Bush and Co. ignored warnings of roadside bombs

The recent Pentagon Inspector General report that postulated before the war that roadside bombs (i.e.d.'s) would be a tactic used by an insurgency. The bureaucrats that ignored this intelligence are guilty of negligence for the thousands of soldiers who have been killed or wounded for inadequate protection from i.e.d.'s. Rumsfeld tried to run this war on the cheap without adequate preparation. Lack of proper body armor and a paucity of up-armored vehicles have been well documented since the beginning of the war. What did they figure? That a wounded soldier was less expensive than a MRAP (mine resistant vehicle)? The thousands of wounded soldiers and the families of the dead should sue the American government for negligence.

The Shame of Katrina Neglect

The recent article in Newsweek about the health of the children that are refugees from Katrina is a shameful reminder of the corruption, negligence, and inhumanity of the current administration. The study by the Children's Health Fund found 41% of the children with anemia, 42% with respiratory problems, and more than half with mental health problems. While the corporate dinosaurs go to spas and fly on corporate jets on taxpayer money, the poor children of refugees are horribly neglected. This is an abomination. The bureaucrats who let this happen should be tried and imprisoned for their negligence. Shame on you and may you become anemic, sick, and traumatized like the children you have abused.

Conditions for Big Three Bailout

After the stupidity and greed of the US automakers have made them jump into their corporate jets and crawl up to the Hill with a tin cup in hand, the government needs to tie any bailout to conditions. Their collusion with Big Oil to curtail mass transit in cities for the madness of more superhighways and more gridlock has put our country in a deep hole at the mercy of OPEC and increased CO2 emissions. Their tack of making bigger metal rather than fuel economy was a short term boon that led to a long term disaster. And, their scheme to kill the electric car has left the foreign automakers way out in front in that technology.The conditions for the bailout should be:1. The automakers will change their development strategy to produce plug-in hybrid cars.2. They should develop trucks and buses that run on natural gas.3. They should enter the field of mass transit systems and develop mass transit strategies for large cities.4. They should cap management compensation at 25 times the salary of the average worker.5. They should agree to minimum worker standards in their overseas plants.Their short-term greed strategy has put the country into this mess and to hand them over our tax money without oversight would be criminal.

"Change" the world needs

Dear President-elect Obama,
Congratulations on your election.
Please consider instituting the following in your new administration:

!. Join the International Criminal Court
2. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
3. Re power America with subsidies for plug-in hybrids, a smart grid system, wind farms in the Midwest corridor, solar farms in the southwest, natural gas system for trucks, conservation tax credits, carbon tax, etc.
4. Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate fraud leading to the economic meltdown
5. Raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour and tie increases to the cost of living index
6. Introduce a single-payer, private delivery national health care system
7. Repeal tax cuts for the wealthy
8. Appoint an independent debate commission that is not controlled by the Democrats and Republicans
9. Cut the bloated military budget
10. Devise a national program to rebuild the infrastructure
11. Tie all international trade agreements to worker rights
12. Close Guantanamo prison
13. Outlaw all torture by Americans, and allowing detainees to be taken to other countries for torture
14. Support U.N. efforts with funds and troops to Dar fur and Congo
15. Legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize marijuana possession
16. Outlaw all electronic voting systems and go to paper ballot systems

President Obama: Join the International Criminal Court

Reagan's "shinning city on the hill" has become a bunker with guard dogs, searchlights, razor wire, and gun towers. Will President Obama prove that we are a nation committed to laws and not just the power of men in office? It is imperative that Obama show this to the world by joining the International Criminal Court as soon as he attains office. Bush and Co.'s argument that Americans should only be judged by Americans is unacceptable when confronted with war crimes. In order to become the "shinning city", the United States has to demonstrate that the rule of law is a cornerstone to civilization.

CNN the new Fox News

I just heard a "pundit" on CNN call Al Franken a lunatic and it was not challenged by anyone on the panel. This just shows that CNN is nothing but the new Fox News clone and is nowhere near the "center" of American politics. Shame on you CNN.

