FINALLY, Voters See Through Republican LIES & THEFT! (& 10 Things Obama Should Do In His 2nd Term)!

What a satisfying feeling it was on Tuesday night to FINALLY see the
 Republican LIARS, BULLIES, and THIEVES (of taxpayers' money &
votes) riddled with anxiety and anger that their elaborate game plan to
STEAL the Presidency and the Senate failed.

Scumbags like Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Rush Limbaugh, and yes,
Mitt Romney & Scott Brown in Massachusetts, did not get to see their
usual punching bags cower before them. It was especially heartening to
see progressive women, like Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin,
overcome non-stop personal attack campaigns by sexist men, Scott
Brown and Tommy Thompson.  This year the Republicans stooped to
new lows, even for them, in almost all campaigns, with blatant sexist,
racist, and homophobic comments, leveled not only against their
opponents but the groups of people that they represent.

Those of us on the left are known for our openness, our sensitivity, and
our non-aggression. But I think the time has been reached this year when
we have to "kick the bully in the balls." That bully, of course, is the
Republicans who, as I said in past posts, live by the creed that
George W. Bush made public for all to see, beginning with his theft of the
2000, and later 2004 Presidencies. The creed is, "The End Justifies ALL
Means." That means they will have no conscience or qualms about lying,
stealing, cheating, torturing, starving, or killing ANYONE who gets in the
way of their self-identified ends.  We saw ALL of those things from
George W. Bush himself during the most disgraceful 8 years of this country's
history. But the LYING, CHEATING, and STEALING part was still
topped by the Republicans this Election year. 

Therefore, we as progressives must use our influence to encourage any
center-left Democrats newly elected, or re-elected, to set the example for
the all too many spineless Democrats who want to compromise with the
Republicans from the get-go!  We must expose the fact that all the
"bi-partisan" bullshit from Republicans does NOT mean that THEY want
to compromise. Elizabeth Warren in her Massachusetts campaign learned
that the Republican, Scott Brown, who was always claiming to be
"bi-partisan" and "independent" was nothing of the kind, which became
very evident not only from his VERY partisan voting record, but from
the millions of dollars he received from Election Buyers & Thieves like
Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, and the Koch brothers.

Within minutes after Barack Obama was declared a re-elected President,
the Republican Speaker of the House was tweeting how the Republicans
would "not budge" for him. Therefore, Obama and the Democrats need
to find ways to "go around" or "do an end run" past the Republicans
to get things done these next four years. Obama whittled away his first two
years in office when the Democrats controlled Congress by worrying
about what Republicans wanted or thought. Well, they had told him the
ONLY thing they wanted on his first day in office in January 2009:
his removal from the Presidency! Now it is time to let the goddamn
Republicans whine and shout all they want when they block something
that is necessary to better the lot of all Americans who are suffering!

I emailed Elizabeth Warren with a list of key things that I believe she
should immediately start pressing the President to deliver.  Here is part
of that email:

"Dear Elizabeth,

Thank YOU for being an HONEST, CANDID Senator-Elect! It was
a pleasure to meet you.

I DO want to tell you a few things that I hope you WILL pursue as you
go to Washington, which are extremely important to PROGRESSIVES
AS A WHOLE:

1) Press the President on honoring his pledge to let the TAX CUTS FOR
THOSE EARNING OVER $200,000 PER YEAR EXPIRE  at the end
of this year.

2) Press the President on making the mandatory cuts to the defense budget
NON-NEGOTIABLE. The TOTAL budget for defense related expenditures
is now OVER $1 TRILLION per year! This is a disgrace when as much as
possible of that money should be kept home for HEALING the millions of
Americans suffering from lack of essentials: food, clothing, housing, medical
care; rather than being used for KILLING and provoking hatred against
America throughout the world.

3) Press the President to honor his promise to CLOSE the infamous prison
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The U.S. should PULL OUT of Cuba entirely,
as that base area was just a colonial conquest & should revert back to
the Cuban people.


4) Following on the above point...press the President to END the embargo
against Cuba. Cuba poses NO threat to the United States or any other
country and indeed has been very helpful to many other countries by sending
medical personnel to disaster stricken areas or where there are a lack of rural
physicians.... And press him to reach out to President Hugo Chavez, who
was reelected again in Venezuela in a free, fair, and peaceful democratic
election, and who in 2008, expressed admiration for President Obama.
Chavez would respond favorably to an invitation to meet. Threats and
underhanded CIA actions towards Venezuela only "blow back" to hurt
America!

5) Press the President to ACKNOWLEDGE the human rights violations
against the Palestinian people, and their RIGHT to freely control Gaza
and the West Bank; to have Israel "tear down this wall" & to allow
non-aligned countries (i.e. Brazil, India) to be involved in the Middle East
peace process.

