American workers got what they deserved

COLUMN — American workers got what they deserved - Holland, MI - The Holland Sentinel

Read it and weep. Many of us have been saying this for years, you need to actually participate in politics in order to get what you want out of it instead of what those who do participate dictate for you.

Are you going to continue with the same and just impotently complain about it or are you going to actually get off your couches and do something?

Corporate Media Cherry Picking the News – No Surprise Here

As reported by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting - a nonpartisan media watchdog organization - A sparsely attended Tea Party rally in Washington, D.C., on March 31 in support of federal spending cuts received generous media attention. One report (Slate, 3/31/11) suggested there was "at least one reporter for every three or four activists," and a Republican politician joked that there might be more journalists than activists at the event.

An antiwar rally in New York City on April 9 was in some respects very similar. Protesters were speaking out on an equally timely issue (wars in Afghanistan and Libya), and connecting them to the budget and near-government shutdown in Washington.

The difference? The ratio of activists to journalists. The antiwar protest had thousands of attendees--and received almost zero corporate media coverage.

According to the Nexis news database, the rally was apparently deemed not remotely newsworthy. The local New York Times didn't cover it--though it did have time for the D.C. Tea Party rally (4/1/11). NPR's Morning Edition (4/1/11) and the PBS NewsHour (3/31/11) reported on the Tea Party rally, which was also mentioned a few times on CNN and previewed on NBC's Today show (3/31/11).

Who did cover the antiwar rally? You could find reports from local New York outlets like the news site Gothamist (4/10/11), WABC and NY1, the left-wing Socialist Worker (4/11/11) and a handful of other sites.

What explains the wildly different treatment of the events? The organizers of the antiwar rally say they put serious resources into media outreach, and held a press conference the day before the event (which was reportedly attended by one reporter from Russia Today). The rally was framed as a way to talk about war and the budget debate, so it's hard to argue that it wasn't timely or relevant.

Corporate media has taken the reigns of ‘main stream media’ to become the ‘voice of America’. This is a sad state of affairs for Americans. Citizens who still believe in their right to receive the truth about what goes on in America need to understand that the internet and independent newspapers will soon be our only source of reality reporting.

Since major news media outlets are now owned by corporate America the citizens of this country can only receive a myopic and sanitized view of world events. This defacto censorship of events that are contrary to corporate views undermines First Amendment guarantees.

To all non-profit sources of information I salute you. To all muzzled journalists I applaud your tenacity. To all organizations seeking to suppress minority and dissenting viewpoints I condemn you you.

To all you passive consumers of news who sit in your easy chair and complain about the direction this world is taking, get off your butts and do something about it. Vote, voice your opinion, help those who are out there struggling to keep your freedoms from being trampled on.

Today’s Protest Roundup

Uganda – opposition parties to protest the government and recent increase in commodity and fuel prices.

California - College students and faculty in California and other states on Wednesday planned to protest state budget cuts to higher education that could lead to higher tuition, larger class sizes and lower enrollment.

Texas - Hundreds of students in the Katy school district walked out of class Thursday to protest teacher layoffs caused by a feared $50 million budget shortfall.

Michigan – Hundreds protest federal debt at Capitol rally.

Missouri – Westboro Baptist Church announced that it will have protesters at the Saturday funeral of Staff Sergeant Jason Rogers of Brandon.

Utah – Environmental groups protest Kennecott mine expansion

North Carolina - Planned Parenthood protests proposed bill to cut government funding for healthcare clinics that provide abortion services

Vermont - 125 jeering, sign-waving union members and others protested the appearance of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus at a party dinner.

California - A Native American group in Vallejo is opposing the potential construction of a parking lot on their ancient burial site that could begin later this month.

Kansas – Kansas City teachers wear ‘pink slips’ in protest before school board.

Where is the Anti-War Movement?

Does such a thing exist? Are we all going to remain complacent accomplices? You can come out and at least voice your opinion on March 19, the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Street demonstrations are scheduled in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. You can find details at Answer: Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

Since declaring a moratorium on anti-war protests in 2004, we have experienced both major political parties. Neither one of them are truly interested in ending these wars. It is up to us, the people to end thse wars. Are you against war or not? Working within the system has not worked. We must start a new anti-war movement. The Democratic Party has proven its willingness to remain enslaved to Wall Street and it turned its back on the working men and women of this country in doing so.

This attitude of ‘let’s play nice’ and ‘you can attract more flies with honey instead of vinegar’ is allowing corporations to dictate our national mores. By allowing these wars to continue we are taking part in allowing the traumatizing, maiming and killing of tens of thousands of Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani civilians, as well as U.S. soldiers and Marines.

Can we really afford to numb our collective conscience while allowing these atrocities continue? What is this saying about our character?

We are spending nearly nearly a trillion dollars a year to pay for these wars while we have more than 30 million people unemployed, some 40 million people living in poverty and tens of millions more in a category euphemistically called “near poverty.” Our federal government, in order to remain functioning is slashing social services while the profits of weapons manufacturers and private contractors have quadrupled since the invasion of Afghanistan.

The corporations, no matter how badly the wars are going, make huge profits from the conflicts. They have no interest in turning off their money-making machine. Let Iraqis die. Let Afghans die. Let Pakistanis die. Let our own die. And the mandarins in Congress and the White House, along with their court jesters on the television news shows, cynically “feel our pain” and sell us out for bundles of corporate cash.

