FREEDOM FUNNEL...Down The Drain

A FINANCIAL VICTORY FOR AMERICA...

2010-09-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

My opinion of the appointment of Elizabeth Warren... in a few years we will view here as a national treasure...

Elizabeth Warren's Greatest Hits from MoveOn.org Official Channel on Vimeo.

Main Street Folks Sound off About Social Security & Tax Breaks For The Rich...

2010-08-20T14:10:00.000-05:00

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AMERICA... 2010 STYLE...

2010-08-17T19:15:00.002-05:00

I had intended to comment on the demagoguery now being vomited upon the American people by a collection of right wing self-serving creeps who have never heard of the U.S. Constitution, let alone actually believe it to be the law of the land. These unbelievable denizens from the cess-pool that is politics in 2010, have managed to crawl up from their worm-infested lair to suggest that all Muslims are terrorists... thus it is alright for "us" to step on every legal right they have. These are the same band of liars who would strangle their own mother for a vote if they thought it would put them back in power.

Then, I happened to turn on the Countdown program on MS NBC and one of Keith Olbermann's Special Comments announced his intention to take on this issue. And, take it on he did... in a measured show of outrage that this subject deserves.

I cannot say it any better than Olbermann did... so here is the video in case you missed it...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Thank you, Keith... we all needed to hear that!
In 1963 I was a young man standing, with a group of other new enlistees in the U.S. Air Force, in the depot of the Kansas City train station. I raised my hand and took the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and boarded the old Katy line for San Antonio, Texas and four years of service to my country. I remember clearly that, as the oath was being recited, I felt what the Hawaiian people refer to as "Chicken Skin"... we called them "Goose Bumps". You could see it in the eyes of every other young person standing in that formation... Pride & Honor. I believed in that Constitution then... and I believe it now. I would no more turn my back on the words and meaning of that document than I would urinate on the flag. It is simply unthinkable.

So, when political hacks suggest that we should just ignore the very heritage that made this nation what it is today, I get very upset. Freedom of religion, and all the other freedoms and obgligations outlined in that glorious document, are something I, and every other person who ever served in the U.S. military for the last 243 years, swore to uphold. That oath is part of me and, unless you want to see us become just another failed political experiement... it should be a part of YOU!

WE HAVE HEARD ALL THIS BEFORE... STOP THE SPIN...

2010-08-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

The war machine and all of military/industrial complex hawks are out in force trying to gin up the Afgan War and keep those dollars flowing.

Secrecy is the veil behind which all atrocities occur... and are perpetuated,

2010-08-14T16:39:00.000-05:00

Mr. Assange and Wikileaks seems to have brought out all the nut jobs in the world... all calling for his head on a platter. I look at the situation very differently...

Secrecy is the veil behind which all atrocities occur... and are perpetuated...

Those who suggest that it is wrong or "treason" to disclose this information are the same people which turn their back on the wrongs that happen every day in a perpetual war environment. The answer is not to try to silence those who reveal our shameful behavior. Instead we should be running to support them.

The sickos who suggest that WikiLeak activists should be "taken out" or killed... are the lowest form of lock-step thugs who would have us all submitting to authoritarian governments and wrong headed "public servants".

It is this same type of warped mindset that allows outside security contractors like Blackwater to run around playing cowboy... while committing murder in our name... on our payroll!

The cockroaches of the world all scurry to cover in the sunshine. Let's celebrate those who shine the light. They are the real hero's of the world!

BP AND THE GHOSTS OF GONZO...

2010-06-17T12:52:00.003-05:00

Not since we had to suffer the arrogance of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have I heard so many uses of "I cannot answer that question", "I was not a party to that decision", "I am unfamiliar with the details of that", " I do not recall", etc etc etc.

BP president Tony Hayward has proven himself to be a more consummate liar than Gonzo himself. In a display of corporate arrogance so profoundly egregious that it simply boggles the mind, Mr. Hayward continues to stonewall, feign lack of knowledge of events, spins and frames his answers to his Congressional committee questioners. He is under oath. But, that oath obviously means nothing to him or the company he works for. It is simply CYA for Mr. Hayward, British Petroleum, and, by extension... every other oil company in the world.

