The Constitution is Under Attack..... Again. Who's Representatives are They Supposed To Be?

GOT FASCISM??? WELL YOU WILL HAVE. IT'S RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER.

You and I both know that freedom is not free.  Its price cannot be measured in dollars - and its defense requires eternal vigilance.

On December 1, the U.S. Senate passed S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), by a vote of 93-7.

A slightly different NDAA, H.R. 1540, had already passed the U.S. House in May, and it has been reconciled with the Senate version in a closed session of a Joint Conference Committee.

The NDAA is passed annually to specify the budget and expenditures for the U.S. Department of Defense, but this year's version would essentially strip American Citizens of due process - protections that used to set us apart from despotic nations.

The Senate version of the NDAA declares the homeland to be part of the battlefield in the "War on Terror."

In simple terms, Sections 1031 and 1032 of S. 1867 allow American citizens to be detained indefinitely - without charges or trial - until the War on Terror is declared over.

There has been some recent confusion over what exactly the Senate bill actually stipulates.

In fact, when you call your representative and BOTH of your senators, as I'm about to ask you to do, the staff will probably give you one of two canned responses:

1.) "The Feinstein amendment #1456, which passed on Dec. 1 (by a vote of 99-1), says that no provision of Sec. 1031 can be taken to "affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens."

In reality, this was added nearly unanimously at the last minute to appease those of us rightly opposed to these detention provisions.  In the Congressional Record that day, there are arguments from Senators Lindsey Graham and Carl Levin, both of whom supported this amendment, stating they believe the President and Congress already have the authority to detain American Citizens, since the Supreme Court hasn't yet ruled otherwise.  This is not the case, but it explains why the bill's main supporters did not oppose the Feinstein amendment.

2.)  "It already exempts American Citizens.  You should know that Sec. 1032 actually states: "The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States."

Don't fall for their cleverly chosen legislative language.

A careful reading of the suspect sections bears out that, while there is no requirement to detain an American citizen, the act thereof is not explicitly prohibited.  By extension, it is actually permitted.

As if the above is not bad enough, the power to determine which American citizens will be indefinitely detained without charges or trial will be left to the President alone.

I'm certain you would agree that something as important as overturning longstanding American jurisprudence deserves to be the subject of a vigorous debate in a public forum.

But, late last week, the House, by an overwhelming majority (406-17), passed a motion that allowed this Joint Committee to meet in secret.

Last night, the House and Senate conferees emerged without having changed the offending detainee provisions of the NDAA.

And the section numbers (formerly 1031 and 1032) have been changed to 1021 and 1022.

A vote on the conference report could come as early as this Wednesday in the House of Representatives!

So I need your members of Congress to know where you stand immediately!

It is imperative you contact your representative and both of your senators today to urge them to vote NO on the NDAA (H.R. 1540/S. 1867) Conference Report unless Secs. 1021 and 1022 are removed or modified to explicitly exclude all U.S. citizens and lawful resident aliens.

FOR YOUR REPRESENTATIVES....GO TO.... http://house.gov/representatives/

FOR YOUR SENATORS.....GO TO....
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Please Sir.... Could We Have Our Billion Dollar Robot Killing Machine Back?

You've got to admire the sheer balls of President Obama, for having the nerve to ask Iran for the return of our top secret multi-million dollar flying drone. Oh hell yes Mr. President, we'd be happy to return it so you can kill us at will.......NOT!!!

This story from the Associated Press....

GOT RIGHTS?...... Not For Long if Government Has Their Way.

We are witnessing a revolutionary movement. Not the Occupy Movement, although that is a good start from the Peoples point of view.
The "Revolutionary Movement" I'm referring to... is the move of our own government to service the will of the 1% of ultra-rich Americans, at the expense of the other 99%. That would be you and me.
Okay, maybe "revolutionary" isn't the proper term. How about "unprecedented"? Does that sound more like what we're seeing?
The makings of Fascism in Our society are poised to be initiated. See my post of April 5, 2011. "The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, by Dr. Lawrence Britt.
Then you tell me..... Are We There Yet?

Excerpted from Common Dreams

UC Davis: Chancellor Linda Katehi held a press conference and then refused to leave the building as students gathered outside chanting, “We are peaceful” and “Just walk home.” After several hours, she was persuaded to walk out through two long, seated, deafeningly silent lines of outrage. Faculty and pretty much everyone else is calling for her resignation after the attack by police and pepper-spraying by the now-I.D.ed Lt. John Pike.


Excerpted from AlterNet

Interesting report this evening in the San Francisco Bay Guardian suggesting that big city mayors have not been the only ones making conference calls in an effort to coordinate crackdowns on Occupy Movement encampments:

...a little-known but influential private membership based organization has placed itself at the center of advising and coordinating the crackdown on the encampments. The Police Executive Research Forum, an international non-governmental organization with ties to law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has been coordinating conference calls with major metropolitan mayors and police chiefs to advise them on policing matters and discuss response to the Occupy movement. The group has distributed a recently published guide on policing political events....
The coordination of political crackdowns on the Occupy movement has been conducted behind closed doors, with city officials and PERF refusing to say how many cities participated in the conference calls and the exact nature of the discussions. Reports of at least a dozen cities and some indication of as many as 40 accepting PERF advice and/or strategic documents include San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Portland [Oregon], Oakland, Atlanta, and Washington DC....PERF coordinated a November 10 conference call with city police chiefs across the country – and many of these cities undertook crackdowns shortly afterward.

We can take an educated guess at "the exact nature of the discussions" by looking at the leadership of the Police Executive Research Forum:

PERF’s current and former directors read as a who's who of police chiefs involved in crackdowns on anti-globalization and political convention protesters resulting in thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, and millions of dollars paid out in police brutality and wrongful arrest lawsuits.

..................................... ..............................................................................

If history teaches us anything, it's that the repression can get a lot worse. As Glenn Greenwald noted astutely today,

Law enforcement officials and policy-makers in America know full well that serious protests — and more — are inevitable given the economic tumult and suffering the U.S. has seen over the last three years (and will continue to see for the foreseeable future). A country cannot radically reduce quality-of-life expectations, devote itself to the interests of its super-rich, and all but eliminate its middle class without triggering sustained citizen fury.
The reason the U.S. has paramilitarized its police forces is precisely to control this type of domestic unrest, and it’s simply impossible to imagine its not being deployed in full against a growing protest movement aimed at grossly and corruptly unequal resource distribution.

Put another way: "Dancing With the Stars" can only keep so many people anesthetized for so long. Or, as Gandhi described it, in a situation where people knew they'd been colonized: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they crack down..."

We know what happens after that.

FASCISM IS ALIVE AND WELL IN AMERICA. Police clear out Occupy Oakland camp.