Throw the bums out

The Democrats ran in 2006 on a platform to stop the war in Iraq. Since they acquired the majority in Congress, they have taken impeachment off the table and have voted to fully fund the war in Iraq.
Why?
Is it possible that the Democratic strategy was to let the Bush regime continue to hang itself so they could win a filibuster proof majority in Congress and win the Presidency?
It has been said that Nixon decided to keep troops in Vietnam because it would help in his re-election bid in 1972. Did the Democrats use the same strategy? It seems they kept funding the war because of Bush's rhetoric about not supporting the troops. This would have been a banner tactic in the current election to say the Democrats didn't support our troops because they cut funding.
If Pelosi, Reid, et al decided to keep funding the war for political purposes they are just as guilty as the rogue administration that sold us this tragedy. Is gaining political advantage a higher priority than stopping the deaths and maiming of innocent Iraqis and U.S. forces?
The Democratic majority in Congress should be ashamed of failing to do their Constitutional duty to impeach this President who violated the Constitution and the rule of international law. The Democratic majority in Congress should be ashamed of continuing to fund this illegal, immoral war.

AIG scoundrels

Where is the anger over AIG executives?
Taxpayers bailout a mismanaged company with their hard earned dollars and what do these scoundrels do? They go on a $440,000 resort junket. The majority of this company is owned by the U.S. taxpayer due to the 85 billion dollar bailout. As a part owner of AIG, I want those executives who got rich due to their economic scams to get $6.55 an hour until they pay back the funds to the Fed. I want them to share in the lifestyle of the people who were scammed into buying mortgages that they could never hope to payback. I want them to live the lives of the people whose pension funds have been destroyed by these fraudulent financial practices. These people trying to make ends meet on $6.55 an hour are the ones who will be hurt the most as their jobs disappear and the value of their earnings shrinks.
Who does our government bailout? The rich. So they can continue to have their $1000 dollar hotel rooms and their manicures and pedicures. Try paying for rent, food, health insurance, education, gasoline, and utilities on $6.55 an hour. Our government should have solved this by helping the poor to refinance. Bottom-up instead of rich-trickle-down.
I cannot understand why the electorate does not stage a tax revolt.
Some fat cat from Wall St. playing Secretary of the Treasury comes to the Hill with a 3 page request for 700 billion dollars with no oversight? Paulson walked away from his doomed company with 500 million. Why shouldn't his fortune go to the bailout? He made his golden parachute from dirty paper and he should be held accountable. Instead, the government gives him a blank check for 700 billion.
This is a government whose President vetoed a bill for an increase of 7 billion a year in health care for poor children while we spend 3 trillion on a war against a country that was of no threat and a who knows how many trillion to come bailout of the rich on Wall Street.
Why isn't there a taxpayer revolt on Washington?
Where is the outrage?

Fire Paulson and Bernanke

Secretary of the Treasury Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke have come to Capitol Hill and sounded the alarm for an immediate crisis where 700 billion dollars are needed immediately to rescue the economy. Are you telling me that they had no idea that this was coming and we have to make an hasty decision to appropriate funds with no oversight? They should both be fired or resign because it is their job to monitor the position of financial markets. Why did not they come to the Hill with information sooner to alert the Congress of this looming possibility, so a reasonable, well thought out plan to solve the problem? Their failure shows their incompetence and complicity. As a citizen of the United States and a registered voter, I demand their resignations.

The Republican platform caused this financial mess

9/24/2008

If you would like to have some indication of how we got into this mess, here is an excerpt form the 2004 republican platform:

Homeownership
Homeownership is central to the American dream, and Republicans want to make
it a reality for everyone. That starts with access to capital for entrepreneurs and access to
credit for consumers. Both have improved immensely in the past four years, resulting in
record levels of homeownership. For the first time, more than half of all minorities own
their home.
We support the President’s goal of increasing the number of minority
homeowners by at least 5.5 million families by the end of the decade. Since President
Bush announced his initiative in 2002, an additional 1.6 million minorities have become
homeowners. The Self-Help Homeownership Opportunities Program helps low-income
families purchase a home. The most significant barrier to homeownership is the down
payment. We support efforts to reduce that barrier, like the American Dream
Downpayment Act and Zero Downpayment Mortgages. The President and Congress have
taken action to provide counseling and education to help first-time homebuyers navigate
the process of buying a home.

