Write Your Congressman. Right.

Every time we see something wrong, every time we have our freedoms compromised, every time we see American youth dying in uniform to protect the wealth and power of the rich, we are told to “write our Congressman”. I have been hearing the same thing, over and over again until the litany is etched upon my very soul. “Write your Congressman”, “sign this petition”, and every organization that asks you to sign this petition to nowhere, at the end of these plaintive calls for help, they ask you to donate to their cause so that they can send out more letters and buy advertising that sends the same message, over and over again, “write your Congressman”.

First of all, I’m not sending a god damned dollar to any group or organization that asks me to “Write my Congressman”. You can write your Congressman until your fingers are bleeding and your tongue is crimson from paper cuts from licking the envelopes but it won’t do any good. You can call these people, write to them, and send a video if that what floats your boat, and it still won’t do any good. These people, in case you haven’t noticed, are not going to do anything! The faster you understand this, the faster we can promote real change in this country. The Democrats have failed us over and over again. If they were a sports team, you can bet that after not winning a game in a decade, that ticket sales would be non-existent. Only the most die hard fans would attend their games yet the Democratic Party continues to sell out to a loyal fan base, meanwhile they continue to throw their games. God forbid we organize a real political party for the liberal/progressives that continue to support a party that want nothing from us but money and votes… but not our input.

I saw Chris Dodd today on “The View”. This is the only candidate that is mainstream that admits the Constitution has been gutted. Let me ask you how this was accomplished? Did the Republicans have every seat in the 109th Congress, or did they do it with full cooperation of The Democratic Party? Yet Americans continue to dutifully head to the polls and vote for the Republican or Democrat that conduct their elections with corporate campaign funds and with the tacit approval of the same people that brought you the Iraq War. Is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Until the American People “get it” they will continue to do just this.

So keep on “Writing your Congressman” and keep on seeing them do just what they wish to do. Listen to the same old tired politicians telling you the same old excuses month after month, year after year. This nation has a gross national product (GNP) of 12.5 Trillion dollars. Sit there on your couch and watch year by year one trillion dollars migrates from the poorest 96 million households to the wealthiest 13 thousand households. The rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer and nobody in Congress does anything about it. It must be our fault that we find it harder and harder to pay our bills.

So the next election, go vote for the corporatist of your choice and when you find that Congress can’t override a veto, or your complaints fall on deaf ears along with a note that says thanks for writing, think of what you read here today. I can see the people wondering why we are still seeing body bags in Iraq in 2013 when the Dem front runners have already told America they have no intention of pulling our troops out. Still we have Progressives supporting Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. Don’t whine and cry when nothing changes. Don’t underestimate the power of those 13,000 thousand households that have a vested interest in seeing this war continue. Don’t blame anyone but yourself when we finally go down that path of war with Iran in our desire to control the resources of the entire Middle East or when we finally prod the Russians and Chinese to go to war with us.

Support your political party of your choice. It doesn’t matter which one, there are only two, and they are both right of center. You may as well vote Republican; at least you won’t feel as deceived when they go against everything you believe, better the enemy you know than the one that you don’t. God forbid liberal/progressives break from the herd that is heading for the cliff.

That’s the way I see it.

Everything Starts with You

I have been reading heartfelt and sincere pleas to Al Gore to run for President. Some of these of these articles that try to tap into Al Gore’s “conscience” seem more like prayers than reasons why he should enter the race. I have read “open letters” to Gore and articles that predict the future with Al Gore at the helm would bring America back from a spiritual and moral abyss. Sometimes, when I read these things I get a knot in my stomach and I shake my head in wonder. Have the people in America fallen to a point where they are looking for a new “messiah” to lead them out of the desert and into the “promised land”?

While I might be mixing up Jesus with Moses, the basic message of these letters and articles remains the same. It seems as if Americans have lost their moral compass and feel that the sainted Al Gore will lead us back from certain doom, and the tone of these pleadings remains the same; “Please reconsider and save America”.

The facts are that no one person can save America. No “savior” is going to be sent by the creator to lead us out of the valley of death. The savior that everyone expects to appear, whether it’s Al Gore, or Dennis Kucinich or God forbid, Hillary Clinton, is not going to “save” this country from the reckless and militaristic path to destruction. The facts are that the “savior” that everyone in this country seems to be waiting for is in the mirror looking back at you.. You heard that right. The person that will bring this nation back from moral bankruptcy is you. Don’t expect that someone is going to descend from heaven (in this case Hollywood) and put things “right” again. That can only happen when you decide that something must be done, and knowing that, you pull yourself out of your comfortable cocoon and you go ahead and do the things that are necessary to change the course of history.

