Sunday church music:
16th to 1st in one lap

Restored Access to the VA for over 250,000 Veterans Nationwide

CLICK HERE to find out if you are eligable for V-A benefits under the new rules.
Looks like I may be!

Also in veterans news:

• Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans with Children Act

• Over $3 Million in Funding Allocated to Help House Veterans Across Washington State

• Federal Benefits For Veterans, Dependents, and Survivors

WOW, HAVE I GOT SOME
GREAT STUFF THIS WEEK!

What sort of society argues inside itself about providing things like health care to it's citizens?

What sort of society knowingly poisons the environment, the air, the water, the very biosphere where it lives, causing death and destruction to all?

What sort of society believes that only some are deserving of great, enlightening education?

What sort of society continues wars of death and destruction against other societies, knowing these wars are based on lies and deception?

What sort of society spies on and lies to it's own citizens?

Where in the world is that society?

Look at yourself, America.
Look.

Here is a list of Republicans who voted to begin undoing our huge damage to the environment (the world in which we all live). A serious thank you is in order for these politicians who are brave enough to vote against Boss Limmbaaa.

Bono Mack (CA) 202-225-5330

Castle (DE) 202-225-4165

Kirk (IL) 202-225-4835

Lance (NJ) 202-225-5361

Lobiondo (NJ) 202-225-6572

McHugh (NY) 202-225-4611

Reichart (WA) 202-225-7761

Chris Smith (NJ) 202-225-3765

Lobbyists on a Roll: Gutting Reform on Banking, Energy, and Health Care

"...That's the thing about lobbyists: they serve no ideological master. It's not about right vs left or Democrats vs Republicans. It's only about the bottom line -- ie pushing their special interests, no matter how much it undermines the public interest..." GO.READ

WEEP FOR YOUR LOST DREAMS, FOR THEY ARE AS SURELY LOST AS RICH MEN OWN OUR AMERICA.

Help us win House approval -- Your emergency donation to Operation: Climate Vote will be matched $1-for-$1 between now and Friday.

"We all know why this is so important. The nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That is what this legislation seeks to achieve -- it is a bill that will open the door to a better future for this nation. And that is why I urge members of the House to come together and pass it."

-- President Barack Obama urging the House to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, June 23, 2009.

Your emergency gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar but only for the next 3 days!

Please donate now and your gift will be matched $1-for-$1.

The deals have been reached and the full House appears set to vote on the most important piece of climate legislation of our lifetime this Friday.

Victory is within our grasp, but is far from assured.

Help us win House approval -- Your emergency donation to Operation: Climate Vote will be matched $1-for-$1 between now and Friday.

That means your $25 donation will generate $50 for our final sprint to a House vote.

The deep-pocketed opposition has pulled out all the stops to defeat this bill. Their game plan is simple -- sow confusion and fear about the costs of action and try to pick off just enough votes to defeat the bill.

We're at a make-or-break moment, and your donation right now will go twice as far to help us ramp up our campaign efforts, buy more ad time, and do more on-the-ground field work.

We need to raise $50,000 to cover our expenses over the next three days. Here's what we're doing to win the vote:

• Our Air Campaign -- We are placing hard-hitting ads in key districts to help secure the votes to get a strong bill passed.
• Our Ground Campaign -- Our grassroots organizing team is going door-to-door and community-to-community to raise public concern and mobilize voters to demand a yes vote in the House.
• Our Hill Campaign -- Our legislative team is in constant contact with key Hill staff members to answer questions, respond to the bogus charges from our opponents, and provide expert analysis on the bill.
• Our Cyber Campaign -- Through our Truth Squad blog and our Operation: Climate Vote hub page, we are using the power of the Internet to identify the false claims and scare tactics of the climate deniers, and to shine a spotlight on their cynical efforts to stop progress.

Here's what the historic energy and climate bill would do:

• Set a declining cap on global warming pollution at 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050.
• Reward clean energy innovation, spurring investments in low-carbon energy technologies and creating new manufacturing jobs.
• Promote clean energy by requiring that 20% of electricity comes from a combination of renewable sources, such as wind and solar, and energy efficiency by 2020.
• Provide an incentive for other countries to limit their emissions, by allowing the president to impose fees on carbon-intensive imports from nations that haven’t adopted their own greenhouse gas cap.

