The 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Today is the 10th anniversary of what some have called the "worst attacks on US soil in history". The 3000 people that died on that day and the hundreds of thousands of innocents that have been killed in the name of that day deserve a day of remembrance. I fear though, that most Americans use the day as a way of reigniting their anger about that day rather than a somber tribute to the dead and affected.

When I was growing up, I remember watching a 15 minute daily news program at school (when I would stay awake for it), called Channel 1. This was a brief look at current events around the world. One of the events that they covered was the Israel/Palestine situation. I remember back in those days, each week it seemed like there was new hope for peace between the two entities. There seemed to be constant talks involving the president (at the time, Bill Clinton) with new ideas about how to make peace work. I didn't understand much about the conflict, but I do remember taking away an idea about war and peace... at this point, neither side can remember who struck first, because each incremental strike only brings more death and destruction that ruins lives and families and creates more individuals hungry for death and destruction. I remember thinking this at the time and to get back to my original point, it was my first thought as I was watching the buildings coming down on live television 10 years ago.

On that day, as a freshman in my first semester away at college (3 weeks in, nonetheless), I was not very involved in politics. I did, however know enough to know that you can't depend on a politician to be even-handed and reasonable. I hoped against hope that our response to this disaster would be reasonable and well thought-out.

Of course, that's not how things worked out.

I can understand and excuse the mentality of the average US citizen crying for blood. However, it is the job of our elected representatives to hold the line and be the voice of reason, to make decisions that are good for the country, not good for our retribution. As a result of those attacks 10 years ago, we have endured a decade of politicians from both sides taking every opportunity to use them as an excuse for greed, spreading fear and paranoia upon the people that they are controllin... I mean representing, and justification for further bloody conflicts across the globe for a means of achieving their goals of imperialism, resource mining, or corporate interest (imagine the US fighting wars on behalf of a corporation!). Needless to say, the country (I almost typed company... quite the Freudian slip!) is only worse off as a result of almost every decision that has been made from 9/11/01 to 9/11/11.

It's time to take the country back from the elite and greedy. We have more millionaires in government than we have ever had before. Now, if I may ask, how is it possible that a millionaire is the best possible representation for people that on average, make $35,000 a year and are barely scraping by with the essentials to live in this country?

We are supposed to be a government of the people, for the people, by the people but we are quickly becoming a country of the people, for the wealthy, by the wealthy.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that for anything to change, we, the average joes need to rise up and run for public office. We cannot allow the system to be corrupted beyond help. You can already see all across the country, particularly at the local level, steps being taken to make it more difficult for the average person to run for office. If federal politics infects local policy, America as we know it truly is over.

I will remember today for what it has always represented for me; a squandering of an opportunity to take this country in a new, peaceful and enlightened direction, in lieu of the elite using it as an opportunity to make a shit load of money and pay back the US population in the blood of the foreigners.

On this day I am grateful that I was not one of those people in the buildings or planes, having global atrocities carried out in my name.

Reality Check

Every once in a while, while walking through this world something will come along that will serve as a marking post of where we are in society. Sometimes it comes in the form of reaching a new marvel in science (like the moon landing for example); other times it comes in the form of a tar baby.

This week, United States Representative Doug Lambourn of Colorado was on a local talk radio show when he referred to working with President Obama as (in a disgusted tone) ugh, a "tar baby". (Hear audio here) As appalling as it is to think that one of our sitting elected representative congressmen is referring to the president (or any black person) as a "tar baby", it didn't really shock me. Well, not in the traditional sense of the word. I'm realistic. I realize that there are people out there that ooze contempt for all kinds of people that are different from them; people they can marginalize, put down or otherwise degrade for their own personal benefit or self-esteem. What I wasn't ready for was the reaction of the radio host that delivered this story.

In Cleveland, there is a local morning show (that is syndicated to other cities) called "Rover's Morning Glory". In general, Rover portrays himself to be the voice of reason, and self-proclaims his even-handedness (which I suppose is about as close to "liberal" as you'll get on the radio these days). Rover's reaction to the news story is actually what jarred me. The talk show host (Rover) brought up the story obviously knowing what he was going to say off the bat and immediately launches into a DEFENSE for this person. Apparently this man is capable of reading and found that the original defintion related to a "situation that is impossible to break away from".

Ok.... let's take a breath. So, the definition for this word actually does exist. I suspect though, that for just about anyone that is reading this, or heard this story, this is a surprise. To me, the only times I have ever heard "tar baby" used in conversation was a derogatory reference to "them blacks".

Of course, this isn't the main issue, is it? I could sit here and try to convince you that Rep. Lambourn, Rover and everyone else knows exactly what is going on here and that it is blatant accepted racism. It'd be a losing fight though, because especially in this day and age, if there is an ounce of doubt (at least for the privileged), blame cannot be cast.

Instead, I'm going to highlight this fact... racism is not only alive, it has launched into version 2.0. It is institutionalized. Rover is on a Clear Channel station (WMMS, sigh). Clear Channel is a media conglomerate that owns over 900 radio stations across the country. That means that they own almost 10% of the TOTAL radio market. But even that isn't the whole story. I'm sure that I don't need to tell you who Clear Channel is because they probably own the radio station that you listened to when you were a kid and the most popular one in your town (regardless of what kind of music they play). In Cleveland alone, they own 5 different stations (CBS Radio owns 4). Purely personal experience, but these 9 stations comprise AT LEAST 90% of the listening audience in Cleveland. In fact, these 9 stations occupy 9 of the top 11 stations in Cleveland.

So where is this going? What is the point?

I've made the point before. Media conglomerations are dangerous. They have the ability to spread mass (dis)information at an incredible speed and spread; but also, they have the ability to inflict minor mental changes over time for the purveyors of their content. It's how culture is shaped. Shows like Rover are given talking points (or "suggestions") of show content by corporate executives in the name of ratings, but what they are really doing is pushing an agenda. Even the afternoon show on the same station (one that I listen to and enjoy, actually), the host calls himself a "liberal faggot" on a regular basis, pushing the idea that his ideas are very liberal when in fact, they are what I would describe as "21st century center" (which is 20th century center-right). This assists in moving the conversation further and further to the right. When those that are sold as "liberal" are pushing conservative ideas (look no further than the president himself), any truly liberal ideas sound completely radical.

