MY POV

IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Benjamin Franklin

How Bush really feels about you.

"If there were such a thing as Intelligent Design, we wouldn't have George W. Bush."

Christy Marx

The Mars Society

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
34th President of the USA
a Republican, in a letter written to his brother on November 8, 1954

"...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone...."

Benito Mussolini

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Abraham Lincoln
November 12, 1864

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man."

Martin Luther King Jr., 1963

"CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."

James Madison
(1751-1836)
4th President of the United States

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."

Heinrich Heine
Almansor, 1823

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

Sir Winston Churchill
(1874-1965)

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who etermine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarschall

"Authoritarian societies inevitably crumble because they silence the critics who could save them from errors of blind hubris. Dissent is not a luxury to be indulged in the best of times, but rather an obligation of free people, particularly when the very notion of dissent is unpopular."

Robert Scheer

"FASCISM: a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership together with belligerent nationalism."

American Heritage Dictionary

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is
neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it
because it is right.

Dr. Martin Luther King

"My life is my message."

Gandhi

Posted: 23 Feb. 2007

From The Center for American Progress.

ECONOMY -- RECORD NUMBER OF AMERICANS LIVING IN SEVERE POVERTY: America's poor have yet to reap the benefits of the recent economic expansion as the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" "continues to widen." In an analysis of 2005 census figures, McClatchy newspapers found that "nearly 16 million Americans are living near deep or severe poverty," a 32-year high. The analysis revealed that from 2000 to 2005, the number of severely poor swelled by 26 percent -- the highest growth rate for any other segment of the population. Steven Woolf, co-author of the study, said the results were the opposite of what his team expected. "We're not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population," he explained. "What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty." The results show a stark rise in income inequality in the United States, as "the share of national income going to corporate profits has has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries." Washington, D.C. has the highest rate of people living in extreme poverty -- 10.8 percent. The long-term effects of more children growing up in this poverty will be widespread, explains the Center for American Progress, including increased crime rates and health care costs. With such high levels of poverty, the need to invest in resources to reduce poverty such as early childhood education, urban revitalization, and raising the minimum wage, is more crucial than ever.

Posted: 22 Feb. 2007

From The Center for American Progress.

HEALTH CARE -- U.S. HEALTH CARE COSTS TO RISE AT UNMANAGEABLE RATE OVER NEXT DECADE: A government report released yesterday revealed that U.S. spending on medical and health services is projected to double to $4.1 trillion by 2016, up from $2.1 trillion in 2006. Over this period, health care costs will rise at an unreasonably fast rate, outpacing the overall economy and causing a spike in out-of-pocket expenses. Simultaneously, the cost of health insurance is projected to increase at a rate of 6.4 percent annually during the next ten years. The United States continues to spend more on health care per person than any other country, including countries that provide health care coverage to its entire citizenry. But our health care system spending is not buying us superior health or resources. Americans on average die at a younger age compared to the average age of death of comparable nations, and the United States has fewer practicing physicians and nurses per 1,000 people than comparable countries. The Center for American Progress has established a Wellness Trust to encourage preventative care and offset burdensome medical costs. "The trust would consolidate existing public and private spending on prevention, carving prevention out of health insurance. It would also set national prevention priorities and establish a new, unconventional delivery system for preventative care," American Progress president John Podesta said. "Instead of relying on doctors to deliver most preventative services, we need to build a corps of community health workers." Wal-Mart, AT&T, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Center for American Progress, and other businesses and non-profit organizations have launched a campaign to tackle the health care crisis, with the goal of universal coverage by 2012. The idea of shared responsibility, "emphasizing that individuals, businesses and government all play roles in financing health care and expanding coverage."

Posted: 20 Feb. 2007

The profit-mongers of war, the stinking bastards. From The Center for American Progress.

MILITARY -- MILITARY DEFENSE EXHIBITION INCITES 'SHOPPING SPREE' AMONG ARAB GULF STATES: IDEX-2007, touted as the "world's largest military defense exhibition," began yesterday in Abu Dubai, UAE. The exhibition, according to a report by the Associated Press, has been highly anticipated by states in the Persian Gulf region. "Officially supported," by the UAE government, the IDEX exhibition has attracted big names in the U.S. defense contracting industry including Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. The rising tension is the region between Iran and the U.S. and the fear that "violence [in Iraq] will spill into nearby" Gulf states has led to what the AP described as "shopping sprees for helicopters, ships and tanks." Governments from the Gulf region are expected to offer contracts whose value will "soar past" the $2 billion in contracts offered at IDEX in 2005. Despite repeated attempts by U.S. officials to downplay rumors of war with Iran, the threat of air attacks by the United States or Israel on targets inside Iran is "pushing Gulf defense ministers to consider missile defense systems...warships, including minesweepers, and early-warning radar." Fears of conflict with Iran were further escalated over the weekend as Iran conducted "military exercises" in the region. As a second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group is steaming toward the Gulf (with a third likely to follow), the exercises were condemned as "deliberately provocative" by U.S. Fifth Fleet Commander Vice-Admiral Patrick Walsh. While Iran is not expected to send an official delegation to the exhibition, Iranian military officials are "certain to be roaming the show and studying the weapons."

