Who is Laughing? Who is Hurting?

Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman and CEO Lee Raymond

Exxon Posts Record $11.68 Billion Profit

World's largest publicly traded oil firm makes $1,485.55 a second in the quarter

Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.

That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second.

That barely beat the previous corporate record of $11.66 billion, also set by Exxon in the fourth quarter of 2007.

source: CNN Money

Bush Administration IS Above the Law!

Do you believe that Bill Clinton should have been held accountable for lying to the Grand Jury? I do. It is easy for any armchair political analyst to proclaim that he should have just said, "that is none of your business!" But he didn't and he lied and he should be held accountable. Politicians are not above our laws.

I know what you liberals are saying (though this should not be limited to liberals but to anyone who values our constitution and the values this country was build on):

Lying to the American people and dragging our nation into an unethical war that has killed over 4,000 US soldiers (over 33,000 casualties) and easily over 150,000 Iraqi civilians, plunging their country into complete chaos, wire tapping our own people illegally, kidnapping and torturing often innocent people and many more crimes are much worse than receiving oral sex while married and lying about it.

Yes, even though no one died when Clinton lied (or was tortured or spied on or illegally fired because of their political beliefs...), he broke the law.

Should he have been impeached?

The right to impeach public officials is secured by the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Sections 2 and 3, which discuss the procedure, and in Article II, Section 4, which indicates the grounds for impeachment: "the President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Is what Clinton did "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors?" I think not.

But it appears many members of the Bush administration have broken far greater crimes and if so, they must be held accountable. Lets start with one of the worst. Karl Rove.




Go to SEND KARL ROVE TO JAIL and sign the petition. Tell your congress people that accountability is important to you as a tax payer and as an American who votes. Lets clean up our government before they harm any more Americans or other members of our global community.

sources: infoplease.com, Wikipedia, iCasualties.org, Financial Times

Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work

Dead Iraqi girl photographed by Christoph Bangert. Nothing more to be said.

Still Undecided?

Is this man lying, flip-flopping or just forgetting? Which is worse?

Positive Change When We Listen to Our Scientists and Take Action

Mercury in common Hudson River fish including striped bass, yellow perch, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and carp, has declined strongly over the past three decades.

Research indicates that the trends are in line with the remarkable recovery that the Hudson River has experienced over the past few decades, now that activist groups, government officials and industry are beginning to cooperate to help clean up the river system.

source: Science Sentric

See what happens when we listen to our scientists and take action to improve the health of our people and the health of the environment. Dick Cheney and others in the Bush Administration are accused of stonewalling scientific reports on the environment.

Mercury in our food is a serious health issue, especially for women.

Why is Our Oil Under Their Sand?

Hannibal Gaddafi has denied claims he assaulted two of his staff in Switzerland

Interesting story in the news today:

Libya's state shipping company says it has halted oil shipments to Switzerland in protest at the brief arrest of leader Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son.

It threatened further action if the Swiss did not apologise for the arrest.

Geneva police held Hannibal Gaddafi for two days after he and his pregnant wife allegedly hit two of their staff.

So because of our dependency on foreign oil, we can have our supply completely denied literally overnight if we piss certain people off (and you probably know how well we've been pissing people off over the last five years).

Of course those who love oil profits and/or their SUV's over the environment can equally point to this as a good reason to carve up Alaska and lay pipeline through protected forest land. Also in the news is a story of an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered but technically recoverable oil — three years of world consumption — above the Arctic Circle. The story went on to state the oil might be easier to get now because of the milting ice (the irony).

But why not relieve ourselves from this ball and chain of non-renewable resources and take up Noble Peace Prize and Academy Award-winner Al Gore's challenge “to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years." Yes, getting up to speed with sun, wind and other renewable energy sources will take years but so will building oil rigs and pipe lines, and the black gold we pull out of the ground with that investment is limited.

Caribou migration effected by Alaskan oil pipeline

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years."
- Nobel Peace Prize and Academy Award-winner Al Gore, Thursday, July 17, 2008

Kucinich Testifies on Friday Regarding Impeachment of Bush and Chaney

He is not about to win any awards for public speaking, but Dennis Kucinich has a very important message. Give him less than 6 minutes of your time by watching this video. He seems to be one of the few Legislators working hard to preserve our constitution and hold politicians accountable for their actions.