Ok, ok but we've heard this all before and most of this is just conjecture and editorializing. What's my point!?

WTAM 1100, the most popular station in Cleveland is a news talk radio station. Since I was a kid, I can remember listening to Indians games on this station. I remember hearing local news on that station. They are now a Clear Channel station. The highlights of their lineup include Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Fox News Radio updates every 15 minutes or so. I have no delusions. I understand that Clear Channel is a company that most likely cares about the bottom dollar more than they care about pushing an agenda. However, if you are an objective-thinking person, you have to view anyone that would give liars like Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Fox News a place to spread their disinformation as exercising an agenda of some sort.

So, just to make sure that I can't be labelled as a "whiny liberal" who is pissed off that the most popular media in his city is conservative-ideology based... I feel the need to say this:

I don't hate conservative ideas. I don't hate conservative people. I don't hate racists (I actually feel for them). I hate LIARS. I hate MANIPULATORS. And most of all, I hate people or companies that will look the other way while our society is degraded by lies and manipulation in the name of profit. We live in a country where ethics are openly disregarded in the name of capitalism. It's exactly the type of thing that gives capitalism a bad name, and makes many like myself feel so far removed from the notion of free enterprise. I would love to start a business in this country, go after the "American Dream" (you have to be asleep to believe it); but I'm not willing to mortgage my ethics in order to be successful. Why are so many business leaders neo-conservatives? It's because oligopolys, unethical behavior, shady dealings, manipulation and mass corruption that exists in government and business helps their natural inclination toward greed.

Of course, I'm just one guy standing in a crowd yelling "the end is near".

So... Everything Can Go Back to Normal Now, Right?

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Big news. If you're an American living in America for the last decade it surely has some degree of personal meaning for you.

For those of us who remember what it was like living in a pre-911 America however, this only symbolizes the end of the beginning of the end. It is often said that "we can't go back to what the world was like before September 11th, 2001" and unfortunately I agree, though for not the same tired cliche notions that are bandied about by the flag waving mouth-breathers that are the "heart" of this country. This death sentence is a self-imposed one, and there is no appeal.

A decade is a long time. We have had almost an entire generation move from childhood to adulthood in that time being indoctrinated into believing that they need to be afraid of boogeymen in the night that hate us for our "freedom". These people will never know what it was like to live in an environment where dying in a plane crash due to pilot error was (and still is) far more likely (1000s of times more likely, in fact) than dying in a plane crash due to terrorist attack. In talking with the younger generation (and even my cohorts) about their fears regarding terrorism, it is apparent that sensationalism takes the front seat and objectivity takes the back seat (♪Which one should I take?♪) And NOT just on Friday. Facts and statistics get pushed to the side in lieu of pathos-based inclinations, and to be honest, looking at the state of propaganda in this country, it's hard to blame them.

I'm going to be up front about this, I was too young to remember the propaganda of the cold war. I wasn't even born until it was winding down. I imagine that the rhetoric was largely the same. However, with the new boogeyman, the stakes have been raised and I fear, that the infrastructure put in place in the last 10 years using Bin Laden as the justification will never be reversed.

THE TSA

The TSA with their aggressive patdowns moved slowly enough that a frog/hot pot of water reference is certainly suitable here. Immediately after 9/11 the security gates were moved so that anyone that went into the gating area (where you board the plane) needed to be run through security. This, combined with enhanced security screening tactics resulted in long lines and all travelers needing to get to the airport HOURS ahead of time (whereas the status quo prior to this was as little as 15 minutes). While seemingly minor, this small change was the first inconvenience to be thrust upon the traveling public. It is my contention that this small psychological toll applied in a repeated and concerted manner upon the American public has led to us now being RAPE scanned and molested at every airport in the country (and coming soon to a train, bus, and sporting event near you). The TSA is most certainly not going away, even amidst a large backlash against these more recent developments. Videos where children are being molested by known sex offenders in uniform resound only with those that prioritize liberty above security (or the theatre thereof).

DHS

The Department of Homeland Security is the umbrella under which the TSA, INS and several other governmental organizations reside. I theorize that though we have not seen much day to day activity from the DHS in the last decade, that they will play a huge role in the next phase of the agenda of political elite. It is well-known in the political underground that FEMA (another part of DHS) has been contracting Halliburton to build mysterious empty prisons around the country for the last decade. In addition to this, the visibility of DHS has been increasing. DHS cars and presence at public events just started becoming commonplace within the last year. I would expect that much like the frog in the boiling water, the heat is going to be turned up on this soon. The term "police state" is used far too often, but it is hard to ignore when the federal government shows up at a midwest city's Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

WAR/Military/World Police

The Constitution is very clear that declaring war is the job of Congress, and that no act of war shall be committed without their consent. It is nothing new that the powers that be have disregarded this important premise. With the advent of the CIA, American leaders were able to exert their will throughout the world in a covert manner; overthrowing foreign leaders, inciting civil unrest and rebellion, assassinating world leaders and running drugs are just a few of the things that the CIA has been doing for the last 60 years. However, as bold as these actions are, they were all carried out within the shadows. Any agent caught carrying out these violations of international law were disavowed and left to face their own consequences if caught so as to preserve the (supposed) integrity of the United States. In the late 90s, actions taken in Somalia, Yugoslavia and Iraq all constituted as psued0-acts of war and were sanctioned (unofficially) by congress. Frog again. By the start of the new millenium, limited actions in Afghanistan (in response to 9/11) were authorized by congress. 10 years later, we are still in a war there. In 2003, in the face of governmental lies presented to the American public regarding a dire need to attack Iraq lest we be attacked first, Congress was once again coerced into approving an emergency measure to allow limited action in Iraq. 10 years later, though we are now allegedly pulling our troops out, we have army bases that are bigger than some cities strewn throughout the country, with no intention of emptying them. Actions in Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya without congressional authorization have all taken place in the ensuing years under Bush and Obama. The American public now accepts our role as world police, lest the "terrorists" get a foothold.

