It seems the U.S. and Israel have been the ‘bully’s on the block’ for far too long. They both take strong actions against terrorism while enlisting the very same tactics. Do they think that because they are so big no one can stop them? Are they too big to fail? I don’t think so.
This latest escalation in brutality between Israel and Hamas is a reminder that each desires the complete extermination of the other. Hamas openly calls for the genocide of Israel and Israel, being the more powerful of the two, actively carries out the threat. Despite any third parties’ attempts to broker peace between these two, they both actively participate in breaking down any and all gains made in reaching a cease-fire.
Hamas indiscriminately fires rockets into Israel fully realizing that innocent children could be killed. Israel launches targeted missile-strikes knowing full well that innocent children are being killed. Each views this ‘unfortunate’ side effect of their never-ending war as the successful elimination of future enemy forces.
Israel has, once again, committed severe violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Convention. A Russian news outlet, Russia Today, listed the violations with complete disregard for their commission of these same violations against Georgia. The obvious hypocrisy has been lost on them.
The violations are:
Collective punishment – the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.
Targeting civilians – the air strikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.
Disproportionate military response – the air strikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza's elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.
Earlier Israeli actions, specifically the complete sealing off of entry and exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe shortages of medicine and fuel (as well as food), resulting in the inability of ambulances to respond to the injured, the inability of hospitals to adequately provide medicine or necessary equipment for the injured, and the inability of Gaza's besieged doctors and other medical workers to sufficiently treat the victims.
Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei called for all Muslims to come to the defense of their Palestinian brothers. He said they are “duty-bound to defend” Palestinians under siege by Israeli bombardment and even claimed that anyone who dies while defending Hamas will be declared ‘martyrs’.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-arab-protests29-2008dec29,0,6042138.story
Any world figure who issues a ‘call to arms’ and declares it is an ‘obligation’ to do so and declares those who die in the conflict as martyrs needs to be ostracized from civil society, for he holds just as much criminal culpability as both Israel and Hamas.
I read something someone on Clipmarks wrote, “How to make a terrorist: kill his family, destroy his home, show no mercy”.
The outcome of this type of behavior can only be to create more enemies. Does each side believe that through the constant onslaught of violence the other side will suddenly become completely submissive to them? Have we not learned anything from history? Peace does not grow out of violence.
Hamas is an admitted militant society. They are open and honest about this description. Israel on the other hand does not want to admit that they have become exactly the same thing. The U.S. chastises Hamas for their hatred towards Israel, the U.S. backs Israel. How can we Americans continue to back a terrorist regime? Our brothers and sisters have died and continue to die fighting against terror and yet our politicians back a terrorist society.
This senseless fighting needs to come to an end, in Gaza, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Using our vote to cleanse our government of those who support genocide and the policies of collective punishment should be one of our greatest priorities in every election cycle. The psyche of this nation cannot afford to continue to tolerate anyone who sees violence as a viable solution to the world’s problems.
The U.S. and Israel are creating terrorists. We are bringing about our own demise. Killing each other over territory, resources, revenge, political ideology, religious dogma, is leading us towards the apocalypse. If there will be nobody left, what is the point?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Amidst Increased Security, We Get Ripped Off
Securities fraud cases are down 87% since 2000. Great News! On the surface, it appears that Wall Street has finally turned away from the dark side and the free market system of letting the market take care of itself is working for the good of everyone.
Don’t bet your life savings on it. This ‘miraculous’ turn of events is simply another Ponzi scheme. Instead of shifting money around to cover other debts, as is the idea of the Ponzi scheme, the federal government has been shifting investigative resources towards preventing terrorism and away from preventing the U.S. economy from being ripped off.
As a result of spending less time ferreting out the con artists that everyone knows are there, the FBI and the SEC has allowed the American taxpayer to be ripped off to the tune of billions of dollars to bailout the economy. How did our government best serve our interests in this brilliant maneuver?
We now have armed security forces roaming our airports rummaging through our luggage forcing us to take off our shoes and empty our water bottles. They see through our clothing to view every personal detail of our bodies. When they see fit, they confiscate our electronic equipment and force us to sit in rooms designated as ‘international zones’ so that the ‘authorities’ are not encumbered with Americans’ civil rights while we await further investigation. All this so we can visit relatives and friends. We are subjected to this humiliation while our fellow Americans on Wall Street are allowed to rip us off of our savings and our government further rips us off to bail them out. What a country.
Have we even had any terrorist threat to our airline industry since 2001? Some will argue that its because of all the security that we haven’t had any threats. How about using that same logic on Wall Street? If we watched our money handlers as stringently as we scrutinize our ‘friendly skies’ we wouldn’t be in this financial mess.
Wall Street claims it doesn’t need to be regulated. Free market cheerleaders say the economy should handle itself. The current state of the economy, swirling down the toilet, is a great argument for more regulation and less ‘free’ market.
It always comes down to humans cannot be trusted with other people’s money.
We will never see an end to corporate abuse. Even if there was a regulatory investigator on every corporate staff, there would not be enough honest, un-corruptible individuals to rid the American people of this type of evil.
To these guys, money no longer represents a hard working individual trying to make a better living for himself and his family by buying into the stock market dream of having your money work for you. This money becomes nothing more than another commodity that can and should be controlled and used to make more money for the fund manager. The implied promise to protect the owners investment becomes secondary. And if they have to bend a few rules or make unethical decisions that could result in a quick profit for themselves while there is no one watching over his shoulder then he will take that chance.
Obama has promised an overhaul of the SEC, but this is just a matter of course for an incoming authority when the current system has failed. In the end, nothing will really change, as long as humans are handling other peoples money, unregulated and without the threat of severe punishment, there will be fraud and deception.
Don’t bet your life savings on it. This ‘miraculous’ turn of events is simply another Ponzi scheme. Instead of shifting money around to cover other debts, as is the idea of the Ponzi scheme, the federal government has been shifting investigative resources towards preventing terrorism and away from preventing the U.S. economy from being ripped off.
As a result of spending less time ferreting out the con artists that everyone knows are there, the FBI and the SEC has allowed the American taxpayer to be ripped off to the tune of billions of dollars to bailout the economy. How did our government best serve our interests in this brilliant maneuver?
We now have armed security forces roaming our airports rummaging through our luggage forcing us to take off our shoes and empty our water bottles. They see through our clothing to view every personal detail of our bodies. When they see fit, they confiscate our electronic equipment and force us to sit in rooms designated as ‘international zones’ so that the ‘authorities’ are not encumbered with Americans’ civil rights while we await further investigation. All this so we can visit relatives and friends. We are subjected to this humiliation while our fellow Americans on Wall Street are allowed to rip us off of our savings and our government further rips us off to bail them out. What a country.
Have we even had any terrorist threat to our airline industry since 2001? Some will argue that its because of all the security that we haven’t had any threats. How about using that same logic on Wall Street? If we watched our money handlers as stringently as we scrutinize our ‘friendly skies’ we wouldn’t be in this financial mess.
Wall Street claims it doesn’t need to be regulated. Free market cheerleaders say the economy should handle itself. The current state of the economy, swirling down the toilet, is a great argument for more regulation and less ‘free’ market.
It always comes down to humans cannot be trusted with other people’s money.
We will never see an end to corporate abuse. Even if there was a regulatory investigator on every corporate staff, there would not be enough honest, un-corruptible individuals to rid the American people of this type of evil.
To these guys, money no longer represents a hard working individual trying to make a better living for himself and his family by buying into the stock market dream of having your money work for you. This money becomes nothing more than another commodity that can and should be controlled and used to make more money for the fund manager. The implied promise to protect the owners investment becomes secondary. And if they have to bend a few rules or make unethical decisions that could result in a quick profit for themselves while there is no one watching over his shoulder then he will take that chance.
Obama has promised an overhaul of the SEC, but this is just a matter of course for an incoming authority when the current system has failed. In the end, nothing will really change, as long as humans are handling other peoples money, unregulated and without the threat of severe punishment, there will be fraud and deception.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Human Rights, Democracy and Fascism
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, made the statement that Zimbabwe was his. His ‘dictatorship in democracy clothing’ is showing through, again.
The world sat back and watched as Mugabe systematically evicted white landowners off of their farms, which led to the downfall of the entire economy.
The world sat back and watched as Mugabe’s military coerced the people of Zimbabwe through violence to vote for him.
The world sat back and watched as Mugabe closed down hospitals amidst the worst outbreak of cholera in recent memory. He claims the cholera epidemic is over even while thousands overflowed into neighboring countries desperate for medical help they were denied in their home country. He is silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death in order to cover up the true numbers.
He does all this while hanging onto the claim that he is running a democratic state.
All we have heard from the U.S. on these matters is a disagreement to Robert Mugabe claiming Zimbabwe as his.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack told reporters "He (Mugabe) thinks that the state of Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe are there only to serve his interest. It's the other way around - or it should be the other way around."
This is a true statement, but when it comes from a representative of an administration that has repeatedly gone against the wishes of the vast majority of American people and stepped on their constitutional rights in the process, it is a hypocritical statement.
He went on to say "Those who govern should govern in the interest of the governed. The governed should be able to determine who governs them and in what manner."
Saddam Hussein came into power as a result of a coup and ruled Iraq with an iron fist but the Iraqi people boasted a strong economy building new schools, universities, hospitals, and factories. Any internal opposition to his rule was quickly and brutally squashed.
China’s leadership is appointed by party officials and controls its people through censorship of political speech in the interest of social stability. Widespread civil rights violations are well known, such as, systematic use of lengthy detention without trial, forced confessions, torture, mistreatment of prisoners, restrictions of freedom of speech, assembly, association, religion, the press, and labor rights. In order to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, China promised to issue permits allowing people to protest in so-called 'protest parks' during the Games, but it was reported that of 77 applications, 74 were withdrawn, two suspended and one vetoed.
The military junta in Burma (Myanmar) came into power as the result of a coup and, after a brief attempt at democracy, became one of the world's most repressive and abusive regimes. The military tightly controls the judiciary, rules by decree, suppresses all basic rights, and commits human rights abuses with impunity. Official corruption is reportedly rampant both at the higher and local levels.
Robert Mugabe was given control of Zimbabwe in 1980 by British authorities decolonizing their holdings in Africa. Since then, he has systematically taken away the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly, and the protection of the law. There are assaults on the media, political opposition, civil society activists, and human rights defenders.
George W Bush was given the presidential office in 2000 by the electorate not the popular vote. Al Gore received more popular votes than did George W Bush and still lost the election due to electoral votes. Since then he has stepped on constitutional rights through domestic spying and created Homeland Security which only cements the federal governments control over its citizenry.
The record of human rights violations of these nations, as well as many others, are documented and well known to the international community.
The U.S. claims to hold the protection of human rights as a cornerstone of democracy, and may actually voice its opinion condemning those leaders whose actions corrupt this idea. But, if the offending country has valuable resources, as does Iraq, and it is calculated that the U.S. military can quickly overthrow that government and gain access to those resources our leadership will resort to lies in order to do so.
China is of course too powerful for America to repeat what it did to Iraq, so we just put on the show of protesting their practices while at the same time helping to prop up their economy with billions of dollars a year for their goods.
In Burma, well America could kick their butts in a heart beat but, U.S. based companies already have an inroad to their resources so the U.S. government only occasionally and mildly protests that junta’s treatment of its citizens and continue to support them by purchasing the products exported by those same American companies. Americans ignore the fact that the impoverished people of Burma are forced into slave labor, raped, murdered and jailed for speaking out as long as they get access to their resources.
Zimbabwe does not have any resources that the U.S. wants so the U.S. basically ignores them until the international cry gets so loud that turning a blind eye is no longer an option. And in the end what does the U.S. object to? Mugabe’s rhetoric in claiming Zimbabwe as his.
You think maybe America’s priorities are a just a bit skewed?
While it is true that we in America have the right to vote without the threat of violence, we have very little sway over who really gets chosen run or over what the elected official does once they are in office. As illustrated when President Bush (owner of the lowest popularity ranking of any American president in history) reneged on many of his campaign promises, which is truly the only thing we voters have to base our decision on.
American democracy in many respects is a sham which can easily by manipulated by ‘masters of the game’. America was manipulated into going to war with Iraq, against the will of the American people, through the use of strategically released misinformation concerning Iraq’s intentions to use WMD’s against the American people. Saddam was deemed a threat to a nation much stronger than his. His refusal to be bullied into opening his borders to foreign inspectors gave the Bush administration the stage from which to launch a plan to build military bases within Iraq’s borders and to gain access to its oil reserves. An entire bureaucracy, Homeland Security, has been created out of the fear of a repeat of September 11, 2001.
Democracy has been stepped on and constitutional guarantees tossed aside by an administration legally bound to uphold American citizens rights when it conducted secret surveillance on American citizens on American soil under the claim of protecting us against terrorism. The only terrorist attacks so far have come from this administration on our civil rights.
Long standing adherence to human rights were suspended when “enemy combatants” were thrown into Guantanamo and held without the right to trial and then tortured. You can label waterboarding by its sanitized description of “aggressive interrogation techniques” if you want but it is still torture, something the American people abhor and, before George W Bush, never thought our government would stoop to.
Our airports have become mini-fascist states. Just ask Australian-born U.S. citizen Anne Summers of her recent experiences with armed agents at LAX. She, like many others, has fallen victim to an overly-suspicious, power-mad agents’ interrogation for ‘your own protection’. I understand the need for vigilance but courtesy and respect for human dignity should not be tossed aside when an agent is given a badge. Reports are rampant of condescending agents exhibiting intimidation, animosity and complete disdain for having to be bothered to deal with what they consider a possible terrorist suspect. Here’s an account of a passenger arriving at JFK Airport from Syria who received inexcusable treatment in the name of national security.
In our zeal to expose a terrorist plot behind every anti-war protest, every person crossing our border, and every passenger who forgets to empty his/her water bottle before entering a security checkpoint, we are turning our country into a fascist state. Or rather, the Bush administration has taken advantage of fear of another terrorist attack in order to do so. But then that’s how fascism spreads, isn’t it? When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001 the ‘terrorist’ accomplished their goal to put America on alert that they will not tolerate the disrespectful treatment westerners have shown the rest of the world. With this single act they now only have to threaten the U.S. to get us to react. They don’t have to actually conduct an attack on U.S. soil because they have already shown they are willing to do so.
Fear and Fascism go hand in hand. The measures that are being forced onto us in the name of protection is a response to fear and they are eroding our rights and freedoms.
Fascists invoke an external and internal threat in order to convince the population to grant their rulers extraordinary powers. In the case of George W Bush, he evoked these extraordinary powers through the use of presidential decrees. Much as Burma’s ruling Junta does.
They establish secret prisons that practice torture, prisons that are initially few in number and only incarcerate social pariahs, but that quickly multiply and soon imprison "opposition leaders, outspoken clergy, union leaders, well-known performers, publishers, and journalists."
They develop a paramilitary force that operates without legal restraint. Blackwater International is just such a force.
They set up a system of intense domestic surveillance that gathers information for the purposes of intimidating and blackmailing citizens. If domestic surveillance continues unabated who can honestly say it will not be used for the purposes of intimidating and blackmailing citizens?
They infiltrate, monitor, and disorganize citizens' groups.
They arbitrarily detain and release citizens, especially at borders.