Make no mistake... the board of directors of BP is just as culpable as Mr. Hayward and the rest of the BP corporate executive team. They hire him... and they continue to employ him. They foster the corporate culture of greed, sense of entitlement, and separation of themselves from those they refer to as the "small people".

Unfortunately for the citizens of the world, BP has no lock on this attitude. Every oil, gas, big coal, big pharma, and the corporate controllers of the worlds energy, health, and water resources have exactly the same attitude.

Let's not forget that the lack of government oversight is not lost on us here. Oversight, it seems, means "being in bed with the corporations we are supposed to regulate"... literally and figuratively. Effective regulation is comprised of winks and nods and looking the other way... all for a few perks. Streetside harlots are better business people... and more honest. What we {you and I} are left with is a cesspool of mismanagement, misconduct, flaunting the law, moral decay, and total disregard for everyone... of epic proportions.

What is unfolding to the world is an example of corporate greed run amok. Mr. Hayward sits at the highest rungs of a corporate food chain that is very willing to put its own employees, and the health of the worlds environment, at risk... to achieve its profit goals... the public be damned.

Our own government have become the poster boys of enabler's. Regulators that do not know how to regulate. Law makers that do not act when necessary. Administrations that look the other way in order to feather their own nests. "Let them eat cake"... is the phrase that rings in ones ears... loudly and clearly.

(c)Thom Reece

"Be not ashamed to say you loved them..."

2010-05-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

In the sincere hope that we all remember the true purpose of Memorial Day, I invite you to read a heartfelt appeal by a remarkable soldier poet... who, sadly, is one of those "left behind"...

Thom Reece
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A POEM BY:
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell

If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.

Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.

And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

** Major O'Donnell was listed as MIA while piloting a
helicopter on a mission in Cambodia on 24 March 1970.
His remains were recovered and interred at
Arlington National Cemetery on 16 August 2001.
Lost for 31 years, Major O'Donnell is finally back home.

Major O'Donnell's remarkable poem was scrolled across
the screen at the end of the motion picture, "Hamburger Hill".

ENVIRONMENTAL ARMAGEDDON... a disaster of biblical proportions...

2010-05-12T17:24:00.000-05:00

Only weeks after pandering to the "drill baby drill" crowd in the vain hope of collecting a few Republican votes for anything... we see with crystal clarity the folly in off shore drilling. It is no longer the threat of the possibility of an accident.

We now have crude oil washing ashore on the Gulf Coast shoreline. It is destroying sensitive ecosystems, wildlife, jobs, cultures, ... and for what? A few barrels of oil that will make absolutely no difference to the balance of power in the world.. .or add to the security of our nation?

Why, when the same investment in alternative energy would provide clean energy in limitless quantities for centuries... perhaps for eternity?

It is called "politics" folks. The president and administration I voted for... that I worked hard to elect... has made the most bone-headed decision of its short life span. What happened to the Obama I voted for? Where is the man who stood on hundreds of podiums across this nation and vowed to be and "environmental" president? Vowed NOT to allow offshore drilling. Vowed to invest in clean energy sources.

He disappeared in the harsh dog-fight we call American Politics of Power & Money. He tried to buy a few votes... an expediency that may just have destroyed his presidency... his legacy... and any chance that we will ever be able to make right what man has caused.

How can a man with so much intelligence, so much potential, so much promise ... make such a STUPID decision? And how, in the face of a disaster never before faced by mankind... can the current administration claim they will "stay the course". Not since this nation thrust atomic weapons upon the world has such a far-reaching destructive force been voluntarily unleashed upon the world.

Understand that this is not an Anti-Obama diatribe... it is a statement of amazement that such a decision could possibly come for such a source. President Obama has done much to improve the world and counter the decline that those who came before him.

However, in this decision... he proved he is a grossly fallible man... fully able to make the most ignorant and arrogant of decisions.

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

2008-03-20T18:19:00.000-05:00

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate: "There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama." .... (Click on title link above to read entire article.) ...