By Joshua Holland | AlterNet
Thousands of Riot Cops Descend on Occupy Oakland, 32 Arrested
Police eviction proves definitively that previous hyper-militarized tactics were unnecessary excessive force.

At approximately 5 am, hundreds of police officers clad in heavy riot gear descended on the Occupy Oakland encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza and proved definitively that the hyper-militarized crowd control tactics that brought so much national attention to the city in recent weeks were unnecessary uses of excessive force.

Several local police agencies contributed as many as 1,000 officers for the eviction, according to reports. They shut down a wide perimeter around the plaza and then moved up, block by block, in heavy lines, until the mass of protesters was pushed into the intersection of 14th and Broadway. Then, a large phalanx of riot police moved into the plaza itself, where they arrested 32 people who had chosen to remain in the camp in an act of civil disobedience.

At one point, police moved in and arrested about a dozen people huddled in a circle in silent prayer at the interfaith tent.

When I departed, police were tearing down tents and clearing the plaza. There were no reports of injuries, according to a National Lawyers Guild legal observer on the scene.

This was a striking departure from the tactics that Bay Area law enforcement agencies, working in cooperation with the Oakland Police Department, had employed on October 25th and the night of November 2nd. While police crowd control techniques are rarely pretty, people facing off with riot police as part of various occupations around the country probably don't have a good sense of the force used during the first eviction of Occupy Oakland – and during subsequent protests the following night.

It's the explosions and large volume of gunshots that made these actions excessive. The generous use of flash-bang grenades, tear gas and “less lethal” rounds deployed by police in heavy black body armor felt more like the opening scene to Saving Private Ryan than footage of, say, protests against the Vietnam War being broken up by helmeted police swinging batons. While the weapons deployed by police are designed not to kill or maim (if used properly), the visceral sensation of walking through streets dodging explosions and chemical agents while rounds crackle in the air creates an effect similar to that of actual combat – abject terror, disorientation and a sense of unease that lingers for days.

Those weapons do result in wounds – the tally for October 25 and November 2 was three broken hands, two head injuries (one of which, to Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, was quite severe), a ruptured spleen and minor injuries too numerous to catalogue.

This morning, the police, buffeted by bad publicity resulting from two notably violent crack-downs on protesters, simply chose a different method by which to achieve the exact same goal. This time, they chose to follow the book – California's Crowd Management and Civil Disobedience guidelines (PDF) state, “Only that force which is objectively reasonable may be used to arrest violators and restore order,” and, unlike on previous nights in the streets of Oakland, they did just that.

In another departure from past practices, they let the protesters protest. Whereas police issued a series of orders to disperse on the evening of October 25 – and then unleashed a barrage of non-lethal weapons when they did not comply – this time they simply let the crowd blow off steam. The police erected and manned barricades to keep protesters in the intersection, where they chanted for an hour or two before losing steam and dispersing, without violence and of their own accord.

What this morning's eviction had in common with the one two weeks before is that the end-game is just as unclear. Protesters again promise to reclaim the plaza as soon as police leave. The Oakland City Council has reportedly entertained a proposal to hire private security guards to keep the plaza clear, but this is a cash-strapped city and one has to believe that the Occupiers' resolve will outlast the city's private security budget.

Meanwhile, the occupiers plan to “reconvene” at 4 pm at the main branch of the Oakland Public Library. It remains to be seen if the city's smarter, less violent crowd control strategies will continue to prevail.

SOMETIMES IT'S JUST TOO GOOD TO NOT PASS ON. A CORPORATION THAT'S DOING THE RIGHT THING. WAY TO GO SEARS!!!

Sears - Christmas shopping this year.

I know I needed this reminder, since Sears isn't always my first choice. It's amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and Sears hasn't withdrawn from their commitment. Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year?

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up for active duty.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears at least once, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement & feedback it well deserves.

Pass it on.

I decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department:

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it's cheaper at that store.

This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears. The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!!

It's verified ! By Snopes.com ; at:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

IT'S HARD TO KEEP ANGER FROM ERUPTING OUT AGAINST THE TYRANY OF OUR GOVERNMENT,... but, John Lennon was right.

Anyone See a Correlation Here...... or is it Just Me???

The Policies of our "Democracy" seem to have similarities to this philosophy. So what's up with that? Isn't it time we said enough. Oh yeah.... that's how we got here.

THIS IS SO-O-O SCARY..... I ACTUALLY FIND MYSELF AGREEING WITH WARREN BUFFETT.... OH NO!!

(This was received from a friend via email) I'm passing it on.

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best
quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law
that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all
sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th
amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months
& 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in
1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to
the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the
land...all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of
twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do
likewise.
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the
message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office
and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All
funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security
system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system,
and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for
any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans
do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay
will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the
same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American
people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective
1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen
made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor,
not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours
should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take
three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is
time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on.

The Dalai Lama may be the most profound person on the planet. You could Take a Lesson, Here... Mr. President

Oct 8 (Reuters) - China is built on lies and its officials are hypocrites, the Dalai Lama said on Saturday, speaking via videophone after visa problems prevented him from joining Archbishop Desmond Tutu's birthday celebrations in South Africa.

"Some Chinese officials describe me as a demon," the Tibetan spiritual leader said to loud applause as he put his index fingers either side of his head to mimic devil's horns.

"In reality, for the communist totalitarian system ... hypocrisy (and) telling lies has unfortunately become part of their lives."

He said the Chinese government was "uncomfortable" with people who tell the truth, adding that honest people live longer and he would like to attend Tutu's 90th birthday.

"At that time, don't forget to send me an invitation ... then we can test your government," he said to Tutu in an apparent reference to his visa debacle with South African authorities.

The government's failure to allow the Dalai Lama into the country has been seen as bowing to pressure from China, South Africa's largest trading partner that pledged to invest $2.5 billion in Africa's largest economy last week.

The 80-year old Tutu retired about a year ago from most public duties but has remained a prominent figure and is still seen as a voice of integrity.

The sad part of this entire article is... that it applies to us...... (that would be the United States) as easily as it applies to the "Communist Totalitarian Government". We have become everything we distain in the world of power, and unless we can bridle the beast that is us, we are doomed to the fate of Fascism in our society. We must rise above our obsession with "Democracy" (a term that has no actual meaning in our society), and realize that if we are to survive the Plutocratic assault on our freedoms, we must be willing to stand up for our principles.

THANKS MR. PRESIDENT FOR F___KING US YET AGAIN. ......I NEVER THOUGHT I'D MISS NIXON.

