U.S. Corporations are Ugly Americans

American corporations pay foreign countries for rights to extract oil, gas, and minerals from within their borders. Those governments have done nothing to regulate oil company practices that pollute the environment and otherwise endanger the lives of local residents. Their reckless practices (which would not be allowed here in the U.S.) have polluted wetlands and rivers, killed fish and vegetation and destroyed livelihoods.

The Bush administration, in their typically arrogant, misguided, neocon, "corporations-can-do-no-wrong" attitude, have turned a blind eye to how U.S. corporations (as representatives of our country) have done little to provide for the locals’ needs and security.

Security for these U.S. corporations in such places as Nigeria, Burma, and Angola are local military who use villagers as forced laborers and freely rape local women and children. U.S. corporations, stalwarts of democracy and human rights that they are, also turn a blind eye as long as they can keep their bottom line healthy.

Local communities remain impoverished while governments accumulate huge profits from contracts with U.S. corporations.

Congress is currently “considering” legislation that would require all oil, gas, and mining companies to publicly disclose, in their reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, how much they pay to foreign governments for extracting natural resources. This legislation is a joke. Nothing more than another slap on the wrist lacking anything in the way of teeth to address this issue.

Since the U.S. wants to take on the role as the world’s police and talk tough against human rights abuses then our congress should call for and enforce an embargo on any country who participates in these atrocities. If U.S. corporations have financial interests in these countries then it would be to their obvious benefit to use their connections with these foreign heads of state to help force compliance with basic human rights policies.

Chevron has production arrangements with some of the worst human rights offenders in the world. Anyone who purchases or otherwise provides an income to Chevron is facilitating their part in these human rights atrocities.

These companies continue to profit from their actions against humanity so that we Americans can drive our cars, heat our homes, cook our meals. But we are not dependent on Chevron for these needs. While congress hangs on to the tired old belief that financial transparency is enough to force a change in human rights abuse, these people remain impoverished and their military rulers are well-fed and have warm comfortable beds to sleep in. It is time we did more. It is time we took a hard line against U.S. corporations making record profits and host governments reaping giant windfalls on the backs of host country citizens.

We need to boycott Chevron and all of their subsidiaries.

We protested against the Iraq War on the principle that there should be "No Blood For Oil". This situation is no different.

Must We Continue This Humiliation?

Previous presidents have built up this country to be the greatest power the world has ever seen. The level of respect for the U.S. by world leaders was at unprecedented levels. Our financial market was unequaled by all others. And then along came the thieving, lying, bumbling George Walker Bush and his manipulating, constitution hating, puppet master VP Dick Cheney.

Since taking office these clueless fools have sabotaged every governmental policy and economic advance that made this nation a world leader. They have rewritten policy and subverted constitutional law for the purpose of centralizing presidential power and taken irresponsible actions in foreign matters that have only weakened the military, crippled the economy, instilled distrust and fear in the American public toward the federal government, and placed this country in ever greater danger of terrorist attack. They, along with their neo conservative cohorts, represent the very worst to ever happen to this country.

I implore this nation’s voting public to please do not let the George Bush/Dick Cheney clones John McCain/Sarah Palin continue this downward spiral. We are in desperate need of any change that will lead to a reversal from what this current court of fools has done to us.

This war on terrorism was nothing more than a ruse, a vehicle through which more power could be shifted from congress to the presidential office. It is undermining the constitution and what our forefathers intended for “We the People…” And it is destroying everything that has made this country what it was before these self-serving, egocentric clowns took office.

World view of the U.S. has been badly battered, we are no longer viewed as a bastion of democracy. Our credibility for following ethical business practices has devolved into a “street vendor level” market scheme. We can no longer chastise any country for their use of torture or kidnapping or civil rights violations or nation building because this American government has participated in these same atrocities. The U.S. is no longer a moral beacon to which immigrants flock to settle here.

Our streets are no longer ‘lined with gold’ they have been paved over with broken promises and are now lined with tent cities of the victims of unethical corporate practices, inattentive regulators and distracted politicians whose favors are being bought by corporate lobbyists. And it took Bush/Cheney and their gang less than six years to do it.

The next president will be faced with having to restore a sense of confidence in the United States of America, both here at home and abroad. We have to foster cooperation with other countries to rebuild once powerful alliances. Doing these things will not likely happen if McBush is elected.

G W’s arrogance, unilateralism, insensitivity, and long-time denial of the need for urgent action on climate change have all fed directly into the plummeting credit of the U.S. around the world. It would have been a different story with a different president. But it will certainly continue if John McCain/Sarah Palin is allowed to slither into the presidential seat.

