.

The bad news: as this system crushes under its own weight... it just may take us with it.

Eisenhower Warned Us... and We Didn't Listen

2008-05-22T17:14:00.006-04:00

Attached in the former President of the United Stated Dwight Eisenhower warning an unaware and naive country of the impending doom to our democracy in the face of the "MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX". His chillingly statement, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and persists" is perhaps the most powerful and accurately predictive words we've heard from a President in modern times.

What caused Eisenhower to make this speech and how have we become sheep to this immense military machine that now rules our country... and perhaps the world? Whether or not they exist is no longer a question. What makes ME wonder is what went on his administration that led him to make such a speech. What did he see, what did he experience, and what did he know at that time? I believe that what he saw emerging in the Secret Government, the National Security Apparatus and its limitless Secret (black) Budgets was so alarming to him that he realized our Democracy was doomed. I firmly believe what he experienced has everything to do with how we are to dismantle this nightmare of a military dictatorship we live in NOW.

I believe every American should watch this video as it predicted our future as well as gives cues as to how to restore real democracy for future generations.

Who Doesn't Love Pastor John Hagee?

2008-05-21T18:40:00.004-04:00

This guy is a certified Christian Wackadoodle and is glued to John McCain like flies on poop. Have a look at what he has to say and then see McCain squirm when asked about it by Tim Russert. Again... Smart Democrats (assuming they are smart) will fill the airwaves with this guy and make McCain older by the day as he has to answer question after question about endorsing these sermons and points of view. This will pale in comparison to Rev. Wright. Enjoy the hatred and racism from the right wing Christians in the video below.

I LOVE YOU right wing Christians, you are so stupid and always derail Republicans with your non-sense. McCain is too cranky and not articulate enough to wiggle out of this. It will be fun to watch.

I'll Have The Steak, But Hold The Beef

2008-05-20T19:42:00.020-04:00

I'm sure that one of the reasons that it is so challenging for me to grow my blogging audience is that I write on a variety of topics with a perspective that is one that I have developed wholly independently. I am not swayed by the lies of political parties, "conventional wisdom" (which is neither) or what my friends and peers think. Therefore, I simply am not "marketable" to any one specific audience. You have to just like ME and what I have to say. I suppose you also have to like sarcasm and continuous bad news :-) and pictures of really cute cows.

There is one thing about me that has driven me to develop my own world view and even start this blog... and that is that I am not able to un-learn anything... that I can remember (I think). Therefore, I don't posses the ability to forget about things I read, hear or experience (that have an impact on me) because it does not fit with my view of the world or upset the conveniences I've become accustomed to. This is why I am a VEGAN.

I am not from the planet Vega and I don't speak Veganese. Vegan simply means NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS OR BYPRODUCTS GO IN THIS BODY OF MINE. So its been said.... its not terribly hard to do... and is incredibly rewarding because all change starts right here... with me.

I am not here to tell anyone what to do, but simply use myself as an example of a person who lives a life I believe is worth living that is ethical and based on what I have learned. (I also do make suggestions on occasion.) The truth is that we posses an animal holocaust system in the USA referred to as FACTORY FARMING. The term itself suggests the immense horrors that any animal unlucky enough to be born here must experience because we Americans believe that a meal is not a meal unless it has dead animal (or its byproducts) on the plate.

Recently, a talk given by Mark Bittman, Food Writer for the NY TIMES at the TED Conference, highlighted what are some of the critical issues associated with our insatiable appetite for meat and meat byproducts. I'm sorry to suggest you may have forgotten this, or simply don't actually know, but MILK COMES FROM A COW, AND WAS DESIGNED BY NATURE TO BE CONSUMED BY BABY COWS. (Trust me, you wouldn't believe how many people think its like Coca Cola and simply appears out of nowhere.)

Put simply... our meat (and fish) eating habit is not only killing us, its killing the planet. And I believe very strongly that it destroys our humanity, and our belief that we are an ever evolving species that acts out of our own good, and the greater good. Why?

- Agra-business is the 1st or 2nd largest cause of global warming according to an array of studies but the most important is a report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, that states the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent and methane – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

- We have over-fished the oceans to the point that we have completely destroyed the bio-diversity and vitality of sea life.... therefore being forced to produce fish in bacteria filled pools known as Fish Farms or as they're branded "Farm Raised Fish". Look and see where that Salmon you had for dinner comes from. By destroying the bio-diversity of the oceans, we seal our own fate... because everything is connected.

- The immense horror known as Factory Farming where most of our meat comes from, and is nothing short of torture and cruelty to all beings that enter the system. I need not go into the details here as you can get much more accurate and important information from the practices of livestock and fowl farming from the Humane Society or PETA.