We need your help to pass this critical legislation.

For the next 3 days, an anonymous donor will match your emergency donation $1-for-$1.

Your donation will never make a bigger difference than it will today.

We are making history in 2009. Whether this becomes the year we changed America's direction or the one in which we lost one of our last great opportunities to act is up to us.

Please join us.

Sincerely,

Steve Cochran
Director, National Climate Campaign

P.S. Our global warming lobbying team is working around the clock to win House passage. They are depending on your help to keep up the pressure and prevail in Washington.

Environmental Defense Action Fund 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20009 1-800-684-3322

BEFORE THE BATTLE

“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…”

- an Iranian blogger, with more courage than most of us will ever know.

via THE DAILY DISH

Health Care Insurers Revoke Policies To Avoid Paying High Costs CLICK~N~READ

"Mr. President, we will work with you and the American public to bring down costs."

Oh sure, I trust you, Mr. Bigshot insurance company executive! WHO THE HELL DO THEY THINK WE ARE?

The insurance industry in America is driven by profits, and profits alone. Nothing else. They are busily spending millions of dollars buying the votes they need in congress to keep that money rolling into their share of the corporate America coffers.

SINGLE PAYER is going to be the ONLY way to provide equal opportunity for quality health care in America.

2 Headlines From Reuters News Service Tell The REAL American Health Care Story:

1. WIDE SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT HEALTH PLAN-POLL: (click~n~read)
2. OBAMAS HEALTHCARE PUSH ON ROCKY ROAD IN CONGRESS: (click~n~read)

Y'see that subtle difference there? The first news story tells about what the American people want to see happen. Story number two is about what the money shoveling corporations want. I imagine there is very little chance the American people win in this scenario, and THAT is criminal corruption.

HERE'S YOUR CHURCH MUSIC FOR THIS WEEK:

CARLOS SANTANA - ERIC CLAPTON - CROSSROADS

HOW DID IRAN COME TO HAVE SUCH REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT? AROUND THE WORLD THESE THINGS HAVE BEEN DONE BY AND BECAUSE OF UNITED STATES INVOLVEMENT.

The History of Our (USA) Secret Government by BILL MOYERS:

• video part 1
• video part 2
• video part 3
• video part 4
• video part 5
• video part 6
• video part 7
• video part 8

"YES WE CAN", "HOPE", "CHANGE"?
Don't hold your breath waiting for it.

OBAMA'S GOING TO END THE IRAQ WAR, HAVE TRANSPARENT GOV'T, PROVIDE SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE - LET'S ALL VOTE FOR HIM!

Yes indeed, with the money saved from ending the Iraq war, he was going to be able to finance our shiny new health care system where everyone would be able to see a doctor and stay healthy. After we elect Obama President, we will KNOW what is going on in the government! Only thing is, none of the above is going to happen...

1. END THE WAR: this week, in a historic vote, only 30 of 256 Democrats stood against $100 billion for more war, including $2.7 billion worth of cargo planes no one asked for.
2. Your health care (don't worry, congress has theirs) has gone down the Iraq toilet probably for ever.
3. Transparency in government? Dream on, you silly fool!

Murdering doctors, Wall Street fraud, torture, smart bombs, home foreclosures, smart-bombing civilians, unemployment, prescriptions or food - you choose, secret government, domestic spying, WAR, etc. So much etcetera and waste continues that it actually makes my stomach and brain hurt.

Looks to ME like the crooks from Wall Street (or maybe the mob?) have been running US government spending.

Our vegetable garden is beginning to show a real bushy, happy, healthful growth now that the weather has warmed (?) around here, and we are hoping that our annual plant sale raises a bit of money. I have opened my own art gallery in a 35 foot 1951 Spartan trailer here on the property. Hoping this place will sell soon (as our house value toilets) so we can move on to New Zealand...