God help us all.

More Evidence of Sanctified Civil Liberty Violations

Border Agents are now allowed to search you and your car and belongings without evidence or suspicion of wrong doing. They can make copies of anything you have in your possession including laptops, cell phones, personal papers, diaries, date books, etc. This collected personal information ends up on government databases to be added to your very own file which, of course, you cannot access but every law enforcement agency across the country can, with or without a valid reason.

If citizens were not aware that there are unethical individuals in law enforcement and scattered throughout the government who can access these files, and if we did not know that files get ‘lost’, and if we were not aware that computer files get hacked into, why would we worry? But these things have all become reality and pervasive.

First Amendment rights are one of the last protections we Americans have against this government becoming a Fascist state. And since George W Bush was first elected, his gang of neo conservatives have been relentlessly hacking away at these protections at an alarming rate.

These recent policy changes that were quietly put into effect without proper guidelines or oversight are strong reminders that freedom from government intrusion into our private lives can no longer be taken for granted.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the updating of policies reflects an effort to be more transparent. If they are attempting to be more ‘transparent’ then why did it take a lawsuit brought against them by Asian Law Caucus and Electronic Frontier Foundation under the Freedom of Information Act to get DHS to disclose these changes? Why were these changes put into effect 'quietly' without public input or review? More double-speak from Big Brother.

In an e-mail she wrote

"to change some of the standards in its old policies reflects the realities of the post-9/11 environment, the agency's expanded mission and legal authorities, and developments in the law, including the Homeland Security Act of 2003. Although certain aspects of the policies have changed, the policies have always reflected the notion that officers have the constitutional authority to inspect information presented at the border"

Referring to the previous policy as ‘old’ connotes an outdated and therefore ineffective policy that must be updated. This old policy reflected a higher standard by Federal agents to be governed by probable cause before viewing a traveler as a suspect without probable cause. This higher standard was reflective of the population at large who used to believe that an individual was innocent until proven guilty. This notion has now been tossed aside and relegated to nostalgia along with elders are wiser and deserve to be listened to and respected.

Declaring that information is ‘presented’ at a border crossing intimates that the information is given freely by the traveler. This cannot be further from the truth. Any personal item brought to the border remains personal, and as such requires permission by the owner to be viewed by anyone else, including government agents, and is not ‘presented’ at all. Identification of the individual is ’presented’ at the officers request (demand), and everything else should remain off limits unless freely ‘presented’ by the owner.

She speaks of constitutional authority without mentioning the constitutional rights concerning privacy. This is government speak for we have the right to do and take whatever we want from anyone at anytime.

The 1986 policy, which is referred to as old, was issued after a lawsuit was filed by a group of activists returning from Nicaragua who had their diaries, datebooks and other personal papers seized and photocopied by customs officers and shared with the FBI. The government argued that the customs agency had the right to enforce a law against importing subversive literature. Their subversive literature was an attempt to inform the American public of the illegal war in Nicaragua perpetrated by our government to overthrow a freely and fairly elected Nicaraguan government.

David D. Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who was then a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing the activists suing the government in Heidy v. U.S. Customs Service, said

"Essentially they were using that as a pretext to do intelligence gathering on critics of our policies on Nicaragua".

As a result of that trial, U.S. Customs officials enacted guidelines to its border agents that its officers "should not read personal correspondence." With reasonable suspicion of a violation, they could detain the material. With probable cause of a violation, they could seize and copy it. These recent changes have lowered the legal standards under which agents can exercise their powers. Probable cause is no longer a hindrance to their ‘gut’ instinct.

I appreciate the task with which Homeland Security is steeling themselves for, that being to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil, but their zeal in this endeavor is treating U.S. citizens like criminals. Is there any clear evidence that they have prevented another terrorist attack? Their mindset is such that if they have not yet found evidence of an attack then they are not looking closely enough, therefore they need to step up their efforts. In the meantime, the FBI is getting closer to realizing its dream of having a dossier on every U.S. citizen.

The tenor of the way in which our elected officials view the American people has changed. No longer do government officials feel they represent us or work for us, they now view the general population as obstacles that must be overcome in order to attain their goal of a one world government. George W was elected by a right-leaning supreme court, not by popular vote. Will it happen again this election cycle? A precedence has already been set.

In light of these policy changes and the way in which Bush’s cronies have hacked away at our civil rights, the systematic shifting of powers from Congress to the Executive branch, the suspension of habeas corpus and declaration of certain prisoners as “enemies of the state”, the use of torture, the illegal warrantless spying on American citizens, the unwarranted ability to seize personal items at the borders, the selling off of America to private interests, and the recent government buyout of Wall Street, is it really any great stretch to see Fascism just on the horizon?

