An Open Letter To America's Anti-Christ

(Warning: Although written as a Halloween rebuke to the action's of fear by a top figure in today's America, this article may offend some sensitive sensibilities. )

Hello again Anti-Christ and false prophet. I see you've been up your old tricks again. What a wonderful letter you released to millions of Americans just a day before Halloween! It's full of all of the ingredients needed for the scariest of horror movies.

Death and destruction, terrorist attacks, gay pedophiles in charge of everything and a populace that is forced to hand their children over to them. Oh, one could faint from the horrors of it all! But wait! There's more! On top of all of these future events, you have looked into the future and seen the destruction of our Constitution, the taking away of the Second Amendment, the nuking of Israel by fanatical mullahs, a Supreme Court allowing for the arrest of Christians, (forcing all American Christians to emigrate to Australia), the shutting down and banning of all conservative talk shows, radio and television, euthanasia of undesirables, children forced to watch pornography in school, and any other form of death, destruction, and mayhem that could come pouring out of your lunatic mind.

How will all of these end of the world scenarios come forth, and why will the world as we know it end by 2012? Because Barak Obama is elected president of the United States. So claims James Dobson, the son of goats and pigs, who sent out millions and millions of copies of a letter entitled " Letter From America In 2012 In Obama's America" to Christians around the country in an attempt to blunt the effects being made on Christians who see John McCain as the worst possible choice and are voting their consciences come Tuesday.

Mr. Dobson, when DID you sell your soul to the devil and why would you wait until the day that the veil between the living and the dead is said to be at it's slimmest to release a document of such vile evil? Did your true master force your hand, seeing as how your kind are about to lose your grip on power and your sway over the populace? Could it be the writing on the wall that causes the terror to strike in your own heart and forces you to strike it into the hearts of real Christian men and women?

You disgust me Mr. Dobson. You stand for all that is wrong with our country right now. It has been putrid heaps of dung such as yourself who have stood on the pulpits of churches and proclaimed and furthered the lie that only you know the heart of God. Your pitiful bleatings were believed by those who desired to follow the Path and you led them straight down the road to hell. Such a good little Anti-Christ. What better way to deceive and to turn the Word into a mockery than to claim to be a teacher of the words of Jesus? To then twist those words into something foul tasting and morally repugnant, falsely claiming that this is the new direction God wants for his people. Your chameleon like ability to slip yourself into any national public discourse and throw a 'God Hates Fags' bomb into the middle of it must make you the hero of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Your claims that New Christians who are going to the polls and voting for Obama will cause them eternal damnation are as hollow as your entire basis for continuing to vomit in America's face. We have caught onto your lies and falsehoods Pharisee, and we call you what you truly are. A demon, a monster, a phony, an anti-Christ, a fraud, and a liar. You are one of those we are warned about. One of those who will come in sheep's clothing only to devour God's people. How dare you mock those who disagree with you, claiming them to be other than God's children, and them stand on the pulpit and demand complete loyalty from those you have hoodwinked?

The United States is sick Mr. Dobson. It needs a healer right now, a person who will not kiss the ass of a lunatic whose views are so the opposite of what America stands for such as yourself. You, who claims to know what is good for all of us are the real menace, the real danger of implementation of theocratic rule and intolerance. It is you who wishes to take away the rights of your fellow citizens and drunk with power, use it to enslave an entire nation. It is you who would take the reigns of power and use them to launch nuclear weapons at your perceived enemies. And it is you who stands naked before all of Christendom as a divider of people, a snake, and a deceiver. It was you who slithered in the Garden, stood laughing at the foot of the Cross, and are known the world over as the great deceiver.

Go away Dobson. We don't need your kind fouling up our national discourse anymore. Take off your costume today, the day set aside for demons and goblins, and show the world who you really are. Because even as you post your letters to America's faithful, millions of them don't believe you any more. And even more look upon you as a creature of darkness, a greedy, power hungry whore whose only true beliefs lie in the bottomless pits of despair. You are rebuked sir.

Take that rebuke and take the dismissal of America's faithful, and go crawl back under your rock. If you'd like to read Dobson's disgusting letter, go here: http://focusfamaction.edgeboss.net/download/focusfamaction/pdfs/10-22-08_2012letter.pdf

Entire Town Outsourced To China

You know the product by sight. You know it's name, it's feel, what it's many uses are, and it's probably in almost every U.S household. It stands for Made In America, a good product, a working man's best friend since it's invention in 1918 by William Peterson. Produced in a small Nebraska town where the entire population works hard making them, the Irwin Tools company, a subsidiary of Rubbermaid, announced last month that the Vise-Grips plant is moving to China because the labor costs are so much cheaper there.

DeWitt, Nebraska lies about 35 miles southwest of the state capital of Lincoln, but couldn't be farther apart in lifestyles. With a population of 600, Dewitt epitomizes the small town values espoused by the candidates for President. Crossing the set of railroad tracks to gain entry to the town proper, it's main street consists of one small tavern, a small grocery store, a little clothing thrift operation, and the huge Vise-Grips plant.

Trees line every street here in DeWitt, a place where homes aren't packed together like sardines, and everyone knows your name. You can't pass through the little slice of apple pie without waving to virtually every person you pass, whether they're walking down the street, or sitting on their porch watching the gorgeous fall foliage. This every man and woman town is about to be completely uprooted though, due to the greed of a corporation, and the tax incentives that companies are still receiving to ship our jobs overseas.

The trade agreements with China actually provide for extra money for corporations to set up shop in China, rather than keep the plants here in America. Vise-Grips. Good Lord, one must think when they go to grab a pair of the ever handy tool from now on. Used as a portable vise, or a wrench in a pinch, Vise-Grips are in every garage, every mechanics shop, every kitchen drawer, and well, they're just everywhere. And it has been the good people of DeWitt, Nebraska that has been making them for us.

Worried now about what they're to do, the town's residents fear their home is about to go the way of many a small town in the Mid-West over the past eight arduous years. They cite the examples of towns and cities across the Heartland that depended upon Agri-Businesses for their survival and whose homes were turned into ghost towns when the business was bought up by a corporate entity and moved or it's workforce laid off to make way for immigrant labor who would do the job for pennies on the dollar.

And it always seems that they pull this crap just before or during the holiday season. It's not bad enough that the corporation could care less that they're destroying people's lives, but they rub salt in the wound by doing it in October, or November, or December. Is Vise-Grips going to send each of their ex-employees a Christmas card wishing them a jolly holiday season? Probably so, such is the heartless nature of these corporate beasts.

In times past, a plant closing wouldn't be this big of a deal. The townspeople could have probably commuted up to Lincoln and found other work. But with high fuel costs and the fact that there are not any jobs open in the tight market, that option isn't even viable. So, DeWitt will most likely go the way of other small communities. Neighbors that have known each other all of their lives will most likely move away, losing contact with their friends as usually happens despite promises to keep in touch. Houses will be foreclosed or sold, the few stores in town will shutter their doors and windows due to a lack of business, and the townspeople will move away. DeWitt will become just another victim of the Bush policies, lying silent and dusty in the vast Nebraska Plains.

This must stop. It doesn't matter who wins this election, this outsourcing and the incentives to do so must end. These are real people whose lives are being destroyed and who are going to lose everything they have worked and sweated and bled for all of their lives, going back two generations. Wiped out by the Corporate greed machine, and aided and abetted by our own government. This monstrous loss of good paying American jobs in favor of low paying ones is an insidious destruction of the American way of life, and the incoming President must end all tax breaks for those who would uproot entire towns and cities. Tax breaks must be given instead to those who would build new plants here in the United States. Make noise about this issue, because a complacent populace may just find that the next set of jobs shipped to China, or India, or Pakistan is yours.

Contact Irwin Industrial Tools, the parent company of Vise-Grips, and tell them we are no longer going to be silent about the grip that Corporate America has on the throat of the nation.

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/contactUs.jhtml;jsessionid=1G4HKQWIUEA3YCQIUBSCF3QKBCQHQJCK

Christian Voters Going Back To Roots And Voting Obama

Why Christians Are Turning Away From The Far Right And Leaning All The Way To The Left.

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Christian Voters Going Back To Roots And Voting Obama

In November of 2004, George W. Bush ended up with the good fortune of being the recipient of one of the largest turnouts of Christian voters ever. Almost in lockstep, they followed the orders handed down to them by the likes of fanatics such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell. It has been discussed much by political pundits on the internet and on television, with many wondering several things, such as why they did so, and what would have happened had they voted for Kerry.

