Passage of the highly contentious $1 trillion "health care" bill wrought sweet jubilation and great resentment among Americans today. Among those in doubt, nearly 70% in recent news poll surveys opposed the legislation. Poll after poll again and again showed a mere 35% ever firmly supported it.
Congress' tepid siding with constituents over this hotly sensitive issue wilted only after constant barrage of promises of vote exchanging, poll-scouting, campaign contributions and even in some cases, outright bribe that lasted well over an entire year. This secretive and thuggish approach to governance has shown its rough and blanketing underbelly.
Even those valiantly opposed for months on end gave way to the tempting giggle of the tantalizing moment, the promised miracle gift that was but all along a trojan horse. When in December, Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tom Harken of Iowa, Chris Dodd of Connecticut (self-dubbed in the CNN interview as the "class of '68) went on air to extoll the generosity and benevolence of the government in giving the people of America the greatest Christmas gift. And at the time, Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio stood strongly in opposition to his own party, but most importantly in opposition to the usurpers who hid behind masks of the 'public interest', 'doctor societies', and the 'well-meaning reform lobbies'.
In the public 'debate' that ensued it was the health insurance company's voice who became heard, right next to Democrats and Republicans (as in CBS' "60 Minutes"), as the people's voice was rudely excluded. In this grotesque game of partisanship, the same old lines were trumpeted out like a bad high school marching band, in what Nancy Pelosi soliloquied was her goal as "bringing to life a dream of many decades" and to realize the "dream of Harry Truman."
Needless to say, Rep. Kucinich himself did an about face in the eleventh hour and politely ushered in the dissenting horde who quickly came willing to acquiesce and dispose of whatever conscious of law and justice they ever once had.
The legislation, promised to be signed tomorrow, mandates all Americans, regardless of income, class, race or creed, to buy a health insurance policy. If they do not, they face hefty civil and criminal penalties which could add up to a 3-4% wage garnishing or even a sentence of imprisonment beyond a nominal time.
For the 32 million Americans who do not buy health insurance, in three years time they will, whether desired or not. And with the reason for many not having health insurance being in large part the exorbitant expense of medical costs, they will field all the greater of a burden. While the true issue at stake, in everyone's mind, has been reducing the exorbitant cost of health care, the debate has gone elsewhere. By focusing n the need for coverage rather than the unreasonably high cost of coverage, the entire legislation misses its point and will do little to curb costs and provide more efficient medical care. In fact, it is very likely the opposite will occur. Americans, while required now by law to buy health insurance, will be hammered by radically high costs they simply cannot afford.
Already a civil suit is being arranged to combat the legislation and have it declared unconstitutional. In an unprecedented action, attorney generals from 10 different and disparate states will bring suit, arguing that the provisions mandating coverage on all Americans is unconstitutional. In tips to the press, their argument will convey that if a person chooses not to buy health insurance that due to the fact they are not engaging in interstate commerce, the federal government does not have constitutional authority to force one to buy coverage against their will. In particular, with no transaction ever having taken place, the refusal to buy health insurance coverage would fit outside the interstate commerce clause, which supporters of the bill have fervently invoked. The states of Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Utah, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota, Montana, Washington and Virginia plan to join in the suit.
A recent CNN poll taken two weeks prior to the bill's passing showed that nearly 40% of all doctors would leave the medical profession if the bill were to pass. This alarming statistic, while perhaps somewhat inflated, is telling in the fallout from the bill will without question cause great upheaval in the medical profession and have a major impact on the development of young doctors entering the industry.
Yet despite all the tragedies of the entire foray, one fact stands alone. Upon each newborn's first breath taken as a human being on American soil, his or her time will immediately tick to the time of the health insurance industry dollar, as his or her life will be measured in premiums, copays, almighty health insurance risk charts and diagrams so carefully planned and made 'full-proof' by the certified men in the white coat. No longer will life be measured in years, but rather health credits, 'healthy' behavior stipends and overall levels of 'equanimity' with the system. This dangerous conformity mandated by law is no freedom, but only the breeding ground for coercion and despotism.
With the health insurance industry and pharmaceutical corps in charge, there's little telling of what may be required of our bodies next. Regardless of what newscaster or even president may say, the debate is never over. For in a free country, each man and woman may speak and act how they see fit on any rule and by law always have the liberty to challenge and change it.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Haiti: Newest Target in War on Terror
Trouble was brewing in Haiti long before the now infamous January earthquake left over 200,000 dead and Port-au-Prince in a charred heap of helpless rubble. The United States government involvement and often occupation of the storied democratic nation has only worked to sour relations with Haitians while in recent years literally killing any chance of restoring democracy to Haiti. The U.S.'s support of former 'President' Batiste Artiside, one of the most notoriously corrupt Haitian dictators, throughout the 2000s led directly to the lawlessness and looting which reigned right up to and through the horrific earthquake tragedy.
But now rumors of renewed occupation are rife across Haiti and even more insinuating in European political circles. French and Italian relief effort ministers have blamed the United States for inefficiency and misplacement of begging priorities int he relief effort. While French minister Alain Joyandet was the first to criticize that U.S. involvement resembled a covert takeover and attempt at occupation upon putting a questionably immediate focus on achieving military dominance over the island. The Associated Press reports that Italian minister Guido Bertolaso characterized the U.S. military's action as"out of touch with reality". Bertolaso also made calls for establishing an international position to coordinate civilian humanitarian efforts.
Meanwhile, a defiant and ever-obviously ineffective Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refuted claims by admonishing those who dare criticize U.S. efforts. According to Ap, she stated "I deeply regret those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake."
In ignoring her own advice that, "we are foolish to keep our head in the sand and pretend that we can't [accept reasonable criticism]", Clinton lashed out at those who recently grabbed too much attention by speaking up. Yet, the paternalistic tone of U.S. foreign policy antagonizes the world beyond any other degree in recent times. The military demands red carpet treatment always for Americans, and even in horrific disaster the Americans must be spotlighted as the heroes, and as that, entitled to command any and all relief operations. To the U.S. command, they are also entitled to the island's long term self-government over any practical objection and without any qualm of the moral hazard it reaps internationally or the lust for revenge it satiates to those far away who are death-defyingly defiant.
Clinton is the epitome of the pig-headed American, imperial with ambitions and shallowly low in moral qualm or class. As the top 'diplomat', or rather hard-headed enforcer, it constantly astounds and amazes that she's the best America has to offer.
But that almost sums up what Clinton and her shadowy band of puppet masters want it to be all about. Security is becoming a dangerous phenomenon and Clinton boasts herself as a big fan. But what she and other international conspirators do not boast themselves on is people, and it's become painfully clear that people were certainly left out of this equation.
The people of Haiti are the ones suffering and for Clinton to mar that by chiding the international community and furtively waging war on Haiti, she and the U.S. government are sorely mistaken of what the word "relief" means.
The AP also reports a confirmed 60 U.S. deaths in the Haiti earthquakes. It remains unclear how many of these deaths involved U.S. military personnel.
But now rumors of renewed occupation are rife across Haiti and even more insinuating in European political circles. French and Italian relief effort ministers have blamed the United States for inefficiency and misplacement of begging priorities int he relief effort. While French minister Alain Joyandet was the first to criticize that U.S. involvement resembled a covert takeover and attempt at occupation upon putting a questionably immediate focus on achieving military dominance over the island. The Associated Press reports that Italian minister Guido Bertolaso characterized the U.S. military's action as"out of touch with reality". Bertolaso also made calls for establishing an international position to coordinate civilian humanitarian efforts.
Meanwhile, a defiant and ever-obviously ineffective Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refuted claims by admonishing those who dare criticize U.S. efforts. According to Ap, she stated "I deeply regret those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake."
In ignoring her own advice that, "we are foolish to keep our head in the sand and pretend that we can't [accept reasonable criticism]", Clinton lashed out at those who recently grabbed too much attention by speaking up. Yet, the paternalistic tone of U.S. foreign policy antagonizes the world beyond any other degree in recent times. The military demands red carpet treatment always for Americans, and even in horrific disaster the Americans must be spotlighted as the heroes, and as that, entitled to command any and all relief operations. To the U.S. command, they are also entitled to the island's long term self-government over any practical objection and without any qualm of the moral hazard it reaps internationally or the lust for revenge it satiates to those far away who are death-defyingly defiant.
Clinton is the epitome of the pig-headed American, imperial with ambitions and shallowly low in moral qualm or class. As the top 'diplomat', or rather hard-headed enforcer, it constantly astounds and amazes that she's the best America has to offer.
But that almost sums up what Clinton and her shadowy band of puppet masters want it to be all about. Security is becoming a dangerous phenomenon and Clinton boasts herself as a big fan. But what she and other international conspirators do not boast themselves on is people, and it's become painfully clear that people were certainly left out of this equation.