Does anybody really know what time it is? It is time to stop these wars. The people, you and me, American citizens hold the true power in this country. Politicians think they have it but they are working for corporations. The press think they have it but they also are run by corporations. Corporations have it only because we have allowed it to be shifted to them. Speak with your wallets and your purses. Cut your spending to the bare necessities.

We are not in Iraq to protect them. We are there to put in place a permanent military occupation. Talk of leaving that country is a sham. The U.S. military is used to conquer countries for the rich, to seize markets, land, resources and labor for Wall Street. This is what drives U.S. foreign policy. Julian Assange of Wikileaks tried to get the American people to see this and he was labeled a traitor by the people who stood to lose the most.

During the election of 2008, we voted for Obama because he promised to end the war.  But, U.S. soldiers are still being killed, wounded and psychologically traumatized, especially those on their third, fourth and fifth deployment who were traumatized in previous deployments and are being re-traumatized. The reasons that led people to oppose the war in 2003 are still in effect.  All of the horrors we heard shortly after the invasion of Iraq are still there. Iraqi’s still have no electricity, they  still live with constant violence, have no functioning government, have occupying forces still in their country and suffer rampant birth defects from the depleted uranium.

Why don’t we continue to hear of these awful conditions? Media is being paid off so we don’t see them. How can we continue to trust in a news media that is owned by corporations and refuse to present the news of atrocities we are allowing to exist?

The reason people are joining th military is because of the abysmal job market and tuition rates are skyrocketing. If a fraction of the money spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was used to meet human needs, our kids would be able to go to college at affordable rates. We would be able to create jobs for young people when they get out of high school. Vast amounts of wealth, which we create, are poured into these wars and the military while people here are facing increasing hardship. We have to demand and fight for change, not ask for it.

Where is the seemingly progressive president that was going to end this war? Where did that Obama go? Spending more money on the military is not progressive. Sending more of our citizens into the military and on to foreign countries is not progressive. The war has become progressive, it is now spreading into Pakistan and Yemen.

We need to build an independent political movement that is outside of the Establishment. This is the only way we have ever won real victories in our history.

Non-Incident Reveals Sloppy Reporting and unwarranted Citation

Aaron B. Tobey, 21, of Charlottesville, Va., arrived at Richmond International Airport's Checkpoint B on the afternoon of Thursday Dec 30, 2010 and stripped down to his underwear.

He did this to protest the TSA’s security screening procedures. Mr. Tobey had written, on his chest, language of the Fourth Amendment which states: “The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated."

The report goes on to say that local police were called and that Mr. Tobey was issued a citation for disorderly conduct.

The most burning question I have is  “what was the nature of the disorderly conduct?” Frank Green, the reporter sent to cover this story, must be a jaded reporter who feels the public does not need to know the details. Maybe he assumes the readers will figure out on their own that this is just another case of protest against our federal government’s outright disregard of our constitutionally guaranteed right and therefore is not worthy of taking the time to actually report any further facts. Or perhaps Mr. Green got his information directly from the police and we all know they only tell the whole truth. Yeah, right.

Perhaps Mr. Green feels that anyone who protests against our government is a criminal and as such deserves to be hauled away for being so ungrateful.

Since I was not there to witness what happened and the reporter does not seem to have the desire to report all of the facts, here is what I get out of the story: this guy shows up at the airport, displays his disagreement with government policy, and is then cited for disorderly conduct. Pretty poor reporting, Mr. Green.

I’m going out on a limb here and say that given the recent state of the media these past few years, if there had been an actual incident it would have been reported, because everyone knows the media loves to report any type of drama, and have even been known to ‘stretch the truth’ a bit to really ‘sell it’. But, since there wasn’t any report of disorderly behavior I am left to believe that the police, being the intensely brain washed puppets that they are, felt the need to cite him simply because their federal brothers called on them to make an appearance. I’m sure their reasoning is that there’s no way the feds would call on them unless they wanted him arrested. And, after all, the feds opinion is the only one that matters, right?

It seems every day we are given more insight as to what the TSA considers disorderly conduct. In this case a simple display of the right we are all granted was enough to have Mr. Tobey cited. He didn’t even have to actually be disorderly to be labeled a criminal. See how efficient our federal government is becoming at identifying enemies of the state?

How about simply stepping out of line? Is this going to be considered disorderly conduct? They figure they can prevent this non-incident from becoming a federal matter by calling in the local puppets and let them deal with him.

Why are so few of us American citizens outraged at this form of treatment towards a constitutional right to protest?

The media, the TSA and the local police should all be ashamed of themselves for how they handled this. And to this list I’m adding all of you out there who think it is okay to haul someone before a judge because he exercises his constitutional rights.

Make no mistake people, live like mice and that is how we are all going to be treated.

Screwed up priorities

No words can sufficiently explain this injustice.

Where has the American revolutionary spirit gone?

All American citizens are losing our freedoms while being seduced by fake reality shows and the latest electronic gadgets. While we sit in front of our televisions, blissfully lulled into a false sense of security, our federal government is planning its next tyrannical power grab. Where are our priorities?

