Do we really care about our Troops? Talk is cheap and our actions of late, even cheaper.... So many citizens, veterans and politicians wrap themselves up in the flag and talk tuff for the troops.... but the reality is far from the rhetoric.
On friday, Congressman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cackled from the Senate floor against the $87 Billion Dollar troop funding bill with a timeline attached. Citing "our troops are winners, not losers". Veterans and citizen-bloggers have constantly taken to flag-waving and tuff talk about our "supporting our troops" and continuing the constant clammer against "cut and run".
New figures released this week site nearly 4700 troops deserted their posts this year alone, up from 3300 last year. This represents an 80% increase in the desertion rate and is the highest in nearly 30 years— and the pace is accelerating. Additionally figures showing one in four homeless people in the US are war veterans, a point relegated to minor news clips buried in the media. Troops in record numbers are returning home with PTSD and are finding inadequate -if any- treatment or help from the Government. A study yesterday reported that more than 6000 soldiers took their own lives in 2005.... thats 17 soldiers a day!
Meanwhile, with a huge budget for slick ads, flashy powerpoint presentations, uncensored access to our High School and University Student personal records and cafeterias...our proud military has taken to preying on youth through profiling and false advertising. With budgets of between $1600-4000 per recruit, the military sees no reason to invoke the draft.
I don't know about you all, but if thats the pride to which we want to defend our troops, then there is something terribly wrong with this nation and the conditioning these vets, politicians and gung-ho citizens have gotten from the media and the deceptive administration who to this day, says we are winning the war on terror.
Defending our troops... more correctly, our children and loved ones... means being certain our cause is just, our methods are above-board, our treatment of them upon returning is truthful and comprehensive and our media or information is honest and trustworthy. Anything less than that is not only a slap in the face to every soldier who ever served, but a reason to stand up and fight for our soldiers!
Certainly there is an allegiance to our troops from our veteran population, and certainly our citizens owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their service whether in the gulf or at any other time, but allegiance and ignorance are not compatible. The longer we allow our elected leaders to beat their breasts about troops being winners- while waging a war of aggression that we all agree was not started in good faith (no connection to 9/11-no WMDs, no alqaeda)...The longer we accept daily revelations of the staggering costs of this war both in loss of life and loss of integrity to our nation and its allies... The more we continue to listen to the mainstream media make headlines of success while barely covering their redactions and truthful statements of record losses... the more we truly disrespect our troops today, and the honor and dignity of our nation and its armed forces.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 02, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The Great Escape
Watch as the thieving destroyers of the Democratic Republic formerly known as the United States of America all begin to exit stage right. Watch as the visionaries, hitmen and henchmen of the New World Order leave what appears to be the sinking ship of the Bush Administration.
Don't be myopic, just yesterday Atria, parent of Phillip Morris, spun off its most profitable branches of the company from the US to Europe. Last month Halliburton moved its corporate headquarters to Dubai. By doing this, these multinationals are effectively cutting their umbilical cords... their corporate charters... the only legal binding jurisdiction to reign them in... and now they operate above international law.
We regularly appease the local branch of Walmart, McDonalds or Starbucks with tax braks, incentives and slacked enforcement of our laws... what will they ask for next? Once they no longer can be threatened by revocation of their charter, or liquidation of their assets?
There is no law maker saying they need to stay in their country of origin, and because too many law makers helped them leave America through offshore finances, global markets with trade sanctions and a laissez-faire international policy... we're about to fully confront the new world order we've created, and it ain't the warm fuzzy thing GeorgeSr. pledged. Heard of the NAU?
Watch the run on Gold as the Amero becomes the new North American Currency replacing the dollar.
The North American Union - or Security Prosperity Partnership has been the underlying cornerstone of much of the Bush Administration's actions the past seven years. Get the multinational Corporations out from underneath any legal ties, bankrupt the country through an endless war on terror, senseless tax cuts, privatization of our commons and the liquidation of our rights and privacy.
Did you realize both Mexico and Canada's last elections voted in right-wing business friendly candidates amid an unreal public consensus that both elections were hi-jacked... just like our 2000-2004 elections.
This end-game to create a North American Union to support global business interests in a world domination scheme to restructure global power in the hands of the elite sounds like something of a SCI-FI movie or 007Bond fantasy.... but I assure you its real.
Watch as Democratic Senator David Rockafeller speaks of the new world order to his dear friend Dick Cheney.