They target key individuals like civil servants, academics, and artists in order to ensure their complicity or silence.
Dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons.
eight U.S. attorneys
They take control of the press. The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high: Josh Wolf, a blogger in San Francisco, has been put in jail for a year for refusing to turn over video of an anti-war demonstration; Homeland Security brought a criminal complaint against reporter Greg Palast, claiming he threatened "critical infrastructure" when he and a TV producer were filming victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Palast had written a bestseller critical of the Bush administration.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented multiple accounts of the US military in Iraq firing upon or threatening to fire upon unembedded (meaning independent) reporters and camera operators from organizations ranging from al-Jazeera to the BBC.
You won't have a shutdown of news in modern America - it is not possible. But you can have, as Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal have pointed out, a steady stream of lies polluting the news well. What you already have is a White House directing a stream of false information that is so relentless that it is increasingly hard to sort out truth from untruth. In a fascist system, it's not the lies that count but the muddying. When citizens can't tell real news from fake, they give up their demands for accountability bit by bit.
They publicly equate dissent with treason. Most Americans do not realize that when Congress wrongly, foolishly, passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 the president has the power to call any US citizen an "enemy combatant". He has the power to define what "enemy combatant" means. The president can also delegate to anyone he chooses in the executive branch the right to define "enemy combatant" any way he or she wants and then seize Americans accordingly.
They suspend the rule of law. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president new powers over the national guard. This means that in a national emergency - which the president now has enhanced powers to declare - he can send Michigan's militia to enforce a state of emergency that he has declared in Oregon, over the objections of the state's governor and its citizens.
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any 'other condition’. And the Pentagon is currently reserving 20,000 troops for domestic emergencies.
All of these strategies are being employed in America today.
America only cares about human rights when it is convenient or advantageous to do so. Only when everything that has happened in recent years are taken together can we see the path that America is headed down.
Right now, only a handful of patriots are trying to hold back the tide of tyranny for the rest of us - staff at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who faced death threats for representing Guantanamo detainees yet persisted all the way to the Supreme Court; activists at the American Civil Liberties Union; and prominent conservatives trying to roll back corrosive new laws, under the banner of a new group called the American Freedom Agenda. This small, disparate collection of people needs everybody's help, including that of Europeans and others internationally who are willing to put pressure on the administration because they can see what a US unrestrained by real democracy at home can mean for the rest of the world.
Further reading
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
U.S. Secret Prison Ships Hold Untold Number of Detainees
America is going Fascist
Watching out for an American paramilitary
FBI Spied on Peace Group Because os Antiwar Views
U.S. Government Spying and Infiltration
Homeland Security? Abuses by Border Patrol in Arizona
Nightmare at Reagan National Airport
Fired U.S. Attorneys
The world sat back and watched as Mugabe systematically evicted white landowners off of their farms, which led to the downfall of the entire economy.
The world sat back and watched as Mugabe’s military coerced the people of Zimbabwe through violence to vote for him.
The world sat back and watched as Mugabe closed down hospitals amidst the worst outbreak of cholera in recent memory. He claims the cholera epidemic is over even while thousands overflowed into neighboring countries desperate for medical help they were denied in their home country. He is silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death in order to cover up the true numbers.
He does all this while hanging onto the claim that he is running a democratic state.
All we have heard from the U.S. on these matters is a disagreement to Robert Mugabe claiming Zimbabwe as his.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack told reporters "He (Mugabe) thinks that the state of Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe are there only to serve his interest. It's the other way around - or it should be the other way around."
This is a true statement, but when it comes from a representative of an administration that has repeatedly gone against the wishes of the vast majority of American people and stepped on their constitutional rights in the process, it is a hypocritical statement.
He went on to say "Those who govern should govern in the interest of the governed. The governed should be able to determine who governs them and in what manner."
Saddam Hussein came into power as a result of a coup and ruled Iraq with an iron fist but the Iraqi people boasted a strong economy building new schools, universities, hospitals, and factories. Any internal opposition to his rule was quickly and brutally squashed.
China’s leadership is appointed by party officials and controls its people through censorship of political speech in the interest of social stability. Widespread civil rights violations are well known, such as, systematic use of lengthy detention without trial, forced confessions, torture, mistreatment of prisoners, restrictions of freedom of speech, assembly, association, religion, the press, and labor rights. In order to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, China promised to issue permits allowing people to protest in so-called 'protest parks' during the Games, but it was reported that of 77 applications, 74 were withdrawn, two suspended and one vetoed.
The military junta in Burma (Myanmar) came into power as the result of a coup and, after a brief attempt at democracy, became one of the world's most repressive and abusive regimes. The military tightly controls the judiciary, rules by decree, suppresses all basic rights, and commits human rights abuses with impunity. Official corruption is reportedly rampant both at the higher and local levels.
Robert Mugabe was given control of Zimbabwe in 1980 by British authorities decolonizing their holdings in Africa. Since then, he has systematically taken away the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly, and the protection of the law. There are assaults on the media, political opposition, civil society activists, and human rights defenders.
George W Bush was given the presidential office in 2000 by the electorate not the popular vote. Al Gore received more popular votes than did George W Bush and still lost the election due to electoral votes. Since then he has stepped on constitutional rights through domestic spying and created Homeland Security which only cements the federal governments control over its citizenry.
The record of human rights violations of these nations, as well as many others, are documented and well known to the international community.
The U.S. claims to hold the protection of human rights as a cornerstone of democracy, and may actually voice its opinion condemning those leaders whose actions corrupt this idea. But, if the offending country has valuable resources, as does Iraq, and it is calculated that the U.S. military can quickly overthrow that government and gain access to those resources our leadership will resort to lies in order to do so.
China is of course too powerful for America to repeat what it did to Iraq, so we just put on the show of protesting their practices while at the same time helping to prop up their economy with billions of dollars a year for their goods.
In Burma, well America could kick their butts in a heart beat but, U.S. based companies already have an inroad to their resources so the U.S. government only occasionally and mildly protests that junta’s treatment of its citizens and continue to support them by purchasing the products exported by those same American companies. Americans ignore the fact that the impoverished people of Burma are forced into slave labor, raped, murdered and jailed for speaking out as long as they get access to their resources.
Zimbabwe does not have any resources that the U.S. wants so the U.S. basically ignores them until the international cry gets so loud that turning a blind eye is no longer an option. And in the end what does the U.S. object to? Mugabe’s rhetoric in claiming Zimbabwe as his.
You think maybe America’s priorities are a just a bit skewed?
While it is true that we in America have the right to vote without the threat of violence, we have very little sway over who really gets chosen run or over what the elected official does once they are in office. As illustrated when President Bush (owner of the lowest popularity ranking of any American president in history) reneged on many of his campaign promises, which is truly the only thing we voters have to base our decision on.
American democracy in many respects is a sham which can easily by manipulated by ‘masters of the game’. America was manipulated into going to war with Iraq, against the will of the American people, through the use of strategically released misinformation concerning Iraq’s intentions to use WMD’s against the American people. Saddam was deemed a threat to a nation much stronger than his. His refusal to be bullied into opening his borders to foreign inspectors gave the Bush administration the stage from which to launch a plan to build military bases within Iraq’s borders and to gain access to its oil reserves. An entire bureaucracy, Homeland Security, has been created out of the fear of a repeat of September 11, 2001.
Democracy has been stepped on and constitutional guarantees tossed aside by an administration legally bound to uphold American citizens rights when it conducted secret surveillance on American citizens on American soil under the claim of protecting us against terrorism. The only terrorist attacks so far have come from this administration on our civil rights.
Long standing adherence to human rights were suspended when “enemy combatants” were thrown into Guantanamo and held without the right to trial and then tortured. You can label waterboarding by its sanitized description of “aggressive interrogation techniques” if you want but it is still torture, something the American people abhor and, before George W Bush, never thought our government would stoop to.
Our airports have become mini-fascist states. Just ask Australian-born U.S. citizen Anne Summers of her recent experiences with armed agents at LAX. She, like many others, has fallen victim to an overly-suspicious, power-mad agents’ interrogation for ‘your own protection’. I understand the need for vigilance but courtesy and respect for human dignity should not be tossed aside when an agent is given a badge. Reports are rampant of condescending agents exhibiting intimidation, animosity and complete disdain for having to be bothered to deal with what they consider a possible terrorist suspect. Here’s an account of a passenger arriving at JFK Airport from Syria who received inexcusable treatment in the name of national security.
In our zeal to expose a terrorist plot behind every anti-war protest, every person crossing our border, and every passenger who forgets to empty his/her water bottle before entering a security checkpoint, we are turning our country into a fascist state. Or rather, the Bush administration has taken advantage of fear of another terrorist attack in order to do so. But then that’s how fascism spreads, isn’t it? When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001 the ‘terrorist’ accomplished their goal to put America on alert that they will not tolerate the disrespectful treatment westerners have shown the rest of the world. With this single act they now only have to threaten the U.S. to get us to react. They don’t have to actually conduct an attack on U.S. soil because they have already shown they are willing to do so.
Fear and Fascism go hand in hand. The measures that are being forced onto us in the name of protection is a response to fear and they are eroding our rights and freedoms.
Fascists invoke an external and internal threat in order to convince the population to grant their rulers extraordinary powers. In the case of George W Bush, he evoked these extraordinary powers through the use of presidential decrees. Much as Burma’s ruling Junta does.
They establish secret prisons that practice torture, prisons that are initially few in number and only incarcerate social pariahs, but that quickly multiply and soon imprison "opposition leaders, outspoken clergy, union leaders, well-known performers, publishers, and journalists."
They develop a paramilitary force that operates without legal restraint. Blackwater International is just such a force.
They set up a system of intense domestic surveillance that gathers information for the purposes of intimidating and blackmailing citizens. If domestic surveillance continues unabated who can honestly say it will not be used for the purposes of intimidating and blackmailing citizens?
They infiltrate, monitor, and disorganize citizens' groups.
They arbitrarily detain and release citizens, especially at borders.
They target key individuals like civil servants, academics, and artists in order to ensure their complicity or silence.
Dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons.
eight U.S. attorneys
They take control of the press. The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high: Josh Wolf, a blogger in San Francisco, has been put in jail for a year for refusing to turn over video of an anti-war demonstration; Homeland Security brought a criminal complaint against reporter Greg Palast, claiming he threatened "critical infrastructure" when he and a TV producer were filming victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Palast had written a bestseller critical of the Bush administration.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented multiple accounts of the US military in Iraq firing upon or threatening to fire upon unembedded (meaning independent) reporters and camera operators from organizations ranging from al-Jazeera to the BBC.
You won't have a shutdown of news in modern America - it is not possible. But you can have, as Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal have pointed out, a steady stream of lies polluting the news well. What you already have is a White House directing a stream of false information that is so relentless that it is increasingly hard to sort out truth from untruth. In a fascist system, it's not the lies that count but the muddying. When citizens can't tell real news from fake, they give up their demands for accountability bit by bit.
They publicly equate dissent with treason. Most Americans do not realize that when Congress wrongly, foolishly, passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 the president has the power to call any US citizen an "enemy combatant". He has the power to define what "enemy combatant" means. The president can also delegate to anyone he chooses in the executive branch the right to define "enemy combatant" any way he or she wants and then seize Americans accordingly.
They suspend the rule of law. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president new powers over the national guard. This means that in a national emergency - which the president now has enhanced powers to declare - he can send Michigan's militia to enforce a state of emergency that he has declared in Oregon, over the objections of the state's governor and its citizens.
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any 'other condition’. And the Pentagon is currently reserving 20,000 troops for domestic emergencies.
All of these strategies are being employed in America today.
America only cares about human rights when it is convenient or advantageous to do so. Only when everything that has happened in recent years are taken together can we see the path that America is headed down.
Right now, only a handful of patriots are trying to hold back the tide of tyranny for the rest of us - staff at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who faced death threats for representing Guantanamo detainees yet persisted all the way to the Supreme Court; activists at the American Civil Liberties Union; and prominent conservatives trying to roll back corrosive new laws, under the banner of a new group called the American Freedom Agenda. This small, disparate collection of people needs everybody's help, including that of Europeans and others internationally who are willing to put pressure on the administration because they can see what a US unrestrained by real democracy at home can mean for the rest of the world.
Further reading
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
U.S. Secret Prison Ships Hold Untold Number of Detainees
America is going Fascist
Watching out for an American paramilitary
FBI Spied on Peace Group Because os Antiwar Views
U.S. Government Spying and Infiltration
Homeland Security? Abuses by Border Patrol in Arizona
Nightmare at Reagan National Airport
Fired U.S. Attorneys
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Reconstruction in Iraq and Our Economy Are Failing for the Same Reason
An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country.
The reconstruction effort is being hampered by fake numbers, mismanaged funds, ill-thought out plans, technical ineptness, poor organizational structure, political turf wars, personal greed, and a ‘cover-your-ass’ mentality. Our economic leadership has been guilty of the same short-comings. This is yet another legacy that Bush cannot hide from.
The only ‘success’ that has come out of the rebuilding effort thus far can be claimed by the CEOs of the construction companies and building-materials suppliers that were given contracts by a corrupted bidding system. Contractors working in Iraq know they are being paid for slip-shod work and they are well aware of the mismanagement of funds and lack of over-sight. Yet their conscience will be placated by the overly exaggerated paychecks they receive. Paychecks funded in part by their fellow Americans’ tax dollars.
These ‘leaders of industry’, these so-called ‘professionals’ were given the task of rebuilding Iraq and the single most driving force to ‘win’ the contract was not in producing quality workmanship, but in how to make the most money for themselves. How to set up companies and an infrastructure that would funnel the most money into their own pockets.
The only ‘success’ to come out of the banking system bailout goes to the CEO’s who received outrageous bonuses and to mortgage brokers who made money from taking advantage of the ‘dream of home ownership’ of families they knew would not be able to payoff the loans. They were all aware of the failings of the system but sloughed off their responsibility and took their paychecks and walked away from it.
These leaders of the banking and home mortgage industry who kept a close watch on the pulse of our economy knew how to make the most money from the unwary and under-informed consumer and manipulated the system to funnel the most money into their own pockets.
We Americans have collectively been bilked out of billions of dollars over the course of our history by conniving, thieving individuals who greased the palms of corrupted political office holders in order to have money diverted from more deserving projects to fall under their control. Cost overruns are nothing new to construction projects and the manipulation of the contract bidding process has become an art for those who know how to do it. Especially when you have politicians pushing and pulling for you on the inside.
If we take a leap of faith, and conclude that politicians are being taken advantage of by contractors in regards to how contracts are awarded and money is managed and spent, then it is time for our government to put in place strict controls over how contracts are awarded and how money is used. We also need to have stricter over-sight on how the process is overseen. Corruption that has become inherent in this capitalist society has made this type of bureaucracy management an unfortunate necessity.
Capitalism has taken too great a hold on this country for us to ever get anything done without the expectation of every individual involved to arrive with their hand out.
Before Iraq reconstruction plans were put to paper the planning was disjointed and botched due to jostling of position of who was going to get the biggest cut. American homes and office buildings are constructed in record time in the U.S. There is no reason why these buildings cannot go up just as quickly and just as cheaply in Iraq unless delaying the process meant more money for project managers and workers. The construction field is filled with areas where a master of manipulating costs can exaggerate building time and increase building materials costs because of a lack of honest oversight.