ON JANUARY 1 ST 2012, THE GOVERNMENT IS REQUIRING EVERYONE TO HAVE DIRECT DEPOSIT FOR SS CHECKS.
WONDER WHY?
1% tax on all bank transactions HR4646

Watch for this AFTER November elections; remember this BEFORE you VOTE in case you think Obama's looking out for your best interest.

1% tax on all bank transactions HR 4646

This government just cannot think of enough ways to hurt the American people! I sure hope this dies!!!!!



1% tax on all bank transactions HR 4646 - ANOTHER NEW OBAMA TAX SLIPPED IN WHILE WE WERE ASLEEP. Checked this on snopes, it's true! Check out HR 4646.

President Obama's finance team is recommending a one percent (1%) transaction fee (TAX). Obama's plan is to sneak it in after the November elections to keep it under the radar.

This is a 1% tax on all transactions at any financial institution - banks, credit unions, savings and loans, etc. Any deposit you make, or even a transfer within your account, will have a 1% tax charged. ~If your paycheck or your social security or whatever is direct deposit, it will get a 1% tax charged for the transaction. ~If your paycheck is $1000, then you will pay Obama $10 just for the privilege of depositing your paycheck in your bank. Even if you hand carry your paycheck or any check into your bank for a deposit, 1% tax will be charged. ~You receive a $5,000 stock dividend from your broker, Obama takes $50 just to allow you to deposit that check in the bank.. ~If you take $1,000 cash to deposit at your bank, 1% tax will be charged.

Mind you, this is from the man who promised that, if you make under $250,000 per year, you will not see one penny of new tax. Keep your eyes and ears open, you will be amazed at what you learn about this guy's under-the-table moves to increase the number of ways you are taxed.

Oh, and by the way, if you receive a refund from the IRS next year and you have it direct deposited or you walk in to deposit that check, you guessed it. You will pay a 1% charge of that money just for putting it in your bank. Remember, any money, cash, check or whatever, no matter where it came from, you will pay a 1% fee if you put it in the bank.

Some will say, oh well, it's just 1%. Are you kidding me? It's a 1% tax increase across the board. Remember, once the tax is there, they can also raise it at will. And if anyone protests, they will just say, "Oh, that's not really a tax, it's a user fee"! Think this is no big deal? Go back and look at the transactions you made from on year's banking statements. Then add the total of all those transactions and deduct 1%. Still think it's no big deal?
=
-- "A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have." - Barry Goldwater

FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
VERIFIED AT SNOPES:
1. snopes.com: Debt Free America Act •••
Is the U.S. government proposing a 1% tax on debit card usage and/or banking transactions?
...It is true. The bill is HR-4646 introduced by US Rep Peter deFazio D-Oregon and US Senator Tom Harkin D-Iowa. Their plan is to sneak it in after the...
...moved beyond proposing studies and submitted the Debt Free America Act (H.R. 4646), a bill calling for the implementation of a scheme to pay down the...
...[2010] by Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.). His "Debt Free America Act" (H.R. 4646) would impose a 1 percent "transaction tax" on every financial transaction...
Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:26:48 GMT http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/debtfree.asp

A QUOTE THAT'S SADLY TOO TRUE......

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it." -Frederic Bastiat

If that doesn't sum up the plutocracy that's becoming world wide, I don't know what does. It's out of our hands and we may never regain control again. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!!

WHAT EVER IT TAKES...... ORGANIZE AND RESIST.

RUGER'S NEW GUN....."THE CONGRESSMAN"

THE BIG ZEROS...... THE ECONOMY AND THE PRESIDENT

Published on Friday, September 2, 2011 by RobertReich.org
The Zero Economy
by Robert Reich
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports today no jobs were created in August. Zero. Nada.

Well, not quite. The strike at Verizon reduced the labor force by 45,000. Minnesota government employees returned to work, adding 22,000. So in reality, America added 23,000 jobs. Almost zero.

In reality, worse than zero. We need 125,000 a month merely to keep up with population growth. So the hole continues to deepen.

Since this Depression began at the end of 2007, America’s potential labor force – working-age people who want jobs – has grown by over 7 million. But since then the number of Americans with jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000.

If this doesn’t prompt President Obama to unveil a bold jobs plan next Thursday, I don’t know what will.

The problem is on the demand side. Consumers (whose spending is 70 percent of the economy) can’t boost the economy on their own. They’re still too burdened by debt, especially on homes that are worth less than their mortgages. Their jobs are disappearinig, their pay is dropping, their medical bills are soaring.

And businesses won’t hire without more sales.

So we’re in a vicous cycle.

Republicans continue to claim businesses aren’t hiring because they’re uncertain about regulatory costs. Or they can’t find the skilled workers they need.

Baloney. If these were the reasons businesses weren’t hiring – and demand were growing – you’d expect companies to make more use of their current employees. The length of the average workweek would be increasing.

But the length of the average workweek has been dropping. In August it declined for the third month in a row, to 34.2 hours. That’s back to where it was at the start of the year – barely longer than what it was at its shortest point two years ago (33.7 hours in June 2009).

It’s demand, stupid.

So what does a sane nation do when the consumers and businesses can’t boost the economy on their own?

Government becomes the purchaser of last resort. It hires directly (a new WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps, for example). It helps states and locales, so they don’t have to continue to slash payrolls and public services. (The help could be structured as a loan, to be repaid when unemployment drops to, say, 6 percent.)

And it hires indirectly — contracting with companies to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, including school buildings, to take another example.

Not only does this create jobs but also puts money in the hands of all the people who get the jobs, so they can turn around and buy the goods and services they need – generating more jobs.

Get it? Not exactly rocket science.

So why don’t Republicans get it? Either they’re knaves – they want the economy to stay awful through next Election Day so Obama gets the boot. Or they’re fools – they’ve bought the lie that reducing the deficit now creates more jobs.

Every time you hear anyone say we’re “broke” or “can’t afford to spend more,” tell them we’ll be in worse shape if we don’t. If the economy remains dead in the water, the ratio of public debt to GDP balloons.

And remind them that the federal government can now borrow at fire-sale rates. Interest on the ten-year Treasury bill is 2 percent.

Do you hear me, Mr. President? Please — be bold next week. And if, as expected, Republicans refuse to go along, take it to the people. Mobilize the public. Use the bully pulpit. That’s what you have it for.

One more thing, Mr. President. You also have to tackle inequality. When so much income and wealth continues to flow to the very top, America’s vast middle class still won’t have enough purchasing power to boost the economy. Priming the pump is necessary but won’t be sufficient without enough water in the well.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. His "Marketplace" commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.

RISE UP AND SLAY THE CORPORATOCRACY........It's either that or we'll live on our knees as their Slaves.

