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.

Would We Be Out for Revenge?? .... You're Damn Skippy We Would!!

I don't usually like to run serial articles from an author, but in this case Noam Chomsky has once again captured my thoughts with an expression of clarity that sums it all up.

It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have. Thus Obama was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that “we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda.”

Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement.

There is also much media discussion of Washington’s anger that Pakistan didn’t turn over bin Laden, though surely elements of the military and security forces were aware of his presence in Abbottabad. Less is said about Pakistani anger that the U.S. invaded their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American fervor is already very high in Pakistan, and these events are likely to exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already, predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

There’s more to say about [Cuban airline bomber Orlando] Bosch, who just died peacefully in Florida, including reference to the “Bush doctrine” that societies that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves and should be treated accordingly. No one seemed to notice that Bush was calling for invasion and destruction of the U.S. and murder of its criminal president.

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”

There is much more to say, but even the most obvious and elementary facts should provide us with a good deal to think about.

© 2011 Noam Chomsky

By George, I think He's Got it!

This is right off of Democracy Now...... True, true...

Noam Chomsky: "The U.S. and Its Allies Will Do Anything to Prevent Democracy in the Arab World"

Speaking at the 25th anniversary celebration of the national media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky analyzes the U.S. response to the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. "Across the [Middle East], an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests," Chomsky says. "The reason is very simple... Plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out."

Worth a read. Check out the whole story and a video at http://www.democracynow.org/tags/noam_chomsky

M.S. Comment:
Yeah,... the USA talks a good game, but "democracy" as we know it, here, today.... is a far cry from the democracy being sought throughout the Arab World. If they knew what form of democracy we have in store for them, they'd be careful what they wish for. Our support comes with a heavy price tag. And, that price tag is controlled by corporations for profit.
True democracy has left the building...... "Thank you very much."

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead..... O.K.... So, Can We Go Home Now?

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (March 10, 1957 – April 2011) was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, most widely recognized for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in and advocacy of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family. On Sunday, May 1st 2011, U.S. officials announced that bin Laden was dead. -wikipedia

He was in a mansion in Abbottabad, 90 miles north of Islamabad, Pakistan instead of hiding in a cave as commonly thought. CNN reports it was not a drone strike, but a manned team, and that some family members may also have been killed. The Pakistani Intelligence Service was NOT also involved in this operation as initially reported. His location in a mansion brings up the spectre that there might have been a certain degree of collusion with some powerful elements within Pakistan to keep him hidden and safe, although that is speculative at this point. The second in command of Al Qaeda, Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri was not at the mansion.

So,.. Who gets the $25,000,000? .... Not the Navy Seals, I'll bet.
We'll probably need the money to finance our divorce from Pakistan. Not that we're getting a divorce, but it is getting a little tenuous to keep calling them allies, when we keep finding high ranking Al Qaeda leaders living in high end neighborhoods.

Hey! I'm just saying.....

Alternet has an excellent article that expands on peripheral aspects of this story, titled "Inside His Mansion, Inside the Mission, Inside the Media Reaction."

While researching this story I discovered that there are already pictures of him dead out there in all their graphic splendor. No need to thank me for not posting one.

THE FATTED CALF REMAINS UNTOUCHED

THE "Y" ARTICLE
The Pentagon's secret plan to slash its own budget.

As appeared in www.foreignpolicy.com The online site for Foreign Policy Magazine
BY JOHN NORRIS | APRIL 13, 2011

The report places considerable emphasis on the importance of achieving a more sustainable approach to security, energy, agriculture, and the environment. Again, it is important to stress that this narrative was penned by senior military thinkers, not the Sierra Club. The simple fact is that any clear-eyed analysis pretty quickly comes to the same conclusion: The United States has established an incentive system that just doesn't make any sense. It continues to pour tens of billions of dollars into agricultural and oil subsidies every single year even as these subsidies make the gravity of the environmental, health, and land-use problems the country faces in the future ever graver. As the report argues, America cannot truly practice the use of "smart power" until it practices "smart growth" at home. While some may be quick to argue that the Pentagon should not be considering issues like smart growth and investments in America's youth, this goes to another key point from the authors: America won't get its approach to policy right if it leaves foreign policy and domestic policy in tidy little silos that ignore the interconnection between the two.

The paper argues persuasively that the tendency of Americans to broadly label the rest of the world has been hugely counterproductive. The authors point out that the tendency over the last decade by some Americans to view all Muslims as terrorists has made it more difficult to marginalize genuine extremism, while alienating vast swaths of the global Muslim community. In a world where credibility is so central to America's national interest and reach around the globe, the overheated domestic debate about the war on terror has never served it very well.

Lastly, the narrative makes a clarion call for America to look forward, not back, in today's interconnected world:

And yet with globalization, we seem to have developed a strange apprehension about the efficacy of our ability to apply the innovation and hard work necessary to successfully compete in a complex security and economic environment. Further, we have misunderstood interdependence as a weakness rather than recognizing it as a strength. The key to sustaining our competitive edge, at home or on the world stage, is credibility -- and credibility is a difficult capital to foster. It cannot be won through intimidation and threat, it cannot be sustained through protectionism or exclusion. Credibility requires engagement, strength, and reliability -- imaginatively applied through the national tools of development, diplomacy, and defense.