The people of Haiti are the ones suffering and for Clinton to mar that by chiding the international community and furtively waging war on Haiti, she and the U.S. government are sorely mistaken of what the word "relief" means.
The AP also reports a confirmed 60 U.S. deaths in the Haiti earthquakes. It remains unclear how many of these deaths involved U.S. military personnel.
A Dozen Predator Drones to Pakistan: Fill 'er Up Boys!
As headlines zipped across the news ticker last week I couldn't help but ask, 'Why the hell is the U.S. giving the government of Pakistan a dozen of our most-secretive and recently effective aircraft, the now infamous Predator Drone?' After all, Pakistan is already a nuclear weapons giant, developing an effective bomb over 10 years ago in 1999.
In addition, the Pakistani government is highly unstable, extremely unpopular and headed by a U.S.-backed puppet in President Al-Zadari who is a 'softer' version of the belligerently hard-fisted military dictator Perez Musharraf who resigned in 2008amid constitutional controversies. Many Pakistanis still suspect Musharraf was involved in the assassination of political icon and opponent Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
Meanwhile, the once-fabled but now real but small cadre of idealistic, disparate and unconnected young men tagged the foreboding "Al-Qaeda" is growing their presence and gaining once-unattainable political popularity in Pakistan.
It's not hard to remember the famous images of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein in 1983 or Kennedy, Carter, Bush I and Obama foreign policy advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski pep-talking Afghan mujahadeen fighters that same year.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that your friends today may very well become your enemies tomorrow.
With that in mind, perhaps it isn't a great idea to give a highly unstable developing nation and almost certain future enemy our most top secret weapon. And if we don't know how to properly caretake of such a weapon with massive implications, perhaps we shouldn't even be using it ourselves.
In addition, the Pakistani government is highly unstable, extremely unpopular and headed by a U.S.-backed puppet in President Al-Zadari who is a 'softer' version of the belligerently hard-fisted military dictator Perez Musharraf who resigned in 2008amid constitutional controversies. Many Pakistanis still suspect Musharraf was involved in the assassination of political icon and opponent Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
Meanwhile, the once-fabled but now real but small cadre of idealistic, disparate and unconnected young men tagged the foreboding "Al-Qaeda" is growing their presence and gaining once-unattainable political popularity in Pakistan.
It's not hard to remember the famous images of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein in 1983 or Kennedy, Carter, Bush I and Obama foreign policy advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski pep-talking Afghan mujahadeen fighters that same year.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that your friends today may very well become your enemies tomorrow.
With that in mind, perhaps it isn't a great idea to give a highly unstable developing nation and almost certain future enemy our most top secret weapon. And if we don't know how to properly caretake of such a weapon with massive implications, perhaps we shouldn't even be using it ourselves.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Scott Brown: Ironically, a Neo-con Brings a Ray of Hope
Ironically, Scott Brown's recent election victory for U.S. Senate for Massachusetts has changed the outlook on national politics. In particular, in the health care debate, victory may burst the cloture-secure pro-health care industrial complex bill count, whose ramming through is still in peril. While Brown has done little to deserve the clamor and attention, the carefully groomed neo-conservative signifies a growing unrest with the continued business as usual out of Washington. Hypocrisy can no longer slide by unexcused but that doesn't necessarily mean the next dupe elected won't fool the public.
Yet, Brown who is now pitched as the "new hope" stands dangerously close to conducting politics with a fascistic edge. He has been quoted as saying "Waterboarding is enhanced interrogation. It is not torture." In an age when even children's films can emphasize the twisted logic of an imperial giant, Brown's naive statements are not those usual held high by a statesman.
The man who was 1982 Cosmopolitan magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" during his tenure at law school at Boston College is a born attention grabber and with an acting streak so convincing he may well be dangerous in his eloquent ability to woo supporters.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Martha Coakley displayed her ineptitude in campaigning and even as an even worse purveyor of ideas. While her resume read impressive, any real leadership she couldn't even come close enough to grasp. Coakley essentially, was a failed cause from the start.
While personally I can say proudly I am very happy that Brown's election means a chance to stop the unconstitutional health care "reform bill" that was paid and written for and by the very interests who work only to gain greater profits, often at the expense of the patient. But I'm hardly a fan, as his incoherent tirades lauding the War on Terror and mouthpiecing the American empire as an all-knowing force for only good reflect his ill will and possibly dark dealings.
But at least for the moment, in a day where it takes a fascist to stop a fascist, I might actually not mind having just one more around.
Yet, Brown who is now pitched as the "new hope" stands dangerously close to conducting politics with a fascistic edge. He has been quoted as saying "Waterboarding is enhanced interrogation. It is not torture." In an age when even children's films can emphasize the twisted logic of an imperial giant, Brown's naive statements are not those usual held high by a statesman.
The man who was 1982 Cosmopolitan magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" during his tenure at law school at Boston College is a born attention grabber and with an acting streak so convincing he may well be dangerous in his eloquent ability to woo supporters.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Martha Coakley displayed her ineptitude in campaigning and even as an even worse purveyor of ideas. While her resume read impressive, any real leadership she couldn't even come close enough to grasp. Coakley essentially, was a failed cause from the start.
While personally I can say proudly I am very happy that Brown's election means a chance to stop the unconstitutional health care "reform bill" that was paid and written for and by the very interests who work only to gain greater profits, often at the expense of the patient. But I'm hardly a fan, as his incoherent tirades lauding the War on Terror and mouthpiecing the American empire as an all-knowing force for only good reflect his ill will and possibly dark dealings.
But at least for the moment, in a day where it takes a fascist to stop a fascist, I might actually not mind having just one more around.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Haiti: Disaster Made Worse
Shocking devastation grips Haiti. Reeling from a 7+ magnitude earthquake which trapped, crushed and killed as many as 200,000 people, Haitian cities like Port-au-Prince resemble a dismantled heap of rubble much more than the familiar likenesses of themselves.
For the earthquake which ocurred one week ago, supplies to help the surviving and save the missing are still amassing and coming in. The woeful delay however is not due to any failure of logistics or lack of aid, but rather top-down mismanagement that is strangling the island to a standstill and failing to help those in need.
As the U.S. military heads up the United Nations rescue program, more emphasis is being placed on who's in charge of the rescue effort rather than who the rescue effort is hoping to help. Sadly, little aid has reached Haitians who are being kept increasingly behind automatic M4 rifles for 'protection' and also behind any credible chance of actually stemming the damage of the horrendous disaster.
While much of the management failure can be intuited by a half-asleep observor, hard evidence also confirms the failure.
On Saturday, as the wrtech stench of flesh and death still simmered in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. government delayed multitudes of aid supply planes containing valuable medicines and food for reeling inhabitants of the now toppled island. And why? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton needed the landing space and a massive security-based no-fly zone to give an address not to Haitians, but the world, in an effort to grandstand America as the almighty good-intentioned giant eager to assist the helplessly depraved Haitians.
This sort of diplomacy may have worked with President Kennedy in Berlin ("Ich bin ein Berliner"), but is far distant from achieving any world harmony and peace today.
Even worse, as reported in The Telegraph by Laingo and Leonard, French Minister of aid recovery to Haiti, Alain Joyander, recently accused Clinton and the Americans of turning the rescue effort into a subtle blueprint for occupation and a deliberate means of restoring American-enforced 'law and order' to the long ignored and impoverished nation.
To those who view Haiti as small, vulnerable and amenable to United States wishes, we must remember that Haiti stands as our greatest ally in the long historical struggle for freedom, autonomy and political independence. After becoming the second real western democracy in 1798 and overthrowing and expulsing imperial France from their island, we have many more reasons to praise Haiti than most think.
Thus, in the endless history of nations, it is essential to remember the past struggles and honor them with due respect. While more and more aid is needed desperately for Haiti, we should continue to help. But also to make sure recovery is the real goal and overlording and hoarding condemned as the most dreadful sin.
For the earthquake which ocurred one week ago, supplies to help the surviving and save the missing are still amassing and coming in. The woeful delay however is not due to any failure of logistics or lack of aid, but rather top-down mismanagement that is strangling the island to a standstill and failing to help those in need.
As the U.S. military heads up the United Nations rescue program, more emphasis is being placed on who's in charge of the rescue effort rather than who the rescue effort is hoping to help. Sadly, little aid has reached Haitians who are being kept increasingly behind automatic M4 rifles for 'protection' and also behind any credible chance of actually stemming the damage of the horrendous disaster.
While much of the management failure can be intuited by a half-asleep observor, hard evidence also confirms the failure.
On Saturday, as the wrtech stench of flesh and death still simmered in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. government delayed multitudes of aid supply planes containing valuable medicines and food for reeling inhabitants of the now toppled island. And why? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton needed the landing space and a massive security-based no-fly zone to give an address not to Haitians, but the world, in an effort to grandstand America as the almighty good-intentioned giant eager to assist the helplessly depraved Haitians.
