Friday, March 1, 2013


https://sites.google.com/site/pdxactivismnews/if-you-want-peace-work-for-justice

posted a minute ago by Timothy Martin Flanagan
Come and hear an inspiring and uplifting story by Bill Dienst, M.D.,
co-editor of
Freedom Sailors: The Maiden Voyage of the Free Gaza Movement
  and How We Succeeded in Spite of Ourselves” (2012)
.

He will tell how forty-four intrepid passengers broke through
Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza in August 2008. 
                                   
 If you want Peace, work for Justice / 
If you want Justice, work for Peace
Endorsed by Peaceresource.org
Hear how a group of ordinary people came up with a bold idea to bring international
attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

The two boats, the Free Gaza and the Liberty, sailed into port on Aug. 23, 2008.
This is a public event - so spread the word!
$5-$10 suggested donation (no one will be turned away for lack of funds); all funds raised will do to
Gaza's Ark and Palestinian Projects in Gaza

supported by http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/vfp Chapter 72
and Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER), Endorsed by 
The Portland Alliance 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

John Brennan is the WRONG CHOICE!

  CIVIL LIBERTIES  

5 Most Terrifying Things About the Likely New CIA Head John Brennan

President Obama tapped a man for the top CIA post who has supported drone strikes, torture and extraordinary rendition.
 
John Brennan in Washington, DC in 2011.
 
 
 
 
Lost amidst the manufactured controversy over President Barack Obama’s pick of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense is the equally consequential pick for new director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Yesterday, President Obama tapped a man for the top CIA post who has supported the hallmarks of the permanent war on terror: wiretapping, drone strikes and torture. Pending confirmation, John Brennan, currently a top counterterrorism adviser to Obama, will be the new head of the powerful CIA. Brennan will take over from David Petraeus, who was felled by an extramarital affair.

President Obama praised Brennan in a press conference January 7, where the announcement of Brennan as CIA head was made. “For the last four years, as my Advisor for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, John developed and has overseen our comprehensive counterterrorism strategy — a collaborative effort across the government, including intelligence and defense and homeland security, and law enforcement agencies,” said Obama. “And so think about the results.  More al Qaeda leaders and commanders have been removed from the battlefield than at any time since 9/11.”

Obama’s praise for Brennan ignores the man’s dubious record. So instead, we’ll give Brennan’s history a closer look--and point out five disturbing facts you should know about Brennan’s past.

1. Staunch Drone Warrior

Brennan is closely identified with the Obama administration’s expanded policy of using drones, or remotely piloted aircraft, to strike at suspected militants in countries such as Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. TheWashington Post refers to Brennan as “the principal architect of a policy that has transformed counterterrorism from a conventional fight centered in Afghanistan to a high-tech global effort to track down and eliminate perceived enemies one by one.” The Post adds that Brennan is at the “core” of the White House centered effort to use drones and that “when operations are proposed in Yemen, Somalia or elsewhere, it is Brennan alone who takes the recommendations to Obama for a final sign-off.”

What has this meant for people on the ground in Yemen and Pakistan? Disaster, in a word. The drone strikes have killed scores of civilians in those countries, sparking widespread anger at the United States and, in some cases, driving people into the arms of extremists who despise the U.S. According to theBureau of Investigative Journalism, which closely tracks U.S. drone strikes, 290 civilians have been killed in Pakistan as a result of the Obama administration’s drone program.

2. Misleading Advocate for Drones

Brennan has also been the administration’s public face when they feel the need to explain their program of targeted assassinations. Brennan gave the first public acknowledgement of the Obama administration’s drone strike program in an April 30, 2012 speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

He’s also a serial misleader on the drone program. “There hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we've been able to develop,” Brennan said in June 2011. But asMicah Zenko points out in Foreign Policy, there have been many “public reports -- from Pakistani and Yemeni reporters and anonymous administration officials -- of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes.”