These actions and organizations cost the American taxpayer trillions of dollars over the last decade. Worse yet, they cost America its soul. We can no longer say we are land of the free and home of the brave. What is so free about a government official in uniform feeling up children? What is so brave about attacking someone because we're afraid they will attack us if we don't? We have reverted back to the playground and we are the ugly, overweight bully that if he didn't pick on other people, he'd get picked on.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Forgive me if I don't jump for joy.

The erosion of the first amendment - an ongoing story...

It's been quite a decade, hasn't it?

Yeah, I know, technically the decade ended last year at the end of 2009, but isn't it nice to end with a nice round number? Also, as far as relevancy to our everyday life, I would say that 2001 was a game changer... we had a new president, it ends with the number "1", and that other... thing. I think for all these reasons above, for all intents and purposes, we can call 2000 the end of the 90's and 2010 as the end of whatever the fuck you would call this abortion of a decade.



I haven't weighed in on things in quite a while and to be honest, it was just because I was absolutely sick of it all. After the 2008 elections, I found it difficult to care anymore. I had put so much time and effort into hoping that the world would become a better place under new leadership that I thought that I deserved a break.


I was wrong.


Today, with the collusion of the mass media markets becoming ever more evident, no actions prove that we are being told what "THEY" want us to be told than the witch hunt being conducted against Wikileaks on behalf of the Obama/Bush crime family. It's not completely without surprise that the government finds it necessary to protect state secrets; I mean, we're not totally gullible are we? We know that our government does things to protect interests that we would rather not know about and that they would rather not have us know about. However, what I find most distasteful is the lack of support for Wikileaks head, Julian Assange in the corporate media. With the destruction of all newspapers that don't fall under the "Tribune" or "Newscorp" umbrella, independent media is a thing of the past. Television news used to give us some hard hitting stories from gritty reporters that would take chances and hunt a story to get to the truth. Now, we get Katie Couric and Brian Williams "sticking it" to politicians that we already know are full of shit, and that is the most notable thing they are doing, you betcha.


I've spoken about the media conglomeration that owns the spread of information in this country before, but as I said, at no time has the depth of corruption, complicity and general laziness been more evident than now. Wikileaks is a media organization that is unearthing unprecedented amounts of government (not just US) coverups and lies, and what is the response they get from their media bretheren? Jeers. And cheers for the prosecution and railroad job that Assange is sure to get now that he is in police custody. It's almost as though they are no longer attempting to hide their allegiance with corporate government or attempting to act like they have any journalistic integrity. I realize that the information that Wikileaks is releasing spawns a bit of a political hulabaloo, but ignore that for a moment. The sole job of the media is to get the facts and report them. It is not their job to keep state secrets. That is the government's job. If the mainstream media do not applaud and astound at the dirt that Wikileaks is uncovering on its journalistic merit alone, it is painfully obvious that we have reached an incredible low point in this country with the information that we receive, and we can see the media giants for what they are.


And of course, the duality of man sorts out the rest. Just like "they" have pitted us against one another with two men of the same cloth (dems. vs. republicans, bush vs. obama), they pit us against one another with a fake representation of both sides in the media (fox news vs. msnbc). They're both a piece of shit. When was the last time you really got some hard hitting news from one of these sources? Usually, what you get is some jerkoff's opinion in an overhanded (or sometimes latent) fashion because he is able to convince you that he knows how to feel about a situation more than you do. This is demonstrable time and time again.


Back to my original point.

So far this decade, we have seen the curtailing of the first amendment with so called "free speech zones". You can't protest inside a public building (why call it "public" then?), but perhaps much more damaging is the cooling effect that certain "hot topics" have had on the way that we communicate and view each other.


Allow me a slight interlude to play you a clip.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czoww2l1xdw


Ok, now that we are all shitting our pants looking around to see which one of each other are terrorists, let's talk about the motivations and effect of something like this.


GET SCARED. You're easier to control when you're scared. Stop being so fucking brave. Well, except you poor motherfuckers that serve in the military, be brave and go die. But the rest of you... be very scaaaaared. The powers that be are determined to make 21st century America a place where we have to look over our shoulder for invisible and nonexistent boogeymen that are going to come and "rape errbody".


From my perspective, there are two examples of infractions that are overreported, overstated and saturate the market in the interest of getting you scared and justification for greater infringements on your civil liberties in the name of "safety" and "security". These would be terrorism and pedophilia. We've already talked about terrorists, so let's talk about the pedos.


Now, I know; no one wants to defend a pedophile, and I'm not going to. But I think it's important to talk about what is going on with pedophiles, faux pedophiles and the way that we view them.


First and foremost; Fuck pedophiles. Perhaps a poor choice of words, but I have no love lost for someone who abuses a child. But it's important to remember that these are the people we are talking about when we are talking about pedophiles. We're not talking about the perfectly natural inclination that every man in the history of mankind has to want to fuck 17 year old women. The lines have been so twisted and confused in recent years with different enforcement of different crimes that we have lost all semblence of sanity regarding this issue. It's really a funny issue because at the heart of all of these so called "statutory rape" cases are some deep cross-societal psychological issues that the therapist keeps telling us we need to deal with, but just keep ignoring.



1.) Middle-aged ugly-ass housewives don't want their husbands fucking 17 year old girls. (jealousy)


2.) Dads don't want to acknowledge that their daughters are growing up and are sexual beings. (denial)

3.) The guys that AREN'T fucking 17 year olds, are jealous of the guys that do. (jealousy, again)

Well, we're a mighty jealous culture, that's for sure. I mean, don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that I wouldn't fuck a 17 year old, but it's not my cup of tea. Call me a fag, but I need to have some sort of mental connection and I just don't think I would get that from someone who wasn't alive when Super Mario World came out. But I digress...