Clinton Lie Kills Her Credibility on Trade Policy

2008-03-20T18:13:00.000-05:00

Clinton Lie Kills Her Credibility on Trade Policy: "Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; now that we know she held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval of the deal; now that we know she was in the thick of the manuevering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement. Now that we know all of this, how should we assess the claim that Hillary's heart has always beaten to a fair-trade rhythm?" ... (Click on title link above to read entire Nation article on Hillary Clinton's lies about NAFTA.) ...

Blackwater's Bu$ine$$

2007-12-10T10:45:00.000-06:00

Blackwater's Bu$ine$$
By Jeremy Scahill
The Nation
24 December 2007 Issue

Gunning down seventeen Iraqi civilians in an incident the military has labeled "criminal." Multiple Congressional investigations. A federal grand jury. Allegations of illegal arms smuggling. Wrongful death lawsuits brought by families of dead employees and US soldiers. A federal lawsuit alleging war crimes. Charges of steroid use by trigger-happy mercenaries. Allegations of "significant tax evasion." The US-installed government in Iraq labeling its forces "murderers."

With a new scandal breaking practically every day, one would think Blackwater security would be on the ropes, facing a corporate meltdown or even a total wipeout. But it seems that business for the company has never been better, as it continues to pull in major federal contracts. And its public demeanor grows bolder and cockier by the day.

Rather than hiding out and hoping for the scandals to fade, the Bush Administration's preferred mercenary company has launched a major rebranding campaign, changing its name to Blackwater Worldwide and softening its logo: once a bear paw in the site of a sniper scope, it's now a bear claw wrapped in two half ovals - sort of like the outline of a globe with a United Nations feel. Its website boasts of a corporate vision "guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world." Blackwater mercenaries are now referred to as "global stabilization professionals."

Blackwater's 38-year-old owner, Erik Prince, was No. 11 in Details magazine's "Power 50," the men "who control your viewing patterns, your buying habits, your anxieties, your lust.... the people who have taken over the space in your head."

In one of the company's most bizarre recent actions, on December 1 Blackwater paratroopers staged a dramatic aerial landing, complete with Blackwater flags and parachutes - not in Baghdad or Kabul but in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium during the halftime show at the San Diego State/BYU football game. The location was interesting, given that Blackwater is fighting fierce local opposition to its attempt to open a new camp - Blackwater West - on 824 acres in the small rural community of Potrero, just outside San Diego. Blackwater's parachute squad plans to land at the Armed Forces Bowl in Texas this month and the Virginia Gold Cup in May. The company recently sponsored a NASCAR racer, and it has teamed up with gun manufacturer Sig Sauer to create a Blackwater Special Edition full-sized 9-millimeter pistol with the company logo on the grip. It comes with a Limited Lifetime Warranty. For $18, parents can purchase infant onesies with the company logo.

In recent weeks, Blackwater has indicated it might quit Iraq. "We see the security market diminishing," Prince told the Wall Street Journal in October. Yet on December 3 Blackwater posted job listings for "security specialists" and snipers as a result of its State Department diplomatic security "contract expansion." While its name may be mud in the human rights world, Blackwater has not only made big money in Iraq (about $1 billion in State Department contracts); it has secured a reputation as a company that keeps US officials alive by any means necessary. The dirty open secret in Washington is that Blackwater has done its job in Iraq, even if it has done so by valuing the lives of Iraqis much lower than those of US VIPs. That badass image will serve it well as it expands globally.

Prince promises that Blackwater "is going to be more of a full spectrum" operation. Amid the cornucopia of scandals, Blackwater is bidding for a share of a five-year, $15 billion contract with the Pentagon to "fight terrorists with drug-trade ties." Perhaps the firm will join the mercenary giant DynCorp in Colombia or Bolivia or be sent into Mexico on a "training" mission. This "war on drugs" contract would put Blackwater in the arena with the godfathers of the war business, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

In addition to its robust business in law enforcement, military and homeland security training, Blackwater is branching out. Here are some of its current projects and initiatives:
Blackwater affiliate Greystone Ltd., registered offshore in Barbados, is an old-fashioned mercenary operation offering "personnel from the best militaries throughout the world" for hire by governments and private organizations. It also boasts of a "multi-national peacekeeping program," with forces "specializing in crowd control and less than lethal techniques and military personnel for the less stable areas of operation."