Concerned about violence against protesters in Iran? The REAL next Tianamen Square violence has been happening in PERU over oil and resources:

Much noise is being made about the possibility of protesters in Iran getting hurt or killed. Have a look at what has been going on in Peru, and remember: the raw materials to build our big fat cars and run our "lifestyle" come out of the ground somewhere.

Someone is dying somewhere so you can have your big fat automobile, automatic garage door opener, flight to New York, and so much of the underpinnings of this modern life...
You can see the dead, burned, beaten protesters here (these are not nice pictures).
You can read the full story here or here
Which worldwide corporations extract resources from this area?

It's an old story of greed and subjugation. THIS STORY can give one an idea of the depth of this rape.

American health care crisis as depicted by pirates -
music by Austin Lounge Lizards
via

HT->C&L

Washington State Residents: Send Senator Cantwell a Message

Cantwell.com

Dear XXX, It doesn't matter if you're young or old, working or retired - at one time or another, we've ALL been frustrated by the health insurance system. For years I have helped my mother with her health care, so I know exactly what it's like to try to navigate a system tilted in favor of insurance companies at the expense of patients. Sometimes it feels like you're being nickel-and-dimed on claims. In other cases, you watch monthly premiums go up while your benefits stay the same. And sometimes it's hard to know whether your insurance will cover that trip to a specialist or that expensive prescription. And that's if you're lucky enough to have good health and good insurance. Millions of American's have no coverage, and millions more have inadequate coverage. They live every day with the fear that getting sick or having an accident could spell financial ruin. I promise to fight, and fight hard, to make sure that health care reform happens this year. But I need your help to make sure our citizens are heard. So please tell me your story. Share your experiences with the system. Share what you like or dislike about your coverage or share what it is like to live without coverage. Share your thoughts about what reforms are most important to you. Share your thoughts on health care. To protect the special interests that have a big stake in the current system, opponents of reform are doing everything in their power and spending whatever it takes to stop real change. It is essential to keep the debate focused where it belongs: on the challenges faced by health care consumers and the high costs that the current system exacts on our families. By sharing your health care story, you'll help me put a human face on a complex issue that often gets caught up in numbers, rules and regulations. I want to hear from you today, so please share your thoughts. Sincerely, Maria Cantwell

Mr. Ex-Pres GWTF Bush SPEAKS! Listen Chimpy, If We Want Any Shit Out Of You, We Will Unscrew The Top Of Your Head And Dip Some Out...

Bill Maher Tells Olbermann Why He's Criticizing Obama

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"They're getting to the point where they're saying 'Yeah, we still like Obama. He's our guy. We're glad he's our president. But where's the beef?" And it's easy to make speeches. What's hard to do is stand up to corporations. Corporations and their incredible strength are what have ruined this country so far. And this president we thought might be the one to stand up to them. I'm losing hope. I still have audacity but my hope is fading." GO.READ

I just came from watching some republican PUKE on the teevee ranting on about Leon Panetta's remark about EX vice president CHEENEY perhaps maybe apparently hoping for another terrist attack in order to justify his horrendous policies...
ANYHOW this fucking republican puke is saying how HE thinks it is unconcionable to say CHEENEY wants innocents to die...what a stoopid fuck!
DICK CHEENEY DID LIE AND PERHAPS MILLIONS OF INNOCENTS DID DIE, TO SAY NOTHING OF OUR BRAVE MILITARY MEN AND WOMEN. DICK CHEENEY IS A LYING MOTHERFUCKING SCUMBAG. ANYONE WHO DEFENDS HIM, SHAKES HIS HAND, OR OTHERWISE VALIDATES THIS SCUMSUCKING, DIRTBAG THROWBACK TO THE DARK AGES IS AS GUILTY AS HE IS.

oh golly, I hope I don't sound angry...

Sen. Jeff Sessions 'troubled' over Obama court picks CLICK HERE FOR WHINYREPU

FINE, maybe he will CHOKE ON IT, and STFU! Jeezuz, what a dink among huge republican DINKS.

Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign

It's not broken - and what's more, Canadians like and fiercely defend it.
GO.READ

HERE'S THE STORY ON THE US PERFORMANCE AT THE CLIMATE TALKS IN BONN GERMANY:

HOW DID THE USA PERFORM AT THE
JUST CONCLUDED CLIMATE TALKS?