Here we find ourselves once again facing the prospect of a huge turnout by Christian voters. In one of the most important elections of our lifetimes, this particular bloc of voters is going to play a major role in the selection of our next President. But this time around, the Republican Party is about to find a shock awaiting them at the polls. Because more and more Christian voters are openly and actively promoting Barak Obama and shunning John McCain.

We're not talking about your far right wing evangelicals. Those who follow the leaders like those named above, those 'churches' that have absolutely nothing to do with the words of Our Lord, but seek political power and monetary gain at all costs. In fact, we're talking about a huge contingent of New Christians who quite possibly have grown as large as 50% or more of the Christian voting bloc according to Pegasus News and GodPoll.

These are the New Christians and they have a great message of hope and of love and of peace on the world. If that sounds like the hippies of the 1960's and 1970's, well, you wouldn't be too far off from the philosophy. Sick and tired of being lied to by the Republican Party who tells them one thing to garner their votes, but then completely ignores them once in office, millions of Christians have decided that they will no longer base their votes on issues like abortion or gay marriage. Groups such as Republican Christians for Obama say that as far as they're concerned, gay marriage is not a political issue, but a human rights one. As far as abortion, they claim that every Republican vows to end the practice, but once in office, are afraid to touch the hot button issue.

Desire for change is strong among the Christian communities. From Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics, Methodists, and non denominational churches, the cry is now returning to the words of Jesus, and the works that He commanded we do. Issues such as feeding the poor in these hard economic times, sheltering the homeless, the sick and the infirm. Tackling the issue of genocide and AIDS in Africa. And in the case of a group called the Christian Alliance For Progress, calling for the reversal of decades of right wing ideology being pounded into worshipers heads.

Speaking about instituting nationwide initiatives based on the premise of the movie Pay It Forward, they want to help their fellow Americans understand that the 'Me First' teachings of the past three decades are the teachings of evil, and that it's alright to love your neighbor, it's ok to help someone in need, and that taking the time to stop and help a stranger can be a catalyst for others to do the same. They reject the anti-Christian policies of Dobson, Hagee, and Robertson that cry out for war against Iran. They reject war in all it's forms.

Even the environment has been placed on the table by these true Christians. Saying that we are all supposed to be the stewards of the planet, they want real solutions to the climate crisis and global warming. An idea being floated by some of the groups is to lobby for laws that make the biggest polluters such as the oil companies and coal fired electric plants kick in more tax dollars to pay for programs that will slow or reverse the effects that the emissions that their products cause to the atmosphere.

Instead of the politics of exclusion practiced by the Pharisees, these New Christians call for the inclusion of all to the table of God. Bigotry of all types must be done away with they say, and no one should ever have to feel awkward because of the color of their skin.

Interestingly, it's the far right churches who have preached the politics of hatred and greed, that have led the flock astray and down the path of wars and lies who are screaming out the loudest against the true Christian movement. Almost Biblical in it's implications, as in the Jews following Jesus in the first place to the chagrin of the original Pharisees, the New Christian movement gains followers by the day. Just as in the time that Our Lord walked the earth and left us His message of peace and love, today's followers of The Path have awakened to the fact that they have been hoodwinked by a group of political operatives posing as men of God.

Says a member of the Republican Christians for Obama "God is not Republican and he doesn't expect all of his children to vote Republican as some requirement of salvation." But you wouldn't know that if you listen to the Christian Coalition. In their 'non partisan' voter guide, they make no bones about whom they believe Christians must vote for without endangering their immortal soul. Listing falsely Obama's stance on issues, on the flip side, they paint the Keating 5 candidate as a holy man of God who is the candidate who most shares Christian family values. Really? Which values are those? The ones that claim only the rich should receive tax breaks. Only corporations should have laws protecting them from the American people, and not vice-versa?

The stance that our very Constitution, that guarantees freedom and liberty for all, should be ignored when convenient, and the laws of our land don't apply to the Executive Branch of government. These are the very stances that are driving church members away in droves, and opening their eyes to just who it is they have been listening to. And it wasn't the Word of God, that's for sure.

And so, as the Christian far right loses their grip on the throats of those who desire love and peace, hey do what the Republican Party itself is doing in the last days of the campaign. They belittle those who desire to help others. They call them false Christians when it is they themselves who were spawned by Satan. They are on the attack, making up lies, and doing all that they can to stop the growth of a movement that just wishes to leave lives of peace and of service to others. It's the reason they are voting for Barak Obama, and the reason they are actively spreading the word to other Christians that it's ok to leave the fold and vote your conscience. That you don't have to vote what a pastor or a priest tells you to, but that you should vote for whom you think would lead to the healing of our people and not further the divide that being shoved down our throats these last days of the campaign by John McCain and Sarah Palin.

There's one message they do want to get across though, and it's an important one. They want you to know that as Christians, it's time to go back to the beginning and start over. That somewhere along the way, the wrong road was followed and it's time to back track and find the way back to the one true Path. Come and join us...................................

You Might Be A Terrorist.....................

If you can not walk up to the counter at the airport in order to pick up your ticket due to the fact that you still ride in a stroller, you might be a terrorist. It happened to a two year old boy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Not once, but twice did he learn what terrorism is all about when airport security stopped his family for further 'security' checks because someone put the kid's name on the FBI's terrorist watch list.

Rising at the rate of about 20,000 names per month, the ACLU estimates that there are more than 1.4 million names on the 'list' as of today. Although Homeland Security denies that there are more than a handful of Americans who are accidentally on the list, the truth is just the opposite. If your last name, for instance, has a couple of letters that match a couple of letters in a known terrorist's last name, be prepared to be delayed when trying to board a flight.

If you are a retired Air Force National Guard Brigadier General, who flies commercial jets and is authorized to carry a gun into the cockpit in case someone tries to hijack your plane, you might be a terrorist. So goes the game for James Robinson, a commercial airline pilot, who can no longer use any of the usual fast lane amenities to get aboard the plane he is about to fly because some idiot put his name on the terror watch list.

If you are a Democratic U.S. Senator who has disagreed with the Bush Administration at every turn, you might be a terrorist. Just ask Senator Edward Kennedy. Likewise, you might talk to 11 term Democratic U.S. Representative John Lewis of Atlanta.

If you are just walking by the airport on any given day, like today for example, and as a plane comes in for a landing, you take out your trusty cam/phone and snap a picture of it to send to your kid at home, you might be a terrorist. Such is the example given by security heads at Las Vegas McCarran International where Air Marshall's are required to turn in at least one SDR ( Surveillance Detection Report) per month. Your photo has just been taken while you were snapping your own, and matched against driver's licence data bases, the State Department's passport office, police and FBI files, and when they figure out who you are, you are a newly minted member of the terrorist club. The Air Marshalls also get bonuses for all the 'extra' SDR's they turn in.

If you like to sew, as millions of Americans of both genders do, you might be a terrorist. Just ask seamstress Lana Gremerson of Portland, Oregon. Stopped while attempting to board a flight at PDX (Portland international Airport), Gremerson was pulled out of line, and told secondary security screening was needed before she could go aboard the plane. Figuring that she had no choice, (she was right about that), she went into a room, where a female guard told her to strip. Shocked, Gremerson refused and was told she would be arrested if she didn't co-operate. With a male security guard present, the woman was forced to strip down to her underwear, and then questioned about all manner of evil doings. Her crime? She forgot that she was carrying one of those travel sewing kits that contain.............well..............sewing needles! Allowed to leave after three hours, Gremerson not only missed her flight, but the next time she went to fly, she found her name had been added to the watch list.

If you are a reporter for a major television news network, you might be a terrorist. CNN reporter Drew Griffin found that out the hard way. The Transportation Safety Administration denies that Griffin's negative reporting on the terror watch list was cause for the reporter's name being placed on it. Yeah right.

If you are a middle school student, and attend classes in Georgia, you might be a terrorist. No less than the sheriff of a county went to a school in Oglethorpe County and told the students there that they would be placed on the terrorist watch list and remain there forever should they not stop leaving threatening notes to each other in the hallways of the school. An FBI spokesman said that hopefully, if a child's name was nominated for the list, cooler heads would prevail and not destroy the kid's life with list placement, but as we have already seen, that quota will take precedence all the time.

