The Spiritual Progressive

My Congressman is a Shill for Big Oil & Gas

2012-01-19T10:07:00.011-05:00

This is a letter I send to my representative, Tim Murphy (R-PA 18). "As far as the Keystone Pipeline is concerned, I saw you standing up there yesterday with Boehner who lied about the amount of jobs it would produce, and how the states it would run through wanted it. Why did he lie? Because he is heavily invested in 7 of the companies involved in it. In the old days, politicians would be dipped in the tar sands, feathered and run out of town for being such insider trading shills. Are you invested in oil and gas like your speaker? I don't know, but I do know what you’ve gotten from the oil and gas companies just in 9 months in 2010.
9/30/10 ConocoPhillips Spirit PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
9/30/10 The Williams Cos. Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
9/28/10 NiSource Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
9/28/10 Anadarko Petroleum Corp PAC
Spring, Texas Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,500
9/22/10 The Williams Companies, Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
9/20/10 CEI & CNX PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
9/20/10 Joseph Wilcox
Consol Energy Tim Murphy
for Congress $250
9/16/10 Michael Baker Corp PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,000
9/9/10 Michael Mueller
Consol Energy Tim Murphy
for Congress $250
8/14/10 THE WILLIAMS COMPANIES, INC. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
8/3/10 James Crockard
EQT Production Co Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
8/2/10 Spectra Energy Corp. PAC
Houston, TX Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
7/23/10 James Kriebel
Kriebel Minerals Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,000
7/23/10 The Williams Cos. Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
7/16/10 The Williams Companies, Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/30/10 EQT Corporation PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,500
6/30/10 Natl Fuel-NFG FedPAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/30/10 Marathon Oil Co
Emplees PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/29/10 Exxon Mobil Corporation PAC
Irving, Texas Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/29/10 Anadarko Petroleum Corp. PAC
Spring, Texas Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,000
6/29/10 Halliburton Co. PAC
Houston, Texas Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/28/10 Terry Shallenberger
Shallenberger Construction Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 John Morrison
Crown Drilling Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 Bruce Grindle
Oil & Gas Producer Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 Thomas Kirsch
Oil & Gas Management Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 David Snyder
Snyder Associated Companies Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 Patrick Cozzens
Modern Transportation Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/28/10 Tom Bartos
Abarta Oil & Gas Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 Douglas Kuntz
Pa General Electric Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
6/28/10 Chesapeake Energy
Fed PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,500
6/28/10 Atlas Energy PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,400
6/25/10 Atlas Energy, Inc. Political Action Committee Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,400
6/25/10 Marathon Oil Company Employees PAC
Houston, Texas Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/24/10 The Williams Cos. Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/23/10 Terrence Jacobs
Penneco Oil Co. Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/18/10 The Williams Companies, Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/18/10 Dominion PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/17/10 National Fuel Gas Federal PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/14/10 Halliburton Company Inc.
Houston, Texas Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
6/11/10 NiSource Inc PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,000
6/11/10 Chesapeake Energy Corp Fed-PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,500
6/8/10 Chesapeake Energy Corp Fed-PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $3,500
6/2/10 Dominion PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/31/10 David Porges
Equitable Resources Tim Murphy
for Congress $400
$1,600
3/30/10 Marathon Oil Co. Emplees PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/30/10 The Williams Cos. Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/30/10 American Gas Assoc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,000
3/29/10 Chesapeake Energy
Fed PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/23/10 Dominion PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/23/10 NiSource Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/22/10 Marathon Oil Company Employees PAC Tim Murphy
For Congress $1,000
3/14/10 Michael Mueller
Consol Energy Tim Murphy
for Congress $250
3/12/10 The Williams Companies, Inc. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
3/1/10 Halliburton Co. PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
2/25/10 Chesapeake Energy Corp Fed-PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
2/23/10 Natl Fuel-NFG FedPAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
2/23/10 Spectra-DCP PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $2,000
2/19/10 EQT Corporation PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
$4,000
2/18/10 Stephen Johnson
CNX Gas Corporation Tim Murphy
for Congress $500
2/18/10 Daniel Zajdel
CNX Gas Corp Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
2/18/10 Consol Energy Inc.
& CNX PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $3,000
2/17/10 CONSOL ENERGY INC & CNX GAS CORPORATION PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $3,000
2/11/10 Clark Nicklas
Vista Resources Inc. Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
2/4/10 National Fuel Gas Federal PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
2/2/10 Halliburton Company PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
1/28/10 Dominion PAC Tim Murphy
for Congress $1,000
$1,000
You get thousands of dollars from them practically every single day! No wonder you have a 0% rating from the LCV, indicating anti-environment votes. Isn’t it time to get the money out of politics, so you can start working for the people again, instead of special interests?"

The Myth of the “Ownership Society”

2011-11-16T09:53:00.008-05:00

Spiritual Communism: God Owns Everything - You Own Nothing

“Everything animate and inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept Only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.” - Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1.

In 2004 before the great recession caused by the housing market crash and Wall Street fraud, George W. Bush coined a new catch phrase, which he used to promote the idea of home ownership.
We're creating... an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property. - President George W. Bush, October 2004.

This idea was promoted by the Cato Institute, a libertarian organization founded by the sociopath atheist Ayn Rand.

“Individuals are empowered by freeing them from dependence on government handouts and making them owners instead, in control of their own lives and destinies. In the ownership society, patients control their own health care, parents control their own children's education, and workers control their retirement savings.” - Cato Institute

Ownership and control

As formulated by the Cato Institute. The goals are that
patients have control of [decisions on] their personal health care,
parents control [i.e. have power over] their children's education, and
workers control [i.e. have some responsibility for the investment of, or explicit property rights in] their retirement savings.

Here the comments in brackets are an interpretation or paraphrase, consistent with a generalized idea of ownership. The conceptual link here is by means of the idea that private property, the most familiar and everyday form of ownership, is being extended. Control is closely associated with ownership in that sense.
This Cato Institute formulation is not, however, in terms of positive policies. It is more accurately a definition of ownership by taking the state out of the loop. So, for example, in health care ownership is not being defined just on the basis of informed consent.

There is no real originality, politically speaking, in the connection made between individual ownership of property and political stake-holding. This was an idea discussed in Europe and America in the eighteenth century. (For example that the franchise should only be for property holders.)

The novelty of the Cato Institute formulation would lie in the extrapolation. In the case of savings, for example, the extension would be an assertion of property rights in money held in savings or collected tax revenues.

The first desiderata was part of John McCain's campaign platform as the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. McCain's website says, "John McCain believes [that] the key to health care reform is to restore control to the patients themselves."

Of course, this was just a ruse to destroy all social safety net programs, like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, pension programs, etc., and hand them over to Wall Street. Republicans have wanted to do away with these programs since their inception. George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security, but he failed, because it is extremely popular. But now Republicans are trying again. On the ruse of deficit reduction and economic crisis, they have proposed to privatize Medicare and turn it into a voucher program which will enrich the insurance companies and bankrupt older Americans. Under the pressure of these deficit hawks, even the Democrats are proposing cuts to these vital government programs which millions of Americans depend upon.

George Bush called this the ownership society, but what he really meant was 'you're-on-your-own' society. - Barack Obama, 2008

These ideas are supposedly based on “self reliance.” Michelle Bachmann said, “Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves,” she said. “Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”

Republicans have also cheered executions, someone dying due to lack of health care, waterboarding, blaming unemployment on the unemployed, and have booed an active soldier because he’s gay. They call any kind of government program that helps people “entitlements” and “socialism.”

These days the word socialism has become a very controversial buzzword. Fox “News” and right wing pundits have demonized Barack Obama as a socialist in their propaganda so successfully that 55% of Americans now believe that our president is a socialist.

Obama is far from a socialist. In fact, he is a bit to the right of the Republican president Dwight Eisenhower. That shows how far the Republican party has tilted to the right, if they think Obama is a socialist. Obama has given a huge gift to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies with his health care legislation, propped up the “too big to fail” banks with his weak financial reform, cow-towed to the energy corporations with the weak energy bill now stalled in the senate, and by sending more troops to Afghanistan, he continues to feed the military industrial complex, which is exactly what Eisenhower warned about. This is not socialism. It is crony capitalism that is cheating the poor and the middle class, and is a symptom of a disease that is in it's cancer stage right now in America.

They say “We’re broke. We can’t afford all these entitlement programs.” The fact is, Social Security has a 2.4 trillion dollar surplus, and can pay out 100% of it’s benefits for the next 27 years. But whenever there is a large chunk of cash laying around, Wall Street starts licking it’s chops, hoping to use that as gambling money to cash in by using their extraction schemes. The people have worked their whole lives that money, and the Wall Street vultures want to take it from them through fraudulent market manipulation, just as they did in the housing market.

Now there is a backlash against Wall Street. The 99% are rising up against the 1%, who have cheated them out of the American Dream.

The plutocrats in our government are in bed with the 1%, and both of them are working for their own sense gratification. They are not working for the betterment of society. This naturally causes a popular revolt among the citizens, and the result is that those plutocrats or dictators are removed from power. In ancient times, kings were saintly, and did not hold office in order to maintain their own sense gratification. Here is verse about one such king from the Srimad Bhagavatam, 8th Canto, Chapter 1, Verse 7

TRANSLATION
Svayambhuva Manu, the husband of Satarupa, was by nature not at all attached to enjoyment of the senses. Thus he gave up his kingdom of sense enjoyment and entered the forest with his wife to practice austerities.

PURPORT
As stated in Bhagavad-gita (4.2), evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh: “The supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” All the Manus were perfect kings. They were rajarsis. In other words, although they held posts as kings of the world, they were as good as great saints. Svayambhuva Manu, for example, was the emperor of the world, yet he had no desire for sense gratification. This is the meaning of monarchy. The king of the country or the emperor of the empire must be so trained that by nature he renounces sense gratification. It is not that because one becomes king he should unnecessarily spend money for sense gratification. As soon as kings became degraded, spending money for sense gratification, they were lost. Similarly, at the present moment, monarchy having been lost, the people have created democracy, which is also failing. Now, by the laws of nature, the time is coming when dictatorship will put the citizens into more and more difficulty. If the king or dictator individually, or the members of the government collectively, cannot maintain the state or kingdom according to the rules of Manu-samhita, certainly their government will not endure.

Thomas Merton described the phenomenon of the selfish 1%, and how they try to define themselves as being apart from the 99%

“People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all.

They can only conceive one way of becoming real: cutting themselves off from other people and building a barrier of contrast and distinction between themselves and other men. They do not know that reality is to be sought not in division but in unity, for we are ‘members one of another.’” - Thomas Merton, from New Seeds of Contemplation

Srila Prabhupada explains this phenomenon in the purport to the verse from the Sri Isopanisad that opens this book. This is a bit dated due to the reference to communism, but it still applies in relation to the quarrel between the “haves” and the “have nots.”

“In modern society there is always a great quarrel between the laborers and the capitalists. This quarrel has taken an international shape, and the world is endangered. Men face one another in enmity and snarl just like cats and dogs. Sri Isopanisad cannot give advice to the cats and dogs, but it can deliver the message of Godhead to man through the bona fide acaryas (holy teachers). The human race should take the Vedic wisdom of Isopanisad and not quarrel over material possessions. One must be satisfied by whatever privileges are given to him by the mercy of the Lord. There can be no peace if the communists or capitalists or any other party claims proprietorship over the resources of nature, which are entirely the property of the Lord. The capitalists cannot curb the communists simply by political maneuvering, nor can the communists defeat the capitalists simply by fighting for stolen bread. If they do not recognize the proprietorship of the Supreme personality of Godhead, all the property which they claim to be their own is stolen. Consequently they will be liable to punishment by the laws of nature. Nuclear bombs are in the hands of both communists and capitalists, and if both do not recognize the proprietorship of the Supreme Lord, it is certain that these bombs will ultimately ruin both parties. Thus in order to save themselves and bring peace to the world, both parties must follow the instructions of Sri Isopanisad.

…One should therefore be intelligent enough to know that but for the Lord no one is a proprietor of anything. One should accept only those things which are set aside by the Lord as his quota. The cow, for instance, gives milk, but she does not drink that milk; she eats grass and grain, and her milk is designated as food for human beings. Such is the arrangement of the Lord, and we should be satisfied with those things which He has kindly set aside for us, and we should always consider to whom those things we possess actually belong.

A house, for instance, is made of earth, wood, stone, iron, cement and so many other material things, and if we think in terms of Sri Isopanisad, we must know that we cannot produce any of these materials ourselves. We can simply bring them together and transform them into different shapes by our labor. A laborer cannot claim to be a proprietor of a thing just because he has worked hard to manufacture it…

…The root of sin is deliberate disobedience to the laws of nature through disregarding the proprietorship of the Lord. Disobedience to the laws of nature or the order of the Lord brings ruin to a human being. If one is sober, knows the laws of nature and is not influenced by unnecessary attachment or aversion, he is sure to be recognized by the Lord, and he is sure to become eligible to go back to Godhead, back to the eternal home.”

It is so easy to forget that we are not the owner of anything - not even our bodies. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, there is the story of Bali Maharaja, who was deprived of all his opulence by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vamanadeva by promising Him three steps of land.
In two steps Vamana covered the entire universe. Where was the other step to be taken? Bali was arrested for not fulfilling his promise, but here was the faulty thinking:

TRANSLATION
Srimati Vindhyavali (Bali Maharaja’s wife) said: O my Lord, You have created the entire universe for the enjoyment of Your personal pastimes, but foolish, unintelligent men have claimed proprietorship for material enjoyment. Certainly they are shameless agnostics. Falsely claiming proprietorship, they think they can give charity and enjoy. In such a condition, what good can they do for You, who are the independent creator, maintainer and annihilator of this universe?

PURPORT
Bali Maharaja’s wife, who was most intelligent, supported the arrest of her husband and accused him of having no intelligence because he had claimed proprietorship of the property of the Lord. Such a claim is a sign of demoniac life. Although the demigods, who are officials appointed by the Lord for management, are attached to materialistic enjoyment, they never claim to be proprietors of the universe, for they know that the actual proprietor of everything is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the qualification of the demigods. But the demons, instead of accepting the exclusive proprietorship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, claim the property of the universe for themselves through demarcations of nationalism. “This part is mine, and that part is yours,” they say. “This part I can give in charity, and this part I can keep for my enjoyment.” These are all demoniac conceptions.

This is described in Bhagavad-gita (16.13): idam adya maya labdham imam prapsye manoratham. “Thus far I have acquired so much money and land. Now I have to add more and more. In this way I shall be the greatest proprietor of everything. Who can compete with me?” These are all demoniac conceptions. Bali Maharaja’s wife accused Bali Maharaja by saying that although the Supreme Personality of Godhead had arrested him, showing him extraordinary mercy, and although Bali Maharaja was offering his body to the Supreme Lord for the Lord’s third step, he was still in the darkness of ignorance. Actually the body did not belong to him, but because of his long-standing demoniac mentality he could not understand this. He thought that since he had been defamed for his inability to fulfill his promise of charity, and since the body belonged to him, he would free himself from defamation by offering his body. Actually, however, the body does not belong to anyone but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whom the body is given. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (18.61):

isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya

The Lord is situated in the core of everyone’s heart, and, according to the material desires of the living entity, the Lord offers a particular type of machine—the body—through the agency of the material energy. The body actually does not belong to the living entity; it belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Under the circumstances, how could Bali Maharaja claim that the body belonged to him?
Thus Vindhyavali, Bali Maharaja’s intelligent wife, prayed that her husband be released, by the Lord’s causeless mercy. Otherwise, Bali Maharaja was nothing but a shameless demon, specifically described as tyakta-hriyas tvad-avaropita-kartr-vadah, a foolish person claiming proprietorship over the property of the Supreme Person. In the present age, Kali-yuga, the number of such shameless men, who are agnostics disbelieving in the existence of God, has increased. Trying to defy the authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so-called scientists, philosophers and politicians manufacture plans and schemes for the destruction of the world. They cannot do anything good for the world, and unfortunately, because of Kali-yuga, they have plunged the affairs of the world into mismanagement. Thus there is a great need for the Krsna consciousness movement for the benefit of innocent people who are being carried away by propaganda of such demons. If the present status quo is allowed to continue, people will certainly suffer more and more under the leadership of these demoniac agnostics.

Another example of this idea was given in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 8, verse 42 describing a childhood pastime of Lord Krishna. When he was accused of eating dirt by his playmates, his mother looked within his mouth and she saw the entire universe. This is what she thought.

TRANSLATION
It is by the influence of the Supreme Lord’s maya that I am wrongly thinking that Nanda Maharaja is my husband, that Krsna is my son, and that because I am the queen of Nanda Maharaja, all the wealth of cows and calves are my possessions and all the cowherd men and their wives are my subjects. Actually, I also am eternally subordinate to the Supreme Lord. He is my ultimate shelter.

PURPORT
Following in the footsteps of mother Yasoda, everyone should follow this mentality of renunciation. Whatever wealth, opulence or whatever else we may possess belongs not to us but to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the ultimate shelter of everyone and the ultimate owner of everything. As stated by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gita (5.29):

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrdam sarva-bhutanam
jnatva mam santim rcchati

“The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.” We should not be proud of our possessions. As expressed by mother Yasoda herein, “I am not the owner of possessions, the opulent wife of Nanda Maharaja. The estate, the possessions, the cows and calves and the subjects like the gopis and cowherd men are all given to me.” One should give up thinking of “my possessions, my son and my husband” (janasya moho’yam aham mameti). Nothing belongs to anyone but the Supreme Lord. Only because of illusion do we wrongly think, “I am existing” or “Everything belongs to me.” Thus mother Yasoda completely surrendered unto the Supreme Lord. For the moment, she was rather disappointed, thinking, “My endeavors to protect my son by charity and other auspicious activities are useless. The Supreme Lord has given me many things, but unless He takes charge of everything, there is no assurance of protection. I must therefore ultimately seek shelter of the Supreme personality of Godhead.” As stated by Prahlada Maharaja (Bhag. 7.9.19), balasya neha saranam pitarau nrsimha: a father and mother cannot ultimately take care of their children. Ato grha-ksetra-sutapta-vittair janasya moho ‘yam aham mameti (Bhag. 5.5.8). One’s land, home, wealth and all of one’s possessions belong to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although we wrongly think, “I am this” and “These things are mine.”

The above mentioned verse (Bg. 5.29) has been called “The Peace Formula.” Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, amid the antiwar protests of late 1966, expanded on this idea, and put out a mimeographed leaflet (among the very first of his publications in America) from his small storefront temple on New York’s Second Avenue. His followers and sympathizers handed this leaflet out by the thousands on the streets of New York in front of the United Nations building, and later in San Francisco, Montreal, and other cities. His “Peace Formula” was an entirely new approach to the antiwar question, and for thousands of Americans, it provided the perfect solution.

“The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon other’s property as though it were one’s own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living entity can violate them. Only one who is God conscious can easily overcome the stringency of the laws of nature and thus become happy and peaceful in the world. As a state is protected by the department of law and order, so is the state of the Universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant fragment, is protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one of the different potencies of God, who is the ultimate protector of everything that be. This earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming God’s property as our own, under both and individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of foolish and so-called civilized men who are claiming proprietary rights on the property of God because they have now become godless. You cannot be happy and peaceful in a godless civilization. Although there are many civilizations, there is only one God, although He may be called many names in different countries. In the Bhagavad-gita, the holy book of India, Lord Krishna delineates the peace formula. He says that He is the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living entities, that He is the Supreme Lord of all universes, and that He is the well-wishing friend of all beings. When the people of the world know this as the formula for peace, it is then and there that peace will prevail.”

One of Prabupada’s disciples once asked him, “Should I renounce everything?” Prabhupada laughed and said, “What do YOU have to renounce?”

This principle is not only in Vedic philosophy, but in all religions. Here are some examples from Christianity:

1. God owns all the money. "'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty" (Haggai 2:8).
At the time this verse was written, silver and gold were used as a means of exchange (i.e., like money), so I believe a modern-day interpretation of this verse would be that God owns all the money.

2. God owns all the livestock.
"Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills." (Psalm 50:7-10, emphasis added) At the time this verse was written, many people retained material wealth in their livestock, and this was frequently a measure of one's material resources.

3. God created everything and therefore owns everything:
"The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters." (Psalm 24:1, 2)
Everything in the heavens and earth is yours O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone, and you are the Ruler of all mankind; your hand controls power and might, and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength. (1 Chronicles 29: 11, 12 tlb)

For Christians, I think the most important thing is to acknowledge, in heart and in mind, that God owns everything.

In order to do this practically, is important to learn and implement God's principles as outlined in his Word and utilize the material resources that God has given us according to God's will and not our own will.

The principle of “spiritual communism” - that nothing belongs to us and that everything belongs to God was expanded on in Srila Prabhupada’s book “Journey of Spiritual Discovery”

“Our God conscious philosophy is also a kind of spiritual communism, because we regard Krsna as the supreme father and all living entities as sons of Krsna. And Krsna says, sarva-loka-mahesvaram: He is the proprietor of all planets. Therefore whatever there is, either in the sky or in the water or on the land, it is all Krsna’s property. And because we are all sons of Krsna, every one of us has the right to use our father’s property. But we should not encroach upon others. This is the formula for peace. Everything belongs to God, and since you are sons of God, you have the right to use your father’s property. But do not take more than you need. This is punishable. If anyone takes more than he needs, then he’s a thief.

When we forget this philosophy—that Krsna is the supreme father, Krsna is the supreme proprietor, Krsna is the supreme enjoyer, and Krsna is the supreme friend of everyone—when we forget this, then we come into this material world and struggle for existence, fight with one another. This is material life.

Nor can we get any relief through our politicians, diplomats, philosophers. They have tried so much, but actually nothing they have tried has become fruitful. Take the United Nations. It was organized after the second great war, and they wanted, “We shall now settle everything peacefully.” But there is no such thing. The fighting is going on, between Pakistan and India or between Vietnam and America or this and that. Mundane politics and diplomacy and philosophy—this is not the process. The process is Krsna consciousness. Everyone has to understand this point, that we are not proprietors. The actual proprietor is Krsna. That’s a fact. Take America, for example. Say two hundred years ago, the European immigrants were not the proprietors. Somebody else was the proprietor, and before that somebody else was the proprietor, or it was vacant land. But the actual proprietor is Krsna. Artificially we are claiming, “It is my property.” This is called maya, illusion.”

Actually, the whole idea of proprietorship was completely foreign to Native Americans, because they knew that mother earth belonged to Wonka Tonka - God.

Conflating Religion and Irreligion

2011-10-18T15:47:00.006-05:00

“That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Partha, is in the mode of ignorance.” - Bhagavad-gita 18.32

Westboro Baptist Church is an example of people who hate in the name of God, single out a particular group, and use that hatred to further their own political agenda. In Hitler’s case it was the Jews. In their case of the Westboro Baptist Church it is the gays. The use the most incendiary rhetoric which includes protesting the death of gay soldiers, and politicians or other public figures who have showed tolerance for that group. Their hatred is an end in itself and they justify it by claiming that “God hates fags”. The more the hate, the more Godly they feel. The see homosexuality as wrong, but they would benefit from the passage in the Srimad-Bhagavatam where it is described that the accuser of the wrong doer is as much at fault as the wrongdoer himself. That is a religious principle.

SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM, CANTO 1, CHAPTER 17, TEXT 22
The King said: O you, who are in the form of a bull! You know the truth of religion, and you are speaking according to the principle that the destination intended for the perpetrator of irreligious acts is also intended for one who identifies the perpetrator. You are no other than the personality of religion.

PURPORT
A devotee’s conclusion is that no one is directly responsible for being a benefactor or mischief-monger without the sanction of the Lord; therefore he does not consider anyone to be directly responsible for such action. But in both the cases he takes it for granted that either benefit or loss is God-sent, and thus it is His grace. In case of benefit, no one will deny that it is God-sent, but in case of loss or reverses one becomes doubtful about how the Lord could be so unkind to His devotee as to put him in great difficulty. Jesus Christ was seemingly put into such great difficulty, being crucified by the ignorant, but he was never angry at the mischief-mongers. That is the way of accepting a thing, either favorable or unfavorable. Thus for a devotee the identifier is equally a sinner, like the mischief-monger. By God’s grace, the devotee tolerates all reverses. Maharaja Pariksit observed this, and therefore he could understand that the bull was no other than the personality of religion himself. In other words, a devotee has no suffering at all because so-called suffering is also God’s grace for a devotee who sees God in everything. The cow and bull never placed any complaint before the King for being tortured by the personality of Kali, although everyone lodges such complaints before the state authorities. The extraordinary behavior of the bull made the King conclude that the bull was certainly the personality of religion, for no one else could understand the finer intricacies of the codes of religion.

Republican No Jobs Clock

2011-08-18T11:47:00.001-05:00

Gabby Giffords Gives Us Hope for Congress - and Humanity

2011-08-02T04:41:00.004-05:00

This made my day yesterday. Last night, during the debt ceiling vote in the house, Gabby Giffords walked in, and she got a standing ovation from everyone. After months of partisan wrangling and holding the American people as well as the full faith and credit of the United States of America hostage, at the last minute, the congress finally got together and voted to raise the debt ceiling. But Gabby walked in moments before passage and registered her vote. Although the rules of the house prohibit applause, everyone ignored the rules. This shows that the congress is human, and still capable of showing respect and empathy. We need more of that in government and in society at large. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to bring it out. Gabby Giffords dedicated her life to public service, and she was acknowledged for that by minority leader Pelosi last night. "Throughout America, there isn't a name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect, more wishing for our daughters to be like her, than the name Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords," Pelosi said.

Ever since Ronald Reagan said “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help,’” there have been forces that want to tear government down, and kill those who represent it. But the government is us. If we kill the government, we kill ourselves. The government is an collective body, elected by society, that takes care of society at large. We have chosen representatives to take care of the least among us, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. That’s why we have Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If we break our social contract with those people, and the wealthy use their money to influence politicians to destroy those programs for their own benefit, America will no longer be great. America is only as strong as it’s weakest link. We cannot let the least among us fall through the cracks. That’s what Jesus would do. If Republicans claim to be Christians, they must acknowledge the truth of Christ’s admonition that “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” - Matthew 25:40 Christ gave his life to deliver that message, and his name has been plowed into history forever. Gabby Giffords almost gave her life as well. It’s a shame that it takes such sacrifice for us to wake up from our selfish slumber to love and care for our brothers and sisters.

The Solution to the UPMC-Highmark Feud

2011-07-13T06:19:00.008-05:00

In Wednesday’s piece by Steve Twedt, entitled “State threatens to intervene in UPMC-Highmark feud” state insurance commissioner Michael Consedine characterized some recent statements from the two organizations as "alarming" for consumers, businesses and physicians. "That's not a good thing for the marketplace," he said in a phone interview Tuesday. "We're still in a free market here," They have the ability to make their own business decisions, so we don't have the ability to say, 'You have to do a deal.'"

In actual fact, there is no such thing as a "free market." Markets are the creation of government. Governments provide a stable currency to make markets possible. The rules of the game of business are defined by government. Any sports fan can tell you that football, baseball, or hockey without rules and referees would be a mess. The conservative mantra is "let the market decide." But there is no market independent of government, so what they're really saying is, "Stop corporations from defending workers and building a middle class, and let the corporations decide how much to pay for labor and how to trade." This is, at best, destructive to national and international economies, and, at worst, destructive to democracy itself.

I have an idea of how this is going to turn out. UPMC will win, because it’s the largest monopoly in town, and they will raise their rates, because that’s what corporations are legally mandated to do - make money. It is illegal in every other industrialized country in the world to make profit from providing health care, and that’s why it costs so much here. The two largest buildings in town are UPMC and Highmark. Here’s a solution. Why doesn’t Pennsylvania get rid of them both by doing what Vermont recently did by enacting single payer health care?

Quotes from Ghandi on Cow Protection

2011-05-17T10:27:00.006-05:00

The Cow In Hinduism

The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection. Cow protection to me is one of the most wonderful phenomena in human evolution. It takes the human being beyond this species. The cow to me means the entire sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives. Why the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible….....

Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. And Hinduism will live so ling as there are Hindus to protect the cow…… Hindus will be judged not by their TILAKS, not by the correct chanting of MANTRAS, not by their pilgrimages, not by their most punctilious observances of caste rules, but their ability to protect the cow. (YI, 6-10-1921, p. 36)

Place Of The Cow

THE COW is a poem of pity. One reads pity in the gentle animal. She is the mother to millions of Indian mankind. Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation of God. The ancient seer, whoever he was, began with the cow. The appeal of the lower order of creation is all the more forcible because it is speechless. (YI, 6-10-1921, p. 36)

…The cow is the purest type of sub-human life. She pleads before us on behalf of the whole of the sub-human species for justice to it at the hands of man, the first among all that lives. She seems to speak to us through her eyes: 'you are not appointed over us to kill us and eat our flesh or otherwise ill-treat us, but to be our friend and guardian'. (YI, 26-6-1924, p. 214)

I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world. (YI, 1-1-1925, p. 8) Mother cow is in many ways better than the mother who gave us birth. Our mother gives us milk for a couple of years and then expects us to serve her when we grow up. Mother cow expects from us nothing but grass and grain. Our mother often falls ill and expects service from us. Mother cow rarely falls ill. Here is an unbroken record of service which does not end with her death. Our mother, when she dies, means expenses of burial or cremation. Mother cow is as useful dead as when she is alive. We can make use of every part of her body-her flesh, her bones, her intestines, her horns and her skin. Well, I say this not to disparage the mother who gives us birth, but in order to show you the substantial reasons for my worshipping the cow. (H, 15-9-1940, p. 281)

Cow-Slaughter

I would not kill a human being for protection a cow, as I will not kill a cow for saving a human life, be it ever so precious. (YI, 18-5-1921, p. 156)

My religion teaches me that I should by personal conduct instill into the minds of those who might hold different views, the conviction that cow-killing is a sin and that, therefore, it ought to be abandoned. (YI, 29-1-1925, p. 38)

Cow slaughter can never be stopped by law. Knowledge, education, and the spirit of kindliness towards her alone can put and end to it. It will not be possible to save those animals that are a burden on the land or, perhaps, even man if he is a burden. (H, 15-9-1946, p. 310)

My ambition is no less than to see the principle of cow protection established throughout the world. But that requires that I should set my own house thoroughly in order first. (YI, 29-1-1925, p. 38)

Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means protection of that lives and is helpless and weak in the world. (YI, 7-5-1925, p. 160)

But let me reiterate….that legislative prohibition is the smallest part of any programme of cow protection. …People seem to think that, when a law is passed against any evil, it will die without any further effort. There never was a grosser self-deception. Legislation is intended and is effective against an ignorant or a small, evil-minded minority; but no legislation which is opposed by an intelligent and organized public opinion, or under cover of religion by a fanatical minority, can ever succeed. The more I study the question of cow protection, the stronger the conviction grows upon me that protection of the cow and her progeny can be attained only if there is continuous and sustained constructive effort along the lines suggested by me. (YI, 7-7-1927, p. 219)

Goseva

Preservation of cattle is a vital part of GOSEVA. It is a vital question for India . . . There is urgent need for deep study and the spirit of sacrifice. To amass money and dole out charity does not connote real business capacity. To know how to preserve cattle, to impart this knowledge to the millions, to live up to the ideal oneself, and to spend money on this endeavor is real business. (H, 17-2-1946, p.11)

In so far as the pure economic necessity of cow protection is concerned, it can be easily secured if the question was considered on that ground alone. In that event all the dry cattle, the cows who give less mild than their keep, and the aged and unfit cattle would be slaughtered without a second thought. This soulless economy has no place in India, although the inhabitants of this land of paradoxes may be, indeed are, guilty of many soulless acts.

Positive Measures

Then, how can the cow be save without having to kill her off when she ceases to give the economic quantity of milk or when one becomes otherwise an uneconomic burden? The answer to the question can be summed up as follows: 1. By the Hindus performing their duty towards the cow and her progeny. If they did so, our cattle would be the pride of India and the world. The contrary is the case today. 2. By learning the science of cattle-breeding. Today there is perfect anarchy in this work. 3. By replacing the present cruel method of castration by the humane method practiced in the West. 4. By thorough reform of the pinjrapoles [institutions for aged cows] of India which are today, as a rule, managed ignorantly and without any plan by men who do not know their work. 5. When these primary things are done, it will be found that the Muslims will, of their own accord, recognize the necessity, if only for the sake of their Hindus brethren, of not slaughtering cattle for beef or otherwise. The reader will observe that behind the foregoing requirements lies one thing and that is ahimsa, otherwise known as universal compassion. If that supreme thing is realized, everything else becomes easy. Where there is ahimsa, there is infinite patience, inner calm, discrimination, self-sacrifice and true knowledge. (H, 31-8-1947, p. 300)

Life is a Highway

2011-05-08T16:14:00.011-05:00

I’ve been thinking about the concept of the spiritual path. There is only one road. That is surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is only the beginning point in one’s spiritual life, yet it is rarely achieved.

“After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.”
- Bhagavad-gita, 7.19

In the preface of the Caitanya Caritamrta, Prabhupada describes the surrendered soul, as delineated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who was Krishna Himself, but who appeared on the earth just to teach us how to surrender. The Lord demands that one surrender unto Him by following six guidelines, one of which is: “A pure devotee is a soul who is forever surrendered to the Lord, just as a child is surrendered to his parents or an animal to its master. In the surrendering process, one should: (5) have no interest separate from the interest of the Lord”

Then there are those who do not take the strait and narrow path of surrender:
“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.”
- Bhagavad-gita 7.15

In the purport to this verse, Prabhupada describes the “mudhas,” or foolish workers, who labor like beasts of burden. “Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon. Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all masters, nor do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources. The swine who eat the stool do not care to accept sweetmeats made of sugar and ghee. Similarly, the foolish worker will untiringly continue to hear of the sense-enjoyable tidings of the flickering mundane force that moves the material world.”

Those on this path are not rare, and there are infinite paths that people take. The majority of humanity simply works hard for their own sense gratification, not caring about surrender to the real master.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
- Matthew 7.13

"Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows a narrower path,
With here and there a traveler."
- Isaac Watts

"Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched."
- Bhagavad-gita 2.41

Those skeptical of this “path” will say it does not exist, or it is imagined, or followed by obeying one’s own mental interpretation of the scripture, or the guru’s instructions. But those who have traveled this path for most of their life will say that it is real, not a mental imagination. It is not a video game or seeing through the haze of one’s mental rose colored glasses. No conditioned soul actually knows what is to be done and what is not to be done, but a person who acts in Krishna consciousness is free to act because everything is prompted by Krishna from within and confirmed by the spiritual master.

This is the only path to freedom, yet it is all inclusive, because God is everything, and is the supremely satisfying state of existence called “samadhi.”

“The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.”
- Bhagavad-gita 6.20-23

It is foolish to take any other road - and supremely arrogant to think that one is more intelligent than the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If you do veer off the strait and narrow path, you will undoubtedly inevitably find yourself in the ditch.

MoveOn and Coalition Building

2011-04-26T17:09:00.002-05:00

The following is a letter I sent to the leadership of the MoveOn Council of Greater Pittsburgh

I have had some realizations lately that have led me to change my approach on how I deal within the political arena. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to be involved in MoveOn anymore - I plan on being just as active, if not more so, but I would like to focus in a different way. As you know, I am not a Christian, but having been a celibate "Hare Krishna" monk for 25 years, I have a long and deeply spiritual background, and that has effected they way I look at political issues and drives my activism. Republican party has hijacked the "religious right" in this country, and it is exactly the opposite of what Christ actually taught. At the core, Democrats embody the principle in Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter label the left as "Godless", and "secular progressives", and that is not fair, because there are many others like myself who's moral principles motivate us to change people's consciousness to work towards peace and social justice.

I am even more radical than my hero in the senate, Bernie Sanders, a self professed democratic socialist. I consider myself to be a spiritual communist.

The founder of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, (that I was initiated into in 1979), A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, wrote about spiritual communism in the first paragraph of the preface to his epic translation of the 12 Canto scripture Srimad-Bhagavatam, "We must know the present need of human society. And what is that need? Human society is no longer bounded by geographical limits to particular countries or communities. Human society is broader than in the Middle Ages, and the world tendency is toward one state or one human society. The ideals of spiritual communism, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam, are based more or less on the oneness of the entire human society, nay, of the entire energy of living beings. The need is felt by great thinkers to make this a successful ideology. Srimad-Bhagavatam will fill this need in human society. It begins, therefore, with the aphorism of Vedanta philosophy janmady asya yatah to establish the ideal of a common cause. Human society, at the present moment, is not in the darkness of oblivion. It has made rapid progress in the field of material comforts, education and economic development throughout the entire world. But there is a pinprick somewhere in the social body at large, and therefore there are large-scale quarrels, even over less important issues. There is need of a clue as to how humanity can become one in peace, friendship and prosperity with a common cause. Srimad-Bhagavatam will fill this need, for it is a cultural presentation for the respiritualization of the entire human society."

Instead of the state owning all the wealth, and distributing it according to need, I know that God owns everything, and we own nothing.

"Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong." - Sri Isopanisad, Verse 1

This is one of the most important concepts in all religions, and I believe it is the only "peace formula". It is based on a principle that is a key point in the Bhagavad-gita, verse 5.29, and Prabhupada wrote a pamphlet based on it and passed it out in front of the UN building in 1965 in the middle of the Vietnam war. I have been thinking about this since the crash, and I am actually writing a book about it called "The Myth of the Ownership Society". Remember when George Bush coined that phrase back in 2004? We're creating... an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property. - President George W. Bush, October 2004.

Here's what Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine", said about that 4 years later, after the housing market fell off the cliff.

This is not only selfish, from a spiritual viewpoint it is completely bogus. Since everything is God's property, if you claim any ownership beyond your quota, you are actually a thief, and you will be punished by the laws of nature. The "ownership society" idea failed catastrophically, but the meme is still spreading into different areas. Look at the tax issue. You always hear Republicans screaming that they don't want the government taking their money and distributing the parasitic poor. They claim to be Christians, yet there are literally thousands of references to the poor in the Bible. They are actually practicing irreligion. It is said in my scripture, "That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Partha, is in the mode of ignorance." - Bhagavad-gita 18.32

"Now everything's a little upside down,
as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,
what's good is bad,
what's bad is good,
you'll find out when you reach the top,
you're on the bottom." - Bob Dylan "Idiot Wind"

That being said, I want to fight to fundamentally correct this mentality, and turn the tables. I feel so strongly about this that I think my role in MoveOn should be different. MoveOn is basically a secular organization, but it does embrace coalitions. Therefore instead of being the council coordinator, I want to coordinate a coalition building team working with other spiritual progressives in the Pittsburgh area. This would not affect or change MoveOn's agenda in any way, rather it would reinforce democratic principles and morals by organizing like minded people. The Republicans and the religious right are in lock step. The left does not have a counter balance, and I'm tired of them calling us secular progressives. I have a blog that I started back in 2004 called The Spiritual Progressive. Pittsburgh has a great history of spiritual progressives, the Thomas Merton Society, whose famous co-founder, Molly Rush, spoke at our huge Defend the Dream rally. Also, PIIN, the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network. There was a number of interfaith leaders in the room when I attended the organizing meeting with the unions before the "We Are One" event. My wife is a member, and I am a "friend" of the Sunnyhill Unitarian Univeralist church. I recently led one of their study groups. All the Unitarian churches in the area are packed with liberals. There are also national organizations such as the NSP the Network of Spiritual Progressives, the Interfaith Alliance, whose president, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy has a weekly radio show called State of Belief that is still on the air that used to broadcast on the nationally syndicated Air America Radio. I am also a big fan of Sojourners, whose president, Jim Wallis, is a spiritual advisor to Barack Obama, and has moderated a presidential debate on CNN. Time magazine named Jim Wallis one of the "50 Faces for America's Future." These groups have worked on peace and social justice issues for decades, and I want to bring them together to work with MoveOn.

I have come to the realization that this is my calling, so that is the role that I would like to play.

Tax Day: Make Them Pay!

2011-04-17T11:57:00.008-05:00

Check out our Corporate Monster we will use for the Tax Day rally! He will have a cape on that will have the logos of many of the corporate tax dodgers all over it.

Historical Hypocricy

2011-03-19T10:12:00.004-05:00

Conservatives are so proud of the founding fathers, and our country's history, but they often get it wrong. The tea party was started in revolt against a multinational corporation, the British East India Company. I find it ironic that the modern tea party is funded by the Koch brothers, and snookered into believing the anti-union corporate agenda. Just before the election of 2004, I showed a full page ad decrying the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry to a woman who was a big Fox News fan. She looked at the bottom of the page and noticed the sponsor, and she said sarcastically, "Of course, it's paid for by a union." I was incredulous, and I thought "What's wrong with unions?" She believed it unions are bad because she listens to Sean Hannity, and that's what he told her, over and over again. They've got it completely backward. Here's a piece of history. Unions built this country, and the middle class. They began in Wisconsin. There are seven towns in Wisconsin named Union. Unions gave us weekends, the 40 hour work week, and unemployment compensation. People fought and died for that which originated in Wisconsin, but they eventually prevailed. Of course the corporations don't like unions and are shitting all over them and the history of Wisconsin. It's an outrage, but we are fighting back. I am going to a 3 hour meeting with unions here in Pittsburgh on Monday, and this is just the beginning. Solidarity! ON WISCONSIN!

The War Against Public Sector Unions

2011-02-19T15:11:00.006-05:00

The following was submitted to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

The headline above the picture of the protesters in Wisconsin on the front page "Wisconsin Budget Battle" is misleading. It's about union busting. Scott Walker wants everyone to believe that the state is broke and the only way to fix it is to take it out of the pensions and health care of workers, but that is not the case. Just one state over, in Minnesota, the governor faces a 5.6 million dollar deficit, but is fixing it by doing something that all the other governors are afraid to do, raising taxes on the rich by a mere 3%, instead of doubling the current amount that workers pay in. Karl Rove admitted it on Fox News on Wednesday. If you can bust the unions then their money will dry up for the 2012 presidential elections. Since private unions have gone down since Reagan declared war on them from 35% to 7%, Republicans are focusing on the public unions, the last source of cash for the Democrats to fight against the Citizen's United ruling. This is just the opening salvo. If they succeed in WI, it will spread to all other states, and we will no longer have a democracy. We will have a corporatocracy.

Steelers are Socialists, Pirates are Republicans

2011-01-31T07:11:00.001-05:00

During his New Rules segment of his HBO program Real Time, Bill Maher used the Super Bowl to call out right wing hypocrites who hate President Obama for socialism, but love the most socialistic enterprise in America, the National Football League, “So you kind of have to laugh that the same angry white males who hate Obama because he is redistributing wealth, just love football, a sport that succeeds because it does just that. It’s no surprise that some 100 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl next week… 85 million more than watch the last game of the World Series, and in that is an economic lesson for America, because football is built on an economic model of fairness and opportunity, and baseball is built on a model where the rich always win, and the poor usually have no chance.”

Maher continued, “Or to put it another way, football is more like the Democratic philosophy. Democrats don’t want to eliminate capitalism or competition, but they would like it if some kids didn’t have to go to a crummy school in a rotten neighborhood, while others get to go to a great school and their dad gets them into Harvard because when that happens achieving the American Dream becomes. It is easy for some and just a fantasy for others. That’s why the NFL literally shares the wealth. TV is their biggest source of revenue, and they put it all in a big commie pot and split it 32 ways, because they don’t want anyone falling too far behind. That’s why the team that wins the Super Bowl in the next draft picks last, or what the Republicans would call punishing success.”

He then explained why baseball exemplifies the Republican philosophy, “Baseball, baseball on the other hand is exactly like the Republicans, and I don’t just mean it’s incredibly boring. I mean their economic theory is every man for himself. The small market Pittsburgh Steelers go to the Super Bowl more than anybody, but the Pittsburgh Pirates? Levi Johnston has sperm that will not grow up and live long enough to see the Pirates in a World Series. Their payroll is $40 million. The Yankees is $206 million. The Pirates have about as much chance of getting to the playoffs, as a poor black teenager from Newark has of becoming the CEO of Haliburton. That’s why people stop going to Pirate games in May, because if you’re not in the game, you become indifferent to the fate of the game, and maybe even get bitter, that’s what’s happening to the middle class in America.”

As you watch the Super Bowl next Sunday, ask yourself, if the NFL can succeed with a system that creates opportunity for all, why can’t America? After all, isn’t opportunity for all what the American Dream is supposed to be about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w5CckZtcNU

Fear and Loathing

2010-09-29T05:35:00.001-05:00

On Monday, September 27, 2010 the KQV, a local radio station here in Pittsburgh, conducted a listener poll which asked, "In your opinion, does the steady string of inflammatory remarks by Mamoud Ahmadinejad only further the dislike of Muslims in the western world?" 92% percent of their phone poll listeners said yes.

This question is inappropriate, because it inflames the stereotyped prejudices that Americans have against Muslims. A more appropriate question would be, "Do you equate a few crazy people like Ahmadinejad or the 9/11 bombers to the entire Muslim world?" There are 1.4 billion Muslims in this world, and most of them are just like us who want to raise their children in peace. KQV should stop playing into the race baiting and hatred. It feeds into the fears and ignorance of each side and divides the country, thereby creating a dangerous situation.

The Least Among You

2010-07-18T12:39:00.013-05:00

Republicans are now blocking the extension of unemployment benefits for workers who, through no fault of their own, have been laid off during this terrible recession. Many Republicans are proud to call themselves Christians, but are they actually Christians, not only in word, but in deed? How do we know who is truly following Jesus? Simple. Are they obeying the clear teachings of the word of God?

There are over 3000 references to the poor in the Bible.

Here is the clear message from Jesus himself, from
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Then later in that same chapter, Jesus said in
Matthew 25:41-45
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.'

1 John 3:17-18
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Proverbs 21:13
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

Proverbs 14:31
He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Proverbs 31:8-9
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Republicans are also pushing for more tax cuts for the wealthy, and ending the estate tax. In that regard here is 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Republicans are also pushing for states to enact their own draconian immigration laws, superseding federal law, thereby inviting the racial profiling of aliens.

Deuteronomy 24:14
Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.

This elitist attitude was summed up succinctly by the self professed “Christian,” George W. Bush:

“Thank you all very much. This is an impressive crowd-- the haves and the have-mores. (Laughter)
Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." (Laughter)

Here is a video of that event.

sndd0138 commented “look at these arrogant fucks laughing their asses off“

And websuspect responded, “Yep get a good look at it. There laughing at you SLAVES.”

This is not the behavior of true Christians.

God - The Ultimate Socialist

2010-07-13T13:36:00.011-05:00

He Owns Everything. You Own Nothing.

These days the word socialism has become a very controversial buzzword. Fox “News” and right wing pundits have demonized Barack Obama as a socialist in their propaganda so successfully that 55% of Americans now believe that our president is a socialist.

Obama is far from a socialist. In fact, he is a bit to the right of the Republican president Dwight Eisenhower. That shows how far the Republican party has tilted to the right, if they think Obama is a socialist. Obama has given a huge gift to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies with his health care legislation, propped up the “too big to fail” banks with his weak financial reform, cow-towed to the energy corporations with the weak energy bill now stalled in the senate, and by sending more troops to Afghanistan, he continues to feed the military industrial complex, which is exactly what Eisenhower warned about . This is not socialism. It is more like monopoly capitalism, and this is a symptom of a disease that is in it's cancer stage right now in America.

The whole idea of proprietorship was unknown to Native Americans, who didn’t believe in land ownership, because they knew that mother earth belonged to God.

Due to the current barrage of misinformation, brought on by the corporate and media monopoly interests, most people believe that they too can become rich owners, do not believe in sharing the the fruits that God has given us, and don't even understand what socialism is.

So what is it?

The dictionary definition of socialism is

“1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.”

In this economic system, everything is owned by the community. I agree with this system only in the sense that since the community, we the people, and everything else that exists was created by God, therefore everything belongs to God, the father, and the community, comprised of His sons and daughters, share in the property of the father.

This philosophy has also been called “spiritual communism.” Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, amid the antiwar protests of late 1966, put out a mimeographed leaflet (among the very first of his publications in America) from his small storefront temple on New York’s Second Avenue. His followers and sympathizers handed this leaflet out by the thousands on the streets of New York in front of the United Nations building, and later in San Francisco, Montreal, and other cities. His “Peace Formula” was an entirely new approach to the antiwar question, and for thousands of Americans, it provided the perfect solution.

“The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon other’s property as though it were one’s own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living entity can violate them. Only one who is God conscious can easily overcome the stringency of the laws of nature and thus become happy and peaceful in the world. As a state is protected by the department of law and order, so is the state of the Universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant fragment, is protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one of the different potencies of God, who is the ultimate protector of everything that be. This earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming God’s property as our own, under both and individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of foolish and so-called civilized men who are claiming proprietary rights on the property of God because they have now become godless. You cannot be happy and peaceful in a godless civilization. Although there are many civilizations, there is only one God, although He may be called many names in different countries. In the Bhagavad-gita, the holy book of India, Lord Krishna delineates the peace formula. He says that He is the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living entities, that He is the Supreme Lord of all universes, and that He is the well-wishing friend of all beings. When the people of the world know this as the formula for peace, it is then and there that peace will prevail.”

This idea was expanded on in Prabhupada’s “Journey of Spiritual Discovery”

“Our God conscious philosophy is also a kind of spiritual communism, because we regard Krsna as the supreme father and all living entities as sons of Krsna. And Krsna says, sarva-loka-mahesvaram: He is the proprietor of all planets. Therefore whatever there is, either in the sky or in the water or on the land, it is all Krsna’s property. And because we are all sons of Krsna, every one of us has the right to use our father’s property. But we should not encroach upon others. This is the formula for peace. Everything belongs to God, and since you are sons of God, you have the right to use your father’s property. But do not take more than you need. This is punishable. If anyone takes more than he needs, then he’s a thief.

When we forget this philosophy—that Krsna is the supreme father, Krsna is the supreme proprietor, Krsna is the supreme enjoyer, and Krsna is the supreme friend of everyone—when we forget this, then we come into this material world and struggle for existence, fight with one another. This is material life.

Nor can we get any relief through our politicians, diplomats, philosophers. They have tried so much, but actually nothing they have tried has become fruitful. Take the United Nations. It was organized after the second great war, and they wanted, “We shall now settle everything peacefully.” But there is no such thing. The fighting is going on, between Pakistan and India or between Vietnam and America or this and that. Mundane politics and diplomacy and philosophy—this is not the process. The process is Krsna consciousness. Everyone has to understand this point, that we are not proprietors. The actual proprietor is Krsna. That’s a fact. Take America, for example. Say two hundred years ago, the European immigrants were not the proprietors. Somebody else was the proprietor, and before that somebody else was the proprietor, or it was vacant land. But the actual proprietor is Krsna. Artificially we are claiming, “It is my property.” This is called maya, illusion.”

This principle is taken from the first verse in one of the elementary books of Vedic philosophy, called the Sri Isopanisad.

TEXT 1

isavasyam idam sarvam
yat kinca jagatyam jagat
tena tyaktena bhunjitha
ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam

isa- by the Lord; avasyam—controlled; idam—this; sarvam—all; yat kinca—whatever; jagatyam—within the universe; jagat—all that is animate or inanimate; tena—by Him; tyaktena—set apart quota; bhunjithah—you should accept; ma—do not; grdhah—endeavor to gain; kasya svit—of anyone else; dhanam—the wealth.

TRANSLATION

Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.

PURPORT

One should be intelligent enough to know that but for the Lord no one is a proprietor of anything. One should accept only those things which are set aside by the Lord as his quota. The cow, for instance, gives milk, but she does not drink that milk; she eats grass and grain, and her milk is designated as food for human beings. Such is the arrangement of the Lord, and we should be satisfied with those things which He has kindly set aside for us, and we should always consider to whom those things we possess actually belong.

A house, for instance, is made of earth, wood, stone, iron, cement and so many other material things, and if we think in terms of Sri Isopanisad, we must know that we cannot produce any of these materials ourselves. We can simply bring them together and transform them into different shapes by our labor. A laborer cannot claim to be a proprietor of a thing just because he has worked hard to manufacture it.

In modern society there is always a great quarrel between the laborers and the capitalists. This quarrel has taken an international shape, and the world is endangered. Men face one another in enmity and snarl just like cats and dogs. Sri Isopanisad cannot give advice to the cats and dogs, but it can deliver the message of Godhead to man through the bona fide acaryas (holy teachers). The human race should take the Vedic wisdom of Isopanisad and not quarrel over material possessions. One must be satisfied by whatever privileges are given to him by the mercy of the Lord. There can be no peace if the communists or capitalists or any other party claims proprietorship over the resources of nature, which are entirely the property of the Lord. The capitalists cannot curb the communists simply by political maneuvering, nor can the communists defeat the capitalists simply by fighting for stolen bread. If they do not recognize the proprietorship of the Supreme personality of Godhead, all the property which they claim to be their own is stolen. Consequently they will be liable to punishment by the laws of nature. Nuclear bombs are in the hands of both communists and capitalists, and if both do not recognize the proprietorship of the Supreme Lord, it is certain that these bombs will ultimately ruin both parties. Thus in order to save themselves and bring peace to the world, both parties must follow the instructions of Sri Isopanisad.

Right Wing vs. Left Wing Media

2010-06-20T08:36:00.006-05:00

National and Local

Most of the talking heads in the media talk about it being dominated by the “left wing.” But when we look at the actual numbers, it is actually the opposite. The influence of FOX News is amplified as their antics and outrages – “birtherism,” climate change denial, baseless accusations of “socialism” or even “fascism” – are uncritically reported far and wide by the mainstream media (MSM). In addition to FOX, the airwaves are crammed solid with right-wing talk shows – about 90%, by some counts. Leading these is Rush Limbaugh, with an audience estimated from fifteen to thirty million. Rush and these other 90% would have you believe that the overwhelming majority of media has a left wing bias, but facts have never gotten in the way of their propaganda, and they have repeated it so many times that the majority of Americans believe it.

To be sure, there are many admirable broadcast voices on the left, in addition to the MSNBC team: Thom Hartmann, Amy Goodman, Bill Maher, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press, Mike Papantonio, Cenk Uygur, and Randi Rhodes. But their messages are uncoordinated, dispersed, and poorly promoted. And unlike FOX and Limbaugh, etc., there is almost no corporate media amplification of progressive talk radio and cable TV. Strange to say, some of the most incisive liberal commentary seems to originate with the comedians, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.

That being said, I would like to report what is going on locally in my home town of Pittsburgh, PA. The last vestige of progressive media disappeared from this town a couple years ago when WPTT changed it’s format to exclusive financial coverage, dropping the local talk show host Lynn Cullen, and nationally syndicated Thom Hartmann.

The only thing remaining in political talk is right wing WPGB 104.7 fm. We have the regional tea party hosts Quinn and Rose, as well as nationally syndicated Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and of course, Rush Limbaugh.

Then there is the news station KQV 1410 am. Right wing millionaire Richard Mellon Scaife owns a controlling interest in that station, as well as the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. If you listen to them, they seem to be a normal news/traffic station, much like 1010 WINS from New York. In fact their programming was based on that model.

KQV has an opinion poll every day, and most of the time, the question is reasonable and relevant, although most of the time the results leave you wondering why most of the answers tend to be overwhelmingly conservative. People who have been listening to this station for years never think anything is abnormal, until one day they are shocked and outraged at a particular poll question and the number of Pittsburghers who agree. Again, it is not a scientific poll, (people can vote as many times as they want, on the phone or online).

Let me give you some examples of shocking questions and results. Just last Friday, June 18th, KQV asked, “In your opinion, did the White House ‘shakedown’ BP by urging the company to create the $20 billion compensation fund for those facing economic losses resulting from the oil spill?” Despite the outrage over Joe Barton’s “shakedown” comments, and repudiation even from his own party, two thirds (67%) of Pittsburghers agree with the congressman that we should apologize to bp, who should not pay for the damage of it’s own catastrophe, rather the taxpayers should foot the bill. This is the MO of a typical Karl Rove tactic - attack the opposition's strength, as he did against Kerry's war record in '04. After I saw this poll, I submitted a feedback thread, and stated that I thought the poll was rigged - I couldn’t believe that many Pittsburghers would vote like this, and if they did, I would move.