High school graduation for me came in late 1960’s while society was undergoing some major attitude changes. With great curiosity and delight I witnessed and was swept up in the changes taking place in music, art, fashion, politics, technology, and lifestyle. People’s voices were beginning to be raised demanding an end to the unfair treatment of black citizens, an end to the war in Vietnam, and to demand full equality for women.

I became especially interested in the war protests, the marches, and the gathering numbers of counter-culture revolutionaries determined to break the bonds of their ‘oppressor masters’. Never mind that my sheltered Mid-West upbringing cushioned me from the sting of oppression, I felt a part of the problem if I was not going to be part of the solution. The energy emanating from the force of these protesters convictions and their sheer numbers, was almost palpable. They were on the front line in the battle against no less a daunting and deeply entrenched foe than the military-industrial complex, and everyone under the age of 25 were at once full-fledged brothers-in-arms and were expected to do their part in bringing down this unrepentant beast.

I was proud to be a part of a generation that was instrumental in forcing this nation to face its moral obligations towards its citizens, and in reminding our public officials that they served at our pleasure. This major shift towards taking more responsibility for each others welfare shook the very fabric of society.

The fire, that internal spark, that was necessary to drive an entire generation to stand up against the power elite has cooled in this generation. It has been dying for some time now and as a result members of our federal government, emboldened by our inattention, are being seduced by the corruptible nature of absolute power.

Our generation fought hard, some died, to get them to listen. Now, it is up to this current generation to recapture their attention and remind them that they serve us, not the other way around.

In 2006, campus police tasered an unarmed UCLA student while he worked at the computer lab. They did this because he did not show them his student ID card. While these ‘guardians of our safety’ crushed this man’s rights for failing to show ‘proper respect’, the entire library full of college students stood around and simply watched. Oh, someone happily took video of it and immediately put it on YouTube so they could brag about being there. If this scenario had played out in the 1960s, given that violent clashes with police took place every weekend over the Vietnam War, I think it is safe to assume these cops would have been pissing their pants.

Another bit of proof that the police do not fear the public or respect our rights: an unarmed man, on his stomach, who was restrained, with his hands behind him was shot execution-style by a police officer, in front of witnesses. Remember this? His name was Oscar Grant and the murder took place at a train station in Oakland. Look it up and try to muster some outrage that this police officer so callously devalued this man’s life. Will you only get pissed off if this happened to you or a friend? Once again, people standing around who witnessed this tragedy videotaped it with their cell phones, but did nothing. Not a single fellow officer raised their gun at the cop who just murdered a person who was in custody. Instead, the cops banded together and tried to collaborate and create a story that would justify the murder.

Really? When your chance came to make a stand, you could do nothing but video it and stay out of the way? God forbid anyone would actually put themselves out there. You will fight tooth-and-nail for a $199 flat screen TV on Black Friday, beating your fellow citizens senseless for something you don’t even need, but when it comes time to protecting your civil liberties you won’t even open your mouth to voice some opposition. And I thought the priorities of the government were screwed up.

How many more of these incidents are we going to witness, do nothing but walk away as we shake our heads and go home and talk on the Internet about what we witnessed, but ultimately did nothing about?

The generation before this one would have rushed the officers in both of these events, rendered them powerless, and let the police know that they won’t stand for abuses of power, excessive force, and murder of citizens.

Why is there no compassion for a stranger who is murdered by those sworn to protect us? We are all Americans. This government has already placed themselves squarely against us, as evidenced by every supposed non-partisan investigation into police aggression being ruled as ‘justified’.

What is it going to take to get people fired up?

This unchecked grab for power, especially under the GW Bush administration, has translated into a net loss of our personal privacy and individual rights to the extent that our standard of living has plummeted and we can no longer afford to live a basic middle-class life. To add further injury to our situation, when the economy tanked in 2008 our financial institutions were the first in line to be bailed out and none of that bailout money has ‘trickled down’ to the very people who foot the bill. We are so far in debt that our American Dream is to make next month’s payments.

The steady erosion of civil liberties, the blatant violations of the Bill of Rights, the complete disregard for the limits put in place by the US Constitution, are all taking place right under our noses. All the while, our military and police forces run around exerting their will, ultimately accountable to no one.

Many of these very issues are what triggered the revolution of the 1960’s. Is there any hope that the youth of today will stand up to our abusive police force, our corrupt and incompetent politicians? It is doubtful.

When did everyone forget that we invaded Iraq and killed civilians under false pretenses? There never were any so-called “WMDs” to justify going in there. Yet we did, and our military killed their citizens, and we completely destroyed a sovereign country. Why haven’t the perpetrators of these crimes been brought to bear for their actions? Where is the justifiable fury over these blatant and atrocious acts against humanity? Right, there were a few token permitted protests following a marching path they got approval for from the city. And like good little citizens, this generation stayed within the lines, went back to their jobs, back to their televisions, back to their toys and patted themselves on the back for ‘taking a stand’. Pathetic.

Let’s look again at the actions of the previous generation. How about the millions of people that marched in the Vietnam Moratorium? Millions of people all over the US stopped going to work and took a real stand. Protests and marches were held in every city, all over the entire country, attended by everyone from student activists, to the 9-5 corporate ladder climber. In Washington DC alone 500,000 showed up without a permit, didn’t follow the designated protest route, and surrounded the capital. They had the government trembling, as they knew they could no longer contain the will of the people. Another example of people who got together, fought for what they wanted, and despite violent and sometime deadly opposition from the government, they succeeded.