My original point with all of this is that scare tactics regarding pedophiles are everywhere, and in the cases that I highlighted above where 2 grown people are conducting in sexual activity, but particularly if the girl is under 18, against all common sense, they throw the book at the "offender" with the velocity of the Freak on a good night. They throw around bullshit statistics and the same ones always crop up... "20% of girls in this room will be raped in their lifetime", "rape is the most underreported crime"... blah blah blah. If it's the most underreported, then are you including what you think is not being reported in your 20% statistic? Let me bring this around to get to the point of all of this, because I have a feeling that I am starting to sound like Gary Busey at the end of a 4-day bender. (by the way, I couldn't think of Gary's last name at first... one of those tip of the tongue things so I typed "crazy Gary" into google and these were the results)





I bet crazy gary's mobile disco is a kickass time.


Anyway, long story long, my point is that these things, terrorism and pedophilia evoke such a visceral reaction from us that we will do anything to avoid them or not enable them that it gives the government a lot of latitude to what is carried out in its name. They're giving us a fucking hernia check at the airport for Christ's sake.

If we're not careful and add some balance into our lives and realize that the giant pedophilic terrorism monster is NOT going to come and get us, then we are liable to turn our entire lives and liberty over to a bloated government that only cares about one thing:

"Get fucking scared, you putrid little citizen"

The collateral damage of the balloon boy

If the story about the boy in the balloon has illustrated anything, it would be that the honus is now on the people consuming the news media to filter for reliable information. Long gone are the days when journalists would ask the hard-hitting questions and fact check a story before running with it.

Now, if you are someone who has been paying attention, this is hardly news to you. In fact, I would suspect that if you are anything like me, you called this whole thing a hoax before the balloon even landed. The couple had apparently starred on a reality show called Wife Swap (I won't even get into the Freudian implications here), which was set to air in the near future. It is now evident that this was all a publicity stunt, but how far does it go? Were the producers involved? Was ABC involved? I think it goes without saying that the reporters and media themselves were complicit to the extent that they did not bother to do any actual investigating, but rather were relishing in their sensational story about a boy that floated away, as though it was from a children's book.

As an aside, I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but if you knew that this whole thing was a hoax from the get-go, didn't you sort of feel like Bruce Willis from 13 Monkeys?

My picture went to the wrong spot in the post, and quite honestly, I should be doing real work instead of troubleshooting it.

It started with Fox News, but has permeated all of the news media industry While interviewed on CNN, the reporter doing the interview almost tries to avoid even following up on the child's statement that they "did it for the show". The gatekeepers are asleep at the wheel, folks. It looks like it's just us now.

So.... Where are all the Fiscal Conservatives?

As I watch as the United States financial system decays into something resembling a modern day great depression, I have to wonder loudly to myself... "Where are all the fiscal conservatives?" Now, let me preface this post by saying that I am by no means an economics expert, nor do I have any formal training in creating, maintaining or saving capitalist markets. However, what I do have is a keen sense of right and wrong, principles that do not waiver in the face of adversity, and a rudimentary understanding of human tendencies.

Ok, disclaimer out of the way.

I wonder from time to time if this is what adult life is all about; watching the people around you and society at large make decisions that you disagree with and trying to come up with some way for you to personally cope with the consequences of those decisions.

I think most Americans have a vague understanding of the plight of the financial situation of this country right now, but for historical value (and perspective resolution) I will lay out what I have noticed in the past few weeks.

Ok, first there was Bear-Stearns, which was ready to fold earlier this year before the government bailed them out, then allowed Chase to buy up the dirt cheap stock and absorb the remainder of their company; leaving the taxpayer responsible for the mismanagement and benefitting Chase with a cheap aquisition.

Then it was quiet before the shitstorm hit.

For several months we didn't hear too too much, but in August, it all hit the fan. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (whom I believe were somehow affiliated with the government to begin with), appeared to be in big trouble. To my understanding, the government absorbed 80% of the companies in exchange for a loan from the federal government in the value of billions. Then there was Lieman brothers, Meryl Lynch, then AIG, then etc...

My problem with all of this is multi-faceted.

First of all, I have a problem that we are here to begin with. All of this was set into motion by coporate greed, government ambivilence (and accomplice), and finally population gullibility and greed. Back in 2001, GW Bush and his accomplices in Congress removed all of the protections against this exact circumstance happening. Laws and regulations that have been on the books since the great depression regarding lending and the housing market were repealed en masse. Now, although I do believe that there are sinister motivations within our own government, I don't think that the desire of doing any of this was to create our current situation, but I do believe that it was all of greed and cronyism, which is just as bad.

Second of all, I have a problem with how we are progressing through all of this. And it doesn't just apply to this, but to a lot of challenges we are currently facing. The world is on notice... The United States of America is willing to mortgage it's values if times are tough. We are weak, we are pathetic and it doesn't take much to make us weak and pathetic. If you would have asked any capitalist a year ago if we should be providing welfare to people (or companies) that are not doing well, they would have thought you were ridiculous. We are making it policy to take taxpayer money from individuals and give them to companies. To make matters worse, we get absolutely no return on our investment, because that money is just gone. We pay for their mistakes, but they get to keep their profits when they make it.... what gives?

As I mentioned before though, this isn't the only thing that Americans are willing to mortgage their souls over. Since September 11th, I have heard an alarming number of people cry for genocide, nuclear war, torture, and illegal detainment. This is America, we do not kill people indiscriminately. We are better than that. We are not Germany, we are not China, we are not Russia, and we are not Sudan. We are supposed to respect individual sovereignty as well as national sovereignty. I guess when your president doesn't know what the word sovereignty means, this is the result you get. Honestly, I don't think he has a grade-school level understanding of the document we call the constitution that he shits on regularly, so I guess he shares that with most Americans. We need to decide what we believe in America, because right now it doesn't look like much... besides an invisible man in the sky and our government of course.

Finally, I feel that due to the complex nature of all of this, the American people are being bilked out of their hard-earned money by big corporations and their own government simply because those entities know that people are either too stupid or too lazy to figure out exactly how they are getting fucked.

