Archive for March 2010

Tears of Tyranny

It’s time to set this world free
From its chains no on can see

Genocidal undertones
Our fierce mother earth

It’s time to set this nation free
From its overflowing hypocrisy

Do we dare to care in this hateful air?
No we rather succumb to fear living in tears of tyranny

Tears of tyranny
Drowning our society

Why do we bother learning ancient policies?
Religious prophecies isn’t our obligated morality

If that’s what you believe you see on TV
Then how do you know what’s true in reality?

It’s time to set our people free
From the aged tears of tyranny

Government arbitrary
Gets away with everything
Law-abiding citizenry
Gets absolutely nothing

Tears of tyranny
Dwelling in religious absurdity

What can we learn from mans Gods?
Pretending they care of our problems

We will fight till the end
Before the end ends us all
We will light the revolt
Crashing down the walls
Before Big-Mother calls

It’s time to set our children free
Do we really need to blind their curiosity?
From the overbearing parenting

Let them yearn, let them learn
Let them go, let them flow
Let them hear, let them fear
Our children have to know
(The truth can be told)

Tears of tyranny
Children born from fear
Building hate and enemies

Who will wash away the tears of tyranny?
How do we continue as a species?
Mans destruction creation will never end
Government corruption, no more assumption
Damn America’s fateful trend

Tears of tyranny
Crying away all wrongs of the world
From the totalistic oppression’s that we hold

It’s time to set our spirits free
From the pain that clings to our misery

Ugly powerful men
Touching our beautiful women
Lay off the greed and smoke some weed

Tears of tyranny
Lakes filled with insecurity
Suspended beauty

It’s time to set our hearts free
From lovers that make us bleed

Fuck those religious whores
Inside corrupting our lovely earth
Fuck those racist jokes
Nothing can hurt us anymore
Fuck those jealous Gods
No more rape from father Todd
Fuck those government pigs of tyranny
They live because us rebels and taxpayers plead guilty

Sooner or later we’re all asleep
Vulnerable and peaceful
Look at the obeying sheep!

It’s time to let our minds open free
To knew things and kind generosity

Tears of tyranny
It’s all I ever see

Gloomy wilting skies
Gone baby blue-eyes
Painful good-byes

Tears of Tyranny
Tears of joyful sighs
When we know our own demise

War will always be the same
No matter what decade
Nothing will ever change

Our eyes are always closed
Blindly deciding who goes to war
Fear of opening, lies may come through

Tears of tyranny
Why can’t we see?

h/t Richie F. at Fighting Tyranny Ning site (you have to join to view the original)

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling

h/t stacyherbert at MaxKeiser.com

B’Man’s Sabbath Watch: When Is It Abuse?

Across the street is a house that is empty (my neighbor died last year). Her son is a preacher and was in the car as his daughter was “taking care of” her dogs (I assume they are hers).

A little background. Three days ago, another neighbor came over to discuss the two little filthy dogs that were running around loose. He explained that he saw these two break free from a small cage that is behind the little outbuilding you see in the background. There were actually two very small cages (approximately 2′x3′x2′T). One had two dogs and the other had a dog alone.

Apparently the two dogs broke free and were running all over the roads and the other neighbor was a bit concerned (he is 95 years old). They came over to my place as we were speaking and they were filthy and stank horribly.

We called the preacher to tell him that these dogs were loose (had to leave a message).

A few hours later, he drove up and this woman (his daughter) got out and started rounding up dogs.

All I could do was grab my camera and snap these photos as the preacher looked on.

The next day, I didn’t hear anything (barking, etc), so I assumed that they had been removed (perhaps just a temporary thing). Late yesterday evening, however, I heard barking and what sounded like a dog dying a horrible death. So, I walked over and found that the two cages were still there, except now they were closely wrapped in a tarp. They sensed me and began a terrible whining.

I was livid, but afraid to take away the tarps because there was a storm coming and they would be totally in the elements (it got down into the 40′s last night) and perhaps some sort of law suit.

We called the preacher again last night and left another message. The young woman called several times after 10PM (we were already in bed).

I walked over just a few minutes ago and this is the footage I took (the dogs are really quiet or dead… just heard one of them make a peep).

Dog Abuse For Preachers

►

What would you do?

B’Man’s Redneck Watch: Idiots or Learned Helplessness?

I was perusing my Reader Feeds this morning and clicked a Dandelion Salad link to an interview that Joshua Frank conducted with Joe Bageant back in the summer of 2007 in regards to his book, “Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War“. The entire interview is very interesting, but the thing that stands out to me was Joe’s description of a “redneck” which mirrors my definition in many ways.

Rednecks aren’t just Southern Folk (like myself). Rednecks are from all over the USA (and other parts of the world). I believe (and this is the reason for my blog) that we must rid ourselves of the brainwashing that has taken us to this state of insouciance (thanks, Paul Craig Roberts). We must care again. We must recognize the infractions committed by our own leaders and representatives, then come together in mass to get rid of them.

Complacent trust is foolish and we must get past that. They Don’t Give A F*ck About Us. And we can never trust them to change.

Joshua Frank: So Joe, what the hell is going on with the redneck strain of the working class anyway? Why do they seem more apt to embrace evangelism rather than a labor union? Is it, as psychologists would say, learned helplessness, or worse, idiocy?

Joe Bageant: Well, Josh, that’s a pretty broad brush you’re painting with there. In fact, it’s too broad to be answered, but that will not stop me from responding with my usual shrillness and tin drum noise punctuated by flatulence. Let me start by saying the term redneck does not apply especially to southerners. I have found indigenous redneck culture and communities in Maine, Oregon, Kansas, New York, Massachusetts, and California … in virtually every state and in large numbers. Among loggers, cowboys, poles, Germans, and even Latino rednecks.