- 10 Billion. That is the number of animals killed every year in the United States (9 billion chickens, turkeys and other birds and one billion cows) to satisfy the growing appetite of obese and ill-informed Americans who know nothing about the food they eat. (or what that food is doing to them.) This is a widely known number... but I originally learned it from the Humans Society, www. hsus.org. Consider that number for a moment. Does this seem as excessive and inhumane to you as it does to me and so many others?

As Mark Bittman says in his talk, we all have to change the way we behave when it comes to food. Its not just as an issue of social justice, but also one of global survival. He states unequivocally, "there is no good reason for eating as much meat as we do."

I need not torture you with more facts and figures (such as 85% of the food grown in the United States is fed to cows, and that same amount of food could feed 13 Billion humans, twice the population of PLANET EARTH) in order to make my point.

This system has to end for our very own survival. As Mark Bittman discusses, by changing our relationship with food, and better understanding and respecting what we are eating and how it made it to our dinner plates, we could change our behavior to help ensure our survival. But just as an ethical and historical issue for your amusement... we are only the 2nd generation in history that has had no direct relationship to the food we eat... and we don't even realize that.

What is it that I want you to do with this information? 3 EASY things that can change the world:

1/ Thank the animal every time you eat meat for giving up its life so you could enjoy it. Show some respect for the animals and act with decency and kindness to them.

2/ Cut meat out of one meal everyday. Unless you are a vegan or a vegetarian, you are probably eating way too much meat. You don't need nearly as much as you've been taught.

3/ Watch Mark Bittman's talk below and learn, understand, empathize and then act against what may be one of the single greatest horrors of our time, factory farming and its effects on our planet and our humanity.

The Srait Talk Espresso

2008-05-18T14:30:00.017-04:00

I really don't like to write about election politics. First, I have nothing to add as millions and milions of words are being written on this issue... and most of it SPECULATION. Additionally, if you read my earlier posts, you can see that I don't believe the President's job is to do much more than what they are told to by the people that paid to put them in power... and once in power, are clearly dominated by the National Security State apparatus created in the late 1940's that has ruled us with an IRON FIST ever since.

And then there is the immense financial interests involved to keep this sinking ship afloat... that far exceed any one person or administration's ability to do anything other than administer the agenda of others (I call the others 'the one's behind the curtain'). We're talking money so big... its beyond our minds to imagine. The President simply does not have enough power to make palpable change in a way that shakes up that money more than tiny, tiny, tiny bits at a time.

OK... call me a conspiracy theorist... I simply don't care if you think its my "conspiracy theory"... I can prove the whole thing.... one tiny but extremely significant example is Eisenhower's speech about the Military Industrial Complex given on January 16th 1961. I didn't make this all up... HE DID!.. and he was the PRESIDENT for 8 years. You may want to google it and listen watch or read the actual speech because it tell accurately what is happening TODAY. (Bruce.... stop trying to rationalize what you know and can easily prove to be the absolute truth.) I was just talking to myself... don't let it distract you.

Back to the subject at hand: I love watching politicians lie on television and get caught... and John McCain is clearly a champion when it comes to lies, misstatements and just being incredibly misinformed... or dare I say SENILE. Its actually quite funny to watch him try to straight talk himself out of a straight jacket time and again. This video from TheRealJohnMcCain website is funny and alarming and hopefully the Democrats will use it 'liberally' during the campaign to derail him.

By the way, he has a notorious temper, and if the Democrats are smart (which is yet to be proven in recent presidential campaigns)... they can make good use of this as the Clinton's very cleverly manipulated Newt Gingrich's primary weakness (Megalomania) to get him to undermine himself and speedily end his Congressional career. Enjoy and pass along:

The VIDEO

Ann Coulter Enshrined in Dickipedia, A Great Day In History

2008-05-17T19:39:00.008-04:00

Speaking of dumbing down... Dickipedia has just entered Ann the Coulter into the hall of fame of DICKS where she permanently belongs as DICK NUMERO UNO. From Dickipedia:

Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative pundit, a syndicated columnist, a best-selling author, a frequent television and radio guest, a self-described “polemicist,” and a self-promoting dick. Best known for purveying hate, Coulter revels in the mass loathing she herself inspires, a delight so aberrational as to invite speculation that she may in fact be an alien life form. That, actually, would explain a lot.

The remainder of her incredibly undistinguished bio in Dickipedia is here. Welcome to Dickipedia Ann!!! No one ever deserved it more than you.

Successfully dumbing down everything

2008-05-16T22:33:00.004-04:00

I've been wondering what it will take for me to gain more readers and/or interest in the topics that I explore in B.L.O.G. The person I was talking with today reminded me that we Americans can handle little more than soundbites and in reality have little time or energy to educate ourselves about the world. Even worse, the more educated we become, the worse it all seems to get... so it can be quite depressing. Therefore, people seek out distractions such as sports, mind numbing reality shows or the latest celebrity rehab or drunk driving accident.