No longer constrained to just the travel sector of our society, Americans are now facing problems in other areas. Such as the 18 year old student who was starting a technology consulting business, but was denied the ability to process credit card payments due to his placement on the terror list. It turns out that his last name was similar to a Libyan government official's. I thought we were best friends with the Lockerbie murderers again?

Another man went into a Maryland Toyota dealership to buy a car, only to be told he had to be checked for tattoos that would determine if he was the person that was on the Treasury Department's list of terrorists and drug dealers.

A man who served honorably in the U.S. Navy, and whose father was killed during the Korean War, was denied access to his online PayPal account, because his name was on the list.

All of the cases above illustrate that those who were queasy at the thought of these lists being started in the first place were right all along. They may have begun with the intent of stopping terrorists, but somewhere along the way, as with everything else done by the Bush administration, has turned into a program designed to intimidate and control the American people. The old adage that some use that goes "If you've got nothing to hide, why do you care", no longer applies due to the repressive use of phony 'laws' to oppress the people. When the terrorist watch list begins to be used as a club to force people to do as they're told by their government, it's no longer a tool designed to catch anyone but those who would dissent. Because that's who is ending up on the 'list'. Those who openly disagree with a Bush policy are ten times more likely to find their names on the terror list than those who lovingly kiss up to the Glorious Leader.

After the nightmare of the last eight years, the incoming President should review Homeland Security's usefulness, and make changes accordingly. American citizens have a right to voice opposition to their government without fear of retribution. But because of the policies of Bush, and signed off on by John McCain, Americans must now fear their government, when it should be the other way around. Think about that come election day. The past eight years have happened. They don't just fade away because an election is upcoming and we've got two new candidates. John McCain will go further than Bush when it comes to this list instead of doing the right thing and tearing it up and starting over. And of course, he'll never put the name on the list that deserves to be at the very top, namely one George W. Bush.................................

Refuting McClatchy's Story On How Bush Helped End Homelessness

In today's issue of McClatchy News Online, where their motto of 'Truth To Power' appears just below their tag line, is a story entitled 'Bush administration has housed many homeless'. After reading the title and laughing out loud, I assumed that the article would be one that actually condemned the Bush policies of the past eight years of slashing the budgets for the poor and the homeless with every swipe of his line item pen.

But lo and behold, in a blatant attempt by the right wing news service to make it appear as though Bush has been some sort of liberally idealed President this past decade of hardship, the article claims that this monster in the Oval Office has been the one with the best idea for ending homelessness in America. Written in reference to one minor program called Housing First, the article gives Bush the credit for implementing the plan, which is a blatant lie. The program was started in Toronto, Canada by a coalition called The National Alliance To End Homelessness.

It was this entity that brainstormed the program and received help from the Canadian government to implement it. So wildly successful that it was picked up by cities around the United States, all Bush did was to allow for the diverting of funds for some programs that help the poor and deliver it to Housing First. Housing First now operates nation wide, doing the best they can with an ever growing homeless population.

But to hear McClatchy News tell the story, one would think that, holy crap, homelessness has been ended in our country. Using gibberish figures, they claim that the homeless numbers have fallen from 176,000 to under 124,000 under Bush's watch. They claim this number by saying it's culled from the best available data, which is another blatant lie. Try almost 4 MILLION homeless people in America Mr. Hearst Corporation, and you'll be getting a lot closer to the truth. And that number represents an increase of 30% during the Bush years, not any decrease.

Further on into the article, McClatchy News once again spouts off figures in an attempt to show how generous Bush has been towards the poor and the homeless. Telling how the authorization for Medicaid allotments have risen by almost double what they were when Bush took office, the article tries to give the impression that more and more people who need help are getting it, but that's another blatant lie. The real reason that costs for programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps have risen so drastically under the Bush Administration was because the Republicans outright privatized the programs while the entire nation was asleep after 9/11.

Oh yes. That's right. Where Medicaid used to be a program wherein the recipient would receive a card, go to their doctor, and the doctor would bill Medicaid, you know, a direct to the provider service, now, recipients are forced to choose an insurance company HMO that runs the Medicaid program in a given area. The HMO charges the government exorbitant fees for their services as a middle man, and the government, in order to lessen the impact of those fees, gives bonuses to the HMO's for money saved. So the HMO then places higher and higher 'deductibles' on office visits, prescriptions, tests, everything, on the recipient in order to discourage them from going to the doctor at all. So while many in the country decry the 'free' medical care being received by the poor, they have absolutely no clue that the poor aren't actually getting the care they need, but the insurance companies are fattening their bank accounts at taxpayer expense. Good job there Bushie. You paid back your fat cat friends well with that ripoff scheme.

They did the same thing with Food Stamps. JPMorgan now runs the Food Stamp program. Oh? You didn't know that? Food Stamps are not even food stamps any more. What they are now is what's called an Electronic Benefit Transfer card, or EBT. It used to be that when a recipient went to the store and bought food, the store would receive an extra seven cents on the dollar for accepting the food stamps. There was the hassle of collecting all those stamps, correctly tabulating them, sending them in for redemption, and waiting thirty days for a check. But with the EBT card, all that hassle was supposed to disappear, but the stores would still get that little extra for accepting the food benefit transfer. That is until Bush gave the program to the banks who demanded a 25 cent per dollar return on top of the store's 7 cents. And so, in order to cut costs, the amount of benefits available to recipients was cut. The fat cats get paid off once again, the poor get the shaft. On 15 separate occasions, the Republicans have refused and filibustered any vote to raise the allotment for the poor. The most recent example was the bailout for Wall Street package. Pork of all kinds was tied to that bill, but yet the Republicans threatened to scuttle the entire thing if the Democrats didn't remove a ten dollar a month increase in Food Stamp benefits for the poor.

In trying to make Bush seem the hero and not the villain, McClatchy ignores the slashing of billions of dollars for Section 8 vouchers by Bush. The number of available yearly vouchers nationwide for the poor to fight over is now all the way down to 30,000. That's a decrease from 250,000 and is said by no less than 6 national organizations for the homeless to be a contributing factor in the rise of the numbers of veterans on the street. They also leave out the fact that Bush refused to fund the Bring America Home Act, which would have provided municipalities with funding for more shelters, funding for more soup kitchens, funding for medical facilities for the poor, and would have stopped cities from making homelessness a crime.

Incredibly, in this toilet paper excuse for a 'news' story, McClatchy attempts to shift the burden for America's homeless problem on the Democrats. Claiming that every time the organizations that serve the poor come knocking with their hand out, it's the Republican Party that steps up and that the Democrats will begrudgingly give a little during the snowy months, McClatchy again tries to make it appear as though the Bush years have been a boon to the poor of America. The only item missing from this fraudulent excuse for journalism was a picture of Bush in long flowing hair, white linens, and a halo circling his godlike head.

No. Nice try McClatchy. We all know that your organization has always been a front for the Republican Party, but this is just too much. I doubt that even Fox Noise would throw this garbage and vomit into people's faces and expect them to eat it. The truth is that since Republicans have controlled Congress during the Clinton years, they have forced through cut after cut after cut for the most vulnerable, not out of some sense of civic responsibility, but because of an evil desire to reroute those dollars to their corporate friends. When Bush stole the election, well, God Damn, the party was really on then as we have all been witness to. Just one month's worth of money that is being shoveled into the bottomless pit that is the Iraq War would end homelessness forever in America.

Take a look at a couple of facts, then go figure out if McClatchy is full of shoot.

Fact one: Compared to 1978, the U.S. government is now spending nearly 65 percent less on developing and maintaining affordable housing for poor people. ($83 billion was appropriated in 1978, while only $29 billion was allocated in 2005.)

Fact two: Compared to 1978, the U.S. government now spends $84 billion more on subsidies for home ownership programs. (It spent $38 billion in 1978 on these subsidies for middle-class and affluent homeowners versus $122 billion in 2005.)

Fact three: In 2004, 61 percent of all federal housing subsidies went to households earning over $54,787 per year, while only 20 percent of those subsidies went to households earning less than $18,465 annually. The 2004 federal poverty threshold for a household of four with two minor children was $19,157.

The fact is, the Bush Administration has been worse than Reagan when it comes to cuts made to programs designed to help the poor, the homeless, and especially the homeless veterans. Anything else being said to try to save the legacy of an evil monster is propaganda, pure and simple.