Really. Don’t you think beer and low riders and macho sports aesthetic of Latinos, the heterosexual, patriotic Jesus focused Catholic is that much different from their Jesus focused Baptist Dixie and Midwestern counterparts? The low riders of LA are the same as beer and muscle cars of the south. In fact the first rednecks were probably the striking miners at the Ludlow Colorado massacre, who wore red bandanas and were seen as tough, surly, angry working class people who had to be kept down. The sun on the neck definition is another more recent one that got applied especially to Southerners, during the civil rights era I suppose.

We have been taught to use these ethnic, regional and racial labels to cover up the real issue in America that the rich want keep hidden another 200 years—that we are a classist country. That one class owns pretty much the whole country these days and that all the rest are left to suck hind tit and pretend they are all members of something called “the middle class.” The only real middle class is that thin layer of commissars, lawyers, teachers, journalists, and other caterers to the empire, those people necessary to manage it and count the beans, dumb down the kids and lock up enough people to keep the privatized gulags in business.

Anyway, I assume you are referring the heartland white working class people who attend fundamentalist churches. Ever since around 1800 about one-third of white America has been fundamentalist Christians, about one-third of Americans have had a born again experience. The thing that is different now is that these churches have access to political power. They were welcomed across the church-state wall of separation by cynical GOP strategists to whom giving the Republicans another chance to sack Washington, loot the national kitty and maybe pull off a good oil raid in the Middle East, was more important than our constitution. Now that they’ve let John Calvin’s wooly beast into to tent, we find it chewing on the constitution and generally stinking up the joint—it’s not going to leave without a fight.

As to the last parts of your question: When it comes to embracing the church instead of a labor union, I can remember a time when the churches stood behind the labor unions. Have we learned to be helpless? Man, we are helpless. Capitalist conditioning has replaced citizenship with consumerism. I mean, what are you or I doing? I write a book so the global publishing chain of Bertelsmann makes more money; you and I both sit here on the Internet spewing electrons across circuit boards that keep Bill Gates and the stock brokers farting through silk while we preach to the choir who bought our books. There are far better alternatives. We could grab some axe handles and heat up the tar bucket and start to burn some shit down. That still works you know.

Joshua Frank: I’ve always thought that’d work.

Joe Bageant: But we won’t. Because we are all programmed to participate through purchase, whether it is my book at Barnes and Noble or the software that enables us to read CounterPunch. Or choose the candidate that has been preselected and purchased in advance by the people who have essentially made Americans into a nation of iPod implanted pizza drivers and well dressed lawn jockeys sitting in front of monitors on the empires electronic plantations.

Joshua Frank: So how can we change this political myopia?

Our involvement with politics, our political lives, are merely as spectators who listen to commercials for three years before the magical moment before we “cast our vote” by simply going shopping in the tiniest shopping space of all—the voting booth—with the most limited choices possible that can still be called a choice: two twin parties whose parents, the corporations, have to display them against different colored backgrounds so people can get a clue as to their difference. (“I am for fighting the war until the last dog is dead,” as opposed to “I am for pulling the troops out, but not until a few hundred thousand more dogs are dead. I don’t wanna be seen as weak on the dead dog thing.” Or my favorite, “We can’t leave now or there will be chaos?” What the fuck is it we have created there now?) Right now the owning class Westchester Country Club Democrats is offering us two flavors, Hillary Clinton (bitter vanilla) and Barrack Obama (Mocha hope.)

Soooo … What’s going on politically with the great beery redneck nation? Nothing. We don’t think about politics until the last half hour before time to vote. Then a sort of a heartburn grips our chests, and all the negative campaign ads, and the sound of Bill O’Reilly’s voice and last night’s beer and bratwurst and Hillary’s stern beady eyes drill in on us … preachers call down lightening bolts and fighter planes do a double roll over the desert … then suddenly an acidic clot curdles in our throat, we close our eyes and we projectile vomit all our fears and suspicions and prejudices and state injected messages in the direction of the party making the most noise right up until the last minute. That’s what we do down here.

What do ya’ll do?

Joshua Frank: Well, I grew up in Montana with rednecks aplenty. Most of my own family is small farmers who were forced to move to the little towns in the area because of the onset of industrial agriculture. They lost the land they worked. Most of them are still proud rednecks. I respect the work ethic, but not all the culture that goes along with it. Up in Big Sky country, folks know politicians lie, so they put their trust in God instead.

Pick up trucks. Gun racks. Elk hunting. Beer drinking. It’s a way of life there. I enjoy most of it. It takes some pretty damn rough times before people stand up and say, enough is enough! You’d think they’d be screaming from the mountaintops by now. But they haven’t because they don’t think they can do a damn thing about their lot. And that’s where you get a lot of that anti-government sentiment. The Freeman and the Unabomber. It resonates quite well. As it should. The state doesn’t stand up for the little guy, but for the big corporations and they know it. The elites, however, always seem to capitalize off of their collective weakness—mainly their inability to stand up in the face of power. But anymore, the mainstream “right” and “left” are almost one in the same when it comes to the fundamental economic issues of our times.

Anyway, this is supposed to be an interview with you. Not me!