To present this skewed reality and its effects, I found two pieces I want to share with you that illustrate this situation perfectly...

1/ A very brief talk given at TED by Alisa Miller, CEO of Public Radio International where she visually demonstrates the inequities and inanities of International News Coverage, and

2/ Findings published by the National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study on young Americans knowledge of the global map. The findings are alarming... (60% could not find Iraq on a map of the MIDDLE EAST) and demonstrate that as this audience gets their International news, they clearly have no clue as to where the places that are being reported are, and almost nothing about those places... and worst of all, don't really care that they don't know.

Alisa points out in her talk that the lack of international coverage is perhaps due to its cost and cost cutting by the major news networks. I don't disagree, but I have a different take on WHY... I believe that there is a conscious effort afoot (over time) to de-educated us in order that we as a society know nearly nothing about the world that we are not told in the MSM... AND, that the less we know, the more we can be manipulated.

This has been demonstrated time and again that the less people know, the more apt they are to believe what they are told without questioning... as of course they have no knowledge about anything in order to form real questions or challenge the "facts".

I'll shut up here and let you watch Alissa's talk... its actually quite entertaining and SHORT enough to watch and enjoy (its kind of funny).

Tell It Like It Is Keith

2008-05-16T19:51:00.008-04:00

My friend and former colleague Ken emailed me this video of Keith Olbermann's latest political commentary from MSNBC and asked if I would post it to B.L.O.G. Ken, you scored big! Its a masterpiece of emotion, truth, terrific writing and powerful speaking about Bush's latest meandering stupidity. We are all so fed up with this administration, and as I've noted, they've made our entire country look behind its shoulder to see who's watching and listening to us... and sadly, done all of it with lies and manipulation,

But in a rare moment of candor and real anger at the government that you seldom see on television, Keith really digs his fangs in for all to see ... and uses three recent examples of Bush insanity to illustrate his feelings.

Thank you to Ken for bringing this to my attention as I do not watch TV, and thank you to Keith Olbermann for telling the truth in such vivid color and emotion that is backed up by fact. Please take the time to watch... its just a few minutes, its just stunning and wonderful to watch, and will help us all to remember what dark days we live in and perhaps help energize us to revitalize what could be an astonishingly great nation... OURS. Take it away Keith:

Seems to be in Fascion

2008-05-15T21:18:00.007-04:00

Recently, I've spoken with few people who are actually AFRAID to click on this blog. I suppose they believe (and perhaps its true) that the NSA, NRO, CIA, FBI or any of our 16 intelligence agencies are watching to see who reads these words and therefore can be branded "enemies of the state", or worse "Enemy Combatants" and have all of their rights immediately suspended. Ahhhh America. Land of the free, home of the brave.

Well, this won't stop me from doing anything. I firmly believe that clicking on my blog is the ultimate form or freedom and patriotism and should not in any way engender fear in the hearts of people that they are "being watched" by simply reading my little ole opinions about what really goes on in this country.

But the most alarming thing I find is the success at which the government has placed fear at the heart of free expression so that people are actually afraid to click on a site because they think the government might be monitoring. I do not espouse violence, or even an uprising against the structure... my goal is to simply inform people of the things I think they may not already know and should. Why? Well to protect their very freedom to able click on this without having their rights suspended. Seems reasonable to me.

Michael Moore said it so wonderfully in SICKO.... democratically elected governments are supposed to be AFRAID of the people.... but here in AMERICA.... (land of the free, home of the brave)... there seems to be lots of people that have little "feeling" of freedom, even less bravery and whole lot of FEAR.

I find it alarming for the simple reason that its that fear of people to speak up and act that we have seen over and over in the past which is the FOUNDATION for the rise of of Fascism. I've found many definitions of Fascism but the one I think is best (below) is because it doesn't reference what it has come BEFORE... because each fascist regine is slightly different each time, whether its Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet or Stalin.

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Lawrence Britt
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

Wow, where we have seen all of these before?  Sounds like a history book of the Bush administration.    

To those pathetic fearful indivduals who are too afraid to read this BLOG...  Shame on you for letting this happen...
because its only the start of what your fear will lead you to do.

Why must people feel afraid of their own government when they are told  that the terrorists hate us for our
freedom?  Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

Stop Torturing Me!

2008-05-14T00:38:00.012-04:00

I think there are two current issues that I am by far the most passionate about:

1/ Our complete denial that the planet is dying is we're going to go with it... and resulting inaction from that denial

2/ The use of torture by the government of these Unites States Of America

As I look through the thousands of articles in my Google Reader from all the major media and big blogs... I just don't see much on these issues. The Huffington Post should really just shut up about this election and start to focus on bigger issues. They now look like a left leaning CNN as they dither away the time contemplating their navels about the election and endlessly complaining about conservatives.