A few years ago, I saw another KQV poll that I found hard to believe. On April 11, 2006, the question was, “Should the U.S. consider using nuclear bombs to halt Iran from developing a nuclear weapon?” This would appear to be an Onion headline, but it wasn’t. The Onion did comment on the issue however, saying that they didn’t know if this would pass the U.N. Irony Council. My comment on this poll was published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

The mother of all poll questions was asked on March 26, 2010. This was in response to a Harris poll involving 2,320 adults who were surveyed online between March 1 and March 8 by Harris Interactive, a market research firm. Respondents were read each of 15 statements and asked whether they thought they were true or false. The sample of people was selected from among roughly 4 million people who agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys and are given "modest incentives," according to Harris. The results were then weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population.

Americans have some extreme views of President Obama, with a new controversial survey suggesting that 40 percent of adults believe he is a socialist, and about a quarter of survey participants thinking the president is a racist, anti-American and even doing things Hitler did.
The whammy: 14 percent of Americans say President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. When split by political party, 24 percent of Republicans and 6 percent of Democrats viewed the nation's leader in this way.

KQV felt compelled to ask the same question, and the results were even more shocking. “Had you been surveyed, how would you have answered the question ‘is President Obama the Antichrist?’” On the phone poll, of 1440 responding, a whopping 70% of Pittsburghers said yes. That’s 3 times more than just the Republicans polled by Harris. Unbelievable. I voted for Obama, so this means one of two things. Either the poll is rigged, or it isn’t. If it isn’t rigged, I may have made a terrible mistake when I cast my vote, and either Obama is indeed the Anti-Christ, or Pittsburgh has way more racist whackos in it than I thought, and I need to get the hell out of town.

Why are we in Afghanistan?

2010-06-15T17:15:00.015-05:00

This is the question that plagues many American people. We supposedly went in to fight those who attacked us on 9/11. Actually, 9/11 was masterminded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan. Should we bomb Pakistan? I guess you could say that we already are with predator drones. The plot was also hatched in Spain, by Farid Hilali, who was extradited there to face charges. Should we bomb Spain too? Obama has called Afghanistan “the good war,” because that’s where Al Qaeda was, as opposed to the bad and unpopular occupation in Iraq, that had nothing to do with 9/11. The only problem is that Al Qaeda is no longer in Afghanistan, so it doesn’t make sense.

Unfortunately, Obama’s “good war” is going from bad to worse. There have been more U.S. military deaths in the last 10 months of the Afghan war than in the first five years of the conflict. More boots on the ground than in Iraq. It is the longest war in American history, and the cost of both wars is now over 1 trillion dollars. Just New York City’s share of that debt would be enough to pay for a half million school teachers for a year. Where are our priorities?

The military industrial complex has searched and searched for a way to justify and continue this debaucle. One thing they’ve come up with to continue the war are the predator drone strikes. When they use those against terrorists, they not only kill them, but they usually end up killing scores of bystanders, which the military calls collateral damage. This is a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, and perpetuates the war, because there will always be more terrorists to kill. So it’s a win-win situation - a win for Al Qaeda, and for the military industrial complex, because it will keep bleeding our economy to death, which is apparently what Bin Laden, and other Masters of War want. The American war mongers know that if another country, say Mexico, was concerned about our drug problem here in America, (and we have one), and they decided to help us out by taking out a drug lord in New York city with a predator drone, and in doing so, took out a few buildings and families around it, that Americans would not applaude that action as cool technology. We would declare war on Mexico. That’s one way they make sure the war on terror continues forever.

Helen Thomas recently asked Obama, “When are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse? And don’t give me this Bushism that we have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” Asking the “why” questions was a Thomas trademark. Many self-censoring journalists avoid controversial “why” questions, thereby allowing evasion, dissembling and just plain B.S. to dominate the White House press room. She rejected words that sugarcoated or camouflaged the grim deeds. She started with the grim deeds to expose the doubletalk and officialdom’s chronic illegalities. That is why we miss her, despite her recent gaffes.

Obama didn’t really answer her uncomfortable question.

“Why do we never get an answer
when we’re knocking at the door
with a thousand million questions
about hate and death and war?” -The Moody Blues

But never fear. The military industrial complex has ridden in on a white horse to provide a justification for this war.

Afghanistan is sitting on 1 trillion dollars worth of minerals, especially lithium, which will be needed to power our future electric cars. We’ve known about this for years, ever since the Russians reported it in the 80’s. So why come out with it now? Because we need a justification to stay in our longest war for even longer. "There is stunning potential here," the New York Times quoted Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command as saying. "There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant." No shit, Sherlock. Iraq has 8.5 trillion dollars worth of oil, and that was enough justification for us to invade that country. How pathetic. It’s all about the money.

It’s all about usurping God’s natural resources for our own nation’s selfish imperialistic greed. We are no better than thieves, because are claiming God’s property as our own, and killing people in other sovereign countries in the process. With this mentality, there will never be peace. As Swami Prabhupada wrote in his pamphlet entitled “The Peace Formula” that he passed out in front of the U.N. in the middle of the anti-war movement in 1966, “The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon others' property as though it were one's own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living entity can violate them.”

The American Dream - Fact or Fiction?

2010-06-05T12:39:00.004-05:00

The great American Dream first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, was the idea that citizens of every rank feel that they can achieve a "better, richer, and happier life." The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The American Dream has been credited with helping to build a cohesive American experience, but has also been blamed for over inflated expectations.

There are a few problems with this assumption. First of all, if “all men are created equal”, then why is the American Dream exclusively American? Then there is the problem of over inflated expectations. In the late 1800’s, Horatio Alger wrote stories of fictional characters from impoverished backgrounds who, through self-reliance and hard work, were able to realize the American Dream in this land of boundless opportunity.

The idea of self-determination and rugged individualism is idealized in the Republican party. They want less government, less government regulation, and more free market economics. This is epitomized in a story floating around the internet called “A day in the Life of Joe Republican.”

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

We are addicted to this rag-to-riches myth in this country. That is why we bought into the Reagan theory of “trickle down economics.” The idea that if the rich are allowed to make as much money as they can, some of it will trickle down on the rest of us as they steal into the night with their huge bags of cash. George H. W. Bush called this “voodoo economics.” We have seen the result of 30 years of Reaganomics - the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and the middle class has all but vanished.

Although this economic theory has been proven wrong time and time again, people have been brainwashed into believing that the American Dream still can apply to them too. Most people outside of America don’t live their lives based on fairy tales. They live in reality, where there are only going to be a few rich people, and you are not going to be one of them. So get used to it.

The rich have gotten richer, and as a result, they have destroyed the American Dream and have sent the world economy into a tailspin that hasn’t been seen since the great depression. The rich, instead of being drawn and quartered and hung at dawn at city gates, they have gotten a big wet kiss in the form of record tax breaks from Congress, and no one has said a word. Why? Because we’re still addicted to the Horatio Alger myth, that someday, I can make it big after all. So don’t attack the rich man, because one day that rich man may be me!

Let me burst the bubble of this myth once and for all.

The Declaration of Independence says that we are "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This acknowledgement of the creator’s endowment is certainly true. Not a blade of grass can move without God’s sanction. It says nothing about how each individual is self endowed with this ability.

The ancient Vedic wisdom of the Srimad-Bhagavatam clarifies this point. The 6th Canto, 12th Chapter, 13th Verse states:

“Just as a person not inclined to die must nonetheless give up his longevity, opulence, fame and everything else at the time of death, so, at the appointed time of victory, one can gain all these when the Supreme Lord awards them by His mercy.”

In the purport, Srila Prabhupada writes,

“It is not good to be falsely puffed up, saying that by one’s own effort one has become opulent, learned, beautiful and so on. All such good fortune is achieved through the mercy of the Lord. From another point of view, no one wants to die, and no one wants to be poor or ugly. Therefore, why does the living entity, against his will, receive such unwanted troubles? It is due to the mercy or chastisement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that one gains or loses everything material. No one is independent; everyone is dependent on the mercy or chastisement of the Supreme Lord. There is a common saying in Bengal that the Lord has ten hands. This means that He has control everywhere—in the eight directions and up and down. If He wants to take everything away from us with His ten hands, we cannot protect anything with our two hands. Similarly, if He wants to bestow benedictions upon us with His ten hands, we cannot factually receive them all with our two hands; in other words, the benedictions exceed our ambitions. The conclusion is that even though we do not wish to be separated from our possessions, sometimes the Lord forcibly takes them from us; and sometimes He showers such benedictions upon us that we are unable to receive them all. Therefore either in opulence or in distress we are not independent; everything is dependent on the sweet will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

The American dream is a myth in as much as it is interpreted as being achieved as a result of one’s own endeavor, and that is the status quo belief. We must debunk this myth. It is only God who can give or take away the American Dream. Man proposes, and God disposes. We can work like asses for our own sense gratification, which is all taken away at the time of death, or we can serve God, for his pleasure. If we serve God, we will be given all that we require for our maintenance, but that should not be equated with the opulence given to those who have worked for their own selfish gratification. One type of work is binding (that of the karmi, or fruitive worker), another is liberating, (that of a devotee), who can use anything in the service of God, and is not entangled in the reactions of that labor. The devotee is free from karma, and will be liberated from the hard struggle for material existence, and go back to Godhead, to be in his constitutional position, as an eternal servant of God. The karmi will continue to rot in this material world, life after life. That is not the American Dream.

Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-31T08:19:00.010-05:00

Memorial day is a three day holiday marking the unofficial beginning of summer that Americans celebrate by traveling and relaxing with friends and family with a cold beer at a cook-out.

Traditionally Memorial day means remembering the service and sacrifices made by our veterans.

Memorial day 2010 is marked by two milestones. The 1000th death in the longest war in American history - Afghanistan, and the combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now surpassing 1 trillion dollars. Suicides among soldiers is setting record highs each year, now doubling the national rate.

As we sit at our cook-outs, who among us is remembering the costs of these wars, both in flesh and blood, as well as national treasure, and what are we doing to stop this terrible loss?

Most Americans are disconnected with the wars. There is no draft, and the bill is going on the national credit card, so we don’t have to worry about anything right now. Less than 1% of us have any skin in the game. It is out of sight and out of mind.

This memorial day let’s start to think about why those thousands of young men and women lost their lives. What purpose has it served? No amount of money can bring them back. But what could we have done with the trillion dollars that has been wasted? How would you spend 1 trillion dollars? Take this questionnaire and see how much you can buy.

It is time to get out of Iraq and rethink Afghanistan, bring our troops home from all over the world, and focus on rebuilding America again. Our gulf coast is dying, hurricane season is approaching, and our roads and bridges are falling apart. Rebuild America first.

In case you missed a parade this year, here's a compilation put together by Neil Young called Flags of Freedom.

The Rand Paul Phenomenon

2010-05-22T20:08:00.012-05:00

Libertarianism Run Amok - Business Trumps Government Every Time

Since “Super Tuesday,” every time Kentucky senatorial tea party nominee Rand Paul opened his mouth, he put his foot in it. Now he has decided to shut it, cancelling Meet the Press - only the third time a national figure has done so in Meet the Press’s 60 year history.

Perhaps silence is a good move for his own sake. Even the Republicans are not quick to embrace him after his victory. He’s like a live grenade. You never know when he’s going to go off.

First, he couldn’t answer Rachel Maddow’s question about whether the government should be allowed to tell private business to quit discriminating against whomever they please, in essence to go back to the bad old days of not allowing blacks at Woolworth’s lunch counters. It seems he’s quite O.K. with that, although he’s quick to point out that he’s not a racist, he’s simply against the government telling private business what to do. From my experience, whenever someone prefaces a statement with "I'm not a racist, but..." some racist shit is about to follow.

Second, he is against the fair housing act which prohibited private property owners from racial discrimination. As a child in the sixties in the Midwest, I marched with my father and father Groppi for open housing. Resistance to open housing laws was despicable in the 60s and its despicable today.

Thus far Dr. Paul has distinguished himself as being a proponent of business’s right to trample over the rights of minorities, adding that the government has no right to get in the way of business’s right to deny minorities their rights.

Third, who else besides blacks and minorities should private business be permitted to run roughshod over? Cripples? Yes, Dr. Paul is also against the Disabilities Act. He suggest that instead of providing them with an elevator, let them have a first floor office.

Finally, before cancelling his appearance on Meet the Press, Dr. Paul made the most extreme libertarian statement I’ve ever heard. He criticized the Obama administration's blaming the oil spill on BP, calling it “un-American” to attack business in that way, and justifying it by saying “accidents happen”. I guess his conclusion is that BP is not responsible, and that the taxpayers should pick up the tab. In other words foreign transnational corporations who drill in our backyard shouldn’t have to protect that backyard, and if they are negligent, or cut corners to increase profit, and then lie about the damage, it is the taxpayers who should clean it up, not the foreign corporation. Keith Olberman put it succinctly, “in essence, he endorsed an oil spill.”

Tea Party Denial

2010-04-19T05:21:00.004-05:00

On Friday's front page, "Tea Party brews a 'really inspiring' day" Patty Weaver, the organizer of Pittsburgh's rally was quoted, saying that the accusation that some in a Washington demonstration had greeted African-American members of Congress with "the n-word" on the eve of passage of landmark health reform legislation was "a total lie."

Michelle Bachmann, (R-MN) was chided by Steny Hoyer for denying John Lewis' n-word experience. "I don't think there's any doubt that what John Lewis said happened and what others saw and heard happen did, in fact, happen. That's why I think the credibility of that assertion is questionable."

Lewis became nationally known during his prominent role in the Selma to Montgomery marches. During the first march police attacked the peaceful demonstrators and beat Lewis mercilessly in public, leaving a fractured skull and head wounds that are still visible today. To question John Lewis's credibility in this instance is an insult, and an indication of the denial of tea party leaders.

While I support the tea party's right to free speech, they have no right to hurl racial epithets and spit on African-Americans. This is incendiary behavior, and leadership from both sides should make an effort to discourage it, rather than denying it and fanning the flames of racist extremists and militants. They do so at our peril. On April 19th, the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, gun toting tea partiers will get as close as they can to Washington DC to express their outrage over health insurance reform. This is tantamount to a celebration of domestic terrorism, and leadership should stop denying this mob mentality and dial it back before it becomes even uglier.

GOP calls for Reid's head over remarks

2010-01-11T18:02:00.001-05:00

During the '08 presidential campaign, Harry Reid described then-candidate Mr. Obama as a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect" whom many voters would embrace. In the January 11th edition of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reprinted an article by Ashley Powers of the LA Times entitled "GOP calls for Reid's head over remarks".

My question is, where was the GOP's outrage at Rush Limbaugh's song parody called "Barack the Magic Negro", or Glenn Beck's accusation that Obama has a "deep seated hatred for white people," then calling him a "racist"? Is there a double standard when it comes to these types of accusations? Does this simply allow Michael Steele to go out and express his righteous indignation to score political points for the GOP? Where does the media call out this kind of hypocrisy?

Town Brawl Intimidators

2009-08-30T13:59:00.001-05:00

The people who disrupt a town hall meeting when people are trying to have a rational discussion with their representative and the people who stand outside with guns are using the last tactic they can - intimidation. Chris Broughton, the day before he brought an assault rifle to an Obama town hall, was listening to the sermon of Steven Anderson who said he was going to "pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell." This kind of talk was going on during desegregation in the 50's and 60's and lead to the death of civil rights workers and leaders. It is dangerous. These so called Christians are actually hate mongers. The KKK calls themselves Christian as well. They are bullies who don't believe in government, and since the government is we the people, they don't believe in democracy of, by and for the people. They would rather the special interests control things and as far as health care is concerned, they believe in pay or die, and that the CEO of United Health Care deserves $100,000 an hour.

Against a virtue?

2009-06-12T15:32:00.000-05:00

Before picking Sonia Sotomayor as a nominee for the Supreme Court, Barack Obama stated that he was looking for a person who had empathy. According to the dictionary, empathy denotes a "deep emotional understanding of another's feelings or problems." To most people, that personal quality would be a virtue.

But Republicans pounced all over the word empathy as a code word for "activist judge," and leftist causes, such as "classism, racism, sexism, and homophobia." The antonym of empathy is apathy, misunderstanding, unfeelingness.

Another antonym would be callousness. If empathy is so bad, would callousness therefore be a virtue in the Republican party? They certainly seem to callous of the poor, and workers, and people without health care, and people of color, and people languishing in prison. They claim to be Christians, but the poor are mentioned in the Bible more than 3000 times. Jesus was himself was the embodiment of empathy. He would certainly not make it through the confirmation process.

The Debt Monster

2009-04-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

The economy has an insatiable appetite for debt...and it's eating us all. We all know the cookie monster. He's a big blue hairy guy who lives in a garbage can and just can't get enough cookies. There's another monster with an insatiable appetite. He's the Debt Monster. We created him, and now, like the Frankenstein monster, he's turning on us. This monster is similar to Frankenstein, because we made him with spare parts, like our own lust and greed. We feed him with things like carbon-based fuels, which have been more or less eaten up here at home, and are now only available to us from foreign countries that don't share our best interests. In order to keep feeding it, we've had to start imperialistic wars with to satisfy the monster's addiction. Unfortunately, instead of satiating, this creates another appetite in the monster called the military industrial complex. This is not only fed with oil, but with lots of money.

We used to tax ourselves to feed the monster, but now we have to borrow from countries like China. The monster has eaten over 10 trillion dollars, and still wants more. We tried to figure out how to somehow create more money to feed it, even though we didn't have any, so we invented funny money, complicated things like mortgage-backed securities, and derivatives, along with insurance, if the debt monster ate them. We created a quadrillion (a thousand trillion) dollars worth of those, but he was still hungry, so the debt monster went to Wall Street and ate all that up along with the banks and investment companies that they came from, as well as the insurance companies that backed them (AIG), which just received another 30 billion dollars. After it was finished downtown, it went to Main Street, then into the suburbs, eating one house after another. This is Godzilla on steroids.

Now people are losing their homes, and their jobs. It is a disaster of worldwide proportions. What to do? Maybe we should confront what caused it - our own lust and greed?

There is no military solution in Afghanistan

2009-02-04T10:12:00.005-05:00

When I heard that Obama signed off on a predator drone attack into Pakistan, my heart sunk. It sank again when I heard that Obama is going to commit an additional 30,000 troops to the region. Many experts and historians say that there is no military solution in Afghanistan. There is only a political solution.

The Pashtun region that includes a wide swath of border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been called "the graveyard of empires," because of the rough terrain. Look what happened to Genghis Khan, and the British and Indians in the first and second Afghan war. The Soviets, a century later, had 150,000 troops, yet were soundly defeated, and the entire Soviet Union was economically bled dry and crumbled into pieces.

Some may say, "Now we have 'predator drones' so we don't have to put so many troops in harms' way." That may be less controversial, but "strategic bombing" doesn't "demoralize the enemy." It kills a bunch of other people around. Therefore, beyond a shadow of a doubt, we recruit more opposition than we get rid of by killing the one person at that we wanted to kill. Historian Marilyn Young argues that bombing, even when successful, does not win hearts and minds, "I will not be grateful to you for harming someone I don't like in the course of which you kill my kid."

Green Party Russian Roulette

2008-10-20T17:15:00.006-05:00

Today I heard an advocate for the Green Party talking about their strategy for the '08 election. He said that Barack Obama is ahead 14% and so we should vote for Cynthia McKinney, in order to get her to 5%, which will make people sit up and pay attention. I thought about this strategy, and it reminds me of the game of Russian Roulette. You load one bullet in the chamber of a gun, spin it, aim the gun at your head, and pull the trigger, knowing that there's a 16% chance you may die. If McKinney steals 5% of Obama's vote, if the election were held today, that would leave him in the single digits. Right now, the Republicans have already managed to purge millions of people from the voter roles. That combined with and all the other election fraud leaves Obama in danger of losing this election within a margin of error, and if he does, America is dead, and no one will care that McKinney scored those attention points. This election is too important to play this game. I agree with many of the policies of the Green Party, but in this "strategy," they are like children playing with a gun. Instead of showing up every four years, like Ralph Nader, and enthusiastically trying to crush and trash the Democrats, maybe they should try organizing their party in between elections for a change and push for things like such as instant run-off voting. They should put the gun away, and vote for Obama.

9/11TM A New Low

2008-09-13T09:23:00.003-05:00

On September 10, Keith Olbermann made a blistering “Special Comment” that accused the Republican party of making political hay out of the absolute terror of 9/11, and trade marking it to further their agenda.

At the 2004 Republican National Convention, they offered a “tribute” to 9/11, on prime-time television, when children were watching. Instead of a tribute, what people saw were the most horrifying videos of planes hitting the buildings and people jumping to their deaths, again opening up the deep wound. After doing that, Dick Cheney literally told people, if you didn’t vote for him, we would “get hit again.”

Yesterday, Sarah Palin sent her son Track off to war in Iraq, reminding him and the world that he was fighting against the people who hit us on 9/11, and delighted in it. This is in 2008, years after even President Bush said there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11.

She knows it’s a lie, so then why did she say it? Was it because this would galvanize patriotic Americans around her sacrifice? Because she still really thinks that there is a connection between Iraq and 9/11? No. She’s not that stupid. Here is the real reason; just as Bush shamelessly used our young soldiers as props for his propaganda, she is using her own son as a prop in order to get elected. This is the most reprehensible act I have ever witnessed, and each time I think I will no longer wonder at how low these people can go, each time they hit a new abysmal watermark, I am surprised.

Where is this country headed, when 50% of Americans give this “Dick Cheney in a dress” a positive approval rating? My fellow Americans, the time is very short, and our future decisions are extremely grave. This is not a beauty pageant contest. We must understand the urgency of this situation and shout out to our brothers and sisters from the mountaintops at the top of our lungs that we cannot allow these horrible people to continue to lie to us, use us, and kill us, and others from other countries that they are salivating to kill. Especially the new terrifying boogiemen, the “Islamofascists.” Psychologists say that the pleasure of killing is even greater than sex. I guess that’s why these people are so attached to their guns.

If Sarah Palin won’t hesitate to use her own son as a prop, then how will she treat yours? She won’t think twice, or “second guess” what anyone else says. In her own words, she “won’t even blink.”

click here to learn more

Congress considering a blockade on Iran - An act of war

2008-07-22T09:14:00.001-05:00

The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a new resolution that could effectively demand a blockade against Iran -- an act that would be widely seen as an act of war and could invite Iranian retaliation, possibly leading us into a shooting war. Condi was on TV yesterday saying that Iran has two weeks to comply to our demands, otherwise face tougher sanctions. This is the condition to stop uranium enrichment completely, before negotiations can even begin. Ironically, the N.I.E. (National Intelligence Estimate) has concluded that Iran has not been working on nuclear weapons capability since 2003, but only on peaceful energy.

Barack Obama has called for unconditional negotiations, which we have done successfully with N. Korea. Also, yesterday, CNN aired video describing the high tension on board our Navy boats in the Strait of Hormuz, the little 20 mile bathtub drain at the end of the Persian Gulf, through which 40% of the world's oil flows. This is a tense situation, and congress may be voting soon that could bring it to a whole other level.

Over the last three weeks, 77 House Democrats and 92 Republicans have agreed to cosponsor this resolution, but I and many others think many do not realize its dangerous implications.
This resolution (H. Con. Res. 362) was introduced by Representative Gary Ackerman. The most alarming provision "demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program."

Such a blockade imposed without United Nations authority (which the resolution does not call for) would be seen as an act of war. Congressional sources say the bill might first go to committee, which gives us a little more time to pressure our representatives. But whether or not it goes first to committee, or directly to the floor of the House, action on H. Con. Res. 362 is needed now.

I urge you to ask your representative not to support this dangerous step toward war with Iran.

Congressional leaders seem to have assumed that there would be little opposition to this punitive measure against Iran, and they have put it on a fast track to passage. But due to the threat of war, many organizations and reasonable members of Congress are working overtime to stop this bill. Won't you join them?

Please take action now -- ask your representative to oppose this dangerous path that could lead directly to war with Iran.

You can find the full text of the resolution and list of co-sponsors here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.CON.RES.362:

Now this is scary

2008-07-12T06:34:00.005-05:00

Letter published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

On his recent stop in Pittsburgh, John McCain said on KDKA TV that he recited the names of the Steelers defensive linemen when he was asked under interrogation for the names of his squadron mates ("McCain's Mind No Steel Trap in Recalling Steelers," July 12). He said, "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, the physical pressures that were on me, I named the starting lineup -- defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers -- as my squadron mates."

Of course, it's untrue, and the sleaziest kind of pandering, because Mr. McCain was shot down in 1967, and the "Steel Curtain" didn't exist until 1972. He has repeated this story many times in different places, but in those instances, the Green Bay Packers were the ones who were named.

This is frightening to me, because this person is running for president, and to blatantly lie like that to Pittsburghers, to assume that they are not smart enough to notice, shows not only a complete lack of authenticity, integrity and judgment, but also calls into question his ability to govern.

Progressives - Don't Get Your Panties in a Wad

2008-06-29T07:40:00.006-05:00

All the people who are screaming bloody murder about what Obama said about the Supreme Court ruling on capitol punishment in the case of child rape, or any other issue they accuse him of "flip-flopping on, need to understand one thing. The primaries are over. This is a very serious general election process, and Barack Obama is doing exactly what needs to do get elected. Do you really think Obama is for capitol punishment? No!

Think about this: what do you think the right wing smear machine would do with child rape issue? Don't you think they would then say "Barack Obama is FOR child rape." You know they would say that. Or they would say about the FISA law, "Obama is against protecting us from terrorists by not listening to them." Or what if he came out for gun control? No, no, no, NO! These aren't the things that you talk about in a general election. He isn't talking about these things, and he is brilliantly navigating through this election process. This not about being as tried and true about policy as he was in the primaries, and if you think it is, you are completely missing the point, and do not understand the way an election works.

Obama will deal with policy after he gets elected, but he can't blow it in the meantime, so don't get in his way by going off on a tirade against him. If you have paid any attention at all to any general election process, you would know that both sides tack to the middle in the general. On the other hand, if progressives demand that Obama supports everything they like, then that is kind of childish. He is dealing with this election in an adult fashion. Everyone that is so upset with on this or that policy that they don't support him any more because of these things frankly need to grow up or shut up and go home until the election, because they're just going to cause problems. Don't rock the boat! He's winning!

For further explaination, go to http://airamerica.com/lionel/blog/2008/jun/27/obama-america-stuck-middle-you

Fun With Numbers

2008-03-23T17:17:00.004-05:00

This fascist corporatocracy called the Bush Administration just gave predatory lenders a 30 billion dollar bail out a few days ago, leaving homeowners in tent cities. That's half the treasury. It's stunning, but Bush crime family steals big so people won't even realize it because of shock. It's the economic part of what Naomi Klein talks about in "The Shock Doctrine," and now it's happening fast and furious. Besides the war profiteering, and the oil companies making record profits, it's the biggest heist in history.
To give you an idea of how much money that is, remember when Paul Bremer lost 9 billion in cash - cellophane bricks of hundred dollar bills in Iraq and and blamed it on primitive accounting practices? That's 21 big rig tractor trailers full of cash. So 30 billion they just gave to the predatory lenders would fill 64 trailers full of 100 dollar bills. If those containers were put on a train, it would be over 3/4 of a mile long. That's our tax money, that we and our grandchildren, and generations beyond will have to pay back with interest. You can see that amount of money from space. Forget about ENRON, and Bear Sterns - whole economy is falling apart because of deregulation, and Spitzer was trying to go after some of the vultures on wall street who were taking advantage of the deregulation and cashing in at the expense of millions of innocent homeowners. The cons wanted to protect their crony crime buddies in the financial sector, so of course he was politically whacked.

It's such a huge story, but there is so much going on, and to worry about, that I'm just so shell-shocked that I can hardly decide what to focus on. It’s too much. Spitzer's not the only one who has been whacked recently. Admiral Fallon - the only obstacle between peace and Cheney's war with Iran has also been taken out. That's even more worrying to me, because that means Armageddon.

And the only hope in the situation is electing Barack Obama, but the Democrats are self-destructing in these prolonged primaries, and if the super-delegates can't come together soon, and decide between these two candidates like in a couple of weeks, instead of dragging this cage-fight until Labor Day, and the election is like four days later, I guarantee you will see repeat of the nightmares of 2000 and 2004, and we will have four more years Grandpa "Bomb Bomb" McBush.