H.Res. 1345 focuses on Bush's ultimate crime - invading Iraq on the basis of lies. The evidence is overwhelming that George Bush and other top officials manufactured those lies to "sell" an invasion whose real purpose was to gain control of Iraq's oil and establish military bases in the heart of the Middle East - the agenda of the Project for a New American Century that Bush and McCain fully embraced.

Only a few Judiciary Democrats understand that the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power of impeachment as the only way to stop a President from defying the Constitution and becoming a dictator, as Bush has done: Robert Wexler (FL19), Tammy Baldwin (WI02), Steve Cohen (TN09), Keith Ellison (MN05), Luis Gutierrez (IL04), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX18), Hank Johnson (GA04), and Maxine Waters (CA35).

Some of Barack Obama's Accomplishments

The whole 'Barack Obama has no experience' is getting a bit tired. Here is a bit of what Senator Obama has done in his life.

1983 B.A. Columbia University political science with a specialization in international relations

Worked as a community organizer for three years in Chicago
(During his three years as the program's director of this church-based organization, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization)

Obama traveled to Europe and Africa on a personal trip.

1991 J.D. Harvard (magna cum laude)
(Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988 and at the end of his first year was selected as an editor of the law review based on his grades and a writing competition. In his second year he was elected president of the law review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors. Obama's election in February 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review was widely reported and followed by several long, detailed profiles.)

Obama directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.

Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004)

Served on the Board of Director's of:

Public Allies (also founded this organization)
Woods Fund of Chicago
The Joyce Foundation
Chicago Annenberg Challenge
Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Lugenia Burns Hope Center

7 years in the Illinois Senate
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996. Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002. In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.

US Senate
In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Alan Keyes's 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history. Though a newcomer to Washington, he recruited a team of established, high-level advisers devoted to broad themes that exceeded the usual requirements of an incoming first-term senator according to The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.

Some of Obama's work in the Senate:
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction as a first defense against terrorist attacks. Following meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, he visited Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. At a meeting with Palestinian students two weeks before Hamas won the legislative election, Obama warned that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel." He left for his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Chad. In a speech at the University of Nairobi, he spoke about political corruption and ethnic rivalries. The speech touched off controversy among Kenyan leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as unfair and improper, others defending his positions.

Must Read Summary of McCain's Military Past

Here is a blog entry from someone who goes by the name Ryan Evans. He describes himself as, "...a political and economical conservative... I have a good blue collar job in manufacturing in small town Wisconsin where I also live...I am ex-military (Navy) and damned proud of it... I like guns and the stock market and the companies that make honest money and help to propel the economy of this great nation. I support lower taxes, immigration reform and less government... I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman (you’d better ask me about this one before labeling me a bigot too). I believe in preserving American ideals and feel that American civil liberties should apply to Americans before they apply to the rest of the world."

Given this description, you may be shocked to hear his take on McCain. Evan's posted this on this blog Pro Patria. His sources are at the end of his posting.

(Morgan's note: It's obvious this person does not like McCain. He asserts that McCain 'lost' five planes, one of them during the 1967 USS Forrestal Fire which killed 134 sailors and injuring 161. My research shows that the McCain had nothing to do with the start of the fire and it is claimed that McCain risked his life to save another sailor. Yes, his plane was destroyed but apparently by no fault of McCain)

02.02.08
McCain’s Military Career

As a Navy vet who loves the Navy and somebody who strived to be a model Sailor during his time in the service, I cringe with disgust whenever anybody yaks about McCain being a “war hero” or running on his military credentials.

Here’s why…

The McCain Navy Record:
John Sidney McCain III entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1954. Young McCain wanted to become an admiral. He planned to be the “first son and grandson of four star admirals” to achieve such a distinction. But that was not to be. McCain III possessed none of the innate character and discipline traits that helped mold his father and grandfather into great military leaders.

His father, John S. “Junior” McCain, and grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., were famous four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy. His father commanded U.S. forces in Europe before becoming commander of American forces fighting in Vietnam. His grandfather commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Both men became highly influential in U.S. Navy operations.

At the Academy, aside being known as a “rowdy, raunchy, underachiever” who resented authority, Cadet McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing “off-Yard activities” and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book, The Nightingale’s Song, that “being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck.”

McCain’s grades were “marginal.” He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low “class standing,” and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.