6) Press the President to end "the war on drugs," which has utterly failed,
and to go on record for marijuana to become legal & taxed.

7) Press the President to END a Bush notion of an endless "war on terror,"
specifically by curtailing the ever expanding drone assassination program,
and the domestic spying on American citizens; as well as the continuing
abridgment of the rights of free speech and assembly; and to condemn
police brutality against demonstrators exercising their first amendment rights.

8) Press the President to spend LESS time trying to please Republican
intransients and MORE time pleasing the PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL
COMMUNITY this time around, since it is the latter that has given him the
power of the Presidency BOTH TIMES.  FAILURE to stand WITH his
base a second time, will again result in a huge midterm loss (2014) for
Democrats ... because MILLIONS did NOT show up at the polls ...
and were it not for a late comeback, would have cost him the Presidency
this second time!

9) Press the President to Attend Future Conferences on Global Warming
or Climate Change & in the mean time impose with or without the
Congress some specific goals that will be met by the time his 2nd term
ends in January 2017.  In that time period also, pressure him to SIGN an
agreement with other industrial nations that will set SPECIFIC deadlines
for the reduction of carbon emissions; a SPECIFIC timetable on fossil
fuel use reductions, coupled with increases in renewable energy use; and a
SPECIFIC plan to clean up the many toxic waste sites in the country,
largely using military personnel, since the Pentagon is largely responsible
for such sites.

10) Press the President to push The Dream Act through quickly, to give
young undocumented immigrants who have already been in the U.S. for
5 years or more a chance to attend schools, work, and thrive in a foreign
culture, without the fear of suddenly being thrown in jail ... and with that,
end the privitization of jails and prisons so that the prison industry will not
be anyone's "cash cow;" while drastically reducing the use of prisons by
funding more "halfway" facilities where skills, jobs, and personal
responsibility and reinforcement of a positive self-image can be what
inmates find; not demeaning, degrading, brutal, and inhumane conditions,
as they now find.

To use Obama's campaign slogan: FORWARD... and don't back down
from the bullies: Republicans!"

Why All Americans Who Are NOT Rich Should Vote For Obama

Our opinion: Obama for president Berkshire Eagle Posted:

BerkshireEagle.com

Thursday November 1, 2012

When President Barack Obama took office four years ago, the United States was on the verge of economic disaster and burdened by two divisive and financially crippling foreign wars. Today, the economy is on the rebound, the war in Iraq is over and the war in Afghanistan is winding down. The nation has challenges but it is in a better place now than it was in January 2009 and we urge voters to continue on this path when they go to the polls to elect a president on Tuesday.

While it is difficult to pin down Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whose campaign strategy is to be all things to all people, his speech before Boca Raton high-rollers in which he disparaged 47 percent of the electorate is revealing because it wasn't for public consumption. This was the real Romney. Austerity for the middle class and tax breaks for the wealthy were a recipe for economic failure under George W. Bush (the man who cannot be named in GOP circles) and will be again if repeated under Mr. Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan. Until recently, Mr. Romney's belligerent statements on foreign policy recalled those of Mr. Bush, whose cowboy policies brought the Iraq nightmare down upon the nation.

Mr. Romney offers the prospect of more of what has already catastrophically failed. Worse, his party is determined to reopen old wounds on women's rights and other social policies that will only further divide a nation that needs to work together to meet the challenges ahead.

Presidents don't get credit for what doesn't happen, which is why Mr. Obama did not get the credit he richly deserved for averting what could have been a second Great Depression upon taking office. His $840 billion stimulus package gave a critical boost to the economy and his bail-out of the automobile industry saved jobs not only in Detroit but wherever else that industry reaches, including Berkshire County.

The president demonstrated how government can strengthen the nation, which Mr. Romney, a prisoner of calcified Republican ideology, is forced to deny. He is left to advocate for long-discredited "trickle down" economic theories, in which more tax cuts and loopholes for multi-millionaires like himself will magically grow the economy from the top down. He preaches government austerity even though economic retrenchment is causing joblessness and dragging down the economy all across Europe and will do so here if put into practice.

The unemployment rate remains too high but would be lower if House Republicans had not rejected a job creation program offered by the president a year ago. Washington Republicans regularly blocked the president's programs out of a transparent desire to hurt him politically even if their actions also hurt the nation's economy. That said, Mr. Obama's biggest failure has been his refusal to fight for his economic programs with the same energy his opponents have employed in fighting against them.

The president did fight successfully for health care reform, and passage of the Affordable Care Act means, among other improvements, that insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, and immunizations and mammograms will be guaranteed to all. Although "Obamacare" with its many reforms is based on "Romney care" from Mr. Romney's tenure as Massachusetts governor, Mr. Romney wants to repeal it and says the uninsured should go to emergency rooms, which will expand the health care costs Obamacare will reduce. The voucher program that is at the core of Mr. Ryan's health "reform" would make Medicare more costly for seniors.