When I write the word “you”, I mean you and you and you. I’m talking about every American that realizes that we can no longer proceed with our lives pretending that “somebody” will magically appear and do all the hard work that is required to change the way things are. That my friend is a kind of wishful thinking that won’t change a thing. The only way that change can be brought about in a system that has the deck stacked against the average American citizen is through hard work and perseverance. When everyone tells you that you can’t change the way things are, you must understand that change starts with one person at a time. Bobby Kennedy once said;

“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

These aren’t just the words of a great man; those words are the formula for change. Change will only come if people want it bad enough. The truth is that if you can’t change the way things are, maybe you didn’t want it bad enough.

Think of what may come to be and imagine that your worst fears have materialized. Think of our country doing the unthinkable. Think of America using nuclear devices on Iran, and then on Syria. Think of the consequences. Go one step further and think of the White House declaring martial law and imagine the Army in the streets or worse yet, paid mercenaries doing their bidding. Think of the sanctions that other nations would direct towards the United States and international travel forbidden. Think of being forced to have a national ID in order to purchase anything and the things that they would be teaching your children in school. Maybe these things will never happen, but then again, what if they did? Then imagine yourself asking the question over and over in your head; “What could I have done to stop this?”

God forbid that you should ever have to ask yourself that question, but if you did, what would you answer that question with? Would you have an answer? If you had a do-over, what would you have done differently? Take a moment and put yourself in that hellish nightmare of a scenario and ask yourself that question. Once you have figured out what you could have done differently, go out and do it as if you had been given that second chance. Act as if God in all his wisdom, or anything that you regard as a power greater than yourself, had given you a do-over, than do it as if your life depended on it. Want to know something? Your life or what you perceive and have grown accustomed to as your life, just may depend on it.

Like the old Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.” We are indeed living in interesting times. What we do today determines what our future will be tomorrow. Don’t count on anyone to save you from what may come. You are the only one that can decide to change things from what they are. You can’t make anyone else decide to change things. The only one you can convince to change things from what they are now is you. Do the things that you can do to make a difference, whether it may be talking to others, or to collect money for a candidate that you believe in, or attending a demonstration or organizing a grassroots group, you can do something. Bobby Kennedy also said this:

“It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task”.

He wasn’t wrong, and if you believe you can make a difference or at least try, neither are you.

Corporate Donations are Now Favoring the Democrats

The fix is in. It is now official. The corporate powers-that-be have officially sanctioned the Democrats in the 2008 elections. According to The Center for Responsive Politics and their Campaign Finance website “Open Secrets”, the political gift giving program for the “own your own politician” has turned to the left. Democrats now get more of the corporate “manna” than the Republicans.

So where does that leave the corporations? Have they finally become aware of the evil mechanizations of Darth Cheney? Have they finally decided to follow the good side of “the force”? Hardly, in reality the corporate kingmakers have seen the writing on the wall and are now doing “damage control” on their swiftly sinking ship. The ship seems to be listing so badly, that instead of trying to repair a ship that surely has a date with destiny at the bottom of the political sea, they are climbing aboard another ship that seems a bit more seaworthy.

This will obviously be greeted with shouts of joy from diehard Democrats that can’t see the forest for the trees. They don’t seem to understand that they are just trading one type of dictatorial power for another one. The saddest part of this story is that now they will be controlled by the same forces that control the Republicans (not that they weren’t controlled by the corporate boys before). Now it is official. There is more to this than meets the eyes however, so let us get to the putrid mechanics of this political swicheroo.

Let us gaze at the top ten donors. This might raise a few eyebrows:

1 Act Blue $3,151,038 100% Dem 0% GOP Solidly Democratic
2 Goldman-Sachs $1,656,954 71% DEM 29% GOP Strongly Democratic
3 Citigroup Inc. $1,582,857 63% Dem 37% GOP Leans Democratic
4 JP Morgan Chase & Co. $1,171,720 68% Dem 32% GOP Strongly Democratic
5 AT&T Inc. $1,094,144 45% Dem 55% GOP On the fence
6 UBS AG $1,068,953 62% Dem 38% GOP Leans Democratic
7 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $947,815 98% Dem 2% GOP Solidly Democratic
8 Laborers Union $924,500 91% Dem 9%GOP Solidly Democratic
9 Morgan Stanley $923,850 62% Dem 38%GOP Leans Democratic
10 Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union $904,000 97% Dem 3%GOP Solidly Democratic

Take out the Unions and the Democratic Organizations and we are left with what else, the bankers. Surprised, don’t be, they were the largest donors to the Republicans for the last 16 years. As Bob Dylan sang; “You just want to be on the side that’s winning”. The fact is, Goldman Sachs has been the largest political contributor to political races in history. The rankings from 11-20 are Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Comcast Corp, Akin, Gump et al, American Bankers Assn, Air Line Pilots Assn, Ernst & Young, American Federation of St/County/Municipal Employees, American Assn for Justice. Of these, only The American Bankers Assn, and Ernst & Young give more money to the GOP. Merrill Lynch is hedging their bet with an even number to both.

So what does all of this mean to the average American? Well to begin with, it means that your paltry contribution means squat. If your credit card debt and the spine-numbing late fees and fines are driving you to bankruptcy, don’t expect anyone to be in your corner. In fact every corner that every American owns has no supporters in it, save family and friends.