Whose Money Is It?

The Republicans rode in on their white horses, at the last minute, and saved the day. Everybody cheer! Pats on the back to everyone for a job well done! Hip, hip, hooray!

The party atmosphere in the White House is almost palpable. Champagne corks are flying, party favors are passed out at the door. While that address on Pennsylvania Avenue celebrates its heroic victory of snatching Wall Street investors from the jaws of almost certain doom, taxpayers are footing the bill, again. Ex-homeowners are setting up new residences in tent cities across the country adding to the already shameful number of homeless right here in the richest and most affluent country in the world.

Sure, bailing out these large financial institutions was the most expedient method to prevent an even deeper recession, which, by the way, was created by these very same people, but how about sending some help to those people whose dreams of owning their own home were preyed upon by unethical money lenders whose own personal goals were to sell as many loans as possible.

By extending credit to questionable, borderline, at-risk individuals whose qualifications were based on some pretty creative credit score criteria, these short-sighted, greedy mortgage lenders knew these loans would probably never be able to be repaid and therefore they became one of the instruments that brought this economy to its knees. They were paid their salaries so they didn’t care if the loans would be paid or not. After all, to their irresponsible way of thinking, it wasn’t their money.

The result of the devastating wave of foreclosures will be felt for years to come in neighborhoods across this country, with the potential to affect entire cities. But, hey, it wasn’t their money so why should mortgage lenders care. They think their responsibility began and ended on the dotted line.

Lenders and servicers who hold those loans need to now step up and restructure high-risk loans, that they were responsible for, into lower-rate mortgages to help people stay in their homes in order to continue to be productive in this economy instead of a drain on it. It is their moral responsibility.

Here’s a message for anyone who deals with money: any government bailout comes out of our taxes and takes money away from other necessary projects. Projects we all benefit from, so, yes it is your money too. These narrow-minded mortgage lenders who wrought such havoc on our society will pay for their bad decisions, right along with the rest of us.

They share the blame for this faltering economy with those heroic rescuing Republicans on their white horses who saw to it that the wealthy don’t pay as much tax as the rest of us. In pushing corporate welfare they have upset a very basic tenet of a capitalist economy: there has to exist a buyer and a producer. When the buyer is drained of all financial ability to buy then the system falls apart. Very simple explanation, true, but this is what is happening. This republican government, in its zeal to do everything in its power to shift as much financial wealth as possible to the wealthiest among us, has, without going into an actual depression, created the largest welfare-dependent group of people in U.S. history.

The very backbone of this economy is being bled dry. America cannot afford to go deeper into debt. Americans cannot afford to support the fiscal irresponsible republican sacred cow of throwing money at a problem until it goes away. Corporate America has unashamedly raided pension plans to cover their leaders bad financial decisions, the federal government has tapped the Social Security system to cover short falls from a vast array of financial mis-management. An illegal war has drained billions of dollars away from needed infrastructure projects, healthcare, education, etc that still need to be paid for. The health and welfare of the American populace is being pushed aside to protect the rich from the after effects of their own lack of financial responsibility.

While the CEO’s and politicians responsible for this economic misery walk away, counting their financial spoils, millions of American taxpayers will be saddled with this bailout for years to come.

While politicians are enriched by corporate America’s lobbyists and CEO’s savor their sweetheart golden parachute deals the American taxpayer struggles to pay the ever increasing costs for the very basic needs of survival that these same politicians and CEO’s will never have to struggle for.

As long as our political leaders are more concerned with ensuring a profit for corporate America than for the public welfare of the working class whose hard work and purchasing power are instrumental in creating that profit, taxpayers will never get a break.

So, in the end, the venerable and steadfast hard working American taxpayer once again has his pockets ripped open by the unethically greedy and immorally bloodied hands of this administration in order to scrape out the last remaining nickel to cover their mistakes and feed the insatiable greed of corporate America.

Once again I ask, Whose money is it?

World Hunger Losing Priority Among Rich Nations

At the start of the millennium, nations worldwide met to address world hunger. Their stated goal was to cut poverty and hunger in half by 2015. Despite some progress, by the mid-way point of this year (2008), that goal is in danger of not being met.

Worldwide economic slowdown and food emergencies precipitated by increasing food prices, have resulted in poor families being forced to eat less and remove children from school to work or beg. Food riots have broken out around the world. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight as the food crisis pushes more millions into poverty.

Just 5% of American’s leftovers could feed 4 million people for 1 day. An additional aspect of food waste is that the methane produced as a by-product as it degrades in landfills is 20 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.

