Showing posts with label corporatism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporatism. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
why I love Michael Moore
a hometown boy does good, damn good
How many people can you name in the mainstream media who have been as correct, right, prescient, and humane as Michael Moore?
How many people can you name in the mainstream media who have been as correct, right, prescient, and humane as Michael Moore?
Sunday, May 27, 2007
The 14 NO votes
The 14 N0 votes:
These are the only loyal opposition left.
The rest have essentially voted for Emperor Bush to do as he pleases, and he pleases to invade Iran and rob the American taxpayer's treasury.
DemocRATs, you will be blamed in years to come for your spinelessness.
Fill your pockets now, boys, then go home and stay there.
Senator Levin, where were you?
Is your loyalty to Israeli lobbyists trumping you oath to the American Constitution?
Boxer (D-CA)
Burr (R-NC)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coburn (R-OK)
Dodd (D-CT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Obama (D-IL)
Sanders (I-VT)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
These are the only loyal opposition left.
The rest have essentially voted for Emperor Bush to do as he pleases, and he pleases to invade Iran and rob the American taxpayer's treasury.
DemocRATs, you will be blamed in years to come for your spinelessness.
Fill your pockets now, boys, then go home and stay there.
Senator Levin, where were you?
Is your loyalty to Israeli lobbyists trumping you oath to the American Constitution?
Boxer (D-CA)
Burr (R-NC)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coburn (R-OK)
Dodd (D-CT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Obama (D-IL)
Sanders (I-VT)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Dear Senator John McCain
A person has to ask themself, why would John McCain indulge in such fantastic absurdism.
'Walking safely in Baghdad', indeed.
Put two and two together. The guy is running for Presdient... and hence he covets MONEY, like the Anointed Mitt and the Predestined Hillary.
Well, coincidentally, this weekend I heard a great interview of Donald Bartlett and James Steele by Charles Goyette on Antiwar Radio (link & listen) all about their recent article in Vanity Fair about SAIC, the biggest military contractor in history. (Remember during the confirmation hearings I wrote about SAIC in reference to Robert Gates, our new Secretary of Defense.)
SAIC, Halliburton, Blackwater, B&R, CACI, Bechtel, are the biggest piggies on the American taxpayer's teat.
And they pay war candidates to run for president.
For further investigation, Bartlett and Steele should write another investigative article about SAIC's contracts with the elections commission and Diebold.
'Walking safely in Baghdad', indeed.
Put two and two together. The guy is running for Presdient... and hence he covets MONEY, like the Anointed Mitt and the Predestined Hillary.
Well, coincidentally, this weekend I heard a great interview of Donald Bartlett and James Steele by Charles Goyette on Antiwar Radio (link & listen) all about their recent article in Vanity Fair about SAIC, the biggest military contractor in history. (Remember during the confirmation hearings I wrote about SAIC in reference to Robert Gates, our new Secretary of Defense.)
SAIC, Halliburton, Blackwater, B&R, CACI, Bechtel, are the biggest piggies on the American taxpayer's teat.
And they pay war candidates to run for president.
For further investigation, Bartlett and Steele should write another investigative article about SAIC's contracts with the elections commission and Diebold.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
More on Crony Contractor
Dick DeVos' brother-in-law, Eric Prince.
Blackwater Represents the Privatization of Our Military, Accountable to No One.
Bush Has Created a Mercenary Army.
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
(Hardcover)
By Jeremy Scahill
BuzzFlash.com's Review
(excerpt) From Nation Books:
Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U.S. government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. Its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the “global war on terror,” with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 soldiers at the ready.
Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and yet most people have never heard of Blackwater.
Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary exposé by one of America's most exciting young radical journalists.