More last year on the secret plans of the Bush Administration
What we may be witnessing is the mass migration of the neocon fascists from the positions of power in our current governement, to their new leadership roles heading up the Global Corporate Kingdom created by our complacency and desire for materialism and greed. With our short attention span... we'll soon forget the names Rumsfeld, Rove, Gonzales, Ashcroft, Bolton and Abermoff... We'll barely be able to keep track of the TV wannabees fighting for best chef, best designer, best pickup artist, best slut and best at eating worms. Welcome to the new Fear Factor, the new Real World.
Don't be myopic, just yesterday Atria, parent of Phillip Morris, spun off its most profitable branches of the company from the US to Europe. Last month Halliburton moved its corporate headquarters to Dubai. By doing this, these multinationals are effectively cutting their umbilical cords... their corporate charters... the only legal binding jurisdiction to reign them in... and now they operate above international law.
We regularly appease the local branch of Walmart, McDonalds or Starbucks with tax braks, incentives and slacked enforcement of our laws... what will they ask for next? Once they no longer can be threatened by revocation of their charter, or liquidation of their assets?
There is no law maker saying they need to stay in their country of origin, and because too many law makers helped them leave America through offshore finances, global markets with trade sanctions and a laissez-faire international policy... we're about to fully confront the new world order we've created, and it ain't the warm fuzzy thing GeorgeSr. pledged. Heard of the NAU?
Watch the run on Gold as the Amero becomes the new North American Currency replacing the dollar.
The North American Union - or Security Prosperity Partnership has been the underlying cornerstone of much of the Bush Administration's actions the past seven years. Get the multinational Corporations out from underneath any legal ties, bankrupt the country through an endless war on terror, senseless tax cuts, privatization of our commons and the liquidation of our rights and privacy.
Did you realize both Mexico and Canada's last elections voted in right-wing business friendly candidates amid an unreal public consensus that both elections were hi-jacked... just like our 2000-2004 elections.
This end-game to create a North American Union to support global business interests in a world domination scheme to restructure global power in the hands of the elite sounds like something of a SCI-FI movie or 007Bond fantasy.... but I assure you its real.
Watch as Democratic Senator David Rockafeller speaks of the new world order to his dear friend Dick Cheney.
More last year on the secret plans of the Bush Administration
What we may be witnessing is the mass migration of the neocon fascists from the positions of power in our current governement, to their new leadership roles heading up the Global Corporate Kingdom created by our complacency and desire for materialism and greed. With our short attention span... we'll soon forget the names Rumsfeld, Rove, Gonzales, Ashcroft, Bolton and Abermoff... We'll barely be able to keep track of the TV wannabees fighting for best chef, best designer, best pickup artist, best slut and best at eating worms. Welcome to the new Fear Factor, the new Real World.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
AT&T censors
Censored Show Proves AT&T’s Bad Faith
From Capital Times, August 16, 2007
By John Nichols
Telecommunications giant AT&T says no one should worry about their aggressive lobbying to eliminate Net neutrality — the First Amendment of the Internet that guarantees equality of access to all Web sites.
AT&T executives claim they would never interfere with Web content.
When Americans hear this spin, they should hang up on AT&T.
The truth is that, within business circles, the company is already promoting its schemes for “shaping” the Internet if Net neutrality protections fall.
And a good sense of how the telecommunications corporation would like to “shape” the World Wide Web can be gleaned from reports of how AT&T managed the live webcast of last weekend ‘s Lollapalooza concert when it came time for Pearl Jam to perform.
The Seattle-based band has a long history of highlighting smart political statements — about war and peace, protecting the environment and promoting tolerance — in its songs and in the on-stage comments of lead singer Eddie Vedder.
But on Sunday, when Pearl Jam was performing the song “Daughter” during the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, the band broke into a version of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Reworking the lyrics of the classic rock song, Vedder sang, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.”
The lyrics that criticized Bush were muted in the webcast.
Coincidence? Not at all.
AT&T admits that the censorship occurred. The company describes the muting of Vedder ‘s references to a president who appoints the members of the Federal Communications Commission — and thus has a major role in deciding whether AT&T gets what it wants — as “a mistake by a webcast vendor.”
Then, in a nice Orwellian twist, the company declares, “We have policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does not censor performances.”
In fact, “editing excessive profanity” is censorship.
And, of course, Vedder’s lyrics about Bush, which were not profane, did in fact get censored.