Good Party Animal - Bad Pilot:
He spent the next two and a half years as a “naval aviator in training” at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders.

While a pilot trainee, McCain continued to party hard. He drove a Corvette and dated an exotic dancer named “Marie the Flame of Florida.” Timberg wrote that McCain “learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn’t love it.”

McCain Lost Five Military Aircraft:
McCain, the “below par” pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.

While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”

Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain’s grandfather.

In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.

Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees.

The Navy dismissed the crash as “unavoidable” and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese.

Post-POW Years: Political Ambition and a New, Young, Rich Wife:
Upon his release from North Vietnam and return to the United States in 1973, McCain reunited with his wife, Carol, who had been permanently crippled in a car accident while he was a POW.

Still yearning to become an admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.

Timberg described McCain’s advancement: “in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path.”

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and “engage in extra-marital affairs.”

This was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.

Timberg wrote, “Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain’s persona, impossible not to take note of.”

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position “to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy’s Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn’t long before the “fun loving and irreverent” McCain had turned the liaison office into a “late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind.”

In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.

He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism.

McCain ran for Arizona’s First Congressional District in 1982. McCain won the congressional seat. In 1987 McCain was elected to the US Senate.

Sources:

Most of this information can be found at “Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain.” As for the specific information, it was taken from the book “The Nightingale’s Song” by Robert Timberg

Care to Read More About McCain's Colorful Past?

There aren't too many politicians in America who would dare admit they once frequented a strip club. Fewer still would cop to dating one of the dancers, especially if she had a nickname like the "Flame of Florida," or a habit of packing a switchblade in her purse. And among that select crowd, there are barely any who call themselves conservative Republicans, or would ever dare dream of running for President.

Full article at Time Magazine.

Colbert's Alpha Dog of the Week: George Bush

You'll need to get past the first 30 seconds of this video, a joke about Canadian rock band Rush, to see Stephen Colbert's Alpha Dog of the Week.




The Kanye reference about New Orleans and the 9th Ward has to do with a comment Kanye West, Grammy Award-winning rapper and record producer said about George Bush and his administration during a live telecast of a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief.

McCain's Rape Joke

Can this man really be our next president?

And all you Democratic women who are so angry that Obama beat Hillary that you are now saying you will vote for McCain... really?

This is no joke

Happy 90th Birthday Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 (among over 100 other awards), celebrates his 90 birthday today. Mandela was the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election in South Africa.

So this dude spent 27 years in a dark, dank prison cell on an island for fighting against the injustice the indigenous people of South Africa endured from their colonial oppressors. Blacks were forced to live on relatively small and economically unproductive reservations, much like our native Indians were forced to deal with. He got out of jail and became the countries first black president. He credits Mahatma Gandhi as a major source of inspiration.

Happy birthday Nelson and thanks for your contributions to the human race.

Check out this great video from The Specials. I listen to this often around the time I was living in London, demonstrating in front of the South African Embassy to protest Apartheid and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela:

Time For Some Campainin'

If there are conservatives reading this, you may actually agree with some of this.

Be sure to check out the cat at about 1 minute, 53 seconds.

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Thanks to Van Nguyen for sending this

Repulican's Contempt Not Just Towards America

Don't worry Americans, the republican party and George Bush not only have contempt for our country and our constitution and laws but also for the entire world.


As American President George Bush was preparing to leave the G8 summit in Japan Thursday, July 10th, 2008, he told fellow world leaders: “Goodbye, from the world’s biggest polluter.” Bush was widely criticized for refusing to accept global emissions targets at his final G8 summit as president.

Source: The Independent


Rove, the former White House deputy chief of staff and top political advisor to President Bush, refused to appear today before a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee to testify on the "politicization" of the Justice Department under the current administration. Citing a claim of executive privilege by Bush, Rove did not show up for today's hearing despite a committee subpoena.

"Mr. Rove's absence today is an insult to the American people and to the system of checks and balances that are the basis of our constitution and our democracy," Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) said in a statement.

"Mr. Rove is not above the law and Congress will assert its constitutional role to serve as a check on the power of the executive branch," Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) added.

Source: CBS news


With the economy on the top of voters' minds, Republican presidential candidate John McCain's top economic adviser, Phil Gramm, a former Texas senator, said

You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession.

