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

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,

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...

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..."

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...

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

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

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.) ...