Web-savvy Pearl Jam fans noted the silencing of the message and immediately contacted the band. Pearl Jam members released a statement on the censorship incident that declared, “This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media. AT&T’s actions strike at the heart of the public’s concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.”
Pearl Jam’s statement continued: “What happened to us this weekend was a wake-up call, and it’s about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.”
The band’s right. The censorship of Pearl Jam by AT&T serves as a reminder of what will be lost if Net neutrality is eliminated and telecommunications corporations are free to decide which Web sites are on “the information superhighway of the future” and which are on the gravel road of slow or impossible connections.
“This event shows that companies like AT&T will risk the appearance of censorship by turning off the sound on a webcast that’s being viewed by thousands of people, just because it works counter to their financial interests,” says Jenny Toomey, the executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, which has been working to defend Net neutrality. “What do you think they will do to protect their financial interests on the Web when no one is looking?”
Tim Karr, of the Save the Internet.com Coalition, adds, “AT&T’s history of breaking trust with their customers includes: handing over private phone records to the government; promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town; and pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching plans … to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic.”
“The moral of this story is put Net neutrality permanently into law and never trust AT&T at their word,” says Karr. “The company acts in bad faith toward the public interest and will do whatever it can to pad its bottom line — including sacrificing its users’ freedom to choose where they go, what they watch and whom they listen to online.”
Here's what FCC Chairman Michael Copps had to say about this debacle:
From Capital Times, August 16, 2007
By John Nichols
Telecommunications giant AT&T says no one should worry about their aggressive lobbying to eliminate Net neutrality — the First Amendment of the Internet that guarantees equality of access to all Web sites.
AT&T executives claim they would never interfere with Web content.
When Americans hear this spin, they should hang up on AT&T.
The truth is that, within business circles, the company is already promoting its schemes for “shaping” the Internet if Net neutrality protections fall.
And a good sense of how the telecommunications corporation would like to “shape” the World Wide Web can be gleaned from reports of how AT&T managed the live webcast of last weekend ‘s Lollapalooza concert when it came time for Pearl Jam to perform.
The Seattle-based band has a long history of highlighting smart political statements — about war and peace, protecting the environment and promoting tolerance — in its songs and in the on-stage comments of lead singer Eddie Vedder.
But on Sunday, when Pearl Jam was performing the song “Daughter” during the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, the band broke into a version of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Reworking the lyrics of the classic rock song, Vedder sang, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.”
The lyrics that criticized Bush were muted in the webcast.
Coincidence? Not at all.
AT&T admits that the censorship occurred. The company describes the muting of Vedder ‘s references to a president who appoints the members of the Federal Communications Commission — and thus has a major role in deciding whether AT&T gets what it wants — as “a mistake by a webcast vendor.”
Then, in a nice Orwellian twist, the company declares, “We have policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does not censor performances.”
In fact, “editing excessive profanity” is censorship.
And, of course, Vedder’s lyrics about Bush, which were not profane, did in fact get censored.
Web-savvy Pearl Jam fans noted the silencing of the message and immediately contacted the band. Pearl Jam members released a statement on the censorship incident that declared, “This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media. AT&T’s actions strike at the heart of the public’s concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.”
Pearl Jam’s statement continued: “What happened to us this weekend was a wake-up call, and it’s about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.”
The band’s right. The censorship of Pearl Jam by AT&T serves as a reminder of what will be lost if Net neutrality is eliminated and telecommunications corporations are free to decide which Web sites are on “the information superhighway of the future” and which are on the gravel road of slow or impossible connections.
“This event shows that companies like AT&T will risk the appearance of censorship by turning off the sound on a webcast that’s being viewed by thousands of people, just because it works counter to their financial interests,” says Jenny Toomey, the executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, which has been working to defend Net neutrality. “What do you think they will do to protect their financial interests on the Web when no one is looking?”
Tim Karr, of the Save the Internet.com Coalition, adds, “AT&T’s history of breaking trust with their customers includes: handing over private phone records to the government; promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town; and pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching plans … to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic.”
“The moral of this story is put Net neutrality permanently into law and never trust AT&T at their word,” says Karr. “The company acts in bad faith toward the public interest and will do whatever it can to pad its bottom line — including sacrificing its users’ freedom to choose where they go, what they watch and whom they listen to online.”
Here's what FCC Chairman Michael Copps had to say about this debacle:
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Banking System Revealed
This five part series explains Money and Debt. From the origins of money as beads and feathers, to the RFID chip, learn whos behind the globalization of a monitary system based on debt. The truth will set you free, what you do with that freedom is up to you. Use it for good, use it for evil, run and hide at what you see, or stand with others and champion our society and its rights under justice and equinimity.