We are a nation that is supposed to work together for a common cause. We have flag-waving politicians who tirelessly spout off about how we Americans stick together against outside forces bent on our destruction, yet behind closed doors they plan and scheme on how to take the American tax payer for even more money to bail out a banking system that they themselves refuse to regulate. Anytime any politician slings his/her line of crap under the banner of patriotism and not have to gargle to rid themselves of the resulting foul taste is a crooked politician corrupted beyond redemption. They cannot possibly believe their own rhetoric. We sure as hell don’t.
Money for construction projects are divided up by a spoils system controlled by neighborhood politicians and tribal chiefs. "Our district council chairman has become the Tony Soprano of Rasheed, in terms of controlling resources," said a U.S. Embassy official working in a dangerous Baghdad neighborhood, referring to the popular TV mob boss. “You will use my contractor or the work will not get done.”
Pentagon officials should be held to account for mismanagement and the inflated numbers (lies) it gave the public and the administration to show progress being made in Iraq. These officials are more concerned with covering their own asses when reality doesn’t look as rosy as their expectations or when things go wrong than they are in working to improve the situation.
The reconstruction effort has failed because no single agency in the U.S. government has responsibility for the job.
This can also be said for the current collapsing economy we Americans are being forced to endure.
The reconstruction effort is being hampered by fake numbers, mismanaged funds, ill-thought out plans, technical ineptness, poor organizational structure, political turf wars, personal greed, and a ‘cover-your-ass’ mentality. Our economic leadership has been guilty of the same short-comings. This is yet another legacy that Bush cannot hide from.
The only ‘success’ that has come out of the rebuilding effort thus far can be claimed by the CEOs of the construction companies and building-materials suppliers that were given contracts by a corrupted bidding system. Contractors working in Iraq know they are being paid for slip-shod work and they are well aware of the mismanagement of funds and lack of over-sight. Yet their conscience will be placated by the overly exaggerated paychecks they receive. Paychecks funded in part by their fellow Americans’ tax dollars.
These ‘leaders of industry’, these so-called ‘professionals’ were given the task of rebuilding Iraq and the single most driving force to ‘win’ the contract was not in producing quality workmanship, but in how to make the most money for themselves. How to set up companies and an infrastructure that would funnel the most money into their own pockets.
The only ‘success’ to come out of the banking system bailout goes to the CEO’s who received outrageous bonuses and to mortgage brokers who made money from taking advantage of the ‘dream of home ownership’ of families they knew would not be able to payoff the loans. They were all aware of the failings of the system but sloughed off their responsibility and took their paychecks and walked away from it.
These leaders of the banking and home mortgage industry who kept a close watch on the pulse of our economy knew how to make the most money from the unwary and under-informed consumer and manipulated the system to funnel the most money into their own pockets.
We Americans have collectively been bilked out of billions of dollars over the course of our history by conniving, thieving individuals who greased the palms of corrupted political office holders in order to have money diverted from more deserving projects to fall under their control. Cost overruns are nothing new to construction projects and the manipulation of the contract bidding process has become an art for those who know how to do it. Especially when you have politicians pushing and pulling for you on the inside.
If we take a leap of faith, and conclude that politicians are being taken advantage of by contractors in regards to how contracts are awarded and money is managed and spent, then it is time for our government to put in place strict controls over how contracts are awarded and how money is used. We also need to have stricter over-sight on how the process is overseen. Corruption that has become inherent in this capitalist society has made this type of bureaucracy management an unfortunate necessity.
Capitalism has taken too great a hold on this country for us to ever get anything done without the expectation of every individual involved to arrive with their hand out.
Before Iraq reconstruction plans were put to paper the planning was disjointed and botched due to jostling of position of who was going to get the biggest cut. American homes and office buildings are constructed in record time in the U.S. There is no reason why these buildings cannot go up just as quickly and just as cheaply in Iraq unless delaying the process meant more money for project managers and workers. The construction field is filled with areas where a master of manipulating costs can exaggerate building time and increase building materials costs because of a lack of honest oversight.
We are a nation that is supposed to work together for a common cause. We have flag-waving politicians who tirelessly spout off about how we Americans stick together against outside forces bent on our destruction, yet behind closed doors they plan and scheme on how to take the American tax payer for even more money to bail out a banking system that they themselves refuse to regulate. Anytime any politician slings his/her line of crap under the banner of patriotism and not have to gargle to rid themselves of the resulting foul taste is a crooked politician corrupted beyond redemption. They cannot possibly believe their own rhetoric. We sure as hell don’t.
Money for construction projects are divided up by a spoils system controlled by neighborhood politicians and tribal chiefs. "Our district council chairman has become the Tony Soprano of Rasheed, in terms of controlling resources," said a U.S. Embassy official working in a dangerous Baghdad neighborhood, referring to the popular TV mob boss. “You will use my contractor or the work will not get done.”
Pentagon officials should be held to account for mismanagement and the inflated numbers (lies) it gave the public and the administration to show progress being made in Iraq. These officials are more concerned with covering their own asses when reality doesn’t look as rosy as their expectations or when things go wrong than they are in working to improve the situation.
The reconstruction effort has failed because no single agency in the U.S. government has responsibility for the job.
This can also be said for the current collapsing economy we Americans are being forced to endure.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
SWAT action of Family Farm? Where Is the Media Coverage?
On December 1, 2008, a family-run food co-op in LaGrange Ohio, was the scene of a home invasion. These “home invaders” won’t match the images you may have of drug-crazed-addicts or some street gang bent on ripping-off the family of their possessions. No, this highly organized and heavily armed ‘gang’ was made up of police officers ordered to confiscate the livelihood and personal property of the family who runs Manna Storehouse by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
I found this comment concerning the raid on a blog called The Complete Patient:
The family that runs the co-op tells me they were herded into the living room for 8 hours while the home and business was torn apart. They were not given reason, saying they were under investigation. All of their computers and phones, and customer information were taken, as well as $10,000 worth of beef. A ‘warrant’ which didn’t appear to be valid, showed the reason for investigation, was ‘beef’.
According to this second-hand information (neither police nor government officials deny or collaborate the story) our government, in full riot gear with semi-automatic weapons pointed at the heads of this family (children included) raided a family business who was providing grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured poultry and other Weston-Price-style foods.
There is no official story in the main stream media about this raid nor is there any official press release from Ohio Department of Agriculture, however, I did find one ‘sanitized’ report in a local paper, which is how many of the family’s neighbors heard of it. (Is the internet the last stand for true freedom of the press?). The lack of coverage, considering the level of force used in a raid of this sort, is disturbing at best. Normally, the news media is all over this type of raid. The family did say they are not talking to the press in order to protect themselves.
What little background information could be found regarding this situation still does not show that the SWAT action was warranted. It seems that the discovery of a bit of non-institutional beef in an Oberlin College food service freezer a year ago (November 2007) was tracked down by a county sanitation official to Manna Storehouse. Oberlin College’s student food coop is widely known for its strident ideological stance about eating organic foods. It seems that the Oberlin student food cooperative had joined the Manna Storehouse food cooperative in order to buy organic foods in bulk from the national organic food distributor United, which services buying clubs across the nation. The sanitation official, James Boddy, evidently contacted the Ohio Department of Agriculture. After the first contact by state ODA officials, Manna Storehouse reportedly wrote them a letter requesting assistance and guidelines for complying with the law. This letter was never answered. Rather, the ODA agent tried several times to infiltrate the coop. When his attempts failed, the SWAT team showed up!
As of December 9, the family has not been charged with any crime, nor have they been contacted by anyone concerning this raid. The speculation that the business was operating without a license is simply that, speculation. They have sent a plea for any information regarding the Ohio Department of Agriculture laws governing their enterprise and what they may have done to prompt such a raid.
All three questions are disturbing.
Did this SWAT action take place?
Did SWAT swoop down and ‘terrorize’ this ‘innocent’ family as the commenter reported, or is this an exaggeration to garner sympathy for the plight of family-owned businesses who don’t want to be regulated by the government?
Whether the raid was conducted with weapons drawn or not, the raid did take place and this issue needs to be addressed. Since when does the enforcement of health and/or commerce policies warrant the use of SWAT? Why did the Health Department not simply conduct a health inspection? I am certain there are rules in place to cover this situation that are more in line with good public relations than involving law enforcement.
If the government did use such heavy-handed Gestapo-type tactics simply to confiscate this family’s business records and personal food items, then a complaint should be filed with their congressperson and violation of civil rights charges brought against ODA. Bringing such matters to light is the most obvious way of ensuring any wrongdoing by the government is exposed. However, if this family sensationalized their story simply to further their cause and attempt to manipulate public opinion, should we buy into it?
The use of a SWAT team indicates a belief that this family was “armed to the teeth” and therefore the use of such equipment was deemed necessary for the protection of team members. Absent any prior knowledge that they family was an outlaw gang, such use of law enforcement was not only irresponsible but a danger to the public.
Certainly, this alleged method belies the faith we have in our government officials to protect us from harm and they should therefore be made to pay.
At any rate, what psychological effect this raid will have on these children is anybody’s guess. And what did this experience teach them about their country, their leaders, their government, and their local law enforcement?
I realize the police are ordered from ‘on high’ to behave in the manner in which they do, but at some point the individual wearing the uniform has to take personal responsibility for his/her participation in these tyrannical methods. They must consult their moral conscience to face the fact that they can no longer shrug off their part in what they did to this family to “just doing my job”.
All of us who feel that our constitution, and the freedoms granted therein, is worth fighting for must, sooner or later, be moved to action against these atrocities, to voice our opinions and fight against this kind of tyranny.
Is there some diabolical master-plan to wipe out all corporate competition?
Why did the ODA feel it was necessary to raid a family owned and run business using law enforcement and the threat of violence instead of using a less oppressive method such as serving notice of an inspection for possible health or commerce violations?
Is the FDA and Department of Agriculture protecting us from the mean ole independent businesses promoting ‘bioterrorism’ or are they protecting a market for major corporations who only view consumers as open wallets for their own financial benefit? Keep in mind that these are the same corporations who reduce their product package size and claim to be helping the economy by not raising their prices.
The FDA has a history of conducting raids on business operations selling natural herbs and nutritional supplements with claims of promoting health. The 1990 raid on Highland Laboratories, a small vitamin company in rural Oregon; 1987 raid on Life Extension Foundation in Florida; 2007 raid of Fullife Natural Options; for a list of similar raids click here.
We are all aware of the downside of large corporations. Labor Unions have been fighting this beast on the side of the little guy for a very long time. Often times resorting to violence to get their voices heard over management for simple human rights such as a decent wage, safe working conditions, reasonable work day lengths, affordable health coverage, and other benefits that those without a union will never have. Corporations are in place to feed their financial bottom-line. And if they could cut costs like health insurance, safety procedures, and even salary, they would do it.
Wal-Mart is the poster child of ‘large corporation’ vs. the ‘little guy’ and has certainly done their part to wipe-out local businesses wherever they build their stores. Despite their initial claims to the community in which they choose to spread their empire, small businesses dry up. The resulting job gains for Wal-Mart never amount to the losses suffered from these closings. The vast majority of Wal-Mart employees are paid part time wages and work without sufficient benefits which forces taxpayers to subsidize them through food stamps and Medicaid. Money earned by Wal-Mart leaves the local economy and is pumped to its headquarters therefore local banks do not benefit from Wal-Marts’ presence. Wal-Mart buys its bulk of goods from China forcing American suppliers to cut approximately 17,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs between 2001 and 2006. In 2007, Wal-Mart brought $26.7 billion of Chinese goods into the United States and cost American workers more than 200,000 jobs.
It has taken laws to be passed to protect the interests of the worker and consumer, but now corporations have bought politicians through lobby groups and outright bribes to protect themselves against the worker and our economy is suffering for it.
Multinational corporations are taking control of seeds, animals, food, and all natural substances worldwide and the police are at their beck and call to enforce governments’ and corporations’ sway over the ‘little guy’.
The Community Alliance for Responsible Eco-farming (CARE), a private group of farmers and consumers in Pennsylvania, recently released a statement regarding the relationship between private citizens and constitutional government. Their position is basically that the government has a right to control and regulate what the government creates. If, for example, the government creates a corporation (essentially conferring “person” status to that entity) then it has every right, every duty even, to oversee it. But men are not artificial entities created by government. Men are natural, and when they act as private citizens, government must stay out of their way. In fact, government is supposed to protect citizens from the actions of any entity that might inhibit the free exercise of their natural rights. When government does otherwise it blurs the line between private and public, effectively deeming EVERYTHING public, and thus making constitutions irrelevant.
As for the ongoing attack on free enterprise, the general public does not know enough to know what is real and what is speculation because the press has yet to mount an investigation into what is happening.
Where is the media coverage?
Why is there no mainstream media coverage of how this and other family owned businesses across the country are being dealt with in such a Gestapo-like manner?
It isn’t just the local media that should be held to account, national media as well bear the blame. Blogs and word of mouth are doing what they can to get the word out but they are no real substitute for gaining national attention. We need a concerted effort along with main stream media to bring this situation into the main stream consciousness. This cannot continue to go on without public scrutiny.
The media did not cover the story of the tea man. What else are we not being told?
Summation:
We have a SWAT action on a family farm to confiscate all business-related property without revealing charges.
We have government officials imposing rules and regulations on individuals who want nothing to do with them.
We have a media that does not cover these actions.
We have a populace who looks the other way, some of which are members of law-enforcement, government and media.
These are the ingredients necessary to allow a corprafascist state to exist.
We all need to rise up against this trend before it is too late.
History is repeating itself.
Further Reading:
True history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin shops and supplement companies
Center for Micro Eco-Farming Movement
Whole Farm Coop, Local Harvest
Benefits of Healthy Whole Foods
Herbal Supplements Guide
I found this comment concerning the raid on a blog called The Complete Patient:
The family that runs the co-op tells me they were herded into the living room for 8 hours while the home and business was torn apart. They were not given reason, saying they were under investigation. All of their computers and phones, and customer information were taken, as well as $10,000 worth of beef. A ‘warrant’ which didn’t appear to be valid, showed the reason for investigation, was ‘beef’.
According to this second-hand information (neither police nor government officials deny or collaborate the story) our government, in full riot gear with semi-automatic weapons pointed at the heads of this family (children included) raided a family business who was providing grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured poultry and other Weston-Price-style foods.
There is no official story in the main stream media about this raid nor is there any official press release from Ohio Department of Agriculture, however, I did find one ‘sanitized’ report in a local paper, which is how many of the family’s neighbors heard of it. (Is the internet the last stand for true freedom of the press?). The lack of coverage, considering the level of force used in a raid of this sort, is disturbing at best. Normally, the news media is all over this type of raid. The family did say they are not talking to the press in order to protect themselves.
What little background information could be found regarding this situation still does not show that the SWAT action was warranted. It seems that the discovery of a bit of non-institutional beef in an Oberlin College food service freezer a year ago (November 2007) was tracked down by a county sanitation official to Manna Storehouse. Oberlin College’s student food coop is widely known for its strident ideological stance about eating organic foods. It seems that the Oberlin student food cooperative had joined the Manna Storehouse food cooperative in order to buy organic foods in bulk from the national organic food distributor United, which services buying clubs across the nation. The sanitation official, James Boddy, evidently contacted the Ohio Department of Agriculture. After the first contact by state ODA officials, Manna Storehouse reportedly wrote them a letter requesting assistance and guidelines for complying with the law. This letter was never answered. Rather, the ODA agent tried several times to infiltrate the coop. When his attempts failed, the SWAT team showed up!