Joe Bageant: I lived in northern Idaho for years and had a lot of truck with Montanans like yourself. And to me they are among the best people in this country, tough uncomplaining people, kinda like Southerners, but with far less racism (unless you happen to be an Indian in some cases). Once when I was trending bar on the reservation, a Montana cowboy led his horse right into the place and demanded a beer for his steed. He had been drunk for two days, driving south toward New Mexico with his horse trailer, down from Alberta, Canada, and was obviously looking for a good old time tension-releasing brawl. “Well sir,” I told him. “That horse ain’t old enough to drink.” “That horse is 18,” he replied. I peeled back the horse’s lips and checked his teeth. I had horses of my own and knew how to check their age. “That horse is nine years old,” I said. “Just about the age a good cow pony starts getting some real sense.” He threw back his head and laughed. The situation was defused and we sat there in the Bald Eagle Bar and jawed until closing time. A good, tough, brave man of the kind America doesn’t make anymore. Tipped me ten dollars, then went off to wrap himself in a blanket and sleep in his truck until first light.

At the same time though, there is a belief in authority, a reverence even, that is so typically American. America has never been a nation of true dissenters. Even during the Sixties. Don’t let the old newsreels fool you. You gotta remember that when those kids were gunned down at Kent State, one half of America was cheering and an even larger portion did not give a shit. But the footage was so shocking, and we actually had a rather liberal media back then, and so, like Twin Towers footage, it was shown over and over and written about until the message finally soaked in. But Americans for the most part are on the side of their own oppressor and like it that way. Heartland Americans were happy when the working man was shot down at Ludlow, and happy when the Bohunk and Pollack miners were gunned down at the Latimer mines (again, the rewriters of history have made it seem otherwise). The good people of the heartland were happy with the kangaroo courts that framed and murdered Joe Hill and Sacco and Venzetti. And today they are happy when they see police in black Kevlar beating down young radicals in Seattle and Old Jewish women in Miami protesting turning that city into a free trade zone labor gulag.

Why Is Our Country Run By A Bunch Of Zionists? And Why Don’t You Say Something?

How To Eat A Pig

“Why don’t you just run him over, dude“?

I have a better thought, why not get out and taze him like ya’ll do humans?

Paul Craig Roberts Quits: I Don’t Know Whether To Be Pissed Or Give Up, Too

What is there to say about the movement? One of the most outspoken “insider” realists around seemingly sees the efforts as moot.

Should I be pissed? Should I quit? (I ask both of these to American Everyman)

I don’t know what to think about this. There is not the best rationale in his quitting. Sure, they are trying to squash any dissenting voices, but isn’t that the call to get louder?

I don’t know whether to feel sad or feel sorry for Mr Roberts.

Are we all to take the same path… give up the fight? Should we all decide that it is too late and just hang up our efforts?

I don’t know whether to be pissed or give up, too.

Mr Roberts originally penned his “retirement?” at CounterPunch. And in closing said this:

America’s fate was sealed when the public and the anti-war movement bought the government’s 9/11 conspiracy theory. The government’s account of 9/11 is contradicted by much evidence. Nevertheless, this defining event of our time, which has launched the US on interminable wars of aggression and a domestic police state, is a taboo topic for investigation in the media. It is pointless to complain of war and a police state when one accepts the premise upon which they are based.

These trillion dollar wars have created financing problems for Washington’s deficits and threaten the U.S. dollar’s role as world reserve currency. The wars and the pressure that the budget deficits put on the dollar’s value have put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. Former Goldman Sachs chairman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is after these protections for the elderly. Fed chairman Bernanke is also after them. The Republicans are after them as well. These protections are called “entitlements” as if they are some sort of welfare that people have not paid for in payroll taxes all their working lives.

With over 21 per cent unemployment as measured by the methodology of 1980, with American jobs, GDP, and technology having been given to China and India, with war being Washington’s greatest commitment, with the dollar over-burdened with debt, with civil liberty sacrificed to the “war on terror,” the liberty and prosperity of the American people have been thrown into the trash bin of history.

The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off.

At the same time we lost one of the stalwart defenders and fighters of the only sane health care solution this week to the corptocracy (speaking of Kucinich). It seems that the few people that were holding the mantle of peace and caring for Americans (which would also help the rest of the world) over the corporate control the majority fall in line with, are folding. Giving up.

What does that mean for us… the little insignificant folks who fight with whatever methods they have access to? When the icons are dying, flip-flopping, downright selling out, or just giving up the fight and there is no one but us left, is it a lost cause?

I don’t think so. I believe that the only way to a correction is for all Americans (the ones that have the capability of transcending the mind control) to learn that their “party” is a scam and that they should do as I do and promise to not vote for either a Dem or a Rep (in my case ever again). If everyone would make and keep this promise, then obviously neither party would hold or gain another seat. But don’t fall for some replacement “Tea Party” who was simply hijacked by the old guard ReTHUGlicans. For this is precisely what will happen and you know it. They have already put their mitts all over it.

But where do the replacements come from? For just because we make the vow doesn’t mean that there will not be the undying sycophant who considers party more important than any issue facing us (which may be around 20-30% of the population, I estimate). It IS ingrained. However, it is also evident that many people are awaking. My friend (in real life) Dr Doug told me he was a long-time Republican and fell for the BS. He has been reading and totally immersing himself in links from here and many other places and finds himself to be much more libertarian than before. He is but one of many folks I know (in real life) that are seeing the light. That both parties are complicit.

So, education is the key. Being able to show people that most of these people in these party (by far) are corporatist and will fall into line no matter what. How else can you explain Kucinich or ALL the Republicans who voted against this bill without pushing for a Medicare-For-All system (or some semblance of a populist defense). The fact is that this theater we are seeing from our couches and desk chairs still, no matter what the kabuki, is nothing more than protecting and enlarging the Big Money control of America. It truly is nothing less than fascism at its base and total makeup.