.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Apple Parody More Truth
Recently, MADtv did a wonderful sketch playing off Apple Computer CEO Steven Jobs' new product rollout at a typical MacWorld Conference. The heavily scripted opening keynote by the co-founder of Apple has always been a thrill to conference-goers. This parody did not disappoint either.
But the ironic the twist beyond this great parody, was that Apple has risen to head the rank and file of corrupter corporations. It has become in my opinion, the most sinister company in the silicon pantheon... like sands through the hourglass, Apple produces ways to keep us distracted from living a life connected in communion with nature... and exiled us to wandering a desert of sand-based silicon iDevices. Rising to heights usurping even Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Apple have revealed the most sinister plan of stealing our souls and has shown us all along with Eden's fruit once bitten as its Logo. Microsoft's Bill Gates never disguised the fact that he was strong-arming society to buy his products. Apple has quietly seeped into our hearts and minds with their iStuff... we quickly move to a more iCentered, iFocused, iSolated... society.
Apple has been no stranger to ethical challenges. In the late 90s Apple was selling 15 different computers to secure price competition while retailers battled over lowest prices. After 2000, Apple began selling computers in stores like Best Buy, WalMart, CircuitCity and Sears undercutting price and services offered by its Independent Apple retailers like North Shore Computers (the nations largest) and my former company Third Millennium Design. Part of a large and loyal network of Mac Evangelists, the independent resellers began closing across the nation just as Apple Stores began springing up in Malls and Mainstreets in major cities. Apple repeatedly assured the remaining resellers of no competition between them and the new Stores... First they would only sell to retail, then they would not perform repairs in the stores, now their free "genius" consultants work long lines of business people carrying their computers to stores rather than hiring independent technicians.
Yes Apple has been conquering the private spaces of people for more than 25 years and like the highest demon in the devil's pantheon, Apple rose to power with the full support of the very people it now subjugates—not too unlike the Bush administration and their spinning of the iRack story to gain our support.
But the ironic the twist beyond this great parody, was that Apple has risen to head the rank and file of corrupter corporations. It has become in my opinion, the most sinister company in the silicon pantheon... like sands through the hourglass, Apple produces ways to keep us distracted from living a life connected in communion with nature... and exiled us to wandering a desert of sand-based silicon iDevices. Rising to heights usurping even Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Apple have revealed the most sinister plan of stealing our souls and has shown us all along with Eden's fruit once bitten as its Logo. Microsoft's Bill Gates never disguised the fact that he was strong-arming society to buy his products. Apple has quietly seeped into our hearts and minds with their iStuff... we quickly move to a more iCentered, iFocused, iSolated... society.
Apple has been no stranger to ethical challenges. In the late 90s Apple was selling 15 different computers to secure price competition while retailers battled over lowest prices. After 2000, Apple began selling computers in stores like Best Buy, WalMart, CircuitCity and Sears undercutting price and services offered by its Independent Apple retailers like North Shore Computers (the nations largest) and my former company Third Millennium Design. Part of a large and loyal network of Mac Evangelists, the independent resellers began closing across the nation just as Apple Stores began springing up in Malls and Mainstreets in major cities. Apple repeatedly assured the remaining resellers of no competition between them and the new Stores... First they would only sell to retail, then they would not perform repairs in the stores, now their free "genius" consultants work long lines of business people carrying their computers to stores rather than hiring independent technicians.
Yes Apple has been conquering the private spaces of people for more than 25 years and like the highest demon in the devil's pantheon, Apple rose to power with the full support of the very people it now subjugates—not too unlike the Bush administration and their spinning of the iRack story to gain our support.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Wolf in the World Bank
Today it was released that neocon PNAC author and thief of Baghdad, Paul Wolfowitz- the Bush anointed President of the World Bank... has been exposed for yet another series of serious corrupt practices involving some of his staff. This, after the Wolf's first order of business when assuming the throne of the world's humanitarian lending institution, was to clean house of corruption and nepotism....
But as seems the trait of the Bushmen of Washington, what's good for the people, does not apply to the rulers, is the rule at the WB too. Wolfowitz, against World bank policy, was dating Shaha Riza,
a gender specialist and senior communications adviser in the World Bank's Middle East Department (gee perhaps thats how he managed to gain access to the economic data for his hit-men to prey on helpless nations??)... As rumors leaked of their courtship a few years ago, Wolfy tried be removed from the rulings, but had to settle for getting her another job outside the World Bank.