From Friends of The Earth 6/15/09

"The U.S. failed to provide leadership over the past two weeks at climate talks held in Germany.

If you're like me, one of the things you celebrated last November was the end to eight years of go-it-alone policies from George Bush. The election was supposed to mean the U.S. would once again start playing a leadership role in forging consensus solutions to global problems.

But as countries met here this week, we saw something completely different. Instead of leading, the Obama administration's representatives sounded frighteningly similar to what we heard in previous years from the administration of George Bush.

There's still time to solve this problem. We can do it. But we need leadership from the United States, and we need it now, before it is too late for our planet and its people."

Write to Secretary of State Clinton and demand leadership that produces a strong and fair agreement to solve the climate crisis.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, THIS LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE THE BEST PLACE FOR UPDATED NEWS ABOUT THE TROUBLE IN IRAN

Refresh often as there is news and raw video coming in constantly.

Don't get me wrong here - I don't HATE any rich people, true, I got no use for most of em, but here is one who has real character:

Click the picture to enlarge the
character in Keith Richard's skin.

A BIG SHOUT OUT AND AN ATTA BOY FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION!

Obama officials to skip event for mayors, citing picket line:
“While this administration is taking no position on the circumstances of the dispute itself,” Mr. Gibbs said at the time, “we have always respected picket lines, and administration officials will not cross this one.”
There's more if you'd like to read it->
somebody should get a BIG piece of raisin pie for this one.

Thanks to Rachel Maddow
for the heads up
on this one!

Beck Claims Leftist Nazis (??) are Behind Right Wing Shootings.

I won't dirty the Left Edge North with this video, but it's at Teablogging and you should see it. Go puke now so you won't have to clean your keyboard and screen.

Let the insanity flow from this amazing video. Feel the insanity. Feel it deep within your bowels.

This is an interpretation of the shooting that occurred in D.C. at the Holocaust museum. It is the most important piece of video ever to come from Fox News.

If this shit keeps up, and keep up it will, both the fringe right extremism/terrorism and the anti-Obama gasbags' spew about it, there's going to be a backlash against the never-right like they've never seen. Of course, they'll blame it on 'leftist Nazis' which may be the very definition of 'oxymoron'. It never dawned on me just how fitting is the syllable 'moron' in that word.

via

American Medical Association Trying to Torpedo Health Care Reform - AGAIN

IF ANYONE DESERVES A GOOD SCREWING, IT'S THIS OUTFIT!

"...Just days before President Barack Obama is set to address the American Medical Association to pitch its members on his vision for health care reform, the 250,000-member physician group announced it would oppose a major component of that effort...

...AMA's opposition is hardly newsworthy. Despite a lofty reputation and purported commitment to universal coverage, AMA has fought almost every major effort at health care reform of the past 70 years. The group's reputation on this matter is so notorious that historians pinpoint it with creating the ominous sounding phrase "socialized medicine" in the early decades of the 1900s...

...In 1961, AMA organized a campaign to block Medicare... the effort insisted that the government-sponsored system would lead to a varying form of totalitarianism..."

IT'S TRUE. The AMA is as notorious for undermining all that is GOOD for the American public as the goddamned US Chamber of Commerce. PLEASE GO READ THIS (there's also a video of R. Reagan shilling for the AMA) AND THEN EMAIL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.

Thank you,
Joe

Shell: There is No Justice Until Gas Flaring Is Ended GUILTY OF MURDER & ENVIRONMENTAL ATROCOTIES - GET ACTIVE NOW

On June 8th, Ogoni plaintiffs suing Shell for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria scored a major victory when they forced Shell to settle the case with a $15.5 million payment of compensation. It was a victory for the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists who were killed for their leadership in a nonviolent movement against Shell's environmental devastation of their homeland in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

One of the abuses these activists died struggling to end was "gas flaring"—burning off gas released by oil extraction—which sends plumes of toxic smoke into the air. Gas flaring endangers human health, harms local ecosystems, emits large amounts of greenhouse gases, wastes vast quantities of natural gas, and is against Nigerian law.