“Jeremy Scahill’s exposé of the Blackwater mercenary firm forcefully demonstrates the grave dangers of outsourcing the government’s monopoly on the use of force.” --Joseph Wilson, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
“Jeremy Scahill skillfully chronicles the birth of America's frightening Praetorian Guard, one that has been unleashed--25,000-strong--in Iraq. These hired guns, with their black uniforms and automatic weapons, appeared on the streets of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They operate, at home and abroad, beyond the bounds of legal constraints and are controlled by secretive puppet masters, such as Erik Prince, who have close ties to the radical Christian Right. Should our nation enter a period of instability following another terrorist attack on American soil, an economic collapse or a series of environmental disasters the tyranny that groups such as Blackwater impose on others could become the tyranny they impose on us. The rise of this unchecked mercenary force, as Scahill understands, could presage the final stage in the collapse of American democracy.” --Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief
“If the Republicans lose in 2008, they will leave office armed and dangerous. Blackwater is the utterly gripping and explosive story of how the Bush Administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars building a parallel corporate army, an army so loyal to far right causes it constitutes nothing less than a Republican Guard. The most important and chilling book about the death throes of U.S. democracy you will read in years and a triumph of investigative reporting.” --Naomi Klein, author No Logo
"Of all the insane Bush privatization efforts, none is more frightening than the corporatizing of military combat forces. Jeremy Scahill admirably exposes a devastating example of this sinister scheme."--Michael Moore, Academy Award Winning Director
This engrossing investigative piece exposing, in shocking detail, a U.S. government-outsourced Frankenstein replete with helicopter gun ships may leave you incredulous. But you better believe it, for it poses a grave and gathering danger to the future of our Republic."--Ray McGovern, CIA veteran and former intelligence briefer for George H. W. Bush
“In this terrifying and thrillingly written book, Jeremy Scahill introduces us to the shape of things to come, and to the kind of people and corporations who are likely to govern our lives if we don't do something about it pretty quickly.” --Arundhati Roy, author The God of Small Things
“Jeremy Scahill's comprehensive research and reporting lifts the veil off the ever-tightening relationship between the federal government and unaccountable private military corporations such as Blackwater USA. . . .” --U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Read The Full Review >>>http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/524
Blackwater Represents the Privatization of Our Military, Accountable to No One.
Bush Has Created a Mercenary Army.
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
(Hardcover)
By Jeremy Scahill
BuzzFlash.com's Review
(excerpt) From Nation Books:
Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U.S. government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. Its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the “global war on terror,” with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 soldiers at the ready.
Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and yet most people have never heard of Blackwater.
Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary exposé by one of America's most exciting young radical journalists.
“Jeremy Scahill’s exposé of the Blackwater mercenary firm forcefully demonstrates the grave dangers of outsourcing the government’s monopoly on the use of force.” --Joseph Wilson, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
“Jeremy Scahill skillfully chronicles the birth of America's frightening Praetorian Guard, one that has been unleashed--25,000-strong--in Iraq. These hired guns, with their black uniforms and automatic weapons, appeared on the streets of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They operate, at home and abroad, beyond the bounds of legal constraints and are controlled by secretive puppet masters, such as Erik Prince, who have close ties to the radical Christian Right. Should our nation enter a period of instability following another terrorist attack on American soil, an economic collapse or a series of environmental disasters the tyranny that groups such as Blackwater impose on others could become the tyranny they impose on us. The rise of this unchecked mercenary force, as Scahill understands, could presage the final stage in the collapse of American democracy.” --Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief
“If the Republicans lose in 2008, they will leave office armed and dangerous. Blackwater is the utterly gripping and explosive story of how the Bush Administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars building a parallel corporate army, an army so loyal to far right causes it constitutes nothing less than a Republican Guard. The most important and chilling book about the death throes of U.S. democracy you will read in years and a triumph of investigative reporting.” --Naomi Klein, author No Logo
"Of all the insane Bush privatization efforts, none is more frightening than the corporatizing of military combat forces. Jeremy Scahill admirably exposes a devastating example of this sinister scheme."--Michael Moore, Academy Award Winning Director
This engrossing investigative piece exposing, in shocking detail, a U.S. government-outsourced Frankenstein replete with helicopter gun ships may leave you incredulous. But you better believe it, for it poses a grave and gathering danger to the future of our Republic."--Ray McGovern, CIA veteran and former intelligence briefer for George H. W. Bush
“In this terrifying and thrillingly written book, Jeremy Scahill introduces us to the shape of things to come, and to the kind of people and corporations who are likely to govern our lives if we don't do something about it pretty quickly.” --Arundhati Roy, author The God of Small Things
“Jeremy Scahill's comprehensive research and reporting lifts the veil off the ever-tightening relationship between the federal government and unaccountable private military corporations such as Blackwater USA. . . .” --U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Read The Full Review >>>http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/524
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
What the chemical pushers don't tell you
Every time I sit through a professorial explanation of parts per million and the term LD50, it always is presented as a debunking of the legitimate fear of the health consequences of polluting our environment.