Corporate Welfare Forces The Poor To Starve

Over one trillion dollars is being pumped directly into the coffers of some of America's most fiscally irresponsible companies at the very same moment that the politicians who so blithely give away our money are denying an increase in food stamp allotments to the poorest of the poor in our country.

Claiming that the United States could not afford to give the poverty stricken more food purchasing power due to budget shortfalls, recent Congressional votes ran along Party lines, with Republicans threatening to filibuster the very bailout bill that would hand over to the bankers and lawyers of Wall Street the wealth of the entire nation, unless the Democrats removed an earmark to the bill that would have given a measly ten dollars per month to struggling families.

A March, 31st, 2008 article in the New York Times warns of the rising number of families with the sole provider being put out of work, being forced to turn to the food stamp and welfare programs of their respective states, only to discover the shocking truth that the system is designed to cause misery and not relief any more, thanks to the likes of the Republicans in Congress since 1994.

When Newt Gingrich and his corrupt cohorts wrestled control of the House and the Senate, one of their first actions was to enact laws that cut maximum benefit levels, and ordered a freeze in the standard deduction. Instituted in 1996, the frozen benefit levels and reduced standard deduction levels have caused such a lowering of available food purchasing power among America's poor that the Fiscal Policy Institute, an ultra conservative group, has decried the frozen benefit levels as actually hurting the economy. Twelve years of lowered benefits, and eight years of job losses has eroded the American dream into a long forgotten shadow of a whisper.

Yet another conservative group, the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities, has put forth reports showing the impact on the cuts in cash assistance, food stamp benefit allotments, and the reduction in medical care being provided due to the massive giveaway to the insurance industry in the form of privatizing Medicaid.

One of the very first sounds you'll hear from the far right is a bleating whine about government not being in the business of helping the poor and that they shouldn't be receiving benefits of any kind. But the very same heartless losers will actually sit and justify the redistribution of wealth to banks and mortgage brokers, who then take our money and go off laughing in our face on half a million dollar vacations. The whiners and begrudgers don't even know the basic fundamental fact of economics. That is, if the poor had more benefits, there would be more money flowing through the economy, more jobs would be created, thereby lowering the need for those benefits naturally, and yes, it would help spread the wealth around to taxpayers, not corporations.

With the Presidential candidates from both sides of the aisle calling for another 'vote buy' stimulus package, once again, before the bill is even put to paper, or any details worked out, the Democrats once more attempt to push for a hike in food stamp levels, pointing out the alarming rise in food prices, and the lowered ability of poor and even middle class families to feed their children due to even faster rising costs of fuel, but once more into the fray come the neo-cons, demanding no increase whatsoever for people they label as a drain on the system. Why anyone would consider hungry children a drain on anything is beyond all reason and should reveal to everyone once and for all just who the Republican Party represents. The rich and the corporate interests.

What is to be done? The answer, according to every single advocate for the poor, and across the board at conservative think tanks, is to lift the standard deduction freeze, and raise the cap on food stamp benefits. To push aside those who stand in the way of economic recovery for all, and who would allow their fellow citizens to go hungry while they gorge themselves at the Congressional cafeteria for free. Only the best for those who make it to the pinnacles of power, but a let them eat cake attitude towards the multitudes who scramble for the falling crumbs.

Other think tanks decry the cuts in funding that have been implemented at vocational rehabilitation centers for those who have lost jobs. It used to be that one could go to these places and get training for another job that paid a comparable wage. No longer. Due to more Republican budget cuts, the name of the game at these mills is to place a worker in virtually any job available, in most cases, a minimum wage, no benefits, dead end, no hope for the future job, that forces the person onto the welfare rolls any way.

It's time for this evil to end. The time has come to push aside those who have foisted misery and suffering on their fellow Americans in order to cater to the whims and desires of rich corporate fat cats. It is time to restore our nation to a place of compassionate helping hands, and do away with the mentality that says it's ok to swat away those who reach out for help. No nation's soul can survive very long under a cloud of death and treasure for the few. Congress would do well to note their suffering citizens and react accordingly. For should they not understand the growing anger and desperation that is beginning to grip this country, they may well find themselves with a conflagration on their hands that makes the Boston Tea Party look like a fireside chat. End the corporate welfare, and help starving Americans. End the corporate welfare, and bring a dying nation back to life by giving help to those who can in turn breath life back into the economy. The alternative is becoming intolerable and the consequences unthinkable.

Using 9/11 To Rip Off The Public

Just 18 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts, sits tiny Peabody, a small town sitting on the intersection of I-95 and Route 128. Not much happens in Peabody, as the police at headquarters on Allen Lane will attest to. At this time of year, the most heinous crimes are speeding tickets being given out like Halloween candy to the thousands of tourists who flock to New England in order to view the fall foliage.

But something new will be occurring in Peabody come September 11th of next year due to the vigorous efforts of the Police Department's Union. All Peabody police officers will be given the opportunity to take the day off, or to work it and receive holiday pay. That's right. Even though not recognized as either a state or federal holiday, the cops in Peabody will be treated to an extra one any way.

Only the second city in the entire nation to do this for their cops, it would seem to be only natural for the reader to believe that New York is the other city. But you'd be wrong, as it's actually another New England town called Derry, New Hampshire. Derry, about 20 miles southeast of Manchester, New Hampshire, is even smaller than Peabody, but they too get to enjoy an extra day of fun and laughs at taxpayer expense on a day when the rest of us stop to remember the victims of the largest catastrophe of our time.

Even as the families of some of the World Trade Center victims in New York expressed outrage that cops in areas not even affected by the disasters are being given special perks at a time when state budgets are strained to the breaking point and services are being slashed everywhere, police unions in nearby towns see the move as a great idea. Medford, Massachusetts police officer Harry MacGilvray, who is also the head of that town's police association, says that he thinks it's a great idea and one that should be adopted by other Massachusetts towns and cities.

The brother of one of the victims, who was contacted by the media says" “I’m really shocked, They’re just taking advantage of a tragic event for their own gain, and I don’t appreciate it.” Other families expressed outrage, with several calling and mailing the city of Peabody, but the union pretty much had the city over a barrel. In addition to the holiday perk, the city also had to agree to use only paid off duty cops at road construction sites as well as give in to a 13 per cent pay hike.

Somehow, this stinks to high heaven. The nation is going through a financial meltdown, and citizens everywhere are being forced to tighten their belts and close their wallets. Prices are spiraling out of control, rents are shooting upwards, the housing market has tanked, and the costs of heating your home are going to make last year seem like a walk in the park. But yet, despite all of this, the cops in New England believe they deserve a perk not shared by anyone else in the country, including the very cops who were on the scene when the towers came down.

The cops who lost their brothers and the families of the firefighters who lie beneath the rubble of the crumbling towers do not seek to exploit a day of national mourning for personal gain. The soldiers killed at the Pentagon certainly have loved ones who could use an extra day off of work every year, but yet, there is no law giving relief to the very people who should be receiving it.

How then, do these who were not even there on the day that evil struck and slaughtered thousands feel they deserve special treatment? How dare they besmirch the memories of the fallen and the wounded survivors who will go through the rest of their lives with psychic scars or others with death sentence breathing problems. granted, a few of the cops from these two towns showed up after the fact to try to help in the cleanup, but that little bit of service does not in any way grant license to a lifetime of reward. And what of the city officials who caved in to this outrageous demand at a time when they are thinking of cutting services for schoolchildren? At the very least, should they not be forced to visit ground zero, be forced to witness the real cops and firefighters who were there that day, and be forced to listen to the horror stories of the departments who should be receiving that extra perk, but ask for nothing?

If the cops in Peabody, Massachusetts and Derry, New Hampshire had any honor, and aren't just trying to rip off the taxpayers on the backs of dead heroes, they would turn down the day off and extra pay, or take the pay and donate the money to the upkeep of the 9/11 Memorials. Because memories of a life changing event are one thing. But the exploitation of those events for personal gain are cynical stains upon the still open wounds of an entire nation. Shame on the cops of these two towns for their blatant extortion of their respective cities, and for the wasteful use of taxpayer money in order for them to have another summer barbecue.