Posted: 16 Feb. 2007

Bush Iran War Agenda: Trigger an "Accidental Conflict," as a pretext to justify "Limited Strikes"
by Deniz Yeter
Global Research, February 13, 2007

Hillary Mann, the former National Security Council Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Affairs under the Bush Administration from 2001 to 2004, has issued a sober warning to the public today concerning the Bush Administration's intentions with Iran.

In an interview this morning on CNN(1), she accused the Bush Administration of "trying to push a provocative, accidental conflict," as a pretext to justify "limited strikes" on crucial nuclear and military infrastructures, as opposed to a large ground war as is the case with Iraq.

When asked why the Bush Administration was seeking to do this, she responded that it is a part of Bush's broader agenda for the Middle East to bring about a "democratization... peace and stability", to the region.

Of course, one only has to look back to history to see the Bush Administration's real agenda behind confronting Iran. Iran is only one piece of the puzzle in a broader, century long struggle by the US, Britain, and it's Western allies to secure the Middle East’s oil reserves.

1951: Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh succeeds in leading an Iranian movement to nationalize the countries' oil industry, becoming Iran's first democratically elected leader when he becomes Prime Minister as a result from this central issue. This ends the immensely profitable monopoly that Britain controlled through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company since 1909, eventually becoming British Petroleum Company in 1954, or more commonly known as BP.

1953: The CIA conducts a series of covert actions under the name "Operation Ajax" (TP-AJAX), aimed at overthrowing Mossadegh to replace him with a friendlier US dictator. The tactics employed by the CIA include controlling the countries national newspapers to mislead the public with false propaganda, bribing government and military officials to gain allies against Mossadegh, funding opposition parties with money and weapons, controlling and organizing mobs and protests, and also distributing fake flyers made by the CIA that people thought were made by Mossadegh's government which said things like "UP WITH COMMUNISM" and "DOWN WITH ISLAM". After an initial failed coup attempt, a mob organized by the CIA is successful in ousting Mossadegh.

1953 to 1979: After their successful coup, the CIA re-installs Iran's exiled Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who is very friendly to the West and it's allies, once again ensuring a monopoly over Iran's oil fields for the West. Under the Shah's bloody reign, thousands of political opponents and innocent people suspected of being dissidents were rounded up by the Shah's CIA trained secret police, SAVAK, and put into their secret prison to be extensively tortures. SAVAK also assassinated countless political opponents and government officials to ensure the Shah's and the West's control over Iran.

1979 to Present: The CIA and their puppet government in Iran is thrown off by the Islamic Revolution that envelopes Iran, leading to the overthrow of the Shah and his government. This allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran after years of exile, who would lead the Islamic Revolution of Iran that resulted in him becoming Supreme Leader of Iran. This once again ends the West's control over Iranian oil fields, and also their access to Iran's oil since they now refuse to do business or cooperate with the West.

READ THE REST.

Posted: 12 Feb. 2007

Just in case anyone has missed hearing this story by now....

DoD Report Appears to Confirm Downing Street Memo
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 09 February 2007

A long-awaited report on the veracity of pre-war Iraq intelligence has found that a secretive policy shop exaggerated the Iraqi threat, providing the White House with cherry-picked information about links between Iraq and al Qaeda. The shop, operating out of the Pentagon, was set up by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Its goal was to lay the groundwork for a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq.

The report would appear to confirm British intelligence assertions that surfaced in a document widely referred to as the Downing Street Memo that the facts against the threat posed by Iraq were being fixed around the Bush administration's policy leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the report is a "a devastating condemnation of the activities of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Those activities supported the Bush administration's misleading case for war against Iraq."

The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General produced the report, which focuses largely on the work of former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. Feith's Office of Special Plans sent the Bush administration bogus intelligence on Iraq's weapons program and ties to terrorist organizations that supported the administration's policy.

An executive summary of the report was released late Thursday by Senator Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Levin has spent the past two years battling the former Senate Republican leadership to conclude its so-called Phase II investigation into pre-war Iraq intelligence.

Last month, in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he was told by Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kans.), who was formerly in charge of the second phase of the Senate's investigation, that Vice President Dick Cheney applied "constant" pressure on Roberts to drag out the probe on pre-war intelligence. A spokeswoman for Cheney denied the allegation.

READ THE REST.

Posted: 5 Feb. 2007

It was President Eisenhower that first warned about the military-industrial complex. And here we are, fifty years later. From The Center for American Progress.