How to Pay for the Financial Meltdown

The current strategy for paying for the subprime mortgage mess is to pass it on to the taxpayers. The people in the financial industry who made billions off of this scam should be the ones paying the bill. It's bad enough that Bush gave these wealthy individuals a tax cut, but to let them get away with the money they made while selling this dirty paper is inexcusable. They made bad decisions by giving these loans. They made bad decisions by bundling these bad loans and selling them. And they walk away with billions while the taxpayer foots the bill? Lehman paid 5.7 billion in bonuses in 2007. Another 5.2 billion in 2008. The government should go after these and the bonuses paid to management of Bear Stearns, AIG, and all the other financial institutions that got fat on this reckless scam. They cruise on their yachts while the poor taxpayer who is trying to get by foots the bill?

Transcript of introduction of Ralph Nader in Chicago

The following is a transcript of remarks made by Richard Kaziny in introducing Ralph Nader at the Vittum Theatre on Sept. 6, 2008

Thank you Matt.
Our next speaker needs no introduction. His tireless efforts on behalf of humanity are well known. But, before he comes out, I would like to say a few words about a topic that is little discussed.
When the United States attacked Iraq, it was the first time in American history that the strategy of pre-emptive war has been used.
The Nuremburg trials of the Nazi war criminals concluded that pre-emptive war was the supreme international criminal act.
The supreme international criminal act.
And, you and I paid for it.
How many dead?
No one knows.
How many wounded?
No one knows.
The UN estimates that there are 5 million refugees who have fled their homes in Iraq.
The talking points say "Everyone agrees we are better off with Sadaam gone".
Really.
How about the hundreds of thousands of innocent dead. Are they better off?
The corporate media has hidden the results of this invasion from our eyes. Instead we hear about extramarital indiscretions, lapel pins, and pregnant teenagers.
Let's imagine the world of a child in Baghdad.
That night 5 and one half years ago when the U. S. attacked Iraq, all we saw were pretty lights of explosions from a distance. A fireworks show.
But, in the lives of the Iraqis, it must have been a night of sheer terror.
The fright of a child huddled with her family in the dark. The explosions. The sirens. The screaming. The fear.
Then, if your family was too poor to run, the knocks on the door and the rousting. The looting. The car bombs. The sirens. Having family members arrested and tortured. Having no electricty. No water. Lakes of raw sewage in the streets. Rampant unemployment. Military checkpoints. Concrete barriers. Endless funeral processions. Hunger. Orphans. Over crowded, under staffed, ill-equipped hospitals. Headless bodies in the streets.
Could you imagine what this constant terror would do to the emotions of a child?
Most Iraqis believe it is okay to kill Americans.
Can you blame them?
Instead of solving terrorism, we are creating it.
The hate and trauma we have caused will create a new crop of terrorists.
There must be a way out of this nightmare.
And I think we might need an unreasonable man to lead us.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ralph Nader.

Letter to Newsweek

9/17/2008

Dear Sirs,

I understand that your magazine tries to put all views on the table. I find it very disturbing that you would give Karl Rove a voice and a paycheck. After all the lies and manipulation that he engineered at the White House, after snubbing Congressional subpoenas, I view Mr. Rove as more of a criminal than a valued voice. The millions of lives that were impacted by the lies told to cause the attack of Iraq, the millions of lives impacted by political cronyism (heckuva job Brownie), using the justice department for political purposes, voting manipulation, whisper campaigns, etc. make him a radical criminal - not a journalist.

Why not give Manson, Himmler, or Mugabe a job too.

After enjoying your magazine for many years, I will cancel my subscription if Karl Rove appears ever again.