I am not advocating any armed takeover (hitting the beach, as has been noted). For, unless the entire citizenry were to engage, it is a loss. I do not have that kind of trust in my fellow citizens. But there is a way to make a change, by working against their system. If enough were to see it and agree, then it is possible (I know what a HUGE “if” that is).

That being said, no matter what Mr Roberts does (hopefully just takes a short break), I am forced to keep on ranting and raving, hoping that someone new, everyday, can be reached and caused to rethink their brainwashing; Search a new horizon beyond that Two Party Paradigm.

One way to do that is search for new places to obtain information. My friend (unreal life) D.Eris from Poli-Tea (we have shared links and I have featured their work here before) has joined ranks with several Independent minded folks to form a new Blog for Independents called “Third Party and Independent Daily“. It is new and I have been reading with great interest. The goal is to move beyond that paradigm and provide news specifically for Independents and Third party folks. From the “About” block:

Third Party and Independent Daily is a multi-partisan group weblog that aggregates news and blog items from across the political spectrum on the third party and independent web.

Check ‘em out.

I know it is only a start. And I know how it feels to be depressed and feel as if nothing works. But, that is certainly not the case with Mr Robert’s influence on me and many more that valued his perspective and insight.

Take a break, Paul, then come back.

Healing Breast Cancer The Old Fashioned Way

I wonder what the cancer rate is for people who use regularly?

Who’s Up Next For The Empire’s Affections?

I have been a long time reader of Steve Lendman’s blog. He does some really thorough work that details aspects of government shenanigans and is a daily read for me (highly recommended). In today’s article, Steve delves into the hypocrisy that is America’s foreign policy. He points out the lies and distractions, the American instigated coup attempts, the name calling and innuendo used to marginalize Chavez.

I talk to people every day that can do nothing except regurgitate the propaganda against Chavez and his socialistic agenda. All the while, they have no clue that in comparison to America, Venezuela is an angel, whereas America is Satan, himself. Allow Steve to lay it out as well as anything I have read:

Venezuela in Washington’s Crosshairs

Venezuela in Washington’s Crosshairs – by Stephen Lendman

Washington fears Hugo Chavez for good reason. His “good example” threat raises concerns that other regional leaders may follow. As a result, throughout his tenure, he’s been targeted and vilified – to discredit, weaken and undermine his government to destroy Bolivarian benefits millions of Venezuelans now enjoy, won’t easily give up, nor should they.

Several failed coup attempts included:

– April 2002 for two days, an effort aborted by mass street protests and support from many in Venezuela’s military, especially from the middle-ranking officer corp;

– the 2002 – 2003 general strike and oil management lockout, causing severe economic disruption and billions of dollars in losses; and

– the August 2004 national recall referendum that Chavez won overwhelmingly with a 59% majority.

Thereafter, disruptions regularly followed to help domestic and US oligarchs regain what they lost, so far without success, but they persist, with supportive editorial, op-ed, and on-the-ground reporting. Also from an Organization of American States (OAS) report, the Vision of Humanity’s annual Global Peace Index (GPI), US State Department, and Pentagon.

On March 19, Reuters reported that, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, General Douglas Fraser, USSOUTHCOM (US Southern Command) head, claimed Chavez backs Colombian leftists, saying:

His government “continue(s) to have a very anti-US stance and look(s) to try and restrict US activity wherever they have the opportunity to do that. (It’s) continuing to engage with the region….and continuing to pursue (its) socialism agenda. (It) remain(s) a destabilizing force in the region.”

He said Venezuela continues to support FARC-EP rebels, providing “financial logistical support” and a safe haven based on evidence found on a laptop seized in a 2008 Ecuadorean guerrilla camp raid – information later proved bogus.

Yet a week earlier, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Fraser testified otherwise, saying:

“We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify that there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection” between Chavez and either the FARC-EP or the Basque separatist group ETA. “We have continued to watch very closely for any connections between illicit and terrorist organization activity within the region. We are concerned about it. I’m skeptical. I continue to watch for it,” but as yet haven’t found it.

During her March 1 – 5 Latin American tour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gratuitously insulted Chavez. So did Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, in Senate testimony, accusing him of FARC-EP ties – suggesting much more to come to boost opposition candidates in September parliamentary elections.

US State Department 2009 Human Rights Report: Venezuela

Released on March 11, it followed earlier ones, bogusly accusing Chavez of:

– harassing and intimidating political opponents;

– targeting the media; and

– numerous human rights violations, including:

– “unlawful killings;

– summary executions of criminal suspects;

– widespread criminal kidnappings for ransom;

– prison uprisings resulting from harsh prison conditions;

– arbitrary arrests and detentions;

– corruption and impunity in police forces;

– a corrupt, inefficient, and politicized judicial system characterized by trial delays and violations of due process;

– (targeting) political opponents and selective prosecution(s) for political purposes;

– infringement of citizens’ privacy rights by security forces;

– government closure of radio and television stations and threats to close others;

– government attacks on public demonstrations;

– systematic discrimination based on political grounds;

– considerable corruption at all levels of government;

– threats and attacks against domestic NGOs;

– violence against women;

– inadequate juvenile detention centers;

– trafficking in persons; and

– restrictions on workers’ right of association.”

Other charges have included drugs trafficking and ties to bogusly designated “foreign terror organizations” like the FARC-EP and ETA.

These sham charges and similar ones repeat regularly to discredit and undermine Chavez. Ironically, they’re more descriptive of American domestic and foreign policies – ones that defy US and international laws with regard to human and civil rights, equal justice, war, occupation, domestic tranquility, and the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 for the Congress to “provide (for) the general welfare of the United States,” the so-called welfare clause applying also to the Executive and judiciary.