These are the things that keep me up at night.

How many vets sleep under a bridge?

2008-02-10T17:49:00.002-05:00

During the January 7 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News host Bill O'Reilly the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for saying that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards "has no clue," as Media Matters for America documented, regarding Edwards' statement that "tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates." Olbermann stated: "But our winner -- well, it's Bill-O night. He blasted John Edwards for noting in Iowa that 200,000 vets sleep each night under bridges and on grates. Quoting Bill-O: 'The only thing sleeping under a bridge is that guy's brain. Ten million illegal alien workers are sending billions of dollars back home, and Edwards is running around saying nobody has any money.' " Olbermann continued: "Seriously. First off, Lou Dobbs is going to kick your backside for working his side of the street. Secondly, it's 200,000 tonight. Over the course of the year, the Veterans Administration says, 336,000 vets will be homeless on and off." Olbermann concluded: "Why don't you try changing positions with one of them, Bill? See how long you last, then run your mouth about Edwards. The over/under on that, by the way, would be three minutes. Bill Orally, tonight's 'Worst Person in the World.' "

This morning I met two separate homeless vets who sleep under bridges, so I wrote to "papa bear."

Mr. O'Reilly,

I was on my way to a Penguins game here in Pittsburgh, in the middle of a blizzard, there was a man sitting on some cardboard on the sidewalk holding out a paper drink cup in his hand. He was sober. I knew it would be single digit temperatures tonight, so I game him my change, and warned him that he'd better get some shelter tonight. He told me that they only have about 12 beds left in the shelter, and he can't get in, and in order to get into the Veteran's Administration facility "you have to be practically dead." I asked, "You're a veteran?" He said, "Yes, I'm a Vietnam veteran. I stepped on a land mine." (He pulls up him pant-leg to show the scars) I gave him $5, and I said, "You know that talk-show host Bill O'Reilly? He says you don't exist. That there are no vets sleeping under bridges." He pointed to the Fort Pitt Bridge and he said, "You can go right down there tonight and see them. They gave me some blankets, but it gets cold!"

Later on another man approached me for some change. He was also a Vietnam veteran, who sleeps under the bridge, and that every year, there are more and more new Iraq veterans joining him under the bridge. I talked to a Iraq veteran from the first war begging under an overpass at a Steeler game. I gave him some money, and wished him well.

Be a man, and show them the money as promised Bill, otherwise you will be sleeping under a bridge in your next life.

- Scott
Pittsburgh

Fear mongering will no longer win elections

2008-01-08T07:21:00.000-05:00

The following is a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Bob G. Wyeth, in his January 3, 2008 letter, "Bhutto's killing is a reminder of what we're fighting" said that Democrats are disappointed that Bhutto was killed because it draws attention to national security issues, which "cuts against their plans for coronation on Jan. 20, 2009." As a Democrat, I must say that I was deeply saddened at the news, not for political reasons, but because Mrs. Bhutto represented hope for democracy in an unstable Muslim country. To use such an event to stir up fear and terror in order to stay in political power is an insidious tactic that the majority of Americans are not buying anymore. We also think that George W. Bush's policies have made us less safe. When asked about Bin Laden, to his everlasting shame, our president said, "I don't know where he is. I'm truly not that concerned about him."

To blame Mrs. Bhutto for her own death by saying she "went and got herself killed," or "she hit her head," is just disgusting, and adds insult to injury. There are many questions that remain unanswered. Why wasn't she provided the protection that she requested? Why was there only one exit from the venue? It's very politically convenient for Mr. Wyeth, the Republican spin machine, and the Pakistani government to jump to conclusions and blame Al Qaida when there hasn't even been an investigation yet, but they have to, because fear is the only platform they are running on. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Weyth, but I am not afraid.

MoveOn gets "Dixie Chicked"

2007-09-21T10:52:00.001-05:00

The following is my letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

On Thursday, Senator Casey (D-PA) and other "Democrats" in the world's greatest deliberative body got together to decide whether or not to condemn a newspaper advertisement. (S.Amdt. 2934) The final vote was 72-25 to admonish MoveOn for its "General Betrayus" ad.

Where was the senate when the "Swift Boat" people were attacking one of their own, John Kerry? Where was John Kerry, for that matter? The Senate is holding our kids hostage in Iraq, and continues to kill over a million Iraqi citizens, but they are worried about MoveOn hurting someone's feelings?! Apparently, the Senate hasn't even read the 1st amendment of the constitution. It's called freedom of speech. If you're in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech. Sometimes I wonder what country I'm living in, where a kid gets tasered by thuggish cops for asking an annoying question in a political forum.

This is nothing but censorship of the kind the Dixie Chicks suffered through. Petraus is a big military boy. He can take it. He took it from his boss Admiral Fallon, who called him an ass-kissing little chicken s**t. He said he "hate(s) people like that." Where is the Senate's outrage against Fallon? No wonder the Senate's rating is so low. They vote to give their "full support" to the guy in charge of a war whose execution many of them oppose. Hypocrites.

Scott Manley
Coordinator of MoveOn's Operation Democracy Council of Greater Pittsburgh

This country needs real spiritual values NOW.

2007-09-17T02:56:00.000-05:00

After the ’04 election, the exit polls asked voters what was the most important thing that guided their vote. The majority answer was “moral values.” This was a misleading answer, however, because to the “religious right” (which is neither) talk about moral values, they are talking about wedge issues like hating the gays, (because a great number of them are gay, and they hate themselves) and abortion, etc.

Everyone is frustrated with the way this country is headed, lead by these so-called Christians. Because the leaders have no real morality, the values of this country is drifting and heading towards the rocks. Although most people are waking up, there are still 30% of us that are following spiritually blind authorities, like blind lemmings, off the cliff, and the rest of us are afraid that we are going to be pushed off in the rush. Now we find ourselves in a mad rush to war with Iran – to World War III. Leaders, who claim to be religious, like Hagee and Leiberman, are urging the military and the executive to take the plunge.

It is time to stop this madness and re-examine our moral values. Did Jesus advise pre-emptive war? Did he promote ethic cleansing? I don’t think so. Nevertheless, the drumbeats are getting louder and louder.

“Stop, children, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going down.”

Laura Flanders, of Air America radio and Radio Nation, when filling in last Friday for Thom Hartmann, brought up the terrifying possibility that the assassination of Sheik Abu Rishsa might be blamed on Iran, which would then become Cheney’s casus belli (reason to go to war) that he has been longing for. Greg Palast has said that this Sunni Sheik, which the Bush administration glorified as a hero, and the hope for Iraq is a fake Sheik. He was given millions of dollars and arms to ethically cleanse the Anbar province of Shiites. The other real Sunni Sheiks are jealous, and I think that they, or the Bush administration, killed him. The Shia are mostly afraid of the Madi army, so they probably didn’t do it, but one has claimed responsibility. The Iranians, of course, are Shiite. How convenient. Look for the bombs to start falling soon on your favorite cable network. God help us.

An Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi - Put impeachment back on the table before they bomb Iran.

2007-08-19T14:37:00.000-05:00

According to McClatchy newspapers, It looks like Cheney is on the precipice of convincing Bush to bomb Iran. So, here's my question to you, Madame Speaker. If attacking Iran with nuclear weapons is on the table, how the heck can you say that impeachment is off the table? Making Republicans "lame ducks" may be "good enough" for you, but you see, they don't care. Cheney is trying to start WWIII. Cheney is the real force behind this push, and he MUST be stopped, but from the way congress has let the executive branch run roughshod over the constitution, I don't have much hope. That's why I'm writing you. We need you to be a strong leader and put impeachment back on the table. This is not about "hating Cheney" or partisan politics. It's about restoring the constitution and preventing WWIII.

Impeaching Cheney would have many benefits. It would immediately lower the blood pressure of the world by eliminating everyone's fear and anxiety, thereby lowering the risk of global conflict. If Cheney convinces Gates to bomb Iran, it's all over, and from the track record of the Democrats, they are not going to stop it. My only hope is that you will put impeachment back on the table.

It would also be a important civics lesson to the world that future politicians like Cheney cannot get away with mass murder and war profiteering during their reign of terror, only to be pardoned after leaving office.

And finally, don't be afraid of being labeled a "flip-flopper." R.W. Emerson said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

Sincerely,
Scott Manley
Coordinator - Operation Democracy of Greater Pittsburgh

Conservatives Gone Wild

2007-07-25T13:36:00.001-05:00

On July 13th, some of you may have seen PBS’s Bill Moyers Journal, where he interviewed Bruce Fein along with Jon Nichols of The Nation magazine for some “Tough Talk on Impeachment.”

People, this is what you call “must see TV,” so if you didn’t catch it, please click here.

Bruce Fein is a constitutional scholar, and author of the articles of impeachment of Bill Clinton. He is also calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Fein also appeared on The Thom Hartmann program on July 18th.

Now. If you if you liked Bruce Fein, you’ll love Paul Craig Roberts. The day after that Fien interview, Hartmann did the double whammy with Roberts, another Reagan conservative, the brain behind "Reaganomics." Both these guys are "dyed in the wool" conservatives, and it's noteworthy to hear them make such strong statements.

Roberts totally agrees with Fine about what wussy Democrats refer to as the unspoken “I word,” but takes it one ominous step further. Roberts is saying that because of all the executive orders that have already been lined up to give Bush dictatorial powers in case "The Decider" decides to declare a national emergency which could result from a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future "unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

When Hartmann, who remarked about the strength of his words, confronted Roberts, and he replied that he's gotten flak for not being strong enough. We don't even know the worst of it, because they won't tell us. Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) asked the defense dept. what they have as far as a contingency plan in case of a terrorist attack, and they wouldn't tell him! Makes you think what these guys are up to, doesn't it?

Here’s Robert’s article in counterpunch.org

Also, you must click here to listen to Thom Hartmann's interview of Paul Craig Roberts on 7/19, courtesy of KPOJ Portland.

Should Dick Cheney Be Impeached?

2007-05-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

On April 24, 2007, U.S. House Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced H.Res. 333, calling for articles of impeachment to be sent to the U.S Senate with regards to Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

The grounds of the proposed impeachment are that the Vice President 1) fabricated a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 2) purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, and 3) has threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States, all in detriment to the national interest of the United States.

Oil seemed to be on Mr. Cheney's mind when he told the 3,500 to 4,000 members of the Stennis's crew 150 miles off Iran's coast on May 11th that the U.S. was prepaired to use its naval power to keep Tehran from distruputing oil routes or "gaining nuclear weapons." This was reminiscent of Mr. Cheney's speeches during the runup to the war in Iraq in August of 2002, which argued against sending weapons inspectors back in. The weapons inspectors were sent in, and Bush said Saddam didn't let them, but while he was saying that we were watching inspectors on the ground bulldozing Al-Samud missiles. The inspectors didn't find any W.M.D.'s, so Bush told them to leave before "Shock and Awe" began.

This is deja' vu all over again.

"Back in the days of "Shock and Awe", we came to liberate them all."
-Neil Young

Dick Cheney along with Paul Wolfowitz and Harlan K. Ullman and others, were the achitects of "Shock and Awe". The "D.C. Madam", Deborah Jeane Palfrey recently named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the high-end escort service. These men proclaim themselves to belong to the party of "moral values".

A senior U.S. diplomat said, "He still kind of runs by his own rules." This would confirm Cheney's statement to Tim Russert on Meet the Press on Septemeber 16th, 2001.

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful. That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective."

Impeaching this dangerous chicken hawk would have many benifits. It would immediately lower the blood pressure of the world by eliminating everyone's fear and anxiety, thereby lowering the risk of global conflict. It would also be a important civics lesson to the world that future politicians like Cheney cannot get away with mass murder and war profiteering during their reign of terror, only to be pardoned after leaving office.

To sign a petition on this important issue, as well as send a message to your representatives, and write a letter the the editor of your local newspaper, click here.

Bush Threatens to Veto Anti-Terror Bill

2007-05-07T06:51:00.000-05:00

The house voted last week (H.R.1592) to extend hate-crime protection to people who are victimized because of their sexuality. A hate crime is not just perpetrated against a number of human beings in a group - it is meant to terrorize a whole group, such as African Americans, gays, Muslims, etc. The KKK are domestic terrorists. Bush threatened to vetoed the bill. Why? Because it would give the victims of hate crime rights that other people don’t have. Perhaps he shares the concerns of Fred Phelps (above), or Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, who opposes the bill on the grounds that it could encroach on his right as a "christian" to indulge his hysterical gay panic. This would be Bush’s 3rd veto. The other two are stem cell research (which could saves lives), and pulling the troops out (which would also saves lives). Now, he will veto hate crimes legislation, which should properly be called anti-terrorist legislation. By doing so, he is advocating terrorism, hate, crime, and death; all in the name of God. Can there be any greater heresy?

Nancy Pelosi: Impeachment off the table?

2007-03-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

Right before the mid-term elections, Nancy Pelosi told 60 minutes that impeachment was “off the table.” She speculated that Republicans would "just love" the "waste of time" such proceedings would be. "Making them lame ducks," she concluded, "is good enough for me."

The problem is, even though the Republicans are lame ducks being served with a healthy side of subpoenas, they can still do plenty of damage in 679 days.

You may ask yourself “They've already destroyed practically everything. What more could they possibly do?” If you are sane, you may not be able to imagine what they could do. A sane person cannot predict what an insane person can do. During the Vietnam War, China was using weapons against us, and killing our troops. Did we attack China? No. Because that would have been insane.

In the current occupation of Iraq, spurious anonymous sources are claiming that Iran is providing weapons to the Shiah. These accusations are probably false because the Sunnis are responsible for 92% of the US casualties. Thanks to the kind donations of the citizens and government of Saudi Arabia, the Sunni insurgents have now acquired shoulder-fired missiles, and are currently using them to shoot down our helicopters at an alarming rate. No one says anything about that. Bush holds hands with the Prince Bandar because he is his oil buddy. That friendship is so strong, we overlook the fact that 18 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

Bush and boyfriend

Not only does he hold hands with them, but also it has recently been revealed in a Vanity Fair article by Seymore Hersh that Bush is funding Jihadists connected to al Qaeda as part of a war with Iran he has ALREADY STARTED. Indeed, Raw Story reports that without the authorization of congress, covert operatives crossed over the border into Iran months ago and have been working with terrorists such as the MEK (Mujahedeen-e Khalq) to destabilize the country.

How are all these clandestine operations being funded? Some have speculated that they may be using some of the 12 billion in cash that Paul Bremer "lost" in Iraq (filling 18 tractor trailers, or 363 tons of hundred dollar bills) to give to the terrorists. John Stewart reported: "The House Oversight Committee trying to locate 363 tons of missing cash. Paul Bremer blames poor payroll records for the 12 billion dollars lost somewhere in Iraq. The Committee set up 2 websites -- just in case anyone sees the money that is stacked in $400,000 bricks each."

The theft is a high crime worthy of impeachment, because that money belongs to us, but giving aid and comfort to the enemy is not just an impeachable offence. It is treason, as is outing an undercover CIA agent to kill a story blowing the whistle on the lies this administration told to get us into war. Treason, according to our federal law is a crime punishable by death.

Impeaching Bush and Cheney is the very least we can and must do. If you see a crime being committed and you don't tell the police, you are guilty of being an accomplice. This process would be a civics lesson for the citizens of the United States. On the other hand, if we don't impeach them, it is sends the worst message to the world because it says we don't care about or uphold the rule of law, and the constitution. The best message to send to politicians is that they are not above the law, and We The People will not allow our employees to give themselves so much unfettered power that they are immune to prosecution. I know we probably couldn't get 18 Republicans to convict him in the Senate, but if we have a large unified American voice, (not a Democratic or Republican voice) that there is a party known as the Republican party that puts it's party before what is right and what is wrong. That is the best we can hope for, and it is the conversation that we need to have in this country right now, before it's too late.

Funding the Jihadists is yet another example of Bush doing the very same thing he accuses the "evil-doers" of. It fits the MO of the Bush administration, lacking confidence in the true casus belli, they conspire to invent additional ones, misrepresenting the available intelligence, crafting new “intelligence,” and then spreading these falsehoods to the public.

According to the British press, the US doesn’t even need an immanent threat of a nuclear weapons program, false flag operation, or Gulf of Tonkin type incident to trigger a war with Iran. The new “trigger” for starting a war with Iran is if there is a “major attack” on U.S. troops in Iraq that can be traced to Iran. How many troops have to be killed in order to qualify as “major attack”? 7? 3? 12? It could be anything, because George Bush is "the decider".

We can attack Iran for practically anything, without going to congress, using tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Iran’s nuclear production sites, military sites, and other key infrastructure. Bush doesn't need to go to congress for authorization to attack Iran. We are already there. If you think that the agenda for Iran is any different than Iraq, you have buried your head in the desert sand. The agenda is, "Nuke their ass, take their gas."

So my question to Pelosi is, if attacking Iran with nuclear weapons is on the table, how the hell can you say that impeachment is off the table?

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" (Bob Dylan)

2007-01-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, the forecast for Monday was partly cloudy and cold, with 20 mile per hour winds. That forecast was exactly correct, because they have computer models based on meteorological science.

On Monday, I was standing outside with the wind freezing my ass off, and I thought to myself, if they can do that for the weather, why couldn’t they do it with war? We have plenty of historical, sociological, cultural, and psychological data that could accurately predict, for example, what would happen in a situation like Iraq if there weren’t enough troops in the beginning, and no exit strategy, or if there were an escalation of 20 to 40 thousand additional troops 4 years into the occupation. Waging and preventing war is a science, and the Department of Peace proposed by Dennis Kucinich should include a group of scientists, historians, and military experts, who take all the data, work with computer software designers, produce software that introduces various scenarios, put it into computers, analyze the data, and come up with a scientific predictions that must be taken seriously by the executive branch of government.

George W. Bush is not a scientist. He distrusts science. He also can’t be bothered with diplomatic solutions. He is a spiteful loser who wants to colonize sovereign nations though war and chaos in order to steal natural resources for his corporate buddies. In 2003, I saw the protesters out there in the streets with their “no blood for oil” signs. I thought it was just a conspiracy theory, and I didn’t think our country would sink that low. Besides, there was no evidence to lead us to that conclusion. Now there is. As the number of US soldiers killed since the invasion rises past the 3,000 mark, and Bush gambles on sending in up to 30,000 more troops, The British Independent on Sunday has learnt that the weakened Iraqi government is about to push through a law giving Western oil companies the right to exploit the country's massive oil reserves for the next thirty years. Great…there’s a 30-year commitment for US troops to protect the oil companies. Now I know why they are building permanent bases there that are as big as the Vatican.

It doesn’t take a computer to predict that if Bush’s foreign policy were introduced into prediction software, the computer would likely spit out pre-emptive nuclear strikes, perpetual world war and terror.

We've seen this movie before

2006-12-27T11:09:00.000-05:00

Throughout my life, until recently, I learned about the phenomenon of fascism and the world war that it caused, and thought to myself “that could never happen again”. After all, it was so very long ago, and fascism was an anomaly caused by the leadership of a madman. As far as fascism in the U.S. was concerned, the thought never occured to me. I wrongly thought America was immune to this because of strong democratic principles in our Constitution, upheld by the great moral principles of her citizens.

Lately, more and more historians of are saying that America is in danger of sliding into fascism, bit by bit. History is repeating itself. For example, Hitler introduced the Enabling Act, (similar to the Patriot Act), and it passed the German legislature democratically. Hitler took over that country in gradually and legally.

Observing the similarities begs the question, how does a nation slide from being a democratic republic, and egalitarian society, where free speech is not only valued, but enshrined in your founding documents and enforced by the law of the land? How do you slide from that, to being a state where people are simply vanished; whether they are undocumented workers, whether they are “terror suspects” like Jose Padilla, who is no longer charged with any terror crimes? I would submit that a good chunk of what makes that transition is people in the media URGING IT.

The racism against Muslims seems to be getting worse and worse. The Reich Wing Media is attacking with the organized murderous rage of the German SS, vital sources of information, such as the brave hosts of Air America Radio who would dare to speak truth to power. I have never heard such vitriol.

BILL O’REILLY: “So, all those clowns at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains?”

Ha, ha. Very funny, Bill.

The so-called “liberal media” (which does not exist, outside the Air America syndication and a single TV show “Countdown” with Keith Olberman on MSNBC), is one of their favorite targets. Another are the so-called “Hollywood liberals”. In other words, talented, creative, artists, actors, and musicians with a conscience, who use their celebrity to speak truth to power.

Mike Galleger was invited to sit with George W. Bush, one of the Reich Wing talk show hosts to broadcast from the White House talking about Jill Behar, on The View, who made a comparison between Donald Rumsfeld and Adolph Hitler – that they are both war criminals. I’ll go on record saying they are both war criminals, although I don’t think there’s a good clean comparison between Rumsfeld and Hitler. Hitler was a maniacal madman, the consequence of whose actions caused the deaths of 10s of millions of people. Don Rumsfeld, he’s a small time mass murderer. Just a few hundred thousand people who have died as a result of his actions. But they are both war criminals. So, she points this out and Mike Galleger goes NUTS.

MIKE GALLEGER: “This is for Joy Behar – I think we ought to round up all these folks, round up Joy Behar, round up Matt Damon, who last night on MSNBC attacked George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney… round up Olberman, take the whole bunch of them, and put them in a detention camp until this war is over, because they are a bunch of traitors.”
What did Matt Damon say that he should be put into a concentration camp for? This is Mike Galleger, the Reich Wing talk show host, friend of George W. Bush, saying that Matt Damon should be put in a concentration camp. What did he say that was worthy of that?

MATT DAMON: “The sacrifice of the war should be shared by everybody, and if the President has daughters that are of age, then maybe they should go too.”

THAT’S worth putting somebody in a concentration camp?!?

Mike Galleger is representative of the same kind of media that expedited the rise of the Third Reich. (see Wake up and smell the fascism)

This phenomenon is tearing America apart from the seams. For example in the music field, once upon a time, the Dixie Chicks and Ricky Skaggs worked together, but because Natalie Maines made an innocuous spontaneous comment about the President in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, (“I’m ashamed that the President is from Texas”), Ricky decided that she had committed an act of treason. Many like-minded Republican country fans agreed, “How could she say that about our Dear Leader? So they formed mobs that smashed their CD’s in a similar fashion to the book burnings of Nazi Germany. Treason is punishable by death in this country. Does Natalie Maines deserve to die for that off the cuff comment?

It’s looking more and more like the German Fatherland in this country. Anyone can be named an enemy combatant without trail, and rendered to a secret prison and tortured for the rest of his or her life. If you would have told me 6 years ago that Habeus Corpus would be suspended, that the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th amendment of the Constitution would be broken, the Bill of Rights would be shredded, so that our houses could be searched without our knowing it, our phone conversations and online activity could be monitored, that we would attack a sovereign nation that didn’t attack us, and as a result 3000 Americans and 600,000 innocent people from that country would die, I would have said you were crazy. But everyday I wake up to this horrible reality, and I wonder where my country went.

Historians say this kind of thing happens almost in perceptively. It didn’t happen overnight. Most Americans didn’t even notice it, but now many are drawing eerie parallels to 1930’s Germany.

Milton Mayer was a Jewish American reporter from Chicago. He spent a year or two in Germany after the war, and interviewed ten average Germans. He really got inside their heads and wrote the book “They thought they were free” based on their stories. It chronicles in a very personal way, Germany’s slide toward fascism. Here are some excerpts. You can draw your own parallels to current day events in this country.

“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.”

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.”

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted', that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that no 'patriotic German' could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”

“Pastor Niemoller spoke for the thousands and thousands of men like me when he spoke (too modestly of himself) and said that, when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy, but, after all, he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing: and then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier, but, still, he was not a Socialist, and he did nothing; and then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something - but then it was too late."

“‘Yes,’ I said.’”

“‘You see,’ my colleague went on, "one doesn't see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' Why not? - Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.”

"Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, 'everyone is happy.' One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there will be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, 'It's not so bad' or 'You're seeing things' or 'You're an alarmist.'”

"And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can't prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don't know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have.”

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked – if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in '43 had come immediately after the 'German Firm' stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in '33. But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.”

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying 'Jew swine,' collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in – your nation, your people – is not the world you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God.”

“How is this to be avoided among ordinary men, even among educated ordinary men?” Mayer’s friend asked rhetorically.

He said, “Frankly, I don’t know.”

Here’s how. The Germans in the thirties did not have the benefit of looking back to previous Nazi-like regimes and saying, “Ah, oh! We’ve seen this movie before”.

We have that benefit. So when we see stories like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying, “Well, we have nuclear power now.” And Bush saying, “Well, we’re sending another fleet of aircraft carriers to park up alongside Iran” - at the same time Iran is talking about switching oil dollars into euros. Well, we’ve seen this movie before.

Last week, George Bush signed a bill allowing us to sell nuclear technology to India. Sending this fuel in the first place is like pouring gasoline on the fire of war that could spread worldwide. But Bush went a step further. He didn’t like the restrictions that Congress tried to place on India’s use of the stuff, so he attached a signing statement to the bill. Bush has now attached over 1000 signing statements to laws passed by congress. Most of our laws are meaningless now, because of these signing statements. Executive power increases out of control whenever a country is at war. We’ve seen this movie before.

When will we ever learn? We have the precedent of history, so we have no excuse. We also have a new Democratic congress with subpoena power to investigate how this happened, and who is responsible. Perhaps the new legislative branch can reign in the arrogant overreaching executive branch, which continues to threaten the world with more pre-emptive wars. Perhaps the 110th congress can also gradually undo the tremendous damage this administration has inflicted upon this country, but it will take generations to dig us out of the economic hole we find ourselves in. Facing a recession, George Bush’s solution is to encourage Americans to shop. He suggested that after 9/11, when we could have united the world behind us. Shopping didn’t work then, and it won’t work now, because Americans have a negative savings on the average, and spending beyond our means will simply put another nail in the coffin of the middle class, which has been attacked by every administration since Reagan.

Obviously, we cannot leave the politics up to the politicians, be they Democrats or Republicans. The power still belongs to the people somewhat, so we must start the parade, and the politicians will naturally jump in front of it and carry the baton. The ISG is correct. The situation is dire. Our President is ignoring the intervention. The dry drunk is threatening Iran. We are teetering on the brink of World War III. We must act, before it’s too late. Otherwise, like Pastor Niemoller, if we survive the “long war”, we will have to humbly tell the saga of the downfall of American Democracy and economy to our children, and how we stood still and did nothing to stop it.

Nukes for mangoes

2006-12-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

America’s nuclear leadership - trading nuclear technology for tropical fruit.

Last Monday, December 18th, George W. Bush signed into law a bill that would allow the U.S. to trade nuclear, or as the shrub would say “Nucular” technology to India.

I believe there should be certain minimum qualifications for a President - he should at least be able to pronounce the type of weapon he's launching when he presses the button.

By signing this bill, Bush scrapped the U.S. Atomic Energy Act. And by doing that he scrapped the idea of us being a force for less nukes in the world. It will also fan an arms race with India's nuclear rivals Pakistan and China. Now that we can ship nukes to India, can we also now ship nukes to Pakistan? How can you ship nukes to India and not to Pakistan? Pakistan has fought three wars with India, and rising power China will expand their arsenal against New Delhi. Beijing will also offer Islamabad nuclear assistance that Washington has refused to provide.

Last summer India test-fired the Agni-III surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile off the coast of Orissa state. It crashed into the Bay of Bengal without reaching its target. The listed range of the Agni III, is 1,865 miles, hundreds of miles longer than that of other missiles India has tested, would put more of China's major cities within striking distance.

The despotic murderer Idi Amin once said that the way to make peace in the world is to arm every country with nuclear weapons. He also admitted to eating human flesh, and thought his face was the most beautiful face in the world.

Another despotic murderer, George W. Bush, after signing the bill, said, “After 30 years outside the system, India will operate it’s civilian nuclear energy program under internationally accepted guidelines, and the world is going to be safer as a result.” Looks like the two despots use the same philosophy and Orwellian doublespeak. Up is down - right is wrong - war is peace. Bush is living in the alternate universe called upsidedown world.