The Second American Civil War

No one can say just who fired the first shot, just as no one will ever be able to discern just what moment became the catalyst for the conflagration that has torn a once great nation asunder. Many in the newly formed Democratic Union of Free States claim the bitterness and hatred emanating from the candidacy and campaign of John S. McCain and his running mate, an unqualified Governor of a state that seceded from the Union immediately after hostilities began, Sarah Palin were the cause of their supporters taking license to go and kill anyone who disagreed with them. Almost all of the Northeastern states, as well as several upper Mid-Western state plus Virginia make up the Democratic Union of Free States, a powerful coalition to whom the Second Confederacy must turn to for financial assistance in order to survive.

Former states such as Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah have been absorbed or granted entry into the Republic of California, a nation that has taken up isolationism as it's mantra, and who, full of food and other of life's necessities, refuse to bargain or trade at all with their former colleagues to the east or south.

Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico were seized by the newly reformed Republic of Texas, whose Governor Jeb Bush threatens the Free States of Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado with nuclear holocaust unless they submit to becoming a part of Texas. It would be comical were it not a Bush nut job in charge of the launch codes. The only thing stopping Texas from making good on their threat is the combined might of the newly formed separate nations providing an umbrella of mutually assured destruction should the Texans attempt to invade the breadbasket of the continent.

Virtually all of the Ohio Valley states joined the D.U.F.S. for both financial and cultural reasons, with the great industrial capacities of the northern states meshing quite nicely with the agricultural centers in the upper Mid-West.

Hawaii was seized by Japan when the first missiles were fired, as well as Guam, the Marshall Islands, and American Somoa. Puerto Rico declared it's complete independence from the former U.S., aligning itself with Cuba and by proxy, Russia.

Entire cities lie in ruins, New York, Boston and Washington D.C. being battlegrounds used by not only invading forces from the southern areas, but wracked by internal fighting as well. There is no evidence as to who lobbed a nuke at Atlanta, but the Confederacy's plans to use that city as it's Capital were scrapped in favor of Savannah. Likewise, Austin, shattered beyond recognition due to a constant barrage of artillery and air strafings, caused the Republic's Capital to be moved to Dallas. Philadelphia is the recognized center for the North, although remnants of the old federal government continue to insist that D.C. is the rightful base for government.

The bitter divide and hatred felt by all of the participants in the fighting, and even by those who could do little more than watch, is thick enough to cut with a butter knife. Tensions run high along borders of the new nations, with sporadic gunfire heard all along the frontiers due to itchy trigger fingers.

Funny though, even as the economies of the entire world collapsed due to this second American civil war, it has been the communities of Europe that have provided the relief for the former united country. All save Texas have accepted this aid, even the Confederacy, because to not partake in the largess would have spelled certain doom. Ordinary Texans regularly sneak across the mine laden borders to escape the oppression and brutal tactics being employed to suppress all dissent, but those who are caught are water boarded, tortured and hung. Condemned by the United Nations as a rogue state, the Texas government claims they could care less what the world thinks. It's where most Republican politicians escaped to when the fighting they had been begging for broke out. And aslo the only nation on the continent that has not outlawed corporations.

President McCain of the Texas Republic has not been seen for several months, leading to speculation as to his health. His number two, Comrade Lieberman, has been speaking on McCain's behalf. With the departure of now Premier Palin of the Nation of Alaska, Lieberman immediately moved to shore up his own grip on power. Alaskans, angry at the war caused by McCain and Palin's whipping their supporters into violent frenzies during the 2008 Presidential election, claim they do not recognize the authority of either Palin, the self proclaimed Premier, nor the power behind the throne, Todd Palin. The nation seems to have fallen back on it's former frontier mentality, with everyone doing anything they please.

Gasoline prices have started to reach the ceiling at 24 dollars per gallon in the southern parts of the country. Northern cities only reached about 10 bucks due to the help of the Canadians. Food consists mainly of stale bread, corn on the cob, oily fish from polluted waters, and the occasional pack of dried beans and potatoes. Milk has started to become pasteurized once more in some areas, and it's rumored that the Montanans are beginning to process real meat again, but it could be many months yet till we know the extent of their capacity. Fears abound that the knowledge of food production could spark yet another war.

There's no telephone or television service, the only communication devices the small hand held radios distributed by the European Union and Canada. People are seen huddling around a single radio, desperate for news from other parts of the broken nation, but alas, with the frequency jammers employed by some out of spite, information is sporadic and decidedly propagandized.

People have started to try to rebuild what they can, attempting to get stores and services back up and running. Many areas have electricity once again, meaning that cities with subways can ferry people around to different work areas. Buildings that were destroyed during the fighting are being rebuilt, although many office buildings are still being used as housing by those fearful to return to outlying areas. Cities have become refuges of sorts, the comfort of safety in numbers being on people's minds.

It is believed that the Northern Union decided to stop fighting the Confederate States after the slaughter that occurred at Midland, Georgia. 200,000 casualties from both sides was just too much to bear for either country, and the destruction of Ft. Benning, with it's accompanying brutality to prisoners of war took the fight out of everyone. Although the Confederacy blames the North for the nuking of Atlanta, there is evidence that suggests it was actually the Alaskans, under the orders of the Palin family, that launched the warhead. Roundly condemned for the cowardly act, scholars also believe that it was the firing of a nuclear missile that brought the fighting across the continent to a standstill. Looking on the bright side, they say that nuke may have saved millions of lives.

No one is quite sure where things will go from here. There does not seem to be any desire for the competing nations to rejoin into one entity any time soon. The Northerners and their allies in the Mid-West claim no possible talks will be negotiated without the handing over of the criminals McCain, Lieberman, and Palin. The Texans, with their usual aloofness, claim they don't know the whereabouts of any of the principles, even though Lieberman gave a speech in El Paso two days ago. And, claim the Northerners, with Texas' close ties to Alaska, they could easily convince the lawless country to hand Palin over. California has outlawed political parties altogether, opting instead for a fully independent candidate process, funded entirely by the states within their Republic. They have expressed interest in talks, but don't seem to be in any hurry, what with their abundance of food and energy.

And so, no one really knows if there will ever be a nation called the United States again. The second American civil war tore asunder what two hundred plus years worth of sweat, blood and tears built. It was such a little thing really, something that could have been avoided had those with keener intellects demanded a halt to the hate and the call for violence by the now outlawed Republican Party. In trying to win an election where it was clear the electorate no longer wished to follow them, they made up lies about their fellow countrymen and told their dwindling amount of followers that it was alright to use any means they felt like to sow fear and distrust. Until that fear led to murder, and that murder led to reprisals, and those reprisals led to every nut job in the country grabbing guns and firing at anything that moved.

Time warping back to October of 2008, one can clearly see that all of it could have been avoided had those in charge but arrested those calling for violence, calling their fellow countrymen traitors when they themselves were the seditionists, and had they not tried to play with people's fears and people's prejudices in order to retain a grasp on power they had been abusing since taking office. Such progress could have been made, but for the timidity of the mainstream media, who allowed the charlatans to spew their message across of the airwaves of a worried America, and not call them on the air what they were. Liars. The very same liars who led the nation down the path of financial ruin, divided the country, and helped to destroy the dreams of the entire world.

No Grave Could Be Deep Enough

Evil shows itself to all of us in different forms and in varying degrees of intensity. Each of us has been touched at some point by the palpable presence of darkness, some of us plunged into proximity with what can be seen only as the works of entities bent on destruction, while others escape with mere shadows darting from the corners of their eyes.

Other events though, are sometimes so heinous and abhorrent that they can only be classified as beyond the pale, so dark and so evil that the perpetrators themselves must be spawned by hell itself.

I'm speaking of course about the killers and abusers of children, those special degenerates for whom no grave can be deep enough to bury the memory of the deeds they have done. In recent weeks there seems to have been an unusual spate of murders, snuffings of little lives and abuses of those whose only crime was to cry out for love and affection. Here's a few of the most recent tales of the death of innocence. You decide whether they are the actions born of desperation, or just cold, calculated evil itself.

In Chattanooga Tennessee, a man brought his stepson to the emergency room at Memorial North Park Hospital, claiming he had fallen off of a picnic table while the family was on a day trip to the park. The child's injuries were so severe that he died a short time later. Further investigation revealed "multiple blunt force traumas" to the boy's body, including a fractured skull, ruptured spleen, broken ribs, and several other broken bones and abrasions. Accused of homicide, the man just had his case bound over to the Hamilton County grand jury.