In contrast, Chavez promotes world solidarity, democratic freedoms, human and civil rights, judicial fairness, fair and open elections, and a free and open media. He doesn’t invade other countries, has no secret prisons, doesn’t practice torture, or conduct fraudulent elections. As a result, he inspires millions worldwide, and has widespread domestic majority support. Yet bogus State Department charges persist.

Ones as well from a recent OAS report titled, “Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela,” produced under the mandate of the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Among others, its bogus accusations include:

– restricting human rights “enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights;”

– no independent separation among government branches;

– state punitive power to “intimidate or punish people on account of their political opinions;”

– denying journalists the right to report freely;

– “a pattern of impunity in cases of violence,” especially against “media workers, human rights defenders, trade unionists, participants in public demonstrations, people held in custody, campesinos (small-scale and subsistence farmers), indigenous peoples, and women;”

– restricted opportunities for opposing political candidates to secure “access to power;”

– disempowering opposition politicians through legal and other means;

– intimidating and punishing dissent against official policy through harassment, violence, and criminal proceedings;

– targeting peaceful opposition demonstrations;

– the absence of an independent, impartial judiciary; and

– numerous other charges like the US State Department’s, more descriptive of America, suggesting a hidden motive behind the report’s issuance; perhaps also its timing, two weeks before the State Department’s similar accusations.

Chavez called it “pure excrement….ineffable (and) ignominious” in denouncing the IACHR as “menacing….a true mafia and is part of the OAS, which is why one of these days this organization must disappear….It is the same Commission which backed (the de facto government of Pedro) Carmona” after the April 2002 coup. “But this is part of the attacks, of continued threats against the Bolivarian Revolution, (a) continued campaign (supported by Venezuelan and American oligarchs to) isolat(e) Venezuela.”

OAS history is long and shameful in deference to US interests.

Writing in Granma Internacional in June 2009, Editor Oscar Sanchez Serra said:

Throughout its history, the OAS “made democracies ungovernable, turned them into dictatorships, and when they were no longer useful, reconverted them into even more diminished and servile democracies, because in the new, neoliberal era, with transnationalized oligarch(ic) capital, they were part of a much more sophisticated power structure, whose bases were not necessarily located in the presidential palaces or parliaments, but in continental corporations.”

OAS nations had decades of “involvement with death, genocide and lies for (it) to survive these times. It is a political corpse and should be buried as soon as possible….The reality is, without the OAS, the United States would lose one of its principle political/legal instruments of hegemonic control over the Western Hemisphere.”

In February 2004, Washington got its backing to justify ousting Haiti’s President Jean-Betrand Aristide. Then in 2009, it abstained from strong actions after Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed, opting instead for symbolic toothless measures. It’s new report reveals transparent support for bogus US charges, not Venezuela’s participatory democracy, largely absent in the region and unimaginable in America where Washington is corporate controlled territory, and popular interests go unaddressed.

The Global Peace Index (GPI)

Launched by Australian entrepreneur, Steve Killelea, in May 2007, it claims to be the first study of its kind ranking nations according to peacefulness, identifying key peace drivers. Its initial report included 121 countries, increased to 140 in 2008 and 144 in its latest 2009 report, released in June last year.

Its problematic endorsers include:

– the Dalia Lama, a known CIA asset from the late 1950s to mid- 1970s, and may still be one now;

– John Malcolm Fraser, former Australian Prime Minister;

– Kofi Annan, infamous as UN Secretary-General for backing US imperial wars while ignoring the plight of oppressed Africans and others globally;

– Ban Ki-moon, current UN Secretary-General, performing the same services as Annan;

– corporate figures including Ted Turner (CNN founder) and Richard Branson (chairman, Virgin Group);

– an array of prominent current and past political and diplomatic figures;

– two members of Jordanian royalty;

– numerous academics; and others.

Organizations preparing GPI’s report and/or responsible for its data include:

– the Economist Intelligence Unit (founded by a former UK director of intelligence), calling itself “the world’s foremost provider of country, industry and management analysis” since 1946;

– the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Sweden’s Uppsala University, producing annual “States in Armed Conflict” reports;

– the Oslo, Norway International Peace Research Institute, a private/publicly funded organization, producing “Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Annual Reports;” and

– the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), calling itself “the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict” with 450 corporate and institutional members.

The world was less peaceful in 2008, according to GPI, reflecting intensified conflicts and the effects of rising food and fuel prices at a time of global economic crisis, impacting employment, incomes, savings, and for many shelter, enough to eat, and the ability to survive.

GPI used 23 indicators to measure the level or absence of peace, divided into three broad categories, including:

– ongoing domestic and international conflict;

– safety and security in society; and

– militarization.

Scores were then “banded, either on a scale of 1 – 5 (for qualitative indicators) or 1 – 10 (for quantitative data, such as military expenditure or the jailed population, which have then been converted to a 1- 5 scale for comparability when compiling the final index).”

Indicators include:

– number of external and internal conflicts from 2002 – 07;

– estimated number of deaths from external conflicts;

– estimated number from internal ones;

– level of internal conflicts;

– relations with neighboring countries;

– perceptions of criminality in society;

– number of displaced people as a percentage of population;

– political instability;

– level of disrespect for human rights;

– potential for terrorist acts;

– number of homicides per 100,000 people;

– level of violent crime;

– likelihood of violent demonstrations;

– number of jailed population per 100,000 people;

– number of internal security officers and police per 100,000 population;

– military expenditures as a percent of GDP;

– number of military personnel per 100,000 population;

– volume of major weapon imports per 100,000 people;

– volume of major weapon exports per 100,000 people;

– funding for UN peacekeeping missions;

– total number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people;

– ease of access to small arms and light weapons; and

– the level of military capability.