The deal reverses 30 years of U.S. policy that, until July 2005, opposed nuclear cooperation with India because it developed nuclear weapons in contravention of international standards and never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT.

The new law “may well become the death warrant to the international nuclear nonproliferation regime,” said Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts.

What this says to the rest of the world is that if you develop your nukes outside the system, then you get rewarded for it by the United States.

In this deal, India gets nuclear technology and fuel, in exchange for opening some of it’s civilian sites for inspection. The eight of it’s military nuclear sites will closed. The question as to whether or not India was trading nuclear technology with Iran was closed off for comment by the Bush administration. Congress asked about that when they were voting on this. The Bush administration said “You don’t have any right to know about that.”

Bush sold the Indian government technology which was really everything that India dreamed of having, because India is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty, so India gets to import nuclear fuel and technology to produce nuclear energy, and also got permission from Bush to continue to build as many nuclear weapons as it desires. They can build bombs in their secret sites, and no one can inspect them. Bush just went over there gave them Carte Blanche, and in so doing completely obliterated the very serious non-proliferation treaty, because other countries who see this deal will think they can do the same thing. It’s a good deal for India. What did we get?

“The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes.” – George W. Bush, March 2nd, 2006

We got mangoes.

They did that deal in under two hours, because Bush really didn’t feel like negotiating that day, and he didn’t want to change his schedule, so he just said, “whatever you want”, and walked away.

India and Pakistan are natural rivals because of disputed territory in Kashmir.

Thirty years ago, an Indian holy man, Swami Prabhupada, predicted that World War III would start between India and Pakistan.

From a morning walk conversation, April 4, 1975, in Mayapur, India:

Prabhupada: Yes. All Western adventure to keep people in darkness. And that is going on. Now it will be smashed by the next war. Next war will come very soon.
Tamala Krsna: (Surprised) Oh!
Prabhupada: Yes.
Tamala Krsna: Next war...?
Prabhupada: Your country, America, is very much eager to kill these Communists. And the Communists are also very eager. So very soon there will be war. And perhaps India will be the greatest sufferer… Because America is aiming to start the war from India.
Devotee: Oh!
Prabhupada: Yes. Because India and Russia, they are...
Brahmananda: They are... Friendship.
Prabhupada: No. Side by side. If the war is started from India...
Rupanuga: So India will become...
Prabhupada: And the Russians are ready here already, I have heard, with soldiers and... Not soldiers. I mean to say...
Hamsaduta: Missiles.
Prabhupada: Yes. They are also vigilant… Pakistan will start the war with India. And then everything will be...
Tamala Krsna: Will this war spread to many different countries and continents?
Prabhupada: Yes.

The swami predicted WWIII would come “soon”. How soon is soon? Well, back in 1956, Prabhupada wrote an article in Back To Godhead called "Blind Materialism” in which he gave a very chilling estimate:

Merry Christmas, America!

A call for a day of prayer and fasting

2006-10-17T18:32:00.000-05:00

On October 5th, people protested in over a hundred cities nationwide. The message was “World Can’t Wait – drive out the Bush regime.”

It was an angry protest, and people used the opportunity to vent their frustrations with this administration.

I would like to suggest that this type of angry demonstration needs some balance. We need to look within ourselves. Progressive religious leaders should organize a day of prayer and fasting.

Bill O’Reilly and the religious right try to prefix the word Progressive with the adjective “secular”. This is an unfair characterization of the Progressive movement, because a majority of them have faith in God, and refuse to let the right frame them as “Godless.”

In his book, "Tempting Faith", David Kuo describes how Karl Rove cynically used the religious right for political purposes, and now, the faithful are waking up to this fact. Now they know that Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rove, and their sycophants in Congress do not have a monopoly on moral values, especially when they vote for pre-emptive war, tax breaks for the rich, and at the same time, cut programs that help the poor. They can make a show of religion, but action speaks louder than words.

In four days, the Eisenhower Strike Group of Navy will position itself off the coast of Iran, and could start firing it’s cruise missiles into that nation within weeks, which would cause a worldwide catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. What is the reason for this illegal pre-emptive strike? They simply want to remain in power.

The neo-cons want to start another war, just like they did in 2004, so that they can keep us in total fear, and claim to be the ones to keep us safe from terror. They will tell us not to “change horses in mid-stream.” But if your horse is an ass… then you must change horses.

All spiritualists, whether Democrat or Republican, must look within him or herself, and carefully ask the question, “Who would Jesus bomb? Who would Jesus torture?” If we take a day out to pray and fast, I think many people will come to the realization that the current path we are on is not the one Jesus would lead us down.

Anyone can go out in the street and vent their anger, but it takes real introspection to examine policy and judge it on the basis of scripture and the examples of the lives of the saints, who lived their lives by that scripture, which is a literal incarnation of the will of God. George W. Bush said that Jesus told him to invade Iraq. Although he might believe it, from my own scriptural studies and my limited perception of what I see as God’s will, I don’t think so. Jesus said, “Blessed be the Peacemakers, for they will inherit the earth.” George W. Bush said, “War is peace” so his interpretation of Jesus’ words on the sermon of the mount is “Blessed are the warmongers, for they will inherit the oil.”

In this upcoming election, we must choose the men who will lead this country's legislative branch. We must put our anger aside, and look within our souls to find the answer. Spiritual answers do not come from our external sense perception. Conclusive Truth always comes from within.

No one explains the difference of the value of introspective soul-searching as opposed to external sense perception more eloquently than the great American Scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary, — between poets like Herbert, and poets like Pope, — between philosophers like Spinoza, Kant, and Coleridge, and philosophers like Locke, Paley, Mackintosh, and Stewart, — between men of the world, who are reckoned accomplished talkers, and here and there a fervent mystic, prophesying, half insane under the infinitude of his thought, — is, that one class speak from within, or from experience, as parties and possessors of the fact; and the other class, from without, as spectators merely, or perhaps as acquainted with the fact on the evidence of third persons. It is of no use to preach to me from without. I can do that too easily myself. Jesus speaks always from within, and in a degree that transcends all others.” - R.W. Emerson, from “The Over-Soul” Essays: First Series (1841)

Para-Sukhe Duùkhé

2006-10-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a great saint from Bengal, India 1838-1914.

He was very humble, but thought himself the greatest of sinners. In one of the verses from Saranagati, he describes himself as the lowest of mankind, who derives pleasure in seeing the distress of others. The words para-sukhe duùkhé are very significant in the following verse. Sukhe means happiness and duùkhé means distress.

From Saranagati – by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Song 4, Verse 2

nija sukha lägi’, päpe nähi òori,
doyä-héna swärtha-paro
para-sukhe duùkhé, sadä mithya-bhäñé,
para-duùkha sukha-karo

TRANSLATION
“For the sake of my own enjoyment I have never hesitated to perform sinful acts. Devoid of all compassion, I am concerned only with my selfish interests. Perpetually speaking lies, I become dejected upon seeing others happy, whereas the misery of others is a source of great delight for me.”

In the past, America has been a beacon of the moral high ground, setting the standard for other nations by practicing the golden rule of treating others like we would like to be treated. Through both of the World Wars, and the Cold War, America has never tortured it’s enemies, because we knew that if we did, our own soldiers would be tortured by our enemies. We faced Hitler, the suicide bombing Kamikaze pilots from Japan, and thousands of nuclear weapons were pointed at us from Russia during the cold war, but we still did not lower our standards.

On September the 11th 2001, 19 men used box cutters to commandeer 3 planes in order to fly them into buildings, and now our government is waging a “war on terror”. They say we must use torture to acquire information on the terrorists, before they can strike us again. The CIA, however, does not want to participate in this technique, because they know that torture does not work. It yields faulty information, because the tortured detainees will often give wrong information just to stop the pain.

Why, then, has the Bush administration adopted this policy of torture? Why has it pushed a bill (S.3930) through congress that shreds the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and gives the President the prerogative to say what the Geneva Convention defines as torture?

The New York Times said, “the definition of torture is unacceptably narrow, a virtual reprise of the deeply cynical memos the administration produced after 9/11. Rape and sexual assault are defined in a retrograde way that covers only forced or coerced activity, and not other forms of nonconsensual sex. The bill would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture.”

The bill also gives the President the power to detain and torture anyone he wants forever without legal recourse.

The Times says this is a "dangerously broad definition of 'illegal enemy combatant' in the bill (which) could subject legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted."

Germany’s congress gave Hitler the same power with the Enabling Act. This legislation paved the way to fascism and the ultimate destruction of Nazi Germany. Is America going down the same road? Why are Bush and Cheney following in Hitler and Himmler’s footsteps, when they know that torture does not work?

Perhaps because they just get off seeing other people suffer.

What are the psychological reasons some people derive pleasure in seeing others suffer?

Harvard trained D.C. psychoanalyst and George Washington Medical Center Professor Justin A. Frank has a new book out called “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President” in which he discusses the President’s behavior of torturing others for torture’s sake. Last week he talked to Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio, Sept. 29th.

RHODES: The things we are about to ask you and hear the answers to are going to shock an appall some people who think that Bush is doing the right thing by suspending Habeas Corpus, by asking for permission to declare anyone, including a citizen of the United States, an enemy combatant, imprison them for life without justice, and torture them? What kind of person does that, in freest country in the world? What is his psychology about torture and doing away with free speech?

DR. FRANK: As a psychoanalyst, it’s very important to look at his entire life. It’s been full of examples of torture, from his childhood - where he used to torture small animals - blowing up frogs with firecrackers, from his youth – when he would brand people on the buttocks naked with a hot coat-hanger, and then say it is nothing more than a cigarette burn. This is a man with a long history of sadistic, cruel behavior. He gets pleasure from torturing people, and he always has. He has always enjoyed heroes who are soldiers, sailors, war veterans, but not just those kind, who are in the army, but people who are killers, cowboys – he talks about it on a regular basis. He has always worshipped the tough guy, and violence. He is very much like a 7-year-old boy, stuck at the age of 7, who lives for vengeance, power, beating up on the weaker people, and avoiding the stronger people, and now he is the President.

It’s a shocking story. He was the oldest of his siblings. He had a terrible tragedy when he was 7, when his sister died. He was the first born, and when he was 3 and a half, his sister was born. When he was the second grade, his sister contracted leukemia, and she died. There was no funeral. There was no talking about her being sick, and the day after she died, the parents, handling grief in their own way – played golf. George was not told about her death until a couple of days later. There was never any talk about it. One of the things that is very important in a child, when there’s a death like that is that they have sibling rivalry and murderous wishes towards their sibling, if they are the first born, and the next one comes along, and knocks them out of the “Garden of Eden.”

He was also close to Robin, because she was a playmate till she got sick. She was very vivacious, and I think that he really loved her. He couldn’t talk about that side of things. He couldn’t talk to his mother about what a great person she was, and how he’s missing her, so there was not way to talk about either his guilt about feeling murderous, or his sense of loss, because he felt he might hurt his mother and make her feel even more depressed.

(Ed. Note: His mother has also always been a very sick individual. After Katrina, when she visited the Superdome, she looked at all the black victims and said, “These people were poor anyway, so this is working out quite well for them.”)

There was no place for him, so he retreats into cruel behavior, and disconnection. It’s calling “splitting”, or schizoid behavior, where you disconnect yourself from the effects you have on other people. After that, he was “on the road,” he became cruel, sadistic, funny - a bully at the schoolyard - a verbal bully all the time. This was his way of managing things that were unmanageable, and I would say, he became as close to psychopathic as you can be.

RHODES: Wow. So now, he’s in charge of the entire apparatus of military justice. Does he understand the concept of justice?

DR. FRANK: No. He does not. The issue for him is being right, and certain, and never ever admitting a mistake, or defeat of any kind. In the Woodward book that came out today, State of Denial, one of the quotes was so interesting. It said, there were some Republicans at the White House, and he said to them, ‘I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.’ Now, a couple of things: he said during the campaign of 2004, he called her “Laura the lump”. So, he is “lumping” his wife and his dog as non-people who have to support him. He does not care about what anybody thinks. He is so hell-bent on being right that it does not matter. That kind of statement is not the statement of the President of the United States. It’s a statement of someone he does not care about the people of the United States.

RHODES: What’s interesting are the people he surrounds himself. They are also damaged. I started writing a book a long time ago, and I never finished it, because it made me sick. I looked at their background: Karl Rove – his father was not really his father. He didn’t meet his real father till he was forty. His mother committed suicide in a Reno hotel. Newt Gingrich – is not really Newt Gingrich, he is McPherson – his father beat him too - two alcoholic parents raised him. Cheney was also alcoholic – he had two DUIs. Bush, also DUI. Laura apparently killed her boyfriend in an accident in the middle of nowhere in Midland, TX, sold pot at SMU. What is with these people that they all found each other?

DR. FRANK: It’s hard to know how they all found each other, but it’s all probably a marriage made in… I don’t know where, but not in heaven. It’s really perfect for them. They really feed off of each other, and they have kind of a gang mentality, which is a way to stay safe, and Bush has surrounded himself, and brilliantly so, with people who agree with him – who support him. The thing that disturbs me… and I also was starting another book called Enabling Cain – and I got sick also, like you have been. It’s about how we always support killers, so often, and how come these three senators Warner, and Rockefeller, recently backed down immediately after two days of protest.

RHODES: And Spector, who put the Habeas amendment on the floor, votes against his own bill! It’s just stunning the bullying that must go on!

DR. FRANK: The bullying really works. I think that Rove is much more effective than J. Edgar Hoover was in the 50’s in terms of God knows what he has on these people to get them to shut-up.

RHODES: One of the most offensive things Bush said recently was that, “when the final history was written about Iraq, it will look like just a comma.”

You have a hundred people showing up dead and tortured every single day in a country that never say one single suicide bomber before we invaded and occupied them, and now people are asking him how horrible this is. If you want to talk punctuation, I want to say this man has his head up his colon, but I want to get your psychoanalysis on how he puts things.

DR. FRANK: Why didn’t Wolf Blitzer say something after that statement? There was no follow up. That is one of the issues that also concerned me. The complicity of the media, who may sometimes ask good questions, but does not follow them up. And the question then is, why doesn’t he follow it up? I think he doesn’t want to know what he would find out, and that is the main point I wanted to make - that President Bush is indifferent to the loss of life. He really does not care. He wants to invade Iraq. He wants… for whatever reason, I don’t know – I can’t read his mind, but I do know that he is indifferent, and the indifference has to do with a phenomenon called “splitting”, which has to do with disconnecting the effect of his actions and dehumanizing other people. This is a way of diminishing his destructiveness. He has always done that all of his life from when he was a child, and from when he was in college, when he was branding people - and when he was interviewed in the New York Times, he said, “It’s nothing worse than a cigarette burn.” Who goes burning people with cigarettes? But separately, it’s a way of dismissing his actions.

RHODES: It almost kind of feels like Osama bin Laden might be Bush’s imaginary friend. That would be wrong, right? That would be impossibly wrong for me to say or think wouldn’t it?

DR. FRANK: I don’t think it’s that impossible.

RHODES: O.K. All right… Oh! YOU DON’T???

DR. FRANK: I’m sorry to say that there is a central thing they have in common which is fundamentalism, and hatred of and disrespect for the life of others, and the willingness to kill in order to prove their point.

RHODES: That is creepy. Sometimes, when I listen to what Osama bin Laden says, and then the President quotes him, I can’t tell if he’s quoting him, or the President is saying this. It’s almost identical, you’re right, with the fundamentalism, and the love of death - the bring on the rapture thing, where Bush’s religion thinks that dying is a good thing, and that if you go up in the rapture, you will go up into paradise, and Osama bin Laden says the same thing. They are both equally in awe of death. They have this special place in their hearts and minds about death – they don’t want to live life. They just want to sort of kill time to get to the next place. It’s creepy. Here's another thing I would like you to comment on. Bush compares himself to two great American Democrats:

BUSH: The Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction, and endless second-guessing. The party of FDR, and the party of Harry Truman, has become the party of cut and run.

DR. FRANK: This is a man who is now demonizing anyone who disagrees with him. He has taken disagreement, and turned it into “cut and run”. Any kind of thought, or thoughtfulness, is an anathema to this man, because his world, for all his life has been split up into good and bad and Cowboys and Indians. There is no such thing as thought. There is no such thing as dialogue and interaction, because that is dangerous, and it makes him anxious. He has a long history of avoiding it, or of mocking people, or of saying, “I don’t do nuance”, or of putting people down as a way of thought. It makes him crazy. In the Goldwater movie, when he decides to run for President, and he talks to JFK about how he wants to go across the country with it, like the Lincoln/Douglass debate, and present it in front of the people – that could no more happen today, than anything, and that’s because we have a very divisive situation with a President who cannot tolerate any kind of debate or discussion. It’s very frightening.

RHODES: When I seen him do his Rose Garden press conferences, even though he knows the questions – they’ve all been screened – no one gets a follow up, he makes fun of every reporter by giving them some goofy name – he mocked a blind man for wearing sunglasses… Is that because he might be anxious that somebody might be smarter than him in the room, and mark him for being a phony? Why is he so nasty?

DR. FRANK: If you can scratch a bully hard enough, if you can get close to him, you will find that they are very frightened people, and if you ever stand up to a bully, they will cave. This is a man who is now 60, has honed to a fine-tuning, the ability to push people around, give nicknames, and make fun of people. It is because he’s anxious, but he covers it over very well with his own joking around, and dismissing (the comma is a dismissal). He is what I would call a “triumphalist”. He believes in triumph, and that’s the most important thing.

RHODES: And for him is not the means to be respected, it’s the end. It’s exactly the opposite of what we teach our kids. We say the end does not justify the means, you have to be fair, you have to be clean - we have to respect the law, we have to work within the rules…

DR. FRANK: Why do we teach our kids that? Because naturally, they are actually like Bush - they are untaught. That’s who they would be. This is a man who has been unsocialized, except for learning how to be polite sometimes and put on a suit. But basically he is like a 7 year old inside of a man’s body.

RHODES: Oh my God! And he’s got his finger on the nuclear football – and he controls our economy. He controls our foreign policy. He refuses to engage in diplomacy. When all the people who were here at the UN in New York and could solve the problems of the world were asking for a debate, and Bush was freaked out by it so he wouldn’t be in the building at the same time.

DR. FRANK: He can’t even look them in the eye. He has to run and hide. He had all kinds of contingency plans in case he ran into the President of Iran in the hallway… that they would have separate exits. That’s been written up in some of the papers I’ve read. It’s really disturbing that he had the entire secret service to make sure he didn’t run into anybody. When you are saying when you’re talking about Habeas Corpus, and what we are on to – this is a dangerous President – this is a serious problem, and when we are joking about his misspeaking and all of that stuff – we are missing the point. This is a very dangerous situation.

(Ed. Note) The proper human attitude is humility. This is the way the saint Bhaktivinoda actually looks upon himself. Here is Song 4 of the Saranagati in its entirety:

First Principle of Surrender: Dainya

Humility

Song 4

1) My life is ever given to sin; in it there is not a particle of good. I have caused others great anxiety, and have troubled all souls.*

2) For the sake of my own enjoyment I have never hesitated to perform sinful acts. Devoid of all compassion, I am concerned only with my selfish interests. Perpetually speaking lies, I become dejected upon seeing others happy, whereas the misery of others is a source of great delight for me.

3) There are limitless material desires within the core of my heart. I am wrathful, fond of exhibiting arrogance, intoxicated by vanity, and bewildered by worldly affairs. I wear the cherished ornaments of envy and egotism.

4) Ruined by laziness and sleep, I resist all pious deeds, yet am very enthusiastic to perform wicked acts. For the sake of worldly fame and reputation I engage in the practice of deceitfulness. I am victimized by my own greed, being always lustful.

5) A vile, wicked man such as this, rejected by godly people, is a constant offender. Devoid of all good works, forever inclined toward evil, he is worn out and wasted by various miseries.

6) Now in old age, deprived of all means of relief, thus humbled and poor, Bhaktivinoda submits his tale of grief at the feet of the Supreme Lord.

Calling the kettle black

2006-09-06T10:46:00.000-05:00

Last week, Rumsfeld rose from his lead lined coffin to tell the majority of Americans (and the rest of the world) that they are "Nazi appeasers".

He compared his critics to those who believed “in the decades before World War II” that Hitler “could be appeased” and “argued that the fascist threat was exaggerated — or that it was someone else’s problem.” People critical of his current efforts, according to Rumsfeld, “have still not learned history’s lessons.” Rumsfeld added, “any moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere.”

In December of 1983, Reagan White House Middle East Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld shook hands with Saddam Hussein after selling him weapons of mass destruction. On March 24th, the day the UN released the report that those weapons had been used against Iranian troops, Rumsfeld visited again. The New York Times reported from Bagdad, on March 29th, “American diplomats pronounced themselves satisfied with relations between Iraq and the United States and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been restored all but in name.”

It is plain to see that for decades, the appeaser of the enemy has been Donald Rumsfeld, not the American people. (See "The True Iraq Appeasers" by Peter W. Galbraith, Boston Globe, Aug. 31st). Rumsfeld is the one who is morally and intellectually confused about who and what is right or wrong. First Saddam is a good guy, now, he’s a bad guy. To make the moral judgement that we are good and Iraq is evil is not just confused, it’s bad theology. Donald Rumsfeld is also mentally confused. He thinks if we don’t stay in Iraq, Al-Quiada will invade Spain. He is mentally deranged old koot. He is Coo-Coo for Cocoa-Puffs. Nine gererals, and the majority of the American people want him placed the in looney bin, or at least into retirement.

Donald Rumsfeld is very afraid that the Democrats will regain control of the congress, so he, and George W. Bush are campaigning again, along with the “religious right”.
James Dobson will be here in my home town of Pittsbugh next month to tell his flock to vote for the party with moral clarity – the Republicans??!? I didn’t hear Jesus say anything on the sermon on the mount about pre-emptive war! He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the chilren of God.” I never heard him say we should give tax-breaks for the rich! Jesus was all about peace, and helping the poor. In other words, he’s an appeaser of the fascists.

George W. Bush is equating Bin Laden with Lenin and Hitler, saying that if we don’t pay attention to Bin Laden, there will be an even bigger price to pay. He is talking about World War III, a war that he may start out of political desparation. He doesn’t care about Bin Laden. He said, “I don’t know where he is. I really don’t spend that much time on him.” Bush and Rumsfeld are like cornered theives. Facing the prospect of answering to the American people, they will accuse us of more and more outlandish crimes. They will not let that happen. They would rather start World War III, let millions die, declare martial law, and cancel the election.

Sean Hannity is peeing his pants, saying “This is the moment to say that there are things in life worth fighting and dying for and one of 'em is making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn't become the speaker.” What is he talking about? A Jihad? An assassination? Who knows? This is someone who lies for a living, so we can’t really take his statement literally. We do know at this point, however, how scared they are. Nothing scares them more than answering to the American people.

Cheney plays the terror card

2006-08-17T03:39:00.000-05:00

Just before the 2004 elections, Vice President Cheney warned that if Kerry was elected, "the danger is that we'll get hit again" by terrorists.

Recently, Cheney said that voters who supported Lamont's antiwar campaign in the Democratic primary were giving "the Al Qaeda types" exactly what they wanted, and that the Democratic Party now stands for a wholesale retreat in the broader campaign against terror.

Déjà vu! Cheney is playing the terror card again, this time just before the mid-term elections. He’s betting Americans won’t call his scary bluff that Democrats are weak on terror.

Americans, however, have a better hand – polls show most trust Congressional Democrats more than Bush when it comes to protecting our national security.

Cheney’s got nothing, because the occupation in Iraq has diverted attention from protecting America from terrorism, inflamed the whole Middle East, and is helping Al Qaeda attract new recruits. Bin Laden is still on the loose, and President Bush said he “really doesn’t spend much time on him.”

The Vice President has played this outrageous hand too many times, and we won't get fooled again. Americans are going to call his bluff in November.

The “Gitmoization” of America

2006-08-10T17:19:00.000-05:00

On August 2nd, 1934 Paul Von Hindenburg died and chancellor Adolf Hitler became the absolute dictator of Germany, under the title of “Furor,” or “leader.” He assured his people that the Third Reich would last for a thousand years. It was going to be the beginning of a thousand years of peace. This is the same kind of “peace” that George W. Bush is promoting – if there is a war in the Middle East – war will bring about peace.

“Mankind has grown strong in external struggles and it will only perish through eternal peace.” – Adolf Hitler

Of course Hitler’s Reich only lasted eleven years. The reason I think that that anniversary is of particular consequence is that the main way that Hitler achieved power, held power, and made his country insane, was by essentially setting aside the rule of law. People were driven insane, because they were followers of the insane personality cult of Hitler. The passage of the Enabling Laws (see: “Wake Up and Smell The Fascism", July 2nd) shortly after the Parliament building was burned by a 28 year old Dutch communist.

There is still debate about whether or not this man had help from Hitler’s guys – the brown shirts. He probably did. He had tried to set several buildings on fire prior to the successful attempt to burn the Parliament.

After this event, Hitler said, “There are enemies among us, and we have to change the law.” It was a tool that Hitler used brilliantly. He passed the Enabling Laws through parliament that said that the rule of law of democracy in Germany that had been set up after WWI would be modified. The government could now tap telephones without going through a court, if they thought it had to do with terrorism. You don’t have a right to a trial. You don’t have a right to face your accuser. The government could use hearsay against you. They could open your mail without a court order, and you could be held without charges without bail if you were suspected of terrorism.

These laws so concerned the German Parliament, that they put a four year sunset provision on them. In other words if the state of emergency passed, (i.e. the terrorist attack on the Parliament building) then the laws would expire. The parallels between the Enabling Act in Germany and the Patriot Act are absolutely spooky to anyone who has actually read and studied both of them.

Now the Bush administration wants to take it to the next step. This was in the Washington post on August 2nd, the anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power. I am amazed that this wasn’t a screaming headline on every newspaper and every network. It should have been everywhere, but I didn’t see it in any other newspapers that day.

In the Washington Post, buried on page 4, was an article by R. Jeffrey Smith, entitled
"White House Proposal Would Expand Authority of Military Courts." It reads, “A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions…" (First of all, they are renaming these things. They are no longer courts. They are commissions.) “…to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.”

Do you get this? This is a draft plan of circulating around congress right now, around Republicans, saying, “We’re going to change the rules of the game. Yes, we’ve had this thing called the Constitution for 230 years, but time to throw that out the window. After all, it’s a post 9/11 world, and so we don’t need this ‘you have the right to face your accuser’ stuff. We don’t need this ‘you have the right to make bail.’ We don’t need this ‘you have a right to a speedy trial.’ We don’t need this ‘you have the right to know what you’re charged with.’ We don’t need this stuff.”

They want to apply the rules of Guantanamo to you and me!

“The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will…”

In other words, Donald Rumsfeld can simply make up a law. For example, he can say, “It’s now illegal to call George W. Bush a “dufus,” and if you break this particular law, you will be held before one of these “commissions.”

“The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said. The draft proposed legislation, set to be discussed at two Senate hearings today, is controversial inside and outside the administration because defendants would be denied many protections guaranteed by the civilian and traditional military criminal justice systems.

Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.

Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.

John D. Hutson, the Navy's top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000, said the rules would evidently allow the government to tell a prisoner: ‘We know you're guilty. We can't tell you why, but there's a guy, we can't tell you who, who told us something. We can't tell you what, but you're guilty.’”

(This is the Navy’s top lawyer for the last three years of the Clinton administration.)

“Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general during the Reagan administration, said after reviewing the leaked draft that "the theme of the government seems to be 'They are guilty anyway, and therefore due process can be slighted.' " With these procedures, Fein said, "there is a real danger of getting a wrong verdict" that would let a lower-echelon detainee "rot for 30 years" at Guantanamo Bay because of evidence contrived by personal enemies.”
“…Administration officials have said that the exceptional trial procedures are warranted because the fight against terrorism requires heavy reliance on classified information…”

They can even prosecute you for hearsay obtained under torture.

Is this the end of democracy in the United States?

If you’re a peace activist, this story must give you pause, because permanent brand new prisons are already opening Guantanamo Bay, just for people like you.

From the UK Independent, July 30th:
“Camp 6, a state-of-the-art maximum-security jail built by a Halliburton subsidiary, will be able to hold 200 prisoners. Commander Robert Durand, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said the $30m, two-story block was due to open at the end of September. He added: ‘Camp 6 is designed to improve the quality of life for the detainees and provide greater protection for the people working in the facility.’”