I believe in the Bill of Rights. I believe in rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (no matter how you find that happiness, as long as your happiness doesn't reasonably infringe on anyone else's happiness). I believe in the good of the American people, because no matter how ignorant or stupid we may be regarding the world around us, we are generally good, hard-working and friendly people that all deserve respect and individual sovereignty. I believe in an unobtrusive government which does not play favorites and maintains consistancy in policy. (If you are going to have a welfare society where you are bailing out Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, you also have to bail out Lieman brothers, the small business owner that took a risk and failed, and even the single mother that is about to lose her house because she lost her job).

I'm not asking for much, just a little consistancy. The double-standards are enough to make you throw up.

What I CAN tell you for 100% sure is that there are going to be a lot of people that lose a lot of money in all of this, but the overwhelming majority of them are not going to the be the fabled upper 1%... they're going to be people like you and I. We are going to pay for their mistakes. There other thing I can tell you is that there are going to be some people that MAKE a lot of money off of this.. .and they will be the 1%ers.

A redistribution of wealth... reverse communism if you will. Reverse communism doesn't sound menacing enough though.... how about "Fuck you, you insignificant little American citizen -Love, Your Government"

And THIS is Why We Have "Legislation from the Bench"

When congress passes laws that are unconstitutional (see: Military Commissions Act and the newly passed FISA bill), it is the duty of the court to strike it down as unconstitutional.

I have to say... it is a damn shame that the last safeguard to protect the constitution, the courts, has to be used to often. It is a FACT that officially the 4th and 5th amendments of the bill of rights now cease to exist in this country.

Thanks to the Military Commissions Act, which states that prisoners may be detained without charges, tried without knowing their charges and convicted by a secret court, we no longer have the protection of due process in this country.

Thanks to the new FISA bill that has passed, we no longer have protections against unreasonable search and seizure as specified for in the 4th amendment. The FISA bill also has the added bonus of giving retroactive immunity (yes, this IS unprecedented) to the phone companies that have spied on YOU without a warrant for the past 8 years; simply because the sitting president asked them to. Not because they went to court and proved that you were probably breaking the law, but beacuse of your political ideals or what you do in your free time.

Mark my words, these abhorrations will be overturned in time, but the question is, how long are we going to allow our friends and countrymen to have their LIVES ruined by this bloated and overreaching government.

I want you to think about that for a second, the ramifications of having your life ruined. That means that everything you know is gone. You have no job, you can't see your family every day (if you can see them at all), and you have no future except sitting in a cell, and having the helpless situation of being tried for something that has not even been divulged to you, and the evidence (which you won't get to see either) was obtained through a secret wiretap that was never authorized by the courts.

We are a prison society. We have a higher incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world (see an earlier post for more details on that), and this is undoubtedly going to make it worse.

Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. How many amendments of the bill of rights are we going to allow to be nullified before we stand up and say "that's enough"?

Status of the Bill of Rights

Amendment 1 -

Freedom of Speech (On life support)
Freedom of Religion (OK)
Freedom of Press (corrupt)
Freedom of Assembly (Curtailed)
Freedom to Petition the government (OK)

Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms (Alive and well*)

Amendment 3 - Quartering of Troops (Antiquated and irrelevant)

Amendment 4 - Protection Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure (Dead**)

Amendment 5 -

Protection from Double Jeopardy (OK)
Protection from Self Incrimination (Alive and Well***)
Assurance of Due Process (Dead)
Eminant Domain (Perverted and Abused by the corrupt US government)

Amendment 6 - Right to a Speedy and Public Trial (Dead)

Amendment 7 - Right to trial by jury in civil matters (OK)

Amendment 8 -

Protection Against Excessive Bail (Broken)
Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment (Dead****)

Amendment 9 - Rights Retained By the People (Dead*****)

Amendment 10 - Rights Retained By the States (Dead - and has been for a long time)


* - Although there was a recent victory for the second amendment with the overturning of the DC handgun ban, I would argue that the intent of the 2nd amendment is to protect the populace from an overreaching government. Until the people have no restrictions on privately held weapnory (including nuclear weapons), this is an impossibility.

** - See FISA bill

*** - But Abused by the rich and powerful

**** - See: Military Commissions Act - The definition of torture is left to the discretion of the president

***** - While not formally null, the rights retained by the people is largely gone. Most Americans could not even tell you what the ninth amendment IS, and the ones that can, most likely don't know what it means. Basically, what it means is that whatever is not specifically prohibited by law, is therefore legal (see: abortion).


So that is my Bill of Rights overview. As you can see, our rights specifically granted to us are going away, one by one; And you can forget about the ones that are retained by the people.

George Carlin

Rest in peace.

I cannot convey the grief that I have for the single greatest person of inspiration in my life. I believe that comedy is the best way to handle life. Comedy allows smiles to be formed from the worst scenarios. No one was better than George at taking the inane or mundane details and hypocrisies of everyday life and turning them on their heads for all to view, question and laugh at. George is the reason why I majored in Sociology. George is the reason that I view the world in the way that I do.

In his comedy, behind the slew of abrasiveness and cynicism existed a true understanding and appreciation of the world around him. He made no bones about the things that annoyed him, and in a rare deviation from the norm, instead of rejecting those things, he embraced them, analyzed them in an effort to make every little thing better.

While I realize that the last thing that George would want is some fan gushing over his works during his postmortem, but it's more than that. His works reflected an attitude that will never be seen again; A unique perspective on how things are, how they should be, and how they should be appreciated.

Everyone will take something else from George's commentary on society, but to me it was the most life-shaping perspective that I have run into in my first 25 years on this planet.

Kevin James, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity Represent Everything that is Wrong with the Republican Party

Let's be clear. According to the Republican platform, I agree with much of their ideology. However, it has become apparent to me that many of the more publicized voices that speak on the behalf of the party have ceased thinking completely and now only speak in 3 second sound bites that are vague and misleading propaganda to support some agenda that I believe they don't even fully understand themselves. They have turned into a party, not of thinkers or doers, but of repeaters. They seem to believe that if you repeat the same bullshit often enough, you can make any statement into a fact, regardless of how egregious it is.