Policy of the World Bank is to forbid any relations with subordinate workers. So Wolfy, got her a sweet tax-free job through the State Department, at an NGO that works with the World Bank by calling Condi.... so now that she didn't work under him, she was free "work" under him... and the worse part, the international NGO had her salary paid by the World Bank!
But wait, there's more! If that don't stink enough, not only did she get hired with none of the normally strict approval processes, she was paid twice the starting salary, and recently got another enormous pay raise of double the limit of raises for the organization. She is the highest paid person in the State Department... making more than Secretary of State, Condolessa Rice! (but then again Condi is black)
Now it turns out there are several other staffers Wolfowitz brought on board with ridiculous salaries and circumventing normal approval proceedings. Of course knowledge of this sent shock waves through rank and file at the World Bank-many of whom suspect Wolfy to have a hidden agenda. Nations and lenders were outraged at the behavior...
Why even the Wolf himself expressed anger and vowed to take decisive action.... but not against him or his staff.... no... against the leakers of this information!!!
This on the heels of the revelations of Wolfowitz collaborating with RNC billionaire Vulture Funders to extort billions of dollars in debt relief from third world nations.
Is there anyone who can still keep a straight face and say they are Bush Supporters who aren't ripping off our nation's wealth???
Are citizens ever going to stand up and demand punishment for these acts of treason.... or at least criminal corruption! NO its not good enough to demand his resignation—throw the bastard in jail! - Gitmo sounds like a nice place!
Followup- heres what he said the next day... "He's Sorry" - in true NeoCon fashion... thats suppoed to mean he keeps on working an we just ignore what he did... Well the banks board is asking him to resign... we'll see if he honors his word of "doing what they request" as much as his friend King George has done about bringing to justice anyone who had anything to do with the outting of Valerie Plame....
Here's more about his job and his his troubles from Times UK.
The latest from the NYT about his"terms for resignation" —gee quite the about face from his "noble" rhetoric about doing the right thing... or perhaps he really meant doing the "right" thing... lets hope he gets whats coming to him. The Wolf may finally be ousted from the henhouse... but will his legacy live on? And where does an ousted Wolf go next???
And more on his trying to weasel out the blame... what a snake.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Solar Powered George
Check it out, a solar powered chariot propelled by George Bush!
Finally George Bush works for us! THis is such a fun invention and really speaks to our needs and abilities to create a brighter future if only we put the people like George Bush to work for us... rather than them enslaving us to do their bidding.
A brighter future is only a notion away... believe.
Finally George Bush works for us! THis is such a fun invention and really speaks to our needs and abilities to create a brighter future if only we put the people like George Bush to work for us... rather than them enslaving us to do their bidding.
A brighter future is only a notion away... believe.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Window not only thing Broken
While I was in DC lobbying Congress and particiapting in demonstrations, friends in Milwaukee were marching too. Apparently some anarchists in the group broke a window to a Military Recruiting Station which really got attention. The local FOX6Blog was ablaze with right-wing questions and comments, this was mine.
Q: Do you think this is a fair way to protest the war? Or does this go beyond the scope of peaceful protests -- since there was property damage involved?
Is violating personal property a bad thing? I think everyone can agree it is, including cvac (a friend of the anarchists who bravely posted a comment on the blog- before being harrassed off the site). Does this go beyond the scope of peaceful protests? Obviously by the very name it does. But, is this a fair way to protest a war? Well here the big assumption is was this a fair war?
This is the real question as it holds the underpinnings to justify the actions of cvac's friends (right or wrong) and the intentions of the peacekeepers and even the basis for the righteous patriotic saber rattling posed by many of our bloggers.
By all accounts the war was unjust, as every day more information is brought into question by our 110th Congress. Justifications based on misinformation (lies), scrupulous partisan appointments and unethical removal of anyone against the leadership's agenda, rampant corruption and enrichment of corporate alliances through contracts and policy, all the way to improper legal actions by top officials, its becoming hard to remain a loyal Bush supporter, and harder to not deny this war has brought about near annihilation to the civilization in Iraq. So I guess its safe to say its not a fair war.
But what is also not fair or balanced, is our media's role in handling the information of our times. Not merely what it does or doesn't not show of the real images of war, but what it chooses to show instead. While we sit at home watching basketball and idol shows, our nation is acting like an imperial power, bringing sovereign nations to their knees and remaking them to suit "our" pleasure.