This sort of diplomacy may have worked with President Kennedy in Berlin ("Ich bin ein Berliner"), but is far distant from achieving any world harmony and peace today.
Even worse, as reported in The Telegraph by Laingo and Leonard, French Minister of aid recovery to Haiti, Alain Joyander, recently accused Clinton and the Americans of turning the rescue effort into a subtle blueprint for occupation and a deliberate means of restoring American-enforced 'law and order' to the long ignored and impoverished nation.
To those who view Haiti as small, vulnerable and amenable to United States wishes, we must remember that Haiti stands as our greatest ally in the long historical struggle for freedom, autonomy and political independence. After becoming the second real western democracy in 1798 and overthrowing and expulsing imperial France from their island, we have many more reasons to praise Haiti than most think.
Thus, in the endless history of nations, it is essential to remember the past struggles and honor them with due respect. While more and more aid is needed desperately for Haiti, we should continue to help. But also to make sure recovery is the real goal and overlording and hoarding condemned as the most dreadful sin.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: The Ignored Holiday
America is a nation well known for having an abridged idea of holidays. Wrought by intensive non-stop labor and little time for rest, early immigrants had few designated days on which to celebrate. This trope continues into the 21st century as Americans work constantly and celebrate very little, besides the addition of tradition-based holidays to the national calendar.
Americans have about 6-7 days each year where perhaps a majority takes off work. These include: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And interestingly enough, all of these holidays are celebrated mainly on vague notions concerning values, morality and good will.
Yet Martin Luther King, Jr. Day stands alone, unparalleled by any other day as a designation purely to remember a specific mass movement that revolutionized America. In its uniqueness, this clever holiday has much to offer America. Its importance should emphasize the courageous and upright acts of Dr. King and the vision he and millions of others strove to make reality.
To honor King, and more importantly his ideas of equality, rememberance should be the main goal of this solitary and often ignored national holiday.
Growing up as a younster in a well-insulated all-white private elementary school, Matin Luther King, Jr. Day was presented to students as a foreign, pseudo holiday.
We attented school that day in ordinary fashion, with only the minimalist attempt to observe or even discuss the achievements of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.
One year when our lone black pupuil took the day off, our teacher politely instructed us that it was "O.K." as the student deserved it, being black and all. But what poor Mrs. Fox did not realize was its intention as a holiday for all Americans, as a lesson unto our history and the course of our nation.
Most Americans are sorely mistaken when it comes to the third Monday in January. After all, the Civil Rights Movement's whole point was equality for all, rather than the unfettered reign of the brute force of group supremacy.
If Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not celebrated and held in respect, the message screams out clearly that the Civil Rights Movement and its objectives are unimportant. So let this tract be a lesson to all people, particularly employers who need to give the holiday thought, reflection and official observance if it is to have any real meaning at all.
Americans have about 6-7 days each year where perhaps a majority takes off work. These include: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And interestingly enough, all of these holidays are celebrated mainly on vague notions concerning values, morality and good will.
Yet Martin Luther King, Jr. Day stands alone, unparalleled by any other day as a designation purely to remember a specific mass movement that revolutionized America. In its uniqueness, this clever holiday has much to offer America. Its importance should emphasize the courageous and upright acts of Dr. King and the vision he and millions of others strove to make reality.
To honor King, and more importantly his ideas of equality, rememberance should be the main goal of this solitary and often ignored national holiday.
Growing up as a younster in a well-insulated all-white private elementary school, Matin Luther King, Jr. Day was presented to students as a foreign, pseudo holiday.
We attented school that day in ordinary fashion, with only the minimalist attempt to observe or even discuss the achievements of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.
One year when our lone black pupuil took the day off, our teacher politely instructed us that it was "O.K." as the student deserved it, being black and all. But what poor Mrs. Fox did not realize was its intention as a holiday for all Americans, as a lesson unto our history and the course of our nation.
Most Americans are sorely mistaken when it comes to the third Monday in January. After all, the Civil Rights Movement's whole point was equality for all, rather than the unfettered reign of the brute force of group supremacy.
If Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not celebrated and held in respect, the message screams out clearly that the Civil Rights Movement and its objectives are unimportant. So let this tract be a lesson to all people, particularly employers who need to give the holiday thought, reflection and official observance if it is to have any real meaning at all.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Death of Struggle?
Good old fashioned hit' em hard came around down
and self-defense's right to strike lays trampled on the ground.
No one seems to notice the flag bearer fall
Our sacred values, our very own with too much gall.
Riff-raff considered unconsidered,
and those with might not ever allowed to fight.
Knock 'em down with a pre-emptive strike
Humiliate 'em all and laugh in embarassment alike.
It is hidden or maybe left behind,
but that ardent swagger's gone alright
and conformity left only to stand in its sight.
With tentacles so epic reaching ablight,
the conquering vandals cover all with fright.
Time to bring it on.
If you still have some, you may lay it on.
With broken spirit and threatened lives, will the brave
stay on through the night?
and self-defense's right to strike lays trampled on the ground.
No one seems to notice the flag bearer fall
Our sacred values, our very own with too much gall.
Riff-raff considered unconsidered,
and those with might not ever allowed to fight.
Knock 'em down with a pre-emptive strike
Humiliate 'em all and laugh in embarassment alike.
It is hidden or maybe left behind,
but that ardent swagger's gone alright
and conformity left only to stand in its sight.
With tentacles so epic reaching ablight,
the conquering vandals cover all with fright.
Time to bring it on.
If you still have some, you may lay it on.
With broken spirit and threatened lives, will the brave
stay on through the night?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Hunter S. Thompson: Rebel Life
Hunter S. is mostly remembered for his drug-induced classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but what many of his fans do not study, although they know of his various stories published over the years for the likes of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Scanlan's Monthy and Pageant. His in-your-face style of gonzo-journalism is staggeringly impressive and elegantly pleasing.
Describing the Kentucky Derby in "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved", Thomspon catches the essence of carnivalesque revelry taken straight from the past.
Thompson when writing about his illustrator Ralph Steadman, soliloquizes that,
"Steadman wanted to see some Kentucky Colonels, but he wasn't sure what they looked like. I told him to go back to the clubhouse men's rooms and look for men in white linen suits vomiting in the urinals. 'They'll usually have large brown whiskey stains on the front of their suits,' I said. 'But watch the shoes, that's the tip-off. Most of them manage to avoid vomiting on their own clothes, but they never miss their shoes.'"
In exploring social unrest, Thompson enshrines the memory of hispanic martyr Ruben Salazar and eulogoizes his progressive acts in life. In "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan", Thompson bitterly describes the controversy surrounding Salazar's untimely death and explains the brutality that was turning America into a police state.
Thompson remembers,
"What the cops are saying is that Salazar got what he deserved - for a lot of reasons, but mainly because he happened to be in their way when they had to do their duty. His death was unfortunate, but if they had to do it all over again they wouldn't change a note.
This is the point they want to make. It is a local variation on the standard Mitchell-Agnew theme: Don't fuck around boy- and if you want to hang around with people who do, don't be surprised when the bill comes due- whistling in through the curtains of some darkened barroom on a sunny afternoon when the cops decide to make an example of somebody."
And in an opus of political theory, Thompson's coverage of the 1969 Aspen, Colorado mayoral election featuring Joe Edwards' bid for a pedestrian only downtown is timeless and essential reading for any political activist. Covering election-day get-out-the-vote effort and the campaign process as a whole, Thompson gives thoughtful insight into a valiant attempt to regain a small mountain town's indepedence and dignity.
In this classic piece, activism is the focus with Thompson playing well the role of campaigner and political theorist. With Thompson, all of the sudden possibilities become boundless, and solutions ready and ample.
He explains,
"Our program, basically, was to drive the real estate goons completely out of the valley: to prevent the State Highway Department from bringing a four-lane highway into the town and in fact to ban all auto traffic from every downtown street. Turn them all into grassy malls where everybody, even freaks, could do whatever's right. The cops would become trash collectors and maintenance men for a fleet of municipal bicycles, for anybody to use. No more huge, space-killing apartment buildings to block the view, from any downtown street, of anybody who might want to look up and see the mountains. No more land-rapes, no more busts for "flute-playing" or "blocking the sidewalk" ... fuck the tourists, dead-end the highway, zone the greedheads out of existence, and in general create a town where people can live like human beings, instead of slaves to some bogus sense of Progress that is driving us all mad."
"Freak Power in the Rockies" is a tour-de-force, one of Thompson's finest works.
In it all Thompson maintains his swagger and some of his satirical honesty chuckles the reader and brushes off upon them Thompson's own creative individuality. His unique interpretation of life, socciety and their ails beckons a continuing intellectual conversation on the things that make us human and the conditions we must mind, confront and deal around. The late Thompson manifests as an American hero unmatched in recent times.