Welcome to Gitmo, Americans!

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” (the civilians)

2006-08-03T10:28:00.000-05:00

According to the mainstream news, the timeline for the current mid-east crisis began with Hezbolla kidnapping two Israeli soldiers on June 12th. What they fail to mention is that a few days earlier, on June 9th, an Israeli artillery shell slammed into a crowded beach in the northern Gaza Strip, killing seven members of a Palestinian family, including a baby boy who relatives said was ripped from his mother's arms by the blast. You may remember the video of the nine-year-old girl screaming hysterically on the beach where her whole family had been killed. Video (not for the faint of heart)

The Israeli military apologized for the civilian deaths. The killings prompted some Hamas leaders to call for the renewal of all-out attacks on Israel and an end to a yearlong truce. This was the event that lead to the kidnappings, although no one reports it.

On Wednesday, the 26th of July, Israel started bombing in the area of a UN post in Lebanon. Peacekeepers frantically called the Israeli military, pleading with them that there were no Hezbolla there, and to stop the bombing in the area, otherwise they would be killed. After repeated pleas, 6 hours later, 4 UN peacekeepers were killed.

On Sunday, July 30th, Israel bombed the villiage of Qana in Southern Lebanon, where innocent civilians were taking shelter from the bombings. After 60 civilian deaths, (including 37 children - This photo was seen in "Arab World") Israel was forced to admit that there were no there, and no rockets were being launched from the villiage.

Dozens of members of the Hashem and Chalhoub families had sought refuge in an unfinished house about 10 days ago, thinking it was safe.

Masen Hashem, a 30-year-old construction worker from Qana who lost several family members in the air strike on the shelter said, "When Hezbollah fires their rockets, everyone runs away because they know an Israeli bombardment will come soon… That is why everyone stayed in the shelter and nearby homes, because we all thought we'd be all right since there were no Hezbollah fighters in Qana."

The San Fransico Chronicle reported the deaths of the children: “The tiny, lifeless bodies were laid out in a row on a black straw sheet in the concrete courtyard of the Tyre Government Hospital. Twenty-one of them, all still in the pajamas they were wearing before two Israeli bombs tore through Ali Hashem's home in this southern Lebanese village early Sunday. Dozens of members of the Hashem and Chalhoub families had sought refuge in the unfinished house about 10 days ago, thinking it was safe. Only eight survived.

The Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre was called from Qana pleading for rescue assistance at 5 am on the morning of the Israeli strike. Kassem Shaulan, a 28-year-old medic who responded to the call, said, "Immediately after we got the call we took three ambulances and headed to Qana," he said. "But three bombs nearly hit our first ambulance, so we turned back."

They attempted to head out to Qana a second time, but again their ambulances were attacked, and they returned to base.

If this war wasn’t disgusting enough – attacking Red Cross workers, and UN peacekeepers, the freaks in the right wing media are now either denying, or cheerleading the killing of civilians.

On Monday, July 31st, on The O’Reilly Factor, Michelle Malkin said anger in the Arab world about the tragedy at Qana — where at least 56 innocent civilians, including 37 children, were killed — was “manufactured.” Malkin called it “the jihad du jour” that “members of the religion of perpetual outrage are always ginning up.” She added, “If it’s not Qana, it’s something else. … It’s Gitmo, Abu Ghraib. It’s beauty pageants.”

Transcript:
O’REILLY: Then why — why doesn’t the rest of the world accept your analysis?
MALKIN: Because they are intoxicated. They are clouded by this moral equivalence that has set in over the world for the past several decades. And I think it behooves us to fight against that, to claw against that.
Because the manufactured outrage that Qana is not really about the deaths at Qana; it is something about much larger. It is about the jihad du jour that these — that members of the religion of perpetual outrage are always ginning up. I mean, if it’s not Qana, it’s something else.
O’REILLY: No, I got it. I got it. I got it.
MALKIN: It’s Gitmo, Abu Ghraib. It’s beauty pageants.

While Malkin was busy denying Qana ever happened, conservative talk show host Michael Savage was taunting Israel like a petulant child. “You’re gonna lose! You’re gonna lose!”

MICHAEL SAVAGE: “They’re (the Israeli’s) going to lose. It’s a simple as that – the same way we are losing in Iraq – They’re going to lose in Lebanon in the big picture now. I don’t mean in the short term. In the long term, the only thing that can make a difference is a devastating catastrophic overwhelming victory for the Israelis – where nothing is left living in Southern Lebanon south of the Litani River.”

This “kill them all” idea appealed to Rush Limbaugh, so he started saying the same thing, “the civilians must pay.”

RUSH: "Until civilians — frankly, I’m not sure how many of them are actually just innocent little civilians running around versus active Hezbo types, particularly the men — but until those civilians start paying a price for propping up these kinds of regimes, it’s not going to end, folks. What do you mean, civilians start paying a price? I just ask you to consult history for the answer to that.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann awarded Rush with his "worst person" award (video) because his statements eerily echo another commentator’s sentiments about civilian deaths, as well.

“The American people are not exonerated from responsibility, because they chose this government and voted for it, despite their knowledge of it’s crimes.” - Osama bin Laden

Rush Limbaugh. Following the logic and ethics of Osama bin Laden

Meanwhile, the other terrorist, George W. Bush, despite unanimous international pressure to call for a cease fire, refused to do so, set conditions and refused to negotiate unless they were met.

This is all about George Bush wanting to attack Iran. He’s wanted to do that since last March. That’s what the wanting to set off a couple of kilotons of explosives in Nevada was about - the “Divine Strake” test. But he just doesn’t have the political capitol to do that. He has to come up with a way. His way is to keep up the bombing going as long as possible, hoping that Iran or Syria will break their restraint and attack Israel. He wants to attack Iran, and be able to do it with nukes, so he’s using Israel as his cat’s paw, and this was all set up from the beginning. He wants to push Israel to really screw up with things like this killing of the children in Qana, in order to hype up the leadership in Iran and Damascus, so that they will attack Israel, and he can back up Israel, with some kind of attack in Iran.

When that happens, everyone’s going to forget all about this lead-up, this precursor, because America has a very short attention span. Once this war happens they’ll forget that this all started when they killed a family in Gaza, and then everything started spinning out of control, and Bush is helping the spin. He said this in the Port of Miami:

"Iran must end its financial support and supply of weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Syria must end its support for terror and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon."

What Bush fails to mention is that the US is funding the Israeli military 100%, and conspiring with them to widen the war.

"As we work with friends and allies, it's important to remember this crisis began with Hezbollah's unprovoked attacks against Israel. Israel is exercising its right to defend itself," he lied, because he doesn't have any friends or allies.

"We mourn the loss of innocent life, both in Lebanon and Israel," he lied again.

Bush doesn’t mourn any death, because he is a sick, twisted killer. He won’t be happy until he is raptured up after the Armageddon he is hoping will happen.

Iran and Syria have shown great restraint so far, but if they don’t join in, the Bush administration might have a their own little plan for a 9/11 in Israel with, say, a very small tactical Soviet made nuke that they might have gotten from one of their former Soviet bloc friends around Afghanistan.

I know it's horrible to think about, but think of a small Soviet nuke going off in Israel. That’s going to set Russia back on its heels, saying “We had NOTHING to do with this.” It’ll make China stop and say, “What the HECK is going on?” Because that’s what they always do when something like this happens. It’ll give him 36 hours, then

Tehran glows in the dark.

I hope I’m wrong, but unless someone can tell me I’m absolutely wrong, I’m going to have trouble sleeping at night.

We Are Family

2006-07-30T06:07:00.000-05:00

I used to be an angry young man, but our American and world family is falling apart - becoming dysfunctional. When I see the urgency of the crisis, I grow up quick and learn the necessity of doing something to hold it together. I learn that I have to talk to and negotiate with my brother or sister - even if they don't want to talk to me. I will love and stick by them unconditionally. I will forgive them, even if they make a mistake and do something that harms themselves and others in the family, like picking a fight, or voting against their own best interest, even if it takes years to clean up the mess.

Our father that doesn't want us to fight, and we have to recognize that he loves all his children equally. The same goes for our Father in heaven. "Jesus loves all his children." It isn't that "Jesus loves me, but he can't stand you," or "Jesus loves all his children, but he'll annihilate some." I love everyone in my family, because I am a liberal. Jesus was a liberal.

The Ethics of Stem Cell Research

2006-07-25T11:33:00.000-05:00

President Bush issued the first veto of his presidency on Wednesday, rejecting a bill that would have supported embryonic stem cell research. The bill passed the senate by an overwhelming margin, but just a few votes short of overriding the veto. No matter how you feel about the issue, you have to give the Bush team credit for arranging an amazing photo-op for the announcement.
President Bush surrounded by a gaggle of “snowflake babies.” (in-vitro babies developed from frozen embryos) Bush said, “Each of the children was adopted while still an embryo, and has been blessed with a chance to grow up in a loving family. These boys and girls are not spare parts.”

The scientists of the world who understand embryonic stem cell research, regardless of their religious point of view, understand that this avenue of research is holds enormous potential to treat and cure some of the most brutal diseases and injuries that have afflicted mankind - Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, strokes, spinal cord injuries, and millions more.

Because of in-vitro fertilization clinics, we have hundreds and thousands of surplus embryos, most of which will be autoclaved (incinerated). The ethical question is: is the potential to prevent human suffering and death from these embryos worth the fact that they are destroyed in the process of harvesting the stem cells from them. These are blastocysts, embryos that have only been able to develop for a few days, not larger than the period on the end of this sentence.

The bottom line is that physicians, with regard to the spiritual position of the fertilized egg, are religious decisions, and they belong in the religious domain, and the President and the Congress ought to be about allowing individuals to make those decisions for themselves, and not imposing their religious views, or the religious views of some narrow part of their constituency on the nation as a whole. Accepting this narrow belief based on the premise that life begins at conception would make God Himself the greatest abortionist of all, since 80% of fertilized eggs fail to implant in the mother's uterus and are flushed out during the menstrual cycle.

There was a very strong vote in the Senate and the House supporting stem cell research, and the tide is running very strongly in it’s favor. What is most critical is that some members of congress who have records that are 100% anti-abortion, chose to break away from the line which the anti-abortion groups wanted them to do, and decided that they could not make the ethical decision not to use this research to cure terrible diseases. I am sure that in the next administration, this issue will certainly come up, and I think it is very probable that whoever the next president is, would in fact sign, and not veto this kind of legislation for mere political reasons.

Reporters asked Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, about the president’s veto:

QUESTION: Can you remind us why the president believes that it is not appropriate to use — that it would be more appropriate for stem cells to be thrown away than to be used in this case for medical research?
SNOW: I don’t think that’s the choice that the president is presented. What the president has said is that he doesn’t want human life destroyed. Now, you may consider that insignificant. But the president has said. And you have had in a number of cases the snowflake babies where some of those fetuses have in fact been brought to term and have become human beings. The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it’s inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He’s one of them. Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that this government did make available already existing lines — to get back to your question — there were existing lines. The most recent figures we have are 2004. But 85 percent of all the embryonic stem cell research on Earth was conducted using those lines. There is nothing that makes embryonic stem cell research illegal. It simply says that the federal government will not finance it. As you know, there are ongoing efforts in some states, including, I think, California and Massachusetts, to use state money for it. And I dare say if people think that there’s a market for it, they’re going to support it handsomely. The simple answer is he thinks murder’s wrong. And he has said.

Basically, what ex-Fox news anchor Tony Snow “White” is saying, is that the federal government will not finance stem cell research, because the President says its murder. But the President doesn’t have a problem with the corporations committing it. The result is that corporate CEO’s get richer, at the expense of the poor, who will no longer be able to afford this kind of treatment. Why doesn’t he arrest all the CEO’s of those companies for murder? The answer is that he doesn’t care about the ethics of this issue.

Under the Bush administration, government and corporate interests have merged. Snow talks about the states possibly funding the research, but we are no longer the United States of America. We are the United Corporations of America, which is one of the prominent characteristics of fascism. In fact, the original name for the fascism as defined by Mussolini was “corporatism.”

According to Dr. Lawrence Britt, of Princeton University, one of the 14 characteristics of fascism is:

9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

This explains the quid pro quo lobbying (bribery), corruption, and cronyism that so out of control in this current administration. In addition to cutting governmental funding for everything by turning all agencies over to private corporations (which has resulted in the outsourcing of all our good jobs to other countries), now scientists will be leaving the United States in droves to continue this research overseas.

The President talks a good game about ethics and morality, but not at the expense of his corporate buddies. He’ll veto the first bill of his entire presidency. (The reason he hasn’t vetoed anything, is because he has put “signing statements” into the hundreds of bills that he has signed, saying that he doesn’t have to obey that law if he doesn’t want to. That is called a fascist dictatorship) He’ll get up in the middle of the night on a Saturday when he’s on vacation to sign a bill to prevent the legal guardian from fulfilling the wishes of his brain dead spouse to die in peace, but he’ll stay on vacation for three days before flying over and waving to the Katrina victims, dying by the thousands. He vetoed a bill that would help prevent disease and death, because he wants to appeal to the most extreme of his right wing base, so that his party can stay in power. He says stem cell research is murder, but he doesn’t mind if the corporations do it. And when the children are all grown up, at 18 he doesn’t mind shipping them off to war to become victims of the military-industrial-complex. War and death is good business, and good politics. How is that “pro-life”?

Here is a good analogy that can help you decide on this moral issue. Put yourself in this man's shoes. This is from a father of a child who had a genetic disease that could be passed on to his child. He knew he couldn’t be helped by this kind of research, but he had hope that his two-year-old daughter (who could potentially develop the same disease) could be helped in the future.

He said, “Say a house is on fire. There are two things in the house. There is a frozen blastocyst that is going to be destroyed anyway, and a two-year-old girl. Which one would you save?”

My fellow Americans: Don’t let them frighten you into submission

2006-07-21T03:25:00.000-05:00

FDR once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Three months ago, I wrote (“My fellow Americans: We cannot bomb Iran to peace,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, April 17) because KQV did a poll in which 57% of Pittsburghers said they would approve using nuclear weapons against Iran.

We were afraid then. We are even more afraid now, because the right wing media machine is in overdrive. Their motto is “The only thing we have to sell is fear itself.” For example, Rush Limbaugh recently called the Israeli/Lebanese conflict, a “gift to the world.” This is "finally" our chance to go after Iran. As he puts it, there will be no peace until one side finally defeats the other completely. In his evil mind, peace means bombing and mass murder. Peace indeed… of the graveyard.

The right wing media hacks are not the only ones serving up the death. Republicans have decided what's on their mid-term menu. Start with an appitizer of anti-pasta: Anti flag-burning/gay/brown people/stem cell research for the next couple months, then on to the main course of WWIII rhetoric, with an unhealthy side of fear. On July 15th, the head chef, Newt Gingrich announced the Republican entrée that is guarananteed to make you a a repeat customer. He said that public opinion can change "the minute you use the language" of World War III. The message then, he said, is, "OK, if we're in the third world war, which side do you think should win?"

The rapture right is salivating right now. If you think that is disgusting, the dessert is a decadent “Using war to stay in power” sundae.

Americans: We cannot let these war pigs force fear mongering down our throats.

The shit heard 'round the world

2006-07-17T21:56:00.000-05:00

I was watching Headline News this morning to see what was going on in the Middle East, and I was embarrassed to hear an uncensored clip of a conversation between George W. Bush and Prime Minister Blair at the G-8 summit.

Bush said, “see the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over”

First of all, who is "they"? The leaders of the free world? Uh, that would be you, Mr. President.

The other day, he was up there with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a G-8 press conference and all he could do was keep talking about how he was looking forward to dinner, and "slicing up the pig". A reporter asked him a very serious question about violence in the Middle East, and the standoff in Iran, and Bush said, "I thought you were going to ask about the pig!" Ha ha ha! He's up there doing schtick. What a hayseed.

But wait. The embarrassment didn't end there. At the dinner event, Bush felt compelled to sneak up behind Chancellor Merkel and give her a quick massage. Merkel is a woman of power and Bush finds that kind of exciting. So he makes his move, but he does it in a kind of distracted way, because if he's shot down, he can pretend it never really happened. And boy, did he get SHOT down. She threw up her arms like a move that she learned in a date rape class. Like, "Get your hands OFF me, you filthy manimal!" I have never seen such a look of contempt and disgust on a woman's face. But the real beauty of it was the Forrest Gump look on Bush's face right afterward. "Stupid is as stupid does." It's a new low for him. I think you could find a more intelligent, mature person at a junior high kegger. This is our President, people, and the whole world is laughing at us.

Here's the thing, there is so much shit happening in the world, but Bush passed decency legislation to increase the fines to $325,000 per person, per incident, even if a listener says a "bad word" that slips by the dump button by mistake. No one can afford that. That’s almost a year’s salary for the President of the United States! During the short 90 days congress is in session, they are busy with the decency bill, and anti-gay marriage amendment, anti-brown people bills, and anti-flag burning amendments. The whole world is burning, and this idiot wants a flag burning amendment. It's O.K. when he says shit, but when anyone else does it, they get a fine. Meanwhile the whole world is in the toilet.

You know the legend of King Midas? Everything he touched turned to gold? Bush is the anti-Midas. Everything he touches turns to shit - health care, the environment, the economy, the military, the gulf coast. He has even turned religion into shit by hijacking Jesus into the Republican Party. Now Jesus is pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican!

Here's what I think the punishment should be: every time the President swears, he should put a hundred billion dollars in the swear jar - that way we could pay for the war he started. MSNBC should pay more too, because the hate that comes out of Headline News’ Glenn Beck’s mouth is way more obscene than “shit”.

Maybe if we complain enough, we can get the FCC to do something about this.

You can contact the FCC at the their website, http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475B.cfm, and fill out the FCC Form 475B, the Obscene, Profane, and/or Indecent Material Complaint Form. Tell them when, (aprox. 9:00am et) where (HNN), and what the President said, (see transcript above) how it wasn’t bleeped, and how the transcript was right on the screen spelled out so you could read it. Then you say something like “My nine year old is now running around saying ‘shit, shit, shit’, and when I tell him to stop, he says, ‘If the President can say shit, then so can I.’”

The definition of insanity

2006-07-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

Benjamin Franklin said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." For decades, the Israelis have been applying the tactic of 10,000 eyes for an eye – a massively disproportionate retaliation to every provocative act of resistance attempted by the Palestinians, expecting every time that this would bring peace and security to all the people of the Holy Land. Every single time they have done this, it has backfired. Every single time. It does not intimidate or deter the Palestinians, and it never will. It hardens their determination to resist and to defy.

The United States, being a closely allied to Israel, has a similarly insane policy. Birds of feather, flock together. “Stay the course” – doing the same thing over and over and over again. In Iraq, our soldiers are sent into a village they think the insurgents are, and destroy it. The people who remain alive in the village are very bitter about the loss of their homes and loved ones. They, in turn, become insurgents, and other outside insurgents come back to the same village to join them, and then they have to do the same thing all over again. This process of repetition simply creates more, and more, and more terrorists. There were no terrorists in Iraq before we got there.

In 2002, Dick Cheney predicted, “Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the region. Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of Jihad. Moderates in the region could take heart, and our ability to advance the Palestinian/Israeli peace process would be enhanced.”

So, how’s that working out for you, Dick?

If you are an intelligent and sensitive human being, you learn from your past mistakes and you make a rational decision to try something different. The Israeli leadership for all these many generations and the Bush administration since 9/11 have been incapable of performing that really rather simple mental and moral exercise.

It's astonishingly painful and upsetting to see this go on again and again and again and again and again. The situation between the Israelis and Palestinians has been going on my entire conscious life, and has been one of absolute pain, suffering, terror, death, destruction, and an ultimate flash point for God knows what kind of confrontation, among what nations, and what regions of the world that would begin right there. During the Cold War, or course, the United States and the Soviet Union played Arab against Jew and Jew against Arab over and over and over again. So here we are.

The US has not joined with other countries call on the Israelis for a ceasefire, because it doesn’t believe in negations. The way all wars have been settled in the past has been through negotiations, and the process may be messy, but the crisis is even messier. The man Bush choose to represent the United States at the UN, says Israel “has a right to defend itself”, and condemns Syria and Lebanon. Unfortunately, John Bolton’s philosophy is “do what’s in the interest of the US, and screw everybody else.” What he doesn’t realize in his mustachioed Cro-Magnon skull, is that it is not in our best interest to wage war, and divide other countries against each other with machiavellian politics.

Yesterday, eight Canadians died in Lebanon, a Lebanese-Canadian couple, their four children, his mother and an uncle, said relatives in Montreal. Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, here is what our "diplomat" said: "it is a matter of great concern to us ...that these civilian deaths are occurring. It's a tragedy."

"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he added, while defending as "self-defense" Israel's military action, which has had "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths".

In other words, Lebanon civilian deaths are morally not same as terror victims. That's good diplomacy - to tell Lebanese civilians (who want nothing to do with any of this, they are simply caught in the middle) that their deaths do not count as much as Israeli deaths.

John Bolton and the chicken hawks WANT WWIII. That's why they’re talking like this. Every one of them is saying we are already in WWIII. It’s like a freak show, - Newt Gingrich, Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh. What’s so freaky about it? They all talk out of the same mouth. Wow! Hey mom, give me a dollar! I want to go to the carnival freak show! Rush says that getting rid of the Mulahs in Iran is a great opportunity. Bombing and killing is a great opportunity.

They all talk like this because it’s good for the Republicans in November. If they can make the WWIII the national issue, then it won't matter how much the Republicans screwed up this country, Americans will be scared to death, and they vote for them in again because of the “security issue”. They will destroy the whole world as long as they can use the war to stay in power, and at the same time make money through the military industrial complex. Here is the Republican motto in the midterms: "The only thing we have to USE is fear itself," which is of course, exactly the opposite of FDR's famous saying. Bolton is worried, because after the midterms, his recess job appointment comes up for assessment again, and if the Democrats take the Senate he will be handed a pink slip. Even if Democrats don't take the senate, he could be gone, because he's such an asshole, even the current senate rejected him, that why Bush put him in on recess. You can always count on Bush to get the best man for the job. "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie!"

Encouraging and supporting Israel in a bloody confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon may seem to be a justified and reasonable action in the shortest of terms and from the narrowest of perspectives, but the United States of America is not Israel, and we have regional and global interests and responsibilities that far surpass those of this one small ally. This reactionary small mindedness will not serve America, or the world in the long run.

It doesn’t matter “who started it”. If you take land and houses and personal freedoms away from individuals, and if you systematically deprive a whole people of dignity and national identity, they do not forgive or forget their deep sense of injury, deprivation and injustice. Giving them a thorough beating at regular intervals, or endlessly frustrating their hopes of enjoying the benefits of political self-determination and economic prosperity, does not diminish their personal bitterness of alleviate their collective hunger for revenge and restitution. That point should be beyond debate, in my opinion.

Open confrontation of Hezbollah by the United States, allied with Israel, will have a powerful impact on the Iranian people, as well. Argue, if you will, that Iran is a known supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas, and thus of international terrorism. That is a reality that none can deny. But let's look beyond Bolton's bully national self interest and look at long term, not just for the United States, but for the world. prioritize. It is the people of Iraq and Iran on whom we depend not just for "regime change" in the short term, but for peace and stability (and resistance to terrorism) throughout the region in the decades ahead. It is the people of those countries whose trust and respect we must win. We don't do that by threatening to nuke them, forcing our brand of democracy on them, putting them out of work, insulting their leaders, refusing to negotiate, etc., etc.. It is the trust and respect of those people that we have lost --- to a significant extent because we are identified in their minds with the narrow interests of Israel. Why is that so difficult for Americans to understand?

The national philosophy of Israel and the United States (it is really deeper and more significant that just a military tactic) that underlies this devotion to pre-emptive war, massive over-reaction, and particularly its corollary, collective punishment, is obviously and demonstrably foolish and futile. It doesn’t deter enemies, and it never will. It simply creates more enemies.

The philosophy is complicated by the misinterpretation of religion, claiming that this or that tract of land was given by God to a certain group of people. That conclusion is false. We don’t have any rights to God’s property. If we claim any rights, then we are thieves – even if we do so in the name of our religion.

As Prabhupada said in “The Peace Formula”: “The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon other’s property as though it were one’s own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature…This earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming God’s property as our own, under both and individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of foolish and so-called civilized men who are claiming proprietary rights on the property of God because they have now become godless… In the Bhagavad-gita, the holy book of India, Lord Krishna delineates the peace formula. He says that He is the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living entities, that He is the Supreme Lord of all universes, and that He is the well-wishing friend of all beings. When the people of the world know this as the formula for peace, it is then and there that peace will prevail.”

India vs. Pakistan – WWIII?

2006-07-13T14:44:00.000-05:00

Recently, there have been a number of successive events, which indicate that the world, (especially the Middle East) may be on the brink of full-scale war. Here is the timeline:

Tuesday, July 4th: North Korea launches seven missiles including its long-range Taepodong-2, to send the United States a signal. The North Koreans are quite familiar with the new US policy of pre-emptive war, and the State-run media stepped up its rhetoric with the United States on Monday, July 3rd reporting that the country would respond to any pre-emptive U.S. military attack with an "annihilating strike and a nuclear war."

Sunday, July 9th: A Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Multan Airport in eastern Pakistan Monday, killing all 45 people aboard. Among the were two judges from Lahore High Court, two army brigadiers, and a vice-chancellor of a government university in Multan. That’s a pretty heavy payload of important people.

Monday, July 10th: In India, the Agni-III surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile was test-fired off the coast of Orissa state but crashed into the Bay of Bengal without reaching its target. The listed range of the Agni III, is 1,865 miles, hundreds of miles longer than that of other missiles India has tested, would put more of China's major cities within striking distance.

Tuesday, July 11th: A series of bombs strike Bombay's packed commuter trains, and India demands that Pakistan dismantle the "infrastructure of terrorism." The bombers, it turned out, systematically chose first-class men’s compartments, targeting the white-collar establishment.

Today, Thursday, July 13th: As I am writing this, CNN is reporting that the entire Middle East is on the brink of war. Israel attacked the Beirut airport, because the Hezbollah kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Lebanese Hezbollah counterattacked by firing rockets into Haifa, Israel, killing19 people, so Israel hit the airport again, and it is in flames right now. Lebanese and Syrian civilians are currently moving into air-raid shelters, because they are afraid they might be bombed.

Bush, of course, is taking the role as cheerleader by saying that Israel has a right to defend itself. One of Bush's stated goals in taking out Saddam Hussein was that it would help the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I can't think of any policy that this administration has enacted - foreign or domestic, that hasn't resulted in exactly the opposite result - disastrous consequences. (see previous post "Upside Down World") Back in February of 2003, George Bush justified his policy in this way, "Old patterns of conflict in the Middle East can be broken if all concerned will let go of bitterness, hatred and violence, and get on with the serious work of economic development, political reform, and reconciliation. America will seize every opportunity in pursuit of peace."

I don't think that has happened. In fact, the war and subsequent occupation has only strengthened the most extreme fundamentalist groups, and the result is that right at this moment, the situation in the Middle East is deteriorating very rapidly. Israel is doing exactly what Hezbollah wanted to achieve with its provocations. Israel is accusing Syria and Iran of orchestrating this, and now, a nightmare scenario such as Israel striking Iran, with Iraq in the middle, would create nothing less than a superhighway of terrorists through that region, is not as remote a possibility as it was last month.

Meanwhile, back here in the good old USA, idiot talking heads in the media are running around like chicken-hawks with their heads cut off today, blindly supporting the Bush culture of death policy, and attacking anyone who has a different idea. On his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck proclaimed that recent violence in the Middle East and India are evidence that "we've got World War III to fight," and also warned of "the impending apocalypse." Beck added that President Bush is facing the threat "by himself," while former Vice President Al Gore is more concerned with the fact that "[t]he ice is starting to melt in Greenland." (see previous post: "Who's the greater threat - Fox News, or North Korea?") Glenn Beck is insane. Unstead of talking seriously about an extremely delicate situation, he is hyping a potential WWIII like it's a cheap going out of business sale. This guy has no regard for human life, or the planet. He is a sensational, bloviating idiot, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". The media is in desperate need of journalists who can look at a world situation with gravity and foresight. CNN should fire this heartless, headless hack.