True justice will not be served as long as the people of Nigeria continue to suffer the terrible impact of Shell's operations. According to Shell, it would cost about 10% of last year's profits to end Shell's gas flaring in Nigeria once and for all. This is a small price to pay to end an abuse that Shell has been committing for decades.

$15.5 million bought Shell a settlement to one court case for events that happenned 14 years ago. It in no way shape or form absolves them from responsibility for the ongoing social and environmental tragedy in the Niger Delta. Help us demand that they do more today.

SEND.THE.LETTER.NOW

The Colbert Report - FORMIDABLE OPPONENT - Don't Ask Don't Tell

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Formidable Opponent - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

17 Chinese Uighur Gitmo "detainees" to be sent to the remote island group of Palau
for only $200,000,000.00 - The president of Palau said, would be “honored and proud” to take them in a “humanitarian gesture.” Well yes, any FOOL can see that the $200,000,000.00 would have a minimal effect on the decision making to a 177 square mile group of islands.

I sure hope NORTH KOREA is listening because this could work for them with those two women from the criminal free press! I just love that we, here in America, can show the way to truth and justice for the entire world!

WHERE IS OUR PRESIDENT CALLED "HOPE/CHANGE/PROGRESS/FORWARD"? IS THIS REALLY ALL THE "BEST AND BRIGHTEST" IN OUR SOCIETY CAN COME UP WITH? NO TRIALS, NO EVIDENCE, NOT EVEN ANY INTEREST IN THE UIGUR'S PLIGHT UNDER THE HEEL OF CHINA'S REPRESSIVE ARMY? WHERE IS THE GUY AND HIS CREW THAT WE VOTED INTO THE WHITE HOUSE? WHERE? WTF??

We need a green New Deal FROM THE PORTLAND (OREGON) ALLIANCE:

By Norman Solomon
In the Arctic, sea ice is melting. In the United States, houses are foreclosing.
And in Washington, the Senate is becoming a real-life Bermuda Triangle for progressive agendas.
Proposals for major limits on carbon emissions aren’t getting far in the Senate, where the corporate war on the environment has an abundance of powerful allies.
As for class war, it continues to rage from the top down. Last week, a dozen Democratic senators teamed up with Republicans to defeat a bill that would have allowed judges to reduce mortgages in bankruptcy courts.
President Obama supported that bill. But as the Associated Press reported, he was “facing stiff opposition from banks” and “did little to pressure lawmakers” on behalf of the measure. The Senate “defeated a plan to spare hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy.”
Big-money vultures are circling the Capitol Dome to feast on the latest multibillion-dollar carrion, whether under the heading of “cap and trade” or “healthcare reform.” And many billions in profits can be found inside yet another supplemental bill to fund war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a familiar pattern is unfolding for the most important piece of labor legislation in decades -- the Employee Free Choice Act -- which would go a long way toward protecting the rights of workers to form unions. Obama says he supports EFCA. But there are no signs that he’ll go all-out for its passage.
There are pluses and minuses on Capitol Hill these days. But on big-picture items, it’s clear that environmentalists and labor-rights activists are mostly up against the corporate wall -- and the wall is not yielding.

We need a Green New Deal.
It won’t happen without a lot more effective grassroots coalitions -- strong and sustained enough to change power relations for the long haul. But acculturation in the USA often encourages us to think along the lines of solo acts.
There’s the old American story about the solitary Dutch boy who discovers that a dike has sprung a leak. He inserts his finger, hangs in there heroically by himself and saves the town.
But in the real world, individual heroics are a fool’s gold when compared to the genuine value of building political movements. The immense obstacles to effective grassroots organizing can be overcome: not by lone rangers, but by persistent organizers and coalition-builders.
During the last six months, I’ve participated in a lengthy series of meetings with many other local activists. Across two counties in Northern California, we’re about to launch a long-term project called the Green New Deal for the North Bay. www.GreenNewDeal.info
It’s just a start. But, as we begin a round of public forums throughout the region, we’re in the process of developing a grassroots agenda for far-reaching change that will address these two key questions:
“How can we create a sustainable green future that includes economic equity and social justice?”
“How can agendas for economic rights and environmental protection become more integrated and more successful?”
Seventy-five years after the start of the New Deal, and nearly 40 years after the first Earth Day, the need for basic change on behalf of social justice and ecology is clear.
But ideas are the easy part. In an era of massive environmental damage and vast economic inequality, we’ve got to organize.