Media is giving us an "embedded" view that undergoes censorship from many levels. So rather than speaking truth to its people, our media provides a great distortion. But beyond that it also projects distraction and sense of comfort. It creates a shield to protect us from sinking to the carnal-levels of violence we subject our troops, prisoners and innocent iraqi/afghanni citizens to endure. By failing to tell the uncensored truth, it fails to inform us back home, of the full issues. Who is being killed, how many, how brutally and to what psychologically damning ends for our soldiers who have to carry out these policies?
Instead it shows TV dramas with torture and terrorism as themes. These shows wrap up neatly in an hour, or a season, but they make a spectacle the horrors and thereby desensitize us to the reality going on around us today. Our fears are cultivated to bring out responses and tolerances that we would not otherwise exhibit. Here in this Fox6Blog, we regularly see cries for capital punishment, eye for an eye, don't like it—move, or simply rash actions for dealing with complex problems. We've become a society who wants the answers to fit neatly in a time-slot between American Idol and Bones.
Cvec and her friends that call themselves anarchists are responding to a society that is increasingly losing touch with reality. Breaking the window may have been the best thing they could have done... it hurt no-one, but surely got attention.
So now what?
Do we continue to sit, wrapped in our flags of patriotism, holding our crosses or morality while we keep righteously typing our tuff decrees, eating junk food and drinking sodas, til Idol comes on when we plop down on the couch for the rest of the night? Or do we take this moment to move past the anger about a broken window... and perhaps begin to examine the broken part of our own lives?
From the fractured view given us by the media, we seldom see the true faces of the victims to our hostility... be they here, like the increasing numbers of people facing financial turmoil responding in desperation, or in Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan. Last month, 6000 people died in a region no larger than Wisconsin. Women, children, young and old blown up, tortured, shot, or worse killed for a lack of access to things that were once available to them- even under the brutal former dictatorship. Our soldiers are overwhelmingly against occupation, many more have deserted than the leaders claim. Those that get home face atrocities like Walter Reed or worse, a system that spends all its efforts trying to justify excluding soldiers from the benefits they promised them in recruiting centers like the one in question. Of those Iraqi's left to poll, 90% are against US occupation; Our reconstruction efforts were a hoax to build bases and prisons, and our worst intentions have finally come to realization as we have rewritten Iraq's laws to require foreign Oil company oversight, the agribusiness to require foreign seed and fertilizer, even their business platform is to be built by foreign companies.
We have made a 21th century banana republic of the oldest civilization on earth. Extracting oil and money from the hands of those we came to "liberate". It is plain to see by those not looking at US media, our allies are disappearing as fast as our good will abroad. But at home, life remains peaceful, but for those pesky protesters. Why are a growing number of people angry?
Until we begin to behave like the citizens we are; Until we begin to hold our leadership and our media to a higher degree of accountability; Until we begin to hold our own actions of over-consumption and waste in-check; more windows will break, more burglaries will occur and more people will fear the urban visits.
This will not go away if we watch more tv. It will require sacrifice and compassion... things many hear about during their weekly church services, but fail to put to practice. If we were to behave more like the Christ and less like the Christians, we might begin to see that violence does not solve problems as well as love does.
Q: Do you think this is a fair way to protest the war? Or does this go beyond the scope of peaceful protests -- since there was property damage involved?
Is violating personal property a bad thing? I think everyone can agree it is, including cvac (a friend of the anarchists who bravely posted a comment on the blog- before being harrassed off the site). Does this go beyond the scope of peaceful protests? Obviously by the very name it does. But, is this a fair way to protest a war? Well here the big assumption is was this a fair war?
This is the real question as it holds the underpinnings to justify the actions of cvac's friends (right or wrong) and the intentions of the peacekeepers and even the basis for the righteous patriotic saber rattling posed by many of our bloggers.
By all accounts the war was unjust, as every day more information is brought into question by our 110th Congress. Justifications based on misinformation (lies), scrupulous partisan appointments and unethical removal of anyone against the leadership's agenda, rampant corruption and enrichment of corporate alliances through contracts and policy, all the way to improper legal actions by top officials, its becoming hard to remain a loyal Bush supporter, and harder to not deny this war has brought about near annihilation to the civilization in Iraq. So I guess its safe to say its not a fair war.