Zenko also points out another of Brennan’s misleading statements on drone strikes. In an August 2012 speech, Brennan claimed that “contrary to conventional wisdom, we see little evidence that [drone strikes] are generating widespread anti-American sentiment or recruits for AQAP. In fact, we see the opposite: Our Yemeni partners are more eager to work with us.” But Brennan is dead wrong on this. As Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen wrote in The New York Times, “Brennan’s assertion was either shockingly naïve or deliberately misleading. Testimonies from Qaeda fighters and interviews I and local journalists have conducted across Yemen attest to the centrality of civilian casualties in explaining Al Qaeda’s rapid growth there. The United States is killing women, children and members of key tribes.”

3. Supporter of Immunity for Telecom Companies

When the scandal of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans broke, one issue that got a lot of attention was the complicity of telecommunication companies who allowed the Bush administration to spy on their customers. But Brennan thinks those companies should be left alone, despite his skepticism of warrantless wiretapping.

In 2008, as the debate over telecom immunity raged, Brennan said: “I do believe strongly that they should be granted that immunity, because they were told to do so by the appropriate authorities that were operating in a legal context, and so I think that’s important.” This line of reasoning, later implemented into the law, shields corporate communication companies from lawsuits from customers who may have been unlawfully spied on.

4. Supporter of Torture

Brennan is opposed to waterboarding, the most infamous torture tactic of the Bush years. But on other aspects of the torture program, he’s more supportive. “A lot of information... has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives,”he said in 2007, while he was a CIA aide. The New Yorker's Jane Mayer described Brennan as a "supporter" of the CIA's torture program.

And what were these CIA tactics that Brennan is referring to? They includedslamming detainees’ heads against walls; prolonged standing in stress positions; beating and kicking; prolonged shackling of hands and feet; and much more.

5. Extraordinary Rendition Booster
Closely connected to the Bush administration’s torture regime was its program of extraordinary rendition--the term given to the practice of abducting suspected terrorists from one country and secretly shipping them to another country, where they would be interrogated and tortured. Brennan was in full support of this program.

In 2005, Brennan described extraordinary rendition as “an absolutely vital tool” that “without a doubt has been very successful as far as producing intelligence that has saved lives." What Brennan left out is that rendition often delivered people to brutal regimes where they were tortured at the behest of the U.S. And, while it certainly nabbed extremists trying to attack the U.S., innocent people were also caught up in the operation. Maher Arar is the most visible face of how the rendition program went wrong: a dual Syrian and Canadian citizen, Arar was detained by the U.S. in 2002 and then deported to Syria where he was tortured on suspicion of being a member of Al Qaeda. Turns out he was nothing of the sort, and the Canadian government has since apologized to Arar.
Alex Kane is AlterNet's New York-based World editor, and an assistant editor for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

Monday, August 13, 2012

A FEW WORDS ABOUT Voting for Obama in 2012

           http://theissueslist.blogspot.com/

No Fear, No Compromise, and No Surrender This Fall
  Some Reasons Why I Cannot Vote for Obama
I refuse to surrender to fear and compromise with evil.

    by Tim Flanagan,
          contributing editor of The Portland Alliance
         This editorial piece does not necessarily reflect the views
          of NAAME, Inc.
This information based on public records.

1. He did not even propose the public option healthcare system:
    he campaigned on that system, promising to propose it.
    Instead he orchestrated putting insurance cartels in charge of
    our health care delivery system, with mandated payments
    according to rates determined by this industry.  A sellout,
    pure and simple.  He took universal nonprofit heatlh care off
    the table, instead of taking the transnational insurance cartel
    profiteers off the table.

2. He has appointed countless Wall Street Insiders to his top
    economic team and failed to appoint labor voices and/or
    progressive advocates.

3. He bailed out Wall Street instead of Main Street: remember
    TARP? And then the banks dispensed $6 billion in bonuses in
    that year to their executives.  Americans are losing their homes,
    often due to outrageous medical expenses and corporate fraud.
    Where is our bail out? We got sold out.
   