Prince's Total Intelligence Solutions, headed by three CIA veterans (among them Blackwater's number two, Cofer Black), puts CIA-type services on the open market for hire by corporations or governments.

Blackwater is launching an armored vehicle called the Grizzly, which the company characterizes as the most versatile in history. Blackwater intends to modify it to be legal for use on US highways.

Blackwater's aviation division has some forty aircraft, including turboprop planes that can be used for unorthodox landings. It has ordered a Super Tucano paramilitary plane from Brazil, which can be used in counterinsurgency operations. In August the aviation division won a $92 million contract with the Pentagon to operate flights in Central Asia.
It recently flight-tested the unmanned Polar 400 airship, which may be marketed to the Department of Homeland Security for use in monitoring the US-Mexico border and to "military, law enforcement, and non-government customers."

A fast-growing maritime division has a new, 184-foot vessel that has been fitted for potential paramilitary use.

Meanwhile, Blackwater is deep in the camp of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Cofer Black is Romney's senior adviser on counterterrorism. At the recent CNN/YouTube debate, when Romney refused to call waterboarding torture, he said, "I'm not going to specify the specific means of what is and what is not torture so that the people that we capture will know what things we're able to do and what things we're not able to do. And I get that advice from Cofer Black, who is a person who was responsible for counterterrorism in the CIA for some thirty-five years." That was an exaggeration of Black's career at the CIA (he was there twenty-eight years and head of counterterrorism for only three), but a Romney presidency could make Blackwater's business under Bush look like a church bake sale.

In short, Blackwater is moving ahead at full steam. Individual scandals clearly aren't enough to slow it down. The company's critics in the Democratic-controlled Congress must confront the root of the problem: the government is in the midst of its most radical privatization in history, and companies like Blackwater are becoming ever more deeply embedded in the war apparatus. Until this system is brought down, the world's the limit for Blackwater Worldwide and as its rebranding campaign shows, Blackwater knows it.

--------
Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!

MEDIA CENSORSHIP IN AMERICA...

2007-12-07T14:17:00.000-06:00

US corporate media deliberately censors the news...By Peter Phillips

The corporate media in the US likes to think of themselves as the official most accurate news reporting of the day. The New York Times motto of “all the news that’s fit to print” is a clear example of this perspective. However with corporate media coverage that increasingly focuses on a narrow range of celebrity updates, news from “official” government sources, and sensationalized crimes and disasters the self-justification of being the most fit is no longer valid in the US.

We need to broaden our understanding of censorship in the US. The dictionary definition of direct government control of news as censorship is no longer adequate. The private corporate media in the US significantly under covers and/or deliberately censors numerous important news stories every year.

The common theme of the most censored stories over the past year is the systemic erosion of human rights and civil liberties in both the US and the world at large. The corporate media ignored the fact that habeas corpus can now be suspended for anyone by order of the President.

With the approval of Congress, the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, signed by Bush on October 17, 2006, allows for the suspension of habeas corpus for US citizens and non-citizens alike. While media, including a lead editorial in the New York Times October 19, 2006, have given false comfort that American citizens will not be the victims of the measures legalized by this Act, the law is quite clear that ‘any person’ can be targeted. The text in the MCA allows for the institution of a military alternative to the constitutional justice system for “any person” regardless of American citizenship. The MCA effectively does away with habeas corpus rights for all people living in the US deemed by the President to be enemy combatants.

A law enacted last year allowing the government to more easily institute martial law is another civil liberties story ignored by the corporate media in 2007. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 allows the president to station military troops anywhere in the United States and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." The law in effect repealed the Posse Comitatus Act, which had placed strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement in the US since just after the Civil War.

Additionally, under the code-name Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) three federally coordinated mass arrests occurred between April 2005 and October 2006. In an unprecedented move, more than 30,000 “fugitives” were arrested in the largest dragnets in the nation's history. The operations, coordinated by the Justice Department and Homeland Security, directly involved over 960 agencies (state, local and federal) and are the first time in US history that all of the domestic police agencies have been put under the direct control of the federal government.