But what is also not fair or balanced, is our media's role in handling the information of our times. Not merely what it does or doesn't not show of the real images of war, but what it chooses to show instead. While we sit at home watching basketball and idol shows, our nation is acting like an imperial power, bringing sovereign nations to their knees and remaking them to suit "our" pleasure.
Media is giving us an "embedded" view that undergoes censorship from many levels. So rather than speaking truth to its people, our media provides a great distortion. But beyond that it also projects distraction and sense of comfort. It creates a shield to protect us from sinking to the carnal-levels of violence we subject our troops, prisoners and innocent iraqi/afghanni citizens to endure. By failing to tell the uncensored truth, it fails to inform us back home, of the full issues. Who is being killed, how many, how brutally and to what psychologically damning ends for our soldiers who have to carry out these policies?
Instead it shows TV dramas with torture and terrorism as themes. These shows wrap up neatly in an hour, or a season, but they make a spectacle the horrors and thereby desensitize us to the reality going on around us today. Our fears are cultivated to bring out responses and tolerances that we would not otherwise exhibit. Here in this Fox6Blog, we regularly see cries for capital punishment, eye for an eye, don't like it—move, or simply rash actions for dealing with complex problems. We've become a society who wants the answers to fit neatly in a time-slot between American Idol and Bones.
Cvec and her friends that call themselves anarchists are responding to a society that is increasingly losing touch with reality. Breaking the window may have been the best thing they could have done... it hurt no-one, but surely got attention.
So now what?
Do we continue to sit, wrapped in our flags of patriotism, holding our crosses or morality while we keep righteously typing our tuff decrees, eating junk food and drinking sodas, til Idol comes on when we plop down on the couch for the rest of the night? Or do we take this moment to move past the anger about a broken window... and perhaps begin to examine the broken part of our own lives?
From the fractured view given us by the media, we seldom see the true faces of the victims to our hostility... be they here, like the increasing numbers of people facing financial turmoil responding in desperation, or in Iraq, Palestine or Afghanistan. Last month, 6000 people died in a region no larger than Wisconsin. Women, children, young and old blown up, tortured, shot, or worse killed for a lack of access to things that were once available to them- even under the brutal former dictatorship. Our soldiers are overwhelmingly against occupation, many more have deserted than the leaders claim. Those that get home face atrocities like Walter Reed or worse, a system that spends all its efforts trying to justify excluding soldiers from the benefits they promised them in recruiting centers like the one in question. Of those Iraqi's left to poll, 90% are against US occupation; Our reconstruction efforts were a hoax to build bases and prisons, and our worst intentions have finally come to realization as we have rewritten Iraq's laws to require foreign Oil company oversight, the agribusiness to require foreign seed and fertilizer, even their business platform is to be built by foreign companies.
We have made a 21th century banana republic of the oldest civilization on earth. Extracting oil and money from the hands of those we came to "liberate". It is plain to see by those not looking at US media, our allies are disappearing as fast as our good will abroad. But at home, life remains peaceful, but for those pesky protesters. Why are a growing number of people angry?
Until we begin to behave like the citizens we are; Until we begin to hold our leadership and our media to a higher degree of accountability; Until we begin to hold our own actions of over-consumption and waste in-check; more windows will break, more burglaries will occur and more people will fear the urban visits.
This will not go away if we watch more tv. It will require sacrifice and compassion... things many hear about during their weekly church services, but fail to put to practice. If we were to behave more like the Christ and less like the Christians, we might begin to see that violence does not solve problems as well as love does.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Behind the Mold
We've been hearing all this talk of the rancid conditions at some of the Water Reed Hospital buildings where our Brave Fighting Men and Women who've suffered in battle come to be healed. We feel outraged that Mold, Rat Poop, Leaks etc... are not taken care of as we pour Trillions into the "War On Terror"
It would seem that the real "Terror" awaits our injured soldiers when they arrive home to receive "safe modern medical treatment".... WRONG! ... Not in the BushCo "exit is not an option" military, where denial isn't only the answer to reality on the ground in Iraq, its the policy for benefits, compensation, and healing back at home. But heck, many of our citizens loyally defend his actions, if only because they have no idea what's really going on, when watching mainstream media for our views.
How many continue to defend, even as more ugly truths come to light? They protest almost as defiantly as the Pentagon leaders, who spin their propaganda until they've stuck their foot so far in their mouths, they're chewin on their boot straps! Over and over again Leaders deny their actions until proof reaches critical mass —then they say it was a "few bad apples" like Abu Graib, Guantanimo and even Fallujah, where White Phosphorus was used to indiscriminately kill men, women, children and animals in the most horrifying way imaginable.