Arianna, as much as I love to read what you have to say... the truth of the matter is that if we have no oxygen to breathe then your (very justified) hatred of the right will be so completely irrelevant. Why? Well for those of you who don't know this... we get 70% of our oxygen from the oceans... mostly produced by plankton. If the oceans heat up too much, (some say by just 2 degrees) the plankton will die, and then for all you really smart people who can connect the dots... so do we. Call me crazy.

Thank you to Amnesty International for giving us a glimpse at the horror of water boarding. Have a look... perhaps it will cause YOU to do something now... not tomorrow.

This is a time for ACTION on these two fronts as I believe that no two issues are more important than the very existence of life of our planet and the complete destruction of American values and democracy that torture represents.

That's why I love WE... and that's why I love the ACLU, and that is why I love Amnesty International. THEY DO SOMETHING. They are acting and behaving as if these are extreme emergencies that must be fixed NOW... and not just discussed and then have a committee formed and then have a meeting and then write a memo and then hope for the best.

I have taken the liberty to share with you the blog page from the ACLU on TORTURE and encourage you to look at it, join and TAKE ACTION. They are calling for an Independent Prosecutor and that's a great start as it will make this THE number one political issue of our time as it should be.... not Hillary and Obama and John McCain. They are far secondary to this pressing issue .

Its really simple to make a difference. Go to http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/index.html and donate, send letters to your Congressional Representatives and spread the word. This is an issue we no doubt all agree on. But just remember... someone is being tortured by the Unites States Government with your tax dollars at this very moment for no reason other than to gain false confessions that our military then uses to justify its out-of-control spending.

Don't just sit there... DO SOMETHING! Why not? Is it gonna hurt you somehow to do the right thing?

AMER Oh?

2008-05-12T22:24:00.019-04:00

Something is happening that no one seems to know about except (I suppose, myself and a very few others) and a select few in government and the financial community that will speak publicly about it. Its called the North American Union (NAU) and we (Canada, Mexico and the U.S.) would be united under one currency, the AMERO.

As the Boston Globe in their accurate and daring reporting in their article entitled "The Amero Conspiracy" they say, If you haven't heard about the NAU, that may be because its plotters have succeeded in keeping it secret. Or, more likely, because there is no such thing."

Wow, the BOSTON GLOBE!, the GREAT PURVEYOR OF TRUTH, constantly uncovering the untrue conspiracies, I hear everyday about the great journalism going on at the Boston Globe... one of the world's most important newspapers.

A note to the Boston Globe - How about you spend your time uncovering real live untrue conspiracies such all those other untrue ones from the Bush Administration (you've heard of them right?) that cover up torture and secret prisons abroad, destroy terabytes of data about their activities doing so, invade countries with intelligence they made up.... and let someone else handle the easy stories ok?

Yet its fun reading the Boston Globe tell it like it is... that this as an untrue conspiracy and yet all the while, reveals to an uninformed public the entire plan! (You think that's an accident or just another coincidence?) They state that there are some rather prominent members in the media and government (what a surprise) who are talking quite a bit about this and they are not happy... and can clearly see the pattern developing that looks exactly like the development of the European Union (but without the transparency of process the Europeans enjoyed)... and are now obviously united under ONE CURRENCY, the EURO. (Another coincidence!)

One of the great conspiracy theorists of our country in none other than Lou Dobbs of CNN. This guy is certifiably NUTS and there is no conspiracy that he doesn't believe in... give Lou a picture of a UFO and he can clearly see the GRAYS driving and ready to abduct. Let's see what this great conspiracy theorist himself says about the AMERO:

And there is even a conspiracy TELEVISION STATION entitled CNBC... these guys are WACKO!:

Ok, so the truth is that none of this is new... and candidly, a plan that makes a whole lot of sense for big business. So let's take a quick look at what's happened that makes many people who have seen the pattern over and over again believe that the AMERO will be a reality by 2010:

1/The North American Free Trade Agreement that went into effect on January 1st, 1994 creating a free trade zone between Canada, the US and Mexico. Working as it ought to and upsetting enough people that it actually became an issue in this election.

2/ The creation of the NAFTA Superhighway System. For those who live in Texas, this is a currently a big reality (as it is being built right right now on their land. (Don't believe me?.... just give em a call and ask them yourself, or go online and read about all of the town meetings going on now trying to deal with this). And just because its not on TV doesn't mean its not happening. Some of the contractors are building privately run and operated highways, such as the San Antonio construction company that is is owned by a private consortium out of Spain... and is building a toll highway in which the tolls obviously will go back to... Spain. Google it and see if I'm crazy... or if you are.

3/ And then the series of North American Trilateral meetings: From the meeting in 2006: "Bush-Fox-Harper reviewed the progress of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, as well as to set up a North American Competitiveness Council. They agreed to expand the existing cooperation on key issues such as border security, emergency management and clean technologies to produce energy." Huh? If those are the key issues, why would they call it the "North American Competitiveness Council"?