We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet.

We have sort of become a nation of whiners.

You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline

Gramm's extensive ties to Enron proved problematic during the firm's implosion several years ago. Gramm served as a lobbyist for the international banking and subprime mortgage giant UBS until April. As Mother Jones documented, Gramm played a key role in the subprime meltdown during his time in the Senate.

Sources: The Huffington Post, The Washington Times, Mother Jones

Is the USA Proud of Torture?

"We do not torture"

When was the last time you believed what George Bush said? If the USA does not torture, why did Bush supported an effort spearheaded by Vice President Dick Cheney to block or modify a proposed Senate-passed ban on torture.

Video of a crying 16 year-old Canadian citizen being detained in Guantanamo Bay Prison was released today. Like most Guantanamo Bay prisoners who we have heard from, Omar Khadr claims he has been continuously tortured.


He is accused of killing a US Soldier in 2002 when he was 15 years old. Did he do it? Who knows, most of the prisoners in Gitmo are not allowed a trial.

The video shows Mr. Khadr pleading with a Canadian intelligence agent for help and, at one point, shows him displaying chest and back wounds that had still not healed months after his capture in Afghanistan. Khadr can be heard sobbing and repeatedly saying, in a moan, either “Help me, help me” or “Kill me, kill me.”

Is this what America stands for? Torturing children? Imprisoning people indefinitely without trial? Disgusting.

If we are a government of the people, by the people, for the people, as our great president Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, than we are all responsible for this torture; you and I.

Sources: Mindfully.org, Harper's & The New York Times

Just in case you forgot how the rest of the world views the USA, here is a reminder:











New documents disclosed [June 17, 2008] show that lawyers in the army, navy and marines objected vigorously to the use of violent methods against detainees but were overruled by aides to the former US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. The Guardian

I Teach a Classroom Full of Terrorists!

Of course this is nonsense. But I just read about Fox News Anchor E.D. Hill who called Barack and Michelle Obama's 'fist pound' a "terrorist fist jab."


WHAT?!?!

My students 'fist jab' all the time. They even fist jab with me! Does that make me a terrorist FOX news?

[I am laughing in seat, this is truly too much. The audacity!]

Now I know lovers of the faux news network are jumping out of their seats saying, "yes, but E.D. Hill lost her show, "American Pulse."" But she hasn't been fired from the network!

For you FOX watchers who don't get out of your gated community often, the fist jab (also called fist bump, the fist pound, knuckle bump, knuckle knock, the rock, spud, giving props, or the get some among other names) is a type of hand shake similar to the high-five. Hanna-Barbera's Wonder Twins fist pounded in the 1970's superhero cartoon Super Friends.

I knew the conservatives where going to come out with some really ridiculous stuff during this election like the lies about attending a radical Muslim madrassa and repeating over and over again Obama's middle name, Hussein, but this is truly creative.


sources: BBC, Huffington Post, CNN, Wikipedia

Why, After Six + Years, Is the Worlds Only Super Power Seeming to Lose Grip of Afghanistan?

Where would we be today if we put all of our resources into stopping the people responsible for 9/11? Would these nine US soldiers, who dedicated their lives for our well being and killed in Afghanistan today, be alive if we didn't have over 130,000 troops and billions of dollars tied up in an illegal and immoral war with a country that did not threaten the USA?

From the BBC.com:

US suffers heavy Afghan losses

Nine US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, in one of the biggest losses of life in a single incident since operations there began in 2001.

The troops died when insurgents attacked a military outpost in the north-eastern province of Kunar, close to the border with Pakistan.

The fighting came as international and Afghan forces battled militants on several fronts.

One soldier from the US-led coalition was killed by a bomb in Helmand.

On Sunday, US forces said 40 insurgents had been killed in Helmand province in 24 hours.

Insurgents 'hiding'

A statement from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the nine were killed in several hours of fighting in a mountainous area in Kunar province.

It said 15 more Isaf soldiers were wounded along with four Afghan troops.

Isaf currently has 53,000 troops from 40 countries.

Insurgents used rockets, mortars and machine guns to attack the remote Afghan army and Nato outpost.

Isaf and Afghan National Army forces responded with small arms, machine guns, mortars and artillery, the statement said.

Fighter jets and Apache helicopters were also deployed. Reports quoting Afghan officials say there may also have been civilian casualties.