Sincerely,

Richard Kaziny

Abstinence Does Not Work

Although it is a fine idea, it has been shown time and time again that just teaching abstinence does not reduce the number of teen pregnancies or the incidence of STDs. Sex education and contraception have shown to be much more effective than abstinence. Now we have a vice presidential candidate who is opposed to sex ed. and contraception. What is the result of her stance? A pregnant, unmarried teenage daughter. The anti-choice people are so happy that she chose to have the child. Don't we have enough children who get a second rate upbringing because they have a mother who is still a child herself? Now this teen is making the second mistake by marrying the father. Marriages that occur between teenagers who have a shotgun wedding are not very likely to last or be good for the children. If this girl had had proper sex education and used contraception, she could have waited until she was in a proper emotional, occupational, and marital position to provide a proper home for the child. Teen pregnancy is an epidemic that leaves many children with an unstable, emotionally destructive environment. Gov. Palin should be ashamed of herself for not educating and protecting her child.

Afraid of McCain's Judgment

McCain has pounded the airways with the notion that Obama is too inexperienced and what does he do? He selects a person with 2 years experience running a state with the population of Memphis, Tennessee. A 72 year old candidate with cancer selects a vice-presidential candidate to be a heartbeat away from commander-and-chief of the most powerful military in the world whose most extensive experience is to have been mayor of Wasilla, Alaska population 7,000.
This is the judgment of a President? She is the most qualified candidate out there?
Were Harriet Miers and Dan Quayle busy?

The Closed Media

In order to have anything printed anywhere – papers, magazines, websites, blogs etc. – you have to get your piece through the media filter – This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved. The institutions that are doing this are using it to shape public opinion by shutting out contradictory opinions.
For example, I submitted a comment to the Cafferty File on CNN (or should I say Fox News Jr.). The question was “Who would you most like to meet”. I wrote “Ralph Nader because he is the only one who is not bought and sold by big corporations”. My submission was deleted. There was no profanity or threat of violence in my submission. So, why was it deleted? I submitted an opinion to the Huffington Post’s off-the-bus about Obama’s capitulation on telecom immunity and how I would support Ralph Nader and it was never displayed. There was nothing scurrilous in the piece, but it was rejected. The same story happens with letters to the editor and comments on the web. The media filter has an agenda and they will use their power to promote it.
Everyone thinks of the right wing media as being biased. Now the left wing media has followed suit. We want to shut out Nader because he might take away votes from our candidate. We want to hide his candidacy from the reader’s consciousness. They seem to think their cause is just and demands censorship.
What they do not see is that they are feeding into a society of censorship and corporate media control. They are becoming the very thing they oppose. A free society needs an open media to all points of view, no matter how different from the views of the people assigned to filter out abusive submissions.

The Lesser of Two Evils

So it’s election time again and you are going to vote for the lesser of two evils. You are going to vote for a Democrat because you figure anything is better than what we have been through for the last 8 years under a Republican administration. The Democrats will be better – won’t they?
Didn’t the Democrats just win control of Congress by running on a platform of stopping the Iraq war? Funny, the Iraq war has been fully funded. They could have cut off funding and stopped the madness, but they didn’t.
Didn’t the Democrats say they would stop this administration’s lawless violations of human rights? Strange, the Democrats just agreed to give Bush and the telecoms immunity from their illegal activities.
Didn’t the Democrats say they would hold this administration accountable? Odd, administration officials have thumbed their nose at Congress and invoked executive privilege.
Guantanamo? Still open. Torture? Still happening. Tax cuts for the wealthy? Still there. Electronic voting machines with no paper trail? Still around. Outing a CIA agent? Nobody is held accountable. Using the Justice Department for political advantage? Have at it. Katrina? Good job Brownie. Bin Laden? Still free. Huge budget deficit? Who cares.
Executive signing statements changing laws? Okay.
The list goes on and on.
The Democrats gain control of Congress with the most lawless, rogue President in history and what do they do? They take impeachment off the table.
The point is that if you are thinking that a Democratic President is going to really change things in Washington, you haven’t been paying attention. Your choices are Republican or Republican Lite. Both parties are the step-children of corporate power. They tell you what you want to hear to get elected – the old bait and switch.
Listening to the rhetoric of Barack Obama makes one hopeful for the future. But, we have seen that he is just another politician who is willing to trade ethics for power. I was so hopeful when he was elected and what does he do? He starts out by voting to confirm Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State. After all the lies she told to get us into this illegal, immoral war and he votes to give her a promotion? His recent cave in on telecom immunity also shows his true colors.
Obama has run on a platform of unifying this country and being able to bring people together. I do not want to be brought together with the forces of lawlessness and greed. I want a Presidential candidate who will fight for what is right - not to kowtow to corporate power and greed.
I am supporting Ralph Nader for President.
But, you say a vote for Nader will help McCain become President.
The real question is will a vote for Obama really change anything.