4. He failed to attack the mortgage crisis, leaving an elephant
    still in our “room”, with one-third of home mortgages now
    underwater and no relief in sight.

5. He failed to veto the National Defense Authorization Act, and
    made no effort to restore habeas corpus.  Instead of closing
    Gitmo, ending indiscriminate wiretapping, and banning
    "rendering," Obama has endorsed government arrests and
    indefinite prison without a trial or hearing, including the
    possibility of rendering Americans to be tortured, raped, or
    murdered overseas.

6. He agreed to an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich,
    and on top of this, he agreed to an egregious reduction of estate
    taxes on the rich, exempting as much as $10 million from any
    estate taxes and lowering the overall estate tax rate.
 
7. He failed to indict and imprison any of the banksters involved
    in all of that fraud on Wall Street from the subprime mortgage,
    including robo-signing, and selling shit-backed mortgage
    securities known to be worthless. And he has refused to
    prosecute war profiteers who cost us trillions of dollars in
    resources and millions of lives. Hold them accountable!

8. He appointed Jeffrey Immelt to head his Jobs Council when GE
    has been selling us up the Yangste river and shipping jobs over-
    seas while closing plants here in the US.  It is time for jobs with
    justice on American soil.  We must inveset in rebuilding our
    infrastructure as a matter of job security and national security.

9. President Obama is now considering and proposing to lower the
    corporate tax rate to 26%, when corporations are not only at a
    low-time rate of paying taxes but getting billions in tax
    subsidies from our government and opening up offices on the
    19th floor of one building on the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes
    altogether.  The corporate elite should pay their fair share.
    Currently the average Fortune 500 corporation pays 8.4%
    in taxes. (If they pay any at all.)

10. President Obama spoke in favor of PIPA and SOPA, when the
    internet is the last vestige of free speech and the availability of
    free information to the general public.

11. There were no indictments by President Obama of all the con-
    tractor fraud reported by Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul in a
    Congressional Report released over a year ago. Whenever the
    rich and big corporations are caught in fraud, Eric Holder adopts
    a policy of “looking forward”, instead of holding them account-
    able. So they smile, take it to the bank, and do it again.

12. President Obama agreed to a “grand bargain” t) to cut over $2
    trillion in spending, including social security, medicare, medicaid,
    and other social safety-net programs merely in return for
    hypothetical “revenue increases” of $800 billion relying on
    “dynamic scoring”.  And he endorsed continuing corporate
    wars of aggression and exploitation whose expense continues
    to suck us dry.

13. President Obama has done nothing to level the trade treaties,
    where corporations are shipping labor to Cambodia and to
    China, the Philippines, etc., where labor is paid 25 cents or less
    per hour. This is exporting slavery to other countries. Where is
    the level playing field for Americans?  We need fair trade not
    corporate welfare.

14. President Obama in 2009 only proposed $140 billion in infra-
    structure spending when Paul Krugman and other economists
    predicted that $1.5 trillion was needed for our economy to
    recover. And last year only proposed a paltry $108 billion in
    infrastructure spending. If we ended the corporate wars of
    exploitation abroad, we could bring home the troops and begin
    rebuilding America. These project would create jobs with justice
    and all ships would rise.

15. President Obama praised the recent JOBS Act, which allows
    corporations to go public and raise capital without audited
    financial information in their public presentations for the first 5
    years, allowing them to present fictitious numbers and defraud
    investors.  He is not on our side.

16. President Obama has failed to propose the return of Glass-
    Steagall, separating commercial and investment banking, which
    will soon plunge us back into another mega-bailout of Wall Street.

17. President Obama has failed to propose the break up of the big
    banks and corporations. Whatever happened to the Sherman
    Anti-Trust Act?  We need responsible remediation and regulation
    so that deep pocket transnationals don't call the shots and hurt
    most American taxpayers.

18. President Obama touted a $25 billion robo-signing settlement
    when a trillion dollars of our pension and retirement funds were
    stolen.  Instead we should hold them accountable, put the
    profiteers in jail, and demand full reparations.