Conspicuously absent is any measure of outside influence causing internal violence, instability, and/or disruption. Top rankings went to New Zealand, Denmark and Norway. Ranked worst were Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Israel.

Venezuela ranked an implausible 120th behind Yemen, Haiti, Iran, Honduras, Uzbekistan, Uganda, Rwanda, and dozens of other unlikely choices. America was 83rd, despite hands down being the world’s most violent lawless state, directly or through global proxy wars for unchallengeable world dominance.

It’s also a domestic armed camp, using police state laws to quash human rights and civil liberties, criminalize dissent, illegally spy, control information, persecute political opponents, steal elections, and transfer public wealth to elitist private hands.

In contrast, Venezuela is democratic and peaceful, except during periods of Washington-instigated disruptions. America alone endangers global stability and world peace, waging permanent wars, targeting peaceful nations, and claiming the unilateral right to use first strike nuclear weapons preemptively. It also maintains over 1,000 bases and many secret ones in over 130 countries. Its annual military budget tops all other nations combined – way over $1 trillion plus tens of additional billions for intelligence and black operations, mostly for covert destabilization.

It overthrows democratically elected governments, assassinates foreign leaders and key officials, props up friendly dictators, practices torture as official policy, operates the world’s largest domestic and offshore gulag, destabilizes world regions, and is hated and feared globally as a result.

In contrast, Chavez seeks regional and global alliances; engages foreign leaders cooperatively; assassinates no one internally or abroad; has no nuclear weapons or seeks them; spends less than one-half of one percent of the Pentagon’s official budget; doesn’t export weapons to neighbors; is socially responsible at home; has no secret prisons; respects the rule of law; is a model participatory democracy; governs peacefully; supports civil and human rights and social justice; affirms free expression; bans discrimination; and uses Venezuela’s resources responsibly – for people needs, yet is friendly to business at home and abroad.

Nonetheless, GPI ranks it below America in human and civil rights, level of organized internal conflict, relations with neighboring countries, potential for terrorist acts, level of violent crime, political instability, perceptions of criminality in society, ease of access to small weapons, freedom of the press, political democracy, adult literacy (way above the US Department of Education’s assessment), and willingness to fight.

Transparency International (TI) also rates Venezuela low in its 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), indicating the perceived level of public sector corruption by country, claiming a 90% confidence of accuracy. It ranks America implausibly high at 19th and Venezuela outrageously low at 162nd out of 180 countries, behind notoriously corrupt states, including corporate occupied Washington, siphoning trillions of public dollars to private hands as part of the greatest ever wealth transfer.

In ranking America v. Venezuela, TI, GPI, and OAS measures look suspiciously manipulated to place a global hegemon above a peaceful democratic state that coincidentally is Washington’s top regional target.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://prognewshour.progressiveradionetwork.org/

http://lendmennews.progressiveradionetwork.org/

Sit back… chew on this…

                         
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=2ALY0DGI

How cool is this ultimate ‘think piece’ flick!!!!

In case the above link doesn’t work
  
http://www.movies-links.tv/movies/what_the_bleep_do_we_know/

Pro-single-payer doctors: Health bill leaves 23 million uninsured

A false promise of reform

For Immediate Release
March 22, 2010

Contact:
Oliver Fein, M.D.
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.
David Himmelstein, M.D.
Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Mark Almberg, PNHP, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org

The following statement was released today by leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org. Their signatures appear below.

As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House’s passage of the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.

Instead of eliminating the root of the problem – the profit-driven, private health insurance industry – this costly new legislation will enrich and further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to buy private insurers’ defective products, and turn over to them vast amounts of public money.

The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the facts:

• About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years out. That figure translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of suffering.
• Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy commercial health insurance policies costing up to 9.5 percent of their income but covering an average of only 70 percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill. Many will find such policies too expensive to afford or, if they do buy them, too expensive to use because of the high co-pays and deductibles.
• Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money will enhance their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block future reform.
• The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of the tens of millions who will remain uninsured.
• People with employer-based coverage will be locked into their plan’s limited network of providers, face ever-rising costs and erosion of their health benefits. Many, even most, will eventually face steep taxes on their benefits as the cost of insurance grows.
• Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, as the experience with the Massachusetts plan (after which this bill is patterned) amply demonstrates.
• The much-vaunted insurance regulations – e.g. ending denials on the basis of pre-existing conditions – are riddled with loopholes, thanks to the central role that insurers played in crafting the legislation. Older people can be charged up to three times more than their younger counterparts, and large companies with a predominantly female workforce can be charged higher gender-based rates at least until 2017.
• Women’s reproductive rights will be further eroded, thanks to the burdensome segregation of insurance funds for abortion and for all other medical services.

It didn’t have to be like this. Whatever salutary measures are contained in this bill, e.g. additional funding for community health centers, could have been enacted on a stand-alone basis.

Similarly, the expansion of Medicaid – a woefully underfunded program that provides substandard care for the poor – could have been done separately, along with an increase in federal appropriations to upgrade its quality.

But instead the Congress and the Obama administration have saddled Americans with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on workers’ health plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable system that is taking such a heavy toll on our health and economy today.

This bill’s passage reflects political considerations, not sound health policy. As physicians, we cannot accept this inversion of priorities. We seek evidence-based remedies that will truly help our patients, not placebos.

A genuine remedy is in plain sight. Sooner rather than later, our nation will have to adopt a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved Medicare for all. Only a single-payer plan can assure truly universal, comprehensive and affordable care to all.