His rebellious, independent nature begs each person to experience life on a new plane unhindered by learned considerations. In his effort, Thompson succeeds and teaches devotees the chaotic serenity of life.
Describing the Kentucky Derby in "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved", Thomspon catches the essence of carnivalesque revelry taken straight from the past.
Thompson when writing about his illustrator Ralph Steadman, soliloquizes that,
"Steadman wanted to see some Kentucky Colonels, but he wasn't sure what they looked like. I told him to go back to the clubhouse men's rooms and look for men in white linen suits vomiting in the urinals. 'They'll usually have large brown whiskey stains on the front of their suits,' I said. 'But watch the shoes, that's the tip-off. Most of them manage to avoid vomiting on their own clothes, but they never miss their shoes.'"
In exploring social unrest, Thompson enshrines the memory of hispanic martyr Ruben Salazar and eulogoizes his progressive acts in life. In "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan", Thompson bitterly describes the controversy surrounding Salazar's untimely death and explains the brutality that was turning America into a police state.
Thompson remembers,
"What the cops are saying is that Salazar got what he deserved - for a lot of reasons, but mainly because he happened to be in their way when they had to do their duty. His death was unfortunate, but if they had to do it all over again they wouldn't change a note.
This is the point they want to make. It is a local variation on the standard Mitchell-Agnew theme: Don't fuck around boy- and if you want to hang around with people who do, don't be surprised when the bill comes due- whistling in through the curtains of some darkened barroom on a sunny afternoon when the cops decide to make an example of somebody."
And in an opus of political theory, Thompson's coverage of the 1969 Aspen, Colorado mayoral election featuring Joe Edwards' bid for a pedestrian only downtown is timeless and essential reading for any political activist. Covering election-day get-out-the-vote effort and the campaign process as a whole, Thompson gives thoughtful insight into a valiant attempt to regain a small mountain town's indepedence and dignity.
In this classic piece, activism is the focus with Thompson playing well the role of campaigner and political theorist. With Thompson, all of the sudden possibilities become boundless, and solutions ready and ample.
He explains,
"Our program, basically, was to drive the real estate goons completely out of the valley: to prevent the State Highway Department from bringing a four-lane highway into the town and in fact to ban all auto traffic from every downtown street. Turn them all into grassy malls where everybody, even freaks, could do whatever's right. The cops would become trash collectors and maintenance men for a fleet of municipal bicycles, for anybody to use. No more huge, space-killing apartment buildings to block the view, from any downtown street, of anybody who might want to look up and see the mountains. No more land-rapes, no more busts for "flute-playing" or "blocking the sidewalk" ... fuck the tourists, dead-end the highway, zone the greedheads out of existence, and in general create a town where people can live like human beings, instead of slaves to some bogus sense of Progress that is driving us all mad."
"Freak Power in the Rockies" is a tour-de-force, one of Thompson's finest works.
In it all Thompson maintains his swagger and some of his satirical honesty chuckles the reader and brushes off upon them Thompson's own creative individuality. His unique interpretation of life, socciety and their ails beckons a continuing intellectual conversation on the things that make us human and the conditions we must mind, confront and deal around. The late Thompson manifests as an American hero unmatched in recent times.
His rebellious, independent nature begs each person to experience life on a new plane unhindered by learned considerations. In his effort, Thompson succeeds and teaches devotees the chaotic serenity of life.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Resolutions for 2010 and Beyond
-Support charities
-End interventions
-Eat healthier, exercise
-Audit the Federal Reserve Bank
-End polarization
-Promote pedestrian spaces
-Exalt free speech
-Expose hypocrisy
-Limit waste
-Stop War
"To manage the affairs of our world family society, we need law - not artificial, arbitrary human laws, but real law: natural absolute law that is invincible and universal." - Michio Kushi, Other Dimensions
-End interventions
-Eat healthier, exercise
-Audit the Federal Reserve Bank
-End polarization
-Promote pedestrian spaces
-Exalt free speech
-Expose hypocrisy
-Limit waste
-Stop War
"To manage the affairs of our world family society, we need law - not artificial, arbitrary human laws, but real law: natural absolute law that is invincible and universal." - Michio Kushi, Other Dimensions
Monday, January 11, 2010
Rand Paul: Inching Toward U.S. Senate
One 2010 U.S. Senate candidate who raised some of the most campaign dollars out of anyone in America is Rand Paul. In a tight primary race in Kentucky Paul faces Trey Grayson, current Kentucky Secretary of State who's backed by the Republican establishment. While Grayson has raised an impressive $1.1 million so far, dark horse Rand Paul has raised $1.7 million just since he began campaigning this fall. And in a recent independent poll, Paul showed stunning competitiveness as he edged favorite Grayson by nearly 15% points amongst likely Republican voters.
Rand Paul is one of the few truly independents, unbought and unbossed, whose once dim chance of election into the Senate brightens each day. His views are nearly identical to his father's, Ron Paul, former 2008 presidential candidate. He professes libertarian views which advocate limiting the scope of the federal government, specifically by cutting taxes and anti-competitive entitlements, eliminating bureaucratic waste and maximizing individual liberty. His anti-bailout, anti-corporatist rhetoric has obviously demonstrated solidarity with a large contingency of concerned Kentuckians who are sick with the way Washington does business. It is no secret the special interest run the country and in Rand Paul, a competitive alternative to the pay-to-play state emerges.
His sensible, common-man approach to tackling perplexing issues impresses and his ability to advocate for a government run by the People trumpets good old-fashioned honesty in steep contrast to the co-opted movements whose deceptive slogans entice but offer little content.
America is ready for fresh faces, but not yet wholly competent for fresh ideas. Paul embodies the necessary new ideas which are in fact very old. But its starkly practical and prescient solutions are revolutionizing. And Paul is an excellent messenger to usher in a new era of political awareness and autonomy.
Rand Paul is one of the few truly independents, unbought and unbossed, whose once dim chance of election into the Senate brightens each day. His views are nearly identical to his father's, Ron Paul, former 2008 presidential candidate. He professes libertarian views which advocate limiting the scope of the federal government, specifically by cutting taxes and anti-competitive entitlements, eliminating bureaucratic waste and maximizing individual liberty. His anti-bailout, anti-corporatist rhetoric has obviously demonstrated solidarity with a large contingency of concerned Kentuckians who are sick with the way Washington does business. It is no secret the special interest run the country and in Rand Paul, a competitive alternative to the pay-to-play state emerges.
His sensible, common-man approach to tackling perplexing issues impresses and his ability to advocate for a government run by the People trumpets good old-fashioned honesty in steep contrast to the co-opted movements whose deceptive slogans entice but offer little content.
America is ready for fresh faces, but not yet wholly competent for fresh ideas. Paul embodies the necessary new ideas which are in fact very old. But its starkly practical and prescient solutions are revolutionizing. And Paul is an excellent messenger to usher in a new era of political awareness and autonomy.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Neo-Racism and the War on Terror
On Monday, the administration of President Barack Obama announced that due to the failed Christmas Day attack on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration has announced the induction of mandatory full body scanning along with extra security checks and searches for people traveling to the United States from nations that are "state-sponsors of terror". Due to one alleged act of tried terror, people (including U.S. citizens) flying from Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran and Lebanon, will now be required to be essentially strip searched while similar restrictions appear to await U.S. citizens flying domestically.
A highlighted map of these marked countries almost appears like a strange elongated seatbelt band stretching across north Africa and the Middle East. Including mostly majority Muslim nations too, the TSA has upped the ante on th4e screening of the most laughable and stereotypical terror suspect. For the first time in U.S. history, race and country of origin are now the primary conditions or requirements rather to gain access to passage into the new world.
For those living in these blacklisted countries, they are now (for the first time since 19th century-style imperialism) officially internationally recognized as subhuman and inferior to the many shades of what now qualifies as white. This designation parallels another ideology remarkably similar to the last century's greatest tyrants. And not only are these people inferior, they are assumed dangerous and at that an imminent threat to all people everywhere. The preposterous notion propounded by the U.S. government is simply that that's what they get for being non-white in the wrong place.
In this wicked form of neo-racism, those inferior are assumed guilty and must first prove their innocence. If they choose not to cooperate, places like Guantanamo Bay await them.
Not only is this neo-racism bigotry at best, it's alarming to other nations who view the War on Terror as an ideological lever used ever so skillfully by the West to achieve shadowy political and economic objectives. And worse, it's a strategy bound to make fast enemies and quickly turn long time allies into ardent foes.
Perhaps the most humorous part of this debacle of white supremacist policy is that their own regulation is ultimately unenforceable as foreign nations staff and direct their own airport security in their own fashion, regardless of what President Obama may choose to pompously dictate to them. Already, journalists are reporting no change in airport security in the blacklisted countries.