As of December 9, the family has not been charged with any crime, nor have they been contacted by anyone concerning this raid. The speculation that the business was operating without a license is simply that, speculation. They have sent a plea for any information regarding the Ohio Department of Agriculture laws governing their enterprise and what they may have done to prompt such a raid.
Three important questions arising from this incident need to be addressed.
1: Did this SWAT action take place as reported, thus far by word of mouth, or is it a fabrication to garner sympathy for the plight of the ‘little guy’?
2: Is ODA guilty of participating in a nationwide attempt to discredit small-time local food groups in favor of corporate interests?
3: Where is the media coverage?
All three questions are disturbing.
Did this SWAT action take place?
Did SWAT swoop down and ‘terrorize’ this ‘innocent’ family as the commenter reported, or is this an exaggeration to garner sympathy for the plight of family-owned businesses who don’t want to be regulated by the government?
Whether the raid was conducted with weapons drawn or not, the raid did take place and this issue needs to be addressed. Since when does the enforcement of health and/or commerce policies warrant the use of SWAT? Why did the Health Department not simply conduct a health inspection? I am certain there are rules in place to cover this situation that are more in line with good public relations than involving law enforcement.
If the government did use such heavy-handed Gestapo-type tactics simply to confiscate this family’s business records and personal food items, then a complaint should be filed with their congressperson and violation of civil rights charges brought against ODA. Bringing such matters to light is the most obvious way of ensuring any wrongdoing by the government is exposed. However, if this family sensationalized their story simply to further their cause and attempt to manipulate public opinion, should we buy into it?
The use of a SWAT team indicates a belief that this family was “armed to the teeth” and therefore the use of such equipment was deemed necessary for the protection of team members. Absent any prior knowledge that they family was an outlaw gang, such use of law enforcement was not only irresponsible but a danger to the public.
Certainly, this alleged method belies the faith we have in our government officials to protect us from harm and they should therefore be made to pay.
At any rate, what psychological effect this raid will have on these children is anybody’s guess. And what did this experience teach them about their country, their leaders, their government, and their local law enforcement?
I realize the police are ordered from ‘on high’ to behave in the manner in which they do, but at some point the individual wearing the uniform has to take personal responsibility for his/her participation in these tyrannical methods. They must consult their moral conscience to face the fact that they can no longer shrug off their part in what they did to this family to “just doing my job”.
All of us who feel that our constitution, and the freedoms granted therein, is worth fighting for must, sooner or later, be moved to action against these atrocities, to voice our opinions and fight against this kind of tyranny.
Is there some diabolical master-plan to wipe out all corporate competition?
Why did the ODA feel it was necessary to raid a family owned and run business using law enforcement and the threat of violence instead of using a less oppressive method such as serving notice of an inspection for possible health or commerce violations?
Is the FDA and Department of Agriculture protecting us from the mean ole independent businesses promoting ‘bioterrorism’ or are they protecting a market for major corporations who only view consumers as open wallets for their own financial benefit? Keep in mind that these are the same corporations who reduce their product package size and claim to be helping the economy by not raising their prices.
The FDA has a history of conducting raids on business operations selling natural herbs and nutritional supplements with claims of promoting health. The 1990 raid on Highland Laboratories, a small vitamin company in rural Oregon; 1987 raid on Life Extension Foundation in Florida; 2007 raid of Fullife Natural Options; for a list of similar raids click here.
We are all aware of the downside of large corporations. Labor Unions have been fighting this beast on the side of the little guy for a very long time. Often times resorting to violence to get their voices heard over management for simple human rights such as a decent wage, safe working conditions, reasonable work day lengths, affordable health coverage, and other benefits that those without a union will never have. Corporations are in place to feed their financial bottom-line. And if they could cut costs like health insurance, safety procedures, and even salary, they would do it.
Wal-Mart is the poster child of ‘large corporation’ vs. the ‘little guy’ and has certainly done their part to wipe-out local businesses wherever they build their stores. Despite their initial claims to the community in which they choose to spread their empire, small businesses dry up. The resulting job gains for Wal-Mart never amount to the losses suffered from these closings. The vast majority of Wal-Mart employees are paid part time wages and work without sufficient benefits which forces taxpayers to subsidize them through food stamps and Medicaid. Money earned by Wal-Mart leaves the local economy and is pumped to its headquarters therefore local banks do not benefit from Wal-Marts’ presence. Wal-Mart buys its bulk of goods from China forcing American suppliers to cut approximately 17,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs between 2001 and 2006. In 2007, Wal-Mart brought $26.7 billion of Chinese goods into the United States and cost American workers more than 200,000 jobs.
It has taken laws to be passed to protect the interests of the worker and consumer, but now corporations have bought politicians through lobby groups and outright bribes to protect themselves against the worker and our economy is suffering for it.
Multinational corporations are taking control of seeds, animals, food, and all natural substances worldwide and the police are at their beck and call to enforce governments’ and corporations’ sway over the ‘little guy’.
The Community Alliance for Responsible Eco-farming (CARE), a private group of farmers and consumers in Pennsylvania, recently released a statement regarding the relationship between private citizens and constitutional government. Their position is basically that the government has a right to control and regulate what the government creates. If, for example, the government creates a corporation (essentially conferring “person” status to that entity) then it has every right, every duty even, to oversee it. But men are not artificial entities created by government. Men are natural, and when they act as private citizens, government must stay out of their way. In fact, government is supposed to protect citizens from the actions of any entity that might inhibit the free exercise of their natural rights. When government does otherwise it blurs the line between private and public, effectively deeming EVERYTHING public, and thus making constitutions irrelevant.
As for the ongoing attack on free enterprise, the general public does not know enough to know what is real and what is speculation because the press has yet to mount an investigation into what is happening.
Where is the media coverage?
Why is there no mainstream media coverage of how this and other family owned businesses across the country are being dealt with in such a Gestapo-like manner?
It isn’t just the local media that should be held to account, national media as well bear the blame. Blogs and word of mouth are doing what they can to get the word out but they are no real substitute for gaining national attention. We need a concerted effort along with main stream media to bring this situation into the main stream consciousness. This cannot continue to go on without public scrutiny.
The media did not cover the story of the tea man. What else are we not being told?
Summation:
We have a SWAT action on a family farm to confiscate all business-related property without revealing charges.
We have government officials imposing rules and regulations on individuals who want nothing to do with them.
We have a media that does not cover these actions.
We have a populace who looks the other way, some of which are members of law-enforcement, government and media.
These are the ingredients necessary to allow a corprafascist state to exist.
We all need to rise up against this trend before it is too late.
History is repeating itself.
Further Reading:
True history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin shops and supplement companies
Center for Micro Eco-Farming Movement
Whole Farm Coop, Local Harvest
Benefits of Healthy Whole Foods
Herbal Supplements Guide
Monday, December 8, 2008
Blackwater Victims and Americans Need Justice
The five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad are expected to hand themselves over to federal authorities by today.
Charges to be brought against them are expected to be for manslaughter.
The five men's identities had been kept secret for more than a year, but were also released yesterday, Dec 7, 2008. They are: Evan Liberty and Donald Ball, both 26-year-old former marines, Dustin Heard, a 27-year-old ex-marine, Nick Slatten, 25, an ex-army sergeant, and Paul Slough, a 29-year-old army veteran.
A sixth guard, who has not been named, has reached a plea bargain deal with prosecutors to avoid a mandatory 30-year prison sentence.
According to Blackwater officials, the guards were returning fire after their convoy was shot at in Baghdad's al-Nisoor Square. However, FBI investigators found in late 2007 that most of the 17 deaths had been unjustified. An Iraqi government spokesman has said that they believed that the attack were tantamount to deliberate murder.
I sincerely hope that the families of these innocent people, gunned down by an arrogant Blackwater private security force, will get justice.
The American people need to know that our military will not condone the actions of a few ‘hired guns’. Actions by this administration have severely damaged the hard fought-for respect that our fathers and brothers in the military died to earn. This nation cannot be associated with ‘soldiers of fortune’ if we are to retain that respect.
The hiring of private security forces is a step towards fascism and in this case was put in place for the financial benefit of current and ex-government and military officials. Bush, Cheney and all Department of Defense officials should be held accountable for the atmosphere created by this misguided and irresponsible decision.
The U.S. made a major mistake in hiring what amounts to a private militia to take over what has been traditionally a military role, and the practice should be abandoned.
Allowing these individuals to go unpunished will be a major blow against U.S. foreign relations and the American people for years to come.
Charges to be brought against them are expected to be for manslaughter.
The five men's identities had been kept secret for more than a year, but were also released yesterday, Dec 7, 2008. They are: Evan Liberty and Donald Ball, both 26-year-old former marines, Dustin Heard, a 27-year-old ex-marine, Nick Slatten, 25, an ex-army sergeant, and Paul Slough, a 29-year-old army veteran.
A sixth guard, who has not been named, has reached a plea bargain deal with prosecutors to avoid a mandatory 30-year prison sentence.
According to Blackwater officials, the guards were returning fire after their convoy was shot at in Baghdad's al-Nisoor Square. However, FBI investigators found in late 2007 that most of the 17 deaths had been unjustified. An Iraqi government spokesman has said that they believed that the attack were tantamount to deliberate murder.
I sincerely hope that the families of these innocent people, gunned down by an arrogant Blackwater private security force, will get justice.
The American people need to know that our military will not condone the actions of a few ‘hired guns’. Actions by this administration have severely damaged the hard fought-for respect that our fathers and brothers in the military died to earn. This nation cannot be associated with ‘soldiers of fortune’ if we are to retain that respect.
The hiring of private security forces is a step towards fascism and in this case was put in place for the financial benefit of current and ex-government and military officials. Bush, Cheney and all Department of Defense officials should be held accountable for the atmosphere created by this misguided and irresponsible decision.
The U.S. made a major mistake in hiring what amounts to a private militia to take over what has been traditionally a military role, and the practice should be abandoned.
Allowing these individuals to go unpunished will be a major blow against U.S. foreign relations and the American people for years to come.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Bailout Demands Increase
Now states are asking to be bailed out. Is there no end to this? Taxpayers are overwhelmed enough without having to bailout everyone affected by how one industry screwed us all in the name of profit.
We need to prosecute everyone involved with throwing caution to the wind to allow loans without collateral, everyone who looked the other way while these institutions raped us and foremost we need to stop the government from raiding that great ATM called the American taxpayer to reward everyone affected.
We are in a recession because our government relaxed regulations and did nothing while the banking industry irresponsibly created this economic nightmare. And where in the long line of handouts are we? At the very end, if we are allowed to join the line at all.
Ohio Governor Strickland wants the federal government to grant $5 billion to help cover the tax shortfall created by our latest recession.
The three governors and six U.S. senators from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have asked the federal labor secretary for $48.2 million to retrain people who've lost jobs because of the crisis on Wall Street.
Governor Jim Doyle Tuesday said Barack Obama is likely to have a bill that would help Wisconsin and 44 other states dealing with budget shortfalls either this year or next dig their way out of the financial hole.
Sure we are all suffering and will soon will be suffering even more from the increased taxes that our elected official see fit to raise to cover their shortfalls. But what recourse do we taxpayers have to cover our shortfalls? We are all going to have to tighten our belts to get through this. We need to stop this gift wagon that is the federal government bailout system that only makes the problem worse for the taxpayer. Those of us losing jobs cannot afford to bailout others and still expect to feed, house and clothe our families.
Put an end to this madness, now.
I have some sobering news for all of you with your hands out, the well is running dry.
We need to prosecute everyone involved with throwing caution to the wind to allow loans without collateral, everyone who looked the other way while these institutions raped us and foremost we need to stop the government from raiding that great ATM called the American taxpayer to reward everyone affected.
We are in a recession because our government relaxed regulations and did nothing while the banking industry irresponsibly created this economic nightmare. And where in the long line of handouts are we? At the very end, if we are allowed to join the line at all.
Ohio Governor Strickland wants the federal government to grant $5 billion to help cover the tax shortfall created by our latest recession.
The three governors and six U.S. senators from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have asked the federal labor secretary for $48.2 million to retrain people who've lost jobs because of the crisis on Wall Street.
Governor Jim Doyle Tuesday said Barack Obama is likely to have a bill that would help Wisconsin and 44 other states dealing with budget shortfalls either this year or next dig their way out of the financial hole.
Sure we are all suffering and will soon will be suffering even more from the increased taxes that our elected official see fit to raise to cover their shortfalls. But what recourse do we taxpayers have to cover our shortfalls? We are all going to have to tighten our belts to get through this. We need to stop this gift wagon that is the federal government bailout system that only makes the problem worse for the taxpayer. Those of us losing jobs cannot afford to bailout others and still expect to feed, house and clothe our families.
Put an end to this madness, now.
I have some sobering news for all of you with your hands out, the well is running dry.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Big 3 Automakers Need to Change Course
Bailing out the auto industry, without making significant changes to how they do business and what they produce, is not in the best long term interest of America or the environment. Bankruptcy may “not be an option” for automakers but it may very well be the best thing that could happen for consumers.
We are facing difficult economic times and America needs to change its attitude concerning what is really necessary to maintain healthy, satisfied lives. Our excesses have finally caught up with us and we must learn to now become more frugal. We have adopted a destructive throw-away mentality in this country that has to be reversed. The automotive industry is no exception.
There are far too many cars on the market. A Long Beach California port is warehousing thousands of new cars due to lack of buyers. Detroit has housed thousands of unwanted American-made cars over the last two years at Michigan’s state fairground and in lots at its airports. Car lots across the country remain crowded with unsold new cars. We need to make our cars last longer. We will survive without a new car every year or even every three years. Automakers do not need to make new model changes every year.
What is wrong with driving a used car a little longer? The Big 3 likes to tell us that the after-market parts industry will suffer without new cars every year, this is simply a scare tactic. As their cars age, car owners will need to replace parts and this will keep the after-market parts industry alive. Automakers need to concern themselves with making a product that produces less pollution, gets better fuel economy and lasts longer than just a couple of years. All of this can be done by combining current and developing technologies.
Wages in the auto industry are out of whack with the rest of the nations work force. They need to be brought in-line with everyone else.
Automaker CEO’s will actually survive without their exorbitant multi-million dollar a year salaries and private jets. My advice to them is to get your heads out of the clouds and live amongst the consumers you claim to care so much about. Take this time and the money already given to you to build the new breed of cars that the environment needs and Americans truly want.
Flying private jets to Washington to ask for financial help and then defending the practice as ‘standard procedure’ shows that their ‘standard procedure’ leans towards excess that a financially troubled corporation should not be indulging in. Are they more concerned with hanging on to their exalted perch so they can continue to loot their respective corporations than they are in keeping millions of Americans employed? Extremely high executive salaries and membership in exclusive country clubs, use of private jets, and various other miscellaneous fluff that typically goes with being the figurehead of a large American corporation does not help the average American auto worker put food on their table.