A little research and we find what really happened at that meeting in 2006 and is summarized here so go ahead and read the agreement. Of course it does not explicitly state that such a thing called the Amero exists (Lou did that for us as well as CNBC)... but for those of you who can read baloney, understand finance, and can read the writing on the wall, and between the lines, what the report says is that "agreements were made to substantially reduce transaction fees for goods that are traded across borders". How is it that you ELIMINATE transaction fees?

One currency!

I'll end with the definition of conspiracy for those who dismiss as false anything that they have not heard of (yet)... and of course... since they haven't heard of it... it MUST be a conspiracy, or simply not be true. Right?

Conspiracy as defined by Meriam Websters Dictionary of Law: An agreement between two or more people to commit an act prohibited by law or to commit a lawful act by means prohibited by law

or the more mundane definition: "any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result"*
* Modern Language Association (MLA): "conspiracy." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 12 May. 2008

No where in these definitions does it say "ill informed people fantasizing crazy theories that they made up out of thin air and are untrue" As we can all see... and, if we were to actually THINK ABOUT IT... we are surrounded everyday by conspiracy theories.

As a matter of fact, almost all news is of and about conspiracies. There currently is a conspiracy by the government of Myanmar, by the Clintons and the Obamas; there is big whopping conspiracy by a band of terrorists known as Al Queda (which by the way, was the name of AMERICAN database of Mujaheddin fighters... wow... who knew that??? huh? More about that in another post.)

And while we're on the Mujaheddin, their creation was (a now very well known) conspiracy by the CIA and the US GOVERNMENT to covertly arm the "freedom fighters' of Afghanistan with American arms to fight the Soviety Union that were "re-branded" with logos from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. No one knew about that either. Hmmm... wasn't there was a Hollywood movie recently made about this grand conspiracy last year that starred Tom Hanks (the great and might conspiracy theorist himself)? And for those who saw the movie... where was the press reporting on this? They weren't, IT WAS A CONSPIRACY!

Let's go to the scorecard. If its a good thing but looks like a conspiracy, its not considered a conspiracy. If its something we don't know about YET... or its considered BAD... then it is clearly not true, or a fantasy of "conspiracy theorists". Its like being called a Communist in the 1950's. Call them "conspiracy theorists" and it dismisses them and their knowledge immediately.

The funny thing is that "conspiracy theorists" are in some pretty good company (this time) about the NAU... such as CNN and CNBC and just about every major foreign news service. And again... you think I'm nuts? Go to "You Tube" and search "North American Union"... and see how many hits you get (hint... hundreds of thousands of videos).

And then you may want to ask yourself... where am I? why am I so poorly informed? and where have I been for the past several years while all of this has been planned and is now in the execution phase?

Are You Ready To Take The RED PILL

2008-05-11T20:27:00.006-04:00

If you are, then sit down and watch the attached short video and then open your mind to new possibilities...

What is a False Flag Operation? "False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy's strategy of tension."

Am I In a Parallel Universe?

2008-05-11T15:46:00.009-04:00

From WE can solve the climate crisis (the consortium partially formed by Al Gore to deal with Global Warming as a true global crisis):

Rockefellers urge Exxon to take action on climate change

One of America's most powerful families is calling for a major change in the way ExxonMobil addresses the issues of global warming. Exxon grew out of the Standard Oil Company, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870. His descendants, who remain significantly invested in Exxon today, issued a statement saying that Exxon's leadership was "failing to address the future of energy and related industry hurdles."

Am I dreaming? Does it even matter? Since the Rockefeller family already own EVERYTHING, no matter what happens with the green movement, they'll end up owning it anyway. (Oh, just a bit pessimistic and realistic in terms of the ELITE, but I still think it is the lesser of two evils.)
I urge everyone to join Wecansolveit.org.

This is a real way for all of us to actually do something rather than just change our light bulbs.

Today Was Pangea Day, And Now I Have Reason To Hope Again

2008-05-10T20:32:00.011-04:00

TED, the conference that brings together the world's smartest, most important, creative and inspiring people to speak to us and tell us their stories... has done it again. They gave the TED Award to documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim in 2006 for her plan to put to the masses a global call for short films to be included in her ambitious concept — the first cross-cultural film festival ever broadcast live around the world. It happened today in case you didn't know... and it was called Pangea Day.

More than 2,500 submissions poured in from 100 countries — entries by established and first-time filmmakers, some shot entirely by mobile phone. 24 films were selected and simulcast in more than 1,500 venues around the world from Rio to Chicago, Rwanda to Mumbai... some 150 countries around the world in a 4-hour program. (Pangea is the name of the first ancient continent where all of our current continents originated from... symbolizing unity and the fact that we here on planet earth are one people... divided only by the walls and borders we create in our minds.)