The budget deal over the weekend lopped $8 billion off of funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Defense spending was left untouched. Congress doesn't seem to have gotten the wake-up call.

AMAZING HOLES! This just needed to be passed along.

HAPPY EARTH DAY, EVERYONE. THANKS BP.... One Year later, and the Effects are Still Being Tallied

As reported and excerpted from ALJAZEERA

One year after BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the number of lawsuits against the oil giant continues to mount.

Ryan Lambert is enraged.

The owner of a charter fishing business, he had always supported the oil industry in his home state of Louisiana.

He previously trusted BP, and the rest of the oil industry, to do the right thing in case an accident happened. But not any more. "I'm seeing people starving to death and BP won't pay them," said Lambert.

His business drop of 94 per cent in the last year has cost him more than $1.1mn, he told Al Jazeera, "They won't pay me, they owe me well over a million dollars just for last year, and all they do is send more papers to fill out."

He continued:

They know what they did is wrong and they still won't pay me. I'm done playing their games. All they are doing is starving people out and trying to get them to take the one-time $25,000 payment and give up their right to sue. I know thousands of people in the fishing industry, and I don't know one person who has been made whole yet.

In the aftermath of BP's disaster that began on April 20 of last year, the oil giant promised those whose livelihoods had been damaged that they would be made "whole" and fully compensated for their losses.

On June 1, 2010, upon the announcement that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to do this, BP board chairman Henric Svanberg stated: "[President Obama] is frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people."

Lambert vehemently disagrees.

"I want the entire country to know, you cannot trust what BP or [what] the oil industry promises you. I'm most definitely taking up litigation against BP," he added.

Lambert is not alone.

The Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) is a group that uses the law to protect the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive. CBD has an unparallelled record of legal successes, with 93 per cent of their lawsuits having resulted in favourable outcomes. And, now they are suing BP for $19bn.

"We have sued them under the Clean Water Act," Kieran Suckling, the executive director and founder of the CBD told Al Jazeera. "The way the Act works is it levies a fine based on the number of gallons [of oil] spilled and how malicious or criminal BP was acting when the spill occurred. So a big part of the suit is about determining how many barrels were spilled, and BP's level of negligence."

Suckling explained that, depending on BP's level of negligence, the fine they face per barrel of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico, "could range from $1,300 to $4,300 per barrel if they are found criminally negligent."

CBD believes BP released 5.5 million barrels of oil, and is awaiting the official estimate from the federal government, which has not been released yet.

Environmental effects

This March, US interior secretary Kenneth Salazar approved the first deep water drilling exploration plan since BP's disaster, giving Shell Offshore the go-ahead to drill three exploration wells in water 2,950 feet deep, after his department's environmental assessment plan found there was "no possibility of significant environmental effects".

Prior to this, CBD, GRN, the Natural Resources Defence Council, and the Sierra Club filed a formal notice of intent to sue Salazar for ignoring marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf.

CBD has already filed suit against Salazar for concluding that oil drilling poses no possible risk of significant environmental effects. Furthermore, for failing to assess possible impacts on the Gulf of Mexico's endangered whales and sea turtles, his continued approval of offshore drilling plans in the Gulf without environmental review, and for his withholding emails, phone logs, and meeting notes documenting his interactions with oil-industry lobbyists since he became secretary of the interior.

About the suit CBD is preparing to file against Salazar for ignoring marine mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the gulf, Suckling is blunt:

In the wake of the beginning of BP's disaster last year, it became apparent the Obama administration has not followed the Endangered Species Act, among other laws, so despite claims they've reformed the agency, they are still not following these Acts or the National Policy Act. So it's business as usual with a little window dressing. They are still not obeying the law.

For the entire story as written by Dahr Jahmall, see Aljazeera In Depth "BP's Criminal Negligence Exposed"

When All Reason Fails to Reach These Guys,...... What's the Solution? They're Not Listening to Our Voices.....

Somebody once told me that violence never solved anything. I'm starting to disagree.

.

A friend of mine's sister came here from Belgium for a visit with her family and friends. She was born here, but moved many years ago. One of the things that struck me was something she said while we were grazing the issue of politics during the conversation. She said that people in Belgium can't understand why we don't revolt. Her question... "What's it going to take before the people of this country wake up and start a revolution?" It is a question I've been asking myself... a lot lately.

Every day we are being undermined by our own government. Our "Democracy", of which we have been so proud, is an idyllic memory that we just can't seem to let go of. The truth is, it's dead. It was replaced while we were resting on our laurels, with an evil empire of Fascism. It didn't happen overnight, but it happened never the less. Slowly the power of corporations became the voice of our representatives, and the voice of the people was stifled until it was listened to no more.

So what will it take to awaken the sedentary populace? We know they're armed. We know they're out there. What will be the straw that breaks the Camel's back? Where's the dedicated extremists that we used to be in the sixties. Have we all grown too old and too comfortable? They're coming after us in our old age, now. They killed the dream then, and they're trying to kill it now.

......WE HAVE TO STOP THEM!......

15 TAX EVADERS MAKING HUGE PROFITS AT OUR EXPENSE.

IF THIS DOESN'T PISS YOU OFF, YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.