Torture By Any Other Name......Would Still Be As Painful

That darn crazy librul media. You know, the one that bends over backwards not to offend the easily offended by not being too controversial?
Well, it seems for years, it called waterboarding torture. Well, it still considers waterboarding torture, just not when the US does it.
Sure, it's a double standard, but in order to placate those who maybe torturing, or have family members in the torture business, they can't infer that there's anything wrong with it. It's like, for fear of offending drug dealers, they started calling them entrepreneurs.
It's obvious by now that criminals are in charge, enabled by the corporate media, embedded in the social political elite, afraid to offend the leadership, because somewhere down the road, there may be a cushy government position for them.
Our corporate media has long abandoned the responsibilities of a free press. Maybe that's why newspaper circulation declines, and maybe why the country has devolved into a corporate idiocracy.

The Necessity Of Lies About The Necessity Of War

The upcoming weekend is a big holiday weekend, and, as usual, the big oil companies will exploit it by raising gas prices to pocket big profits. And motorists will gripe and grumble, and still pay it, because Americans are still too stupid to invest in any sensible alternative energy, a reliable mass transit service, or anything else that would ease our country's dependence on fossil fuels.
But if you think you're going to see high fuel prices now, just wait until the US and Israel strike Tehran. OPEC has warned war with Iran would mean an unlimited price hike, which means, bend over and grab your ankles, America. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mullen also thinks a military strike on Iran would be destabilizing.
And yet, there we are, surrounding Iran on all sides, prepared to do our worse, all based on lies. Which proves how stupefied the American people have become by the corporate media. They have forgotten that the reason were in Iraq is a bunch of lies. Weapons of Mass Destruction? Now they've conveniently moved to Iran
I could once again debunk every argument you may hear about why we need to go to war with Iran. But I'm as tired of typing them as you are of reading them. But still the lies continue. Because we need them, our corporate media isn't interested in the truth, and are too far embedded in the Washington DC Cocktail Party Set to be honest.
So I give Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the only Democrat I'd ever vote for:
"We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war. Bring our troops home. End the war. Secure our economy."
Amen.

The Old Two War Party Bait And Switch

Our political system would work a whole lot better if our two "opposing" parties were on the same page at the same time. For instance, Republicans opposed the filibuster when they had the White House, and now, with a Democratic president, it's considered an essential tool of government. (I know, I know, the GOP are "tools" of government)
As another example, in 2006 and 2008, the Democratic Party rode into power on a wave of anti-war sentiment. But now, with antiwar sentiment momentarily distracted by the continuing ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Democratically controlled House has voted for more funding for the Afghanistan quagmire, President Obama has formally disavowed the July 2011 draw down date. Meanwhile, the Democratically controlled US Congress and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed new US sanctions against Iran, a prelude to war with that country.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, most Republicans now think the Iraq War was a mistake. Some have even gone as far as to call it "Illegal and immoral". I wonder, though, is this true regret, or is this an excuse, in that great game of Risk that has become US foreign policy in the Middle East, an excuse to move our troops in Iraq to it's immediate neighbor to the east. Or, maybe the change of heart within his own party and the fact that as an architect of a policy they are calling illegal he could now be prosecuted for war crimes has led Dick Cheney to the hospital. Don't worry, Dick. All this posturing is, I'm sure, just that, as Americans look closely at what we haven't accomplished after many years, many lives, and many, many more dollars wasted in a region of the world far removed from our back yards.
The problem is the learned helplessness of the two party system. Unable to think outside of the box, they are trapped in the Republican/Democrat box. Both parties have been in power on and off, for at least the last century, both parties have brought the country to the state it's in, and yet, people keep hoping that maybe this election cycle, or the next will bring real change if their party gets the control it needs.
Good luck with that. Evil 'A' vs. Evil 'B' is still evil.