Finally, the term “terrorism” has been dangerously expanded to include any acts that interfere, or promotes interference, with the operations of animal enterprises. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), signed into law on November 27, 2006 expands the definition of an “animal enterprise” to any business that “uses or sells animals or animal products.” The law essentially defines protesters, boycotters or picketers of businesses in the US as terrorists.

Most people in the US believe in our Bill of Rights and value personal freedoms. Yet, our corporate media in the past year failed to adequately inform us about important changes in our civil rights and liberties. Despite our busy lives we want to be informed about serious decisions made by the powerful, and rely on the corporate media to keep us abreast of significant changes. When a media fails to cover these issues, what else can we call it but censorship?

A broader definition of censorship in America today needs to include any interference, deliberate or not, with the free flow of vital news information to the American people. With the size of the major media giants in the US, there is no excuse for consistently missing major news stories that affect all our lives.

[Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project Censored. His latest book Censored 2008 from Seven Stories Press is available in bookstores nationwide or at www.projectcensored.org.]

GONZO II and more of the same...

2007-05-13T16:43:00.000-05:00

Well, this week has been another exercise of more of the same...

Gonzo goes before a congressional committee and continues to declare "I don't recall." with a straight face. This man has no shame and no credibility. His role as official flack taker for the Bush regime is clear. As long as he continues to smile-and-forget then his function is well fulfilled. What a pathetic page of history he provides. It only proves that all you need to rise to high position in this government is a good haircut and a tailored suit... even if the suit and the head is empty and void of ethics.

Then we turn to the sad performance of John McCain both on the Republican dog and pony "debate in name only"--(to be fair it was not much different for the Democrats), and on today's "Meet The Press". This poor man is a shell of his former image... he has become just another lap dog for the far right who continues to spew the same bloody vomit of "optimism" regarding Iraq. His self-centered arrogance was startlingly clear with his "I have the answers" response to Tim Russert's question regarding why, in the face of the American peoples wishes (supported by the Iraq parliament) that we not set a time frame for withdrawal. He has, with one brief comment placed himself above the collective wisdom of 60% of the American people. Perhaps he has forgotten the term "representative government".

McCain's brushing aside the will of Iraq's own parliament, on the question of withdrawal, calls into serious question the definition of "democratic government". Isn't a democracy what we are trying to build in Iraq (that's just one of dozens of stories about why we are there in the first place)? If that is true then how does McCain justify dismissing the wishes of Iraq's own parliament with such cavalier disdain?

McCain's suggestion that because of his experience in Vietnam he is the only one truly qualified to talk intelligently about the conduct of war is the height of self delusion. And, that term "self delusional" probably says more to explain the McCain/Bush/Cheney/Right Wing actions than any other term.

"I DON'T RECALL...", "I HAVE NO RECOLLECTION OF THAT...", "I DON'T REMEMBER..."

2007-04-21T11:38:00.000-05:00

After Alberto Gonzales spent the first couple of hours proving to everyone with a brain that he is a liar, and an incompetent lap dog, my eyes began to glaze over.

A man who has risen to one of the highest positions in the United States government... a man charged with managing a department of over 100,000 employees, a former judge, a man who was confirmed by the very senate who now greets him with such disdain... a man who could have been--should have been-- the pride of all Hispanic Americans... has proved himself to be a
disgraceful manipulator and fake.

He is not qualified to be the county dog catcher... let alone the highest law enforcement officer in the land.

To watch this chubby little poser sit there, attempting to cover his culpable ass, by stating every variation of the phrase "I don't recall" in the English language... and to do it with a smile on is face, is sickening... and representative of everything wrong in America today.

This is not just a condemnation of Gonzales, however. This morality play exposes the ugliest underbelly of power politics, greed, and arrogance. This is "rot from within".

The Gonzales's of the world have not just appeared overnight... they are not isolated aberrations. He is just a willing tool of those those hidden power-brokers who are capable of pushing people like Gonzales into positions that can benefit the "king-makers". In this case... just another of "Bush's Boys". Unfortunately, Bush himself plays the same roll as Gonzales. Bush's strings have been pulled for years by others far more powerful... and quantum leaps smarter.