Which brings me to my example for today. Here we have Kevin James, former assistant US Attorney turned radio talk show host. To me, it is scary that someone who talks in such vague and WRONG language was that high up on the food chain. Of course, I don't hear anything about him now that he is a radio show host, so he might not have the ears of many people (hopefully). God knows thought that there are enough empty headed people in this country that would grab ahold of something like this and take it to be gospel.

http://scotchandpolitics.com/2008/5/16/comedy-friday-kevin-james-on-hardball

Honestly, this is the first time I have ever watched Chris Matthews but I am impressed. He handled himself very well, did not shout James down (like some other people) or completely ignore what he was saying. He addressed what he said, exposed the lie, and put his feet to the fire. We need more exposure in this country of empty-headed talking heads that are just marching to the beat of whatever drum they are told to march to without thinking about who is giving the order and what the order actually is.

Dangerous stuff people. You want to talk about Hitler!? ...don't get me started.

BigBrother Belichick

I must admit, when the "Spygate" (worst name ever) scandal broke, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. To me, it seemed as though it was naturally a good strategy decision to try to decipher the opposing teams signals to gain a competitive advantage.

However, at the time I did not realize that there are rules specifically prohibiting this activity of taping the opposition.

Basically, if Belichick would have hired an idiot savant to watch the signals and decipher them without recording them, it seems to me that he would have been fine.

At the time however, I had no idea of the scope of these violations. Today, someone within the Patriots organization is turning over 8 different tapes dating back to 2000 of the opposing teams' defensive signals, including the Cleveland Browns.

To me, this is a extremely serious violation, because you know 2 things damn well.

1) If they were doing this in 2000 and they were doing this in 2007, it is a safe assumption that this behavior did not cease between those two points.

2) If they were cheating against the 2000 Cleveland Browns, they were cheating against absolutely everybody because no one should have had to cheat against the Browns.

Of course, like everything else, the actions are made real by the consequences and in this case, the consequences were quite beneficial for the New England Patriots. The Patriots went to 4 Super Bowls between the 2000 and 2007 seasons, winning 3 of them. It is also during this time that Tom Brady established himself as "one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time". Well, excuse me for saying this, but if I knew where the defense was going to be running and what the coverage was going to be before I snapped the ball, I could probably do a pretty decent job as well.

Now, I hate the Patriots. I make no bones about it. However, even a team that I don't like (the Pittsburgh Steelers for example), I can appreciate and give respect to for a job well done. In the case of the Patriots and Tom Brady, they will receive no such respect from me. They are cheaters, they knew they were cheating, and absolutely everything that they did between 2000 and 2008 is up for questioning at this point. It's a shame that their legacy is tainted, but much like a criminal that gets caught breaking the law, the taint is justified.

Tasers

I write this post with an extremely heavy heart today. Yesterday, in the late afternoon one of my fellow Miami graduates was killed by a police officer. What makes this even more depressing is that it happened in the seemingly impenetrable "Miami bubble" that is Oxford.

Let me be clear, I do not blame the officer, as he could not have possibly known that his taser would end up killing Kevin, but therein lies the problem.

Tasers are lethal weapons that are being handed out to officers all over the country and their training teaches them to use it as a replacement for lethal force. The problem is of course, is that this is a situation where the implementation varies greatly from the optimal use. If you give police a lethal weapon and tell them that it is not lethal, they will ultimately use it for things like submission and crowd control. By not acknowledging this, we are sentencing our friends, our family and ourselves to a death by electrocution in the middle of a dirty street with no judge or jury.

In the end, this is OUR fault. We are directly responsible for Kevin's death because we made "don't tase me bro!" a funny internet meme. We don't address the hundreds of deaths that have occurred just in the last year as a result of police-induced tasering. HUNDREDS. In a situation where one is too many, hundreds is overwhelming. One is unacceptable. It's time to speak up.

Usually I don't post when I'm mad, but I feel that it is important for all viewers of the 24-hour entertainment networks to compare and contrast the following videos.

Video #1

Video #2

Let me tell you something. If you can watch those videos and still watch Bill O'Reilly and put any stock into anything that comes from his program you are a fucking cockroach. You are either too dumb to see the blatant trickery and manipulation that he performs on his audience, or you are compliant with his intent which is to bastardize the truth, assassinate the character of noble and well-intentioned men, and display his lies for people to accept as truth. I have to say, I am very disgusted this morning after watching those videos.

A Brief Announcement

Let me be clear...

If you believe that we should be waging a war against Islam you are a racist; but that is not all. If you believe that Muslims should be singled out, harassed, barred from immigrating to this country, locked up without due process, or bombed indiscriminately in a foreign country because they "may" be a terrorist; Then you sir, would have been exactly the type of person that would have joined the Nazi army in Germany and ushered millions of Jews to their death.

It is an exact parallel.

The times have not changed people. There are basic rules that apply to prevent horrible atrocities from happening. They are being ignored in this country right now by many people.

Many people argue that Muslim charities should get no government subsidies for social aid because they fear that the money will get funneled to terrorists (I don't think any religious organization should get government handouts, but this is beside the point). Fine but realize that one would be just as correct to state that the Catholic church (one of the most subsidized and charitable) should not receive any of that money because they sexually abuse children.

It's time to reign ourselves in people, and look at the whole picture.

As an aside, I absolutely HATE the fact that I have to defend Muslims because I believe that their religion is bullshit, their dogma is bullshit and some of their actions are completely reprehensible but the all-out attack on them by the populace means that SOMEONE who can see what is actually going on must say something and bring some perspective back to the situation.

Please Restore the Integrity of Justice

According to the Huffington Post (a partisan blog), Obama has said, upon being asked that he will dispatch his attorney general to look into the possibility of criminal acts perpetuated by the Bush administration.

THANK GOD.

It should be no shock that I believe that this is of the utmost importance. Many people argue that the government can't do anything correct. They may be right, but if we can't hold our elected leaders accountable for their actions, as they have not for the past 8 years, then we have NOTHING. It is important to note that Obama has said that he will be sure to tread lightly in this area so as to not go on a partisan witch-hunt and destroy the possibility of uniting people to accomplish the common goal of making this country better.