Let’s look at who the corporate guys are supporting these people in their campaign bid. These are the top ten in the House of Representatives:

Rangel, Charles B (D) $2,089,597 Democratic member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee

Hoyer, Steny H (D) $1,514,912 House Majority Leader in the 110th Congress

Gillibrand, Kirsten E (D) $1,393,205 House Armed Services Committee

Clyburn, James E (D) $1,292,435 House Committee on Appropriations

Pelosi, Nancy (D) $1,290,490 Speaker of the House

Kirk, Mark (R) $1,270,405 House Appropriations Committee

Tsongas, Niki (D) $1,266,974 New to Federal Elective Seat.

Klein, Ron (D) $1,264,593 House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services.

Boehner, John (R) $1,182,683 House Committee on Education and the Workforce, House GOP Leader

Murphy, Patrick J. (D) $1,127,818 House Armed Services Committee

In the Senate, the top ten candidates by contributions:

Watts, Mikal (D) $4,991,752 Former Democratic Fundraiser listed by news sources as “One of the Biggest Influence Peddlers in Washington”.

Durbin, Dick (D) $3,805,220 Senate Appropriations Committee

McConnell, Mitch (R) $3,327,263 Senior member of the Appropriations, Agriculture and Rules Committees.

Franken, Al (D) $3,278,313 No Record

Levin, Carl (D) $3,226,226 Armed Services Committee

Coleman, Norm (R) $3,191,705 Foreign Relations Committee

Cornyn, John (R) $3,121,962 Armed Services Committee

Pryor, Mark (D) $2,869,693 Armed Services Committee

Baucus, Max (D) $2,755,382 U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

Dole, Elizabeth (R) $2,592,765 Armed Services Committee

Isn’t it a coincidence that out of twenty Congressmen and Senators that six are on the Armed Services Committee, six are on appropriations committees, and ALL have significant influence on appropriations in general (except for two new candidates for office)?

These members of Congress have significant clout. The corporate political machines know this and will cross party lines and ideologies in order to guarantee that they can conduct business as usual in Washington in the years to come. Nothing will change, although outward appearances will make it seem as if the playing field is being leveled. Anyone that does their homework can see that the deck is stacked in corporate America’s favor. The old saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same” is very appropriate in this day and age.

Let’s see how these corporate puppets vote on bills and amendments that come their way. Charles Rangel, with his seat in Harlem, needs campaign donations like Brittany Spears needs to get herself pregnant again. He’ll use that money to spread his influence around Congress by donating to other Congressmen’s campaign coffers as Steny Hoyer did in 2006 that insured his House Majority Leader’s post. We can keep a scorecard on their voting. Pick one politician and when that person scores 10 votes that benefit his or her corporate sponsors, you yell BINGO and get instantly screwed.

Seriously though, this is no joking matter. We need corporate money out of political campaigns yesterday. Those that look at the Democrats and see saviors need to look again. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. Maybe a third party that doesn’t take corporate money is a great idea whose time has come. You won’t get these good ‘ol boys to change the rules.

That’s the way I see it.

Thanks to The Center for Responsive Politics and their website "OpenSecrets.org" for the information used in this article.

Congress Proposes that Bush gets a Do-Over and they will Forgive and Forget the Spying on American Citizens

We all know about Watergate and the scandal that brought down Richard Nixon that was brought to light by the media, most notably The Washington Post. We all remember that William Jefferson Clinton was also involved in a scandal with a young White House intern by the name of Monica Lewinsky. In both of these scandals that plagued the Presidencies of these two men, it was the media and the oversight of the Congress that looked into the allegations and eventually found the truth behind the rumors.

It doesn’t matter if you believed that the incidents that caused the media and Congress to investigate and that eventually led to the resignation of Nixon and the Impeachment vote in the House of Bill Clinton were the correct thing to do. What matters is that these scandals along with the laws that were broken were addressed, and action was taken. The very idea that the office the chief executive gives the holder of that office immunity from prosecution if laws were broken was clearly shown to be untrue. The laws that govern the people of this nation also pertain to the individuals that hold the office of President.

Just over seven years later, we find another President that believes his office is immune from prosecution for violations of the law. The difference between Nixon, Clinton and Bush, is that the media put Congress under great pressure to act after the facts of their complicity were uncovered. Almost everyday the media would expose another detail of their complicity in the scandals that they uncovered. There were hundreds of editorials and hundreds of opinions by people in the media demanding that they be prosecuted without regard to their position in the government. Things have changed significantly in the last seven years.

