Memorial Day Weekend coming up....

This is the time to support our troops. Those are the young men and women that we put in harms way to fight battles for us.

We need to speak up and make damn sure that the BATTLES we send them to fight have just cause and are NOT based on lies, deceiption, hubris, or empire building.

We need to speak up for HUMAN RIGHTS for all and against torture and death committed by US. If we have such a "Christian" president, why is he NOT following the teachings of Jesus. Why do we have such a HYPOCRITICAL EVIL Government?

Now that we've "broken" Iraq and Afganistan, we have to mitigate the damage caused. But "fixing" it is providing for a level of security that the country can rebuild commerce, infrastructure and government.... That means we should SUPPORT our TROOPS by prosecuting any Corporation that STEALS from Iraq/Afganistan/US and that sends mercenaries to the war zone with an attitude that they are above or outside of the law ... be it the Geneva Convention or just plain human decency.

We also need to focus on the Good that is done and be careful to direct our ANGER at evil, mismanagement, etc. where it is due.

From the NYT and elsewhere..... Excusing and trying to hid this has GOT to stop if our country is to have ANY honor or decency.

On torture:

Pictures from Abu Ghraib showed naked prisoners being stacked like cordwood and mocked by female guards — and there's worse stuff in Pentagon files that Congress has decided not to allow out of its locked vaults. There have been confirmed reports from Guantanamo of beatings, shacklings, and lighted cigarettes being stuck in prisoners' ears. 36 prisoners have died during interrogations. The Red Cross wrote detailed reports documenting abusive conduct in Iraq and was laughed off. The officers reponsible for overseeing abusive interrogations weren't punished, they were lauded for their work and transferred to other prisons. Hardened FBI agents wrote emails expressing their disgust at what they had seen. Innocent men have been tortured to death in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The White House counsel wrote memoranda justifying torture as an inherent right of the president. Rendition of suspects to other countries that have long histories of torturing prisoners is routine. Reports of Koran desecration have been circulating for a long time, and recent investigations have confirmed that mockery of religious symbols is common. The Red Cross warned the Pentagon about this years ago.

On fraud, stealing and looting by US corporations:

Lawyers for Custer Battles argue that the False Claims Act - the prime legal tool against contractor fraud - does not apply because the company signed contracts with the Coalition Provisional Authority, not the American government, and was mainly paid with Iraqi money seized or managed by the United States, rather than with money appropriated by Congress.

Lawyers for the whistle-blowers and the Justice Department argue that the law does apply. All sides agree that the case will set a precedent and that the stakes are high, and not only for Custer Battles.

"This is an important case because there are a lot of companies over there with poorly constructed contracts and little oversight," said Steven L. Schooner, an expert on procurement at the George Washington University Law School. "The potential for chicanery is great and the potential universe of whistle-blowers is mind-boggling."

In a court hearing on the issue on May 12, a senior Justice Department official warned that if companies could not be held accountable under the False Claims Act, they might not be accountable to anyone.

The Coalition Provisional Authority disappeared in mid-2004, after decreeing that contractors could not be held liable by Iraqi courts. So if the United States cannot bring suit against fraudulent contractors, "who could do that?" asked the official, Michael F. Hertz of the Justice Department's Civil Division.

We are all in this together, willingly or NOT ...

This morning I listened to part of a pre-election (2004 US Presidental) speech by Arundhati Roy... clearly, concisely, and so damning of the US facism (see below) and hubris.... Then I read George Galloway's statement to Congress (Galloway vs. The US Senate: Transcript of Statement)

I wonder if we will be able to "throw the rascal's out" or if the country will just continue on it's hyprocritical way until someone or something "takes us down".

Note: Definition of facism used above..


The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
Free Inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org/fi/
Spring 2003; 5-11-03

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:


1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to (sic) media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed
to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Today from the Miami Herald:
"Luis Posada Carriles may be the most wanted man in Cuba and Venezuela, but on this recent afternoon, the man accused of deadly terrorism peacefully sips a peach drink, reads about Confucius and marvels at the Miami skyline from the balcony of a Brickell Key high-rise.

''At first I hid a lot,'' Posada said of his arrival in Miami, noting that he spends much of his time reading or painting oil-on-canvas landscapes of Cuba. ``I thought the [U.S.] government was looking for me.''

Brought to this luxury condo -- just a few blocks from offices of the Department of Homeland Security -- for his first interview since sneaking into the United States in March, the anti-Castro militant said he has come to realize that the U.S. government is not looking for him."

I wonder what the Bush Regime would be doing if Osama Bin Laden were openly living in a luxury condo in Havana?????

Hypocracy has risen to an amazing level... and the water keeps rising...

Letter to the NYTimes:
To the Editor:

Like the great majority of those who have become prominent conservative political and media figures since Vietnam, John R. Bolton declined to serve in combat forces back then because, he said, he "had no desire to die in a Southeast Asia rice paddy." Is there any precedent in history for an elite that has been so successful in influencing the government toward assertive military policies while largely declining to serve in combat forces themselves?

Mark Rosenman
Montclair, N.J., May 1, 2005