Excerpted from an Alternet Article by Bruce E. Levine

3 Things That Must Happen for Us To Rise Up and Defeat the Corporatocracy
Most Americans oppose rule by the corporatocracy but don't have the tools to fight back. Here are three things we need to create a real people's movement.
| TAKE ACTION

Transforming the United States into something closer to a democracy requires: 1) knowledge of how we are getting screwed; 2) pragmatic tactics, strategies, and solutions; and 3) the “energy to do battle.”

The majority of Americans oppose the corporatocracy (rule by giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborator government officials); however, many of us have given up hope that this tyranny can be defeated. Among those of us who continue to be politically engaged, many focus on only one of the requirements—knowledge of how we are getting screwed. And this singular focus can result in helplessness. It is the two other requirements that can empower, energize, and activate Team Democracy— a team that is currently at the bottom of the standings in the American Political League.

1. Knowledge of How We are Getting Screwed

Harriet Tubman conducted multiple missions as an Underground Railroad conductor, and she also participated in the Union Army’s Combahee River raid that freed more than 700 slaves. Looking back on her career as a freedom fighter, Tubman noted, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” While awareness of the truth of corporatocracy oppression is by itself not sufficient to win freedom and justice, it is absolutely necessary.

We are ruled by so many “industrial complexes”—military, financial, energy, food, pharmaceutical, prison, and so on—that it is almost impossible to stay on top of every way we are getting screwed. The good news is that—either through independent media or our basic common sense—polls show that the majority of Americans know enough about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Wall Street bailouts, and other corporate welfare to oppose these corporatocracy policies. In the case of the military-industrial complex, most Iraq War polls and Afghanistan War polls show that the majority of Americans know enough to oppose these wars. And when Americans were asked in a CBS New /New York Times survey in January 2011 which of three programs—the military, Medicare or Social Security—to cut so as to deal with the deficit, fully 55 percent chose the military, while only 21 percent chose Medicare and 13 percent chose Social Security.

In the words of Leonard Cohen, “Everybody knows that the deal is rotten.” Well, maybe not everybody, but damn near everybody.

But what doesn’t everybody know?

2. Pragmatic Tactics, Strategies, and Solutions

In addition to awareness of economic and social injustices created by corporatocracy rule, it is also necessary to have knowledge of strategies and tactics that oppressed people have historically used to overcome tyranny and to gain their fair share of power.

Even before the Democratic-Republican bipartisan educational policies (such as “no child left behind” and “race to the top”) that cut back on civics being taught in schools, few Americans were exposed in their schooling to “street-smart civics”—tactics and strategies that oppressed peoples have historically utilized to gain power.

For a comprehensive guide of tactics and strategies that have been effective transforming regimes more oppressive than the current U.S. one, read political theorist and sociologist Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy, which includes nearly 200 “Methods of Nonviolent Actions.” Among Sharp’s 49 “Methods of Economic Noncooperation,” he lists over 20 different kinds of strikes. And among his 38 “Methods of Political Noncooperation,” he lists 10 tactics of “citizens’ noncooperation with government,” nine “citizens’ alternatives to obedience,” and seven “actions by government personnel.” Yes, nothing was more powerful in ending the Vietnam War and saving American and Vietnamese lives than the brave actions by critically thinking U.S. soldiers who refused to cooperate with the U.S. military establishment. Check out David Zeigler’s documentary Sir! No Sir! for details.

3. The Energy to Do Battle
The elite’s money—and the influence it buys—is an extremely powerful weapon. So it is understandable that so many people who are defeated and demoralized focus on their lack of money rather than on their lack of morale. However, we must keep in mind that in war, especially in a class war when one’s side lacks financial resources, morale becomes even more crucial.

Activists routinely become frustrated when truths about lies, victimization and oppression don’t set people free to take action. But having worked with abused people for more than 25 years, it doesn’t surprise me to see that when we as individuals or a society eat crap for too long, we become psychologically too weak to take action. There are a great many Americans who have been so worn down by decades of personal and political defeats, financial struggles, social isolation and daily interaction with impersonal and inhuman institutions that they no longer have the energy for political actions.

(M.S. Comment)
It's time to become aware. Hiding our heads in the sand isn't going to help anyone but those who want us blind and deaf to their actions. Check out the Alternet and see the full article. These are things we need to think about.

ARE YOU LISTENING WASHINGTON...... IT COULD HAPPEN HERE, AND THERE'S NO ONE TO BLAME BUT YOU.

This was posted on Alternet, yesterday.

The Poor Are Rising Up Against Brutal Austerity Measures.
Angry young people with nothing to do and little to lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot be stopped, and they know it.

August 9, 2011

This article is crossposted on Laurie Penny's blog, Penny Red.

I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Britain is a tinderbox, and on Friday, somebody lit a match. How the hell did this happen? And what are we going to do now?

In the scramble to comprehend the riots, every single commentator has opened with a ritual condemnation of the violence, as if it were in any doubt that arson, muggings and lootings are ugly occurrences. That much should be obvious to anyone who watched Croydon burn down on the BBC. David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, called the disorder 'mindless, mindless'. Nick Clegg denounced it as 'needless, opportunistic theft and violence'. Speaking from his Tuscan holiday villa, Prime Minister David Cameron – who has finally decided to return home to take charge - declared simply that the social unrest searing through the poorest boroughs in the country was "utterly unacceptable." The violence on the streets is being dismissed as ‘pure criminality,’ as the work of a ‘violent minority’, as ‘opportunism.’ This is madly insufficient. It is no way to talk about viral civil unrest. Angry young people with nothing to do and little to lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot be stopped, and they know it. In one of the greatest cities in the world, society is ripping itself apart.

Violence is rarely mindless. The politics of a burning building, a smashed-in shop or a young man shot by police may be obscured even to those who lit the rags or fired the gun, but the politics are there. Unquestionably there is far, far more to these riots than the death of Mark Duggan, whose shooting sparked off the unrest on Saturday, when two police cars were set alight after a five-hour vigil at Tottenham police station. A peaceful protest over the death of a man at police hands, in a community where locals have been given every reason to mistrust the forces of law and order, is one sort of political statement. Raiding shops for technology and trainers that cost ten times as much as the benefits you’re no longer entitled to is another. A co-ordinated, viral wave of civil unrest across the poorest boroughs of Britain, with young people coming from across the capital and the country to battle the police, is another.

Months of conjecture will follow these riots. Already, the internet is teeming with racist vitriol and wild speculation. The truth is that very few people know why this is happening. They don’t know, because they were not watching these communities. Nobody has been watching Tottenham since the television cameras drifted away after the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985. Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalised and harassed by the police, after months of seeing any conceivable hope of a better future confiscated, they are finally on the news. In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:

"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"

"Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."

Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere ‘’’

There are communities all over the country that nobody paid attention to unless there had recently been a riot or a murdered child. Well, they’re paying attention now.