I hate to say it, but Beck might be right about the possibility of an impending third world war. People a lot smarter than him have been predicting this for years.

"But I'm frightened for you children

that the life that we are living is in vain

and the sunshine we've been waiting for

will turn to rain."

The rift between India and Pakistan is worth a closer look. These two countries are natural rivals because of disputed territory in Kashmir. They’ve had three wars in the last few years.

Thirty years ago, the Indian saint, Swami Prabhupada, predicted that WWIII would start between India and Pakistan.

From a morning walk conversation, April 4, 1975, in Mayapur, India:

Prabhupada: Yes. All Western adventure to keep people in darkness. And that is going on. Now it will be smashed by the next war. Next war will come very soon.
Tamala Krsna: (Surprised) Oh!
Prabhupada: Yes.
Tamala Krsna: Next war...?
Prabhupada: Your country, America, is very much eager to kill these Communists. And the Communists are also very eager. So very soon there will be war. And perhaps India will be the greatest sufferer… Because America is aiming to start the war from India.
Devotee: Oh!
Prabhupada: Yes. Because India and Russia, they are...
Brahmananda: They are... Friendship.
Prabhupada: No. Side by side. If the war is started from India...
Rupanuga: So India will become...
Prabhupada: And the Russians are ready here already, I have heard, with soldiers and... Not soldiers. I mean to say...
Hamsaduta: Missiles.
Prabhupada: Yes. They are also vigilant… Pakistan will start the war with India. And then everything will be...
Tamala Krsna: Will this war spread to many different countries and continents?
Prabhupada: Yes.

The swami predicted WWIII would come “soon”. How soon is soon? Well, back in 1956, Prabhupada wrote an article in Back To Godhead called "Blind Materialism” in which he gave a very chilling estimate:

“By the grace of the illusory energy of Godhead we are now engaged more and more in the dangerous type of work in this machine-age. The machine-age is the result of dangerous type of work. When we leave aside the culture of spiritualism, we are entangled in the dangerous type of work. Nobody can live for a moment without work and therefore when finer elements are made to stop working, gross materialism occupies the devil's brain. The result is that we have now come to the age of nuclear weapons for the destruction of material civilization. By the law of nature, the nuclear weapons have been produced for crushing the result of blind-materialism.
The peace move of different powers of the world, by the false gesture of suspending the experiments of dangerous weapons--may be very much pleasing to the comparatively weak nations--but these temporary peace-moves will prove useless by the law of material nature. When the dangerous weapons are produced, they must be utilised for annihilation of blind materialism by the plan of the Daivi Maya or the external energy of Godhead. The problem can be solved when they are taught about their spiritual identity. The soul-killing civilization is progressively taking to the dangerous type of work by invention of huge mechanical means. The illusory energy is creating this atmosphere for blind materialism and on the other hand she is arranging for their destruction also. Such opposite methods are called illusory energy. The human energy is thus misused for breaking the same thing which is produced by the same energy. It is something like blazing the fire and extinguish it by pouring water simultaneously--a sign of insanity or spoiling the valuable human energy meant for spiritual culture. History has been repeated so many times and many many leaders of materialism like Napoleon, Hitler and others now remain in name only without any sign of the material progress planned by them. De-Stalinisation has already begun in Russia. Nobody is enjoying the result of civilization created by atheists like Ravana, Kamsa, Aurangzeb, Napoleon or Hitler. Everything is in oblivion and this teaches us the lesson that the materialistic plans of the present age will also meet with the same fate after a lapse of 50 years. Therefore blind materialism does not bring in any permanent relief in the world.”

Do the math. 1956 + 50 years = 2006

I started to think about India and Pakistan after the train bombing. This happened around the anniversary of the London subway bombings, and it was synchronized, so it reeks of Al-Qaeda. And of course, where is Osama Bin Ladin? He’s probably in Pakistan, although if you ask George Bush, he’ll say, “I don’t know where he is… I don’t spend that much time on him.” The CIA dismantled the Osama task force a year ago. You get the feeling that Pakistan knows where he is, and they also know where Mulah Omar is, and where Iman El Zarwahiri is, and all these madrasa schools are still open for a reason, and every time Musharif makes a move like he’s going to capture or kill Osama Bin Ladin, they attempt to assassinate him. They seem to have settled on not spending any more time on him.

Lets look at the timeline again. India fired its missile the day after the important people in the Pakistani airliner were killed. A top official at Pakistan International Airlines, who owned the plane, said there was no report of any fault in the plane before it took off. A similar thing happened in Rockaway, New York. A plane crashed immediately after it took off. Nobody knows what happened to that plane. People speculate, “shoulder fired rocket?” Who knows? After the plane crashes, India fires a missile test, and the next day someone, who is being protected by the Pakistanis, blows up their trains.

What’s especially weird about India’s missile test is that Bush sold the Indian government technology which was really everything that India dreamed of having, because India is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty, so India gets to import nuclear fuel and technology to produce nuclear energy, and also got permission from Bush to continue to build as many nuclear weapons as it desires. They can build bombs, and no one inspects them, because they are not agreeing not to proliferate. The U.S., Russia, and China agree not to proliferate. In fact, we don’t, according to what we think is happening. None the above mentioned countries make new bombs. It’s really a good deal that India gets to make new bombs without inspections. Bush just went over there gave them Carte Blanche, and in so doing completely obliterated the very serious non-proliferation treaty, because other countries who see this deal will think they can do the same thing. It’s a good deal for India. What did we get?

“The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes.” – George W. Bush, March 2nd, 2006

We got mangoes. We didn’t get anything really good. Mangoes are good in sorbet. I like tropical fruit, but mangoes for nukes/nukes for mangoes, you know… not really a great deal. They did that deal in under two hours, because Bush really didn’t feel like negotiating that day, and he didn’t want to change his schedule, so he just said, “whatever you want”, and walked away.

India, (that could reach Pakistan prior to this with a nuclear weapon), was testing something that could reach China for the first time. What’s interesting about that, is that China doesn’t want to help us out with the negotiations with North Korea, who also tested 7 missiles on the 4th of July.

It just looks like, to me the whole world is preparing so that Dick Cheney can have the war he wants. People were really disappointed that we didn’t really get to use nukes on Russia - people like Cheney, who I believe has an “innie”, and he want to use nuclear weapons so he can feel like a man. They never got their war because Russia went broke fighting Afghanistan. If that is what everybody is posturing for, and people are literally choosing up sides right now by launching their missiles and showing where they are right now in WWIII, it’s probably going to be us, Israel, and India, against Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Although the situation in the Middle East is currently spiraling out of control, I don't think even that is going to be enough for Bush and the chicken-hawks in his administration. It looks like they will never settle down until they get WWIII, the war they really wanted – their perpetual war for perpetual profit.

EVE OF DESTRUCTION

-Barry McGuire

The eastern world, it is explodin'.

Violence flarin', bullets loadin'

You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'

You don't believe in war,

but what's that gun you're totin'

And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'

But you tell me

Over and over and over again, my friend

Ah, you don't believe

We're on the eve of destruction.

Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say

Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today?

If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away

There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave

Take a look around you boy

It's bound to scare you boy

And you tell me

Over and over and over again, my friend

Ah, you don't believe

We're on the eve of destruction.

Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'

I'm sitting here just contemplatin'

You can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation.

Handful of senators don't pass legislation

And marches alone can't bring integration

When human respect is disintegratin'

This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'

And you tell me

Over and over and over again, my friend

Ah, you don't believe

We're on the eve of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China

Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama

You may leave here for 4 days in space

But when you return, it's the same old place

The poundin' of the drum, the pride and disgrace

You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace

Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace

And tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend

You don't believe

We're on the eve of destruction

Mm, no no, you don't believe

We're on the eve of destruction.

Who’s the greater threat – Fox News, or North Korea?

2006-07-11T15:14:00.000-05:00

After North Korea launched their dud missiles on the 4th of July, all weekend long the pundits on Fox were talking about whether or not we should nuke North Korea. Are you kidding me? You want to NUKE North Korea? Fox News must have a deal with the White House where Brit Hume goes on the air and suggests things that are even STUPIDER than what George Bush will really do, just so we don’t talk about what George Bush is really doing.

Here is the conversation between Brit Hume, and Ron Williams (who is not exactly a liberal himself), saying, “You got to be kidding me.”

WILLIAMS: Let me ask you a question here. How much can we really do as a superpower, given the fact that we are in Iraq, we are trying to deal with the Iranians, we are in Afghanistan. Given the idea that North Korea is now acting up, there is a limit to what we can possibly do, and you are suggesting that we “take a hard line”. You're not suggesting that we start bombing the sites!
HUME: But that is something we could do.
WILLIAMS: What are you inviting? What are you guys suggesting is the “hard line” in North Korea?
HUME: One thing about knocking the missiles out on the ground, I mean, they’re just sitting there like the Washington Monument. They can be struck. That, at least, is something we could do, and could make a successful possible strategy.

If Brit Hume wants to bomb North Korea, then I think we should put Fox News headquarters somewhere in South Korea or Japan, so he might understand what North Korea’s retaliatory capability is. Is he CRAZY?

Whenever something looks like the Washington monument, Brit Hume wants to blow it up? What kind of a mind-set is that? Who’s the terrorist now, Brit? Paging Dr. Freud! Kim Jong Il, you can’t wave your missiles in Brit Hume’s face, otherwise, he’ll want to nuke you. (Not that they have anything against George Washington, but it’s standing right there where they want the Reagan monument.)

The Clinton administration, despite all its faults, did a fine job in North Korea. We negotiated a framework in which the North Koreans were able to show us that they were getting rid of their plutonium, they were burying it in the ground. We were able to monitor the whole thing. They were cheating, but we KNEW they were cheating, because of the oversight. Now, no one knows anything about North Korea, because nobody’s in North Korea. Bush called Kim Jong Il a “pygmy”, a “spoiled child at a dinner table.” That’s great diplomacy. That works really well.

Hume is not the first chicken-hawk on Fox that spews fear mongering brinksmanship. After Iran unveiled it's nuclear program, John Gibson said this on the May 8th edition of Fox's "The Big Story":

GIBSON: Now it's time for "My Word." Tony Blair today said that any notion of a nuclear attack on Iran is absurd. That was the word he used: "absurd." His former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, had described an alleged plan of the U.S. to use nuke bunker-busters against a facility Iran has thought to be making nuke bomb materials in as completely nuts. I think both gentlemen were just saying that to be heard at this time.

Reality is something different. Notwithstanding the fact that Iran wrote President Bush a letter suggesting there may be other ways to resolve the two countries' differences over nuclear capabilities, if Sy Hersh was right about Pentagon plans to use nukes to derail Iran's nuclear ambitions, then Blair and Straw are obviously just trying to calm down the public in Britain and elsewhere about what might be inevitable.

If Iran is really going to develop the nuke bomb, which it can bolt on its already scary long-distance missiles, do you honestly think the world is going to stand by and let that happen? For one thing, Israel won't stand by. And since the Israelis probably don't have the precision nuke bunker-busters but might instead handle the problem with a barrage of many nuke bombs, world leaders may be coming to the U.S. saying, "Would you please use your super-duper nuke bunker-busters to end this thing with the least possible -- pardon the phrase -- collateral damage?"
_________________________________________________

Not long after that broadcast, Bush starts to make noise with Iran, and he says, O.K., we’ll negotiate with Iran, and we’ll tell them that they can have nuclear material for a civil electricity program, but they can’t enrich it. It’ll come from Russia, and they’ll make money – won’t that be great?

And North Korea is sitting there, going, “What’s wrong with me? I’m on your ‘Axis of Evil’ too. How come you don’t want to deal with me? What’s wrong with me? Why do you call me a pygmy?” So, they launch some scud missiles, and try for a long range ballistic, and of course, its years away from being ready, but they did it on the 4th of July, just to freak us out. Just to let us know that Bush doesn’t engage North Korea like he engaged Iran. Yet when Iraq did not have a nuclear program, Bush invaded them. So the message is blow up some missiles. Launch something, and we’ll get stuff too.

This foreign policy is so unbelievably bad. It hasn’t worked. It won’t work. They isolated the North Koreans, and wouldn’t talk to them. When Bush took office, they did not have a nuclear weapon, and we don’t know if they do now or not, and Iran did not have a nuclear program. Bush invaded Iraq, and now its full of terrorists. Iran is now saying they are definitely going nuclear, because if they think if they don’t have a nuclear weapon, they can’t protect themselves from crazy American administrations that want to attack them, so they follow the lead of Pakistan, that does have a nuclear program, and they are America’s greatest allies, even though they teach Wahhabist extremist views in their madrasa schools, and are probably protecting Osama Bin Laden. So we engage Iran, and say “we’ll pay you to stop” and North Korea’s like, “Pay us too.”

It’s a good thing that there was no Bush in charge during the cold war, and it’s good that Brit Hume wasn’t on Fox News during the Cuban missile crisis; otherwise I think it would have turned out quite differently.

So, who’s a greater threat to the United States? Fox news, or North Korea?

Bhagavad-gita 9.16

TRANSLATION
Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.

PURPORT
The demoniac are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction. The Lord states here that they are less intelligent. The materialists, who have no concept of God, think that they are advancing. But, according to Bhagavad-gita, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. They try to enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in inventing something for sense gratification. Such materialistic inventions are considered to be advancement of human civilization, but the result is that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel, cruel to animals and cruel to other human beings. They have no idea how to behave toward one another. Animal killing is very prominent amongst demoniac people. Such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all. Indirectly, this verse anticipates the invention of nuclear weapons, of which the whole world today is very proud. At any moment war may take place, and these atomic weapons may create havoc. Such things are created solely for the destruction of the world, and this is indicated here. Due to godlessness, such weapons are invented in human society; they are not meant for the peace and prosperity of the world.

Did Ken Lay know too much?

2006-07-07T08:10:00.000-05:00

They say Ken Lay died of a heart attack. He was the former CEO of the Enron Corporation during its collapse indicted for securities fraud, taking down California and Texas consumers for billions.

Even though the administration is calling Ken Lay a mere acquaintance of the President, he was actually “Kenny Boy”, Bush’s biggest Presidential campaign contributor, even for his gubernatorial race in Texas. Lay offered Enron's private jet to the Bush/Cheney campaign in '99-00. He was one of the biggest corporate crooks in United States history, yet he was another one of these Republicans who walked around praising God, and proclaiming his love for his Lord, quoting appropriate verses just to make himself look good. I’m sure that wherever he is, he is looking up on us today.

Standing outside the courthouse on May 25th, 2006, after he was found guilty of stock fraud, he said:
"I firmly believe I'm innocent... Despite what happened today, I am still a very blessed man... Most of all, we believe that God, in fact, is in control and, indeed, that he does work all things for good for those who love the Lord. And we love our Lord, and ultimately, all of these things will work for good."

Well, apparently, God wanted him dead. Or someone did…

According to stories on CNN, Rev. Dr. William Lawson, who delivered the eulogy at Lay's funeral, compared him to Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, and Jesus: ". . . He was crucified by a government that mistreated him."

The service was attended by former President George H. W. Bush, former secretary of state James Baker, former secretary of commerce Robert Mosbacher Sr., and a number of energy industry executives.

“I plan to tell them this is not the first time somebody good has been falsely accused and even crucified,'' Lawson said today in an interview before leaving for Aspen. “Just like Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, my hope is that people will view Ken Lay in a much more positive light after his death. Even though people say he's a robber and a crook and that it's a good thing he's dead, we have the right to tell his family we've seen this (vilification) before, and history can be kind.''

Ken Lay – the guy who knew so much. Perhaps the guy who knew too much.

Am I wandering into the realm of absolutely over the top conspiracy theory?

Ken Lay – the guy who was having the secret meetings with Cheney, to come up with the energy policy
Ken Lay – the largest lifetime patron of the political career of George W. Bush
Ken Lay – who created Enron out of a deregulation that he personally lobbied Bush Sr. for
Ken Lay – who knew where all the bodies were buried
Ken Lay – who had the private meeting with Ahnold Schwarzenegger in Beverly Hills just before the rolling blackouts hit California from Ken Lay’s company Enron, that brought down Gray Davis, and guess who’s now governer of California
Ken Lay was going to be sentenced in October, so now is the time he would be cutting deals with prosecutors.

The last time there was sombody who was in serious trouble, and who knew too much about a Bush President was in 1987. William Casey, had been the campaign manager for George Herbert Walker Bush, who had engineered the “October Surprise” in the election of 1980. Bush went over and cut a deal with the Iranians and said, “You hold on to the hostages and make Jimmy Carter look bad, and Ronald Reagan (who was viewed as a right wing crack-pot by the majority of Americans and was down 6 points in the polls) Ronald Reagan will become President, and then we’ll sell you spare parts and missles." The guy who knew about that was William Casey. They made him the director of the CIA. He was called to testify before the senate, under oath, and he told his laywer Milton Gould he was going to tell the entire truth. The day he was going to testify before congress that George Herbert Walker Bush had cut a deal with the Iranians to flip a U.S. election in 1980.

The morning of his testimony, he suddenly has a seizure at his headquarters in the CIA office in Langley Virginia, falls over, they haul him away on a stretcher, they take him to Bethesda Naval Hospital, open up his skull, and take out the part of his brain that contols speech (the Broka’s region). They, for all practical purposes, cut out his tongue. He died six months later of complications from the surgery.

Now we have Ken Lay, just before it's time for him to start cutting deals with prosecutors, he's about to start singing like a canary, and suddenly he has a heart attack. Am I crazy? I don’t know.

I do know that the Bush crime family is ruthless, and I wouldn’t put anything past them.

Upside Down World

2006-07-05T02:51:00.000-05:00

“The ‘religious right’ is neither”

They call themselves Christians, but what they are doing is completely unchristian. Their actions speak louder than their words.

As the liner notes to the Jim Wallis’s book “God’s Politics” proclaim, “Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside?”

"Now everything’s a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped, what’s good is bad, what’s bad is good, you’ll find out when you reach the top, you’re on the bottom." - Bob Dylan "Idiot Wind"

Bhagavad-gita 18.32

TRANSLATION
That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Partha, is in the mode of ignorance.

PURPORT
Intelligence in the mode of ignorance is always working the opposite of the way it should. It accepts religions which are not actually religions and rejects actual religion. Men in ignorance understand a great soul to be a common man and accept a common man as a great soul. They think truth to be untruth and accept untruth as truth. In all activities they simply take the wrong path; therefore their intelligence is in the mode of ignorance.

Republicans are the ultimate flip-floppers.
FLIP: culture of life
FLOP: culture of death

FLIP: war as a last resort
FLOP: pre-emptive war

FLIP: no child left behind
FLOP: no child's behind left

FLIP: "The Clear Skies Act"
FLOP: fills our skies with pollution

FLIP: media information
FLOP: is media misinformation.

FLIP: religion
FLOP: is irreligion - meant to divide people with wedge issues, fear, and hate.

Up is down. Everything is it’s own opposite:
-A botched war is:
OPPOSITE a good re-election issue for the people who started it

-Money only flows from the rich to the poor
OPPOSITE instead of people who spend money, to the people who have money

-The greatest threat to marriage is when gay people get married
OPPOSITE rather than when other people do not

-The White house protects us
OPPOSITE by blowing a CIA operation

-Fiscal conservatism
OPPOSITE means that the government spends more

Republicans strongest argument for the '08 elections are that Democrats want to "cut and run."
But the are hypocrites, because they have:

CUT the funds for the strengthening of the levees and then
RUN from the responsibility for their breaking.

CUT the taxes for the rich, and
RUN up the deficit to maximum proportions.

CUT school funds and
RUN from their failed schools.

CUT the funds for the troops and
RUN from the responsibility for 2500 dead and 40,000 wounded.

Wake up and smell the Fascism

2006-07-02T11:01:00.000-05:00

Frequent MSNBC guest and radio talk show host Melanie Morgan said recently that if New York Times executive editor Bill Keller "were to be tried and convicted of treason" for the publication of an article about a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions for terrorist activity, she said she "would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

When I first heard the furor from these conservative talking heads, the White House, and congress about the New York Times, I thought they had finally awakened to the seriousness of outing Valarie Plame. Once I realized they were ranting about the story that the government has been looking into wire transfers, which has been unclassified, and in public domain for years, I then became concerned that what we are seeing, particularly in W’s case, might be an early onset of Alzheimer’s. He’s completely forgotten how many times the White House has leaked sensitive information to the New York Times that has compromised US counter-terrorism operations. They were more than willing to do it as long as it served their political purpose. But now that they think that they can get some political gain out of this, they are trying to pretend like Heidi Fleiss on a crusade to prevent sexual promiscuity in Hollywood. I think they "dost protest too much”.

Why are they attacking the Times? This information was leaked to Wall Street Journal and the LA Times as well, who printed the same story. The Journal was not told not to print it, because it might make Bush look good, as if he was doing something about the war on terror. The Times, however, was leaked the story, and then told, "Hey, by the way, don't print this" then they went ahead and printed it anyway. It was a setup. Karl Rove set the Times up to be shot down. It's like handing fake documents to Dan Rather about Bush's millitary record, which he reports, and is then fired. It is meant to throw red meat to Bush's base, to give them a "liberal enemy" who can be labeled as "helping the terrorists".

The fact is, the Bush administration has been very ineffective in trying to track down financial information. They have failed in that front, and nobody is paying attention to that story. Less than a month after 9-11, on November 7th, 2001, Paul O’Neil of the Treasury Dept., said they were going to try to get financial information about people they thought were involved in terrorism. The thing they failed to do is go to congress and get authorization. That is what the New York Times reported, and that is why the administration are singling them out and "swift boated" in order to change the subject.

The story is that this could have been legal if congress had authorized it, but they didn’t. This is why the Supreme Court recently ruled that Bush has overreached his executive privileges. The founding fathers set this country up with three co-equal branches, but time and time again, Bush and his cronies have circumvented that system to achieve the goal of unlimited executive power, which is nothing less than imperial fascistic dictatorship. This administration could easily have stayed within the law, working inside the existing set of checks and balances, but they prefer to work outside the law, demonstrating again and again that they prefer to be outside that law and accountable to no one for anything.

Perhaps the reason the Bushies get so hysterical when it gets reported that they are listening to our phone conversations, and now looking into our bank records, without any oversight, may be that they are doing these things to spy on the Democrats, just as Nixon did in the 70’s. That is the reason these laws they are breaking were enacted in the first place.

This attack on the NYT is so quick, so focused, and so contrived. If they were really concerned about the leak, they would be asking who leaked the information. They are not asking that question.

When Republicans say the Times compromised our national security by printing this story, it's like the pot calling the kettle black. If you look at what they have compromised – back in August of 2004, on the eve of the Republican National Convention, the White House called a New York Times reporter and gave him information about an Al-Quaida operative that we had in our custody in Pakistan who we were using covertly to try to penetrate the Al-Quaida computer network. They exposed that, and compromised our ability to conduct national security, just to make Bush look good just before the convention. This cabal has no shame.

I heard radio talk show host Thom Hartman tell a story about when this news came out. He was at a hotel having his continental breakfast where the TV was on. ABC was saying goodbye to Charlie Gibson. Once that was over, at 9am, the local affiliate started running the 700 club, which looks just like network television. Roberston went off on this screed about how the NYT and the Democrats are traitors and treasonous, and they should all be put in prison. There was a couple in their late fifties, early sixties, average Americans, on vacation, having breakfast as well, and the wife said to the husband, “He’s right, that New York Times and those Democrats in congress, they should ALL be put in prison!” Her husband nodded, and Thom, who had lived in Germany for a year, thought to him self, “Holy cow! This is how ordinary Germans were talking about the Communists and the Jews in the late1930’s.”

Two weeks ago a top conservative Republican defense lobbyist, said to a friend who used to be in the CIA, “These are not Republicans, this is a tyranny of Fascists.” When conservatives start talking like that, it is saying something very dramatic about what these people are up to. There are a lot of Republicans who are very, very frightened of this administration. These guys are truly scary, and it’s time to start paying attention, because it doesn’t seem like anyone is. After this NYT story backlash, many of the leftists blogs like DailyKos, Fire Dog Lake, etc. were asleep at the switch, and were doing nothing. People need to wake up.

This "tyranny of Fascists" in America was prophesized 62 years ago by Vice President Henry Wallace. In early 1944, the New York Times asked him to, "write a piece answering the following questions: What is a fascist? How many fascists have we? How dangerous are they?"

Vice President Wallace's answer to those questions was published in The New York Times on April 9, 1944, at the height of the war against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan.

"The really dangerous American fascists," Wallace wrote, "are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

In 1938, Mussolini brought his vision of fascism into full reality when he dissolved Parliament and replaced it with the "Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni" - the Chamber of the Fascist Corporations. Corporations were still privately owned, but now instead of having to sneak their money to folks like Tom DeLay and covertly write legislation, they were openly in charge of the government.

Vice President Wallace bluntly laid out in his 1944 Times article his concern about the same happening here in America:

"If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. ... They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead... Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after 'the present unpleasantness' ceases."

Fascists have an agenda that is primarily economic. As the Free Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/) notes, fascism/corporatism is "an attempt to create a 'modern' version of feudalism by merging the 'corporate' interests with those of the state."

In a comment prescient of George W. Bush's recent suggestion that civilization itself is at risk because of gays, Wallace continued:

"The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination..."

But even at this, Wallace noted, American fascists would have to lie to the people in order to gain power. And, because they were in bed with the nation's largest corporations - who could gain control of newspapers and broadcast media - they could promote their lies with ease.

"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact," Wallace wrote. "Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy."

In his strongest indictment of the tide of fascism the Vice President of the United States saw rising in America, he added, "They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Finally, Wallace said, "The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. ... Democracy, to crush fascism internally, must...develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels."

As Wallace's President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said when he accepted his party's renomination in 1936 in Philadelphia, "...out of this modern civilization, economic royalists [have] carved new dynasties.... It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction.... And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man...."

Speaking indirectly of the fascists that Wallace would directly name almost a decade later, Roosevelt brought the issue to its core: "These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power."

But, he thundered in that speech, "Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power!"

President Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace's warnings have come full circle. Which is why it's so critical that this November we join together at the ballot box to stop this most recent incarnation of feudal fascism from seizing complete control of our nation.

"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live."
- Adolf Hitler

"I’m gonna tell all you fascists
You may be surprised
People all over this world
Are getting organized

You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
Race hatred cannot stop us
This one thing I know
Your poll tax and Jim Crow
And greed have got to go

You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose.
All of you fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose!
You fascists: Bound to lose!

People of every color
Marching side by side
Marching ‘cross the fields
Where a million fascists die
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!
All of you fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose!
You fascists: Bound to lose!

I’m going into this battle
And take my union gun
Gonna end this world of slavery
Before this war is won

You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose!
All you fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose!
You fascists are bound to lose!

I said, all you fascists are bound to lose!
All you fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You fascists are bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose!
You fascists are bound to lose!

- Woody Guthrie
Music by Billy Bragg © Copyright 2000 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc

The Hijacking of Religion

2006-06-17T06:53:00.000-05:00

I am interested in God's Politics, not man's.

"God is not a Republican...
or a Democrat."

But with all the corruption, greed, and war, 99% of Republicans are looking more and more like cloned versions of the anti-Christ, because that's how many of them recently voted to stay in Iraq indefinitely. Almost all of them are embroiled in some kind of scandal or other. Ironically, they advertise themselves as the party with "moral values".

"The 'religious right' is neither."

The Democrats seem to be on the side of peace and social justice, although recently 40 of them just voted to "stay the course" in Iraq. That is the reason I will not support the Democratic party either, as a whole - only on an individual basis.

I don't care if anyone calls themselves a Republican or a Democrat - if their values and principles harmonize the with the will of God, whatever name you call Him - in whatever religion - Jesus, A.K.A. "The Prince of Peace", Yahweh, Buddha, Jehovah, or Krishna - not only in word, but also in deed - I will support them. There is only one God. He has many names, but His will is the same.
"A rose by any other name smells as sweet."

Before the nasty 2004 election, the religious right used religion to divide this country with wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage. After the election, the answers to deceptively worded exit poll questions were used to show that those who voted for Bush did so on the grounds of so-called "moral values". Those who didn't vote for him were labeled as immoral, because they were godless. The "religious right" has gotten lots of mileage from this smear campaign, and the attacks have gotton much nastier since then.