Norman Solomon, co-chair of the national Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign, is the author of many books including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” In California, he is co-chair of the Commission on a Green New Deal for the North Bay. www.GreenNewDeal.info

CHANGE CONGRESS DOT ORG: help pass major campaign finance reform now.

“Americans want a government that is responsive to our needs, not a Congress that listens to its donors from the insurance and health care industry”

PLEASE DO THIS. PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AND URGE THEM TO DO THIS. URGE STRANGERS TO DO THIS.
PLEASE, OK?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Bioelectricity bests ethanol on two fronts: land use and global warming. BIOELECTRICITY??

"...Yesterday the Obama Administration established a Biofuels Interagency Working Group to oversee implementation of new rules and research regarding biofuels. On the group’s first day they would do well to look at a new study in Science Magazine comparing the efficacy of ethanol versus bioelectricity...

...Ethanol is a biomass—such as corn or switchgrass—converted into alcohol that can power an internal combustion engine. Bioelectricity, on the other hand, converts similar biomasses into electricity to power a vehicle run on an electric battery...

...A small SUV could go nearly 14,000 miles on an acre of switchgrass converted into bioelectricity, whereas the same acre converted into ethanol ran the vehicle 9,000 miles..."

THERE'S MUCH MORE - THIS IS IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING CUTTING EDGE STUFF! GO.READ

CHURCH MUSIC ANYONE?

They Call Us Working Class, but we ain't working anymore

via

SUM NEWS:

• U.S. forces in Afghanistan have developed a reputation for bombing first and asking questions later. According to The New York Times, an internal Pentagon investigation confirms that the rules of engagement were not followed properly during airstrikes on May 4, resulting in the deaths of 20 to 140 civilians. GO.READ

• Do we have bold leaders ready to move us away from the failed policies that generated a free market kleptocracy for insiders and their masters, the ultra wealthy? Are they brilliant tacticians who can think far enough outside of the box to get us out of calamitous foreign adventures that generate nothing but death, destruction, and ill will on the part of those we seek to "help"? READ & DECIDE

• In 2003 golden boy, new Af/Pac General McChrystal spoke on Bush's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, as troops were rolling into their stop-loss re-deployments, lack of attention by the V-A, and other horrors. READ WHAT THE INVISIBLE GENERAL SAID THEN. Of course we trust him! LOL@PENTAGON

• Lest we forget, those who dexide what we should know and when we should know it, are saying the financial catastrophe they created is improving. Fuck them and the financial catastrophe they rode in on.

With Barack Obama as commander in chief there has been a 23% increase in Iraq of “Private Security Contractors” working for the D o D

Newly released Pentagon statistics show that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the number of armed contractors is rising. 250,000!

Cheney continues to write his own indictment

A flood of new revelations about Bush and Cheney's criminal misconduct are coming to the fore.
The exposures are a direct result of the work of all the people who are demanding accountability.

The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez, is now calling for an investigation of Bush-era policies. Sanchez himself was forced into retirement because of his connection to Abu Ghraib -- for him to now call for an investigation shows that the plot goes much deeper than that one notorious torture chamber.

"The mechanisms that are responsible for establishing accountability have lost their credibility within the country, and there's a lack of trust in them," retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview on CNN's "Newsroom" Tuesday.

This week also brought to light two under-reported stories: 1) Cheney personally led secret Congressional briefings on torture methods, and 2) as early as 2004, the Red Cross privately expressed concerns to Colin Powell that U.S. detention and interrogation methods violated international law.

With any other administration we would call the newest torture revelations "shocking." But we are done being shocked. We have come to expect from the Bush administration the worst sort of human rights violations and trampling on the U.S. Constitution.