US House Accuses Iran Of Being Just Like The US

When I was in high school, the US and the USSR were engaged in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, or SALT II talks, which was about limiting the number of times each nation could kill the other one. I think they finally settled on 150. My father, an ultraconservative, one might even say reactionary, was opposed to such a treaty with the Russians, because, as he told me, "You can't trust those commies. They never keep their word and have broken every treaty they ever signed."
Fast forward a few decades, and here is the United States, breaking another treaty it signed, namely the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or the NNPT. Under the NNPT, the US recognizes the right of other nations to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, such as electrical power, or medical research, and as such, would not hinder any signatory nation from doing so, and even offering to assist said nation in their quest to using the atom for peace. Except now, the US is doing everything in it's power to stop Iran from doing what it is guaranteed as a signatory to the NNPT. In other words, just like the commies of long ago, they are not keeping their word and essentially breaking the treaty which they have signed.
And now, the US House is send H.R. 1457 to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the latest round in the lead up to the invasion of Iran, using entirely fraudulent claims.
1. President Ahmadinejad fraudulently won the last election
Remember in 2000, the hotly contested presidential election in the US? The one where the State of Florida had to pay roughly $5000 each to black voters disenfranchised by the Republican Party? Remember when it finally came out that Al Gore did in fact win Florida in 2000, we were told to "get over it"?
However, while there was no evidence of voter fraud in the 2009 Iranian elections, there is evidence that the US corporate media tried to paint it as such. So you see, vote fraud in another country is bad, very bad, but election fraud in the US is no big deal.
2. Iran has plenty of oil, why do they need to develop nuclear power?
A lot of neocons are suspicious of Iran developing nuclear power, because, they say, why do that, when they have all that oil? Well, in addition to having vast quantities of oil, Iran also has 1400 uranium mines. As the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran deputy head Fuel Hossein Faqihian pointed out, nuclear energy is a good alternative to energy derived from non-renewable fossil fuels as they are cleaner and cause less environmental damage.
Iran has even agreed to an arrangement with Turkey in Brazil in which raw uranium in Iran is exchanged for enriched uranium, thereby ensuring that Iran cannot enrich uranium to a high enough yield to use in nuclear weapons.
3. Iran supports terrorism
This claim is made because Iran funds Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Canada and Israel, but not the rest of the world which recognizes the differences between the security and political wings of the organization. Meanwhile the US, which created Al qaeda, is spending $400 billion annually to fund the MEK, a terrorist organization to destabilize the Tehran regime.
4. Iran continues to deny human rights and democracy to the people of Iran Right now, the whole of the Palestinian population in the Gaza strip is suffering under the collective punishment of the Israel led blockade against them. This blockade was put in place when the people, believing in "democracy" voted for the Hamas party to rule the Palestinian Authority over the US/Israel backed Fatah party. The blockade violates the human rights of about a million and a half people, many women and children. Meanwhile, right wing politicians in the US want us to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Commission because it wants to investigate the excessive use of force in the  Mavi Marmara flotilla raid.
5. Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program Nope.No evidence of that. Meanwhile, Israel which has nuclear weapons (and tried to sell some to South Africa), refuses to sign the NNPT or open up it's sites for inspection.
6. President Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the map
Here we go again. His statement was a gross mistranslation, taken out of context.
However, Israel has vowed to drop nuclear weapons on Iran again, and again,and again.

Right now, in the Red Sea , there are eleven US warships and three German built Israeli subs armed with nuclear cruise missiles . While there is a problem with Iran "wiping Israel off the map", there doesn't seem to be a problem with the US wiping Iran off the map. With the US now mired in two wars in the Gulf region, can it really afford to get tangled up in another? Does it really matter? We the people no longer decide what's right for this country. Although the many television-watchers may be cowed by corporate media propaganda about Big bad Iran, the truth is, while Iran isn't the greatest country in the world, neither is the US any more, mainly because we have become the aggressor that behaves in a fashion to it's once feared enemies. Economically, we can no longer afford to repair all the damaged nations of the world, because we have become as damaged.

You Can't Judge A Book B y It's Cover, But You Can Judge A Judge By The Way He Covers His Books

Given the unmitigated disaster that the the leak at BP's Deepwater Horizon has become, one would think that a temporary ban on drilling might not be a bad idea. The Obama administration had hoped the ban would allow time to ensure that other wells are operating safely. That ban has blocked by a federal judge, ruling in favor of drilling companies.
Well, guess what? That's right, the judge who ruled in favor of the drilling companies, US District Judge Martin "Marty" Feldman, owns $15,000 worth of stock in offshore drilling companies. Can you say conflict of interest?
It's a good thing that Americans have guardians of justice such as Judge Feldman, who will put public and environmental safety over their own personal gain. Judges who would recuse themselves from cases where a conflict of interest may appear, just to insure there is no appearance of impropriety.
The truth is, our justice system, much the same as our legislature, is bought and paid for, and unless you happen to have enough money to buy into it, you are seriously fucked.