By replacing the private insurers with a streamlined system of public financing, our nation could save $400 billion annually in unnecessary, wasteful administrative costs. That’s enough to cover all the uninsured and to upgrade everyone else’s coverage without having to increase overall U.S. health spending by one penny.

Moreover, only a single-payer system offers effective tools for cost control like bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, global hospital budgeting and capital planning.

Polls show nearly two-thirds of the public supports such an approach, and a recent survey shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support government action to establish national health insurance. All that is required to achieve it is the political will.

The major provisions of the present bill do not go into effect until 2014. Although we will be counseled to “wait and see” how this reform plays out, we cannot wait, nor can our patients. The stakes are too high.

We pledge to continue our work for the only equitable, financially responsible and humane remedy for our health care mess: single-payer national health insurance, an expanded and improved Medicare for All.

Oliver Fein, M.D.
President

Garrett Adams, M.D.
President-elect

Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Past President

Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Congressional Fellow

David Himmelstein, M.D.
Co-founder

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.
Co-founder

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator

Don McCanne, M.D.
Senior Health Policy Fellow

******

Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance. To speak with a physician/spokesperson in your area, visit www.pnhp.org/stateactions or call (312) 782-6006.

If Liz Were Queen, We Would Undermine The Entire Process

I read at a place called “If Liz Were Queen“. Nice blog, especially when it comes to the health care/health insurance issues/debate/giveaway. She explains why the Tea Partiers Are Clueless To What Is Really Wrong With The Health Care Legislation:

WHAT IS REALLY WRONG WITH THIS BILL?

IT FORCES 50 MILLION AMERICANS TO BUY AN INSURANCE PRODUCT FROM KNOWN CROOKS!

IT IS NOT “SOCIALIZED” MEDICINE. These people are just repeating what the Republican leadership have told them to say–people like Chuck Grassley who have done nothing but lie about the content of the bill.

IT IS WALL STREET CORPORATE PREDATOR MEDICINE.

IT HAS NO SAFEGUARD OF ANOTHER CHOICE, ANOTHER PLACE OTHER THAN WALL STREET FOR AMERICANS TO GO TO PURCHASE THEIR INSURANCE.  IT HAS NO PUBLIC OPTION.

IT IS NOT A “GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER” YOU FOOLS!  IT IS JUST ANOTHER WALL STREET TAKEOVER.

Her Highness provided a youtube clip of a young student as he interviews various partiers and gets their incoherent and erroneous responses.

[youtube=

Doesn’t that just say it all? Is it just me, but wouldn’t it make just a bit more sense if these people actually knew what they hell they were protesting? And let me just say right here and now, if you have the audacity to wear a GW Bush hat after those 8 years, you are totally beyond any hope. Its like a Bush bumper sticker on your car: surely you are so embarrassed by your two votes that put that imbecile (and his evil handler, Dick) in office, that you long ago scraped that off (even if the paint or the bumper, itself, had to go).

If this is what it means to be in a Tea party, ya’ll can have it.

Her Highness also points out that the Republicans May Have The Tables Turned On Them Over Health Care In November:

For certain it will be the Republicans from poor areas who don’t endorse the health care bill who will suffer the most.

Yep that’s how it’s shaping up.  Many of the Republicans who long touted that  the Democrats will lose the House and the Senate if they vote for health care reform look like they could lose out in November if they vote against the health care bill.

Virginia Foxx, a Republican Congresswoman from the 5th Congressional District of North Carolina might be ammong the Republican casualties in November…

Wouldn’t that be great, except that it could get much, MUCH better than putting Corporately owned and controlled Democrats such as Dennis Kucinich back in the office where they, like the Senate’s Bernie Sanders, can simply back off from principle and promises because standing for what is right might “Undermine The Entire Process“. Well, duh, you damned old fool. That is exactly what needs to be done. Disrupt the giveaway and make the system right. So, with this kowtowing remark, we lost the only seemingly sensible Senator we had.

They ALL suck.

Let us acknowledge that and get rid of every damned one of them next election cycle.

Simply do NOT vote another incumbent and ignore the two parties. For even the “Independent” Bernie Sanders has no spine after being in for so long.

They ALL must go.

If Democrats really get serious about real health care reform as Harry Reid has promised and pass the public option in the next couple of months, it’s all over for the Republicans in November.

The Democratic health  care reform would have the full support of 82% of the American people.

The Republican liars like Ghuck Grassley with his lies about “death panels” and other Republican poliiticians with their lies about the bill supporting abortion could very well be toast.

But if the Democrats are not careful and do not support a strong public option they can lose as well–not to Republicans, but to independents.  More and more Americans are beginning to get the ties of Congress–both Republicans and Democrats–to Wall Street.  We are not so dumb that we don’t get the connection between 50 million forced Wall Street Health Insurance customers and the stock portfolios of the 263 multimillionaires in Congress.

Home for Sale! Pass it along!

In these times I figured being proactive with my house sale at least makes me feel like I have some control…lol

http://knoxville.craigslist.org/reb/1647273342.html

Pass this along to folks… ya never know who is looking for an awesome home for an awesome price!

Stopping The Health Insurance Give-away Bill

Dennis the Chamberlain, don't forget to grab the train of the King's robe

Should we trust Dennis ever again?

Nope. He sold his soul to the devil, himself.

As Kurt Nimmo writes at Infowars:

Meanwhile, Obama managed to arm-twist one-time totalitarian care opponent Dennis Kucinich into backing the plan Democrats say they will enact without votes in Congress. Obama had summoned Kucinich to Air Force One and Dennis kissed the ring. “Even though I don’t like the bill, I’ve made a decision to support it in the hope that we can move to a more comprehensive approach once this legislation is done,” he told reporters.