Further than your eyes can see

While I was in college during the Viet Nam war, I took a class called the culture and history of Viet Nam. The instructor said something that has stuck in my mind ever since. She said that technology has allowed America to act further than it's eyes could see. She was speaking of bombs and missiles that were fired from such a distance or altitude that the person firing the ordinance could not see where the munition was exploding. A soldier firing a cruise missile from 300 miles away or a bombardier dropping a bomb from 10,000 feet could not possibly be aware of what the situation on the ground would be.When a soldier operating a drone from Las Vegas or Tampa drops a bomb on a suspect entering a building, could he really know who was in the building? Could there be innocent women and children in there? Could the drone operator be 100% sure that this was the right person entering the building? Would the operator ever see first hand the results of the explosion?During the horror of the attack of Iraq, we were shown on television the bright flashes and loud explosion of weapons, but never a close up look at their devastation. Our leaders have been very clever at keeping our eyes from seeing the massive destruction of this war. We see no flag draped coffins. We see no body counts of the innocent. We see no desperation of the 5 million refugees who have been uprooted from their homes. We see no young daughters who have turned to prostitution to support their families. We see no lakes of raw sewage, no lack of electricity, no starvation, no homelessness, no overcrowded hospitals, no brutality. In this way, the people of America are making decisions without seeing what these decisions are causing first hand. We hear about precision weapons and collateral damage, but never really see them first hand. Thus, we make decisions from information that is further away than our eyes can see.
The media, whose role in a democracy is to inform the citizenry, have failed dismally at their task. Journalists have become nothing but purveyors of corporate talking points. They would rather make flag lapel pins a major issue than shinning light on the desperation in Iraq. The President approves of torture and is it on the front page? No, you have to search the internet to find out the story. But the President claiming that the "surge" is working is on every journalists lips.
Very few Americans are able to make decisions based on what they see because so much has been hidden from their eyes. It is the responsibility of the media to let our eyes see the destruction that our technology can cause from so far away. Hopefully, if Americans could see this horror first hand, if they could see the mangled child's body, they might react differently to an action that takes place so far away.

While the world weeps, a monster enjoys himself

On March 19, 2008 the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, vice-president Dick Cheney spent the day fishing on the Sultan of Oman's 60 foot yacht. Cheney was a major architect of the invasion and disastrous occupation of Iraq. During the Viet Nam war, which Cheney supported, he received five draft deferments claiming he had more important things to do than serve his country in the military.
Just a nice thought for those of you who have lost loved ones or been devastated physically or mentally by this war. Just a thought for the children who have gone without health insurance or the neglected in New Orleans or the unsafe infrastructure that has gone unrepaired or the millions of Iraqi civilians that have been terrorized, become refugees, or killed.
While your life has become a living hell, some fat, old war criminal is having a nice day fishing on a yacht.

USA the country of torture

Since the attorney general of the United States, Michael Mukasey, said waterboarding was legal at the time they did it, does that mean the people we imprisoned after WWII for waterboarding Americans can now receive monetary retribution?

Unless you have no boat

The President has agreed to an economic stimulus package for the economy. Funny, when the SCHIP (poor children's healthcare) bill came to his desk, he said we needed to hold the line on spending.
An economic stimulus package would mean more corporate profits.
An healthcare bill would mean life to children.
Profit good.
Poor children bad.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
Unless you have no boat.

Israeli Government Embargo of Gaza

The tactic Israel is using to punish Hamas for rocket attacks is reprehensible. Denying supplies of food, water, and heating fuel for innocent people in Gaza is a war crime. These people who are being punished had nothing to do with the actions of a few. In addition, Israel is creating more hatred from the Gaza populace and thus creating more terrorists. So, the abused learn to become the abusers. This is no way to stop the cycle of violence.

Dissed by the Green Meanies

I sent my a link for my blog to the national Green Party and they refused to put it on their website. Even the Greens are too full of themselves.