For example, recently, the shameless hate hag Ann Coulter wrote a book called "Godless: The Church of Liberalism". She puts herself forward as a beacon of morality, hoping to make a buck from the "religious right" by attacking the widows of 9/11 with her outrageous slander. Right wing liar and radio host Bill O'Reilly, the pervert who sexually harasses his co-workers and writes pornography about underage crack whores, also claims to be a religious person. He has an acronym for those who call themselves the "left", "Liberals", or "Progressives". He calls them "S.P.'s", or "Secular Progressives".

I also call myself an "S.P." I am a Progressive, but not a secular one. I am proud to support and align myself with a growing number of "Spiritual Progressives". The right does not have a monopoly on morality, or spirituality.

In the 80's the new age guru Marianne Williamson noted that the Democrats were "too cool to even mention God," so most people thought that God was in the Republican party. Ever since then the Republicans have been at work through their corporate media manipulation to strengthen that image.

Many Democrats and Progressives are feeling like spirituality has been hijacked and they want it back. Recently, Harry Reid commented that there is a growing interfaith movement to take back religion from these so-called Christians. In whatever small way I can, I vow to lend this movement a hand by making that my mission as well.

Painting our troops with neon targets

2006-06-16T13:23:00.000-05:00

(From U.S. Newswire 6/15/06)
Democrats today demanded an immediate retraction and reversal of the reported proposal that terrorists and insurgents who kill American soldiers in Iraq may be granted amnesty by the new Iraqi government.

“It is shocking that the Iraqi Prime Minister is reportedly considering granting amnesty to insurgents who have killed U.S. troops,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

“On the day we lost the 2,500th soldier in Iraq, the mere idea that this proposal may go forward is an insult to the brave men and women who have died in the name of Iraqi freedom. I call on President Bush to denounce this proposal immediately.”

Democrats offered a Resolution demanding that this policy be repudiated, and that President Bush immediately inform the government of Iraq — in the strongest possible terms — that the United States opposes granting amnesty to anyone who attacks American soldiers. The text of the Sense of the Senate resolution is attached below.

“We ask you Prime Minister Maliki, are you willing to have ‘reconciliation’ on the pool of American blood that has been spilled to give your people and your country a chance for freedom?” said Sen. Menendez, a sponsor of the resolution. “We reject that notion and are outraged that the sacrifice of American troops and the American people could be so devalued.”

“Terrorists and insurgents shouldn’t be rewarded for killing American soldiers,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, of Florida, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who also sponsored the resolution."

Four years into a war, the Bush Administration’s management of which has been marked by failure and incompetence, the American people expect better than to have American troops killed without threat of punishment. It is time for a change.

Text of Sense of the Senate resolution:
(1) The Iraqi government should not grant amnesty to persons who have attacked, killed, or wounded members of the U.S. Armed Forces serving heroically in Iraq to provide all Iraqis a better future.
(2) President Bush should immediately notify the government of Iraq that the United States government opposes granting amnesty in the strongest possible terms.

Republicans want to offer the terrorists amnesty, however there is one small problem they failed to see, because they've been blinded by their morally unrestrained, murderous lust for power. Historically, amnesty has never been given until AFTER a surrender and concomitant END to a war. To give clemency to terrorists while troops are still on the ground is nothing less than sanctioning murder. I thought we didn't negotiate with terrorists!

It is inconceivable to me how last Thursday, June 15th, they were jumping all over themselves last to give amnesty to terrorists who have killed or wounded American troops. Here is a quick compilation from DSCC:

TED STEVENS - “IF THAT’S AMNESTY, I’M FOR IT:” “I really believe we ought to try to find some way to encourage that country to demonstrate to those people who have been opposed to what we’re trying to do, that it’s worthwhile for them and their children to come forward and support this democracy. And if that’s amnesty, I’m for it. I’d be for it. And if those people who are, come forward… if they bore arms against our people, what’s the difference between those people that bore arms against the Union in the War between the States? What’s the difference between the Germans and Japanese and all the people we’ve forgiven?” – Sen. Ted Stevens

MCCONNELL SUGGESTED A RESOLUTION COMMENDING IRAQIS FOR GIVING TERRORISTS AMNESTY. “…might it not just be as useful an exercise to be trying to pass a resolution commending the Iraqi government for the position that they’ve taken today with regard to this discussion of Amnesty?” – Sen. Mitch McConnell

ALEXANDER COMPARED IRAQI AMNESTY FOR TERRORISTS TO NELSON MANDELA’S PEACE EFFORTS. “Is it not true that Nelson Mandela’s courage and his ability to create a process of reconciliation and forgiveness was a major factor in what has been a political miracle in Africa…Did not Nelson Mandela, win a - the co-winner of - a noble Nobel Peace Prize just for this sort of gesture?” – Sen. Lamar Alexander

CORNYN: IRAQI AMNESTY DEBATE IS “A DISTRACTION.” “It makes no sense for the United States Senate to shake its finger at the new government of Iraq and to criticize them… it really is a distraction from the debate that I think the American people would want us to have.” - Sen. John Cornyn

CHAMBLISS: AMNESTY IS OK FOR EX-INSURGENTS AS LONG AS THEY ARE ON OUR SIDE NOW. “Is it not true today that we have Iraqis who are fighting the war against the insurgents, who at one time fought against American troops and other coalition troops as they were marching to Baghdad, who have now come over to our side and are doing one heck of a job of fighting along, side by side, with Americans and coalition forces, attacking and killing insurgents on a daily basis?” - Sen. Saxby Chambliss

These senators have no ability to think for themselves. They can only stupidly support their dear leader at the expense of the troops. To add insult to murder, the Commander-in Chief will not tell the troops what their mission is - who the enemy is. He doesn't know whether it's the Sunnis or the Shiites. I can sympathize with Bush, because he wants to stay and fight till the bitter end, but it's hard to pick an enemy in the middle of a civil war.

The Sunnis and the Shiites, however, are very clear who their common enemy is - the American occupiers. Our troops have no mission. They are simply targets, trying to survive, and the Republicans are using them for political cannon fodder - painting an even more visible neon bulls-eye on them by giving the terrorist insurgents amnesty if they kill our children while the war is still going on.

Give Peace A Chance

2006-06-15T17:33:00.000-05:00

"And it's 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for? Don't ask me 'cause I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam (Iran). And it's 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates! Well, there ain't no time to wonder why - WOOPEE! we're all gonna die." - Country Joe McDonald - Woodstock, 1969

After the quagmire of Vietnam, the botched invasion and current bloody occupation of Iraq, you would think that we had learned our lesson. Well, guess what folks - the U.S. Strategic Command, supported by the Air Force, has been drawing up plans, at the President's direction, for a major bombing campaign in Iran.

During the Vietnam war, John Lennon begged everyone to "give peace a chance". We were told by our leaders that we had to fight them over there before the Communists toppled countries one by one like dominos until it came to ours.

After 9-11, our leaders lied abimmanentimmenent threat of nuclear weapons from Iraq. The weapons inspectors were sent, but before they finished their job, we went to war. We begged our government to "give peace a chance," and let the inspectors finish their jobs. But they didn't listen. As a result, Iraq is the new Vietnam.

Now, everyone's sick of Iraq, so Bush, being a war time president (war lord), is falsely claiming that Iran's nuclear progimmanentn immenent threat. The Republicans don't have anything else to run on, so they must continue to keep people in fear and engage in never-ending war. People are again begging to "give peace a chance". But they aren't listening. There are no negotiations, although Iran has made it crystal clear that they are willing to negotiate.

Flash back to the 1966: the great Indian preceptor and peace advocate, Swami Prabhupada, (below) stood in front of the United Nations building, passing out leaflets entitled "The Peace Formula".

The Swami later met with heads of state, as well as activists like John Lennon and George Harrison, who, if alive today, would undoubtedly be at the forefront of the current peace movement.

In the last line of "give peace a chance" Lennon sings, "Ev'rybody's talking about John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Alan Ginsberg, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna!"

All Swami Prabhupada (founder of the "Hare Krishna" movement), was saying was "give peace a chance" in the following leaflet he wrote based on ancient Vedic wisdom:

The Peace Formula

"The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon other's property as though it were one's own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living entity can violate them. Only one who is God conscious can easily overcome the stringency of the laws of nature and thus become happy and peaceful in the world. As a state is protected by the department of law and order, so is the state of the Universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant fragment, is protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one of the different potencies of God, who is the ultimate protector of everything that be. This earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming God's property as our own, under both and individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of foolish and so-called civilized men who are claiming proprietary rights on the property of God because they have now become godless. You cannot be happy and peaceful in a godless civilization. Although there are many civilizations, there is only one God, although He may be called many names in different countries. In the Bhagavad-gita, the holy book of India, Lord Krishna delineates the peace formula. He says that He is the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living entities, that He is the Supreme Lord of all universes, and that He is the well-wishing friend of all beings. When the people of the world know this as the formula for peace, it is then and there that peace will prevail.

Therefore, if you want peace at all, you will have to change your consciousness into God consciousness both individually and collectively, by the simple process of chanting the holy name of God. This is the standard and recognized process for achieving peace in the world. We therefore recommend that everyone become Krishna (God) conscious by chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare", or any name of God.

This is practical, simple, and sublime. Five hundred years ago, this formula was introduced in India by Lord Sri Caitanya, and now it is available in your country. Take to this simple process of chanting as above mentioned, realize your factual position by reading the Bhagavad-gita- As It Is, and reestablish your lost relationship with Krishna, God. Peace and prosperity will be the immediate worldwide result.

The NSA and Nazi IBM punch cards

2006-05-26T13:34:00.000-05:00

A LETTER TO OUR REPRESENATIVES
Attn: Senator Bill Frist, Senator Harry Reid, Speaker Dennis Hastert, Representative Nancy Pelosi
It has recently been exposed that the National Security Agency has been collecting the personal and business call records of tens of millions of innocent Americans. This is an intrusion on privacy. I call on you, as leaders of a co-equal branch of our government, to investigate this matter fully. In order to fully understand the breadth of this program, all witness testimony should be delivered under oath.
This data mining is similar to the IBM punch cards the Nazis used to track all the Jews and gays and get them all on the trains in an orderly and timely fashion. By the way, how many terrorists have we caught while we're spending all this time tracking innocent Americans? Why are we doing this? Do YOU know? I've got an idea - only so the data could be used against the people who are screaming to protect our last shred of democracy. Meanwhile, Osama is still out there. There needs to be an investigation, and witnesses must tell the truth, otherwise, how are we any different from the fascists, who got away with the same thing under the Enabling Act?

Windfall profits tax defeated

2006-05-10T13:40:00.000-05:00

Michelle Linn, Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America wrote in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette today that a windfall profits tax would hurt domestic production.

Big oil is not even interested in increasing production. 10 years of drilling in Anwar would only produce 9 months of oil, which they would sell to China anyway. They are cutting production on purpose, just as the dairy industry dumped out millions of gallons of milk into the gutter in the 70's to boost prices. The production/supply and demand argument is cow manure.

This is like the Shell answer man claiming "global warming needs more study." Even the few independent domestic companies that haven't consolidated yet are making out like gangbusters, so I don't feel too sorry the CEO of Linn Energy.

I feel sorry for the middle class.

CEO's in this country are making more than they have in 50 years. Exxon-Mobil made 36 billion last year - more than any other corporation in the history of the world. They give their fat joweled CEO retiree a 400 million dollar golden parachute. In addition to these obscene profits, after CEO's met with Dick Cheney in secret energy meetings, (then lied to congress about not being there) they got billions more in subsidies.

A windfall profits tax would put billions of dollars back into American's pockets immediately. We could also invest into alternative forms of energy, and increase fuel efficiency, but on April 27, in a rare meeting, our lazy congress of the United Corporations of America voted no on the tax.

Instead, Bill Frist suggested we get a tune up, drive slower, and car pool. and the President is going to save us a penny or two at the pump by rolling back environmental standards. Problem is, we'll still be broke, and won't be able to breathe.

World Contempt

2006-04-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Scott Manley, in his April 17 letter ("My Fellow Americans: We Cannot Bomb Iran Into Peace"), expressed his deep concern of "the possibility that the Pentagon has operational plans to use bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapons" in Iran.

He is right to be "shocked" that 57 percent of people responding to a KQV poll would support using nuclear weapons in Iran. The use of nuclear weapons is unthinkable, and the devastation would be catastrophic for the world. Aside from the immorality of such a strike, the United States would not win this war, and Americans at home and around the world would suffer.

Richard Clarke, former national coordinator for security and counter-terrorism, states that Iran, in response to Washington's continued threats, has enlarged its terrorist network.

Immediate possible outcomes of an attack on Iran could result in: 1) attacks on oil facilities and tankers, causing oil shortages around the world; 2) Americans and their interests being targeted at home and abroad; and 3) escalated attacks on our troops from sympathetic Shiite militias in Iraq.

Many Europeans expressed to me on a recent trip to Europe that Washington neither respects nor abides by international law, and the American people have reaped the contempt of much of the world because, by re-electing this administration, we have given it our approval.

What will be the reaction if the greatest military power on Earth unleashes nuclear weapons again? Isn't it strange that our "pro-life" politicians and their constituents are quiet on this subject?

SARAH ALLEGRA
Ruffsdale

My fellow Americans: We cannot bomb Iran to peace

2006-04-25T13:50:00.000-05:00

Letter to the editor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The news has been filled with stories about Iran's nuclear program -- and the possibility that the Pentagon has operational plans to use bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapons to destroy it ("Magazine Reports Iran Attack Planning: Sources Say Nuclear Attacks on Sites Not Ruled Out," April 9).

Pittsburgh's AM radio news station, KQV, did a poll on April 11. The question was, "Should the U.S. consider using nuclear bombs to halt Iran from developing a nuclear weapon?" This is both Orwellian and nightmarish. There is a slogan in "1984" -- "War Is Peace." It reminds me of a jingoistic bumper sticker: "Nuke Their Ass and Take Their Gas."

Although the poll is not scientific, I found the result shocking. Fifty-seven percent of 2,386 respondents -- that's 1,363 people -- would support using nuclear weapons on Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons. I haven't seen much analysis in the news about the consequences of such an attack. For example, how are 1.2 billion Muslims going to react if a major Islamic nation is attacked by America with weapons of nuclear force?

Who are these people who voted yes? Are they just ignorant and scared, or are they card-carrying members of the rapture right ("end-timers," like Bush). Or both? Whatever they are, I'm terrified of them, and scared for the future of the world, for good reason.

If we use nuclear weaponry against Iran, then Russia and China, who need Iran's oil, will have to choose sides. A picture of how WWIII could unfold is not hard to draw from this scenario.

Republican attacks against Feingold's censure resolution backfiring

2006-04-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, Republicans actually let a Democrat hold a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is rare. Usually, if Democrats want a hearing, Republicans will only let them hold it in a basement office somewhere. This time, Republicans were pushing to bring the resolution to the full senate floor for a vote because they think they have a winning issue. They launched an all out media blitz in order to hype what Feingold wants do as a threat to the President, and rally Americans to his patriotic defense by branding Democrats as weak on security and a bunch of crazed kooks from whom he needs to be protected. They are hyping the fact that John Dean is one of the witnesses: (John Dean says to censure Bush: Watergate figure testifies in Senate on eavesdropping Pittsburgh Post Gazette, April 1, 2006) The problem is that Bush's poll numbers are tanking, so nobody's really in the mood to rally around the president, and John Dean and Russ Feingold sound reasonable. They did not back down when various Republicans accused them of helping the terrorists by having the audacity to question the legality of the President's use of warrentless wiretapping in a time of war. Republicans say it's about terrorism, but Americans aren't buying it anymore. Feingold says it's about accountability. "The President must be held accountable for authorizing a program that clearly violates the law and then misleading the country about its existence and its legality," Using what has been called a political ju-jitsu move, Feingold turned the force of the attack back on the aggressor by saying that the reason we go to war in the first place is to protect our civil liberties.

Nowadays, most Democrats are willing to stand back and let the Republicans self-destruct. Thank God we have a few brave senators like Feingold who are willing to stand up now, because time is ticking. We are coming upon a mid-term election this year, and a presidential election in '08. If Democrats don't grow some cahunes, they could lose both of them. They should get a clue and a spine from Feingold, who almost single-handedly put the focus back on this illegal program, strengthening both his supporters and the Democratic base as a whole, making the old school Republican propaganda tactics backfire.

The Insurgency is a Natural Reaction

2006-02-25T18:16:00.000-05:00

The insurgency in Iraq is a natural reaction to us attacking them. I have personal experience of this. When I lived in New Vrindaban, a spiritual farm community in West Virginia, attacks such as assault and shootings and were frequent, because this community was considered by the local bigots as a cult, instead of a bona-fide religion. It was a peaceful spiritual community, however, the members believed fervently that the helpless (i.e., women, children, and animals, were to be protected with one's life. I heard a story about how a couple of rednecks were harrasing one of the women, and there was an immediate and enthusiastic call to arms and chase. Devotees grabbed sticks, bats, chains, anything that could be used as a weapon. Tapah Punja, who had a club foot, ran limping to catch a ride in pursuit, but his friend yelled out, half joking, "no cripples!" The assailants were run off the road into a ditch after a high speed chase by Kuladri, our temple president, and Bimbadhara, 6'4", who was in the car behind him, picked up a huge boulder and smashed their windsheild. They two men were promptly beaten to a pulp. This violent response seems to be even more natural when the participants happen to be staunchly religious.

In Iraq, innocent family members are being killed, men are being tortured, and children are being raped in front of their parents. Of course there is going to be a violent reaction. Indeed, 45 percent of the population think that the insurgency against coalition forces is completely justified. We have also seen that even a cartoon that mocks the leader of a religious group can result in worldwide violence. Radical religon becomes popular when secular politicians cannnot protect it's citizens. Note the democratically elected Hamas in the Middle East, and the rise of the Mulas in Iran. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "When the law is lax, private vengence comes in."

God appears to stop war (and re-establish religious principles)

2006-01-29T18:19:00.000-05:00

Since just before the dawn of Kali-yuga (the age of quarrel and hypocricy) 5000 years ago, the earth has become overburded with unnecessary military buildup. The problem is large enough for the Lord himself to appear millennium after millennium.

"In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself, millennium after millennium." - Bhagavad-gita 4.8

First paragraph of Krsna Book (The Advent of Lord Krsna)

Once the world was overburdened by the unnecessary defense force of different kings, who were actually demons but were posing themselves as the royal order. At that time, the whole world became perturbed, and the predominating deity of this earth, known as Bhumi, went to see Lord Brahma to tell of her calamities due to the demoniac kings. Bhumi assumed the shape of a cow and presented herself before Lord Brahma with tears in her eyes. She was bereaved and was weeping just to invoke the Lord's compassion. She related the calamitous position of the earth, and after hearing this, Lord Brahma became much aggrieved, and he at once started for the ocean of milk, where Lord Visnu resides. Lord Brahma was accompanied by all the demigods headed by Lord Siva, and Bhumi also followed. Arriving on the shore of the milk ocean, Lord Brahma began to pacify the Lord Visnu, who formerly saved the earthly planet by assuming the transcendental form of a boar.

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 1, Ch. 9, Text 26, Purport

Cowards should not be elevated to the presidential throne by dint of numerical votes only. The monarchs were all chivalrous personalities, and therefore monarchy should be maintained provided the monarch is regularly trained in the occupational duties of a king. In fighting, the king or the president should never return home without being hurt by the enemy. The so-called king of today never visits the warfield. He is very much expert in artificially encouraging the fighting strength in the hope of false national prestige. As soon as the administrative class is turned into a gang of mercantile and laborer men, the whole machinery of government becomes polluted.

Srimad- Bhagavatam, First Canto, Ch. 17, Text 27

Now she, the chaste one, being unfortunately forsaken by the Personality of Godhead, laments her future with tears in her eyes, for now she is being ruled and enjoyed by lower-class men who pose as rulers.

PURPORT

The ksatriya, or the man who is qualified to protect the sufferers, is meant to rule the state. Untrained lower-class men, or men without ambition to protect the sufferers, cannot be placed on the seat of an administrator. Unfortunately, in the age of Kali the lower-class men, without training, occupy the post of a ruler by strength of popular votes, and instead of protecting the sufferers, such men create a situation quite intolerable for everyone. Such rulers illegally gratify themselves at the cost of all comforts of the citizens, and thus the chaste mother earth cries to see the pitiable condition of her sons, both men and animals. That is the future of the world in the age of Kali, when irreligiosity prevails most prominently. And in the absence of a suitable king to curb irreligious tendencies, educating the people systematically in the teaching of Srimad-Bhagavatam will clear up the hazy atmosphere of corruption, bribery, blackmail, etc.

Warrantless Wiretapping Unconstitutional

2006-01-24T15:04:00.000-05:00

Now that Samuel Alito has passed through the Judiciary committee on to the full Senate, we are one step closer to the fructification of Alito's idea of stronger "Unitary Executive" power for George W. Bush. Mr. Bush has already trampled all over the Constitution, the Congress, and the American People with warrantless wiretapping, crossing his fingers with his new "Presidential Signing Statement" so he still has the prerogative to follow a law or not at his own digression. After signing McCain's bill banning torture, Bush issued a statement Dec. 30 saying, in effect, that he would enforce the new law only if he wanted to. ("Ominous sign / The president's growing disregard for the law" Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Jan. 20)

Such extreme measures are not about obtaining information on terrorists, it's about a potential breach of the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment states that warrants can be obtained only with proof of probable cause. The administration ignores these words and asserts that searches must be "reasonable" and do not require a warrant. The White House is claiming that Democrats are the only ones objecting to the program, but Republicans like our own Arlen Spector have offered some of the harshest criticism. Congress did not give the president authority to conduct the secret program. Republicans and Democrats believe the president may have broken the law.

Stifling debate on this war is counter to patriotism

2005-12-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

(This letter was published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on December 13, 2005.)

In Wednesday's speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, President Bush cited Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who sides with Mr. Bush in saying that it is too early for Americans to pull out of Iraq ("Bush Sees Rebuilding Successes in Iraq," Dec. 8). Recently, Sen. Lieberman also said, "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he'll be commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."

I disagree. The First Amendment enumerates our right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." If Americans don't challenge a president who is bankrupting our treasury, destroying our moral leadership and jeopardizing our national security, then we fail as patriots.

Joe Lieberman is a member of the "world's greatest deliberative body," yet he is trying to stifle debate instead of becoming part of the solution by joining the majority of Americans in questioning President Bush's foreign policy.

Teddy Roosevelt said in 1918, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

Up Or Down Flip-Flop

2005-12-08T15:13:00.000-05:00

Two months ago, James Dobson and Senator George Allen, the extremist wing of the Republican Party forced the withdrawal of Harriet Miers’ nomination, well before she was given the “up or down vote” all nominees supposedly deserve.

Now these same people are trying to sell Samuel Alito to America, labeling Democrats “progressive secularists” and turning them into scape-goats by accusing them of waging a war on Christmas. This has been done before, but at that time the scape-goats were Jews. They say that Alito’s record shows he stands for religious freedom. He will put an end to this war they made up and become the the savior of Christmas. We already have a Savior of Christmas. That would be Christ. Alito is not Christ, but as a former corporate lawyer, he would be Santa Claus to the corporations. This imaginary war on Christmas only obfuscates the very real war in Iraq.

Republican Senators supporting the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court are fond of claiming the president’s nominations deserve the respect of an “up or down vote.”

While the fundamentalist preachers setting the agenda for the current incarnation of the Republican Party may love Alito’s propensity to curb the rights of women and minorities, it is clear that reasonable people can strongly disagree with this nominee. As the new year begins and confirmation hearings proceed in the Senate, should Democratic Senators decide to filibuster Judge Alito, I hope we can all remember just how insistent the Republican Party was in demanding an “up or down” vote for Harriet Miers.

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning

2005-11-10T15:21:00.000-05:00

Both political parties have used churches to get their message out for years. That is nothing new, but a double standard is emerging from within our government.

Right before the 2004 election, I saw a local church with a banner in front that read, "Prayer Vigil for Bush". I also saw churches with dozens of Republican political signs in the front yard. As far as I know, none of these churches lost their tax-exempt status. On the other hand, the rector of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California gave an anti-war sermon on Oct. 31, 2004. He didn't endorse either candidate, but the church got a letter from the IRS saying that "a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church ." (IRS Warns Churches to Stay Neutral on Politics - LA Times)

Today's "religious" right wingers have hijacked all three branches of government, and it's laws, and now they are using those laws to prosecute those who disagree with their version of religion. They worship Meanness of Spirit, a greed-driven war-loving totalitarianism. The only way to salvation, they say is THEIR way, through a nature-hating Authority that tramples all Jesus preached. Christ was a long-haired peace activist who would have been sickened to his soul by the war in Iraq. "Blessed are the peacemakers" Jesus said in his defining Sermon on the Mount. "Turn the other cheek...Love thy neighbor."

As Tecumseh, the great Shawnee spirit-warrior, allegedly shouted at William Henry Harrison in the early 1800s: "When Jesus Christ came upon the Earth, you killed him. The son of your own God. And only after he was dead did you worship him and start killing those who would not. "

It is now clear that if Jesus did return, Karl Rove would kill him, or at least take away his church's tax except status.

Saintly Monarchy

2005-10-19T17:28:00.000-05:00

Formerly in India, the rule of the entire planet was entrusted to saintly kings, who continued the dynasty of their forefathers. The following is an example of such a dynasty, in which King Yuddhisthira begat a child named Maharaja Pariksit, who continued to rule over his father's kingdom 5000 years ago. In the purport, Srila Prabhupada contrasts this system to the modern system of democratic states.

From Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1, Chapter 12, Text 19:

TRANSLATION

The good King [Yudhisthira] inquired: O great souls, will he become as saintly a king, as pious in his very name and as famous and glorified in his achievements, as others who appeared in this great royal family?

PURPORT

The forefathers of King Yudhisthira were all great saintly kings, pious and glorified by their great achievements. They were all saints on the royal throne. And therefore all the members of the state were happy, pious, well behaved, prosperous and spiritually enlightened. Under strict guidance of the great souls and spiritual injunctions, such great saintly kings were trained up, and as a result the kingdom was full of saintly persons and was a happy land of spiritual life. Maharaja Yudhisthira was himself a replica of his ancestors, and he desired that the next king after him become exactly like his great forefathers. He was happy to learn from the learned brahmanas that by astrological calculations the child would be born a first-grade devotee of the Lord, and more confidentially he wanted to know whether the child was going to follow in the footsteps of his great forefathers. That is the way of the monarchical state. The reigning king should be a pious, chivalrous devotee of the Lord and fear personified for the upstarts. He must also leave an heir apparent equally qualified to rule over the innocent citizens. In the modern setup of the democratic states, the people themselves are fallen to the qualities of the sudras or less, and the government is run by their representative, who is ignorant of the scriptural mode of administrative education. Thus the whole atmosphere is surcharged with sudra qualities, manifested by lust and avarice. Such administrators quarrel every day among themselves. The cabinet of ministers changes often due to party and group selfishness. Everyone wants to exploit the state resources till he dies. No one retires from political life unless forced to do so. How can such low-grade men do good to the people? The result is corruption, intrigue and hypocrisy. They should learn from the Srimad-Bhagavatam how ideal the administrators must be before they can be given charge of different posts.

Spinning Out Of Control

2005-09-25T14:26:00.000-05:00

On his September 14 radio show, Bill O'Reilly has said he wished that Hurricane Katrina had flooded the United Nations building in New York. O'Reilly then added, "And I wouldn't have rescued them." Just as Katrina has shown us the some of the weaknesses in some of our government agencies, O'Reilly's statement reveals that he has finally lost his way in the spin of the storm of his own ideology. Perhaps it is time that Mr. O'Reilly move on to another career. I have noticed that Bush tends to appoint the absolute worst candidate for a government post, and if he could find someone worse than John Bolton, he would appoint that person. There may be an option that could save Shane Coppola, the president and CEO of Westwood One from further embarrassment. He should fire O'Reilly, and give him a good reference for a new job as U.N. Ambassador. I think that he is just the man George W. Bush is looking for.