The war in Afghanistan is finally over.

300 million dollars a day for 20 years.

We attacked and occupied a country that never attacked us.

The cost of human lives and suffering is incalculable.

The brave people of the military who risked their lives are heroes.

The corrupt politicians who sent them there with no risk to themselves or their families should be tried for war crimes.

Instead, they live lives of luxury and comfort while veterans suffer.

And it accomplished nothing to protect us. 

I leave you with the words of President Eisenhower :

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. “

The Need for Strong Government

The Ebola lesson tells us that a strong, well-funded government is important. We have known about this virus for 38 years and have not invested in enough study to create a vaccine. Pharmaceutical companies demonstrate the failure of capitalism to fund research on anything that they can't make enough profit on. Those who push for less government, have their result - less investment in science, less investment in preparedness, sickness, and death. 

Selective Horror

The media has begun to show us the atrocities of the Syrian civil war in the drumbeat to war. Where were these pictures and numbers in the attack of Iraq when we were the bombers and killers? The numbers in Syria: over 100,00 dead and  2 million refugees. Did you ever see any numbers about Iraq? If you asked 100 people in the U.S. -  how many people were forced into refugee camps, how many daughters were forced into prostitution to support their families, how many were killed or wounded - none of them would have a clue. It seems it's only a war crime when you lose the war or is committed by someone else.

Abe on Money

Shame

On this day I am ashamed to be an American.
A president who committed torture and war crimes, who caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people, who caused the injuries and homelessness of millions is being honored with a presidential library. He should be honored with a war crimes trial. With one in four children living in poverty, the wealthy have money for a library for a criminal.

Let 'Em Eat Cake

The Congress is getting ready to tie cost of living Social Security adjustments to the chained CPI. It basically says that if a substitute food is available that is cheaper, then the adjustment will go down. So, if vegetables are expensive, then elderly poor can just replace it with cake. This is unconscionable to do to the elderly poor. The wealthy haven't learned the lessons of the French Revolution. A small group of people in this country are living fabulously wealthy lifestyles while more and more people are being driven into poverty. How much greed is enough?

Benghazi Shuffle

Instead of talking about what was said after the consulate attacks in Benghazi, shouldn't we be talking about why they happened? Aren't  the lives of the people who were killed more important than making political points? Shouldn't we be talking about who were the legislators who voted down the State Department's request for additional funds for security?

Money is Free Speech

While the world is struggling, China has a 1 trillion dollar surplus.
 After the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United, any country can open a business in the United States and give as much money as they want to Political Action Committees. So China could spend more than all the money spent on all elections in the United States with under one per cent of it's surplus.

Stop Ads Showing Cars as Toys

More of a threat than Al-Qaeda ever was, the automobile kills 40,000 a year and injures nearly 3 million. Yet, car companies are able to show cars being used as playthings and racing machines. Driving an automobile is a serious, dangerous business. Just ask the people and families whose lives have been changed forever due to a traffic accident.  We know the power of the media in influencing people. What is the difference between showing a child cigarette smoking and misusing a vehicle for fun? Marketing the use of an automobile in any way that is dangerous should be outlawed.

Tear Down That Joe Pa Statue

What happened at Penn State has no heroes.
Tear down that Joe Pa statue now.

Why Obama May Lose the Election

As I was leaving the UIC Pavilion in Chicago where I went to hear Obama announce his candidacy in 2007, a woman said to me  "He says all the right thins, but what has he done?". After 3 years of the Obama presidency these words ring truer than ever.

Obama is in serious trouble of losing his base of progressive supporters. Among the progressive failures of Obama administration are the following: The escalation of the Afghanistan war which no one can prove is making us any safer. The failure to address the massive bloat of the defense budget. The endorsement of continuing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The failure to hold Wall Street accountable for the fraud that led to an economic depression and keeping the same Wall Street foxes in charge of the economic hen house. The failure to hold those accountable for illegal wiretapping. The failure to demand a single-payer option for healthcare as we are the only industrialized country that continues to watch the poor sicken and die without adequate health coverage. The attack on state approved medical marijuana clinics, leaving marijuana sales untaxed and making money for the vicious cartels. The failure to lift the sanctions on Cuba - after all, our number one trading partner is a totalitarian communist state. The failure to demand that these so-called fair trade agreements include protections for worker's safety and rights. The failure to prosecute those in the Bush administration who ADMITTED PUBLICLY that they committed torture, kidnapping, and war crimes. The failure to close Guantanamo. The refusal to join the International Criminal Court. And the list goes on.

Do I think Romney would be a better president? Absolutely not. The tired, old Republican talking points of less taxes for the rich and less government regulation is what got us into this mess. We have seen that when Wall Street is unregulated, they will commit fraud in their greed and the rest of us end up paying for it. Trickle down economics? For the last 30 years the rich have gotten richer while the rest of us have gotten poorer. Like the joke goes, the problem is that it is only a trickle. The solution to our economic problems are much different than these failed talking points. When 50,000 factories leave your country for places like Bangladesh where workers make 21 cents an hour, less taxes and government regulation won't bring those jobs back.

In a lot of ways, Obama was more disappointing than Bush. We knew what we were going to get when the son of a Texas billionaire took office. But, we had so much hope for the rhetoric of Barack Obama and it feels like we were lied to.

Our broken political system that is controlled by money and back room deals leaves us again with the choice of wanting neither of the candidates. Do I decide that I have to walk the 1/2 block to the polling place to keep Mitt Romney from being the president of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich?