GOVERNMENT -- PRIVATE CONTRACTORS HAVE BECOME A 'VIRTUAL FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT': "Without a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government," the New York Times reports today. "On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does." Competition for contracts has "sharply eroded" since 2001, and "the number of government workers overseeing contracts has remained level as spending has shot up," leading to stark examples of mismanagement. The Washington Post revealed last month that Lurita Alexis Doan, the chief of the U.S. General Services Administration, "attempted to give a no-bid contract to a company founded and operated by a longtime friend, sidestepping federal laws and regulations." The latest report by Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, detailed "government's failure to monitor how contractors were spending taxpayer money." Tomorrow, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) will begin hearings focused on contracts in Iraq and at the Department of Homeland Security. Waxman introduced the "Clean Contracting Act" last year with the goals of promoting competition, increasing oversight, and deterring corruption.

Posted: 4 Feb. 2007

Long, but interesting article that is worth the read.

KNOWING THE ENEMY
Can social scientists redefine the “war on terror”?
by GEORGE PACKER
New Yorker: Issue of 2006-12-18

In 1993, a young captain in the Australian Army named David Kilcullen was living among villagers in West Java, as part of an immersion program in the Indonesian language. One day, he visited a local military museum that contained a display about Indonesia’s war, during the nineteen-fifties and sixties, against a separatist Muslim insurgency movement called Darul Islam. “I had never heard of this conflict,” Kilcullen told me recently. “It’s hardly known in the West. The Indonesian government won, hands down. And I was fascinated by how it managed to pull off such a successful counterinsurgency campaign.”

Kilcullen, the son of two left-leaning academics, had studied counterinsurgency as a cadet at Duntroon, the Australian West Point, and he decided to pursue a doctorate in political anthropology at the University of New South Wales. He chose as his dissertation subject the Darul Islam conflict, conducting research over tea with former guerrillas while continuing to serve in the Australian Army. The rebel movement, he said, was bigger than the Malayan Emergency—the twelve-year Communist revolt against British rule, which was finally put down in 1960, and which has become a major point of reference in the military doctrine of counterinsurgency. During the years that Kilcullen worked on his dissertation, two events in Indonesia deeply affected his thinking. The first was the rise—in the same region that had given birth to Darul Islam, and among some of the same families—of a more extreme Islamist movement called Jemaah Islamiya, which became a Southeast Asian affiliate of Al Qaeda. The second was East Timor’s successful struggle for independence from Indonesia. Kilcullen witnessed the former as he was carrying out his field work; he participated in the latter as an infantry-company commander in a United Nations intervention force. The experiences shaped the conclusions about counter-insurgency in his dissertation, which he finished in 2001, just as a new war was about to begin.

“I saw extremely similar behavior and extremely similar problems in an Islamic insurgency in West Java and a Christian-separatist insurgency in East Timor,” he said. “After 9/11, when a lot of people were saying, ‘The problem is Islam,’ I was thinking, It’s something deeper than that. It’s about human social networks and the way that they operate.” In West Java, elements of the failed Darul Islam insurgency—a local separatist movement with mystical leanings—had resumed fighting as Jemaah Islamiya, whose outlook was Salafist and global. Kilcullen said, “What that told me about Jemaah Islamiya is that it’s not about theology.” He went on, “There are elements in human psychological and social makeup that drive what’s happening. The Islamic bit is secondary. This is human behavior in an Islamic setting. This is not ‘Islamic behavior.’ ” Paraphrasing the American political scientist Roger D. Petersen, he said, “People don’t get pushed into rebellion by their ideology. They get pulled in by their social networks.” He noted that all fifteen Saudi hijackers in the September 11th plot had trouble with their fathers. Although radical ideas prepare the way for disaffected young men to become violent jihadists, the reasons they convert, Kilcullen said, are more mundane and familiar: family, friends, associates.

READ THE REST.

Posted: 3 Feb. 2007

Wish they made one of these to run a single household.

Scientists develop portable generator that turns trash into electricity

A group of scientists have created a portable refinery that efficiently converts food, paper and plastic trash into electricity. The machine, designed for the U.S. military, would allow soldiers in the field to convert waste into power and could have widespread civilian applications in the future.

"This is a very promising technology," said Michael Ladisch, the professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University who leads the project. "In a very short time it should be ready for use in the military, and I think it could be used outside the military shortly thereafter."

The "tactical biorefinery" processes several kinds of waste at once, which it converts into fuel via two parallel processes. The system then burns the different fuels in a diesel engine to power a generator. Ladisch said the machine's ability to burn multiple fuels at once, along with its mobility, make it unique.

Roughly the size a small moving van, the biorefinery could alleviate the expense and potential danger associated with transporting waste and fuel. Also, by eliminating garbage remnants - known in the military as a unit's "signature" - it could protect the unit's security by destroying clues that such refuse could provide to enemies.

Researchers tested the first tactical biorefinery prototype in November and found that it produced approximately 90 percent more energy than it consumed, said Jerry Warner, founder of Defense Life Sciences LLC, a private company working with Purdue researchers on the project. He said the results were better than expected.

READ THE REST.

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