Auto executives say they are going to streamline business operations, keeping in mind that their idea of streamlined business operations in the past was to layoff thousands of workers and move their operations overseas, I can’t help but think they are a bit disingenuous in trying to convince us that asking for our help is going to benefit us.
This request for help, from an industry that affects so many aspects of American life, comes at a pivotal point in our economic and environmental health. The concerns of both must be taken into account, for they can both benefit if we proceed responsibly.
Should we bail them out of a situation of their own making? The painful lesson of British Leyland must be heeded in the limited effectiveness of bailouts. The government got in the business of trying to make a winner out of a structurally flawed company. Is the U.S. auto industry structurally flawed? They have already proven they are willing to deprive U.S. auto workers of jobs by sending those jobs outside the U.S. Flint Michigan, and ultimately the entire state, has been devastated due to auto executives decisions to hire cheaper labor in Mexico. And GM is currently building a $300 million facility to build cars in Russia.
And when Americans began turning away from American made cars in favor of foreign made cars that got better gas mileage, the U.S. auto makers, instead of listening to the trend and retooling their industry to make what Americans obviously wanted, their answer was to increase the production of gas guzzling behemoths to help keep the price of their product down. By ignoring consumers U.S. auto makers took a path that led to an oversaturated market of ever larger vehicles that increased our dependence on fossil fuel which in turn increased pollution. Environmentalist have been demanding for decades to have access to vehicles that addressed these two major concerns. Auto executives chose to ignore these demands and that decision put them in their current situation.
I don’t think they can be trusted to put America’s best interest first. Their current business model of bleeding the industry dry to pad their executives’ lifestyle and let their employees fend for themselves needs to end. They need to listen to their consumers to produce a safer and more fuel efficient product and prove they are willing to put America first by keeping jobs here in America.
Bailing them out is not going to force changes that need to take place. Perhaps the humbling experience of a bankruptcy is exactly what is called for.
We are facing difficult economic times and America needs to change its attitude concerning what is really necessary to maintain healthy, satisfied lives. Our excesses have finally caught up with us and we must learn to now become more frugal. We have adopted a destructive throw-away mentality in this country that has to be reversed. The automotive industry is no exception.
There are far too many cars on the market. A Long Beach California port is warehousing thousands of new cars due to lack of buyers. Detroit has housed thousands of unwanted American-made cars over the last two years at Michigan’s state fairground and in lots at its airports. Car lots across the country remain crowded with unsold new cars. We need to make our cars last longer. We will survive without a new car every year or even every three years. Automakers do not need to make new model changes every year.
What is wrong with driving a used car a little longer? The Big 3 likes to tell us that the after-market parts industry will suffer without new cars every year, this is simply a scare tactic. As their cars age, car owners will need to replace parts and this will keep the after-market parts industry alive. Automakers need to concern themselves with making a product that produces less pollution, gets better fuel economy and lasts longer than just a couple of years. All of this can be done by combining current and developing technologies.
Wages in the auto industry are out of whack with the rest of the nations work force. They need to be brought in-line with everyone else.
Automaker CEO’s will actually survive without their exorbitant multi-million dollar a year salaries and private jets. My advice to them is to get your heads out of the clouds and live amongst the consumers you claim to care so much about. Take this time and the money already given to you to build the new breed of cars that the environment needs and Americans truly want.
Flying private jets to Washington to ask for financial help and then defending the practice as ‘standard procedure’ shows that their ‘standard procedure’ leans towards excess that a financially troubled corporation should not be indulging in. Are they more concerned with hanging on to their exalted perch so they can continue to loot their respective corporations than they are in keeping millions of Americans employed? Extremely high executive salaries and membership in exclusive country clubs, use of private jets, and various other miscellaneous fluff that typically goes with being the figurehead of a large American corporation does not help the average American auto worker put food on their table.
Auto executives say they are going to streamline business operations, keeping in mind that their idea of streamlined business operations in the past was to layoff thousands of workers and move their operations overseas, I can’t help but think they are a bit disingenuous in trying to convince us that asking for our help is going to benefit us.
This request for help, from an industry that affects so many aspects of American life, comes at a pivotal point in our economic and environmental health. The concerns of both must be taken into account, for they can both benefit if we proceed responsibly.
Should we bail them out of a situation of their own making? The painful lesson of British Leyland must be heeded in the limited effectiveness of bailouts. The government got in the business of trying to make a winner out of a structurally flawed company. Is the U.S. auto industry structurally flawed? They have already proven they are willing to deprive U.S. auto workers of jobs by sending those jobs outside the U.S. Flint Michigan, and ultimately the entire state, has been devastated due to auto executives decisions to hire cheaper labor in Mexico. And GM is currently building a $300 million facility to build cars in Russia.
And when Americans began turning away from American made cars in favor of foreign made cars that got better gas mileage, the U.S. auto makers, instead of listening to the trend and retooling their industry to make what Americans obviously wanted, their answer was to increase the production of gas guzzling behemoths to help keep the price of their product down. By ignoring consumers U.S. auto makers took a path that led to an oversaturated market of ever larger vehicles that increased our dependence on fossil fuel which in turn increased pollution. Environmentalist have been demanding for decades to have access to vehicles that addressed these two major concerns. Auto executives chose to ignore these demands and that decision put them in their current situation.
I don’t think they can be trusted to put America’s best interest first. Their current business model of bleeding the industry dry to pad their executives’ lifestyle and let their employees fend for themselves needs to end. They need to listen to their consumers to produce a safer and more fuel efficient product and prove they are willing to put America first by keeping jobs here in America.
Bailing them out is not going to force changes that need to take place. Perhaps the humbling experience of a bankruptcy is exactly what is called for.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Blackwater, Ted Stevens and the selling off of America
Juneau is hardly the top American target for terrorists, so what’s Blackwater doing in Alaska’s capital? Uniformed guards from the private security contractor have been reported guarding a radar station for tests of the National Missile Defense system now officially deployed in Alaska.
The system, thus far, has not proven itself capable of shooting down any missile even when the target missiles’ exact take-off time and trajectory are known. The system is designed to shield the U.S. against incoming Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s). this is the same controversial system that Russia is up in arms about being contracted to be installed in Poland.
Blackwater International, a private militia, better known for their mercenary firepower, recruits elite soldiers trained by the U.S. military and rents them back to the U.S. at a premium. They provide corporate security and training for law-enforcement officers. They hire mercenaries and trainers out to foreign governments and to corporations. While the US Marines used to guard our embassies around the world, Blackwater guards are now manning many of those posts. Recently, Blackwater has recruited highly placed ex-government officials, such as former CIA Director of Counterterrorism Cofer Black, to head up a private intelligence agency. Blackwater, like others of its ilk, is penetrating every aspect of our military and intelligence services.
Our federal government is pouring billions of dollars into the pockets of defense contractors at an alarming rate. This wildly expensive high-tech version of France’s Maginot Line that can be so easily and cheaply defeated by decoys, or overwhelmed by a real-time mass attack, will never be a practical defense. Security functions that used to be performed by U.S. armed forces are now being paid for at a much higher premium. In Iraq, services that used to be provided by military departments such as food services, housing, clothing, security, etc are now being provided by contractors at far higher cost to taxpayers.
All of this amounts to a colossal rip off of American tax dollars and it is creating a very dangerous threat to America’s independence and security.
The Blackwater guards in Alaska are hired by Chenega, an Alaska Native corporation associated with the Alaskan coastal village of Chenega Bay, population 86. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, architect of the “Bridge to Nowhere” and recently convicted of a seven-felony string of corruption charges, is one of the principal proponents of the anti-missile system and was also instrumental in writing laws which help secure government contracts for Alaska Native Corporations. Senator Stevens didn’t invent these affirmative-action type laws that many people have grumbled about since the Sixties but he has helped refine and corporatize them: Chenega gets contracts through the Small Business Administration, rakes off a percentage, then lets giant Blackwater provide the actual services. Since 2000 Chenega has received over $1.1 billion in sole-source or non-compete bids from the Army, Air Force and Department of Homeland Security. Now that is what I call ‘using the system to your advantage’. It is what politicians who want to survive learn very quickly. It is one of the downsides of Capitalism.
And the Bush administration has tweaked our government by turning over functions that have traditionally fallen under purview of the military and intelligence services to private industry leaving the taxpayer to pay higher prices for those services.
Once these services are no longer a government function, they can be sold to the highest bidder. If these company CEO’s are bought by a foreign country or private bidder, then we have the situation where the U.S. can no longer defend itself. History has taught us that loyalty goes to where the next paycheck comes from. Under these conditions, does national allegiance mean anything?
The system, thus far, has not proven itself capable of shooting down any missile even when the target missiles’ exact take-off time and trajectory are known. The system is designed to shield the U.S. against incoming Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s). this is the same controversial system that Russia is up in arms about being contracted to be installed in Poland.
Blackwater International, a private militia, better known for their mercenary firepower, recruits elite soldiers trained by the U.S. military and rents them back to the U.S. at a premium. They provide corporate security and training for law-enforcement officers. They hire mercenaries and trainers out to foreign governments and to corporations. While the US Marines used to guard our embassies around the world, Blackwater guards are now manning many of those posts. Recently, Blackwater has recruited highly placed ex-government officials, such as former CIA Director of Counterterrorism Cofer Black, to head up a private intelligence agency. Blackwater, like others of its ilk, is penetrating every aspect of our military and intelligence services.
Our federal government is pouring billions of dollars into the pockets of defense contractors at an alarming rate. This wildly expensive high-tech version of France’s Maginot Line that can be so easily and cheaply defeated by decoys, or overwhelmed by a real-time mass attack, will never be a practical defense. Security functions that used to be performed by U.S. armed forces are now being paid for at a much higher premium. In Iraq, services that used to be provided by military departments such as food services, housing, clothing, security, etc are now being provided by contractors at far higher cost to taxpayers.
All of this amounts to a colossal rip off of American tax dollars and it is creating a very dangerous threat to America’s independence and security.
The Blackwater guards in Alaska are hired by Chenega, an Alaska Native corporation associated with the Alaskan coastal village of Chenega Bay, population 86. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, architect of the “Bridge to Nowhere” and recently convicted of a seven-felony string of corruption charges, is one of the principal proponents of the anti-missile system and was also instrumental in writing laws which help secure government contracts for Alaska Native Corporations. Senator Stevens didn’t invent these affirmative-action type laws that many people have grumbled about since the Sixties but he has helped refine and corporatize them: Chenega gets contracts through the Small Business Administration, rakes off a percentage, then lets giant Blackwater provide the actual services. Since 2000 Chenega has received over $1.1 billion in sole-source or non-compete bids from the Army, Air Force and Department of Homeland Security. Now that is what I call ‘using the system to your advantage’. It is what politicians who want to survive learn very quickly. It is one of the downsides of Capitalism.
And the Bush administration has tweaked our government by turning over functions that have traditionally fallen under purview of the military and intelligence services to private industry leaving the taxpayer to pay higher prices for those services.
Once these services are no longer a government function, they can be sold to the highest bidder. If these company CEO’s are bought by a foreign country or private bidder, then we have the situation where the U.S. can no longer defend itself. History has taught us that loyalty goes to where the next paycheck comes from. Under these conditions, does national allegiance mean anything?
Burma sentenced blogger to 20 years
Nay Phone Latt, a Burmese blogger, was sentenced by Burma’s tyrannical Military Junta that will not tolerate any semblance of critical opinion being voiced over the World Wide Web.
Judge Daw Soe recently sentenced Nay Phone Latt to a total of twenty years and six months for possession of a banned video and having a blog to express his concerns about the increasingly difficulty of Burmese people to voice their opinions since the protests last year.
Nay was first arrested in January but was released, along with a handful of National League for Democracy (NLD) politicians, a few hours later but was arrested again a few days later. Since then he has been held at Insein Prison (pronounced ‘insane’), infamous for grotesque treatment of its political prisoners.
The blog Freedom For Burma written on February 2, 2008 describes Nay’s fate as well as others.
Bloggers the world over are being asked to post his photo on their blog and to write to Burmese embassies worldwide to request his release.
I have a lot of admiration for someone who can stand up to their oppressors knowing they will be thrown into a notorious prison likes of Insein just for doing so. I don't know if I could personally gather the courage to do it myself. I pray that I will never be tested.
But, there is something we can do. We in America and the world over can exercise the right that people like Nay Phone Latt is fighting for and express our disgust at how Burmese citizens are being treated simply for expressing their views.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Bailout? What Bailout?
Does acting quickly have the desired effect of appearing to know what you are doing? In the case of the $700B Wall Street bailout, the answer is apparently, No.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson panicked and cajoled Congress into passing a bailout that was identified as needed immediately in order to avert a looming economic crash that would have rivaled the stock market crash of 1929. In hindsight, his plan failed to have any effect and the stock market is still fluctuating wildly. Now, after being given complete control over how that money is to be used, he has changed course. This action has angered many who voted for the measure and has raised the question of his credibility and competence.
The plan was to buy troubled assets. Then the money was used to buy shares in banks. Now it’s going to be used to support financial institutions offering consumer credit. Democrats in Congress want some of the money to go to the auto industry.
The money was to be used to “stabilize” the economy. It didn’t stabilize anything.
The money was supposed to buy “troubled assets”, but it will not buy troubled assets.
The money was supposed to “rescue” Wall Street, but has only rescued some big banks and corporations. (The conspiracy theorist in me wants to think that those who were rescued had some ties to the Bush administration. Another theory has the federal government socializing the banking system. But these are fodder for other posts at another time).
The fact is Henry Paulson doesn’t have a clue how to best use this money and the program that was originally passed has changed. (Sounds an awful lot like a scam, doesn’t it).
The majority of House Republicans didn’t want any part of the original plan without more details and therefore did not vote for it. The plan was voted for by House GOP Leadership defying the wishes of the majority of members of their own House caucus. Now, some members of Congress, republicans and democrats alike, are supporting Bloomberg News in its legal demand that the Federal Reserve provide details of the bailout process.
It is down right scary to know that Congress will vote for a plan without details of that plan and place unprecedented power in the hands of a man who has now clearly shown does not know what to do with the money.
So, what we have is an extremely large pool of money (many say is not large enough), a man in charge of that fund who admittedly does not know what to do with it, and a faltering economy that desperately needs to be stabilized. Would demanding Paulson’s resignation improve things? I doubt it.
People are still loosing their homes and jobs, and our faith in our future is being badly shaken. CEO’s and big oil are walking away with record profits. Politicians grasp at any glimmer of hope to keep things working and no one is truly in control of anything.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson panicked and cajoled Congress into passing a bailout that was identified as needed immediately in order to avert a looming economic crash that would have rivaled the stock market crash of 1929. In hindsight, his plan failed to have any effect and the stock market is still fluctuating wildly. Now, after being given complete control over how that money is to be used, he has changed course. This action has angered many who voted for the measure and has raised the question of his credibility and competence.
The plan was to buy troubled assets. Then the money was used to buy shares in banks. Now it’s going to be used to support financial institutions offering consumer credit. Democrats in Congress want some of the money to go to the auto industry.
The money was to be used to “stabilize” the economy. It didn’t stabilize anything.
The money was supposed to buy “troubled assets”, but it will not buy troubled assets.