Nato says the rebels suffered heavy casualties. It did not name the attackers but there has been a sharp increase in Taleban attacks in the country, and in that region in particular.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Afghanistan's north-eastern border with Pakistan is a well-known trouble spot.

The fighting is close to where US forces were accused of killing 47 civilians in an air strike in Nangarhar province a week ago.

The US military said they were militants.

In a separate incident on Sunday, a suicide bomber killed at least 21 people, many of them children, in a market in the Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan province.

No group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.

Must Rewatch Gilliam's Brazil

I think I'll do lighter fare on the weekends. Don't want to upset my readers with too much truth and reality, we Americans aren't used to it.

I suggest you watch or rewatch Terry Gilliam's 1985 masterpiece Brazil. Even know it is over twenty years old, it is full of pertinent, modern day themes that we are dealing with here in the USA and around the world such as:

prolific terrorism
ridicules plastic surgery
extraordinary rendition
endless bureaucracy
mindless cubical work
endless paper work
automated voice messages
incompetent workers
dead-end jobs
torture
Big Brother
paranoia
rampant consumerism



Oh, and its a comedy/love story. It includes one of Robert De Niro's greatest roles as a guerrilla air duct repair man. The film was to be called 1984 and a 1/2 but they ran into legal problems due to the book of the same name. Could also be called 2008. The title song "Aquarela do Brasil" by Ary Barroso is excellent. Tom Stoppard co-wrote the script with Gilliam. Rent it!

Does it Matter Who We Kill?

Remember back to the last wedding you attended. Who did you go with? What did you wear? What did you drink? Did you dance? Did B-52 bombers drop munitions and AC-130 aircraft fire 20 mm Gatling guns and 105mm howitzers upon the wedding party killing 47 people, 39 of them women and children?

I know there are mistakes in war (are we officially at war in Afghanistan?) But do we ever hear of the mistakes we make that kill scores of innocent people (and by 'we' I mean every US citizen as we are a government by the people for the people)? Why does our corporate media report on "puppies and kittens" before the deaths of innocent civilians?

Today, the day after this event took place, this story is #2 on the Guardian Unlimited International News site (British) and story #3 on the BBC.com (also British). Both of these news organizations are non-corporate owned.

It is story #9, the last International story, in very small print without a photo, on AOL World News and #16 on FOX World News, again, small print without a picture.

On the FOX site, it came after these stories:

'Cage of Death' Lowers Tourists Into Crocodile's Tank
400-Year-Old Shakespeare Recovered After 10 Years
Dutch Woman Dies From Bat Fever Caught in Caves
Chew on This: Dog Meat Off of Olympics Menus

This from AOL News:

The U.S. military blamed the claims on militant propaganda and said its missiles only struck insurgents.

U.S. spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said the military has repeatedly seen militants falsely claim civilian were killed.

"Whenever we do an airstrike the first thing they're going to cry is 'Airstrike killed civilians' when the missile actually struck militant extremists we were targeting in the first place," Perry said. "At this time we don't believe we've harmed anyone except for the combatants."

Neither the AOL story or the FOX story mention that the bride was killed.

Why are these top stories in British news outlets and near the bottom, if at all, in USA news sources? Is it corporate influence? Are the British more interested in hard news verse fluff? Is our government pressuring or corporate owned news outlets to stay away from 'bad' news about our wars and covert operations around the world?

Click here for video of the event on BBC (could not find video on AOL or FOX)

This is the beginning of a longer conversation.

But my biggest questions are these: Do Americans care? Can a country with a majority of white Judio/Christian citizens have empathy with similar humans who are dark skinned Muslims? Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in one god so we all came from the same creator (according to these three major religions). If 47 innocent civilians attending a wedding in New York were bombed yesterday, would it be 'front page news' on AOL and FOX? Would they just quote a military person who says "the missile actually struck militant extremists?" Where is journalism? Where is our humanity?

85,865 - 93,675 Documented civilian deaths from violence in Iraq since the American lead invasion as of 1pm Eastern Time, July 11, 2008 according to Iraq Body Count

* could not find civilian deaths from violence since the American lead invasion in Afghanistan *

4,118 US military deaths in Iraq since the American lead invasion as of 1pm Eastern Time, July 11, 2008 according to iCasualties.org.