I think the number that watched must have been in the many millions. Queen Noor of Jordan was one of the hosts, even Meg Ryan and Goldie Hawn made appearances sporting the same hairdo.

"Cast as a global campfire, the event bets that if folks of different religions and cultures huddle around to listen to each others' stories, they'll find a commonality they might not have expected."

I knew this was going to be a special day, but I did not realize how moved I would be by the event itself, the technological achievement, the quality and immensity of the messages presented in the films and then of course... seeing Dave Steward perform, founder of the Eurithmics perform. I watched with my dear friend Donnie from a lecture hall in Baruch College and I must have cried enough to create a river down Lexington Avenue. Think today wasn't an important event? Google "Pangea Day".... you'll get around 1.9 million hits now. Who knows how many by tomorrow as people talk about on the web from all over the world.

Information on what happened today is here. And what follows is a link to a highlight reel that the event provided in NO TIME that is worth every second of YOUR time to watch in wonder as we did.

Jehane Noujaim, you will forever live in my heart because of this day... and I think all of the millions and millions who were a part of it are forever changed as well... I think we took a real step forward in changing the world for the better. Jehane, continue to lead and guide us, we need so much help.

I feel real hope for the future today!!

Highlight Reel, Click ME

The Torture Administration

2008-05-09T23:05:00.017-04:00

Torture!!!!!!!
I've been torturing myself over this issue for quite some time and its a welcome surprise to see that John Conyers and the House Judiciary Subcommittee is FINALLY doing its job as mandated by the Constitution and putting a check on Executive Power.

For everyone who reads this... and I know there will be untold thousands of you... pull out your calendars and mark down June 26, 2008. Why this date? Well, the two key architects of the Bush Torture Administration... under orders from the King (Vice President Dick Cheney) and his Serf (President George W. Bush) engineered a legal rationale and precedent to use torture as a means of interrogation for people being held by OUR COUNTRY for charges that have never been made public... will have to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

As a Jew, and one who is also gay, I was brought up in a Synagogue where we were taught every Sunday that Fascism can happen anywhere at anytime... and we as Jews must never allow what happened to the Jews of Europe during the 1930's... where they were actually caught by surprise by what seems now to be an obvious set of circumstances that sealed their fate. They are just like us.

On June 26th the torture administration could begin to be exposed from within:

For Immediate Release	Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
May 7, 2008	Melanie Roussell

Washington, DC- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers issued a subpoena to to David Addington, chief of staff to the vice president, compelling him to testify before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on June 26 at 10 a.m. Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo, who has agreed to testify voluntarily, will testify on that day as well.

Apparently, Addington would not testify voluntarily but is expected to honor the subpoena and show up... He won't answer questions... he's not that stooopid... he knows the sharks are circling. My hope is that John Yoo, now a Professor At UC Berkeley (can someone please tell me how that happened, and how he has not had his head ripped off by the student body yet?) tells all and we have ourselves a full fledged Watergate. But this scandal will make Watergate look like a puddle next to the Atlantic Ocean if it ever breaks and I'm not sure anyone in government or media wants it to. It could bring down a lot of people.

Oh how I Dream... its nice to dream that sanity will prevail someday in this country. But it won't.

John Yoo is but a pawn in a much larger game here. According to Bill Moyers ground breaking series Bill Moyers Journal of October 26, 2007, he reveals that this is but one small piece in a much larger agenda to create an imperial presidency... executed by David Addington and Dick Cheney to create a "Teflon" executive branch... one that could break the laws of this country as well as International Law and be completely safe from accountability. I urge you to either read the transcript or watch this program on PBS.com.

I certainly don't think the "smoking gun" will be revealed on June 26th. Why? The smoking gun has already been revealed and is in the public realm. The documents and testimonials of those who sat in on the meetings... according to Phillippe Sands, Author of "Torture Team, Rumsfeld Memo and The Betrayal of American Values" has laid out the case that the torture trail starts at the top. And he does a spectacular job of proving it.

The question: Will we as a country and a people, hold our the administration and their lawyers accountable for this? And if we won't, who will?

Interestingly, Phillipe has spoken with a Judge and Prosecutor of the World Court. From his article in Vanity Fair titled "The Green Light" from the May, 2008 issue (with Madonna on the cover, ugh I'm so tired of her):

The judge and prosecutor were particularly struck by the immunity from prosecution provided by the Military Commissions Act. “That is very stupid,” said the prosecutor, explaining that it would make it much easier for investigators outside the United States to argue that possible war crimes would never be addressed by the justice system in the home country—one of the trip wires enabling foreign courts to intervene. For some of those involved in the Guantánamo decisions, prudence may well dictate a more cautious approach to international travel. And for some the future may hold a tap on the shoulder.