Unfortunately, the Obama presidency has been so disappointing that I don't think it is worth the trouble.

Approve Statehood for Palestine

How can the United States government deny the application for statehood to the U.N. by Palestine? It has been 45 years of occupation and apartheid by Israel over these people. The United States has been calling for a two state solution forever. The U.N. approval for statehood for the Republic of South Sudan happened swiftly. What is the difference?

GOP Presidential Candidates Should Be Ashamed About Family Size

It was appalling to hear the Republican presidential candidates beaming about the sizes of their families in the debate the other night. Overpopulation is causing our planet to be pushed past the limits of sustainability. Our oceans are overfished and dying. Our air is polluted and causing climate change. We are depleting our aquifers and polluting our water supply. Our forests are being destroyed for farmland as we destroy the earth's biodiversity. One in seven inhabitants of planet earth are without adequate food. A large family is no longer a source of pride but a sign of ignorance and selfishness and a cause for shame.

Recrut Somewhere Else

Obama said in the state of the union that college campuses should open themselves to military recruiters and ROTC. So we can attack the next Iraq that was not a threat? So we can trust the next corporate elected face man to lead us into a soulless slaughter? The Nobel Prize for Peace? Really? With due respect Mr. President, letting gays into the military does not solve the needless horrors of Iraq, that your administration chose not to investigate. Until you investigate and hold those accountable that committed war crimes, you have sent a message to the world that U.S politicians are immune from prosecution. And you want us to open up to military recruiters?

Dopes Reject Medical Dope

The recent Illinois house vote to reject the legalization of medical marijuana is a travesty. The use of this drug to relieve pain, nausea, and other symptoms has been shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and other illnesses. If the legislators who voted against this or their families had a medical condition that could be treated with this drug, they might change their tune. The idea put forward that this is just a first step in legalization should note that the legalization of cocaine, opiates, and other drugs for medical use has not led to the drugs being legalized. Shame on those representatives who deny people the ability to alleviate their pain and suffering.

Fighting Them There

So far this year, 63 Americans have been charged with terrorist acts. I thought Bush and Cheney told us we were fighting them there so we wouldn't have to fight them here. So much for that theory. The reality is that fighting them there is a recruiting tool for terrorism here.

Burn, Baby, Burn

To the pastor who wants to burn the Quran: Why not burn the Christian Bible, the Torah, the LDS Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and all the other religious texts that criminals have used as justification for war, murder, rape, genital mutilation, slavery, subjugation, ethnic cleansing, and terror? Isn't it time in the evolution of humanity to abandon the tribal behavior of our ancestors and realize that we are in the end one tribe on this spaceship Earth? Let's put aside the superstition and magical thinking of religion and begin using rational thought to guide us into the future.

Stop the UN bicycle conspiracy!!!!!

Colo. gov. hopeful Maes says bike share threatens ‘personal freedoms’

By Associated Press
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - Added 1 day ago

DENVER - Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes says a Denver bike-sharing program could threaten residents’ "personal freedoms" because it is part of an attempt to control U.S. cities.

Maes said last week that an international environmental group that promotes Denver’s B-Cycle program is part of a "greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty."

The group to which Maes was referring, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, is an association with more than 1,200 communities as members, half of which are in the United States. Denver became a member in 1992.

Maes made the comments at a rally where he criticized Democratic Mayor John Hickenlooper’s initiative to increase bicycling in the Denver through the bike-sharing program. B-Cycle allows people to use about 400 bicycles at dozens of stations around the city for a daily or monthly fee.

"This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said in comments that were first reported Wednesday by the Denver Post.

Maes’ campaign said the candidate was illustrating the "larger picture of what this organization represents" and its "extreme" views on global warming.

Nate Strauch told The Associated Press that Maes was trying to say that the biking initiative is a "gateway program" being pushed by ECLEI on cities that eventually lead to extreme measures, such as the promotion of abortions and population control.

Maes is facing a primary challenge Aug. 10 against Republican Scott McInnis. The winner will face Hickenlooper in November.

Hickenlooper’s spokesman, Eric Brown, said Denver joined the group long before Hickenlooper became mayor and that the city has limited contact with ECLEI.

Maes said he thought promoting more bicycling was pretty harmless at first, but he realized later "that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have."

"It’s all part of this population control mentality that we as humans are the disease," Strauch said, adding: "He never said that biking is inherently wrong."

Bicyclists who gathered outside the state Capitol on Wednesday to ride with cycling champion Lance Armstrong weren’t impressed with Maes’ view.

"It’s sad that they play politics with something that’s good and healthy and pro-environment," said Ron Beall, 48, of Denver. "Isn’t there enough issues that we can talk about instead of stereotyping bicyclists? It’s crazy."

___

Man Up and Pray

Your home's in foreclosure,

Your son's in Iraq,

You've got no insurance

for your gout attack.

Your job's gone to China,

Your wife's run away,

So why don't you man up and pray?

Man up and pray

Man up and pray

Jesus is gonna be comin' today.

He'll pay all your bills

and make war go away.

So why don't you man up and pray?

Throw the Bum Out

Senator Jim Bunning, a wonderful baseball player, has aspired to a place far below any steroid or black Sox player could even imagine. Cutting off health care for the unemployed is immoral. I wonder who bought off or is blackmailing Jim to make him so cold hearted. If you keep the steroid users and gamblers out of the Hall, maybe you should consider kicking out the heartless.