LD50 is a median lethal dose. Half of subjects at that dosage die. Half live.
But in q. and a. I have never heard a bright student point out that the half that live might have compromised health effects from the chemical dose.
I have never heard that same phantom student mention the cocktail effect. No one lives in a single dose, single chemical bubble.
Nor have I heard these subjects broached by the professors.
Biostitution.
The chemical industry should have truth in advertising laws. At least let the colleges teach a QL-LD50 as in "Quality of Life" reduction caused by adding that chemical to the apparently sealed environment of your little ole personal guinea pig self.
I got off on this rant from reading my latest Seventh Generation e-newsletter:
Persistent Organic Pollutants POP Up In a Surprising New Place
Persistent Organic Pollutants have been clearly shown to cause some of the most serious health conditions known to medical science. That’s why so many of these “POPs,” as they’re called, have been banned. Now scientists have found another reason to eliminate those that remain. They’ve connected them to perhaps the greatest epidemic of our modern world, the scourge of diabetes.
Persistent Organic Pollutants consist of those chlorinated hydrocarbon chemicals (substances made by combining chlorine with hydrocarbons obtained from fossil fuels) that share a series of common traits. To be declared a POP, a chemical must:
• persist in the environment
• build up in body fat and accumulate in ever higher levels as it moves up the food chain to humans
• travel efficiently in the atmosphere and global waters
• be linked to serious hormonal, reproductive, neurological, and immune disorders
POPs include many pesticides, household and industrial chemicals, and by-products of a variety of manufacturing and waste incineration processes.Among these most toxic of pollutants are DDT, dioxins, and PCBs. Though the international community banned or greatly restricted twelve of the most hazardous POPs a group known as the "dirty dozen," in 2003, many more remain in use, and all POPs past and present continue to pose a grave threat to human and environmental health because they last a very long time once produced.. Virtually every person on the planet has POPs in their body, and the chemicals have been linked to cancer, hormonal disruption, developmental and reproductive disorders, and a good number of other equally serious conditions. Now scientists in Korea have uncovered startling new evidence that links POP exposure to diabetes.
Researchers examined POP concentrations in the bodies of 2,016 test subjects that were part of the 1998-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Six common POPs were targeted. These POP selections were based on the fact that they had been found in the tissues of approximately 80% of that earlier study’s participants and were therefore fairly universally found.
The analysis revealed the following:
• When each POP was considered on an individual basis, the study found that there was a three to five times higher risk of contracting diabetes associated with higher levels of any particular POP in bodily tissues.
• When all six POPs were measured together in a single total sum of bodily POP contamination, the risk of diabetes increased by an extraordinary factor of 38 in those with higher overall levels of total POPs.
• Stunningly, the study found no connection between diabetes and obesity by itself. Instead, it pointed to a cause-and-effect relationship between POPs concentrations and the disease. Those obese subjects who had no measurable concentrations of the selected POPs in their bodies did not have diabetes. Diabetes was only seen in obese subjects whose blood concentrations of the POPs were above a certain level.
These results held true even after the study was adjusted for various other factors, including age, sex, race and ethnicity, poverty/income ratio, body/mass index, and waist circumference. While the researchers were unable to definitively state that POP exposures cause diabetes, the results of their project clearly pointed toward that conclusion and indicate the urgent need for more study.
Study results are available at http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/7/1638.
2006 Seventh Generation, Inc.
LD50 is a median lethal dose. Half of subjects at that dosage die. Half live.
But in q. and a. I have never heard a bright student point out that the half that live might have compromised health effects from the chemical dose.
I have never heard that same phantom student mention the cocktail effect. No one lives in a single dose, single chemical bubble.
Nor have I heard these subjects broached by the professors.
Biostitution.
The chemical industry should have truth in advertising laws. At least let the colleges teach a QL-LD50 as in "Quality of Life" reduction caused by adding that chemical to the apparently sealed environment of your little ole personal guinea pig self.