Do you all fear that success cannot be repeated? Do you not think marching today on the capitol would lead to anything worthwhile? The power elite are able to get away with crapping on us because we let them. The old saying ‘You have to stand for something or you will fall for anything’ is proving true right now. They will continue to walk all over us if we don’t show them we are tired of it.

The hand of our government is reaching too far. It is up to us to slap it back and force them to remember that the power lies with the people and that they rule by the consent of the governed, not the other way around.

Our liberties are being violated through tyrannical and illegal maneuvers signed into law by our federal government or simply carried out in secret behind our backs. Remember the illegal wire tapping made possible by the cooperation of telecoms?

A more current example of the rape of our civil liberties is taking place at our nations airports in the form of ‘enhanced pat-downs’. Over our objections to full-body scanning the TSA offered an Opt-Out-Day which was their way of heading off an ugly revolt that would have crippled a major industry. This so called “revolt” is just another example of how pathetic the American people have become with regard to confronting authority. But, that ‘victory’ was only temporary. Janet Napolitano has made it clear that the groping and scanning is slated for the American streets. Naturally, it will start at Federal buildings and major public events, and then slowly but surely find its way onto buses, trains, at highway checkpoints, etc.  It seems that these checkpoints have actually already begun. Will this finally be enough to show the American people how threatened our freedoms are?

It’s true that life has become hard for all of us who don’t have daddy’s trust funds or wealthy connections and it is not going to get easier, because the rich are not going to share anything. We are all too eager to crawl into our comfy electronic-gadget caves with our blinders on so we don’t have to deal with how bad off we really are. This type of escapism is not the answer to improve our condition.

Now is the time to take a stand. Our government is hoping we don’t. They are strengthening their positions because they think they are more important than us. Let’s show them they are wrong.

Anti-War Activists Are Not Terrorists

The FBI on Tuesday added four more names to the list of antiwar activists subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury as part of an investigation into whether members of the peace movement provided "material support" for terrorism.

In all, 23 people have been subpoenaed since September 24, when the FBI raided the offices and homes of prominent activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. None has been charged with a crime. Several have also refused to testify in what they say is a witch hunt aimed more at intimidating those who dare speak out against U.S. foreign policy than uncovering actual ties to terrorists.

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling this past June, the definition of "material support" for terrorism is now so broad as to include any sort of "advice" to a State Department-designated terrorist group, even if that advice is "stop engaging in terrorism and embrace nonviolence." Former President Jimmy Carter and groups such as the ACLU and Human Rights Watch have spoken out against the ruling.

This harassment of individuals exercising their right to speak out is illegal and immoral.

If the FBI would acknowledge what is granted every American citizen as a legal right they would see that their actions have propelled them across the line from defenders of American civil liberties to become enemies of a free state. In effect, they themselves have become terrorists.

Dreamin’

Historical markers with a social bite

Don Waisanen at Thick Culture highlighted Norm Magnusson’s I-75 project. The project involves installing historical markers with a primarily political instead of historical message. Some examples:














About the project, Magnusson writes:

…unlike most artworks on social or political themes, these markers don’t merely speak to the small group of viewers that seek out such work in galleries and museums; instead, they gently insert themselves into the public realm. ”Are they real?” is a question viewers frequently ask, meaning “are they state-sponsored?” I love this confusion and hope to slip a message in while people are mulling it over.
These markers are just the kind of public art I really enjoy: gently assertive and non-confrontational, firmly thought-provoking and pretty to look at and just a little bit subversive.

You could be a terrorist if...

clipped from www.naplesnews.com You're probably a terrorist if you supported former presidential candidates like Ron Paul, Bob Barr, or Chuck Baldwin. The guy with the flip-charts doesn't count. Yet. You're probably a terrorist if you're against the New World Order, the North American Union, and those united numbskulls, the UN. Reading Tom Clancy novels doesn't help your case. You're probably a terrorist if you're against RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification) and universal service programs. You're probably a terrorist if you're for the US Constitution, for property rights, for national sovereignty, and for Christian ideologies. You're probably a terrorist if you stock up on things like water, baby formula, ammo, cigarettes, alcohol, denim jeans, and medicines. And for all you folks rushing out to buy guns and ammo out of fear that the current administration will enact severe gun restrictions, hey, you may have made the list as well.

If you are a puppet-on-a-string assiduously following every law to the letter, enthusiastically nodding in agreement to everything the government tells you, patriotically turning in your neighbors for every infraction of the law (both written and social), then you have nothing to worry about.

Many Americans, Republican and Democrat, have grown tired of the direction in which this country is headed. The once occasional lapse in ethics has become common place, greed and irresponsibility by our financial institutions are being rewarded in the form of ‘bailout’ tax dollars, citizens have to watch what we say and do and how we do it, self-interest has supplanted “doing what is right for this country”, special interest groups are favored over national security and welfare, food safety has been jeopardized in favor of profit.