Apparently Kucinich no longer consider Obama’s totalitarian care plan a sham. In October, he said the entire legislative package was “a bailout for insurance companies.” The American people are “being mandated to buy private insurance. If you read the bill, the people are going to end up paying — the insurance companies can raise rates 25 percent right off the bat, if you read the bill,” said Kucinich.

Dennis Kucinich, one of a very small number of Democrats who originally opposed Obamacare, now apparently believes it is fine and dandy for the government to force the commoners to buy health care insurance at gunpoint. He also believes large insurance corporations deserve a monopoly in partnership with the government.

Should we ever trust Dennis Kucinich again? I think not.

Dennis tried to defend his indefensible traitor action (piece of shit, lying scumbag), presented at AfterDowningStreet

Single Payer advocates explain reality to the Corporate whores, Howard Dean and John Conyers. h/t SinglePayerAction

And we also get the benefit (read as “sham”) of having the senate protect the health insurance premium double digit increases.

There may be but one way to stop this horrendous bill: Wait until the individual states sue.

Raw Story explains that Virginia will sue

(not that you would think it is a good idea from the Dem party sycophants commenting there)

Or maybe Idaho (thanks to AfterDowningStreet) for the link:

Idaho on Wednesday became the first state to pass a law saying no thanks to part of President Obama’s health care proposal.

The Idaho Health Care Freedom Act says in part, “every person within the state of Idaho is and shall be free to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services without penalty or threat of penalty.”

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, said Wednesday he signed it because he believes any health care laws should ensure people are “treated as an individual, rather than as an amorphous mass whose only purpose in this world is to obey federal mandates.”

Several other states may follow suit.

And of course, the obvious next step in the plan is to abolish Medicare and Medicaid. Walgreens in Washington State will stop accepting medicare payments for meds (which will be the last day my family will ever shop in their stores in TN or anywhere else, for that matter)

Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won’t take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.

The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.

In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a “continued reduction in reimbursement” under the state’s Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents. (h/t PrisonPlanet)

If you want to see a non-corporately owned person explain the truth in opposition to the flip-flopping Kucinich at Democracy Now. Watch as Nader says the truth about the bill and how Dennis cannot explain himself without admitting he had to kowtow to corporate pressures.

Dennis, you know that Obama is not going to help real America. Ralph knows this and is unapologetic in explaining it.

The video at the Democracy Now link is one of the most important you can see that not only tears Dennis a new asshole, but explains exactly what is happening in this bill. Dennis, however, is owned and indebted to the Corporately owned Democratic party. And as far as I am concerned, he can have them and suck on them and do whatever it is he needs to do to kiss their ass. At least Ralph didn’t.

At the end, Dennis shows his true colors and that his dedication and motivation is to protect Obama and the Dem Party.

This, in and of itself, is enough to write him off as I have.

B’man’s Piece of Shit Watch: Dennis Kucinich Has Decided Principle Is Meaningless

Until today, I have thought of Dennis Kucinich as a real leader. One that was beyond reproach. One, that I even put over Nader (for a few reasons). I wrote about him this morning, in defense against Ms Hamsher’s post (she was damned right and I was damned wrong). But her warning should now go out. Give back every dime, you coward.

I have focused Dennis on my B’Man’s Patriot Watch more than once and even considered him a hero. I have given money to this man and I don’t live in his district. I have supported him and would continue to support him, IF he hadn’t emasculated himself in front of the entire country. He allowed Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi to screw us and he didn’t even put up a whimper of a fight. He was the only one who “acted” as if he truly wanted change. But, he doesn’t want change, what he has is “a real desire to see our president succeed“.

But you, not so much.

Dennis, you cowardly piece of shit.

Let me apologize to anyone who considers me a critical thinker and/or one who can pin people fairly accurately (I couldn’t have been MORE wrong about this man) and provide you with something that a past president said of honesty in politics (and I have argued SHOULD be the case, but is no more):

We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity.”: Theodore Roosevelt – (1858-1919) 26th US President

It is not at all possible to believe a single one of these fuckers. Thank you, Dennis Kucinich, you piece of shit, for showing me that my only real glimmer of hope is nothing more than another kowtowing, pissy little fucker who was bought and paid for by bullshit.

There are those of us who know better.

You just fucked up, Dennis. Big time. I wonder which Demublican asslicker is going to replace you?

Scott puts it as well or better than old B’Man can at AmericanEveryman:

Dennis took a plane ride with Obama and sold us out. Threw us right the fuck under the bus. He sold us out after talking to Obama and Pelosi. He sold us out because he was told that without his support other progressives would also hold out and Pelosi would have to use the “deem and pass” trick to force Obamacare on the American people. That action would harm her rep and Obama’s rep. So he flipped his vote without getting a goddamn thing in exchange.

The one thing he said at the end was that he “didn’t like the process” that has taken place on this bill, when he was asked about the threat of the “deem and pass” possibility. He hung his head and said, “look, if your looking for someone to say they approve of the way this bill was handled, I’m not the guy. I don’t like anything about how this bill was passed. I’m voting “yes” and that is it.”

Possibly a little insight into what happened on that plane flight to Cleveland. BUT I DON”T GIVE A SHIT. Real leaders continue to stand NO MATTER WHAT THE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES.

Here that Dennis? you piece of shit.

Did Martin Luther King cave, you cowardly motherfucker? Did JFK in the end?

They were heros, you’re a punk. End of story.