What is "shocking" is how Dick Cheney continues to write his own indictment. With every story that breaks about Cheney's flagrant crimes, he takes to the airwaves not to deny the charges, but to make an even more flagrant defense of having broken the law!

INDICT THESE TOP LEVEL WAR CRIMINALS NOW!

CHENEY ADMITS BREAKING LAWS:

The Long, Slow, Pistol-nacht of the Right

with great thanks to Driftglass:

'File under: "Guns don't kill people, Conservatives kill people."

Recent American history has seen enough violent, rage-drunk years punctuated with enough bombings and assassinations to prove to anyone who has not had their brains eaten out by Hate Radio is that there is virtually zero moral distinction between the radical mullahs who fill a small number of brown people on the other side of the world with ignorant, aggrieved fury and weaponized holy fire, and then point them at political targets...

...and our very own Conservative Christopathic axis of evil that fill a small number of white Americans with ignorant, aggrieved fury and weaponized holy fire, and then point them at political targets.

Except, of course, our American Taliban don't have to subsist by skulking in caves and smuggling out bad mix tapes.

Because thanks to scum like Rupert Murdoch, many of our American Taliban are given access to the best broadcast technology in the history of the world, and collect multi-million dollar paychecks for puking their hate straight into our living rooms in hi-def.

The Right really does hate us for our freedoms, and as long as the status quo remains unchanged, every one of us on the Left is walking around with a bull's-eye pinned to our back.'

NO MORE COMPROMISE -- OBAMA MUST WHOLLY REJECT BUSH'S DICTATOR POLICIES

By Matt Taibbi, True/Slant

The recent haggling over Guantanamo is such classic Democratic Party politics, it's almost laughable.
Almost, except that it's, you know, revolting. GO.READ

IS OBAMA THE LEAST ENVIRONMENTALLY AWARE DEMOCRAT IN DECADES?

This is proving to be an administration that doesn't know the meaning of the word "no."

Down in Appalachia, things are not much better, where the coal-extraction industry was recently given the green light to proceed with 42 of its 48 pending mountaintop-removal permits. While Obama speaks out about the negative impact of the aptly named process, where mountains are blown apart to expose thin lines of coal, he is not willing to take on an industry that continually pollutes rivers and threatens public health.

"If you still have an Obama sticker on your car, maybe think about scraping it off and sending it to the White House with your objections," says Mike Roselle of Climate Ground Zero, who is working hard to stop mountaintop removal in West Virginia and elsewhere. "Blowing mountains to pieces is a crime."

...Obama proposes reducing U.S. emissions 83 percent by 2050 by essentially allowing industry to regulate itself...

...look for a new wave of timber sales on federal lands, sanctified in the name of fighting climate change, categorically excluded from full environmental analysis and enthusiastically supported by so-called collaborative groups who will be first in line to cash in on the lucrative logging contracts. Greens with chainsaws.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

DOES OBAMA GET IT?

DOSEN'T SEEM TO.

fuck me, Buckwheat!

The Harvard MBAs in the auto executive suites wouldn't know a good car if they got run over by one.

The Harvard MBAs in the auto executive suites wouldn't know a good car if they got run over by one. And ultimately it's the cars which are going to save GM and Chrysler. This is a good news story, and I urge you to go read it.

I think GM and Chrysler need to GET BUSY building light rail, high speed trains, alternative energy generators and storage...there is so much that this idle trained, skilled work force and manufacturing space could be used for! If WE own these corporations now, and we know what is needed NOW and into the future, LET'S GEAR UP AND GET BUSY.

PLEASE CLICK HERE AND SIGN THIS PETITION TO BILL O'REILLY AND FOX NEWS:

Bill O'Reilly:

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YES, AMERICA, THERE IS A PLAN FOR GENERAL MOTORS TO DO IMPORTANT, GOOD WORKS

Monday, June 1st, 2009
Goodbye, GM ...by Michael Moore

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

In SOME parts of the world, when the government pisses off the populace, they make SURE to let thier feelings be known. Here in the states? Lying to go to war? Persuant war crimes? Gigantic banking fraud? YA YA WHO GIVES A SHIT? But in INDIA, if the gubminty pisses you off, you DO SOME SHIT.

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