The chemical, orignally dropped by parachute to light up night skies the battlefields in Vietnam, was discovered to cause horrific trauma to flesh when just traces of the dust comes in contact. Skin burns to bone without effecting fabric. People, and animals melt to death, or worse if it is inhaled. (you may also remember it was precisely such action (gasing civilians) that got Saddam a quick trip to the Gallows Pole- for less fatalities and with less vicious means of mass murder than BushCo's "WhiskeyPete") but again, who's watching eh?
Well heres the next, believe it or not, for you "logic-lovin" patriots who seem to gloss over facts on your way to assert that Clinton got a Blojwob! Guess who's been recently put in charge of maintenance of Walter Reed in an effort to "privatize" yet another public service to make it "less expensive" ?? Francis Harvey took the fall by getting fired for his lack of oversight of War Profiteer — IAP Worldwide Services who received a 5 year 120 Million Dollar Contract to —( let-r-rot )— er provide services to Walter Reed Medical Center.
Yeah, I been to Home Depot lately and their cleaning solutions and paint prices are through-the-roof ! ! No wonder IAP couldn't mop the floors and scrub the walls... that cuts deep into the profits... but you think they might have gotten a discount card at the Depot cuz their CEO only recently left from Halliburton—you know, the Vice President's company —er formercompany. IAP was formed to help share the "burden" of redistributing the tax-payer's money to yet another war-profiteer. (wonder if he leaves his lights on in his mansions like Al Gore?)
Who's gonna be first to start talkin bout Clinton?
Saturday, March 03, 2007
The Wombat
www.global-mindshift.org
This is your wake-up ... its real simple
just listen to the wombat and show him to your friends!
This is your wake-up ... its real simple
just listen to the wombat and show him to your friends!
Friday, March 02, 2007
Bush Logic
All right, let me see if I understand the pResident's logic correct.
We ignored the United Nations
in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein
that the United Nations cannot be ignored.
We waged war to preserve the UN's ability to avert war.
The paramount principle was that the UN's word must be taken seriously,
and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then we will.
Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend.
Did I get that right?
Furthermore, if the only way to bring democracy to Iraq
was to destroy the democracy of the Security Council,
then we are honor bound to do that too.
Why? Because democracy, as WE define it,
is too important to be stopped by a little thing
like democracy as THEY define it.
Also, in dealing with a man who endured no dissension at home,
we could not afford dissension among ourselves.
We had to speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein's
failure to allow opposing voices to be heard.
We sent our gathered might to the Persian Gulf to make the point
that might does not make right,
as Saddam seemed to think it did.
And we twisted the arms of the opposition
till it agreed to let us oust a regime
that twisted the arms of the opposition.
We went in to rid the world of a ruler
who used weapons
that indiscriminately killed people,
by using that weapons indiscriminately kill people.
We kidnapped and tortured people
to stop a regime that regularly
kidnapped and tortured people.
We could not leave in power,
a dictator who ignored his own people.
And if our people, and people elsewhere in the world,
fail to understand that, then we have no choice but to ignore them.
Yeah, lets go get Iran!
We ignored the United Nations
in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein
that the United Nations cannot be ignored.
We waged war to preserve the UN's ability to avert war.
The paramount principle was that the UN's word must be taken seriously,
and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then we will.
Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend.
Did I get that right?
Furthermore, if the only way to bring democracy to Iraq
was to destroy the democracy of the Security Council,
then we are honor bound to do that too.
Why? Because democracy, as WE define it,
is too important to be stopped by a little thing
like democracy as THEY define it.
Also, in dealing with a man who endured no dissension at home,
we could not afford dissension among ourselves.
We had to speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein's
failure to allow opposing voices to be heard.
We sent our gathered might to the Persian Gulf to make the point
that might does not make right,
as Saddam seemed to think it did.
And we twisted the arms of the opposition
till it agreed to let us oust a regime
that twisted the arms of the opposition.
We went in to rid the world of a ruler
who used weapons
that indiscriminately killed people,
by using that weapons indiscriminately kill people.
We kidnapped and tortured people
to stop a regime that regularly
kidnapped and tortured people.
We could not leave in power,
a dictator who ignored his own people.
And if our people, and people elsewhere in the world,
fail to understand that, then we have no choice but to ignore them.
Yeah, lets go get Iran!
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