The money was supposed to “rescue” Wall Street, but has only rescued some big banks and corporations. (The conspiracy theorist in me wants to think that those who were rescued had some ties to the Bush administration. Another theory has the federal government socializing the banking system. But these are fodder for other posts at another time).
The fact is Henry Paulson doesn’t have a clue how to best use this money and the program that was originally passed has changed. (Sounds an awful lot like a scam, doesn’t it).
The majority of House Republicans didn’t want any part of the original plan without more details and therefore did not vote for it. The plan was voted for by House GOP Leadership defying the wishes of the majority of members of their own House caucus. Now, some members of Congress, republicans and democrats alike, are supporting Bloomberg News in its legal demand that the Federal Reserve provide details of the bailout process.
It is down right scary to know that Congress will vote for a plan without details of that plan and place unprecedented power in the hands of a man who has now clearly shown does not know what to do with the money.
So, what we have is an extremely large pool of money (many say is not large enough), a man in charge of that fund who admittedly does not know what to do with it, and a faltering economy that desperately needs to be stabilized. Would demanding Paulson’s resignation improve things? I doubt it.
People are still loosing their homes and jobs, and our faith in our future is being badly shaken. CEO’s and big oil are walking away with record profits. Politicians grasp at any glimmer of hope to keep things working and no one is truly in control of anything.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Sarah Palin: Political Farce
This shouldn’t be worthy of my time, but Sarah Palin had the unmitigated audacity to counter-attack McCain campaign aides’ remarks about her with such hypocrisy and irony that it screams to be addressed.
Claims were made that Palin did not know Africa was a continent instead of a country, or which countries are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite touting her familiarity with neighboring Canada.
"Those were taken out of context and that's cruel," Palin said. "It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news."
She makes this statement after she used the exact same tactics against Barack Obama during the campaign.
This all amounts to nothing more than the pitiful and childish finger-pointing that takes place by a losing team that does not have the class and foresight to learn from their mistakes and build on them in order to come back stronger in the next contest.
Anyone listening to Palin’s unscripted comments could see that she was in over her head. The voters saw through the façade the GOP was painting. You can dress her up in new clothes and prep her for debates but she still lacks any real substance.
The whole Sarah Palin show was window dressing and the GOP should be ashamed for their transparent attempt to pass her off as anything worthy of national attention. It amounted to nothing more than a farce on the level of a National Lampoon movie script about the presidential campaign process.
She says there was no tension among McCain staffers concerning her. Her denial is evident of her view of herself as “flawless” and worthy to be the center of attention, convinced that no one can possibly have any ill will towards her. She reminds me of that stereo-typical spoiled brat whose parents lavish praise on her, boosting her ego beyond her abilities, while everyone around her sees she is nothing special. It is really very pitiful.
This woman lacks the self-awareness needed to realistically view herself through other peoples eyes, which, as a politician, is extremely dangerous when trying to convince people to place their future in her hands.
The fact that she prepared a concession speech, and fully expected to give it before John McCain’s speech, coupled with the fact that vice-presidential nominees traditionally don’t give concession speeches on election night, bowing to the presidential candidate to give the speech, just proves how much more importance she placed in herself over John McCain.
As some McCain aides say, and many others saw, Palin had become more interested in her own future than in McCain's election. And, for future reference, this proves she places herself above this countries needs. She can deny it all she wants but her actions show it and her history bears it out to be true.
Her best option is to back away from the media and go about her role in Alaska for which she was elected. Put this business behind her and stay away from the national spotlight. We Americans have already witnessed her many failed attempts at trying to sound knowledgeable. We see these attempts for what they are, whitewash.
Claims were made that Palin did not know Africa was a continent instead of a country, or which countries are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite touting her familiarity with neighboring Canada.
"Those were taken out of context and that's cruel," Palin said. "It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news."
She makes this statement after she used the exact same tactics against Barack Obama during the campaign.
This all amounts to nothing more than the pitiful and childish finger-pointing that takes place by a losing team that does not have the class and foresight to learn from their mistakes and build on them in order to come back stronger in the next contest.
Anyone listening to Palin’s unscripted comments could see that she was in over her head. The voters saw through the façade the GOP was painting. You can dress her up in new clothes and prep her for debates but she still lacks any real substance.
The whole Sarah Palin show was window dressing and the GOP should be ashamed for their transparent attempt to pass her off as anything worthy of national attention. It amounted to nothing more than a farce on the level of a National Lampoon movie script about the presidential campaign process.
She says there was no tension among McCain staffers concerning her. Her denial is evident of her view of herself as “flawless” and worthy to be the center of attention, convinced that no one can possibly have any ill will towards her. She reminds me of that stereo-typical spoiled brat whose parents lavish praise on her, boosting her ego beyond her abilities, while everyone around her sees she is nothing special. It is really very pitiful.
This woman lacks the self-awareness needed to realistically view herself through other peoples eyes, which, as a politician, is extremely dangerous when trying to convince people to place their future in her hands.
The fact that she prepared a concession speech, and fully expected to give it before John McCain’s speech, coupled with the fact that vice-presidential nominees traditionally don’t give concession speeches on election night, bowing to the presidential candidate to give the speech, just proves how much more importance she placed in herself over John McCain.
As some McCain aides say, and many others saw, Palin had become more interested in her own future than in McCain's election. And, for future reference, this proves she places herself above this countries needs. She can deny it all she wants but her actions show it and her history bears it out to be true.
Her best option is to back away from the media and go about her role in Alaska for which she was elected. Put this business behind her and stay away from the national spotlight. We Americans have already witnessed her many failed attempts at trying to sound knowledgeable. We see these attempts for what they are, whitewash.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Bailing out the auto industry
America’s automobile industry is suffering, along with the rest of our economy. Few of us are shedding tears over it. Those that are crying bailout depend on the auto industry for their livelihood.
Auto sales are at their lowest in 25 years. Chrysler sales are down 35%, General Motors sales are down 45%, Ford posted a loss of $3 billion in its latest report. They are all asking the federal government for a $25 billion bailout. This is in addition to the $25 billion already granted them just last quarter.
Let’s get past the question of whether or not the federal government should bail out all of the hard working middle class Americans who are suffering from the result of corporate greed and mismanagement and take a close look at what caused this problem and what we can do to turn it around.
The auto industry has a long history of sleeping with big oil and believe that since they are considered the manufacturing backbone of our economy that they should receive special benefit of a bailout anytime industry leaders decisions backfire on them.
In a free enterprise system, there are winners and there are losers. Winners keep themselves abreast of the latest technologies and consumer trends and adapt their products to keep up with the market. This is simple economic strategy and every successful business owner knows this rule inside and out. The American auto manufacturers have not followed this rule. They have repeatedly lost sales to far superior foreign products all the while knowing they had the ability to change their methodology to match or exceed their competitors products. They simply did not keep up with the competition. They lobbied the federal government to pass laws so that their products did not have to meet strict emissions standards even while foreign manufacturers were beating those standards. They did not take it upon themselves to make their product financially attractive enough to American consumers.
Why should they be bailed out when their own behavior has put them in this position? They ignored the writing on the wall when people began buying more fuel efficient foreign vehicles and instead of reinvesting in retooling to produce lighter-weight, more fuel-efficient vehicles continued to build the largest ‘land-yachts’ in the world.
Another major problem adding to the auto industry woes is the rising cost of doing business in America. Both the federal government and the union should share the blame for this. Runaway insurance costs, the increasing tax burden, wages and inflation have made it more attractive for many industries to move their operations overseas to healthier financial environments where they realized greater profits due to not having to pay such high overhead.
The American auto industry relied too heavily on the old sentimental loyalty of Americans to “buy American” and it backfired on them.
Now the auto industry is using American jobs as the reason they should be bailed out. They are probably correct in assuming that if this industry goes under the loss of tax revenue generated from automobile sales, the loss of income tax generated by workers and the loss of payments into social security will cripple this economy even further. The America economy will suffer far greater damage than we can imagine.
Some people compare bailing this industry out with bailing out the bankers and Wall Street CEO’s and they don’t want to see it. This industry differs in that it directly affects hundreds of thousands of jobs, each contributing to a tax base that drives this economy.
What can be done to help the economy and the auto industry in the long run depends on the cooperation of the federal government and the auto industry.
Government should rewrite its laws to allow, and force, auto manufacturers to produce competitive products.
Any foreign country that sells a car here should be required to manufacture it here, this will create jobs here and will help keep some of the money here in this country instead of shipping it overseas.
Create an international standard for fuel efficiency, gas emissions, and alternative means of power to help us get away from fossil fuels and force the auto industry to adhere to these standards.
Any car manufacturer that wants to ship vehicles to the U.S. should pay higher tariffs making less attractive for them to do so.
In fact, raising tariffs on everything that comes into this country would help other American industries as well. America has become the dumping ground of cheap products made overseas and this needs to stop. Americans used to feel a certain pride in making quality American products. There is no pride in sending our money overseas for product that should be made here.
Ideally, these changes will entice all industry to bring their manufacturing back to America and re-employ Americans.
Let’s face it, Americans are not loyal to American products, we are loyal to getting the best product for our money. It will always be this way.
Auto sales are at their lowest in 25 years. Chrysler sales are down 35%, General Motors sales are down 45%, Ford posted a loss of $3 billion in its latest report. They are all asking the federal government for a $25 billion bailout. This is in addition to the $25 billion already granted them just last quarter.
Let’s get past the question of whether or not the federal government should bail out all of the hard working middle class Americans who are suffering from the result of corporate greed and mismanagement and take a close look at what caused this problem and what we can do to turn it around.
The auto industry has a long history of sleeping with big oil and believe that since they are considered the manufacturing backbone of our economy that they should receive special benefit of a bailout anytime industry leaders decisions backfire on them.
In a free enterprise system, there are winners and there are losers. Winners keep themselves abreast of the latest technologies and consumer trends and adapt their products to keep up with the market. This is simple economic strategy and every successful business owner knows this rule inside and out. The American auto manufacturers have not followed this rule. They have repeatedly lost sales to far superior foreign products all the while knowing they had the ability to change their methodology to match or exceed their competitors products. They simply did not keep up with the competition. They lobbied the federal government to pass laws so that their products did not have to meet strict emissions standards even while foreign manufacturers were beating those standards. They did not take it upon themselves to make their product financially attractive enough to American consumers.
Why should they be bailed out when their own behavior has put them in this position? They ignored the writing on the wall when people began buying more fuel efficient foreign vehicles and instead of reinvesting in retooling to produce lighter-weight, more fuel-efficient vehicles continued to build the largest ‘land-yachts’ in the world.
Another major problem adding to the auto industry woes is the rising cost of doing business in America. Both the federal government and the union should share the blame for this. Runaway insurance costs, the increasing tax burden, wages and inflation have made it more attractive for many industries to move their operations overseas to healthier financial environments where they realized greater profits due to not having to pay such high overhead.
The American auto industry relied too heavily on the old sentimental loyalty of Americans to “buy American” and it backfired on them.
Now the auto industry is using American jobs as the reason they should be bailed out. They are probably correct in assuming that if this industry goes under the loss of tax revenue generated from automobile sales, the loss of income tax generated by workers and the loss of payments into social security will cripple this economy even further. The America economy will suffer far greater damage than we can imagine.
Some people compare bailing this industry out with bailing out the bankers and Wall Street CEO’s and they don’t want to see it. This industry differs in that it directly affects hundreds of thousands of jobs, each contributing to a tax base that drives this economy.
What can be done to help the economy and the auto industry in the long run depends on the cooperation of the federal government and the auto industry.
Government should rewrite its laws to allow, and force, auto manufacturers to produce competitive products.
Any foreign country that sells a car here should be required to manufacture it here, this will create jobs here and will help keep some of the money here in this country instead of shipping it overseas.
Create an international standard for fuel efficiency, gas emissions, and alternative means of power to help us get away from fossil fuels and force the auto industry to adhere to these standards.
Any car manufacturer that wants to ship vehicles to the U.S. should pay higher tariffs making less attractive for them to do so.
In fact, raising tariffs on everything that comes into this country would help other American industries as well. America has become the dumping ground of cheap products made overseas and this needs to stop. Americans used to feel a certain pride in making quality American products. There is no pride in sending our money overseas for product that should be made here.
Ideally, these changes will entice all industry to bring their manufacturing back to America and re-employ Americans.
Let’s face it, Americans are not loyal to American products, we are loyal to getting the best product for our money. It will always be this way.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Fossil Fuel Profits vs Human Rights
On November 4, 2007, a Buddhist monk, writing under the name U Gambira, published an op-ed in The Washington Post advocating democracy for his Southeast Asian nation of Burma.
U Gambira wrote: "It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow."
As U Gambria wrote, the regime already had arrested his father and brother, holding them as hostages to flush him out. It found and arrested him on the same day that his article appeared.
Since then, U Gambira has been forcibly deprived of his monastic robes and tortured in Burma’s notorious Insein Prison. A half-dozen other members of his family have been arrested or forced into internal exile. At age 29, he has been charged with “crimes” that could bring years in prison.
What are those “crimes”? Leading a non-violent demonstration protesting the oppressive rule of Burma’s military leadership and asking for something we in America take for granted: Democracy and basic human rights.
On Tuesday Nov 4, we in America exercised one of our most cherished rights, to vote a change in leadership. The people of Burma don’t have this right. If they did General Than Shwe and his band of murderous, thieving, oppressors would be ousted and the Burmese people would once again enjoy the enlightened lifestyle of a free democratic society.
The brutal and oppressive military leadership of General Than Shwe and his policies have looted and destroyed sacred monasteries in his efforts to round up political and religious leaders. He has brought Burma’s economy to its knees. They have emptied what was once considered the breadbasket of Asia to the point that it cannot feed its own people. Burma, once known as a light for education and literacy now has closed its schools and universities.
Last September, the Burmese people spoke up against General Shwe’s rule and many were imprisoned, tortured and slaughtered for it. That bloodbath brought the world’s attention to Burmese plight but very little has changed. General Than Shwe has since sought to portray this uprising as a singular event, now over. A veneer of quiet has replaced the sounds of gunfire on city streets. Unfortunately, many in the international community buy in and actively support this propaganda.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, have taken steps to open a dialogue with Burma's generals but little progress is being made.
China and Russia continue to block the UN Security Council from facilitating a dialogue between democratic forces and the regime.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned the regime's actions but have done little else.
The world's largest democracy, India, continues to provide military assistance and trade deals that help finance the regime's war on its people.
The U.S. claims to be a stalwart of human rights and yet allows human rights atrocities to continue in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, etc. and even writes its laws to allow a U.S.-based corporation to profit from it.
Chevron, based in California, has been making huge profits in Burma as part owner of a natural gas project and is therefore complicit in the human rights abuses through its investment. U.S. sanctions prevent most U.S. companies from working in Burma, but Chevron's investment there existed before the sanctions were imposed and continues under a grandfather clause. The message being sent around the world is “Profit trumps human rights”.
Chevron’s answer to the many letters of protest they have received over their part in Burma is to remove all references to Burma from their webpage.
U Gambira, and many others like him, is willing to die to gain freedom for his fellow countrymen. Chevron and the U.S. is willing to let him die at the hands of a tortuous dictatorial regime in order to make a profit. Now jump to Iraq where Bush’s lies led to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians to lose their lives in a scheme to enrich his buddies in the oil and gas industry. The main difference between Bush and Shwe is the U.S. Constitution.