The U.N. World Food Programme offers another way of looking at it: It says the total surplus of the U.S. alone could satisfy "every empty stomach" in Africa (France's leftovers could feed the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Italy's could feed Ethiopia's undernourished).

Here are more disturbing numbers:

According to the USDA, just over 25% of the country's food -- about 25.9 million tons -- gets thrown in the garbage can every year.
But according to a study conducted by the University of Arizona, that figure could be as high as 50%, as the University claims that the country's supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores alone throw out 27 million tons between them every year (representing $30 billion of wasted food).
Either way, it still costs the U.S. around $1 billion every year just to dispose of all its food waste, according to the EPA.

If you think that hunger is a problem found only in third world countries, open your eyes and look at the millions of homeless and runaways that live on U.S. city streets. America’s Second Harvest (now known as Feeding America) — The Nation’s Food Bank Network, a group of more than 200 food banks, reports that donations of food are down 9%, but the number of people showing up for food has increased 20%. The group distributes more than two billion pounds of donated and recovered food and consumer products each year.

Official surveys indicate that every year more than 350 billion pounds (160 billion kg) of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds (45 billion kg) -- including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products -- are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers. By contrast, the amount of food required to meet the needs of the hungry is only four billion pounds, according to Food Not Bombs, an advocacy group, which estimates that every year more than 30 million people in the United States are going hungry on regular basis.

The roadblocks to getting America’s surplus food to starving people in other countries is multi-faceted. Above all is the expense. We have the technology to transport our excess grain and food stuffs to third world countries, we do it every time there is a natural disaster.

People who live in drought stricken areas and those who don’t have the technological knowledge or money to create a food surplus for their fellow countrymen are just as deserving of eating three square meals a day as Americans are. Why can’t we consider starving people living in these areas as victims of a natural disaster and get food to them? Why do we have to wait for a devastating natural event such as an earthquake, hurricane or tsunami?

Despite the fact that food production in the United States and the world has increased more than the population, food rights groups say they believe more people are likely to suffer from lack of food as long the agri-business firms continue to be driven primarily by profits.

People from the more affluent and middle class sectors of U.S. society are drawn to over-consumption as a lifestyle -- validated by a study carried out by the Washington-based World Watch Institute earlier this year.

Helping the world’s poor is really only a matter of priorities, once you set your conscience straight. If developed nations would meet pledges already made that goal of cutting poverty and hunger in half by 2015 would be right on target.

Palin Brings More Cancer to the Political System

Palin’s refusal to cooperate in any legislative investigation into her actions as Alaska’s governor reveals more about her than she wants the nation to know. We should demand her cooperation.

There have been enough allegations surrounding the wrongful termination of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan over personal reasons that this investigation cannot be considered a ‘witch hunt’. And her characterization of the investigation as ‘tainted’ and therefore not worthy of her participation smacks of the George W. Bush neocon modus operendi.

How very convenient to name a Democratic lawmaker, namely Alaska state senator Hollis French, as the reason for refusal to participate. Sure he’s an Obama supporter, it takes no real stretch of the imagination to see he is, after all, he is a Democrat. The Republican party wants a Republican to lead the investigation, complete with guaranteed results in her favor. We get that. But to refuse to participate at a time when this nation needs complete transparency in what Governor Palin will bring to the Vice Presidential office can only lead us to believe she is trying to hide the truth.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said, "I think it's fair to say that the governor is not going to cooperate with that investigation so long as it remained tainted and run by partisan individuals who have a predetermined conclusion," referring to a comment by French this month that the case could produce criminal charges or an "October Surprise" for the GOP ticket.

The Obama campaign denies sending campaign staff to Alaska to work with the legislative committee's investigation.

Her husband, several aides and phone records have been subpoenaed in the investigation but she has not been. Why? Since she is the main target of the investigation wouldn’t it be prudent to have her swear under oath what her actions concerning this case were? If she was justified in firing Monegan over budget issues then why doesn’t she want to present those justifications and let the facts speak for themselves?

She stated in her interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson that she welcomed the investigation. And yet now we learn she will not participate.

This country deserves better ‘leadership’ than this. This trend of using political office to bully and then refuse to take responsibility for doing so is a cancer that needs to be eradicated.

Republicans Show Bashing, No Substance

We Americans love to see people get bashed, ridiculed, berated, hammered by their opponent, and we love a really good verbal assault that totally decimates another person. I don’t understand the psychology behind it but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with making ourselves feel better about ourselves. There is no question that the ‘agony of defeat’ makes us happy that ‘it isn’t us’.