Civil unrest is brewing and FEMA detention centers are sprouting up across the nation. http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/FEMA-Concentration-Camps3sep04.htm

Chevron Is Running a Con Game

Found this blog post at The Unsuitablog that so accurately nails the arrogance of corporate America in general and the oil industry in particular, that I just had to pass it along and, of course, add a few of my own comments.

It’s time to recognize Chevron for the hypocritical, phony, band-wagon-jumping, contemptible, lying, bastards they are.

The con game they are manufacturing against America’s common sense to make us believe they care about what is happening to the environment and us while providing a lifeline for the oppressive and murderous Burmese regime is disgraceful.

They orchestrated a coup against the US House of Rep last year in the wake of the juntas crackdown on it’s citizens by arguing that if they didn’t maintain access to Burma’s rich gas fields then someone else will. And our fool reps, with dollar signs in their eyes instead of compassion in their hearts, bought it.

This has only emboldened Chevron to pull that same wool over the public's eyes so they can stay in a business that enslaves indigents and props up a Fascist government all in the name of profit.

Please, don't support them.

Photo Credit: The Unsuitablog

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.

Are Protestors Viewed as Terrorists by the U.S.?

We can remind the FBI and the Secret Service that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants American citizens the right to free speech, but it will fall on death ears. These stone-faced, stoic protectors of our government officials are told to ensure that our highest ranking government officials never are witness to our protestations. They even have it written in their own manual how to keep protesters away from the President as well as the media.

One glaringly huge loophole in the First Amendment, that this administration in particular has abused to the extreme, is that it does not guarantee that our exercise of this right must be witnessed by our government officials. With the presidential advance team exercising their mandated duties to ensure that protesters are out of earshot of the president and relocated well out of sight of the president, just what good is the Right to Free Speech when armed bullies forcibly remove the messengers from the area?

The American Civil Liberties Union is taking their job very seriously as well. The ACLU and the ACLU of New Mexico filed a lawsuit on January 15, 2008, on behalf of several New Mexico residents and advocacy organizations who were made to stand more than 150 yards (that’s one and a half football field lengths, for you football fans out there) away from the site of a fundraiser being attended by the president as they peacefully protested the views of the administration, while a group of people expressing support for President Bush were allowed to stand only a few feet from the fundraiser site.

Favoritism? You bet your ass. Favoritism is one of the hallmarks of this administration. Not giving a damn about what his opponents have to say is another. It falls in the same category as refusing to sit down with his enemies to work toward peace instead of hiding behind his military giving out orders to attack. To hide himself away from disagreements, cheapens his stature as a leader. Keeping himself shielded from what his own citizenry has to say whitewashes his reality of our world and makes himself look even more ridiculous when he claims to be ‘in touch’ with American citizens.

Some agents carry their job too far. They block free speech written on t-shirts. They block free speech with larger posters to block out disagreeable ones.

Jeffery and Nicole Rank were arrested at one of the President’s speeches in Charleston, West Virginia, for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts. They settled their case for $80,000.

Leslie Weise and Alex Young were ejected from one of the President's speeches in Denver, Colorado, for arriving at the event in a car with the bumper sticker reading "No More Blood For Oil."

It is bad enough that protesters are forced out of sight and told to keep their opinions to themselves but when armed agents of our government start getting physical and using excessive force against targeted dissenters, then the situation becomes discriminatory, illegal and an affront to every American’s sense of freedom.
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/26084prs20060706.html getting physical and using excessive force

This increased level of violence and discrimination against protesters can only lead to one conclusion, that our federal government has deemed us to be terrorists. Those of us who care enough about the sanctity of our given right to protest this president’s deeds and misdeeds, have been demonized by our public servants and the ultra conservative right wing radio talk show hosts who label themselves patriots just because they tow the party line.

How did the term patriot become so bastardized as to be limited to only those people who blindly follow wherever the president leads? Their definition is ludicrous and by adhering to this twisted view they willingly subject themselves to falling under tyrannical control. They find it insanely ridiculous that any true American citizen cannot simply accept whatever our president tells us.

"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then, they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics. I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up." -- Reverend Martin Neimoller, German Lutheran pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1937

History is no stranger to this breed of patriot. Their past deeds are scary, immoral, illegal and lethal. These are the type of people who blacklist citizens and sabotage their futures based solely on suspicion-McCarthyism; these are the type of people who break into political opponents offices-Watergate; these are the type of people who arrest innocent citizens under the banner of national security-the Gestapo; these are the type of people who hang innocent citizens for being different than themselves-KKK; these are the type of people who resort to illegal wiretapping on American citizens because they are afraid of losing their power over us-NSA warrantless surveillance program.

It is against their doctrine to simply accept our difference of opinion on how this county should be run and allow us our right to say so. They have to spy on us and infiltrate our ranks and even enter our names in a terrorist database as though we are common criminals with an agenda to bring down this government.

The hired enforcers of America’s patriot idealism are a special group of individuals unto themselves. Ultra conservative with a license to harass, they are almost robotic in their strict, single-minded adherence to the enforcement of governmental policy. Homeland Security, FBI and CIA have all the makings of a Gestapo force and they will arrest anyone who speaks out against the president. We have already seen proof of this. It matters little to the victims of these tactics or others who may now think twice about exercising their right to free speech that the courts found in favor of the victims. The mindless minions of the government are ready and willing to step on us whenever and wherever they see fit.