Social order and the rule of law have broken down entirely. The city has been brought to a standstill; it is not safe to go out onto the streets. The looting and arson attacks have spread to at least fifty different areas across the UK, including dozens in London, and communities are now turning on each other, with the Guardian reporting on rival gangs forming battle lines. It has become clear to the disenfranchised young people of Britain, who feel that they have no stake in society and nothing to lose, that they can do what they like, and the police are utterly unable to stop them. That is what riots are all about.

Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realise that together they can do anything – literally, anything at all. People to whom respect has never been shown riot because they feel they have little reason to show respect themselves, and it spreads like fire on a warm summer night. And now people have lost their homes, and the country is tearing itself apart.

No one expected this. The so-called leaders who have taken three solid days to return from their foreign holidays to a country in flames did not anticipate this. The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that after thirty years of soaring inequality, in the middle of a recession, they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong. And now my city is burning, and it will continue to burn until we stop the blanket condemnations and blind conjecture and try to understand just what has brought viral civil unrest to Britain. Let me give you a hint: it ain’t Twitter.

Now is the time when we make our choices. Now is the time when we decide whether to descend into hate, or to put prejudice aside and work together. Now is the time when we decide what sort of country it is that we want to live in. Follow the #riotcleanup hashtag on Twitter. And take care of one another.

This Makes Perfect Sense...........

The New Government Symbol

The government today announced that it is changing its symbol from an Eagle to a CONDOM, because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance.... A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed!
Damn, it just doesn't get more accurate than that!

I SHOULD CHANGE THE NAME OF MY BLOG...... IT SHOULD BE "THE VIEW FROM UNDER THE BUS"..... Because that's where we've been thrown, again.

Published on Monday, August 1, 2011 by RobertReich.org

Ransom Paid

by Robert Reich

Anyone who characterizes the deal between the President, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics.

The deal does not raise taxes on America’s wealthy and most fortunate — who are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and whose tax rates are already lower than they have been, in eighty years. Yet it puts the nation’s most important safety nets and public investments on the chopping block.

It also hobbles the capacity of the government to respond to the jobs and growth crisis. Added to the cuts already underway by state and local governments, the deal’s spending cuts increase the odds of a double-dip recession. And the deal strengthens the political hand of the radical right.

Yes, the deal is preferable to the unfolding economic catastrophe of a default on the debt of the U.S. government. The outrage and the shame is it has come to this choice.

More than a year ago, the President could have conditioned his agreement to extend the Bush tax cuts beyond 2010 on Republicans’ agreement not to link a vote on the debt ceiling to the budget deficit. But he did not.

Many months ago, when Republicans first demanded spending cuts and no tax increases as a condition for raising the debt ceiling, the President could have blown their cover. He could have shown the American people why this demand had nothing to do with deficit reduction but everything to do with the GOP’s ideological fixation on shrinking the size of the government — thereby imperiling Medicare, Social Security, education, infrastructure, and everything else Americans depend on. But he did not.

And through it all the President could have explained to Americans that the biggest economic challenge we face is restoring jobs and wages and economic growth, that spending cuts in the next few years will slow the economy even further, and therefore that the Republicans’ demands threaten us all. Again, he did not.

The radical right has now won a huge tactical and strategic victory. Democrats and the White House have proven they have little by way of tactics or strategy.

By putting Medicare and Social Security on the block, they have made it more difficult for Democrats in the upcoming 2012 election cycle to blame Republicans for doing so.

By embracing deficit reduction as their apparent goal – claiming only that they’d seek to do it differently than the GOP – Democrats and the White House now seemingly agree with the GOP that the budget deficit is the biggest obstacle to the nation’s future prosperity.

The budget deficit is not the biggest obstacle to our prosperity. Lack of jobs and growth is. And the largest threat to our democracy is the emergence of a radical right capable of getting most of the ransom it demands.

Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. His "Marketplace" commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.

545 Vs. 300,000,000 by Charlie Reese

Charley Reese's final column for the  Orlando Sentinel.

He has been a journalist for 49 years.
He is retiring and this was HIS LAST COLUMN.

Be sure to read the Tax List at the end.

This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day.  It's a short but good read.  Worth the time. Worth remembering!

     

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

                     -  By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.  The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.  No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating  deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.  If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in  Iraq and Afghanistan.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy","inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they  alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of  them out of office and clean up their mess.

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando  Sentinel  Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it is up to you. This might be funny if it weren't so  true.  Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid...

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
'Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened?  Can you spell 'politicians?'

This Touched Me...... To My Soul...... So True.

This was sent to me by a friend who is becoming a close friend.....
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 (SF Gate)

Get over here and touch me now
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Here's what I think. I think human touch is surely the most sublime
sensation/activity ever invented by ecstatically drunken gods as they
gently and ever so briefly encased us in these slippery filthy gorgeous
mortal fleshforms.

I think human touch, done with calm intention and conscious ease, is a
total life-affirming blessing of the most spiritually orgasmic kind,
healing and restorative and achingly transcendent in quiet but thoroughly
kaleidoscopic ways.

Furthermore, I think said touch is fundamental to basic survival in this
tragicomic, dirt-bound realm and if we go too long without it we will die
as without water or whisky or trees. Which is also why I fully believe its
general paucity in modern life is perhaps the single most unfortunate side
effect of the Facebook age.

I realize I might be unusual. I realize I might be odd to offer it up in
this way. I deeply acknowledge, furthermore, that there are a thousand
notable exceptions. But barring the relative handful of those who don't
understand personal space, who perhaps "overtouch," whose intentions are a
bit slimy or hostile, I would hereby like to be lightly and lovingly
touched at some point by everyone I ever know, meet, connect with, always
and forever, quite nearly without exception, and that very much means you.

I feel like I'm on the right path with this. But you never know.

Here's the fascinating thing: The science on the subject has barely been,
you know, touched upon. Research is only now coming to soft light that
reveals, say, a gentle touch on the arm is not only sorta nice -- it can,
in fact, change your entire body chemistry. Your viewpoint. Your world.

Such a touch can release tension. Relax muscles. Stop weeping. Start
weeping. Evoke worlds. Invite transcendence. Calm rage. Soften the heart.
Open the breath. Touch can alter temperaments and attitudes in an instant.
Babies love it. So do romantics, dogs, deities and saints, gurus and
wizened masters. An attentive touch carefully placed can pretty much calm
everyone the f--k down.

Thus spake a recent, fascinating little study: "Library users who are
touched while registering, rate the library and its personnel more
favorably than the non-touched; diners are more satisfied and give larger
tips when waiting staff touch them casually; people touched by a stranger
are more willing to perform a mundane favor; and women touched by a man on
the arm are more willing to share their phone number or agree to a dance."