There is little the U.S. can do to police the world anymore at a time when more smaller countries demand a larger voice in world affairs. While a clash may not be eminent, America in arrogance will only suffer and become a 'rogue' state as it already is in the eyes of much of the globe. While airport security is important, leaders should not play politics with the chauvinistic white supremacist policies that seek to harass, punish and harm those merely for existing as equal human beings.
A highlighted map of these marked countries almost appears like a strange elongated seatbelt band stretching across north Africa and the Middle East. Including mostly majority Muslim nations too, the TSA has upped the ante on th4e screening of the most laughable and stereotypical terror suspect. For the first time in U.S. history, race and country of origin are now the primary conditions or requirements rather to gain access to passage into the new world.
For those living in these blacklisted countries, they are now (for the first time since 19th century-style imperialism) officially internationally recognized as subhuman and inferior to the many shades of what now qualifies as white. This designation parallels another ideology remarkably similar to the last century's greatest tyrants. And not only are these people inferior, they are assumed dangerous and at that an imminent threat to all people everywhere. The preposterous notion propounded by the U.S. government is simply that that's what they get for being non-white in the wrong place.
In this wicked form of neo-racism, those inferior are assumed guilty and must first prove their innocence. If they choose not to cooperate, places like Guantanamo Bay await them.
Not only is this neo-racism bigotry at best, it's alarming to other nations who view the War on Terror as an ideological lever used ever so skillfully by the West to achieve shadowy political and economic objectives. And worse, it's a strategy bound to make fast enemies and quickly turn long time allies into ardent foes.
Perhaps the most humorous part of this debacle of white supremacist policy is that their own regulation is ultimately unenforceable as foreign nations staff and direct their own airport security in their own fashion, regardless of what President Obama may choose to pompously dictate to them. Already, journalists are reporting no change in airport security in the blacklisted countries.
There is little the U.S. can do to police the world anymore at a time when more smaller countries demand a larger voice in world affairs. While a clash may not be eminent, America in arrogance will only suffer and become a 'rogue' state as it already is in the eyes of much of the globe. While airport security is important, leaders should not play politics with the chauvinistic white supremacist policies that seek to harass, punish and harm those merely for existing as equal human beings.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
U.S. Forces Attack Militants, Schoolchildren Alike in Afghanistan
In another shocking twist in the never-ending War on Terror, Jerome Starkey of The Times of London reported last week of a chilling special-operation which claimed the lives of over eight Afghanis in Ghazi Khan, a village in eastern Kunar province.
The U.S. continues to cower behind blanket-naming those among the dead in the war zone as "militant insurgents". However, upon closer examination and information gleaned from several eye witness account, it now appears that seven of those killed were children, shamelessly slaughtered after being rustled out of bed in the chambers of an Afghan boarding school.
Most damagingly, the school's headmaster reported the deliberate way in which the students ranging from ages 11 to 17 were killed. Other reports describe the students handcuffed before being summarily executed. Starkey reports that even President Hamid Karzai, the notoriously corrupt U.S. puppet acknowledged and condemned the slaying of the youngsters on his website.
In deliberately targeting civilians and minors as fair game, U.S. troops have made their situation as perennial occupiers untenable and increasingly dangerous. Little logical support can be parlayed for such actions when the nearly 100,000 strong foreign forces outnumber any still left Taliban by hundreds to one.
The War now lapses into the unnavigable, much like the Soviet-Afghan did when the effort disintegrated as early as 1983.
The history of empire is eminent and if nature has its way, little will come of a prolonged occupation already bordering on a nine years. Yet, in the new age of blowback and technological parity between strong and weak nations alike, a retaliation could be forthcoming far down the line. For a child whose best friend shed blood and cruelly paid the price, revenge for the gross atrocity will be no difficult matter. America eventually will face the repulse of such hate and malice now force-fed by our own soldiers to Afghan children.
If any morally reprehensible solution may come to sight, an investigation into the gruesome killings that occurred at Ghazi Khan must be forged. For even this small conciliation of a hearing may at the very least change attitudes to show American people do care no matter how cruel the dark special forces who portend to represent them may act.
The U.S. continues to cower behind blanket-naming those among the dead in the war zone as "militant insurgents". However, upon closer examination and information gleaned from several eye witness account, it now appears that seven of those killed were children, shamelessly slaughtered after being rustled out of bed in the chambers of an Afghan boarding school.
Most damagingly, the school's headmaster reported the deliberate way in which the students ranging from ages 11 to 17 were killed. Other reports describe the students handcuffed before being summarily executed. Starkey reports that even President Hamid Karzai, the notoriously corrupt U.S. puppet acknowledged and condemned the slaying of the youngsters on his website.
In deliberately targeting civilians and minors as fair game, U.S. troops have made their situation as perennial occupiers untenable and increasingly dangerous. Little logical support can be parlayed for such actions when the nearly 100,000 strong foreign forces outnumber any still left Taliban by hundreds to one.
The War now lapses into the unnavigable, much like the Soviet-Afghan did when the effort disintegrated as early as 1983.
The history of empire is eminent and if nature has its way, little will come of a prolonged occupation already bordering on a nine years. Yet, in the new age of blowback and technological parity between strong and weak nations alike, a retaliation could be forthcoming far down the line. For a child whose best friend shed blood and cruelly paid the price, revenge for the gross atrocity will be no difficult matter. America eventually will face the repulse of such hate and malice now force-fed by our own soldiers to Afghan children.
If any morally reprehensible solution may come to sight, an investigation into the gruesome killings that occurred at Ghazi Khan must be forged. For even this small conciliation of a hearing may at the very least change attitudes to show American people do care no matter how cruel the dark special forces who portend to represent them may act.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Shrieks for Full-Body Scanners Grow
Power is unwielding and intoxicatingly opportunist so that upon each hint of possible crisis becomes a welcome chance to enact radical and sweeping change. It was Rahm Emanuel, presidential Chief of Staff who put it best when he told the Wall Street Journal, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." "And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you that you didn't think you could do before."
After the failed Christmas Day plane bombing, another fearful atmosphere of crisis now prevails. While Americans remain aware of the attack, the general non-chalance toward the so-called failed terrorist attack contrasts starkly with the behooved huffing voices on the District of Columbia's congressional floor.
News reports over the weekend indicate increased congressional calls to intervene in Department of Homeland Security policies setting Transportation Security Administration procedures of screening passengers boarding aircraft in the United States. In particular, loud voices call for legislation enacting mandatory full-body scanning of all passengers.
To those unaware, full body imaging entails passengers being X-rayed, similar to what occurs to carry-on luggage. These high-ray machines produce lifelike bodily images of subjects, literally seeing entirely through all clothing, revealing a nude image.
Yet, the TSA insists their scanning limits what remote scanners view as facial features and genitalia are blurred. The TSA also maintains viewers monitoring the scans are placed in a remote location unable to see or be seen by the photographed subject.
Legislation mandating high X-ray scan imaging whose product borders on pornographic and involves certain moral and ethical violations, if not legal crimes, should never be forced on American people simply attempting to travel. If enacted, disastrous results will follow and an even greater curtailment of liberty will ensue. Domestic and international travel will become grounded and the world will revert to an isolationism in travel far grander than ever existed during Cold War times. Full body image scanning must be stopped!
Congress' hawkish calls to punitively harass, humiliate and degrade the blameless traveling public are open warfare upon the American People. These calls remain incongruous with public opinion and imply regulations which are legally questionable and ethically bereft. If the Union is to survive intact and in spirit, liberty must be preserved. For what little remains, the Union may, as some suggest, be beyond the pale.
After the failed Christmas Day plane bombing, another fearful atmosphere of crisis now prevails. While Americans remain aware of the attack, the general non-chalance toward the so-called failed terrorist attack contrasts starkly with the behooved huffing voices on the District of Columbia's congressional floor.
News reports over the weekend indicate increased congressional calls to intervene in Department of Homeland Security policies setting Transportation Security Administration procedures of screening passengers boarding aircraft in the United States. In particular, loud voices call for legislation enacting mandatory full-body scanning of all passengers.
To those unaware, full body imaging entails passengers being X-rayed, similar to what occurs to carry-on luggage. These high-ray machines produce lifelike bodily images of subjects, literally seeing entirely through all clothing, revealing a nude image.
Yet, the TSA insists their scanning limits what remote scanners view as facial features and genitalia are blurred. The TSA also maintains viewers monitoring the scans are placed in a remote location unable to see or be seen by the photographed subject.
Legislation mandating high X-ray scan imaging whose product borders on pornographic and involves certain moral and ethical violations, if not legal crimes, should never be forced on American people simply attempting to travel. If enacted, disastrous results will follow and an even greater curtailment of liberty will ensue. Domestic and international travel will become grounded and the world will revert to an isolationism in travel far grander than ever existed during Cold War times. Full body image scanning must be stopped!
Congress' hawkish calls to punitively harass, humiliate and degrade the blameless traveling public are open warfare upon the American People. These calls remain incongruous with public opinion and imply regulations which are legally questionable and ethically bereft. If the Union is to survive intact and in spirit, liberty must be preserved. For what little remains, the Union may, as some suggest, be beyond the pale.