19. While campaigning, President Obama promised to put on his
    walking shoes for labor, but failed to even show up in Wisconsin
    and walk the picket line against Governor Walker.

20. President Obama has not declared war on the Supreme Court,
    as President Roosevelt did, to oppose the corporate/rich posture
    of Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts. Why not take
    them on?

21. President Obama has arrested and raided more marijuana users
    in less than four years than George Bush did in eight years.  Why
    is President Obama proposing cuts to social security, medicare,
    and medicaid while spending more on marijuana arrests and
    raids, especially when a majority of Americans are for legalization
    of pot and for the open sale of marijuana for medical use?

22. Obama endorses the murder of US prisoners.  This results in
    innocent deaths and does not deter crime.  This posture is in
    violation of international law and treaties we have signed.

23. Obama embraces the Bush Doctrine: he claims we have a "right"
    to attack anyone, anywhere, anytime, for any reason, or without
    providing any reason at all.  This is dangerous, short-sighted, and
    puts this nation and our troops overseas at avoidable risk.

24. Obama support offshore drilling and drilling in protected habitats.

24. Obama has not adequately addressed our failing schools. We
    need to put teachers back in charge and get untrained school
    board members out of the classroom.  Trained professional
    educators can to a better job than local untrained business owners.

25. Obama has betrayed those who voted for him on every issue
    at every turn. He has governed like a right-wing hawk.  He plays
    fast and loose with human lives and embraces corporatism, even
    when this posture costs trillions of dollars in profiteering and
    corruption while making us less safe.  This bad judgement has
    crippled this nation and made us less effective in negotiations
    around the globe. Instead of a rising tide we have sinking ships.
    We need effective, principled, progressive leadership to build
    bridges to a more prosperous and promising future.

26. Obama has not even bothered to address our economic crisis.
    He has not addressed homelessness, declining wages, hunger,
    joblessness, and critical infrastructure: housing, parks, highways,
    bridges, ports, electrical grids, schools, libraries, research facilities,
    and so much more.

27. Obama sends drones overseas to bomb sovereign nations (an
    act of war). This aggression costs innocent lives and creates
    more enemies.  It is also illegal according to US law,
    constitutional mandates, and international law.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

"Free Trade" or Fair Trade...


We need fair trade, not so-called "free trade."
What these bad deals mean is that large transnational economic cartels
are "free" to exploit, abuse, and cripple small farmers, small business, and everyday people in third world nations to lower incomes and make the rich richer.

After destroying economies and stifling job-creating small businesses in surrounding nations, hungry and desperate people migrate to America,
where they are again exploited, abused, and misused to effectively lower wages here. These deals are lose-lose propositions for everyday people at home and abroad.  Do not be fooled. Obama and Romney BOTH support these corporate attacks on everyday people.

We need fair trade and straight talk. Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, and other progressives support unions, fair trade, and everyday people.

No fear. Have courage. We will not be moved. Viva la revolution!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

MayDay!

http://www.theportlandalliance.org/mayday
Four Fliers! #1 TPA / #2 JWJ / #3 VOZ / #4 General Strike!
Celebrate International Workers' Day!

Subscribe in a reader

The PDX Mayday Blog:http://www.pdxmayday.blogspot.com
MAY DAY ORGANIZING MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Saturdays, 1-3pm and Wednesdays 5:30pm
at St. Francis, SE 12th Oak
May Day Organizing Committee Website:
http://maydaypdx.blogspot.com
This year's celebration and protest on International Workers Day, May 1st,
will be the combined efforts of a broad swath of the 99%, from the Occupy Movement, existing May Day organizations, JWJ, The Alliance, Laughing Horse, KBOO, unions, and new and old groups who stand for peace, justice, freedom, and everyday people.