I got off on this rant from reading my latest Seventh Generation e-newsletter:
Persistent Organic Pollutants POP Up In a Surprising New Place
Persistent Organic Pollutants have been clearly shown to cause some of the most serious health conditions known to medical science. That’s why so many of these “POPs,” as they’re called, have been banned. Now scientists have found another reason to eliminate those that remain. They’ve connected them to perhaps the greatest epidemic of our modern world, the scourge of diabetes.
Persistent Organic Pollutants consist of those chlorinated hydrocarbon chemicals (substances made by combining chlorine with hydrocarbons obtained from fossil fuels) that share a series of common traits. To be declared a POP, a chemical must:
• persist in the environment
• build up in body fat and accumulate in ever higher levels as it moves up the food chain to humans
• travel efficiently in the atmosphere and global waters
• be linked to serious hormonal, reproductive, neurological, and immune disorders
POPs include many pesticides, household and industrial chemicals, and by-products of a variety of manufacturing and waste incineration processes.Among these most toxic of pollutants are DDT, dioxins, and PCBs. Though the international community banned or greatly restricted twelve of the most hazardous POPs a group known as the "dirty dozen," in 2003, many more remain in use, and all POPs past and present continue to pose a grave threat to human and environmental health because they last a very long time once produced.. Virtually every person on the planet has POPs in their body, and the chemicals have been linked to cancer, hormonal disruption, developmental and reproductive disorders, and a good number of other equally serious conditions. Now scientists in Korea have uncovered startling new evidence that links POP exposure to diabetes.
Researchers examined POP concentrations in the bodies of 2,016 test subjects that were part of the 1998-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Six common POPs were targeted. These POP selections were based on the fact that they had been found in the tissues of approximately 80% of that earlier study’s participants and were therefore fairly universally found.
The analysis revealed the following:
• When each POP was considered on an individual basis, the study found that there was a three to five times higher risk of contracting diabetes associated with higher levels of any particular POP in bodily tissues.
• When all six POPs were measured together in a single total sum of bodily POP contamination, the risk of diabetes increased by an extraordinary factor of 38 in those with higher overall levels of total POPs.
• Stunningly, the study found no connection between diabetes and obesity by itself. Instead, it pointed to a cause-and-effect relationship between POPs concentrations and the disease. Those obese subjects who had no measurable concentrations of the selected POPs in their bodies did not have diabetes. Diabetes was only seen in obese subjects whose blood concentrations of the POPs were above a certain level.
These results held true even after the study was adjusted for various other factors, including age, sex, race and ethnicity, poverty/income ratio, body/mass index, and waist circumference. While the researchers were unable to definitively state that POP exposures cause diabetes, the results of their project clearly pointed toward that conclusion and indicate the urgent need for more study.
Study results are available at http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/7/1638.
2006 Seventh Generation, Inc.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Dubya direct quote: Money Trumps Peace
Money Trumps Peace...Sometimes
02/15/2007
Guest ContributionBUZZFLASH
by Cindy Sheehan
It is always painful to watch George stumble his way through press conferences. He can't get through a sentence without at least two-three "uhs," his eyelids flutter up and down in what my daughter Carly calls the "liar's blink." It is painful that a human like that is ostensibly the leader of the free world. There is always a plethora of things that he says, does, or screws up on to write about but this time what caught my attention happened during the Q&A. George was asked if he thought the economic sanctions on Iran would work because so many European nations trade with that country.
He stopped to collect his thoughts with what he thought must've looked like a studied and careful demeanor, but more like someone with a sour tummy, and said: "well, let's put it this way...money trumps peace, sometimes. In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world."
It is always interesting with people who frequently play fast and loose with the truth, such as the liars in BushCo, once in a while if they talk long enough, they tell a truth.
"Money trumps peace" is the fundamental reason for the invasions and subsequent gory and violent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Richard Behan's excellent article "From Iraq to Afghanistan: Connecting the Dots with Oil," he brilliantly follows the history of the oil-money trail in these countries that are 1) rich in oil, and 2) well placed for the transportation and delivery of oil.
Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, or their leaders or governments had anything to do with 9-11, but they were in the way of oil and other industries that profit from oil, so they had to go. Money trumped peace in those countries and they are destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, and Americans have been slaughtered because they were blocking American imperialistic profiteering.