A 14 year old girl has just been rescued and released from her bondage in Seattle Washington. She was brought to the United States by Afghan immigrants, who most likely bought her from her impoverished parents back in Afghanistan. Forced to work as a slave, the girl did the laundry, cooked the meals, minded the other household children, and oh yeah, was forced to have sex with the men of the house. Enslaved since 2006, it was only after neighbors recently realized what was happening at the home where the girl was being held that they helped her escape to safety and the immigrants who held her have all been arrested.

In the Bronx, New York homeless shelter where a homeless single father resided with his 8 month old son, neighbors and shelter staff became concerned after the father asked for an ambulance to be called for his infant. Bruising was evident on the baby, but the father insisted the child had fallen down. The baby died on the way to the hospital and police arrested the father after he made statements about punching his son in the stomach. Apparently, the father and son were not unknown to New York City's child protective services unit, as the baby had been to the hospital before with a broken arm. By all accounts, the man was seen to be a good father, but yet, that doesn't change the fact that he is now charged with manslaughter. A side note here would be that between 2004 to 2007, 38 children have died at New York's homeless shelters.

Tennessee once again, this time Memphis. It seems that there have been 12 children killed by one or both parents this year alone. In one instance, an 18 year old man furiously punched his girlfriend's 13 month old in the chest twice. She died on the way to the hospital as the man said while being arrested " She wouldn't stop crying." In another, a two month old died of a fractured skull after her father repeatedly punched her in the head. And particularly disgusting was the case of a two year old girl whose father has been charged with child murder after beating his daughter to death while attempting to potty train her. Authorities say there may have been sexual abuse occurring.

A psychopath in Tuscon, Arizona won't be seeing the light of day for a long time, maybe never, after pleading guilty to child porn charges. It seems the man and his wife liked to film little children engaging in sexual acts, and place the videos on the internet. When police raided their home, they also found 150 dogs that were being bred for dog fighting, $100,000, and 60 firearms, including automatic weapons. Just your typical American household I guess.

Here's the point. These despicable people should be buried deep inside the walls of some prison, or if found guilty and executed, buried in a grave so deep that future archaeologists will never find them. But could all of this have been avoided in the first place?

There has been much ridicule made of Nebraska's new child safe haven law. The law that allows for children of any age to be brought to area hospitals and left by parents who feel they are incapable of caring for them properly. Or parents who feel they may endanger their kids in some way. There was even coverage by the right wing media of a 'protest' against the law in Lincoln, the capitol city of Nebraska, but what the cameras didn't show was the fact that there were exactly 5, count them, 5 'protesters'.

The vast majority of the people in Nebraska are just fine with the law. If it will save one child's life, the scorn and ridicule are well worth it. Would it not seem to others then, that maybe their states should be re-examining their child safe haven laws to expand them? Or does the safety of children not really count to anyone other than those who actually work to pass and retain progressive laws such as Nebraska's? It seems as though the voices that are loudly braying about the idiocy of Nebraska's safe haven laws are the very same voices that are mysteriously silent when asked what their solution is. Child Protective Services in all 50 states are overwhelmed and can not respond to many cases. If people had a way to relinquish their children to safety, would that not free up case workers to respond to the cases of child abuse where the parents are in denial?

Think about this when you vote come November also. Which candidate would be more open to helping children and not fat cats? Which Senate and House candidates would pass a national safe haven law for children? Which State candidates? If the children of America are our future, then we must safeguard that national treasure as surely as we safeguard our money, our homes, or any other tangible valuable. Let the children cry, let the children suffer, and eventually, you can sit and watch America die.

To Submit Meekly Or To Exercise Your Rights

Submission to authority has been drummed into the heads of every person on the planet. Virtually universal in demanding compliance, governments lay down a set of laws to be followed by the populace, albeit, in most cases, to maintain some semblance of order.

In times past, the People of the United States had no real way of understanding the abuses of power that were perpetrated upon them, and so unwittingly contributed to ever growing intrusions of government into their lives. Ignorance being bliss, the People accepted the status of being little more than producing cattle, while those in charge of government and industry plotted the destruction of our Constitution and our way of life.

A side note here if you'll indulge, would be to openly state that the recent economic collapse did not just 'happen', but was an orchestrated event planned over the space of several years. One of the most cunning ways to erode a populations standard of living is to cause an economic emergency, that forces them to accept less pay for their labor, and feel lucky to be able to have work available at all. Why Americans are not marching on the White House and the criminal Treasury Department causes consternation in protesters of yesterday, who claim this generation to be the most weak willed in our history.

When trying times have beset our nation in times past, there was never any hesitation in the minds of the civil minded to take to the streets in protest. No hesitation to shut down by strike corporate entities or indeed the entire country when misdeeds by either corporate or government entity were detected. So terrifying in it's implication, civil disobedience by the public has caused a massive effort to be undertaken to relieve Americans of the notion that they are free to exercise their Constitutional right to petition for redress. The common wisdom prevailing now in the new country forged by the right wing fascists dictates that should you even try to disobey or make waves, you will be tased, you will be beaten, you will be taking a trip to jail and the courthouse.

We have all been witness to the anti war protesters being tased and arrested in recent years. We have been silent witnesses to the rise of free speech holding cells, the designated, away from the public view in many cases, ares where you are allowed to protest. The areas where civic minded Americans go to make their displeasure known, only to be photographed, identified, infiltrated by police entities, and placed in a data base of 'terrorists'.

Even those who wish to strike and protest against their employers have been arrested in recent years. One case that made the news this year were the 39 employees of Disneyland that were protesting the low wages and lack of medical insurance that Disney provided. Dressed as Disney characters, the police swooped in with batons swinging. You do not protest against corporations in this new America.

The elections have also shown that you are not allowed to hold protests against the government, with police in St. Paul raiding the staging areas of groups planning to march, and arresting rally leaders pre-emtively. Arresting people before they have even done anything at all would smack of thought crimes, and those arrested are most likely the first thought criminals in the history of this country. Used by the likes of Stalin and Hitler, the methods once abhorred and anathema to everything this nation stood for, are now becoming common place, and seen as just the way things are by too many of our people.

Questions linger in the minds of many Americans as to the validity of a government run amok, a government no longer of the People, by the People, nor for the People, but those questions can not be publicly voiced, lest one be automatically labeled a 'malcontent', a 'terrorist sympathizer', or somehow 'Unamerican'. It is this lie that has been shoved down the throats of the People for so long that now allows a Supreme Court Justice to declare that executing an innocent man is just dandy, because the people demand retribution for a heinous crime. The long held tenet of ten guilty men going free rather than executing one innocent man has been reversed by this extremist Court, and so, very soon, America will be witness to the murder of Troy Davis by their government.

The time has come for Americans to reject these new notions of absolute power by a government that feeds war machines and corporate criminals. Our society must understand that those who practice civil disobedience are protecting the rights of all of us, and can not be jailed or tased or beaten at the whim of the also run amok police. Instead, Americans must join in the protests, if not physically, then on the internet through emails, or by telephone. Flooding an email box or jamming a phone line is another quite effective way to show displeasure, and in and of itself, can be a form of civil disobedience.

One thing the People had better realize and realize it quickly, is that the day is fast approaching wherein there will be zero tolerance for protest or civil disobedience, a time when Americans will be forced to sit meekly by while an outgoing administration blatantly robs the Treasury of the People, giving all of the money to their corporate friends. Oh. That just happened didn't it? Where is the outcry? Is everyone too cowed by the threat of violence by the government should they march on the Capitol of OUR nation? It would seem that way.

Those who protest are true patriots, although to the far right extremists they are to be feared. They fear them because they represent a tearing down of fascism, a long held dream of Corporate America, and a dream they are watching die in front of their faces. Protesters are a threat to the very foundation of the old Cold Warriors' way of life, a life of war, death, killing, and ripping off taxpayer dollars.

So, go out and protest something you don't agree with. Fire off an email to someone right now, just to let them know you're are of what they are up to. Pick up the phone and give someone an earful about the status quo and demand change. And when you hear of non violent protesters being tased, or beaten, or arrested, howl as loudly as your voice can carry. Scream the primal screams of a wounded animal. The sounds of your anger will carry to their intended recipients, and they will tremble with fear of their own. Fear of an aroused and awakened populace and the fear that there is a multitude that is aware of their actions. Do not be cowed by the government, nor their corporate masters. Remember, despite what the far right claims, America is our nation, corporations are NOT people, and we have the right to protest any damned thing we like.