We now have a President that when confronted with allegations that laws have been broken, refuses to comment. When faced with corruption in his administration and allegations that he had deliberately side stepped certain laws that were put in place to safeguard the privacy of American citizens, he refuses to release information to the Congressional Committees that are in place to conduct Congressional oversight of the Executive branch. I am referring to Bush’s decision to ignore the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)court and conduct surveillance of American citizens by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Most people are aware that this administration bypassed certain “procedures” in order to conduct electronic surveillance on American citizens. In this respect, the media did a fair job of reporting the details, but only after months of sitting on the story. In the case of The New York Times, it took them almost two years to break the story after they had possession of the facts in the case. The NYT claimed that it didn’t want to jeopardize an ongoing Federal investigation. You can read about the entire sordid affair that was published on “Counterpunch”; http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12172005.html. In this article, Risen and Lichtblau's (Times reporters) story comes the shameful disclosure:

“The White House asked the New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.”

It is absolutely amazing that this has still not been resolved even though the story first appeared in December 2005. In fact, the President has been “stonewalling” Congress ever since. Senator Patrick Leahy issued a subpoena to President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and Harriet Miers (Consul to the President). This subpoena was issued in June with a date of July 18th for the compliance date. The date was extended to August 20th, but as of this time, the Executive branch has still not responded to the subpoenas. You can read Senator Leahy’s statement about the non-compliance here: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200708/082007.html
Think about this, thousands of Americans have been put under electronic surveillance by an executive branch that has decided to circumvent the law that was in effect at the time they chose to do this. The media reported on it but certainly it did not take precedence over stories about celebrities and other stories that did not have the kind of implications that this story had.

The President, the Vice President and the White House consul all ignored a Federal Senate subpoena, the same kind of subpoena that forced President Clinton to testify under oath to Congress and which later led to his impeachment for lying under oath about the relations he had with Monica Lewinsky. The threat of subpoenas also led to Richard Nixon’s resignation rather than to testify in front of Congress. Meanwhile, this President openly defies Congress about illegal spying on American citizens and it gets about fifteen minutes in the Mainstream Media. Is there something wrong here?
Yesterday the Democrat-led Congress introduced new legislation regarding the FISA Court. Instead of ordering this President to respond to Senator Leahy’s subpoena, they have done nothing but propose that the Executive branch follow the pervious FISA requirements for electronic surveillance and if he agrees, they will hold him harmless for all the acts that he committed by not following the law in the first place, as long as he admits to what he has done. You can see a synopsis of the legislation here; http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/house-introduces-new-fisa-legislation.

Is this a joke? It seems as if the Congress has said lets forget about everything, follow the law and tell us what you did and we’ll forget about it. Where is the media on this? What would they have said if Nixon had a chance for a do-over? Could you imagine? Could you see Congress telling Nixon that if he admits to the break-in at Watergate and promises he won’t do it again, then they will not hold him accountable? Could you imagine the media’s reaction if they told Clinton to leave the girls alone, admit you copped some sex and we won’t prosecute you and stop the impeachment proceedings? The media would be screaming its lungs out! Where is the media now?
In fact where are the all of the Democrats that believe in Congressional oversight? It seems that for all their talk about the Constitution and the rule of law, they are doing nothing. This President has gone completely overboard when it comes to violating the rights of the American citizens and Congress does nothing except propose legislation that lets him off the hook. Meanwhile the Democrats proudly display their Presidential candidates around and tell the American people that we need a change in Washington. That is so true. The biggest and the best change we could possibly see in Washington is for the Congress to do its job. Even today, Congress with a Democratic majority seems to be worse than the Republican Congress that preceded it.

That’s the way I see it. We need volunteers to carry petitions to get The Liberal Party of America on the ballot.

The Media Has Failed the American People!

What is a representative republic? The United States claims to be one. We also claim to be a democracy according to George Bush who, by his own admission, wants to “export” democracy to other nations of the world. I would ask Mr. Bush this question, how can we export something to other nations that we don’t possess? If democracy were a commodity that we had a surplus of, we could export it. Unhappily that is not the case in this country. The sad truth is that the United States is woefully lacking that commodity. The underpinnings of a true democracy is the free flow of information and the transparency of government. We have no free flow of information and the government shrouds itself in secrecy.

Witness the media of this nation that refuses to tell the American people the truth about anything. The majority of news in this country is centered not on the world situation in which our government is waging wars of aggression against other nations, but on celebrity stories of failed marriages, drunken escapades, and bad parenting. The media refuses to cover anything of real importance.

There are so many examples of the media deliberately refusing to cover issues of the utmost importance to the American people. They refuse to cover the North American Union is which our government has fostered an agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States that basically incorporates these three nations into one and effectively erases from the Earth the United States of America as a sovereign nation under The Constitution. Why has the media not covered this? Do they believe that it is of no importance to the American people that our nation and form of government is being negotiated away by an administration that hasn’t even reported what they are doing to our own Congress? How can this happen without coverage by the press and the rest of the media?

Our government is supposed to be “by the people and for the people”. The only access we have to our government’s decisions and policies is through the media. When it becomes clear that the media no longer reports on the truth of what our government is doing in the people’s name, we have no representative form of government. Unless the people have access to information on what is happening, the government has no limits on its power. This isn’t the only instance of the media failing to do its job in this country.