"Money trumps peace" is the underlying reason for all wars as two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and highly decorated Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote in his reflective, prophetic work, "War is a Racket":
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the very many. Out of war, a few people make huge fortunes.
During the short booklet that every prospective parent, current parent, and every teen should read thoroughly and often, he keeps referring to World War I as the "World War" because he was writing directly after the "Great War" -- the "war to end all wars." There was no World War II...yet.
General Butler was no unwashed, hippie peace-nik. He was a warrior who, as often times happens when men face the horrors of war ("War is hell" -- General Sherman), saw the futility of killing as a diplomatic tool that kills and maims our young people for "the benefit of the very few."
"Money trumps peace" should be the rallying call of all the Democrats and Republicans who are exploiting our tired and wounded soldiers in the field to justify handing BushCo more money to complete his mission of totally decimating the Middle East for the oil companies, construction contractors, and defense industries.
How many times have we heard: "We have to vote for the emergency funding for the troops."
That money is not for the troops, never has been for the troops, and the troops in the field wouldn't need any support if they used the money that was already in the pipeline to bring our soldiers and Marines home from the killing deserts.
I talked to a young lady at a university in Minnesota whose good friend was a Marine in Iraq who just got home and one of the only things that he shared with her was that he had to eat ants. If you don't believe me, just ask Mr. "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." Our troops have never been supported in this monstrous mistake of a war and they have never received the tools they need to survive, let alone be successful in their so-called mission.
The money goes to one thousand dollar a day mercenaries -- not our two thousand dollar a month grunts.
"Money trumps peace" when while asking for tens of billions of more dollars for war, George is balancing the budget off of the backs of vets who have served this country honorably by cutting back on VA benefits.
Many times I am asked: "What would you say to Bush if you were to meet with him now?" I think my first question would be: "How the hell do you look at yourself in the mirror?"
How dare he?
"Money trumps peace" is one of the reasons why true peace won't be possible when our country is misgoverned by people who are beholden to and entrenched in the military industrial complex. K-Street palm greasers have an easier passage in the Halls of Congress than do activists with petitions, or a Gold Star Mother wearing a "protest shirt" do.
"Money trumps peace" is the problem when some leaders of Congress, who should be working day and night to bring our troops home to save Iraq and the lives and souls of our brave soldiers and Marines, are out raising money for presidential campaigns that are still a year away.
Sometime between now and the first primaries in 2008, we will be holding vigils for the 4,000th troop killed in Iraq and thousands of Iraqi families will be overcome with grief and pain while the talking head shows are already consumed by election fever.
"Money will always trump peace" unless BushCo are impeached, removed from office, and imprisoned for leading our military like lambs to the slaughter to die for Raytheon, Halliburton, and Blackwater Security.
"Money will always trump peace" until we the people demand that our tax dollars remain in our communities, schools, and families and not directly funneled from the Treasury Department to the Pentagon, so that our children do not have to offer themselves up as these human sacrificial lambs.
Peace can and should trump money, but only if we are willing to stand up and challenge the continuing and immoral perception that "Money trumps peace."
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush's war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and the Camp Casey Peace Institute.
She is the author of three books, the most recent is: Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism.
02/15/2007
Guest ContributionBUZZFLASH
by Cindy Sheehan
It is always painful to watch George stumble his way through press conferences. He can't get through a sentence without at least two-three "uhs," his eyelids flutter up and down in what my daughter Carly calls the "liar's blink." It is painful that a human like that is ostensibly the leader of the free world. There is always a plethora of things that he says, does, or screws up on to write about but this time what caught my attention happened during the Q&A. George was asked if he thought the economic sanctions on Iran would work because so many European nations trade with that country.
He stopped to collect his thoughts with what he thought must've looked like a studied and careful demeanor, but more like someone with a sour tummy, and said: "well, let's put it this way...money trumps peace, sometimes. In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world."
It is always interesting with people who frequently play fast and loose with the truth, such as the liars in BushCo, once in a while if they talk long enough, they tell a truth.
"Money trumps peace" is the fundamental reason for the invasions and subsequent gory and violent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Richard Behan's excellent article "From Iraq to Afghanistan: Connecting the Dots with Oil," he brilliantly follows the history of the oil-money trail in these countries that are 1) rich in oil, and 2) well placed for the transportation and delivery of oil.
Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, or their leaders or governments had anything to do with 9-11, but they were in the way of oil and other industries that profit from oil, so they had to go. Money trumped peace in those countries and they are destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, and Americans have been slaughtered because they were blocking American imperialistic profiteering.
"Money trumps peace" is the underlying reason for all wars as two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and highly decorated Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote in his reflective, prophetic work, "War is a Racket":
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the very many. Out of war, a few people make huge fortunes.
During the short booklet that every prospective parent, current parent, and every teen should read thoroughly and often, he keeps referring to World War I as the "World War" because he was writing directly after the "Great War" -- the "war to end all wars." There was no World War II...yet.
General Butler was no unwashed, hippie peace-nik. He was a warrior who, as often times happens when men face the horrors of war ("War is hell" -- General Sherman), saw the futility of killing as a diplomatic tool that kills and maims our young people for "the benefit of the very few."
"Money trumps peace" should be the rallying call of all the Democrats and Republicans who are exploiting our tired and wounded soldiers in the field to justify handing BushCo more money to complete his mission of totally decimating the Middle East for the oil companies, construction contractors, and defense industries.
How many times have we heard: "We have to vote for the emergency funding for the troops."
That money is not for the troops, never has been for the troops, and the troops in the field wouldn't need any support if they used the money that was already in the pipeline to bring our soldiers and Marines home from the killing deserts.
I talked to a young lady at a university in Minnesota whose good friend was a Marine in Iraq who just got home and one of the only things that he shared with her was that he had to eat ants. If you don't believe me, just ask Mr. "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." Our troops have never been supported in this monstrous mistake of a war and they have never received the tools they need to survive, let alone be successful in their so-called mission.
The money goes to one thousand dollar a day mercenaries -- not our two thousand dollar a month grunts.
"Money trumps peace" when while asking for tens of billions of more dollars for war, George is balancing the budget off of the backs of vets who have served this country honorably by cutting back on VA benefits.
Many times I am asked: "What would you say to Bush if you were to meet with him now?" I think my first question would be: "How the hell do you look at yourself in the mirror?"
How dare he?
"Money trumps peace" is one of the reasons why true peace won't be possible when our country is misgoverned by people who are beholden to and entrenched in the military industrial complex. K-Street palm greasers have an easier passage in the Halls of Congress than do activists with petitions, or a Gold Star Mother wearing a "protest shirt" do.
"Money trumps peace" is the problem when some leaders of Congress, who should be working day and night to bring our troops home to save Iraq and the lives and souls of our brave soldiers and Marines, are out raising money for presidential campaigns that are still a year away.
Sometime between now and the first primaries in 2008, we will be holding vigils for the 4,000th troop killed in Iraq and thousands of Iraqi families will be overcome with grief and pain while the talking head shows are already consumed by election fever.
"Money will always trump peace" unless BushCo are impeached, removed from office, and imprisoned for leading our military like lambs to the slaughter to die for Raytheon, Halliburton, and Blackwater Security.
"Money will always trump peace" until we the people demand that our tax dollars remain in our communities, schools, and families and not directly funneled from the Treasury Department to the Pentagon, so that our children do not have to offer themselves up as these human sacrificial lambs.
Peace can and should trump money, but only if we are willing to stand up and challenge the continuing and immoral perception that "Money trumps peace."
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush's war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and the Camp Casey Peace Institute.
She is the author of three books, the most recent is: Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism.
Monday, February 05, 2007
PAN-up
It appears that most Americans get their lifelong post elementary education from the boob tube. Remember the day when we all got our news and entertainment from 3 networks? Well, now you may think you have a hundred and fifty choices, but the news is still owned by five corporations, all with ties to fabulous military contracts.
All the money spent in political campaigns goes straight to these same corporations. Then the politicians who get elected deal with lobbyists from these same corporations. When they retire they become lobbyists themselves, or sit on boards of these same corporations. It's a racket.
Eisenhower should have warned us about the Military-Industrial-Media complex. It is reported he was going to say Military-Industrial-Congressional complex, but at the last minute excised Congressional from his speech.