So sayeth, elsewhere, one Dacher Keltner, psychologist from UC Berkeley
and specialist in the study of touch: "The science is showing that when I
receive a very friendly form of touch, it releases oxytocin, a
neuropeptide that promotes trust. It shuts down stress-related parts of
the brain like the amygdala, and the locus coeruleus, it activates a
branch of the nervous system we study called the vagus nerve, which is
involved in connection. And by the way, the vagus nerve controls your
immune system in part as well."

That's the budding science. In yoga philosophy, we might say it's all
connected to sliding into proper alignment with your true essence, your
core, the deeper self not made up of the ego's stories and cultural
constructs and insidious mind games.

We might also say: This deeper, essential you is most certainly not touch
averse, because that's impossible. After all, like craves like. Energy
craves energy. Prana (life force) flows to prana and if you have no idea
what I'm talking about just imagine your being is made of water and so is
everyone else's and what happens when one water droplet contacts another?
Right: An effortless, nearly instantaneous collapsing into a wondrous
megadroplet of wow because holy hell, what else is there? Why else are we
made of energy and electricity and sly consciousness if not to jack in to
the collective interpersonal mainframe all the damn time? But maybe that's
just me.

Perhaps you do not wish to hear it. Perhaps it makes you wince and roll
your eyes. Perhaps you know far too many people for whom just about any
kind of touch feels not just wrong, but slightly terrifying. Perhaps you
are one of these people yourself. They are not difficult to find. We are a
victim culture, we are a low-touch society; also, abuse is tragically
prevalent.

It might be one of the saddest and most distressing signs of our time that
so many are frightened of or even openly repulsed by simple touch, so many
who think soft, everyday human contact should be reserved only for close
family or the most intimate of connections, and even then it's a little
invasive and creepy if you don't ask permission or have a few drinks first
to numb it all out and make sure no one's trying to steal your kidney.

I think: how dour life must be for those who would not hesitate to report
their boss or barista if said person touched them on the arm without
formal authorization, legal disclaimer or safe word. How difficult the
days for those who associate even the lightest friendly (or even slightly
awkward, weird or undesirable) touch with abuse or sexual harassment, who
shudder when brushing against a stranger, who shrink down and small
themselves to avoid all forms of sweat and oil and germs, damage and pain
and oh my God get that thing away from me who do you think you are I'm
taking a shower and calling my therapist.

Religion is zero help. Conservatism, fear of Other, endless media lies
about predation, abduction, contagion, molestation all feed the anti-touch
beast. So ugly has it become that even Catholic priests are no longer
allowed to touch children without another adult in the room. So horrible
is our indoctrination that when we hear of anyone touching a child many of
us instantly flash to "child molester." How sad that, as a culture, touch
has come to mean violated boundaries, inappropriateness, provocation,
crossing some sort of line no one remembers drawing.

Which is partly why, at least here in the Bay Area, there are entire
workshops dedicated exclusively to touch, on re-learning how to gently
stroke your friend or lover into fits of sighs and ease and whoa, to the
point you can actually transform your entire relationship, all without
saying a word. I can't quite decide if the existence of such classes is
absolutely wonderful or sort of tragic. You're right: It's both.

It is perhaps the greatest myth, the most brutal lie ever foisted upon
mankind: that of separation. You are there and I am here and "god" is way,
way over there and no matter how hard we try and strive, we'll never fully
meet. We can never fully connect. Just the way it is.

What horses--t. In fact, it's exactly the other way around. We are already
deeply connected, de facto and a priori. We are of the same divine source
material. Disconnection, fracturing and disassociation is a learned
affliction. A disease. Chronic, epidemic, global.

But maybe with the right touch, at the right time, in the right moment,
the pandemic can dissolve in an instant. Touch me just that way, and
suddenly everything makes sense. All is right with the world. We are one.

Really, what else is there? (What is less or more than a touch?)

Mark Morford's latest book, 'The Daring Spectacle: Adventures in Deviant
Journalism,' is available at Amazon, BN.com, and beyond.

Join Mark on Facebook and Twitter, or email him. His website is markmorford.com.

Mark's column appears every Wednesday on SFGate. To join the notification
list for this column, click here and remove one article of clothing. To
get on Mark's personal mailing list, click here and remove three more.

This column also has an RSS feed and a very handy archive page.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2011 SF Gate

A LITTLE SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.......

Garden Nazis in Michigan...... As if They didn't have enough to worry about.

This is in from Natural News......

In Oak Park, Michigan, a woman named Julie Bass is now being threatened with jail time for the "crime" of planting a vegetable garden in her front yard. Some bureaucratic pencil pusher in the city planner's office is trying to throw the book at her and get her sent to jail because she didn't bow down to city code which requires everything to be either pavement or "suitable" plants, and the city planners office doesn't think vegetables are "suitable."


Demand food freedom, America!

This is a crucial reminder of just how important it is to prepare ourselve for the coming food crisis that's already starting to unfold in America: Rising food prices (food inflation), a huge increase in crop failures, the mass contamination of foods with GMOs and even the tyrannical oppression taking place today with raw milk, farmer's markets and now home vegetable gardens. Nothing is safe from these government tyrants who want to take away our ability to grow our own food.


And don't give in to local bureaucrats who try to squash your squash! If locals give you a hard time about gardening in your front yard, contact NaturalNews immediately (reply@naturalnews.com) and let us know so we can get on it and help you fight for food freedom and your right to grow garden veggies!

Gardening is NOT a crime.

http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1D577A9747A66FE9316E584F7E781867

When The Going Gets Tough,...... Dump it on the Poor. They don't have Much to Lose.

Senator Orin Hatch took long enough Wednesday to pull his head out of his rectum so he could say some of the stupidest shit I've ever heard.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) voted against beginning debate on a measure that would have the Senate declare the rich should share the pain of debt reduction Thursday, a day after arguing that it's the poor and middle class who need to do more.

"I hear how they're so caring for the poor and so forth," Hatch said in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, in reference to Democrats. "The poor need jobs! And they also need to share some of the responsibility." (Spoken like a true elitist politician)

Hatch's comments were aimed at a motion that passed 74 to 22 to start debating a non-binding resolution that says millionaires and billionaires should play a more meaningful role in reducing the nation's debt.

I mean come on...... REALLY? (The key word here is "non-binding". Yeah that'll change a lot.)

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ISSUES A WARRANT FOR MUAMMAR QADDHAFI......... Maybe he can move to Texas and live near one the other two War Criminals they issued warrants for recently.

Obviously upset and wringing his hands in fear of the decision.........

Could he be saying...."What a Day I'm Having"?

Somehow these two war criminals have eluded capture by the International Criminal Court, and are still at large.