The Lieberweasel Strikes Again!

Growing up, there was always that one kid, whose sense of entitlement made them feel they were entitled to the same things as every body else was, whether deserved it or not, or whether or not it was a good idea.
Ladies, and gentlemen, that whiny weaselly kid all grown up is ......Joe Lieberman!
China has the power to shut down its Internet, so why can't we?
Well, for starters, China is a communist country, while the US poses as some sort of a democracy. In the US, the open and free exchange of ideas is one of the many freedoms we have that make us better than say, China, where people have the freedom to work ten hour days seven days a week or be crushed by tanks!
Of course, Sen. Lieberman defends this act as a matter of national security, just like he defended the murder of an unarmed American citizen by the IDF as a security issue. So are we trust him on this? Remember what Ben Franklin said about liberty and security.
In the days before 9/11, the FBI shut down many Arab and Muslim websites. Some up to five days prior to that event. So the government already has shown it can shut down websites, even with out a just cause.
The internet is a dangerous place to those in charge these days. Just as quick as they can put out their disinformation someone else can discredit it as the fake it is. And with the US in preparation for yet another war by sending 11 ships to off the coast of Iran, they need to keep a lid on what's really going on before this administration's lies, much like the lies of the previous administration, are exposed for the falsehoods they really are.

Eric Cantor Hates America

Just who does Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Tel Aviv) represent? When the Netanyahu government announced they were building more settlements during a visit by VP Joe Biden, Cantor blasted the Obama administration as 'irresponsible' on Israel. Cantor, who receives a career total of $200,730 from Pro-Israel PACs, also told President Obama to veto any UN resolution condemning Israel for it's assault on an unarmed flotilla where one American citizen was shot in the head four times.
Well, one would hope that given how much support Cantor has given Israel when it's been in the wrong, that at least he would demonstrate the same compassion for the American citizens whom he allegedly represents. Right?
Wrong.
In fact, Cantor, who opposed President Obama's economic stimulus package, has actually been betting against US Treasury Bonds.
Now I'm not a believer in Karma or anything, but it is good to know that while Cantor has been betting against his country and the people who allegedly represents, his bet is down 31%. Still, I think that it would be beneficial to our country to have it's leaders working to improve things, not hoping to get rich from the suffering of it's people. Maybe the people of Virginia will wake up and vote out a representative who doesn't want to make America a better country for all it's citizens, but I'm not going to bet on it.

Did Christian Talibanist Rex Duncan Shoot Their Ambitions In The Foot?

The limits of right-wing Christianazi paranoia is unbound, because most of them television-watchers just know those evil Mooslems are poised by their leader Barack Hussein Obama to swoop down, take over America and impose Sharia law on us all.
Not Rex Duncan. Rex Duncan is smarter than your average Islamofascist. He knows that Islam and liberals are conspiring together to erase all traces of our Judeo-Christian values from the country. So Rex Duncan, state senator from Oklahoma (naturally), has decided to introduce legislation that makes it illegal for liberal judges to impose sharia law in Oklahoma. Sen. Duncan would require using only state and federal law when ruling on a decision.
Good.
Because, as this Biblically deranged person has just done is to prevent any law being passed on anything based on the bible as well. You see, the US Constitution specifically prevents wingnuts like Duncan from establishing the Christian Theocracy their Taliban is intent on turning the US into. Although he doesn't state it, I'm sure this legislation would require that conservative judges be banned from imposing Christian law as well, lest this bill be challenged and ruled as unconstitutional by the....wait, I forgot that the Supreme Court is insane as well.
Somewhere someone put the fear of Islam into Sen.Duncan, and in another time or place, it may have been replaced with a fear of Judaism, Buddhism, or any other group that doesn't fit in with their agenda. These types need an evil enemy to rise up so they can protect their constituents from them in order to gain their votes. And, if one is not readily available, they'll find one and make up stuff about them. Sort of like how the our politicians are making up all kinds of crazy things up about Iran right now. But in his impetus to limit something that no one was intending on doing anytime in the foreseeable future, he has impeded the plans of tjhose in the US who were planning on using their superstitions to impose thier belief system on everybody else. Good work, Sen. Duncan. You may not realize it now, but you done good.