Is profiting from fossil fuel worth more than human lives? Those of us who live under ethical and moral standards would say "of course not". But, ask Bush and the CEO of Chevron and we get a much different answer.
Bush feigned moral outrage over Saddam Hussein’s torture of his own people and so therefore felt a "moral obligation" to "save" Iraq from Saddam’s madness. Where is that outrage now against what the Burmese are suffering from? The only difference between Iraq and Burma is that Iraq has more oil reserves.
We owe it to our own conscience to stop supporting Chevron and any other company that makes a profit on the misery of any person.
It is easy to simply buy Chevron gas with our credit card ignoring the fact that in doing so we are aiding Chevron in their complicity in the suffering that the Burmese people endure every day. It is more difficult to think about our actions, tear up that credit card, drive past every Chevron gas pump and not aid and abet in their profiting from human suffering. But really, how difficult is all of that when compared to U Gambira being tortured in a jail cell for standing up for his right to be free?
Further reading:
Words of Power
San Francisco Chronicle
U Gambira wrote: "It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow."
As U Gambria wrote, the regime already had arrested his father and brother, holding them as hostages to flush him out. It found and arrested him on the same day that his article appeared.
Since then, U Gambira has been forcibly deprived of his monastic robes and tortured in Burma’s notorious Insein Prison. A half-dozen other members of his family have been arrested or forced into internal exile. At age 29, he has been charged with “crimes” that could bring years in prison.
What are those “crimes”? Leading a non-violent demonstration protesting the oppressive rule of Burma’s military leadership and asking for something we in America take for granted: Democracy and basic human rights.
On Tuesday Nov 4, we in America exercised one of our most cherished rights, to vote a change in leadership. The people of Burma don’t have this right. If they did General Than Shwe and his band of murderous, thieving, oppressors would be ousted and the Burmese people would once again enjoy the enlightened lifestyle of a free democratic society.
The brutal and oppressive military leadership of General Than Shwe and his policies have looted and destroyed sacred monasteries in his efforts to round up political and religious leaders. He has brought Burma’s economy to its knees. They have emptied what was once considered the breadbasket of Asia to the point that it cannot feed its own people. Burma, once known as a light for education and literacy now has closed its schools and universities.
Last September, the Burmese people spoke up against General Shwe’s rule and many were imprisoned, tortured and slaughtered for it. That bloodbath brought the world’s attention to Burmese plight but very little has changed. General Than Shwe has since sought to portray this uprising as a singular event, now over. A veneer of quiet has replaced the sounds of gunfire on city streets. Unfortunately, many in the international community buy in and actively support this propaganda.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, have taken steps to open a dialogue with Burma's generals but little progress is being made.
China and Russia continue to block the UN Security Council from facilitating a dialogue between democratic forces and the regime.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned the regime's actions but have done little else.
The world's largest democracy, India, continues to provide military assistance and trade deals that help finance the regime's war on its people.
The U.S. claims to be a stalwart of human rights and yet allows human rights atrocities to continue in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, etc. and even writes its laws to allow a U.S.-based corporation to profit from it.
Chevron, based in California, has been making huge profits in Burma as part owner of a natural gas project and is therefore complicit in the human rights abuses through its investment. U.S. sanctions prevent most U.S. companies from working in Burma, but Chevron's investment there existed before the sanctions were imposed and continues under a grandfather clause. The message being sent around the world is “Profit trumps human rights”.
Chevron’s answer to the many letters of protest they have received over their part in Burma is to remove all references to Burma from their webpage.
U Gambira, and many others like him, is willing to die to gain freedom for his fellow countrymen. Chevron and the U.S. is willing to let him die at the hands of a tortuous dictatorial regime in order to make a profit. Now jump to Iraq where Bush’s lies led to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians to lose their lives in a scheme to enrich his buddies in the oil and gas industry. The main difference between Bush and Shwe is the U.S. Constitution.
Is profiting from fossil fuel worth more than human lives? Those of us who live under ethical and moral standards would say "of course not". But, ask Bush and the CEO of Chevron and we get a much different answer.
Bush feigned moral outrage over Saddam Hussein’s torture of his own people and so therefore felt a "moral obligation" to "save" Iraq from Saddam’s madness. Where is that outrage now against what the Burmese are suffering from? The only difference between Iraq and Burma is that Iraq has more oil reserves.
We owe it to our own conscience to stop supporting Chevron and any other company that makes a profit on the misery of any person.
It is easy to simply buy Chevron gas with our credit card ignoring the fact that in doing so we are aiding Chevron in their complicity in the suffering that the Burmese people endure every day. It is more difficult to think about our actions, tear up that credit card, drive past every Chevron gas pump and not aid and abet in their profiting from human suffering. But really, how difficult is all of that when compared to U Gambira being tortured in a jail cell for standing up for his right to be free?
Further reading:
Words of Power
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sarah Palin, It’s Time to Quit
Sarah Palin isn’t in this election to change anything in Washington, she is in this race to win. This is nothing more than a contest to her. Her competitive spirit is dictating that she not back down (an unthinkable act contrary to her very nature) and do whatever it takes to win. To her, the end justifies the means. This is a selfish and dangerous gamble when the very welfare of Americans hang in the balance.
Irrespective of the fact that this nation will not benefit from having her in any leadership role, she simply lies and abuses the power of her office to get what she wants. We have been witness to this type of behavior from both George W Bush and Dick Cheney. We don’t want any more of it.
How can we as a nation, suffering from the immorality of an illegal and unjust war and crippled as the result of policies of an unethical leadership, hope to regain the respect that comes from being a world leader?
How can we expect to reverse this administrations overt (and covert) attempts to weaken our basic constitutional freedoms if we don’t exercise our right to speak out against these injustices?
How can we ever have any hope of reclaiming our dignity under ‘new’ leadership that will only give us more of the same?
When will we again be able to hold our heads up and be proud to be American after our leaders have authorized torture, condoned kidnapping, instituted secret prisons, authorized warrantless surveillance on fellow Americans, and shielded high ranking government officials from investigation into suspected crimes?
We can start by demanding that McCain/Palin be banished into obscurity for the divisive, unashamed, crass and cynical actions they have taken against the American people.
The current state of the republican party has degenerated into an unethical, immoral, propaganda generating, smear machine designed more for character assassination than solidifying itself as a viable platform of positive change. Change this country desperately needs.
Sarah Palins choice as vice presidential candidate has accelerated the decline of the republican party platform.
John McCain, who I believe is a decent person, has made a grave error in judgment in allowing his campaign to take this disastrous and hateful course. Perhaps blinded by the prize, he has done himself and his country a grave disservice. As a result of his choice the world now sees him as selling out his principles for his party.
Sarah Palin, the time has come to put the country first and bow out in an attempt to restore some dignity to the once proud institution of voting for political office.
Irrespective of the fact that this nation will not benefit from having her in any leadership role, she simply lies and abuses the power of her office to get what she wants. We have been witness to this type of behavior from both George W Bush and Dick Cheney. We don’t want any more of it.
How can we as a nation, suffering from the immorality of an illegal and unjust war and crippled as the result of policies of an unethical leadership, hope to regain the respect that comes from being a world leader?
How can we expect to reverse this administrations overt (and covert) attempts to weaken our basic constitutional freedoms if we don’t exercise our right to speak out against these injustices?
How can we ever have any hope of reclaiming our dignity under ‘new’ leadership that will only give us more of the same?
When will we again be able to hold our heads up and be proud to be American after our leaders have authorized torture, condoned kidnapping, instituted secret prisons, authorized warrantless surveillance on fellow Americans, and shielded high ranking government officials from investigation into suspected crimes?
We can start by demanding that McCain/Palin be banished into obscurity for the divisive, unashamed, crass and cynical actions they have taken against the American people.
The current state of the republican party has degenerated into an unethical, immoral, propaganda generating, smear machine designed more for character assassination than solidifying itself as a viable platform of positive change. Change this country desperately needs.
Sarah Palins choice as vice presidential candidate has accelerated the decline of the republican party platform.
John McCain, who I believe is a decent person, has made a grave error in judgment in allowing his campaign to take this disastrous and hateful course. Perhaps blinded by the prize, he has done himself and his country a grave disservice. As a result of his choice the world now sees him as selling out his principles for his party.
Sarah Palin, the time has come to put the country first and bow out in an attempt to restore some dignity to the once proud institution of voting for political office.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Data Breaches, What Options Does the Consumer Have?
I have written about this before but it is always scary when the topic rears its ugly head.
The Identity Theft Resource Center, of San Diego, found that this year's data breach tally has easily eclipsed 2007's 446 incidents. At an average of 57 caches of consumer data reported lost or stolen each month, U.S. organizations are on track to divulge at least 680 breaches by the end of 2008.
About 80 percent of the breaches involved digital records, while the remainder stemmed from the loss, theft or exposure of paper-based records. A description of each incident is available in the Identity Theft Resource Center 's 2008 Breach List.
Some 30 million records on consumers have been exposed so far this year. But experts say that figure almost certainly masks a much larger problem, as there is currently no federal requirement for organizations that experience a data breach or loss to acknowledge precisely how many consumers nationwide may have been affected.
Some states require entities to alert consumers of a data breach, but this is, in most cases, pretty useless. I personally have been notified on three occasions (by my credit card company and a hospital and the VA) of my data being ‘lost’ and each time the date of the letter was 6-8 months after the fact. How does notification help in these cases? As usual the law was not written well enough to actually protect the consumer. Entities should be forced to notify consumers in a more timely manner, for example, within one week of a data breach in order for us to be aware that our personal information has been compromised.
If only these companies protected my information as if it were their own.
Most of us make some attempt to protect our data while on our own home computer, but when it becomes necessary to give out our personal information we have to trust that the entity we give it to will protect it. Instead we find we are becoming more and more vulnerable to whatever level of seriousness corporations extend to preventing a data breach. Sometimes, their own employees misuse our data, either through negligence or downright theft.
In other cases, the company that we are forced to trust with our data hands that data over to a contractor, without our knowledge, which increases our vulnerability.
How many of us would be notified of a data breach if it were not for state law forcing the notification? It is understandable that these companies and our government would not want consumers to lose faith in their ability to properly care for your personal information, but this is exactly the type of information we need be informed of about these entities. If they are not forthright enough to tell us of problems on their own without the threat of penalty, then why should we trust them with any other transaction? Because we have to.
In order to make purchases online we must send personal information over supposedly secure networks. When we make purchases at brick and mortar stores with credit cards we must have faith that those transactions are forwarded to our credit card company and the stores headquarters over secured lines. Plus, we have the added vulnerability of exposing our credit card numbers to store clerks. Some of these concerns are being addressed to remove the clerk from the equation but once our information is sent through those desktop data collection devices, what guarantee do we have that the information is not intercepted?
We are asked to have a lot of faith in whoever we give our information to and we are being told that there are more data breaches almost every day.
There are many data encryption routines that can protect data, but many companies don’t want to take the extra time involved to encrypt and de-encrypt to access the data. Therefore we, the consumers, lose.
Can we sue entities for losing our data? It is becoming increasingly apparent that suit brought against these entities is going nowhere. The main road block to getting a judge to hear such a case is the extent to how much harm is actually done to the person whose data was ‘lost’ or ‘stolen’. Plus, how do you prove the data was either ‘lost’ or ‘stolen’? As a result, the consumer is left to worry about when their data will be used by unscrupulous persons and will then be faced with having to suffer whatever damage is done.
In a world that is increasingly going digital, coupled with corporations farming out work to contractors and sub-contractors, the risk to our personal data is increasing. Human error and greed accounts for the vast majority of these data breaches and until we can take the human element out of the data stream we will always be at risk.
As an additional threat, Homeland Security and the FBI have been pursuing the creation of databases containing extensive data on every person in the U.S. The prospect of accessing this ‘mother lode’ of personal data must has hackers salivating.
The Identity Theft Resource Center, of San Diego, found that this year's data breach tally has easily eclipsed 2007's 446 incidents. At an average of 57 caches of consumer data reported lost or stolen each month, U.S. organizations are on track to divulge at least 680 breaches by the end of 2008.
About 80 percent of the breaches involved digital records, while the remainder stemmed from the loss, theft or exposure of paper-based records. A description of each incident is available in the Identity Theft Resource Center 's 2008 Breach List.
Some 30 million records on consumers have been exposed so far this year. But experts say that figure almost certainly masks a much larger problem, as there is currently no federal requirement for organizations that experience a data breach or loss to acknowledge precisely how many consumers nationwide may have been affected.
Some states require entities to alert consumers of a data breach, but this is, in most cases, pretty useless. I personally have been notified on three occasions (by my credit card company and a hospital and the VA) of my data being ‘lost’ and each time the date of the letter was 6-8 months after the fact. How does notification help in these cases? As usual the law was not written well enough to actually protect the consumer. Entities should be forced to notify consumers in a more timely manner, for example, within one week of a data breach in order for us to be aware that our personal information has been compromised.
If only these companies protected my information as if it were their own.
Most of us make some attempt to protect our data while on our own home computer, but when it becomes necessary to give out our personal information we have to trust that the entity we give it to will protect it. Instead we find we are becoming more and more vulnerable to whatever level of seriousness corporations extend to preventing a data breach. Sometimes, their own employees misuse our data, either through negligence or downright theft.
In other cases, the company that we are forced to trust with our data hands that data over to a contractor, without our knowledge, which increases our vulnerability.
How many of us would be notified of a data breach if it were not for state law forcing the notification? It is understandable that these companies and our government would not want consumers to lose faith in their ability to properly care for your personal information, but this is exactly the type of information we need be informed of about these entities. If they are not forthright enough to tell us of problems on their own without the threat of penalty, then why should we trust them with any other transaction? Because we have to.
In order to make purchases online we must send personal information over supposedly secure networks. When we make purchases at brick and mortar stores with credit cards we must have faith that those transactions are forwarded to our credit card company and the stores headquarters over secured lines. Plus, we have the added vulnerability of exposing our credit card numbers to store clerks. Some of these concerns are being addressed to remove the clerk from the equation but once our information is sent through those desktop data collection devices, what guarantee do we have that the information is not intercepted?
We are asked to have a lot of faith in whoever we give our information to and we are being told that there are more data breaches almost every day.
There are many data encryption routines that can protect data, but many companies don’t want to take the extra time involved to encrypt and de-encrypt to access the data. Therefore we, the consumers, lose.
Can we sue entities for losing our data? It is becoming increasingly apparent that suit brought against these entities is going nowhere. The main road block to getting a judge to hear such a case is the extent to how much harm is actually done to the person whose data was ‘lost’ or ‘stolen’. Plus, how do you prove the data was either ‘lost’ or ‘stolen’? As a result, the consumer is left to worry about when their data will be used by unscrupulous persons and will then be faced with having to suffer whatever damage is done.
In a world that is increasingly going digital, coupled with corporations farming out work to contractors and sub-contractors, the risk to our personal data is increasing. Human error and greed accounts for the vast majority of these data breaches and until we can take the human element out of the data stream we will always be at risk.