President Obama ended the war in Iraq and is ending the war in Afghanistan, although too slowly. He brought Osama bin Laden to justice and has weakened al-Qaida. His selection of former rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state was brilliant, and together they have forged a foreign policy centered around diplomacy, with military action employed when necessary and only after careful thought.

Mr. Romney's interventionist stance on foreign policy early in the campaign was so reckless it was as if Iraq had never happened. He has since flip-flopped to a less aggressive approach but he has shown not only a willingness to trigger another conflict but a disconcerting ignorance about and indifference toward world events that affect America.

The president was slow to come around on gay rights issues, but his support of same-sex marriage may lead to the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which undermines the rights of gay couples even in states like Massachusetts, where they can legally marry. The military's hypocritical "don't ask, don't tell" rule disappeared on his watch. Mr. Romney opposes same-sex marriage and defends DoMA, a law that exemplifies the kind of big government interference in the lives of individuals that Republicans pay lip service to opposing.

Along those lines, Republicans across the country have filed and passed proposals to criminalize abortion and put women seeking legal abortions through invasive procedures, demonized Planned Parent hood, tried to deny access to contraceptives, and come up with horrific new definitions of what constitutes rape. Mr. Romney has disavowed some of these plans and claims, tap-danced around others, but as president it is unlikely that he will stand against his own party's onerous views on women's rights, views advocated by his arch-conservative running mate. In contrast, Mr. Obama has been a principled defender of the rights of women and all minorities, including the Hispanics targeted by discriminatory laws passed in the states under the guise of a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Women's rights, including those guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, which ended the era of illegal, back alley abortions, could be in jeopardy if a vacancy on the Supreme Court emerges in the next four years. Mr. Romney would likely nominate another far-right judicial activist who would vote with those on the court who have not only proven weak on civil rights but gave us the Citizens United decision enabling corporations to further corrupt the electoral process with cash. In Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama chose eminently qualified moderates to the Supreme Court who understand that the court should defend established civil rights not weaken them.

Mitt Romney has certainly come a long way from the days in which he successfully campaigned for governor of Massa chusetts as a pro-abortion rights, pro-gay rights moderate Republican. In his evolution into a "severe conservative," he demonstrated that there is no principle he won't abandon, no position he won't compromise to get elected. Winning office is all he is passionate about.

He demonstrated his ruthlessness in pushing acting Governor Jane Swift of Williamstown out of the way in his pursuit of the Republican nomination for governor in 2002. That ruthlessness was certainly demonstrated during his tenure as CEO of Bain Capital, whose impact was felt in Pittsfield with the demise of KB Toys. Bain Capital made fortunes for Mr. Romney and its investors while bleeding companies dry and putting people out of work. This is no way to run a business, and as Mr. Romney cites his business acumen in his campaign for president, it is no way to run a country. His "47 percent" speech exposed him as a plutocrat who contemptuously dismisses millions of Americans (including some who support him) as burdens upon the nation.

President Obama's aloofness and leadership failings frustrate his allies, but he has always sought to govern for the whole nation, not a favored few, and in the process he has stood up for the poor, who need government the most, and middle class Americans, who will suffer if the proposals of Mr. Romney and the retrograde policies of Mr. Ryan as a congressional leader are enacted. America has moved forward under President Obama and we fear it will regress if he is denied a second term. The Berkshire Eagle endorses Barack Obama for re-election as president.

______________________________________________

The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, MA also had a wonderful endorsement of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who ran an honorable campaign against a

lying Republican incumbant, Scott Brown, who spent his whole campaign attacking Warren and then claiming that he would be best to work with Democrats! His right-wing record in both the MA Senate and the U.S. Senate exposes his lies.

The prospect of having a "Bush II" for another 4 to 8 years is scary enough, not only for all but the wealthiest Americans, but for the rest of the world, where Romney has already been threatening Iran and China, and anybody else that doesn't agree with his American world domination rhetoric. But the very real possibility of having a right-wing Republican Congress with a Romney victory is devastating to anyone who has "moral values" beyond saying "no" to sex! With the trivialization of rape and "47%" of the American people from these right-wing demogogues, "collateral damage" will become an everyday affair from them.

Therefore, I urge you to VOTE for Obama and your Democratic Senate and House candidates, and THEN WORK during the next four years in getting them to stop "kissing Republican asses," but instead, fulfilling progressive promises that bring more healing to both the earth and the earth's people.