Chuck Schumer Is A Racist Bigot

We were lied to our entire lives. Democracy isn't about voting for what you believe, or what serves our best interest. Nosireebob!'
No, according to Chick Schumer, senator from New York, democracy is about voting the way other people want you to vote, even if you have to strangle them economically. You know, like the Gaza blockade.
No longer are people allowed to base their voting habits on the truth as they perceive it, they are being manipulated into voting in someone else's interest. This works well on Republicans, who have Fox News/Rush Limbaugh/the NRA/the AFA to scare people into believing those opposed to their agenda are terrorists.
But Schumer is worse than that. He believes that Palestinians deserve it because "they don't believe in the Torah". Hey, I don't believe in the Torah, does that make it okay for someone to economically strangle me until I do? All this proves is that Israel is not a democracy, but an apartheid theocracy, albeit a racist one, where those people not of the state religion are not entitled to the same rights as those of the correct religion.
So if Chuck Schumer believes in manipulating democracy, maybe he doesn't belong in our congress. Using fear to get people to vote against their own interest doesn't make for a better democracy. It makes for a frightened paranoid populace, armed with guns and just enough misinformation to make them dangerous.

One Man's Morality Is Another Man's Tax

So Al Gore thinks that global warming climate change is a moral issue. That's all I need, a morality lesson on a man who circumnavigates the globe in a private jet. Sure, I know, he uses carbon offsets, but do carbon offsets make his pollution less polluting because he isn't polluting somewhere else?
It's like the Carbon exchange that will make Gore a rich man, it doesn't really stop pollution if someone is still spewing carbon into the air? And what's so moral about a carbon tax? Robbing the poor and working people so that our government can take more of their money so they can give it to Israel to buy more bullets to kill more Americans? Where's the morality in that?
the problem is that this country has lost it's moral compass. We don't seem to have a problem with starving people and denying them medical treatment when Israel does it, but somewhere else? Then all of America suddenly grows a conscience.
So save your talk of 'morality' for some sucker who has no problem giving you their hard earned money so you can travel in comfort on a private jet. Around here, if you don't walk it like you talk it, you just full of hot air. And maybe, just maybe, another cause of global warming climate change.

John Boehner: Man Of Grace, Respect And Class

Before there was a Monty Python, there was the Beatles, four lads from Liverpool whom, besides being great musicians and songwriters, had a flash of wit about them. Long before John Lennon dressed down an upper class twit in A Hard Day's Night, he stood before the Queen at the Royal Variety show and asked the people in the cheaper seats to clap their hands, and the rest of the audience to "rattle their jewelry". Irreverent and cheeky, there wasn't anybody whom they wouldn't take down a peg.
So it was of little surprise when Sir Paul McCartney, a Member of the British Empire, and a knight as well, made a comment to President Obama when he received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song about how nice that America again has a president "who knows what a library is". ( I think it's nice we have a president who's not as likely to call it a 'liberry')
Just a joke, right? Well, not to House Minority Leader John Boehner. Boehner is demanding Sir Paul apologize for taking a jab at George W Bush.

"Like millions of other Americans, I have always had a good impression of Paul McCartney and thought of him as a classy guy, but I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of grace and respect he displayed at the White House," Boehner said in a statement. "I hope he'll apologize to the American people for his conduct which demeaned him, the White House and President Obama."

Hmmm. Lack of grace and respect? Let's look in the vault, and see how much class, grace and respect Rep. Boehner has had for President Obama, shall we?
John Boehner: President Obama has a 'pre-9/11 mentality'. That's not so bad. How about Boehner says Obama's bills make him 'want to throw up'. Vomiting, always a sign of class and grace, as exhibited by George Bush the first at a Japanese state dinner during his term. Then there was the claim that Obama is driving the US towards socialism, that's certainly respectful, and classy. Then John Boehner called the president out for not going far enough to allow offshore drilling, and even went as far as to call then-candidate obama a a chickenshit. So, as you can see, John Boehner is all about class, grace and respect. As long as it's for the people in his party. Stay classy, John Boehner, stay classy.