“It’s a matter of time,” the judge observed. “These things take time.” As I gathered my papers, he looked up and said, “And then something unexpected happens, when one of these lawyers travels to the wrong place.”

Can you just envision John Yoo, David Addington, or Harriet Miers being held in a French prison on charges of Conspiracy to Undermine The Geneva Convention. Its just too good to even imagine. But let's hope that we here at home can imprison them and their comrades and hope that this very dark chapter in our history comes to a speedy end with the perpetrators safely behind bars.

To dream... the impossible dream...

IRAQ - Luxury hotels and golf: welcome to the Green Zone

2008-05-08T11:20:00.001-04:00

A $5bn tourism and development scheme for the Green Zone being hatched by the Pentagon and an international investment consortium would give the heavily fortified area on the banks of the Tigris a "dream" makeover that will become a magnet for Iraqis, tourists, business people and investors.

read more | digg story

Myanmar on the brain

2008-05-08T06:59:00.019-04:00

After the devastating cyclone that hit Myanmar the destruction is no doubt worse than any Westerner's naive eyes or brains can imagine. Yes, we actually do have our own Myanmar, its called Katrina and New Orleans... that we have conveniently forgotten about.

Funny how the Bush Administration and the PEOPLE IN IT seem so much like the Government of Myanmar in its response. It reflects something deeper than just incompetence, but a general distrust and dislike of their own people. I've read a lot from people who have listened in at events and parties with this crowd that runs our country and is shocked to hear what disdain they actually have for us. We are merely the unwashed masses and they seldom ever rub elbows with us except during their highly scripted and controlled public events.

But Myanmar has everything to do with us. WE AMERICA, are the only superpower, and as the truly brilliant statesman Billy (the Pit Bull) Kristol put so eloquently in his PNAC report "The United States is the world’s only superpower, combining preeminent military power, global technological leadership, and the world’s largest economy. Moreover, America stands at the head of a system of alliances which includes the world’s other leading democratic powers."

Let's assume I agree with him... we are the world's only superpower. Then shouldn't we ask the question: What do superpower's do when a military dominated country allows its own people to starve? Myanmar is clearly run by a band of fearful and paranoid military boneheads who obviously care nothing about their people, only themselves and maintaining power. Shouldn't they be in Georgie's Axis of Evil (AOE)? Seems evil to me... does it to you? Does it to the rest of the world? Who would disagree that they do not qualify for a platinum membership in the AOE?

The numbers of dead could be staggering... some say 100,000. We know right at this moment that millions could be starving and no aid will come any time soon. I can feel the pain of this in my gut... the awful suffering that is happening there now. I just want to scream.

This is not incompetence... this is genocide. And we, the United States, the only superpower, who currently has 2 aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and 6 others floating around the globe (we have 12 in total) and the ability to overthrow governments at will when we deem necessary (the Bush Doctrine) is staying silent on this issue save for dear dear Laura (do nothing at all) Bush who called a press conference to say mean things about them... and then we did nothing. NOTHING! We should all hold our heads in shame over this.

What does this say about us? We're building a "SPACE FORCE" and yet we see no reason to force the hand of governments that lets their own people starve to death? To me... letting people starve to death while dithering away precious hours with formalities that is preventing global aid groups from getting in, is far far more dangerous than Saddam's disappearing "WMD's".

Let's take a look at some images of this disaster courtesy of the NY Times.

Now, what is it we pay for the US Military again? $799 Billion this year.. 2/3 of the government of a supposedly democratic country, by the people, for the people.

And who are WE fighting? And why? And we sit by and let this little group of military criminals let their people starve to death when the ONE TIME, all this money that we flush down the toilet with military equipment we neither need or can afford, could actually be put to good use.

It seems to my little brain that if we parked one of those nuclear powered aircraft carrier battle fleets off the coast of this country and sent a very simple message: "Let the International Aid Organizations Clean Up This Mess, or You're Toast" then they probably would take this a whole lot more seriously... and we could feel better for at least a few precious minutes about all the money we give to our very own Military Junta here at home currently run by Dick Cheney and friends.

At the very least, we've fed some people and helped a nation of starving and suffering and put to good use all that money and all those smart bombs and submarines, aircraft carriers and Osprey's, F22's and F117 Stealth Fighters, and Cruise Missiles and B2 Bombers... the list of the unnecessary things we build goes on and on and on... it might actually force the hand of a bunch of thugs to feed their own people and get out of the way, so the rest of the world can clean up this awful awful mess.

Geez, I thought that's what Superpowers do. What do you think Bill Kristol? Or do superpowers just invade and occupy countries with oil?

The Project For A New American Century has a Solution

2008-05-05T23:37:00.031-04:00

Now that I've revealed how my model of the world works, I want to give another terrific example of how to put it into practice. Today is "NeoCon Solution" day... reshape the world accordingly.