Folks, we are screwed. The Republic has changed from what they teach in school...
Corporations have personhood, and money is free speech. Supreme Court says so.
Well, if this is the way it's gonna be, then progressives should think about capturing some of the bandwidth.
I started on this rant because of something that showed up in my mailbox today. Once in a while there is a golden moment...
Tuesday evening, February 6th, NBC will air "Loophole," an episode on the crime drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" that focuses on the controversial EPA rule allowing intentional dosing of human beings in pesticide experiments. Check your local listings for time.
Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles, with Pesticide Action Network consulted with "Law & Order" executive producer Neal Baer and writer Jonathan Greene in developing this episode. PSR and PAN are calling for the public to contact NBC to support this type of reality-based programming about environmental health and justice.
You may write Programming Department NBC, 3000 W. Alameda, Burbank, CA 91523.
In the episode, several children and their families -- including a Honduran immigrant family—are unwittingly tested with a dangerous organophosphate pesticide (a class of acutely toxic chemicals) by a fictional chemical company.
In real life, EPA's recent human testing rule contains loopholes that allow chemical corporations to test pesticides on women and children.
A 2005 Congressional report by Senator Barbara Boxer's and Congressmember Henry Waxman's staffs revealed human testing studies where pesticide corporations told their subjects they were ingesting vitamins or drugs. No study of the well-documented long-term effects of pesticide exposures were conducted in follow-up on those test subjects.
"Loophole" reminds the public of EPA's all-too-real life "CHEERS" program, where the federal government proposed in 2004 to offer low income families in Florida $970, a camcorder, and some clothes if they would record "routine exposure" of their one and under infants to household pesticides.
The script is careful to point out the opposition of EPA staff scientists to the human testing rule crafted by EPA political appointees.
Background on the Human Testing Rule (pdf)
Link: the facts on organophosphate pesticides: Organophosphates Campaign
Chlorpyrifos Fact Sheet(pdf)
All the money spent in political campaigns goes straight to these same corporations. Then the politicians who get elected deal with lobbyists from these same corporations. When they retire they become lobbyists themselves, or sit on boards of these same corporations. It's a racket.
Eisenhower should have warned us about the Military-Industrial-Media complex. It is reported he was going to say Military-Industrial-Congressional complex, but at the last minute excised Congressional from his speech.
Folks, we are screwed. The Republic has changed from what they teach in school...
Corporations have personhood, and money is free speech. Supreme Court says so.
Well, if this is the way it's gonna be, then progressives should think about capturing some of the bandwidth.
I started on this rant because of something that showed up in my mailbox today. Once in a while there is a golden moment...
Tuesday evening, February 6th, NBC will air "Loophole," an episode on the crime drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" that focuses on the controversial EPA rule allowing intentional dosing of human beings in pesticide experiments. Check your local listings for time.
Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles, with Pesticide Action Network consulted with "Law & Order" executive producer Neal Baer and writer Jonathan Greene in developing this episode. PSR and PAN are calling for the public to contact NBC to support this type of reality-based programming about environmental health and justice.
You may write Programming Department NBC, 3000 W. Alameda, Burbank, CA 91523.
In the episode, several children and their families -- including a Honduran immigrant family—are unwittingly tested with a dangerous organophosphate pesticide (a class of acutely toxic chemicals) by a fictional chemical company.
In real life, EPA's recent human testing rule contains loopholes that allow chemical corporations to test pesticides on women and children.
A 2005 Congressional report by Senator Barbara Boxer's and Congressmember Henry Waxman's staffs revealed human testing studies where pesticide corporations told their subjects they were ingesting vitamins or drugs. No study of the well-documented long-term effects of pesticide exposures were conducted in follow-up on those test subjects.
"Loophole" reminds the public of EPA's all-too-real life "CHEERS" program, where the federal government proposed in 2004 to offer low income families in Florida $970, a camcorder, and some clothes if they would record "routine exposure" of their one and under infants to household pesticides.
The script is careful to point out the opposition of EPA staff scientists to the human testing rule crafted by EPA political appointees.
Background on the Human Testing Rule (pdf)
Link: the facts on organophosphate pesticides: Organophosphates Campaign
Chlorpyrifos Fact Sheet(pdf)
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