Exceptionalism Means Shooting An American Citizen Four Times In The Head And Having Our Representatives Blame The Victim

"They hate us because we are free. And they are not."
Remember that li'l piece o'wisdom from George W? The "terrorists" hate us because they are not free. And, given what Israel is doing in Gaza, he's right, the Palestinians are not free. What's more, they have no recourse. The UN has sixty-five resolutions against Israel, many of them regarding it's treatment of Palestinians. That doesn't include the numerous ones against Israel vetoed by the US in the UNSC. So, if you are a Palestinian, your land is being stolen, your livelihood, your olive groves being destroyed and you can do nothing about it, or your family and friends are suffering, and you can do nothing about, what recourse do you have?
As Americans, we are taught, as Christians, as progressives, as citizens of the Earth to try and help those people who are suffering. Many people who have not sold their soul to a belief system or have been brainwashed by a media more intent on drumming up support for a rating feeding war than offering an objective view, see the people of Gaza suffering, and wish to help those people. Guess what? You are not free to do that either. And, if as an American, you are shot four times in the head trying to bring some good old fashioned justice to an unjust situation, it's your fault if our "greatest ally" murders you in cold blood. You wouldn't say that it's a soldiers fault, when, in the service of the corpocracy, he is killed by the enemy. Many people now serving in overseas wars are mistakenly believing that the people they are fighting in Iraq, or Afghanistan are the ones responsible for the attacks of 9/11. And if Harry Reid told voters that it's a soldier's fault he died because he joined the Army, the corporate media and right wing would be all over him like the IDF on an unarmed relief flotilla.
And why are the people of Gaza suffering? Because in the 2006 Palestinian parliament elections, Hamas won a majority of seats. Democracy in action, right? Well, it seems the US and Israel backed Fatah (which is probably why Fatah lost;  US citizens are the only ones who don't mind their politicians being owned by foreign governments), so in retaliation for the Palestinians exercising the "freedom" to vote as they saw fit, the Gaza Blockade began.
Many people have made comparisons to the Gaza population and the treatment of the Jewish people under the Nazi regime. There is a slight difference. What happened in the ghettos of Warsaw and other European countries under the Hitler regime was not funded by the US government. It was not condoned by our politicians.
In the end, when you treat fellow human beings as animals, with less rights than you have, you cannot expect them to respond in a civilized fashion. And as long as the US sends unmanned drones into Pakistan, or uses white phosphorus on the citizens of Fallujah, or spends nine years dropping bombs on the civilians in Afghanistan, "they" will always "hate" us. As long as we prevent the UN from issuing any punitive measures against Israel while simultaneously pushing for more punitive sanctions against countries like Iran, which hasn't been proven to be doing anything against it's obligations under the NPT, all at the insistence of Israel, "they" will always "hate" us. Eliminating American and Israeli exceptionalism may not end all terrorism, but it is a step in the right direction.

Hopefully, The UN Has A Short Attention Span

A gaggle of television watching diplomats? That's what the US is hoping for as it pushes back it's sanctions against Iran due to the fallout from the flotilla massacre. You know, the recent murder of activists bringing aid to the suffering Palestinians of Gaza by the Israeli Navy. Meanwhile, the US is quick to claim that blame Israel for the crimes it has committed when in fact, it's the activists fault for getting in the way of the bullets the Israelis fired. Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked asked world leaders to dial down their criticism of Israel.
In fact, some US congresspersons defended the excessive use of force by the Israelis, but then why shouldn't they since they all receive contributions from Pro-Israel PACs.
So remember, the Israelis can murder civilians with impunity, because they have bought our politicians. But Iran, which is living up to it's obligations under the NPT must suffer sanctions, because it's what Israel wants. So now they have to wait until the international outrage has died down before they can ask the UN to punish Iran, while hoping that no sanctions are levied against them.