Do it now. Don't put it off until tomorrow. Whatever it is that's bothering you, whether it's a candidate for office, one that's in office, a law you disagree with, an action taken by the government, or just a parking ticket you disagree with, do something about it. Don't allow this country to fall into the old Soviet style standard of living by silent acquiescence, and watch quietly as more restrictive laws are passed on your rights as an American. Let them put us ALL, 300 million of us, on the stupid 'watch lists'. Won't it be funny to watch the airlines go out of business because no one is allowed to fly? And just think, no more fear of being strip searched in order to board a flight! It's up to us to stop this madness, so get moving and let's roll....................

An Open Letter To Bill And Hillary Clinton

Dear Mr. President and Senator Clinton,

Clearly you know of the negative attacks on Barak Obama by John McCain and Sarah Palin. Attacks that are the sleaziest and slimiest of their kind since the days of the criminal Huey Long of Louisiana. The desperation that emanates from the McCain campaign is palpable, and they have begun to resort to tactics that any one with any respect for the United States would shy away from. Inciting crowds to violence, they hope to distract the people from the dangerous times facing our nation, and the fact that they are already attempting to commit voter fraud in several states.

But the one thing that could clinch this election and push Obama so far ahead of the Republican camp is sorely missing. That is the voices of Bill and Hillary Clinton leading the charge against this disgusting last minute vileness unbecoming of any U.S. politician, let alone a Senator and a Governor of a state. Were the voice of a President, much beloved by the people of this country to this day, to make a major statement concerning the conduct of the campaign of John McCain, it might just force Senator McCain to talk about the issues, and leave the attacks alone.

If Senator Clinton were to tackle the problem of Sarah Palin's uncountable lies, well, who better to attack this little puppy than the real pit bull of the Senate? There could be no cries from any side of sexism at that type of counter attack now could there?

Both of you have served your country, and we are all sure that Mrs. Clinton has the tenacity to make another run for the White House in 2016. And of course , she will win. But in order for that atmosphere to even be available come that time in our future, the nation needs to loudly hear your voices now, lest the Republicans that have led us down the road to ruin be allowed to steal yet another election, and force us to follow them down the path of destruction.

Those of us who back a new direction for the country have waited breathlessly for both of your voices to rally undecided voters to our cause. But yet, there has been a disconcerting silence from the two people in this country who could easily attack the McCain/Palin ticket on two fronts at the same time, and do so loudly enough that people will listen.

President Clinton could be pointing out the Clinton Presidency, and the gains that were made, the budget surpluses, the sunnier skies, and the hope that was felt by all. Senator Clinton could actually challenge Sarah Palin on the issue of experience, and an attack by her could not be so easily dismissed.

Although it can be argued that you have given speeches backing Barak Obama and Joe Biden, the attention given to them was weak at best and had virtually no impact. Remembering back to 1991, when President Clinton campaigned in the so called Republican stronghold states, there was more than a couple of those states that turned blue that year. The nation needs that same campaigner to do it once again, because this time, the stakes are so much higher.

Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, our nation is in peril. Not some abstract possible threat that may or may not occur. The threat is here, it is happening, and it threatens the very foundation of our great country. To have the power and authority to command the attention of those of us who are still undecided by using the oratory gifts that both of you possess and not use that power to minimize the attention being heaped upon the Mccain campaign by the mainstream media would be an act of selfishness, and no one believes either of you to be that. Much respected both within the Democratic Party and without, a major attack on the McCain campaign by both of you could be the final nail in the coffin of the vicious, spinning out of control campaign of John McCain.

It would help greatly were one or both of you to appear at a campaign event of either Senator Obama or Senator Biden. It would show the voters who voted for Mrs. Clinton during the primaries that we are one Party, and not a divided house. There is too much at stake here for hurt feelings or future political posturing to get in the way of stopping an even bigger disaster from being foisted upon us all. The disaster of a Palin/McCain administration that would completely decimate the very nature of the United States, cause untold misery for millions of Americans, and hatred of our country the world over.

Help us stop this monstrously vast right wing conspiracy once and for all Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. Stand side by side with the Democratic candidates and use your major voices to stamp out the fies being lit by the filthy rhetoric of an out of control right wing who would and will go to any lengths, including violence, to try to steal this election. Both of you have been victims of that right wing playbook. Don't sit by the sidelines and allow the rest of us to be continued victims of the furtherance of the Bush years, and the vast neo-con fascist agenda. In the end, we, the American people, know you will do the right thing. And the right thing here is a loud rebuke of the tactics of the campaign of Sarah Palin and John McCain.

How To Force Answers From Candidates And Why It Needs To Be Done

Cat and mouse games would be a welcome respite from the day to day chasing around of the candidates for public office in order to obtain unscripted views from them. Playing hide and seek would be a preferable past time, rather than watch the U.S. media beg and plead for a sound bite from those who seek to hold the highest offices in our nation.

Everyone in the country is well aware of the refusal of the current Republican candidate for Vice President, Sarah Palin, to answer any questions by the media or by voters themselves unless the setting can be carefully controlled by her handlers. The same can be said for John McCain to a lesser extent. Speaking to a television station that is known to be a talking point distributor for one political party does not an objective accounting make. To this day, no one has any idea of the truth about the Republican candidates because of this refusal to answer questions, and by default, we have no idea of their fitness to hold high office. The situation would seem ridiculous were it not so serious. But when citizens of the United States, the supposed beacon of world freedom begins to resemble the old Soviet Union because of the actions of it's leaders and it's candidates, then it is obvious that changes are needed as to the way political campaigns are conducted.

This most unusual practice of not being open and honest with the American people is not without precedent. In recent years, other candidates for office have just refused to answer any and all questions in the hopes that the media would feel they couldn't run a story because they didn't have a quote from the candidate themselves. A case in point would be Rudy Giuliani's refusal to answer charges that he used the budgets of obscure New York City offices to pay for his lavish travel expenses. Campaign staffers would manhandle reporters into 'press areas' at campaign events, that is, until the glad handing began and they needed the media to take photos of a smiling ex mayor being the man about town.

Another case of candidate refusal to speak to the public in any form other than settings of their own spin worthy choosing would be what a Montana group called Project Vote Smart did in Idaho. They wanted to determine just how many lawmakers would answer questions from them. The group's board includes George McGovern and Newt Gingrich. Interestingly, and most telling, John McCain was on the group's board but was kicked off after refusing to answer the non partisan questionnaire. Before McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate, she also refused to answer the questionnaire sent to her. Maybe that's what gave McCain the impetus to choose her. Her propensity for silence. The Idaho politicians who refused to answer any questions were a mixed bag of both Democrats, Republicans, and even one Independent. Two are members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the others are all Senators.

Other notable candidates or even office holders who refused to state their positions on issues or who ducked questions altogether are Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who refused to clarify the statement he made equating homosexuality with bestiality and incest. Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, during the Iowa Republican debate held December 12, 2007, outright refused to answer the question of whether or not global warming was man made or if it occurred naturally. As of this writing, neither Presidential campaign will answer the questions of the Americans With Disabilities Group as to their stance on protecting benefits for the incapacitated. Colorado Senate candidate Bob Scahaffer ducked the media at an April event where heated discourse was expected on the economy and the Iraq War. In fact, he didn't even bother showing up at all.

There are many more examples of candidates who seek public office that refuse to answer media questions, but to include them all here would take a year or more. The problem seems to be that no one really gets to hear about the fact that these people refuse to answer questions on matters of how they would govern, because there is really no way for the media to force the candidates to give information to the public. What generally happens is the media outlets will just not bother televising or writing up a story, due to the lack of response from the politico involved. In this way, the politician gets to put forth what he or she wants the public to hear without ever having to explain their positions or answer anything but 'softball' questions.

This would never have been allowed even 25 years ago. The press even as late as the 1980's had the tenacity and the willingness to go the extra mile to get to the bottom of a situation, or to go so far as to ignore candidates who refused to answer questions. This doesn't happen any more. Now, if a candidate refuses to answer reporters or gives vague references to a talking point as an answer to a direct question, the media will just print or parrot the candidate's non answer and that's all the People get to see or hear. Instead of using the power of the First Amendment, the U.S. media acquiesces to the wishes of political campaigns by still following them around and reporting on their talking points, even when those very same reporters know full well what they are reporting is a lie. The so called 'rag' newspapers have done a better job in getting to the truth than the mainstream media, as have citizen journalists.