I ask you, how far from the Gestapo of 1930’s Germany have we really come?

Are protesters terrorist? Only in the eyes of those who are protested against. Should we allow them to dictate when and where we protest? Absolutely not. It isn’t a matter of fighting against this government as fanatical Islamic terrorists are. We protest out of love for our country not to be the instrument of its destruction.

Very few of us today are willing to follow the path of those true patriots who fought to free this fledgling nation from the tyranny of England’s King George. But we simply cannot stand idly by and watch in abject horror as this president systematically undermines all that our forefathers protested for, fought for and died for just to appease those who paid money for the privilege of being counted among George W Bush’s cronies.

These so-called modern-day patriots have forsaken their fellow countrymen and placed protesters on the ‘other side’ instead of listening to the protests and taking something positive from what is said with the goal to make this nation stronger and less divisive. We are all in this thing together. It is not ‘Us vs. Them’.

Does Al Sharpton Encourage or Prevent Civil Disobedience

It’s pretty easy to empathize with Reverend Al Sharpton’s reason for wanting “to plan the day that we will close this city down” following the acquittal of three police officers involved in the 2006 shooting that claimed 23-year-old Sean Bell’s life and injured two friends on his wedding day.

We have witnessed police officers seemingly ‘get away with murder’ for many years as the result of what is apparently a carte blanche attitude towards police by our criminal justice system.

There is an underlying message here that says if police are to be held criminally negligent in any officer involved shooting, then the future safety of all police officers will be in jeopardy. This understanding is accepted as factual by the police and the court system. They believe that policemen who think twice about using their weapons are providing their suspect with enough time to shoot first. Therefore they are trained to shoot first and question later. And they are trained to shoot to kill. This leads to inevitable situations where innocent victims are shot to death.

Here we have a situation where a group of men, members of a bachelor party, celebrating one of its members good fortune of marrying the woman of his dreams. As these parties do it lasted well into the night with much celebratory drinking. Undercover police officers were at the same nightclub where this party took place due to a history of past rowdiness. They saw in this group of men a possibility that trouble could arise, based on what only they would know.

When the group left the club, undercover officers decided to follow them. Out in the street as the Bell party was getting into their car the plain clothes officers drew their weapons (again, why, only they would know) and according to witnesses did not identify themselves as police officers. From Sean Bell’s point of view they were under threat of car-jacking or robbery so naturally his first thought was to get out of there quickly, as I am sure any rational thinking individual would do.

The police immediately used the euphemism ‘vehicle as a deadly weapon’ scenario and assumed that they were about to be run over. So without any further thought one policeman opened fire. In any similar situation when one officer begins shooting they all begin shooting. It is sort of a crowd mentality. One officer even reloaded and continued firing. This is the one point that makes this scene particularly disgusting and barbaric.

All cops will justify using their weapons by saying they thought they were under attack. No cop is going to admit that they did not identify themselves. All cops will stand up for each other even when they know they are in the wrong.

The history that is mounting in the courts, that police officers do not receive criminal charges for killing someone, sets the stage for every police officer to feel complete immunity for using their weapons. Therefore they feel completely justified to shoot first and ask questions later.

Police officers who, even accidentally, shoot an unarmed, non-guilty person should not be bolstered into believing they will never be punished. Mistakes are made, certainly, but this lack of punishment, this air of complete immunity has created the idea that policemen are above the law and the public is getting fed up with it.

The media also has a hand to play in this. We read initial accounts of an officer-involved shooting reported by a media system that quite often tells a partial story, and gets the facts wrong, in the their own self-interest in publishing the story first. Follow-up reports that would more thoroughly clarify actual events are rare or buried because it is ‘old news’. A mis-informed public runs with what they first hear as fact and incorporates those ‘facts’ into opinions already compiled about the police and when the inevitable news from the courtroom is acquittal then people feel justified in their outrage all over again.

If the case involves a person of color (read black) Reverend Al Sharpton is on the scene ready to rally all outraged citizens with the kind of “massive civil disobedience” once led by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. seemingly unfazed of the hatred he is fomenting in bystanders yelling “kill the police”.

I am not going to comment on whether peaceful or non-peaceful protests will do anything more than vent frustration at a system everyone knows will never change. But to see the Reverend Al Sharpton suddenly appear as the mouthpiece for every miscarriage of justice against a black that garners national coverage just seems to me to be in his own self-interest. Perhaps I am reading this wrong. Maybe if he did not show up at these demonstrations, maybe if he did not focus the energy of the demonstrators into a march after these abortions of justice, perhaps an unruly mob would turn violent. Maybe he is the one calming factor necessary in these situations.

Grow up and help us

This is appalling! I am against the war too, but you should be ashamed of yourselves for calling on our fellow Americans to kill themselves for doing the bidding of a misguided, underhanded, illegal, self-serving federal administration.

Put the blame where it is due. Not on the common foot soldier who most likely joined the military because they couldn’t find a decent paying job in this dysfunctional economy that is in the toilet due to the greed and misguided policies of those buffoons in Washington.

Turn your protests around onto the self-indulgent fossil-sucking fools who covet the wasteful oversized SUV’s and monster trucks, the Ford Excursions, the Chevrolet Suburbans, the Hummers, the Cadillac Escalades, etc that are driving gas prices up and destroying the very environment we all live in while the rest of the country tries to actually do something to help save it from ourselves.