General Strike!
Occupy General Strike
https://www.facebook.com/events/337068492974144/
MayDay, International Workers Day
Socialist Unity Party USA
https://www.facebook.com/events/264039236940902/

MAYDAY!
The NW Alliance for Alternative Media & Education Portal
https://www.facebook.com/events/220604641373277/

Mayday general strike march!
Under the Burnside Bridge
https://www.facebook.com/events/408483545845941/

Marcha Primero de Mayo en Portland
¡LOS DERECHOS DE LOS INMIGRANTES SON DERECHOS LABORALES!
https://www.facebook.com/events/284414721638568/


MAYDAY 2012: The Light of Hope March & Rally

CAUSA OREGON http://oregonmayday.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/395901180427146/

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

What does the occupation movement want?

"No Fear. No Compromise,
and No Surrender!"
Tim Flanagan@
The NW Alliance
“You cannot buy the revolution.
You cannotmake the revolution.
You can only be the revolution.
It is in your spirit or it is nowhere.”
Ursula K. Le Guin,

The people who protest today
want peace, freedom, liberty,
health care, jobs with justice,
and education.  This growing
global movement is about
economic crisis.

"A revolution is coming –
a revolution which will be
peacefulif we are wise enough;
compassionateif we care enough;
successful if we are fortunate enough
– but a revolution which is coming
whether we will it or not.
We can affect its character;
we cannot alter its inevitability.”
                                         ― John F. Kennedy

"Bailing out" billionaire bankers while everyday
people lose their homes does not make any sense. 

Today's economic problems stem from the largest transfer
of funds in the history of the planet. This was facilitated by
transnational economic cartels during the Cheney/Bush years... 
The military industrial complex won the war and we have been
taken to the cleaners by right wing criminals, thugs, and profiteers. 


Emma Goldman “People have only as much liberty as they have the
intelligence to want and the courage to take.”
Emma Goldman 
Occupation movement organizers have asked that
we invest in roads, bridges, libraries, schools,
hospitals, and ports instead of providing corporate welfare:
war-profiteering, tax breaks for billionaires, and the misuse
and abuse of of our troops to enforce corporate ambitions.

Globally and locally we must throw the bums out and install
real leaders to end the wars, prosecute war profiteers, and
spend the savings and reparations on parks, seaports,
airports, railroads, ships, space exploration, scientific
research, and other programs which provide for the good
of everyday people across the globe.  


Arundhati Roy “Our strategy should be not only to confront
empire,but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen.
To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music,
our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our
brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our
             ability to tell our own stories."
              Arundhati Roy

   

Bob Marley “Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.”
Bob Marley

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Organize for Issues!

Breaking News! Brutal Attacks on Peaceful Occupy Oakland gathering!
http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupation
CourageConquers Fear
Stand up for the 99%

Breaking News!
OccupyPortland

The Portland Alliance and KBOO are sponsoring 
VOICES IN ACTION: HUMAN RIGHTS ON FILM NWFILM.ORG

  Download Poster!    Download the Schedule!
"The right to rebellion is the right to seek a higher rule..."   GEORGE ELIOT
Sunday, Nov. 13
 Greg Palast at the Bagdad:
702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
ForTheAlliance&KBOO!

Speaking Truth to Power Since 1981!
Support local media!
Of, by, & for the people!
Here is a new Alliance Interactive Calendar: add your own events! We are a 501C3 Nonprofit for Public Benefit. (NAAME)
Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List iconSign up for our Email Newsletter
For Email Marketing you can trust
Table of Contents!
Live Music & Festivals

 
Our  Community Calendar is where thousands of organizers in the Pacific Northwest discover opportunities for action or submit their own events!
        http://www.theportlandalliance.org/communitycalendar
If you want to learn more about the Alliance, please examine the seven issues we have published in 2011 at this address:
        http://www.theportlandalliance.org/issues.html 

Or visit our Blog and carry on a conversation with our staff.
            http://portlandalliancenews.blogspot.com/
 
We are the news for Occupy Portland, the Occupy Portland Alliance is on site.  Check with Andrea Townsend for the Occupation Alliance http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupyportland  send stories, articles pictures for online or print issues!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Has the Republican Party Become a Religion?