As much as we like to sweep this ugly scene under the rug, and pretend it is not happening, we have all been yanked into reality by watching an utterly incompetent and corrupted man try to weasel his way out of accepting any responsibility for his actions... or, as some would say, his non-actions.

All this just points up our own failures. Our failure to truly become involved in the processes that control our nations future. Our failure to demand excellence and hold people accountable for incompetence, failures, and dishonesty. Our failure to say "No More" ...when we know, deep in our hearts and souls, that a thing is wrong. Our failure to acknowledge our own complacency and our willingness to "look the other way".

How else can we explain that the man who framed the legal argument for allowing torture and "renditions" is now the Attorney General of the United States of America... who has the "full confidence of the President?

Why should we be shocked then when we "turn over the rock" and find, buried in the slime and ooze, another one of this administrations "great legal minds".

My parents used to warn me that "If you stick your head up too high it will get shot off." My father said "Don't rock the boat." They were both wrong!

We should all be sticking our heads up and screaming at the top of our voice. This boat needs to be "rocked".

Indeed if we do not "right the ship" we will all sink with it.

Racial Baiting and Demagogues...

2007-04-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

Don Imus may be the dumbest talk show host to ever be in front of a microphone. His comments regarding the woman's basketball team at Rutgers University were not only obscenely racist and sexist... they were downright stupid. A career which has made Imus rich and famous is now washed down the drain. Perhaps that is appropriate given the cesspool he has wallowed in for so many years. He might land on his feet if satellite radio gives him a call. Won't surprise me.

Having said that, however, what was even more obscene was the pack of self-serving vultures who smelled blood and swooped in to feast on the Imus carcass.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are two of the most outrageous race baiters in the world. They have made careers and fortunes playing the race card at every opportunity. To hear these two bottom-feeding demagogues take a moralistic, holier-than-thou, tone regarding the Imus situation is like listening to Bush and Cheney tell how much they hate war and are only protecting our freedoms.

Both are pure BS.

If Jackson and Sharpton are truly "reverends" where is all the Christian forgiveness that they purport to believe in? Isn't a person who publicly admits their mistake, and asks forgiveness of those whom he offended, worthy of some Christian charity? Obviously not if you are Sharpton and Jackson. They quickly seized the opportunity to get a new photo-opp and advance their position in the black community.

Where are Jackson and Sharpton when every hip-hop rapper uses the vilest of terms to degrade and demean black women and promote violence? They are conspicuously silent when it is their own people who commit such outrageous acts. Could this be more about political posturing and fund raising... than right and wrong? Perhaps it is time for them... and every black leader... to look inward and clean up their own house.

Make no mistake about it ... Imus deserved his fate. But, if he is to be thrown out so readily, and with such vehement rhetoric... then perhaps those who yelled the loudest should now turn their aggressive campaign against the people who coined the derogatory phrases and language they hate so much.

The "gotcha" smile on the face of Rahema Ellis, NBC reporter, spoke volumes about what this whole show was really about. It was a reckoning... vengeance... getting even... pay back.

I fear that we have not come far as a nation where race relations is concerned. This is not a white problem... or a black problem. It is a white and a black problem. We will either deal with it... or it will surely deal with us.

Freed Britons can sell stories to media - Europe - MSNBC.com

2007-04-08T11:34:00.000-05:00

Freed Britons can sell stories to media - Europe - MSNBC.com: "LONDON - The 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran for nearly two weeks were granted permission to sell their stories to the media, the Ministry of Defense said Sunday.
The move is a change from the military’s usual policy of blocking serving personnel from entering into financial arrangements with media organizations. A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said the situation of the former captives is unique and deserved special consideration."
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COMMENTARY: If this wasn't so pathetic it would be funny. Now, in a brazen attempt to sell this contrived "fantasy capture" story, the participants in this fraud get to sell their story... for big bucks.

First, lets accept the likelihood that the British troops were duped into this shell game by George, Dick, and Tony. Now that outward and vocal skepticism has raised its ugly head... the real perpetrators figure that the "grunts" can sell this story better than the power politicians. Besides it keeps the story eating up headlines and media interest and diverts the journalists from real and meaningful reporting. That's a very good thing for the administrations of both Britain and the U.S. ... and a game that lazy journalists and a controlled press, are all too willing to play.