Interest Rate 2010: How Low Can You Go?
As 2010 brings new air to life, the Federal Reserve Bank decides to keep it like the old. Carrying record-low interest rates (for inter-bank lending), the Fed's hypocrisy reaches similar ridiculous heights. At 0.25%, the interest rate has remained rock bottom since December 2008 in an effort to stem the abruptly relaxed tide of inflation originally set to be unleashed in coincidence with the global economic meltdown of 2008-09.
The pattern mirrors a similarly eruptive time during the early '00's when interest rates held low at 3-4%, then down from the 'normal' 7-8% during the late '80s and early '90s. But what deflated interest rates really mean is that the dollar-presses will be ratched up in an effort to print out a record cache of federal reserve notes which will greater devalue the American dollar, domestically and abroad.
There is no new sign the Fed will raise interest rates, an act which would undoubtedly bring sharp inflation an harsh despair to many. But while raising interest rates would adversely affect man, putting off this ultimately necessary measure will only delay and increase the enormous burden of the fettered crisis.
Not only is it irresponsible to not account for the fabulously speculative heights of unhealthy lending, it is criminal in practice as it saddles future generations with heaps of insurmountable debt for which they never personally incurred.
The Fed's failure to address this crucial decision only unmasks their mimed benevolence and tears apart their facade of stability. It is increasingly clear the ineptitude of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner are prolonging the economic crisis and corruptly rewarding the very entities whose criminal irresponsibility robbed the wealth of a blind nation.
It is upon the Fed for the burden of proof to fall. If interest rates are not raised the necessary 8-9% or even greater in the next year, and it is not done before foreign nations take action to dump the American dollar as the primary oil trading unit, America will face an economic collapse so grand it will make the enduring Recession look like a small down blip in the abysmal line charting economic stagnation.
The writing is on the wall. If we are to allow business to survive, it is fast time for the Fed to change how it does business.
The pattern mirrors a similarly eruptive time during the early '00's when interest rates held low at 3-4%, then down from the 'normal' 7-8% during the late '80s and early '90s. But what deflated interest rates really mean is that the dollar-presses will be ratched up in an effort to print out a record cache of federal reserve notes which will greater devalue the American dollar, domestically and abroad.
There is no new sign the Fed will raise interest rates, an act which would undoubtedly bring sharp inflation an harsh despair to many. But while raising interest rates would adversely affect man, putting off this ultimately necessary measure will only delay and increase the enormous burden of the fettered crisis.
Not only is it irresponsible to not account for the fabulously speculative heights of unhealthy lending, it is criminal in practice as it saddles future generations with heaps of insurmountable debt for which they never personally incurred.
The Fed's failure to address this crucial decision only unmasks their mimed benevolence and tears apart their facade of stability. It is increasingly clear the ineptitude of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner are prolonging the economic crisis and corruptly rewarding the very entities whose criminal irresponsibility robbed the wealth of a blind nation.
It is upon the Fed for the burden of proof to fall. If interest rates are not raised the necessary 8-9% or even greater in the next year, and it is not done before foreign nations take action to dump the American dollar as the primary oil trading unit, America will face an economic collapse so grand it will make the enduring Recession look like a small down blip in the abysmal line charting economic stagnation.
The writing is on the wall. If we are to allow business to survive, it is fast time for the Fed to change how it does business.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
2000s
The decade that brought us Y2K and the growing uneasiness, among the more zanier elements of the population. It's the decade that gave us internet primacy and the birth of the professional internet. Incorporation of technology in our lifestyles reached seamless new heights. And the old dazzle of corporate television waned on, imploding into reality show obscurity.
Overall, it was a decade wrought by dramatics. There was glam in the rise of SUV Hummers and the jolt of the coming of age of gay acceptance. There was decadence in the lavishness of corporate pleasure and even greater deceit and pomposity in the great halls of power. There was terror and the aftershock and the aftermath from it we now know.
The rise of laptops and cell phones certainly changed us, for better or for worse, although I tend to believe the latter. And although the American nation spent the entire decade sitting in the den of treacherous wolves while being sabotaged in a top-down Ponzi scheme, a mild social evolution took place. Questions seemed more important than before. Authority never seemed so crooked and evidently rigged. The bad guys kept on winning, while most kept counting precious dollars shredded away on the rising prices of wheat, milk, corn and meat. Nothing could be taken as absolute anymore. Attitudes mellowed and some of the former 'rules' of the game no longer exist. Yet, while this instance produced certain positive change, there remain lamentable losses due to this new embodiment of Americana.
The peak and fall of the development of suburbia signnalled a new age and 'urban renewal' in the form of gentrification irked millions and uprooted thousands. A decade of lost opportunity and unfulfilled dreams was it in some ways. The shutting down of America and her proud business establishments was more than disheartening, gutwrenching really. Even worse, the intelligence of the nation faced continual insults and the movie industry's made-in-Hollywood trademark factory movie complex marched intellectual filmwork off the screen.
But not all I've mentioned was bad. Much good still rocked the '00s, it just got a little harder to find.
Nevertheless New Year's Eve promenades on and the passion, heartache and joy of the '00s will pass. The decade will continue in modern memory as a pivotal era in the history of mankind. But either way, its victores and pitfalls are now enshrined. May the 2010s carry on.
Overall, it was a decade wrought by dramatics. There was glam in the rise of SUV Hummers and the jolt of the coming of age of gay acceptance. There was decadence in the lavishness of corporate pleasure and even greater deceit and pomposity in the great halls of power. There was terror and the aftershock and the aftermath from it we now know.
The rise of laptops and cell phones certainly changed us, for better or for worse, although I tend to believe the latter. And although the American nation spent the entire decade sitting in the den of treacherous wolves while being sabotaged in a top-down Ponzi scheme, a mild social evolution took place. Questions seemed more important than before. Authority never seemed so crooked and evidently rigged. The bad guys kept on winning, while most kept counting precious dollars shredded away on the rising prices of wheat, milk, corn and meat. Nothing could be taken as absolute anymore. Attitudes mellowed and some of the former 'rules' of the game no longer exist. Yet, while this instance produced certain positive change, there remain lamentable losses due to this new embodiment of Americana.
The peak and fall of the development of suburbia signnalled a new age and 'urban renewal' in the form of gentrification irked millions and uprooted thousands. A decade of lost opportunity and unfulfilled dreams was it in some ways. The shutting down of America and her proud business establishments was more than disheartening, gutwrenching really. Even worse, the intelligence of the nation faced continual insults and the movie industry's made-in-Hollywood trademark factory movie complex marched intellectual filmwork off the screen.
But not all I've mentioned was bad. Much good still rocked the '00s, it just got a little harder to find.
Nevertheless New Year's Eve promenades on and the passion, heartache and joy of the '00s will pass. The decade will continue in modern memory as a pivotal era in the history of mankind. But either way, its victores and pitfalls are now enshrined. May the 2010s carry on.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Enhanced: Security State
As the aftermath of the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing sizzles on, an internal debate is raging amongst populace and ruling class alike over the lessons learned by this foiled plot. While much of the political commentary provided by CNN, the New York Times and the BBC focuses on the security breaches by alleged hijacker Farouk Abdulmutallb, few have dared discuss the motivations behind the attack.
And in the wake of the hatched plan, the conversation turns to the failure of security. In evaluating this topic, however, the analyses given by the so-called "experts" fail to pass the bar.
With reports indicating that the Nigerian born student acted in response to U.S. bombings in Yemen in early December that killed nearly 100 (reportedly including many civilian deaths), no newscaster will discuss the importance of such motivation in preventing future similar attacks.
While President Obama announced a comprehensive TSA airport security review in both intelligence-related and physical screening procedures shortly after the attempted bombing, it is unlikely even with more restrictive procedures that the American public will be made any safer.
To pursue a response-activated strategy that is guided by the principle we must retroactively address possible threats by insulating ourselves with another 'layer' of security is pure fallacy. If anything, more invasive physical screening procedures for average Americans will distract from true threats. With a "stay-the-course" foreign policy continued into the 2010s, threats remain possible and likely.
It is clear terrorism became a political football long ago. But as it continues in a new era, there appears no end to the Democratic-Republican enforced use of it to scare the people, then coddle them in an effort to break their will. By discouraging simple freedoms and introducing new humiliating screening procedures, which are at best, invasive of privacy and morally dubious, the American government is clear in its message of retributive action against the People, who are evidently blameless in the intelligence security breach which occurred on Christmas Day.