If the GOP is a religion
(I do not argue the premise),
then Obama is a convert.

The only rationale for voting for Obama
is the "lesser of evils" theory. But we
have evidence to contradict this notion.
The Obama presidency has been more
dangerous than the George W. Bush's legacy.
No hope or change. More war,
job losses, foreclosures, unemployment,
skyrocketing health care costs, etc.

Obama is a dyed in the wool, right wing Republican of the most
dangerous sort.  He talks the Democratic talk so he can walk the
Republican walk. And he walks on: crushing peace, health care,
effective schools, intact infrastructure, environmental
responsibility, and progress beneath his feet. And along with these...
we lose hopes, dreams, and aspirations he does not share.

Obama embraces wars of choice, executions of prisoners,
rendering Americans, wiretapping citizens, suspending habeas
corpus, taking nonprofit health care off the table, and virtually
every other item on the right wing agenda.

The choice between Eisenhower and Stephenson... did represent
two prudent, principled, and moderate traditions. But comparing
Obama to either is a false choice. Obama most closely resembles
George W. Bush. He believes in unrestrained executive power,
misusing our military to enforce corporate ambitions abroad, and
suspension or dismissal of constitutional protections,
habeas corpus, & basic civil rights.

He is an absolutely dangerous man. Even George W. Bush did
not refer to calculated assassinations in contradiction of US civil,
constitutional, and international law as "justice." But Cheney
would be on board.

We must find a more prudent and progressive vehicle in our
attempt to take back this nation. A second term for Obama
will guarantee four more years of increasing militancy, dilutions
of personal freedom, and corporate control of our government,
military resources, and economic future. We cannot afford
another four years of Bush family rule. We are already bankrupt.
We have zero credibility. Our infrastructure is crumbling, health
care costs continue to skyrocket, home foreclosures are increasing,
our schools are failing, and wars of choice sap our economic and
military strength while contradicting our most basic values.

Now is no time for compromise. Wishful thinking will not
transform the failed Obama presidency. Obama is a zealot, and his
recklessness and pure religious ideology of hellfire, brimstone,
and vengeance... will never allow pragmatism, civility or reason.
This is why he talks the talk and walks in the opposite direction.
His temperment and tone allow him a pretense of civility, while
he engineers a devastating corporate takeover which continues to
destroy this nation. If he defeats the Republicons next year, the
war is over. Everyday people will have lost and corporate cons
will be securely in control for generations to come.

We need real change and true courage to counter the corporate
con game. There is too much on the line to compromise with
corruption, carnage, and corporatism, We must choose peace,
freedom, and jobs with justice. These are not on Obama's agenda.
He has made this abundantly clear. We have extended our war-
based economy, lost more freedom, our jobs continue to move
overseas, and while we lose our homes and our children lose
their future, our wages continue to decline.

If you want to guarantee this sordid decline, campaign for
Obama. He will deliver war, corporate hegemony, foreclosures,
unemployment, and a perverse form of indentured servitude...
while China, India, the European block, and transnational
economic cartels make us the largest third-world nation
on the planet.

We must locate and support a viable presidential candidate.
Register as a Democrat for the primaries, and afterwards
re-register as Working Families Party or some other alternative
to the corporate con game. At least this tactic keeps real issue
on the table and in the debates... Democrats Rep. Alan Grayson
(D-FL), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), and Bernie Sanders (D-Vt)
(who refuses to run) are potential candidates who "would be far
and away a better choice than than President Obama." And other
candidates may emerge:

Keith Olbermannk, Al Franken, Sheryl Sandberg, Elizabeth
Warren, Thom Hartmann, Barbara Lee, Raul Grijalva, Lynn
Woolsey, Joe Sestak, Dennis Kucinich, Rachel Maddow,
Robert F.Kennedy Jr., Bill Moyers...  Any other ideas?