George and Dick were hoping that this little gambit would perform the same role as the BS that surrounded the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in the Vietnam war... and provide the excuse we needed to take preemptive action against those nasty nose-tweaking Iranians... in the name of a "rescue" mission.

Unfortunately, that crafty Iranian leader outmaneuvered them at their own game. That's a reality that we are becoming all to used to from an administration whose very name stands for "gross incompetence".

Gonzales Crams for a Senate Grilling - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com

2007-04-08T11:02:00.000-05:00

Gonzales Crams for a Senate Grilling - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com: "April 16, 2007 issue - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has virtually wiped his public schedule clean to bone up for his long-awaited April 17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a session widely seen as a crucial test as to whether he will survive the U.S. attorney mess. But even his own closest advisers are nervous about whether he is up to the task. At a recent 'prep' for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales's performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances."

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Commentary: The very fact that Gonzo has to "practice" and "be coached" for his upcoming testimony to congress speaks volumes for how lame this man really is. What is it about "testifying to the truth" that is so complicated that he has to be grilled by administration hacks? And why should a man, who is the highest law enforcement official in the United States, be practicing "talking points" spoon fed to him by the administration? He is, after all, the Attorney General of the United States of America... not the legal mouthpiece of Emperor Bush.

Oops! That's my mistake. Gonzales has never been anything other than the legal mouthpiece of Bush. He has been eagerly washing the Bush dirty laundry since the old days in Texas... and he has been well rewarded for his skills at misdirection, cover-up, obfuscation, and downright lies.

Unfortunately for him (and more importantly for the nation) he has been promoted well beyond his point of incompetence. He is so far over his head in his current job that he has become a caricature... and not a funny one. He, like the man who hired him, is a complete failure in his current job. He should be sent back to Texas to plead the case of DWI offenders... he does that pretty well. His employer should be sent back to chop wood and melt away into oblivion. The nation will be better served in both cases.

THE CONVENIENCE OF EVENTS...

2007-04-02T12:19:00.001-05:00

Now that the United States congress has finally found its backbone and begun to exercise their responsibility of oversight, the Bush/Cheney/Blair triumvirate is beginning to feel the heat.

What to do?

Aha... a diversion is in order. Since the run-up to a war in Iran is not going too well (given our recent memory of the same misdirection in our run-up to Iraq) perhaps we need to get creative and think of something with a better story line. The old "weapons of mass destruction" thing might not fly this time around. And the "maniac dictator" doesn't seem to fit either.

What to do? What to do? ...

I can just hear this conversation in the oval office...

"George, I think we need to take a new tack... we need something to get the peoples minds off all the sleazy stuff that congress is throwing around."

"You're right, Dick. I talked to Tony this morning and he is up to his knees in 'righteous indignation' from all those misinformed British do-gooders. He hung-up on me mumbling something about 'bloody ungrateful colonies' or something.

"Hey, George... how about this? We know the folks at home hate the Iranians for the old hostage thing that brought that toothy peanut farmer to his knees and gave Reagan the white house. Maybe there's something there? These lemmings in the American press will eat it up if we can create another hostage thing."

"Dick, I think you're on to something. How about if we get Tony involved and see if he can help us devise a scheme that will work for all of us?

"Good idea, George. Tony is a real creative thinker. I'll bet he can come up with something."

Hm mm... wonder what kind of "creative thinking" will win the day...?????

2007-04-02T11:24:00.001-05:00

Thoughts Born Of Tragedy

2007-04-02T10:28:00.000-05:00

September 11th, 2001 was a day that stunned the world. Several days later, after my mind began to clear from the shock of the events of that day, I set this to paper... I believe it is worth repeating today...
==================================================================

..."history may judge us to be the real bully if, in the our rush to punish someone, we act in ways contrary to our core beliefs and values as a nation"...

Speaking as one who is closer to the end of life than the beginning, the observation that "those who do not know or understand history, are doomed to repeat it" takes on new relevance for me. Events of the last week have given us all reason to reflect and try to sort out meaningful lessons.