When Osama Bin Laden was taken to a hospital in Pakistan on September 10, 2001, the Army of Pakistan guarded his hospital to insure his safety while the next day four airliners were hijacked. The Pakistani secret service, the ISI provided the money to the ringleader of the hijackers Mohammed Atta. It is a documented fact that the head of the ISI in Pakistan, ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad, wired $100,000.00 to Atta. That week Ahmad was in Washington meeting with Secretary of State Rice and members of the CIA. This story was reported by The Times of India on October 9, 2001, yet American newspapers and television networks made only casual mention of it on NBC’s Dateline and the story was never followed up by anyone inside the mainstream media. According to the India Times: “Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 was wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.”

Why hasn’t there been an independent investigation of this by the so-called “news” media? In other reports dealing with 9/11, Secretary of State Rice was asked if she knew that there were al Qaeda operatives working inside the United States with plans to hijack an airplane and fly it into buildings inside the U.S. She responded, along with the President and Vice-President, that they had no prior knowledge of that type of information. Yet, it was proven that the President in his daily briefing on September 8, 2001 was told exactly that. This briefing has been declassified and released, yet the media never investigated why all three had lied about ever having the information.

There are other things that the media will not cover. Where is the footage of the war in Iraq? The American people are shown snippets of film in and around Baghdad when a member of Congress or other dignitary visits, but where is the footage of the dead that line the streets every morning due to the carnage by rival militias the night before? Why did the story on Haifa Street reported by CBS reporter Lara Logan only appear on their website, and this was only after she begged that it be shown on websites on the internet?

Some other things that the media neglects; Senator Leahy (Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee) declared that President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and Harriet Miers refused to hand over documents and testify in front of the Senate oversight committee about the NSA wiretapping after they had been subpoenaed by the Senate. To deliberately ignore a Senate subpoena is a crime, yet the media refuses to follow the story. If this had been seven years ago and William Jefferson Clinton had ignored a Senate subpoena, it would have made front page news. This is something that all Americans should be thinking about.

Our news media has not done its job for years. Most people that want real news must either turn to the internet or get news from foreign media or from progressive news sites. The majority of people in this country don’t bother and what they learn from the major news networks is criminally short on content, especially when it comes to the truth about what their government does. There was no reporting on the demonstrations in Washington in September against the war. Unless people had been there the majority of people would never know that there were a hundred thousand people demonstrating. The media doesn’t report on the “First Amendment Zones” that keep protesters away from events so that their protests go unnoticed.

How long will the American People continue to let the media trample on their right to know what is really happening in their country? When will the media finally report on the things that matter? Without a free and uncensored media, we have no democracy. Maybe it is time for the networks to stop their senseless babble and do what they are paid to do. Unless the situation changes, we will have no recourse but to behave in a way that they can’t help but cover. There are still enough Americans that value their freedom that they will fight to keep it. One of those freedoms is our right to know the truth.

The Media Has Failed the American People!

What is a representative republic? The United States claims to be one. We also claim to be a democracy according to George Bush who, by his own admission, wants to “export” democracy to other nations of the world. I would ask Mr. Bush this question, how can we export something to other nations that we don’t possess? If democracy were a commodity that we had a surplus of, we could export it. Unhappily that is not the case in this country. The sad truth is that the United States is woefully lacking that commodity. The underpinnings of a true democracy is the free flow of information and the transparency of government. We have no free flow of information and the government shrouds itself in secrecy.

Witness the media of this nation that refuses to tell the American people the truth about anything. The majority of news in this country is centered not on the world situation in which our government is waging wars of aggression against other nations, but on celebrity stories of failed marriages, drunken escapades, and bad parenting. The media refuses to cover anything of real importance.

There are so many examples of the media deliberately refusing to cover issues of the utmost importance to the American people. They refuse to cover the North American Union is which our government has fostered an agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States that basically incorporates these three nations into one and effectively erases from the Earth the United States of America as a sovereign nation under The Constitution. Why has the media not covered this? Do they believe that it is of no importance to the American people that our nation and form of government is being negotiated away by an administration that hasn’t even reported what they are doing to our own Congress? How can this happen without coverage by the press and the rest of the media?

Our government is supposed to be “by the people and for the people”. The only access we have to our government’s decisions and policies is through the media. When it becomes clear that the media no longer reports on the truth of what our government is doing in the people’s name, we have no representative form of government. Unless the people have access to information on what is happening, the government has no limits on its power. This isn’t the only instance of the media failing to do its job in this country.

When Osama Bin Laden was taken to a hospital in Pakistan on September 10, 2001, the Army of Pakistan guarded his hospital to insure his safety while the next day four airliners were hijacked. The Pakistani secret service, the ISI provided the money to the ringleader of the hijackers Mohammed Atta. It is a documented fact that the head of the ISI in Pakistan, ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad, wired $100,000.00 to Atta. That week Ahmad was in Washington meeting with Secretary of State Rice and members of the CIA. This story was reported by The Times of India on October 9, 2001, yet American newspapers and television networks made only casual mention of it on NBC’s Dateline and the story was never followed up by anyone inside the mainstream media. According to the India Times: “Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 was wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.”