Friday, September 9, 2011

Identify the Enemy

We are now in six wars of choice to support corporate
ambitions abroad while Americans lose jobs, homes,
income, and hope.  The corporate parties are not responding
to demands for peace, jobs with justice, and rebuilding
infrastructure for a better tomorrow.  Since these clueless
legislators don't get it, 2012 will be a watershed election. 
Republicons and Demagogues have overplayed their hands. 

Corporatists in congress and the White house will be shown
the door. Everyday people intend to take back this nation. 
The delusions of the mean right wing spin machine will no
longer carry the day or deliver the votes.  And Democrats who
are willing to compromise ideas and ideals... are going to find
themselves without a shred of support.

Unrestricted Corporatism is our enemy.  We fought the good
fight against the military industrial complex after Eisenhower
warned us about the danger.  But they won.  We have to face
what has happened to America.  We are a divided nation.  All
of us know people who were foolish enough to vote for extremists
on the right. And these people are not, for the most part, bad,
or hateful people. What they are is afraid. They are afraid of
terrorists, gays, liberals, poverty, losing their jobs, change, and
a laundry list of bogeymen, ghouls, ghosts, and goblins. Progressives
and liberals are afraid for some of the same reasons, and also afraid
of big government, wiretapping, wards of choice, deteriorating
infrastructure, unending wars, bombs, corruption, and body bags.

Most everyday people just want to live their lives, according to
their own choices, and be left alone.  But more often than not, we
are forced to listen to someone else's standard being forced upon us.

Corporate media sells us Viagra, tells us Social Security is in danger,
pontificates about Muslim threats, and tells us to be very afraid. 
Transnational economic cartels move decent jobs overseas while
simultaneously accepting corporate welfare supplied by middle
class Americans. Large insurance cartels threaten to take our homes
when we cannot pay our medical bills.  And the Fortune 500
companies that deliver our "news," produce papers and magazines
which more closely resemble gossip rags than actual journalism.

And regardless of who we vote for, our government is run according
to the whims of corporate cartels.  People have lost control of our
government and of their own lives, fortunes, and future.  While we
lose our homes and send our kids to failing schools, too many of us
have turned on one another instead of facing the real enemy.

The people have lost control and they are afraid. There is a need
to blame someone. We as a people have turned on each other and
instead need to realize who the enemy really is.

The enemy is not capitalism, socialism, fascism, or communism....
The enemy is unrestrained and unregulated corporatism.
This trumps everything:  family, nation, religious beliefs,
and truth.

It's time we put hate aside, stop calling each other names
(left and right), and focus on the real enemy.
We can stand together, in courage,
and make a difference. 

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Are broke or broken, or can be fight back!

The reason we are in debt is because speculators, unimpeded by meaningful 
regulation, destroyed our economic system... because they could.  And started
crippling wars of choice, because they chose to.    

And now, instead of ending corporate adventurism abroad, we talk about cutting
basic human services at home.  Absolute nonsense.  Not a statement of policy
but a retreat to delusion.  A bald-faced lie.

The debt or its ceiling is beside the point.  We must end regressive corporate welfare, 
reinvest in America, and remove lifetime congressional welfare workers.  

When we end the war and restore congressional retirement benefits to 
the Social Security Trust Fund from whence they came, we will be on 
the way to becoming solvent. There is no good reason for public servants 
to give themselves raises and untenable benefits extending beyond their 
time in service. Simple extortion.  They need pay cuts and chill pills.  

As we rebuild the trust fund we can invest in job creation at home, 
rebuilding our infrastructure instead of paying corporate contractors
to exploit taxpayers at home and those they misuse our forces to 
occupy and expliot abroad. 

The Chickens have come home to roost.  And it has little to do 
with debt-ceiling rhetoric and everything to do with the bottom line.

We deserve justice, integrity, and competence. 
It is time we demanded accountability and reparations.
We are not broke or broken.  We are being robbed.  
It is time to restore the rule of law. 

tmf