544 US military deaths in Afghanistan since the American lead invasion as of 1pm Eastern Time, July 11, 2008 according to iCasualties.org.

Corporate States of America (or the end of Responsibility)

Funny, much of this blog seems to remind me of lessons I learned as a child. One of these lessons my mother and father taught me was to take responsibility for my actions.

Responsibility

It seems to be fairly clear that top telecommunication companies such as AT&T and Verizon broke United States law in helping US intelligent agencies spy on Americans under the Bush Administration. At least 40 lawsuits are pending against these companies.

Yesterday, 69 senators, including Barak Obama and Dianne Feinstein (is she really a Republican?) voted to let them off the hook. The bill's 28 opponents included Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and California Congresswoman Barbara Boxer (John McCain, who consequently has received more donations from telecom companies than any other senator in 2008, was the only senate member absent for the vote).

The new bill continues to require warrants to target Americans in the United States, which the Bush Administration blatantly ignores anyway with 'signing statements.' Bush has used over 750 of these signing statements to bypass US and International law on torture, spying and many other crimes against humanity and the environment.

(In the first six and a half years of Bush's presidency, he never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he signed every bill that reached his desk, then, after the media and the lawmakers had left the White House, Bush quietly filed ''signing statements" -- official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed)

But we all know Bush is a full of deceptions and lies (weapons of mass destruction, Valery Plame, Saddam Hussein & Al Qaeda, not anticipating Katrina... the list is too long). The LA Times reported in late June that only 23 percent of registered voters approved of the job the President is doing, an all time low. But why are these senators helping him ignore our constitution? It is the Legislative Branch's job to the the checks and balance against the Executive Branch, and we've never needed them to do their job more than now.

I contest that we don't have a multiparty system, not even a two party system. We have a one party system in the USA: The Corporate Party. And Fienstein and maybe even Obama are proud members of this party.

The telecoms broke the law for George Bush. They should be held accountable. They should take responsibility for their actions and if they will not, we elected a government to protect our constitutional rights and hold them accountable. Or did we?

Sources: The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, Salon.com & SF Gate.

Thanks Stephanie

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the corporate states of America.
And to the conglomeration,
for which it stands,
one nation, under many CEOs,
always divisible,
with liberty and privileges for some.

Cheney Office Censored Climate Change Testimony

Vice President Dick Cheney is being accused of censoring testimony on the health threats of Global Warming. Jason Burnett, former top adviser on climate change to EPA chief Stephen Johnson, made these and other accusations in a letter to California Senator and chair the Environment Committee Barbara Boxer.

In October, Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was prepared to testify before Boxer's committee that climate change "is likely to have a significant impact on health," warning of extreme heat and weather, water-borne diseases and food and water scarcity.

But Cheney's office and the Council on Environmental Quality effectively deleted six pages of Gerberding's testimony, Burnett said: "CEQ requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change."

Burnett resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency last month in protest of a decision to block California’s emission limit.

Ironic that the CEQ is a division of the White House that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices in the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives. Am I wrong in assuming that the CEQ is suppose to protect our great country in matters relating to the environment?

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney is former CEO of Halliburton Company (1995 to 2000), a Fortune 500 company and market leader in the energy sector.

On April 24, 2007, Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio presented articles of impeachment against Cheney. The resolution has acquired twenty-four Democratic cosponsors since its introduction, six of whom are members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Sources: Democracy Now, The Mercury News and Wikipedia.

HARPER'S INDEX
Harper's Magazine
July 2008

Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work: 60

Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe that humans are causing climate change: -4

Factor by which the average length of a heat wave in Western Europe has increased during the past century: 2

60-year-old Librarian Ticketed and Threatened with Arrest for Holding a Sign

A sixty year old librarian was asked to leave the sidewalk outside the city owned Denver Performing Arts Complex by four Denver police officers. She was ticketed and threatened with arrest if she did not remove her homemade sign that read McCain = Bush.

If this is city property, wasn't it funded by taxes, thus public space?

Hopefully McCain will have the decency to condemn the acts of these officers and apologize to this US citizen who was exercising her Constitutional right of free speach.

source: The Denver Post

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - First Amendment to the United States Constitution (The United States Bill of Rights)




"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise." - Noam Chomsky

"You have the right to free speech
as long as you're not dumb enough
to actually try it." - The Clash