Why hasn’t there been an independent investigation of this by the so-called “news” media? In other reports dealing with 9/11, Secretary of State Rice was asked if she knew that there were al Qaeda operatives working inside the United States with plans to hijack an airplane and fly it into buildings inside the U.S. She responded, along with the President and Vice-President, that they had no prior knowledge of that type of information. Yet, it was proven that the President in his daily briefing on September 8, 2001 was told exactly that. This briefing has been declassified and released, yet the media never investigated why all three had lied about ever having the information.

There are other things that the media will not cover. Where is the footage of the war in Iraq? The American people are shown snippets of film in and around Baghdad when a member of Congress or other dignitary visits, but where is the footage of the dead that line the streets every morning due to the carnage by rival militias the night before? Why did the story on Haifa Street reported by CBS reporter Lara Logan only appear on their website, and this was only after she begged that it be shown on websites on the internet?

Some other things that the media neglects; Senator Leahy (Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee) declared that President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and Harriet Miers refused to hand over documents and testify in front of the Senate oversight committee about the NSA wiretapping after they had been subpoenaed by the Senate. To deliberately ignore a Senate subpoena is a crime, yet the media refuses to follow the story. If this had been seven years ago and William Jefferson Clinton had ignored a Senate subpoena, it would have made front page news. This is something that all Americans should be thinking about.

Our news media has not done its job for years. Most people that want real news must either turn to the internet or get news from foreign media or from progressive news sites. The majority of people in this country don’t bother and what they learn from the major news networks is criminally short on content, especially when it comes to the truth about what their government does. There was no reporting on the demonstrations in Washington in September against the war. Unless people had been there the majority of people would never know that there were a hundred thousand people demonstrating. The media doesn’t report on the “First Amendment Zones” that keep protesters away from events so that their protests go unnoticed.

How long will the American People continue to let the media trample on their right to know what is really happening in their country? When will the media finally report on the things that matter? Without a free and uncensored media, we have no democracy. Maybe it is time for the networks to stop their senseless babble and do what they are paid to do. Unless the situation changes, we will have no recourse but to behave in a way that they can’t help but cover. There are still enough Americans that value their freedom that they will fight to keep it. One of those freedoms is our right to know the truth.

Americans No Longer Question Authority

Have we passed the point of no return in this country? Has the right engineered such a change in our laws that nothing can be done to bring the country back from an Orwellian State that exists to serve the oligarchy and has stripped the common man of his basic unalienable rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Has the Federal government become so powerful that it can imprison people for dissent? Can this government really designate anyone it wished a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer and prosecute him or her without the benefit of due process? Have we really come to this point?

Some believe we have. There are some that honestly believe that America has no safeguards for civil liberties. These people believe that the right of free speech and the rights guaranteed us under the Constitution have been replaced by new laws that abridge our expectations of privacy, our right to dissent, and our right to challenge our government in a court of law to be decided by a jury of our peers.

These concerns are everywhere. I see them in articles, in e-mails, in telephone conversations and in the media. If this has indeed taken place, how was it done? Has the global war on terrorism taken such a priority in this nation that it now infringes on our personal freedom? If this is the case, can we ever get back what we have lost?

I believe that these questions are important and that we should all be asking them. I also believe that we should all be asking the question that if this is the case, how we as a people can change the situation. We should all be engaged in taking a reality check.

We should be asking ourselves if this government really needs the power that we seem to have ceded to them. We should be asking if the government really needs the authority to monitor our phone conversations, our e-mails and our mail. We should also be concerned about the laws that have been passed that require every citizen to have a national ID card. We should be asking the question why would it be necessary for the Federal Government to have the power to search our homes without our knowledge or without us being there because they say that they have information that indicates that we “might” be terrorists or terrorist sympathizers without having to show evidence of that belief because they claim it is “sensitive” in nature and could jeopardize “national security”.

The point I am making here is that the government has indeed overstepped its authority. The people that worry about whether or not we have reached the point of no return are asking a reasonable question. Have we turned into a police state? You tell me. Many Americans claim that the question is not important because they have nothing to hide. From my perspective that comes from 57 years on this planet, we all have something to hide. There is no one that lives that doesn’t have secrets that they would rather not be exposed. There is not a person alive that has not broken some law at sometime in their lives. No human being on Earth is untouchable. This is not opinion, it is a fact.

Now is the time to reflect on what one of the greatest patriot and statesmen in American history once said. Benjamin Franklin said “Those that would give up their freedom for a little security shall have neither freedom nor security”. This statement carries more weight and meaning now than it ever has, at least in my lifetime. When the government can do what it will, whether it be to tap your phone or to search your house without a signed warrant from a judge that has been given probable cause to issue a warrant, we have no rights. Thus we have indeed become a police state by the very definition of the words.