One way to end this type of politicking by omission, a practice that leaves the electorate confused or feeling that they don't know enough about the candidates to even bother voting, (which is what the politician who refuses to answer questions hopes for in the first place), is to implement an appendix to the Freedom of Information Act that orders for the full disclosure of all positions held by every candidate that runs for any political office in the country. From County Sheriff to President of the United States. Or even a stand alone law that decrees the same thing.

Naysayers will say that this will give an unfair advantage to those who speak well in public, but the argument doesn't hold up due to the many spokespeople candidates have, the advent of instant communication via the Internet, news print media, and a populace that has already declared that they could care less about speaking styles, they demand substance instead.

A law would not be needed were candidates to just level with the American people. But as we have seen in recent weeks, the state of political discourse in this country has degenerated into a laughing stock caricature of days gone by. Campaigns that declare their candidate doesn't speak for the campaign, hides a Vice-Presidential hopeful in an ivory tower, outright humiliate reporters that follow the campaign by keeping them in cordoned off areas and not giving them any access to the candidate or the candidate's supporters. Since the reporters involved don't mind being spit upon in public, and not turn and tell the campaign to cover itself from now on, there must be a way for the public at large to force the candidates for office to either answer to the issues put forth, or be barred either from running for office altogether, or at the very least, be banned from the airwaves that are owned by the People, not the politicians.

Regular press conferences with questions and real answers are the way Americans glean insight into candidates, not having their talking points, lies, and filthy sleaze thrown at voters by the very same Fourth Estate we entrust to give us the truth. If the media wishes to change the way political business is conducted in America, all they would have to do is to press a lawsuit with the Federal Communications Commission, pressing for relief. On the flip side, every single voter can file a complaint with the F.C.C. on their web site under the 'Broadcast (TV and Radio), Cable and Satellite Issues' area here: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm The basis for your complaint can be lodged due to the section of FCC law that deals with unauthorized/unfair/biased/or illegal broadcasts. Continue on to the next page and click 'Biased or Distorted News Stories By The Media'. Continue on to the online form and fill it out. If the FCC receives enough complaints, they'll be forced to act against any on air media that presents false information or reports known to be lies by candidates as a news item.

We the People have the power and the authority to demand changes to the way political campaigns are conducted in our own country. The time has come that politicians understand that we the People own the air waves of America, not the media, and certainly not the mud slinging liars who slime our living rooms with falsehoods. But in order to accomplish anything resembling change, we all must get involved. File an FCC complaint. Demand campaign disclosure laws that force candidates for office to hold real press conferences and answer the People's questions. because we are fast approaching a point in our history when politicians will just send out an email flyer and you won't ever get to see or hear from them. You'll just have to completely take their word for it, and we can see how well that's been working out.

The Republican Party Is A Terrorist Organization

The very second that the Republican Party unleashed it's latest false flag attack on Barak Obama by using tactics intended to induce fear in the populace their message was aimed at, they ceased to be a political party and transformed themselves instantly into what we have known all along they truly were, mainly, a terrorist organization.

Just as sure as Al-Qaeda launched attacks against the United States that were intended to "attack our freedoms", the new talking points from the Republicans that defame Obama by falsely associating him with Ayers are little more than an Al-Qaeda type of propaganda campaign induced to take away, through fear, Americans right to choose who to vote for in the upcoming election.

Sarah Palin, the Republican's laughing stock Vice-Presidential pick, who did not even know that the campaign of John McCain had pulled out of the state of Michigan, has been the water bearer for these latest scurrilous attacks. But when one lives in a very fragile glass house, it would seem to an intelligent person that one would not be throwing boulders about.

Palin and her husband Todd were both members of a terrorist organization called The Alaska Independence Party. An organization dedicated to the secession of Alaska from the United States by any means possible, including violence. While both claim to have left that organization years ago, the fact that Palin, as Governor of Alaska, addressed the A.I.P.'s convention this year, where she told members and friends of hers to "keep up the good work." Part of the A.I.P.'s method of attack against the United States are openly stated and include infiltrating major political parties. Which Sarah Palin, with the backing of radicals in Alaska, apparently did. The A.I.P. also advocates for the violent overthrow of the U.S. Government. Is this a view shared by Palin? One can not know, because she refuses to speak to the question.

It would also seem to a rational person who was under investigation for abuse of power, that one would not wish to be attacking another person's character. Almost criminal in it's dereliction of duty, the mainstream media has pretty much allowed the 'Troopergate' story to disappear from the pages of our news, when it should be of the highest priority. Can anyone hold any illusions as to what this person will do once in office should they manage to gather enough sheep to pull off yet another stolen election? And family values? Her own teen aged daughter is pregnant, and all of a sudden, her paramour has a shotgun wedding in his near future. And having an affair that she continues to lie about with her husband's business partner, Brad Hanson, certainly doesn't show that gosh darned all American girl look either.

John McCain's 'maverick' status was always suspect at best, but his reputation now swirls down the toilet of history. While he sits and tries to impugn the patriotism of Barak Obama, he tries desperately to avoid any questions about his days in Vietnam. He'll tell you his version of events, but will not speak to the accusations of fellow P.O.W.'s that he gave aid and comfort to the enemy. That when he broke and signed their confessions, he actually gave them military information. With a wink and a thumbs up, McCain pretends that he was the only P.O.W. in the entire war, and that somehow, being shot down while hot dogging it, makes him uniquely qualified to be President.

Barely mentioned in this time of economic turmoil is the Keating 5 scandal. Another time when banks failed and John McCain was right in the thick of things. Free vacations to sunny climates on corporate jets owned by Charles Keating, as well as gifts, in exchange for McCain's influence in Congress to squash an investigation into Keating's role in the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal. Now, we have another economic crisis with Mccain once again smack dab in the middle. Phil Gramm, who advises the McCain campaign, was one of the principle players in the entire economic collapse due to his role in deregulating, well, everything.

More egregious than any of this though, are the actions of the Republicans themselves. Knowing full well that McCain is showing signs of senility, and that Sarah Palin in the Oval Office would mean the end of the United States as we know it, they push their lies, not 'talking points', but outright lies, in order to cause fear among voters and retain power at all costs. Spewing vomit filled phrases of 'Country First', these domestic terrorists would say anything, do anything, lie about anyone, make up stories, spread false rumors, rig elections, send out false fliers threatening voters, hijack the government of an entire state to block a lawful investigation, ignore the Constitution of our country, refuse to submit to the laws of the United States, steal the wealth of the nation, and refuse to hold accountable a criminal President and Vice-President.

That makes the Republican Party of the United States as bad as, or worse, than the Alaska Independence Party, and as such, should be disbanded, it's leaders arrested on charges of domestic terrorism, and all of the members of this criminal enterprise that has caused so much misery, be barred from ever holding any public office again. Anyone who believes that this is not a true terrorist organization only need look at the U.S. Terrorism Act of 2000 and the Patriot Acts passed by the Republicans themselves to see what is considered terrorism.

Included in these documents are definitions of terrorist acts that include 'intimidation of civilian populations for political gain,' 'attempts to subvert lawful political activities by use of intimidation, advertising, and are being done to advance a political, religious, or ideological cause.' There are also sections that say 'inoculating or impressing upon a targeted populace the impression of impending disaster, or to cause a state of fear short of conventional warfare.' By these definitions, the Republican Party HAS degenerated into little more than a criminal terrorist organization that should no longer be recognized as a legitimate political entity in the United States. The war on terror can truly be won after all. The problem is, that in order to win, we must begin cleaning house at home. Because if anyone holds any lofty illusions as to the intent of the Republicans, they need look no further than this maniacal campaign they are waging.

And this blatant effort to place not one, but two Manchurian candidates into the Oval Office should prove once and for all who these people are. No one can possibly hold any illusions as to who would actually be running the country were these two mentally challenged candidates be installed through yet another stolen election. It would be people like Rich Davis, Steve Schmidt, Karl Rove, James Baker 3rd, and Henry Kissinger to name a few.

These monsters could care less if they touched off another civil war in this country, and in fact, they would benefit greatly from a divided nation that is the stated goal of the terror cell in Alaska that Palin can deny she still belongs to all she wishes, but it's pretty obvious where her loyalties truly lie. And lie. And lie...........................