Here are a few observations I believe have meaning for all of us... both privately and in our business affairs:

BULLIES DON'T WIN...

Throughout history the bullies of the world have always lost. Gandhi was right! They may bloody our nose with a sneak attack or a lucky punch but, in the long run, they are always defeated by the forces of good and right. Tyrants down through the ages have had to learn this lesson the hard way. The Hitler's of the world have never prevailed.

Neither have predatory corporations or governments.

COALITIONS WORK...SHORT TERM...

Building coalitions are effective to achieve goals...short term. They rarely work long term.
While it is very possible (and desirable) to bring divergent groups together to battle a common foe...that same coalition will decay when the mutual adversary is overcome. Disparate groups will melt away as their own self-interest begins to resurface.

This is as true in business and private organizations as it is in public and world affairs.

BULLIES & TYRANTS DON'T ALWAYS CARRY KNIVES...

Modern bullies wear designer clothing and use computers. They understand the power of politics, sound bites, and photo opportunities. They are masters at using the tools of mass communications to advance sinister goals. Yes...this includes the use of the internet.

They run large corporations, foundations, financial institutions, think-tanks, and hold our highest public offices. They are subtle. They are deceptive. They are dangerous because, like Hitler, they understand the human need for security and order. They understand how to make actions that steal our freedom... appear to be logical and necessary.

They are comfortable and proficient working with hidden agendas which promote their own self-interests. They are practiced at turning dramatic tragic events, or temporary conditions, into building blocks for their own personal financial gain or extensions of their power base.

The antidote against these poisonous souls... is a mechanism for totally free, uncensored, exchange of ideas and thoughts... the internet!

BEWARE OF KNEE-JERK REACTIONS...

Never has careful, measured, thought been more important than now.

When a bully bloodies our nose our first reaction is righteous anger and indignation. This is both normal and right. We should be angry. We should feel indignation.

This same anger and indignation, however, can lead to a rashness of response which plays right into the hands of the forces stacked against us.

If we attack a perceived foe, without indisputable evidence of their guilt and culpability, we have become no better than they.

Indeed, in the eyes of the world, history may judge us to be the real bully if, in the our rush to punish someone, we act in ways contrary to our core beliefs and values as a nation.

The world is watching. We now have the opportunity to prove what a great nation we truly are. It will take patience, great judgement, and a careful measuring of the facts before we act, if we are to be what we have always purported to be... a nation grounded in fairness, freedom, respect for human rights, responsible judgement, and real justice.

Editorial Commentary Written--9/17/2001 ©Copyright 2001-2007 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

Welcome To FREEDOM FUNNEL... Down The Drain

2007-04-02T09:38:00.000-05:00

Like many citizens of the world I have, over the past years, become very concerned at the creeping loss of our individual freedoms and the rising tide of separation between the "haves" and the "have-nots".

First, let me make clear that I am an American patriot. I served my country willingly during the Viet Nam debacle, lived through the social upheavals of the 60' and 70's, and have always had a keen appreciation for justice and the so called "American Way".

Now, as I get closer to the end of life than the beginning, I feel capable and compelled to comment on the world I see around me. It's not a pretty sight!

I see an America sliding down the slippery slope of what John Edwards accurately described as "Two Americas". The great middle class, that made America the envy of the world... is shrinking faster than the polar ice caps.

A once benevolent government that stood for protection of individual liberties, blind justice, compassion for the well-being of all, and a truly "fair and balanced" society... has turned cold, manipulative, autocratic, self-serving, and willing to commit atrocities that were once thought to be unspeakable.

Our love of the land and appreciation for the wonder of nature that Teddy Roosevelt so wisely protected, has now fallen prey to the brazen exploitation of special interests... with the full and willing complicity of the very people charged with the protection of these irreplaceable national assets.

Class warfare is now fostered by those who would divide and conquer. We are now told that we must live in fear and be willing to allow the unthinkable to be done in our name... for the sake of "security".

How quickly we have forgotten the lessons of history.

So, faced with the harsh realities of a world fast becoming something I no longer recognize as something I want to live in... or bequeath to posterity... I will use this forum to speak out in the hope that there are others of like mind that may listen and take action.

Thom