So, what's that say for the International Criminal Court?
Vote in "Comments"......"1"= Ain't Shit...& "10"= Really Scary

Rules For Life........ If Only.......

..... Click the post to enlarge the print.....

Even Though We're Poisoning The Planet....... Our Government Continues To Promote Nuclear Power....... What's up with that? We can't be that stupid,.... can we?

(From Friday, June 10th, on Democracy Now)

Almost three months after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear disaster in Japan, new radiation "hot spots" may require the evacuation of more areas further from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recently admitted for the first time that full nuclear meltdowns occurred at three of the plant’s reactors, and more than doubled its estimate for the amount of radiation that leaked from the plant in the first week of the disaster in March. “What they failed to mention is that they discharged an equally large amount into the ocean,” says our guest Robert Alvarez, former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. “As [the radiation] goes up the food chain, it accumulates. By the time it reaches people who consume this food, the levels are higher than they originally were when they entered the environment.” Alvarez also discusses his new report on the vulnerabilities and hazards of stored spent fuel at U.S. reactors in the United States. Then we go to Tokyo to speak with Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of the group Green Action. She says citizens leading their own monitoring efforts are calling for additional evacuations, especially for young children and pregnant women.
( Check out the full story on Democracy Now.Org)

(Even before the true damage was acknowledged....)
Prominent Japanese Environmentalist Keibo Oiwa Urges Global Movement to End Nuclear Power and Confront the “Crazy System Based on Greed, Anger and Ignorance”
(Now, this guy makes sense... MS)

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS..... USUALLY TRUE.

A middle school in Russellville, Arkansas is in hot water after its yearbook listed the "Top 5 Worst People of All Time" - to wit: Hitler, Bin Laden, Charles Manson, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney.
Some parents were unhappy. Maybe they thought Cheney should've gotten the second slot? Icing on the cake: The school district tried to solve the problem by covering the list with tape, which promptly fell off.
You gotta love the honesty of children...... We could all learn a lot from them.

This Country's Being Run More Like A Circus, Than A Government...... And there's way too many clowns.

The really sad part is that our "representatives" aren't jumping through our hoops, either. They seem to have no clue as to what Americans want, or need.

(This was emailed to me from Newsmax)

Pitchmen aren't what we need. What we need are honest people representing "us",.... honestly. The idea that Democrats have to sell a pitch line to get elected, is a sad statement of just how out of touch they really are. Americans have been screaming out for jobs, medical coverage, justice and law that is equal for all. It's not that hard to see what America needs. But still the clowns give us pitch lines and promises, with no actual substance. We have been sold out by our own government. Our elitist representatives have given away our farm, and now they want to "pitch" us a line that will bring them back into our trust.

If they want our trust,... then they should show us that they can climb out of the pockets of corporate business, and put the American people ahead of profits from China. It's time to put an end to "Pitchmen", and get back to core values that have inspired true democracy throughout the world. The Republicans have been pitching us lines for the last ten years. How's that working out for us?

I Thought President Obama Did Something Right...... I Was Wrong! Look deeper into his speech, and you know what you'll find?......

That would be useless rhetoric, and a big helping of BULLSHIT.

Some excerpts for this story are taken from an article on Alternet, by John Mearsheimer

As the President expounded on the future of peace in the middle east, his rhetoric didn't ring true to either Israel or Palestine.
For example, Israel's hard-line supporters were outraged that he said, "Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps."
Israel's views are that the 1967 borders are "Auschwitz borders" and thus can never serve as a basis for negotiations.

Many Palestinians, on the other hand, did not like Obama's assertion that it made little sense for them to go to the UN General Assembly this September and win recognition for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. If in fact Palestine was to win that recognition from the UN General Assembly, it would put the United States in the position of voting against the decree, in order to remain firmly joined at the hip with Israel.
Surely Palestinians also noticed that shortly after saying that "every state has the right to self-defense, and Israel must be able to defend itself," the president then said that the Palestinians would have to be content with "a sovereign non-militarized state."
That means, in reality,... they won't be able to defend themselves against Israel, or any other state for that matter.

(Are we recognizing the hypocrisy and element of Bullshit, yet?)
The United States has little influence over events in the broader Middle East, as well. The Arab Spring, which Obama fully embraced in his speech, happened in spite of American foreign policy,... not because of it. After all, Washington has played a key role for decades in keeping friendly dictators like Hosni Mubarak in power. And not surprisingly, the Obama administration has remained quiet while Saudi and Bahrani security forces have been crushing the protestors in Bahrain. Why? Because the US Navy's 5th Fleet is stationed in Bahrain and we have excellent relations with its authoritarian leaders.

On top of all this, the US military is pinned down in messy wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya. The administration's hard-nosed policy for dealing with Iran's nuclear enrichment program is not working, but the president seems unwilling (or unable because of pressure from Israel and the lobby) to countenance a new approach for dealing with Tehran.

The bottom line is that the US is in deep trouble in the Middle East and needs new policies for that region. The possibilities of that occurring soon, are pretty much non-existent. President Obama's speech was destined to disappoint almost everyone. While we cannot be seen as opposing democracy, we surely don't want to see it flourish. That would change the scope of our influence drastically.

[John Mearsheimer is professor Political Science at the University of Chicago and co-author of the best-seller, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.]

It's Time For Me To Decompress, Again....... Here's An Original Poem By John Schweizer

John and I went to Berkeley High together. We reunited via "Facebook" and "Classmates", and from time to time John emails me a poem. Totally unpretentious.... always thought provoking, never easy to face in their stark emotional honesty. Thank you John. "You've got a friend in me."

This poem arose from answered prayer, yours and mine.

Forgiveness

I need forgiveness
Desperately, like drowning
Sailors need life rings

And caterpillars
Need leaves for food, shelter, and
Haven cocoons.

I did homicide
To Vietnamese soldiers
And Russian pilots,

Easier back then
Than the impossible Grace-
Guided battle plan.

Forgiveness comes now,
Each butterfly moment of
Eternal present

Created anew,
And the instant I know that
I need forgiveness.



John Schweizer

It Just Keeps Getting Better... The Shame of Our Leaders Knows No Bounds.

I received this as an email. Spread the word.

No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.

Monday on Fox news they learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop?

35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government.

Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
This is an idea that we should address.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law.

I truly don't care if you are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

If each person that sees this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

And presidents!

My Hypocrite, Facists, Representatives...... Senators Feinstein and Boxer, Just Voted To Extend "The Patriot Act" until 2015....... Am I Pissed Off? How can you tell?

These two have a lot of nerve calling themselves "Americans"!
Their support of the Patriot Act is a slap in the face to everyone of their constituents. I don't know about you, but my respect for these "Representatives" of the people, has just taken a nose dive.