After investigation, Farouk Abdulmutallab was actually on a terror-watch list but was not flagged before boarding his flight. Clearly, there was a failure of screening on the front line intelligence level, which remains the best tool for authorities in the modern War on Terror. However, when this very list does not serve its purpose and the suspect's fathers reported him to authorities over two months prior to the incident, questions arise as to the viability of international security. Some have even suggested Abdulmutallab was helped to board the plan without holding a passport, aided by a well-dressed and explanatory American. While unsubstantiated, it certainly adds to the questions of how Abdulmutallab passed through security and who may have assisted in the act.
Simply put, security is not perfect nor will it ever be close to it. It is especially true with an organization as inefficient as the federal government running it. To expect the government (honestly folks, only so limited) to protect every person pre-emptively from any violent act in any part of a giant nation of 300 million people is absurd and untenable.
Just imagine the attempt! Stationed police and screeners at every private business or public place, all in efforts to "prevent terror". How far does this faulty paradigm have to go? What type of sane society would ever accept this arrangement!?
Stereotypically, the government has again decided to collectively punish an entire nation for one failure of airport security in a foreign land. Clearly, the failure here occurred due to negligence on behalf of Dutch and Nigerian authorities, not those working at the TSA. Mind yhou, the whole incident even ended prior to the plane touching down in Detroit, Michigan. And at that, the heroes of the failed attempt at terror were in fact those who will now be punished retroactively.
Without recourse or even a frank public debate, it appears the sheltered security-obsessed screening bureaucrats will win the day with morally-misguided and further repressive screening. Passengers have to contend with possible passage of a federally-backed "Rules of Behavior" enforced in all airports and all planes nationwide, and perhaps internationally. As Peter Greenberg of CBS reports, the more extreme of the privately-implemented security reforms in recent days include provisions prohibiting passengers from accessing any carry-on items for a whole hour prior to landing.
As old Aunt Ethel will be scolded and shunted for trying to finish that last page of the chapter in that paperback romance novel, little time will be left to deal with real possible threats who've been flagged by intelligence communities.
Meanwhile, political commentators call for mandatory full-body image screening for each person boarding aircraft in the United States, and this time with no "pat-down option". For those who are unfamiliar with full-body image scanning, the machine takes amazingly lifelike X-ray body photographs, seeing entirely through all clothes and producing a real nude image, with genitalia and facial images later blocked out from the generated picture.
Yet, it remains hard to believe agent Jim won't be looking even for a split second at grandma's kahoonies or little Tommy's rear. To assure against this possibility, the TSA has assured the American public no images are ever recorded and that all private parts are scrambled.
While it's likely there will be some compromise on this highly debatable front, security will be tightened in upcoming times and the American people will face greated frustration with the TSA. Fronted by the Department of Homeland Security as a self-appointed agency, the TSA is too laughably a creature of its own creation. 'Til that creature seriously catches up with reality and the reckoning of Americans, it is assured to drown in its own inept mediocrity and ineffectiveness.
And in the wake of the hatched plan, the conversation turns to the failure of security. In evaluating this topic, however, the analyses given by the so-called "experts" fail to pass the bar.
With reports indicating that the Nigerian born student acted in response to U.S. bombings in Yemen in early December that killed nearly 100 (reportedly including many civilian deaths), no newscaster will discuss the importance of such motivation in preventing future similar attacks.
While President Obama announced a comprehensive TSA airport security review in both intelligence-related and physical screening procedures shortly after the attempted bombing, it is unlikely even with more restrictive procedures that the American public will be made any safer.
To pursue a response-activated strategy that is guided by the principle we must retroactively address possible threats by insulating ourselves with another 'layer' of security is pure fallacy. If anything, more invasive physical screening procedures for average Americans will distract from true threats. With a "stay-the-course" foreign policy continued into the 2010s, threats remain possible and likely.
It is clear terrorism became a political football long ago. But as it continues in a new era, there appears no end to the Democratic-Republican enforced use of it to scare the people, then coddle them in an effort to break their will. By discouraging simple freedoms and introducing new humiliating screening procedures, which are at best, invasive of privacy and morally dubious, the American government is clear in its message of retributive action against the People, who are evidently blameless in the intelligence security breach which occurred on Christmas Day.
After investigation, Farouk Abdulmutallab was actually on a terror-watch list but was not flagged before boarding his flight. Clearly, there was a failure of screening on the front line intelligence level, which remains the best tool for authorities in the modern War on Terror. However, when this very list does not serve its purpose and the suspect's fathers reported him to authorities over two months prior to the incident, questions arise as to the viability of international security. Some have even suggested Abdulmutallab was helped to board the plan without holding a passport, aided by a well-dressed and explanatory American. While unsubstantiated, it certainly adds to the questions of how Abdulmutallab passed through security and who may have assisted in the act.
Simply put, security is not perfect nor will it ever be close to it. It is especially true with an organization as inefficient as the federal government running it. To expect the government (honestly folks, only so limited) to protect every person pre-emptively from any violent act in any part of a giant nation of 300 million people is absurd and untenable.
Just imagine the attempt! Stationed police and screeners at every private business or public place, all in efforts to "prevent terror". How far does this faulty paradigm have to go? What type of sane society would ever accept this arrangement!?
Stereotypically, the government has again decided to collectively punish an entire nation for one failure of airport security in a foreign land. Clearly, the failure here occurred due to negligence on behalf of Dutch and Nigerian authorities, not those working at the TSA. Mind yhou, the whole incident even ended prior to the plane touching down in Detroit, Michigan. And at that, the heroes of the failed attempt at terror were in fact those who will now be punished retroactively.
Without recourse or even a frank public debate, it appears the sheltered security-obsessed screening bureaucrats will win the day with morally-misguided and further repressive screening. Passengers have to contend with possible passage of a federally-backed "Rules of Behavior" enforced in all airports and all planes nationwide, and perhaps internationally. As Peter Greenberg of CBS reports, the more extreme of the privately-implemented security reforms in recent days include provisions prohibiting passengers from accessing any carry-on items for a whole hour prior to landing.
As old Aunt Ethel will be scolded and shunted for trying to finish that last page of the chapter in that paperback romance novel, little time will be left to deal with real possible threats who've been flagged by intelligence communities.
Meanwhile, political commentators call for mandatory full-body image screening for each person boarding aircraft in the United States, and this time with no "pat-down option". For those who are unfamiliar with full-body image scanning, the machine takes amazingly lifelike X-ray body photographs, seeing entirely through all clothes and producing a real nude image, with genitalia and facial images later blocked out from the generated picture.
Yet, it remains hard to believe agent Jim won't be looking even for a split second at grandma's kahoonies or little Tommy's rear. To assure against this possibility, the TSA has assured the American public no images are ever recorded and that all private parts are scrambled.
While it's likely there will be some compromise on this highly debatable front, security will be tightened in upcoming times and the American people will face greated frustration with the TSA. Fronted by the Department of Homeland Security as a self-appointed agency, the TSA is too laughably a creature of its own creation. 'Til that creature seriously catches up with reality and the reckoning of Americans, it is assured to drown in its own inept mediocrity and ineffectiveness.
Friday, November 20, 2009
No Justice, No Peace
As thousands of University of California students protested at campuses state-wide this week in opposition to the now-passed the 32% tuition hike, the University has ignored student cries for a more reasonable dialogue and tactful approach. And in even furtherance of their seething contempt for freely gathering students, they watched and even tipped off police to students who engaged in political acts by freely demonstrating their First Amendment rights.
With hundreds of students arrested to Sahil Kapur of RawStory reports that 52 were arrested yesterday at UC-Davis and cordoned off to a According to Kapur, one PhD. activist claimed a 19-year old student protester was held in solitary confinement and physically abused and emotionally traumatized by police. All of the arrests at the behest of the university were allegedly done without the simple courtesy of the university informing their parents or making any effort to provide practical help.
While such movements as "Occupy California" and others have pushed for real political student action, the institution would not simply allow it. While "walk-outs" and "sit-ins" were popular and even in some places common occurrences in America in the 1960s and 70s and before, it has now become a cause extreme and reason for suspicion and harassment.
But no matter what the university may do, or may wish to do, it will not change the path University of California students, while small in proportion, may be choosing to attempt change in their small world. And without compromise from the power-wielding faction of the institution, it is highly unlikely a more compromising attitude will be one students will have.
The vast amount of young people of this country are not stupid, or liable to be taken as fools, but only if they are treated so will they be all the more eager to show the fool of the other.
So let this message be carved into every school's weighty cornerstone, that these scrawls of students are not without reason or certainly not to be taken lightly. For without students, there is no university and without the educated seeking an education, little can be expected of these once grand institutions.
With hundreds of students arrested to Sahil Kapur of RawStory reports that 52 were arrested yesterday at UC-Davis and cordoned off to a According to Kapur, one PhD. activist claimed a 19-year old student protester was held in solitary confinement and physically abused and emotionally traumatized by police. All of the arrests at the behest of the university were allegedly done without the simple courtesy of the university informing their parents or making any effort to provide practical help.