Problem, Reaction, Solution is something that a lot of people are using. For instance, let's take the now infamous Project for a New American Century (PNAC). Billy Krstol's organization... (can you still believe the MSM has this butthead on as a talking head. He's a clear NeoCon Hawk who has never been in uniform himself and had bullets flying by his head... yet... he's more than happy to send your kids to die. ENOUGH OPINION BRUCE!!! This is fact time.

The PNAC put out a report in September of 2000 (still available on their site) which is pretty much the Bible for NeoCons... or better yet, the Nostradamus for NeoCons. Its called "Rebuilding America's Defenses. Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century".

In it is what appears to be the entire foreign policy of the Bush Administration laid out point by point. Remember when you're reading this... written in September of 2000. One year before 9/11 and the stolen presidential election that brought Bush into power had not even happened yet.

I first want to highlight something I think everyone should think about when looking at the findings of the report below. The report opens with a BIG STATEMENT that I find to be the most paradoxical thing about the findings.

Introduction, 4th paragraph: The United States is the world’s only superpower, combining preeminent military power, global technological leadership, and the world’s largest economy. Moreover, America stands at the head of a system of alliances which includes the world’s other leading democratic powers. At present the United States faces no global rival. America’s grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible.

No global rival. The U.S. in September of 2000 had no global rival and was and still is, the only superpower. To me, it seems like a perfect opportunity to use our superpowerness to build a world focused on peace and prosperity. But that's just me.

Next, is the key findings of the report. They work against an assumption that in order to maintain a Unipolar world... dominated by the U.S.... that we need to dramatically strengthen and modernize the military. Its the way they think... you can make arguments in either direction... but to say that we have no enemies , we're the preeminent power of the world and so forth, and therefore should increase spending on the military seems counter intuitive to me. The key findings of the report:

"ESTABLISH FOUR CORE MISSIONS for U.S. military forces:
• defend the American homeland;
• fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars;
• perform the “constabulary” duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical
regions;
• transform U.S. forces to exploit the “revolution in military affairs";

To carry out these core missions, we need to provide sufficient force and budgetary allocations. In particular, the United States must:

MAINTAIN NUCLEAR STRATEGIC SUPERIORITY, basing the U.S. nuclear deterrent upon a global, nuclear net assessment that weighs the full range of current and emerging threats, not merely the U.S.-Russia balance.

RESTORE THE PERSONNEL STRENGTH of today’s force to roughly the levels anticipated in the “Base Force” outlined by the Bush Administration, an increase in active-duty strength from 1.4 million to 1.6 million.

REPOSITION U.S. FORCES to respond to 21st century strategic realities by shifting permanently-based forces to Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia, and by changing naval deployment patterns to reflect growing U.S. strategic concerns in East Asia.

MODERNIZE CURRENT U.S. FORCES SELECTIVELY, proceeding with the F-22 program while increasing purchases of lift, electronic support and other aircraft; expanding submarine and surface combatant fleets; purchasing Comanche helicopters and medium-weight ground vehicles for the Army, and the V-22 Osprey “tilt-rotor” aircraft for the Marine Corps.

CANCEL “ROADBLOCK” PROGRAMS such as the Joint Strike Fighter, CVX aircraft carrier, and Crusader howitzer system that would absorb exorbitant amounts of Pentagon funding while providing limited improvements to current capabilities. Savings from these canceled programs should be used to spur the process of military transformation.

DEVELOP AND DEPLOY GLOBAL MISSILE DEFENSES to defend the American homeland and American allies, and to provide a secure basis for U.S. power projection around the world.

CONTROL THE NEW “INTERNATIONAL COMMONS” OF SPACE AND “CYBERSPACE,” and pave the way for the creation of a new military service – U.S. Space Forces – with the mission of space control.

EXPLOIT THE “REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS” to insure the long-term superiority of U.S. conventional forces. Establish a two-stage transformation process which
• maximizes the value of current weapons systems through the application of advanced
technologies, and,
• produces more profound improvements in military capabilities, encourages competition between single services and joint-service experimentation efforts.

INCREASE DEFENSE SPENDING gradually to a minimum level of 3.5 to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product, adding $15 billion to $20 billion to total defense spending annually."

On page 63 of the report, this curious statement:
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

Can anyone read through these findings and the explosive statement made about a "new Pearl Harbor" and find one single thing that has not happened? OK... we're fighting multiple wars and not "winning". But winning is relative. We are there to stay regardless... absent a revolution here at home. It looks like Christmas time for the writers of this report.

The question I want to leave you with is how is it that they achieved every single one of these goals in a world in which the United States was the only Superpower and had no global rival? And why did we let it happen?

In my next post, I'm going to pull this thing apart and ask another set of questions that I hope will open peoples eyes up to what we're doing and of course, ask some more questions.

Curious about them? More info on the PNAC.