They are traitors to everything the United States used to stand for. I for one will be working to get these two out of office.

To help cover their evil ways they have cut off their emails from receiving messages.
I urge each and every one out there to call and voice your displeasure. Their fascist action must not go unanswered. Call your Senators at 202-224-3121, and tell them you don't want to live in a police state. It's time to take democracy back. Tell them their support of this heinous bill, that was installed under the dictatorship of George W. Bush, under a pretense of lies and falsehoods, is an abomination to the values of America, and it will not go unanswered.

It's time to stop this travesty.

Because you've got to start somewhere.

Why Don't You Pass These Words of Wisdom,... (or lack thereof) to Israel, Harry?

This came in from Newsmax....

Reid Rejects Obama's Israel-Palestinian Border Stance

President Barack Obama has lost at least one ally for his views on the Mideast. In a speech Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected Obama’s own talk last week in which he called for Israel to negotiate peace with the Palestinians using pre-1967 borders as a baseline, Politico reports.

“The place where negotiating will happen must be at the negotiating table — and nowhere else,” Reid told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Those negotiations . . . will not happen — and their terms will not be set — through speeches, or in the streets, or in the media.”

As for the borders issue, “No one should set premature parameters about borders, about building, or about anything else,” he said.

[MS comment from here on]
So, now if Harry Reid could just get Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to actually sit down with a realistic respect for Palestine, and face the fact that as long as Israel keeps destroying Palestinian homes, to make room for the occupation of settlers on Palestinian land, there will NEVER....., repeat.... NEVER, be peace or support of free thinking people for Israel. Then,... he might actually be saying something meaningful. Until that time comes, Harry and the President are just whistling in the wind. If we want Israel to take peace negotiations seriously, we've got to stop supporting their unconscionable actions in the Middle East. Having terrorists as allies is not only a threat to peace in the region, it's a threat to the credibility of the United States throughout the world.

Here's A Take A Breath Moment....... Breathe...... Slowly...

Just When I think He's Totally Wrong about Almost Everything,.... He Does Something Good and Right. Way to go, Mr. President!

Now,... if you'll just stick to your guns.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is endorsing the Palestinians' demand for their future state to be based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, in a move that will likely infuriate Israel. Israel says the borders of a Palestinian state have to be determined through negotiations.

In a speech outlining U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa, Obama on Thursday sided with the Palestinians' opening position a day ahead of a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is vehemently opposed to referring to the 1967 borders.

Until Thursday, the U.S. position had been that the Palestinian goal of a state based on the 1967 borders, with agreed land swaps, should be reconciled with Israel's desire for a secure Jewish state through negotiations.

Below is a single paragraph from the President's speech. To read the transcript of the entire speech, go to The Guardian UK (You can click the link on the right of this page in the "Here's a Few Things I Follow" section.)

"So while the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, and a secure Israel. The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state."

When Did "Justice" Become The Lynch Mob Mentality In This Country?

This came to me via email from "The Pen".They are right on the money with this. What happened to our sense of justice? When did we become everything we been fighting against for decades?

It turns out after all these years all they had to do to find Bin Laden was check the roster of the Islamabad Jihadists basketball team where he was the starting center. Of course, nobody for a thousand miles would breathe a word of it, that is just how much they hate America in that part of the world. In any case, all these Middle East occupations and wars have always been and remain destructive and counterproductive even to our own interests. So we start with the action page.

End The Wars In Afghanistan And Iraq:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1078.php

If nothing else, the demise of Osama bin Laden again raises the question of what exactly we think we are doing occupying so many countries in the Middle East. Surely not to fight terrorism. Instead, terrorism is driven precisely by these same kinds of operations. There is nothing at the end of this road but utter ruin for our own country, unless we somehow find the political courage to change course. So we speak out again, and will continue to do so.

The only thing good the right wing has had to say about the Bin Laden
operation is that this action by Obama was just a continuation of the
policies of George Bush. In one respect that is completely false. It
was the policy of Bush NOT to pursue Bin Laden, but rather to use him
as an excuse and justification for all the wars they had on their
pre-existing agenda. The last thing the right wing wanted to do was
to actually catch Bin Laden.

But in a larger sense, and sadly, they are correct in that Obama has
done absolutely nothing to change anything of substance whatsoever
about American foreign policy. The wars and occupations continue and
have even been enlarged, run by exactly the same people who started
them in the first place, with all Bush holdovers otherwise still in
actual charge. And nothing about that will change until so-called
liberals and so-called progressives stop giving Obama a pass when he
just acts like a smarter version of George Bush.

By way of a disclaimer, our position is that we do not support the
death penalty, and in particular we do not support the institution of
war as the mutually preferred cultural institution for settling
differences among nations. So we can only be appalled by the raucous
celebration of what now appears to be the summary execution of a man
already in custody.

It is perfectly obvious that there was never any intention of
bringing Bin Laden back alive under any circumstances. If we have
learned nothing else from recent history, it should have been
anticipated that all we were told night one about the Bin Laden raid
were just made up lies and fairy tales. What was portrayed initially
as a "fire fight" might have consisted of one person firing back. And
once that person was taken down, what proceeded after that can only
be described as a precision "execution" operation of every adult male
present.

None of this should surprise anyone. We have had people in custody
now for upwards of 10 years already who will NEVER have an actual
trial. So why would anyone think we would bring Bin Laden back for a
trial? The clear order was to kill him on the spot regardless. Is
there really any doubt of that? Bin Laden was an important long term
CIA asset who turned on his handlers. A talking Bin Laden in custody
was the last thing they could afford.

The word used most often night one in the corporate media about the
Bin Laden killing was "justice". "Justice had been done," they said.
There may be some primitive, ultimate "justice" in it. But the most
appropriate choice of word, if our language has not been completely
corrupted already, would be "revenge". Justice would be to put the
man on trial before the world. But there is no law, even of war, that
would permit the summary killing of a man already subdued and in
custody, regardless of his crimes. Isn't that what the bad guys do?

"We don't need a trial!" Where have you heard those words shouted
before, outside of the scene of lynch mob in a movie? The lynch mob
is a grand old American tradition, and unfortunately not one to be
proud of. The fact that historically those lynched were most likely
innocent, where as Bin Laden proudly professed to his own guilt,
changes nothing about the process. What value is a justice system if
it could not convict someone like Bin Laden?


And anyone celebrating the manner in which Bin Laden was killed may
in fact be celebrating the demise of that justice system MORE than
the demise of Bin Laden himself. Meet the New American Lynch Mob.

My final comment on the sad state of affairs that this country is wallowing in is.......
"This should be the new flag of our country. It seems to be closer to the sense of justice we subscribe to.