While such movements as "Occupy California" and others have pushed for real political student action, the institution would not simply allow it. While "walk-outs" and "sit-ins" were popular and even in some places common occurrences in America in the 1960s and 70s and before, it has now become a cause extreme and reason for suspicion and harassment.
But no matter what the university may do, or may wish to do, it will not change the path University of California students, while small in proportion, may be choosing to attempt change in their small world. And without compromise from the power-wielding faction of the institution, it is highly unlikely a more compromising attitude will be one students will have.
The vast amount of young people of this country are not stupid, or liable to be taken as fools, but only if they are treated so will they be all the more eager to show the fool of the other.
So let this message be carved into every school's weighty cornerstone, that these scrawls of students are not without reason or certainly not to be taken lightly. For without students, there is no university and without the educated seeking an education, little can be expected of these once grand institutions.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Rep. Brady Grills Geithner
Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas Questions Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner on November 19, 2009.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Carbon Police: Intendants Extreme
It comes as no shock that every centralized national government in history longs for a way into the lives and business of their citizens, often at great expense. In imperial France under the reign of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", the royalty discovered a new way to control the masses. Systematically, the king transformed a method of replacing local autonomous town councils with hand-picked 'Intendants' that usurped the former rulers' stature and powers.
After castrating the force of town councils whose existence based itself on long standing post-feudal tradition in France, these stand-ins gave the royalty new unspeakable power to micromanage the breadth of a nation.
And with the passage of H.R. 2454, the "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009" (better known as the Waxman-Markey Bill), a little noticed provision may introduce that principle into action.
Alexis de Tocqueville, famed French dignitary and historian, in The Old Regime in the French Revolution blames the system of enabling centralized non-appeal-able decision making for not only the collapse of the regime, but also for the failure of the French Revolution to cement its original goals. As traditional autonomous politicking had been severed in France for several generations before the outbreak of revolution, Tocqueville theorizes that the Intendant system reaped irreparable harm on the French political-social order.
To create "green jobs," the new bill which requires the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050. To enforce these new proposed limits and collect payments of "carbon tax credits" from every home and business in America, the federal government will have to hire hundreds of thousands if not well over a million "environmental" inspectors whose influence will eventually reach to anything in America bigger than a doghouse.
Radio host and political analyst Alex Jones in his new film Fall of the Republic highlights this issue as a new attempt to force greater unnecessary government surveillance and intrusion into people's homes.
Provisions of H.R. 2454 call for each municipality in America down to a village (usually consisting of less than a thousand citizens) to employ at their own expense, a federally tied city planner along with an environmental planner to have sole decision making authority to approve or deny the legal live-ability of any construction or pre-existing structure. With this arrangement, the ultimate Intendant now arrives.
City planners have been staples of major cities for decades. But, when serving only the city government, their actions must meet the standard of the local people. This formula in itself is often the most significant power and resource of a community. In contrast, replacing well-accounted for city officials with federally-instructed implants will only serve to undermine local autonomy in America. And such was the exact intent of placing Intendants in place of local councils in imperial France.
First, university trained environmental planners and urban studies majors go to tiny villages and towns in isolated flats and ridges to instruct generations-rooted locals how best to develop their streets, buildings and insulate their homes. While honest efforts to construct a better infrastructure and sustainable environment should be lauded and pursued, federally mandating and supervising of these pursuits could create uniformed and disastrous effects. For many villages without one paid municipal employee, even financing this helpful yet unneeded regime will strain budgets, stymie diversity and ultimately hamper innovation.
And a 'city planner' would be the first for starts. Next, a presiding mayoral Intendant or even a uniform system of Intendant city councils in cities nationwide could constitute the new plan.
Jones points out in Fall of the Republic that the main agenda of the climate-change bills comes to its insistence on using federally trained watchers, spies if you will, to further regulate and weaken the power of the American people. As obscure as it may sound, this sinister provision of the cap and trade legislation in efforts to "build a green economy" may permanently regulate and even possibly destroy the very economy it promises to save.
In regulating only carbon and not the true environmental disasters which presently face us (ie. contamination of water, nuclear proliferation and genetically modified food), the cap and trade bill lacks any real solution and only exposes itself as another clever Ponzi scheme brainstormed by America's saviors at Goldman Sachs.
In this heavily politicized and emotionally charged subject often interpreted as either being for or against the environment through a simplified myth, we must remember that while putting limits on elements like carbon and oxygen may sound environmentally helpful, these elements themselves are the building blocks of human life. To begin a massive national, if not soon to be global system, of element regulation in a day where registered corporations own the seeds of life, it is no farce to say that ironically life is under attack with an arm twisting Intendant seizing and twisting the dagger of control.
Tocqueville warned much about centralization of power and in his masterpiece Democracy in America identified local autonomy as the force behind free and equal society in America. To him, the Intendants of France gutted a once-apt group of independent localities and forever severed the French people's institutional ability to rule themselves. For even after the Revolution, France forever centralized and transformed could never return to the egalitarianism which straddled the burgeoning of the modern world.
In America, similar circumstances beg the future's fate. The questions remains if this moment of Intendant does come to pass, once the People realize, will it be too late?
After castrating the force of town councils whose existence based itself on long standing post-feudal tradition in France, these stand-ins gave the royalty new unspeakable power to micromanage the breadth of a nation.
And with the passage of H.R. 2454, the "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009" (better known as the Waxman-Markey Bill), a little noticed provision may introduce that principle into action.
Alexis de Tocqueville, famed French dignitary and historian, in The Old Regime in the French Revolution blames the system of enabling centralized non-appeal-able decision making for not only the collapse of the regime, but also for the failure of the French Revolution to cement its original goals. As traditional autonomous politicking had been severed in France for several generations before the outbreak of revolution, Tocqueville theorizes that the Intendant system reaped irreparable harm on the French political-social order.
To create "green jobs," the new bill which requires the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050. To enforce these new proposed limits and collect payments of "carbon tax credits" from every home and business in America, the federal government will have to hire hundreds of thousands if not well over a million "environmental" inspectors whose influence will eventually reach to anything in America bigger than a doghouse.
Radio host and political analyst Alex Jones in his new film Fall of the Republic highlights this issue as a new attempt to force greater unnecessary government surveillance and intrusion into people's homes.
Provisions of H.R. 2454 call for each municipality in America down to a village (usually consisting of less than a thousand citizens) to employ at their own expense, a federally tied city planner along with an environmental planner to have sole decision making authority to approve or deny the legal live-ability of any construction or pre-existing structure. With this arrangement, the ultimate Intendant now arrives.
City planners have been staples of major cities for decades. But, when serving only the city government, their actions must meet the standard of the local people. This formula in itself is often the most significant power and resource of a community. In contrast, replacing well-accounted for city officials with federally-instructed implants will only serve to undermine local autonomy in America. And such was the exact intent of placing Intendants in place of local councils in imperial France.
First, university trained environmental planners and urban studies majors go to tiny villages and towns in isolated flats and ridges to instruct generations-rooted locals how best to develop their streets, buildings and insulate their homes. While honest efforts to construct a better infrastructure and sustainable environment should be lauded and pursued, federally mandating and supervising of these pursuits could create uniformed and disastrous effects. For many villages without one paid municipal employee, even financing this helpful yet unneeded regime will strain budgets, stymie diversity and ultimately hamper innovation.
And a 'city planner' would be the first for starts. Next, a presiding mayoral Intendant or even a uniform system of Intendant city councils in cities nationwide could constitute the new plan.
Jones points out in Fall of the Republic that the main agenda of the climate-change bills comes to its insistence on using federally trained watchers, spies if you will, to further regulate and weaken the power of the American people. As obscure as it may sound, this sinister provision of the cap and trade legislation in efforts to "build a green economy" may permanently regulate and even possibly destroy the very economy it promises to save.
In regulating only carbon and not the true environmental disasters which presently face us (ie. contamination of water, nuclear proliferation and genetically modified food), the cap and trade bill lacks any real solution and only exposes itself as another clever Ponzi scheme brainstormed by America's saviors at Goldman Sachs.
In this heavily politicized and emotionally charged subject often interpreted as either being for or against the environment through a simplified myth, we must remember that while putting limits on elements like carbon and oxygen may sound environmentally helpful, these elements themselves are the building blocks of human life. To begin a massive national, if not soon to be global system, of element regulation in a day where registered corporations own the seeds of life, it is no farce to say that ironically life is under attack with an arm twisting Intendant seizing and twisting the dagger of control.
Tocqueville warned much about centralization of power and in his masterpiece Democracy in America identified local autonomy as the force behind free and equal society in America. To him, the Intendants of France gutted a once-apt group of independent localities and forever severed the French people's institutional ability to rule themselves. For even after the Revolution, France forever centralized and transformed could never return to the egalitarianism which straddled the burgeoning of the modern world.
In America, similar circumstances beg the future's fate. The questions remains if this moment of Intendant does come to pass, once the People realize, will it be too late?
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