You can see the full article here

What a Surprise.... The Average Citizen Did Not Benefit from the Good Economy of Last 6 Years

This is what I have been saying all along... the average American has been being told "but, but... the economy is doing so well!" Well, now we see the bullshit for what it is. We KNOW that the Bushes are elitists that funnel money to their elite friends but for some reason America has had collective amnesia for the past 7 years.

For Many, a Boom That Wasn’t

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: April 9, 2008

How has the United States economy gotten to this point?

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Stagnating Wages

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It’s not just the apparent recession. Recessions happen. If you tried to build an economy immune to the human emotions that produce boom and bust, you would end up with something that looked like East Germany.

The bigger problem is that the now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort. In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less — about $60,500.

This has never happened before, at least not for as long as the government has been keeping records. In every other expansion since World War II, the buying power of most American families grew while the economy did. You can think of this as the most basic test of an economy’s health: does it produce ever-rising living standards for its citizens?

In the second half of the 20th century, the United States passed the test in a way that arguably no other country ever has. It became, as the cliché goes, the richest country on earth. Now, though, most families aren’t getting any richer.

“We have had expansions before where the bottom end didn’t do well,” said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist who studies the job market. “But we’ve never had an expansion in which the middle of income distribution had no wage growth.”

More than anything else — more than even the war in Iraq — the stagnation of the great American middle-class machine explains the glum national mood today. As part of a poll that will be released Wednesday, the Pew Research Center asked people how they had done over the last five years. During that time, remember, the overall economy grew every year, often at a good pace.

Yet most respondents said they had either been stuck in place or fallen backward. Pew says this is the most downbeat short-term assessment of personal progress in almost a half century of polling.

The causes of the wage slowdown have been building for a long time. They have relatively little to do with President Bush or any other individual politician (though it is true that the Bush administration has shown scant interest in addressing the problem).

The slowdown began in the 1970s, with an oil shock that raised the cost of everyday living. The technological revolution and the rise of global trade followed, reducing the bargaining power of a large section of the work force. In recent years, the cost of health care has aggravated the problem, by taking a huge bite out of most workers’ paychecks.

Real median family income more than doubled from the late 1940s to the late ’70s. It has risen less than 25 percent in the three decades since. Statistics like these are now so familiar as to be almost numbing. But the larger point is still crucial: the modern American economy distributes the fruits of its growth to a relatively narrow slice of the population. We don’t need another decade of evidence to feel confident about that conclusion.

Anxiety about the income slowdown has flared at various times over the past three decades. It seemed to crescendo in the first half of the 1990s, when voters first threw George H. W. Bush out of office, then, two years later, did the same to the Democratic leaders of Congress. Pat Buchanan went around preaching a kind of pitchfork populism during the 1996 New Hampshire Republican primary — and he won it.

Then came a technology bubble that made everything seem better, for a time. Record-low oil prices in the 1990s helped, too. So did the recent housing bubble, allowing families to supplement their incomes by taking equity out of their homes.

Now, though, we appear to be out of bubbles. It’s hard to see how the economy will get back on track without some fundamental changes. This, I think, can fairly be considered the No. 1 economic project awaiting the next president.

Fortunately, there is an obvious model waiting to be dusted off. The income gains of the postwar period didn’t just happen. They were the product of a deliberate program to build up the middle class, through the Interstate highway system, the G. I. Bill and other measures.

It’s easy enough to imagine a new version of that program, with job-creating investments in biomedical research, alternative energy, roads, railroads and education. On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama all mention ideas like these.

But there is still a lack of strategic seriousness to the discussion, as Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution notes. After all, the United States spends a lot of money on education already but has still lost its standing as the country with the highest college graduation rate in the world. (South Korea and a couple of other countries have passed us, while Japan, Britain and Canada are close behind.)

The same goes for public works. Spending on physical infrastructure is at a 20-year high as a share of gross domestic product, but too much of the money is spent on the inefficient pet programs championed by individual members of Congress. Pork barrel spending does not add up to a national economic strategy.

Health care and taxes will have to be part of the discussion, too. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel of the National Institutes of Health pointed out to me that a serious effort to curtail wasteful medical spending would directly help workers. It would spare them from paying the insurance premiums and taxes that now cover that care.

The tax code, meanwhile, has become far more favorable to high-income workers at the same time that they — and they alone — have received large pretax raises. That doesn’t make much sense, does it?

It’s a pretty big to-do list. But it’s a pretty big problem. Since the economy now seems to be in recession, and since recessions inevitably bring their own pay cuts, my guess is that the problem will look even bigger by the time the next president takes office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09leonhardt.html?em&ex=1207972800&en=f760f6639c979460&ei=5087%0A

Being Grown Up Isn't Half as Fun as Growing Up

True, or no?

Personally, it is often said by older people that when you're a kid, you don't know how good you have it, and maybe that is true. But, isn't it one of the horrible things about being a kid that you don't have any perspective and you think that every new days' events are all-important?

I can see in my own life a shift from those daily events to worldly events. It's the same page, just a different book and in reality, none of it really matters all that much. Sure, we fight for our civil rights because we care about our own rights to live our lives in peace without being harassed by representatives of the government, but really, how many of us take advantage of those rights that we are afforded?

We go through life, working ourselves into the grave and watching the days go by as though they don't mean anything. Then at the end of that day we look back at what we have accomplished and realize that none of it really means anything. On top of that, we look at the world around us and realize that everything is gradually breaking down. This takes me back to my original idea.

Of course we long for the days when we were kids for 2 reasons. One, we have no idea what is going on from a macro-standpoint. The things that we are consumed with revolve primarily around us and our personal relationships. Two, by acknowledging that everything is breaking down, then we must extrapolate that things actually WERE better back then.

Happiness, like Denis Leary said, is just a moment. Enjoy the ones that you have and hope that at the end of the day that you have more good ones than bad ones. Try to live your life in a way that pleases you and doesn't infringe on the pleasure of others (unless you're delivering said pleasure).

So here is my purge of frustration so I don't have to deal with it anymore.