Will we have the chance to rectify the situation and put this nation back on track as a nation that obeys its own Constitution and thus the rule of law, or is it too late? It becomes too late when our leaders no longer talk about the civil rights that we have lost. When the citizenry is unconcerned and the leaders that are elected by the citizenry don’t examine the constitutionality of laws passed hastily by people that were afraid of things that they didn’t understand and voluntarily gave up their rights, it is doubtful that without a discussion of these freedoms lost, that we will ever get them back.

The two political parties that govern this nation do not seem as if they are in the least bit concerned that Americans have given up their rights against illegal search and seizure, the expectation of privacy in their communications, or the right to due process which is the right to be told what they are being charged for, the right of representation by a lawyer, the right to a speedy trail, and the right to be judged by a jury f their peers. If you are suspected of terrorism or of aiding a terrorist, you no longer have these rights. It doesn’t matter if you were born here or if you are an immigrant. The only thing that matters is that you are suspected by people that don’t have to tell you why they suspect you.

The major Democratic candidates and the major Republican candidates are not questioning these things. The laws have already been passed and the mechanisms in place. Meanwhile the people are silent and compliant. Have you ever wondered how the Nazi’s were allowed to subjugate the German People? You need not wonder any longer. It has happened to the American People now too. The terrorists have won. If like President Bush claims, they hate us for our freedom, they need hate us any longer. We have no freedom to hate us for.

America is Under Attack from Within!

I want to preface this article with this; I am really not in the mood to write this. Usually something hits me and I run to the keyboard and offer up what’s on my mind, and it gives me a kind of relief that I got it off my chest and whatever I was angry about isn’t eating my guts alive. This is different. For days now I have been in a funk that is just unbelievable. I feel hopeless and betrayed not only by my own government, but also by the people that I encounter in my daily life.

What I want to say here, no, what I have to say here, is that this country, our very way of life and everything we ever stood for, is under attack. It isn’t “Radical Islam” that is attacking the very fabric of our society, it’s the people running our government, our media, and the people in the shadows that run the corporations and the banks, along with the so-called “think tanks” that make policy. We in the United States are under attack from so many different sectors that it is almost impossible to point your finger at anyone that is taking this nation down the sewer of fascism. You have the right wing of the Republican Party, the right wing of the Democratic Party. Then you have Fox and CNN and ABC, MSNBC and a host of other media that won’t step on the toes of their corporate sponsors. Then you have the Federal Reserve that is run by a private corporation that lends the government their own money at interest and a few families that own America grow exponentially richer by the day.

Then you have these groups like this new group “Freedom’s Watch” that is one of the greatest oxymoron’s in history. These are right wing radicals that believe nothing for individual freedom that started their organization with a paltry 200 Million dollars from sources they don’t dare to identify. The people that run this organization are former White House staffers. Freedoms Watch is described in Wikipedia:

Freedom's Watch is an advocacy group in part run and supported by former officials of the Bush administration. [1] The organization states that its goal is "educating individuals about and advancing public policies that protect America’s interests at home and abroad, foster economic prosperity, and strengthen families." [2] The Freedom's Watch website states, "Those who want to quit while victory is possible have dominated the public debate about terror and Iraq since the 2004 election. Freedom's Watch is going to change that."

In case you want to know who is behind them here is a list of executives and donors:
The Washington Post lists the following members and donors for Freedom's Watch:

* Bradley A. Blakeman (president, a former deputy assistant to George W. Bush).
* Ari Fleischer (board member, former Bush press secretary).
* Matthew Brooks (board member, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition).
* Mel Sembler (donor, former ambassador to Italy who helped finance the 2000 Florida recount battle).
* John Templeton Jr. (donor, board member of the Templeton Growth Fund and financier of Let Freedom Ring).
* Sheldon Adelson (donor, CEO Las Vegas Sands Corporation and the third-richest American in Forbes magazine's rankings last year).
* Kevin E. Moley (donor, former U.S. ambassador to international organizations in Geneva, and a senior adviser to Dick Cheney during the 2000 campaign).
* Howard Leach (donor, CEO Leach Capital and former ambassador to France who also helped fund the Florida Recount).
* Anthony Gioia (donor, head of Gioia Management and former ambassador to Malta).
* Richard Fox (donor, co-founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition).
 Gary Erlbaum (donor, owner of Greentree Properties).

Quite a list of Who’s Who in American Fascism. This is just one of the groups that want to make sure that the Progressive/Liberals are shut out of mainstream society. Their website looks like the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln when Bush made that ridiculous speech that “Combat operations are over in Iraq”. See it here and tell me if the symbols and colors aren’t right in line with a fascist ideology.
http://freedomswatch.org/ .