Focus on the greedy home lenders who allowed vulnerable under-qualified home buyers into the housing market that inevitably fell on its face due to their reckless search for more financial profit and then walked away with wads of cash and not one bit of culpability for the damage they did.

Put your energies on ferreting out the many low-life scum bag child molesters, rapists, and drunken drivers that live amongst us masquerading as polite good-guy friends and neighbors. Turn these people in and demand they get treatment so they stop preying on the innocents among us.

Expose the self-serving politicians and bureaucrats who think taxpayers are their personal ATM machines.

Lets keep our priorities straight people. A bunch of bong smoking hippies do not speak for the majority of this country. Now go run back into your parents basements into your shallow little world of self-piety and try to concentrate hard enough, between bong hits, on how your next little laughable anarchistic foray out into the real world is going to insult the rest of us.

We tried protesting in the 60’s, before you were born. It didn’t work. Come out of your drug addled minds and do something positive. Help the world fight corruption and greed, don’t just throw tantrums and expect the world to wake up and suddenly ‘do the right thing’.

School of the Americas

Bill Quigley of TruthOut.org recently ran an article in AlterNet reporting how an annual gathering for peace and human rights was staged at Fort Benning, Georgia in an attempt to shutdown the School of the AmericasT.

The annual event drew more than 20,000 activists gathered at Fort Benning while simultaneous protests occurred in Santiago Chile, Tucson Arizona, Toronto Canada, and Berkeley California.

I direct the readers attention to this article for the purpose of illuminating how our government callously disregards human rights whenever someone protests what the government is doing.

The article, entitled ‘Twenty thousand protest at Fort Benning: Eleven face federal criminal trials” can be found here.

We are our own worst enemy

New Orleans. Thoughts of that town once brought forth visions of jazz clubs, Mardi Gras, Creole cooking, and laid back southern living. A very eclectic atmosphere of an unhurried lifestyle that could be found only in the Big Easy. It also reminded me of mean streets that lurked behind the party atmosphere of the French Quarter.

Since the destructive winds and flood waters that is Katrina’s legacy, we only see the mean streets part, along with the ugliness of opportunistic greed that humans bear onto one another.

Federal and state governments have put in place a network of aid organizations to assist any member of our society who has befallen the ravages of nature. Americans, out of the goodness of their hearts, freely volunteer their time, money and themselves to help cleanup after natures blind rampages.

After the initial shock of natures fury has worn off, after the volunteers have gone back to their own lives (as they must), after all of the glorious, self-indulgent political speeches are given about how we always come together in our countries moment of need, New Orleans sits with its piles of putrid rubbish, it’s broken down homes and ruined lives. After all of this, the promises have all slowly diminished into memories. This is when we see the true worth and the true value of our government agencies and the private enterprises designed to be the safety nets after such disasters. This is when humans fail each other.

The biggest offenders, in the private arena, are insurance companies. They sell you policies that promise to help you put your life back together after a disaster has struck. They say so in every advertisement they put in front of the public. But when a disaster strikes, their lawyers step in and cite all of the loopholes for reasons to not help you put your life back together. They argue, the wording was there in black and white when you signed the contract. Of course, they word it all so you easily get confused trying to decipher it, but, it is true, the wording was there when you signed it.

The second biggest offenders are contractors. Humans have come up with ingenious ways of screwing disaster victims out of their money. When a person is down and desperately needs help is the perfect time for these low-life thieves to come knocking. And they do by the thousands. They demand contracts be signed, they demand money up front, they drag their feet getting the work done, if they do it at all. Some do very shoddy work with substandard materials and the home owner is once again left with an even bigger mess when their work inevitably falls apart.

That government network of aid organizations looks good on paper. But they are managed by humans. Once again we get to see petty jealousy and graft at work. Money that is promised at the top is whittled down on its way to the people who really need it. Money is stolen by people pretending to be in need. When what is left of the money does finally get to the needy, bureaucrats tie it up at the local level by fighting over how to best spend it.

This is not a very glowing treatise of humanity. It sickens me that we put up this flowery show of how much we care, because deep down we know we are supposed to, and when an opportunity presents itself to ‘misdirect’ the money or back out of the promise, we jump on it. We go through the motions of showing we care by setting up legal avenues of funneling financial help to where it is needed. But somewhere along the way we have begun to put ourselves ahead of all others. Suddenly, our humanity to our fellow man has taken a dreadful demoralizing downturn. We can justify our actions by rationalizing that we have been slighted in some way by our government and therefore, while there is a chance of not being caught, we take the money for ourselves. We begin buying into the rationalization that if someone is willing to trust me with their money then that is their fault, I’m going to take as much as I can because I deserve it.

New Orleans is trying to rebuild itself. It is trying to rebuild itself into the image that all of us remember New Orleans to be. The saying that comes to mind is ‘You can never go back’. That old, residential New Orleans is a memory, one that needs to be updated. The downtown New Orleans, the French Quarter was not damaged as badly and can be rebuilt.