1) Bush (and company) is a dick and a criminal. He deserves to be brought up on charges and convicted of treason among other things.

2) We are headed for hard times, so buy a helmet.

3) The cohort of individuals that are coming up behind me are dumber, more superficial and more oblivious than the ones that were in my cohort. I assume that this is part of the breaking down of all things.

4) You have to fill your life with interesting things, or it will be uninteresting. No one is going to do this for you.

5) Don't be nostalgic about the old days, because they weren't as great as you remember them to be. Enjoy every second that you have for what it is. Every second that goes by is another chance to turn things around.

I Hope This is an Unfunny April Fool's

In today’s LA Times, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) sheds light on the staggering number of sexual assaults within the military, stating, “Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” and calls on Congress and the military to do more to protect servicewomen:

At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks. According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military. Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through “nonjudicial punishment,” which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of “insufficient evidence.” […]

The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault — an attitude that says “boys will be boys.”

A Department of Defense report released this month found 2,688 reports of sexual assault in the military in FY2007. According to Harman, the number of reported military rapes jumped 73 percent from 2004 to 2006.

http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/80918/

If this report is true, then it would seem that the brainless deification of the American military has sunk to an unfortunately all too familiar low. Mind you, I am not generalizing the soldiers, but I am talking about the infrastructure of the organization, which is designed to remove all humanity and, in many cases accountability for any wrongdoing whatsoever.

To Those of You Who Assured Me that the Patriot Act was for Terrorism

Time for you to learn a lesson about unchecked power given to government by a population held ransom by fear...

Patriot Act used in drug case; lawyer riled

BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

The lawyer for a man accused of being a major cocaine supplier for the Wichita Crips gang contends that a secret search of the man's house under the Patriot Act was illegal.

In a recent motion to suppress any evidence from the search, defense lawyer Charles O'Hara argued that the Patriot Act was meant for "serious matters involving national security," not drug cases like the one involving his client, Tyrone Andrews.

"I thought that this Patriot Act was something passed to protect us all from these terrorist acts, and it would be used very judiciously," O'Hara said Monday. "This doesn't seem to be one where these secret searches would be used."

Jim Cross, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wichita, said the office "believes the evidence in this case was legally obtained."

"I think our legal arguments are clearly stated in the documents we have filed," Cross said. He said he couldn't comment further because the case is before a federal court.

A federal grand jury indictment released Dec. 21 accused Andrews, a 38-year-old aircraft plant worker, and seven other Wichita men of 48 counts of drug-related crimes including trafficking and conspiracy. The government seeks a forfeiture of $300,000 from Andrews.

In an affidavit filed in July seeking the search warrant, a federal agent said a secret search was necessary to protect evidence and to prevent suspects from fleeing or from intimidating witnesses.

The affidavit alleged the Crips gang has been involved in cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana distribution in Wichita for "at least the past 15 years."

"Tyrone Andrews has been supplying various individuals in the gang with cocaine for many years, and is considered to be a major supplier of cocaine to the Crips..." the affidavit alleges.

The affidavit alleges that Andrews lived at one home but used a house on South Ridgewood as a drug "stash" house.

As part of the investigation, agents wanted to check the house to see whether electronic recording devices could be installed, the affidavit said.

Normally, investigators leave a copy of a search warrant and a receipt for items taken once a house is searched. But in the Andrews case, investigators obtained clearance to secretly search the house, which they did July 17, and not notify him until 90 days afterward, O'Hara said.

In the affidavit, the ATF agent contended that earlier disclosure to Andrews could "seriously jeopardize the investigation."

Another court document says that officers secretly entered the house and saw drug trafficking materials.

O'Hara said: "I don't know that I've seen a warrant like this before."

http://www.kansas.com/213/story/351592.html

Someone is in Your Bank Account, Stealilng Your Money

The American government. They might as well be. The shocking thing is not that it is happening, because everyone knows that the dollar is declining. Rather, the shocking thing is how long this has been happening without attention. I have long had the suspicion that the economy was being propped up in some kind of artificial way, but not having an economics degree myself, it made it extremely difficult to hypothesize about how it was happening. Of course, I could postulate that the increased consumerism created and encouraged by the American government after 9/11 has been doing it all, but that isn't it; It's only part. We are buying more shit that we don't need than ever, and none of us are immune to it. This, of course eventually manifests itself in stories about people that claim to have nothing and not able to pay their bills while sitting next to a big-screen TV. And the problem is that they may very well be telling the truth. This credit crunch goes all the way to the bottom, and before the end of this economic situation my prediction is that MILLIONS, yes, millions will be without a home; Tens of millions will be without a job and almost everybody will have their life savings and investments wiped out at the hand of the direct and indirect actions of this administration we have had for the past 8 years.

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0416.html

View the above link and see the evidence for how we are being robbed and the economy is, and has been being falsely propped up like some "Weekend at Bernie's" sequel.

A Challenge: Unplug

To those of you that believe that we are doing good things in the middle east with our dalliances in Iraq, I have one challenge for you. What I am asking you to do will not harm you nor will it unfairly change your viewpoints. Rather, my hypothesis is that your long since departed independent viewpoint will return to you with new poignancy.

I challenge all of you, regardless of political affiliation to unplug from the propaganda that the media bombards you with just for one month. 30 days. No 24-hour news channels, no newspapers, no political blogs, no nightly news, no political entertainment (see: Daily Show, etc), no political books. My belief is that upon doing this, you will gain objectivity that has been lost in the past decade of bombardment from an entire culture that is filled with biased sources.

You don't need to hear the opinions of talking heads in order for you to figure out the world around you, believe me. I promise that it won't be that painful, and you will be surprised at how large of a difference it can make in just your critical thinking skills.

Conservatives complain about the "liberal media" and liberals complain about the "Neo-con governmental propaganda delivery machine". The truth is somewhere in the middle. They will all say anything to increase ratings and they will all say whatever the powers that be tell them to say.

So do yourself a favor for the month of April. Unplug from the bullshit, enjoy the improving weather and tell me after 30 days that you want to go back to the talking heads.