Even as we speak the right is spinning tales about Iran in preparation for an attack. One must wonder whom exactly will that attack benefit? Will it benefit the American people when the straits of Hormuz are shut down and gas rises to four bucks a gallon? When are forces are spread so thin and our men are exhausted from fighting one tour after another in a combat zone what exactly do they hope to gain? Meanwhile Bill Kristof and the demonizers on FOX TV spread misinformation at the speed of light while the other networks soft-shoe it so they won’t antagonize their corporate sponsors, the average American that doesn’t read liberal/progressive websites believes that Iran is where Satan reigns supreme.

I recently attended a Move-On meeting right here in the belly of the beast, South Carolina. I met people that are genuinely concerned about the same things that I am concerned about. The only difference between them and I is that I was born and raised in New York and I really don’t give a damn what people think about me. These people at the meeting were afraid to speak to their neighbors and friends about the policies of our government for fear of being ostracized. The Baptists here give sermons about the evils of Islam and our “duty” to combat our enemies. This isn’t endemic to South Carolina, not at all… it’s rampant across the Midwest and the rest of the South to include Texas. This nation is under attack from the extreme right and they are winning.

The most noteworthy thing that I took from the Move-On meeting was that we should not “confront” those against the war, but to speak gently. How do you speak gently to a population that believes wee are “helping” the Iraqi people when in fact we are committing genocide there? This is why I didn’t want to write this article. I have been so angry for so long that the anger is starting to turn inward. Unless people get their head out of their ass and start to make some noise, not on Progressive websites, but in the Newspapers, in noisy demonstrations, by boycotts and by telling the truth to their family and neighbors we are going to lose this fight, and believe me when I tell you this is the fight of our lives.

Trying to be civil isn’t the way we are going to shape this nation’s destiny. We are outgunned, and outnumbered, not to mention the fact that we are out-resourced. Just about the only way we are going to turn the tide in this country is by screaming the truth in the ears of anyone that will listen. The time for politeness is over. It’s time that we make our presence visible and meaningful, even if it takes getting arrested over and over again. This is a fight that we cannot lose, for if we lose this fight we lose our freedom and we lose everything that is good about America. Once I was a career soldier in our nation’s Army, now I am a career activist against all that is wrong with our nation. Ten years ago I was left of center. Today I am part of “The Radical Fringe Left”. My views haven’t changed, the nation’s views have changed, I’m the same man, and with the same beliefs I always had. I will work with Move-On, or any other Progressive Americans to change people’s views, one mind at a time. To do anything else is to turn my back on my country, for if ever my country needed me it is now. America needs you too.

That’s the way I see it.

Use Economic Sanctions Against Our Own Government

When good people are called by their conscience to stand against an evil that they perceive to be done in their own names and do nothing, than they are complicit in that evil. To do nothing in the face of genocide and the destruction of an innocent country’s infrastructure, and to turn the other cheek while your government fosters anarchy in a land where they do not belong, makes you complicit. To allow children to beg in the streets for food because the men in the city or village have been taken away by those that support endless war for finite resources makes you part of the problem. We are all Americans, and by letting this happen to the people of Iraq, we are all complicit in some degree or another.

You can say that you have tried to stop this carnage. That is not enough. You can say you are against our government’s policies and that too is not enough. You can say that you have supported every initiative to leave Iraq but we are still there, so evidently that too is not enough. Our government, as criminally complicit in terror as anyone that has attacked us, is now trying to make the case in attacking another nation, this time Iran. It matters not whether the people want it, it is a matter of a government that desires conquest over diplomacy, war over peace, death over life.

The answer lies in the hands of all Americans. The way to end this war is not an easy one to take and is fraught with danger to our loved ones and to us. Still, the only way to get this government to listen is to speak with a voice that drowns out their objections. The only thing that this government seems to care about is money. Money is what allows them to continue their nefarious business around the globe for world domination and resources.

There are ways that we can take the money out of their hands. One way is to get the politicians that vote for funding this war out of the government. That includes Democrats as well as Republicans. We need to send an unmistakable message to Congress that we will no longer condone funding the war of aggression against another nation. We can also refuse to buy products that are advertised on the mainstream media that supports the government “spin” on this war. We can stop the economy by buying second hand products including refurbished appliances, automobiles and other products that will cause the government to re-think their world policies by sinking the profits of those that support them. We can refuse to use our credit cards and only buy what is absolutely necessary.

This is an economic sanction brought against our own government by our own citizens. To blithely spend money that supports the war effort makes each and every one of us complicit in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Putting our hard-earned money back into the economy so that the government can build the machines of war with a seemingly unlimited budget fosters the use of aggression. We can still support our merchants by buying reconditioned products. To live in a society of planned obsolescence for the products we buy new, causes not only money to feed the military, but encourages our industries to do more of the same.

There is an old saying; “Evil happens when good men do nothing”. This is something we can all do. The money you save from refusing to buy new products that feed our military industrial complex could be used to help people with nothing, or you could donate that money to organizations that want to stop our current course.

This is the way I see it.