The blueprint being released Friday by city Recovery Director Ed Blakely is not as grand as the plan that was issued in March. Our grandiose plans seldom ever work out once they meet the reality of expense. Under this new, downsized plan, work would begin in the next few years on green space, health clinics, community centers, housing and libraries. Shopping centers would be redeveloped and streetscapes and storefronts spruced up. Even this more modest plan requires a very large outlay of money. Money that was promised by the federal government. Money that should actually be given to New Orleans, since it was promised, and not used to line the pockets of every politician that gets near it. Money that should be wisely spent. Money that we all know will end up paying unscrupulous contractors outrageous fees.

Lets try to show the world that community pride truly does exist. Try to prove to people like me that you can work towards the grand goal of putting New Orleans back together without further ripping off the unfortunate victims of this natural disaster. Don’t follow in the footsteps of the insurance companies and the politicians.

Civility in Politics?

Before I was of age to vote, I cared very little about politics. Most of what I knew came from newspapers, the nightly televised news and word of mouth, mostly derogatory comments people had to say about the ‘other’ party. I never heard my parents talk about politics, I’ll bet they were from opposing parties. Back then, there were really only two parties. I remember hearing my dad occasionally say something like ‘Damn Democrats!” so I pretty much figured out where his affiliation lay.

I was twelve when President John F Kennedy was assassinated, and I felt the pain and worry about America’s future along with the rest of the country. I couldn’t understand why anyone would kill the President of the United States. Wasn’t he doing good for everyone? I remember the fear that we might now be thrown into war with the U.S.S.R. now that our great leader and protector was gone.

The U.S., of course, was already at war but in a different part of the world and for very different reasons. True it hadn’t really reached full-out war until several years later but as I entered high school and began reading newspapers more regularly I began to see how politics affected how we do things in the U.S. and how the world views America. Trying to remember back that far, I can’t seem to remember any name calling or ‘uncivilized acts’ regarding candidates, but I would not be surprised to learn it happened.

As I learned more about the CIA’s role in Vietnam, I learned that we cannot believe what our government leaders tell us. As I learned more about how J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI and his personal vendetta against the Kennedy family, I further learned that politics is a very dark and nasty arena to get into. Based on these revelations, I’m sure civility suffered.

The race riots and the war protests of the 60’s were trying to bring about positive change in our society, but the lesson I learned from it all was that the U.S. government does not want to hear from its citizens unless it is on their own terms. And I learned that the very government these protesters were trying to change actually perpetrated some violence against its own citizenry. Where is the civility in these actions?

Many of those protesters gave up, some were killed for what they believed in, some were thrown in jail. In the end, the letter of the law was really the only thing that ever changed. The real change comes from society making it happen on a personal level. Where is the civility in saying things are changing and then writing it down into law books to ‘prove’ it and then change nothing?

I was 17 when Martin Luther King and Robert F Kennedy were assassinated. Again I felt deep sorrow at the senselessness of both of these great leaders deaths. Where is the civility in killing instead of just voting them down or ignoring them? What has gone wrong with this country that to debate is not good enough? Why must people die for their beliefs?

When I became of voting age I was so disenchanted with the whole political party system that I just wasn’t interested anymore. Then I learned that the real political power lies in the electoral college and not so much in the popular vote, so I thought “what is the point of my vote?” where is the ‘civility’ in letting you think your vote counts when someone behind closed doors makes the decision for you?

Today I was traveling in my car and trying to find some good music station to listen to (trust me it is impossible to find a ‘good’ music station these days, am I right?) and landed on one of the conservative talk radio stations. The host was talking about Ann Coulters latest bigoted statement. That alone got my interest, but the program was about civility in politics. This is what got me onto this subject, by the way. He asked the question: Is political name calling and character assassination getting worse? I thought, there really hasn’t been any civility in politics in a very, very long time and yes it is getting worse. One of the main reasons why I don’t bother to vote anymore is that I have grown tired of voting for the ‘lesser of two evils’. There really is no ‘best’ candidate for any office, only one that is not as bad as the other. In the process of whittling down the field to only the two ‘best’ candidates (what a joke that label is), every candidate has had to defend himself or herself from their opponents ‘mud slinging’. And the press plays right into all of it by doing its level best to find as much ‘ dirty laundry’ as it possibly can on every candidate (except the one they back) and to find it before anyone else does.

The name calling and character assassination has become a political way of life. And it became so long before any of us was born. Anyone who has not had their head in the sand knows this to be true. Our forefathers did it. Does anyone remember that the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton died as the result of a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Has our ‘civility’ fallen from the heights that these two individuals reached? They actually used to do this. So, in this regard, we have gotten more civilized.

The very idea that a political candidate will resort to labeling another person a derogatory name should come as no surprise given that all of human kind in general has become more uncivilized.

Just because politicians wear suit coats and ties does not make them civil. Only their actions can define their civility. Look at how many politicians have been kicked out of office for abusing their power. Look at how many have been convicted. Look at how many are still in office. All of these guys wore suits and ties, was that supposed to make them civil. No!

Are we really surprised that candidates call each other names and resort to under-handed tactics to win? It sickens me to see Americas’ political representatives behave in this manner. All it takes to stop this demeaning pastime is for each individual candidate to decide not to do it. And when you are called a derogatory name, don’t respond! Name calling only illustrates a lack of class and a lack of any substantive material about which the name caller can use against their opponent. This is all so childish, so grade school. Come on people, we are adults, act like it!