Sarah Palin’s hateful and extremely divisive speech, written by George W Bush speech writer Matthew Scully, at the RNC last night proves this sad point as it was basically a mud-slinging slugfest against Barrack Obama. And the republican’s in attendance gleefully ate it up. She won them over by simply mercilessly and repeatedly bashing their common opponent in their quest to win the presidential election.

Last night’s agenda served to confirm the notion we already had that the republicans think the democrats are to blame for every ill that has beset Washington and that the republican party is nothing but an empty shell built upon worn-out platitudes designed to demonize anyone who doesn’t buy into their party line. Giuliani has milked 9/11 bone dry, Romney and Huckabee showed obvious despite towards each other during the primaries and yet last evening they openly praised each other and McCain which amounts to hypocrisy of the highest order.

There was not one positive note about how republicans plan to turn the economy around, about how to improve our healthcare system, about how they are going to reverse the erosion of civil rights begun by Bush’s policies, about how to seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels, or about how to improve our diplomatic status with other world leaders. Their were no insights into how Sarah Palin’s presence is going to actually benefit a McCain administration or this nation.

Sarah Palin would be the next in line to the presidency should McCain be suddenly taken out of the picture and the true powers behind the presidency will not allow her to run this country. This society is still too patriarchal to allow that to happen. That’s right, she is nothing more than a token, an appeasement to female voters to attempt to keep the republican party in the White House.

And why would a woman want to vote for someone who opposes just about every issue that women support. She approves "abstinence-only" programs (which her own daughter obviously rejected), which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she supports government control of women's wombs; she used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

She opposes gun control; she believes that creationism should be taught in public schools; she opposes stem cell research.

She tried to use taxpayers' money for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation.

She has been accused of using the powers of her office as governor to exact a vendetta against a state employee. Does this sound familiar? It should, Bush/Cheney have a clear history of doing exactly the same thing.

She changed positions on the Alaska ‘Bridge to Nowhere’. Palin initially expressed support for the bridge and ran on a 2006 "build-the-bridge" platform, arguing that it was essential for local prosperity telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." And then, two years later, told a cheering crowd of McCain supporters "I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere,". Re-writing history?

She runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. This is a clear indication that she will support the corporate welfare policies of the Bush administration.

McCain has tried to distance himself from George W and then brings in a Bush clone as a running mate. His cynical choice over a list of extremely more qualified individuals says McCain is trying to appease two camps: the Bushites who would give anything to see Bush/Cheney serve a third term, and those who want to see dignity restored to the pre-Bush/Cheney days. When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

Sarah Palin has been thrust into something much bigger than herself. Her ‘meteroric’ rise within the very small community that is Alaska has not prepared her for this stage. The awe she must be experiencing at being chosen as a Vice Presidential candidate must be overwhelming. She has allowed herself to become a puppet for the republican party manipulated into using ugly campaign tactics and spewing forth their distortions of Obama’s policies and mocking his eloquence. The speech she gave were not her words, the passion behind them was hers, but she is nothing more than window dressing.

When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

Republicans keep spouting about how Obama does not have leadership experience yet applying the same scale for measuring this elusive quality, Sarah Palin is equally inexperienced.

Sure she is a bulldog (more like a rottweiler, with the clear inference of being an attack dog to be unmussled when they need her), last nights speech made that point abundantly clear. She has been labeled an outsider and a rebel. Sometimes these qualities is what is needed to change course. But she is not going to be a policy maker, and the republicans have no intention of altering the course that George W Bush and Dick Cheney have been responsible for.

Sarah Palin is nothing more than a republican talking point, a mouthpiece, with a lot of energy and attitude. No substance. No original thought.

“Hottest VP from the Coolest State” Sexism is alive and well in the Republican party.

Political Favoritism in Beef Industry

From Huffington Post: “In a new twist on the role of government a federal appeals court has ruled that the government can force companies to NOT test beef for mad cow disease.”

Some smaller meat packers wanted to test every cow, to ensure that citizens are safe from mad cow disease. Large meat processors, fearing consumers would rather buy from companies that have a proven record of testing every pound of beef for it’s food safety value, paid Republicans to force the smaller companies to stop testing! Republican appointed judges, of course, are happy to bend over for them.

Once again, the Republican party has proven to Americans that big corporations care more about their bottom line finances than they do about American citizens and a competitive market.

This is hard cold proof, people. Are you still voting republican? Shame on you. Open your eyes and see what is going on here. There is not one good reason that these smaller companies should not be allowed to test every cow if they see fit.

The irony of this is that these same Republican judges who ruled in favor of the larger meat processor just may end up eating beef that has not been tested. Bon appetite!