As an additional threat, Homeland Security and the FBI have been pursuing the creation of databases containing extensive data on every person in the U.S. The prospect of accessing this ‘mother lode’ of personal data must has hackers salivating.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Enough Attacks, Show Us What You Got
Voters want straight answers. We don’t want to stand by watching the mud fly while waiting for substance. We are tired of witnessing our potential presidential leaders behave as lame backstreet bullies trying their best to convince us that their opponent will be worse for this country than they will be.
Voting is supposed to be based on choosing the best candidate for the job based on that candidates qualifications, not on the other person’s lack thereof. We are tired of choosing the lesser of two evils. Character assassination is beneath grown mature adults. This stuff has no place in the realm of ethical politics or adulthood. Throwing dirt and mud at each other trying to convince us, the voting public, that the other person is somehow evil serves only to lessen the attackers image. The voting public can make the decision on our own as to whether or not one of the candidates lied, or is acting unethically, is abusing our trust, or is avoiding questions. We are intelligent enough to see these diversionary tactics for ourselves.
As we grow older, in our daily interactions with people, we learn to pick up clues as to a person’s character. These sometimes subtle clues warn us to be wary of a certain individual. The more lies, cover-up attempts, and mis-direction a person engages in the more we are convinced that the person cannot be trusted. Likewise, if one candidate spends an inordinate amount of energy attacking the other candidate, then we become convinced that the attacker does not believe in himself. When a person looses faith in himself, that person becomes very dangerous, because he will stoop to any level to get what he wants. These are life’s lessons. These clues, collectively, are called ‘gut instinct’ and we ignore these instincts at our own peril.
The republican party is choosing to increase its attacks on Obama’s character by rehashing old associations. They have decided to do this because they see their popularity in the polls fading. The country has been made aware of Obama’s past acquaintances. Just as we have been made aware of his educational achievements. Our ‘gut-instinct’ tells us that Obama is not so weak-minded as to be swayed by these arguably ill-advised friendships.
The backgrounds of McCain and Obama could not be more dissimilar. McCain comes from a life of privilege where his road to adulthood was paved with well-heeled connections. Obama comes from a broken home, where his road to adulthood was on the ‘other side of the tracks’, where there is a far greater chance of running with the ‘wrong’ crowd.
John McCain was guaranteed access to higher education and, as is often the case with privileged kids, nearly threw it away. He graduated 894 out of 899 from the U.S. Naval Academy (his father and grandfather were both U.S. Navy admirals). Barack Obama had insurmountable odds against him of even finishing high school, and yet reached the pinnacle of a higher education by graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and becoming the first black man to become president of the Harvard Law Review. Which outcome defines the better character?
Because of these two very different backgrounds, I believe Obama has met a much broader spectrum of personalities, and this greater diversity can only lead to a better understanding of people.
The republican party leaders realize that their party has been severely damaged by the policies and lies instituted by the Bush/Cheney team, and are therefore attempting to paint McCain/Palin as ‘mavericks’, still members of the republican party but not the same as Bush/Cheney.
Again, we the people are intelligent enough to see through this smoke screen and see that these two are exactly like Bush/Cheney in enough ways that we know nothing will change if these two get elected.
McCain’s continued attacks on Obama shows a lack of faith in what he himself stands for. Palin’s ‘folksiness’ shows a general lack of understanding about what is going on, let alone what to do about it. The team itself is an act of desperation to hold onto the republicans waning political power.
Obama’s defensive attacks against McCain’s policies are born of trying to defend against the republican party’s attempts to undermine his policies.
To the republican party leaders, I say, we don’t want you to take us by the hand like children and have you tell us that Obama is a bad person that cannot be trusted. When you try to manipulate us to see the world through your paranoid and distrustful eyes, and ignore our ability to see these things for ourselves, you not only subtract from your own credibility, you disrespect us. That is a fatal mistake.
Please, Senator McCain, if you have it in you, grow up, stop the lame attempts at humor, stop the character assassination, own up to your record of flip-flopping on the issues. Show us the respect we deserve, and allow us to form our own opinion concerning Obama’s character. Instead of constantly telling us why we should not vote for him, convince us why we should vote for you.
Voting is supposed to be based on choosing the best candidate for the job based on that candidates qualifications, not on the other person’s lack thereof. We are tired of choosing the lesser of two evils. Character assassination is beneath grown mature adults. This stuff has no place in the realm of ethical politics or adulthood. Throwing dirt and mud at each other trying to convince us, the voting public, that the other person is somehow evil serves only to lessen the attackers image. The voting public can make the decision on our own as to whether or not one of the candidates lied, or is acting unethically, is abusing our trust, or is avoiding questions. We are intelligent enough to see these diversionary tactics for ourselves.
As we grow older, in our daily interactions with people, we learn to pick up clues as to a person’s character. These sometimes subtle clues warn us to be wary of a certain individual. The more lies, cover-up attempts, and mis-direction a person engages in the more we are convinced that the person cannot be trusted. Likewise, if one candidate spends an inordinate amount of energy attacking the other candidate, then we become convinced that the attacker does not believe in himself. When a person looses faith in himself, that person becomes very dangerous, because he will stoop to any level to get what he wants. These are life’s lessons. These clues, collectively, are called ‘gut instinct’ and we ignore these instincts at our own peril.
The republican party is choosing to increase its attacks on Obama’s character by rehashing old associations. They have decided to do this because they see their popularity in the polls fading. The country has been made aware of Obama’s past acquaintances. Just as we have been made aware of his educational achievements. Our ‘gut-instinct’ tells us that Obama is not so weak-minded as to be swayed by these arguably ill-advised friendships.
The backgrounds of McCain and Obama could not be more dissimilar. McCain comes from a life of privilege where his road to adulthood was paved with well-heeled connections. Obama comes from a broken home, where his road to adulthood was on the ‘other side of the tracks’, where there is a far greater chance of running with the ‘wrong’ crowd.
John McCain was guaranteed access to higher education and, as is often the case with privileged kids, nearly threw it away. He graduated 894 out of 899 from the U.S. Naval Academy (his father and grandfather were both U.S. Navy admirals). Barack Obama had insurmountable odds against him of even finishing high school, and yet reached the pinnacle of a higher education by graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and becoming the first black man to become president of the Harvard Law Review. Which outcome defines the better character?
Because of these two very different backgrounds, I believe Obama has met a much broader spectrum of personalities, and this greater diversity can only lead to a better understanding of people.
The republican party leaders realize that their party has been severely damaged by the policies and lies instituted by the Bush/Cheney team, and are therefore attempting to paint McCain/Palin as ‘mavericks’, still members of the republican party but not the same as Bush/Cheney.
Again, we the people are intelligent enough to see through this smoke screen and see that these two are exactly like Bush/Cheney in enough ways that we know nothing will change if these two get elected.
McCain’s continued attacks on Obama shows a lack of faith in what he himself stands for. Palin’s ‘folksiness’ shows a general lack of understanding about what is going on, let alone what to do about it. The team itself is an act of desperation to hold onto the republicans waning political power.
Obama’s defensive attacks against McCain’s policies are born of trying to defend against the republican party’s attempts to undermine his policies.
To the republican party leaders, I say, we don’t want you to take us by the hand like children and have you tell us that Obama is a bad person that cannot be trusted. When you try to manipulate us to see the world through your paranoid and distrustful eyes, and ignore our ability to see these things for ourselves, you not only subtract from your own credibility, you disrespect us. That is a fatal mistake.
Please, Senator McCain, if you have it in you, grow up, stop the lame attempts at humor, stop the character assassination, own up to your record of flip-flopping on the issues. Show us the respect we deserve, and allow us to form our own opinion concerning Obama’s character. Instead of constantly telling us why we should not vote for him, convince us why we should vote for you.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Sarah Palin: Maverick American or Snow Job?
The typical American does not keep abreast of current events until it affects them directly, such as a natural disaster, or a gas shortage, or a tax increase. For whatever reason. Maybe they feel that after struggling all day to make ends meet they want to shut reality out and numb their minds with the cultural wasteland that is television. Maybe they feel their opinion doesn’t amount to much on the local, national or international stage, so why bother? Maybe they simply just don’t have the time or don’t want to make the time. How many people actually pick up a newspaper or news magazine to learn details of current events? How many people actually seek out political blogs or websites to learn about what their representatives are doing in Congress? Aside from the previously mentioned major events, more often than not it is the ‘sensational’ that captures the attention, such as, the school bus crash that killed all children onboard, or the bridge collapse that killed x number of people, or the maniac that decided to kill a bunch of people before killing himself.
We expect our elected officials to be well versed concerning their sphere of influence. We trust them to maintain a level of understanding in these matters in order to do their job effectively. Likewise, the American public should keep ourselves well enough informed in these same matters so that we can hold politicians to account for their occasional bonehead decision and to give proper recognition when they make the right choices. Since the media is the conduit through which the public learns details of events and individuals running for public office we expect the media to dig deep into these matters and to present their findings in an unbiased presentation so that the public can make informed decisions concerning how to proceed.
When it comes to learning about who is running for public office, we want to know everything about our candidates. When a candidate throws up a curtain to shroud his/her past, the American public becomes suspicious. This is what is happening with Sarah Palin. Her unwillingness to participate in investigations and her attempt to embellish her past accomplishments are smoke screens designed to hide the real Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin is part of that group of individuals who do not keep up with current events, international or national. Katie Couric recently asked her what periodicals she reads in order to keep up to date on world and national events. Palin did not answer the question. She employed her usual smoke screen and took off on a tangent, several, in fact. Despite repeated attempts by Ms. Couric, Palin would not answer the question. She didn’t want to answer the question because she doesn’t keep herself informed. To not keep abreast of current events is unforgivable for a candidate for national public office. The fact that she tried to hide this fact proves she places herself above this nation’s needs.
It is the media’s job to bring this type of selfish and disingenuous character to light so the public can see that the candidate is a fraud. Once we see Sarah Palin is a fraud we then see that the republican party is a fraud by association and McCain’s refusal to drop his running mate proves that neither of these people put the nation first. To them, winning is the only thing that matters.
We have only to listen to Palin speak to see that she has no tangible recognition of what dangers this nation faces. In another recent interview with Katie Couric, Palin makes this fact very clear. When asked her thoughts on whether the economy would be better served by giving the bailout money directly to the people rather than to Wall Street, she fumbled. We cannot deny that this current economic situation is a complex topic, but it was clearly too ‘hardball’ for Palin. Her convoluted and rambling answer, full of republican talking points, clearly showed that Palin does not have the ability to formulate a coherent and educated response, and is more focused on towing the party line, and requires cue cards even to pull this off. Given the fact that she is vying for Vice President and “just a heartbeat away” from President of the United States, she is a pitiful choice for this position.
For someone who is being dressed-up and sold to the American public as being a maverick, Sarah Palin looks and sounds like every other run-of-the-mill American not suited to hold public office. She delivers one-liners and personal jabs that seems to appeal to the sarcastic and competitive side of many Americans, but there is no substance.
Being able to relate to the every day American has its merits, but when a person aspires to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world and faces the deepest and most profound problems we face today, I personally don’t want some run-of-the-mill, sarcastic person off the street who relies on populism instead of policy and parrots the party mantra as my leader.
The American people deserves a leader with ethics, someone with the leadership skills to bring people together instead of cleaning house of all who oppose, someone with an understanding of foreign affairs well beyond believing that living in close proximity of a foreign country is a qualification, someone who has a grasp of domestic issues outside of what books should be made available in the local library, someone who can answer straight forward questions with straight forward meaningful and insightful answers without trying to misdirect the issue.
During the vice presidential debate this coming Thursday, we will finally see the real Sarah Palin, raw and without cue cards. Rest assured, she will be highly coached, but we will have irrefutable proof that Sarah Palin is not the maverick she has been purported to be. We will see, once and for all, that Sarah Palin is way out of her league. Unfortunately, her ability to connect with the audience on a personal level will serve her and the Republican party in overshadowing substance in favor of leading her followers around like the sheep they have become.
We expect our elected officials to be well versed concerning their sphere of influence. We trust them to maintain a level of understanding in these matters in order to do their job effectively. Likewise, the American public should keep ourselves well enough informed in these same matters so that we can hold politicians to account for their occasional bonehead decision and to give proper recognition when they make the right choices. Since the media is the conduit through which the public learns details of events and individuals running for public office we expect the media to dig deep into these matters and to present their findings in an unbiased presentation so that the public can make informed decisions concerning how to proceed.
When it comes to learning about who is running for public office, we want to know everything about our candidates. When a candidate throws up a curtain to shroud his/her past, the American public becomes suspicious. This is what is happening with Sarah Palin. Her unwillingness to participate in investigations and her attempt to embellish her past accomplishments are smoke screens designed to hide the real Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin is part of that group of individuals who do not keep up with current events, international or national. Katie Couric recently asked her what periodicals she reads in order to keep up to date on world and national events. Palin did not answer the question. She employed her usual smoke screen and took off on a tangent, several, in fact. Despite repeated attempts by Ms. Couric, Palin would not answer the question. She didn’t want to answer the question because she doesn’t keep herself informed. To not keep abreast of current events is unforgivable for a candidate for national public office. The fact that she tried to hide this fact proves she places herself above this nation’s needs.
It is the media’s job to bring this type of selfish and disingenuous character to light so the public can see that the candidate is a fraud. Once we see Sarah Palin is a fraud we then see that the republican party is a fraud by association and McCain’s refusal to drop his running mate proves that neither of these people put the nation first. To them, winning is the only thing that matters.
We have only to listen to Palin speak to see that she has no tangible recognition of what dangers this nation faces. In another recent interview with Katie Couric, Palin makes this fact very clear. When asked her thoughts on whether the economy would be better served by giving the bailout money directly to the people rather than to Wall Street, she fumbled. We cannot deny that this current economic situation is a complex topic, but it was clearly too ‘hardball’ for Palin. Her convoluted and rambling answer, full of republican talking points, clearly showed that Palin does not have the ability to formulate a coherent and educated response, and is more focused on towing the party line, and requires cue cards even to pull this off. Given the fact that she is vying for Vice President and “just a heartbeat away” from President of the United States, she is a pitiful choice for this position.
For someone who is being dressed-up and sold to the American public as being a maverick, Sarah Palin looks and sounds like every other run-of-the-mill American not suited to hold public office. She delivers one-liners and personal jabs that seems to appeal to the sarcastic and competitive side of many Americans, but there is no substance.
Being able to relate to the every day American has its merits, but when a person aspires to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world and faces the deepest and most profound problems we face today, I personally don’t want some run-of-the-mill, sarcastic person off the street who relies on populism instead of policy and parrots the party mantra as my leader.
The American people deserves a leader with ethics, someone with the leadership skills to bring people together instead of cleaning house of all who oppose, someone with an understanding of foreign affairs well beyond believing that living in close proximity of a foreign country is a qualification, someone who has a grasp of domestic issues outside of what books should be made available in the local library, someone who can answer straight forward questions with straight forward meaningful and insightful answers without trying to misdirect the issue.
During the vice presidential debate this coming Thursday, we will finally see the real Sarah Palin, raw and without cue cards. Rest assured, she will be highly coached, but we will have irrefutable proof that Sarah Palin is not the maverick she has been purported to be. We will see, once and for all, that Sarah Palin is way out of her league. Unfortunately, her ability to connect with the audience on a personal level will serve her and the Republican party in overshadowing substance in favor of leading her followers around like the sheep they have become.
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