Daniel Strong

Mitt Romney & Scott Brown: The Two Biggest LIARS In Massachusetts

  In what the United States media has called the two biggest political races this
year, the Republican candidates in both have been quick to claim
Massachusetts as their home; quick to exploit its reputation as the intellectual
capital of the country, due to its many prominent institutions of higher
learning; and quick to claim "what a great example of bipartisanship I have
been" for the Commonwealth and the country.

  Those candidates are Mitt Romney, running for President, and the man he
mentored while Governor from 2002-2006, Scott Brown, running for a 6 year
term as U.S. Senator.  Both men now share the same chief advisor, a dirty Karl
Rove clone, Eric Fehrnstrom, now a veteran at helping them wildly attack their
opponents, while using vague phrases like, "I'll get America/MA back to work
again," for the sum description about themselves! Yet Brown thinks MA voters
are dumb enough to miss the close link between Romney and himself by
flooding mailboxes with "your independent senator" crap!

   It is revolting that these two men have been soiling the good name of
Massachusetts with their LIES.  The truth is...which the record SHOWS, is that
Romney was a failure as its governor, and Brown, in his two & one-half years
as senator, after sneaking in by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, and
against a weak, unprepared candidate in a special election in 2010, has been
a failure as a senator. Both of these men, while in office in Massachusetts,
blathered unceasingly about being "independent" and "bipartisan," and are
STILL doing so, particularly Brown, who won't even USE the word
"Republican" in his attacks on consumer advocate & progressive Democrat,
Elizabeth Warren.  He hopes that he can fool enough people a second time
about his long RECORD of PARTISAN votes and pronouncements to the
millionaires and billionaries from New York & elsewhere, and sleazeballs
like Bush hatchetman Karl Rove & Grover Norquist who have been
bankrolling his smear campaign.

   At the first Presidential debate on October 3, Romney repeatedly invoked the
name "Massachusetts" and took full credit for the universal health plan that he
said he got the "87% Democrat legislature" to agree on.  If I can be that
bipartisan, he proudly proclaimed, I can do it for the whole country!

   It's great to USE the Democrats when they make "ME" look good, is what
Romney & Brown keep telling themselves. But if the TRUTH sinks in to the
voters before Election Day....

   Here is a capsule of what Romney REALLY did as Governor from www.electoral-vote.com :

"How Bipartisan Was Romney as Governor?
During the debate, Mitt Romney repeatedly claimed that as governor he worked with the Democratic controlled Massachusetts state legislature in a constructive way to get things done. This is music to the ears of the bipartisanship fetishists who don't realize the reason that Congress is dysfunctional is not that the individual members are acting like petulant children but that the parties' goals are diametricallly opposed. What the Republicans want at all costs is lower taxes and what the Democrats want is better government services. These two things are fundamentally incompatible, which is why the parties can't agree on anything.
A closer inspectionof Romney's term as governor shows the same forces were at work at the state level. The Democrats controlled over 85% of the seats in the state legislature, so Romney was forced to work with them. Nevertheless, he exercised his veto power 844 times during his term, only to have the vast majority of his vetoes overridden. As a result, laws and budgets were passed, but not due to some spirit of cooperation. They became law because the Democrats repeatedly shoved legislation Romney opposed down his throat due to their veto-proof majority.
Pretty much his only legislative achievement, universal health insurance, was something Democrats had dreamed of for decades. Romney knew that if he vetoed it, his veto would just be overridden and since the plan was essentially that of the conservative Heritage Foundation ("make everyone buy insurance from a private insurance company") he figured that if he went along with it, he would get credit for it. Little did he know that a future Democratic President would pass the same plan on a national scale and then the Republicans would revolt against a plan they themselves had been championing for 15 years.
In short, there is relatively little evidence of bipartisanship during Romney's term as governor. Most of his campaign promises, such as restructuring the state government, overhauling the state university, consolidating the transportation agencies, and bringing new jobs to the state went unfulfilled because the Democrats opposed them."

  In addition to the above, Romney caused GREAT suffering for low and middle
class individuals & families, by making massive cuts to social programs and
services. Furthermore, he was roundly criticized by the public for being OUT
OF STATE on his personal campaign for President in 2008, rather than
tending to the business of the Commonwealth at home.

  As for the current "Independent" Senator, Scott Brown, here is the link for a
two page summary from ProgressMass, of Brown's LIES: what he has been
SAYING, versus what he has DONE-

                                   type in:   ow.ly/eembZ

   ProgressMass adds more on their website to explode the LIE that Brown is
"Independent" or "BiPartisan."

   Go to:                      http://www.progressmass.org


   Also, go to this site to see that Brown was very partisan during his MA state
senate years

                                http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/18919/

   The problem that Republicans have is that their FAILED policies were
ENDURED during the recent 8 years of the Nation's WORST President,
George W. Bush, whose name they now don't even want to invoke!  So
instead they use the philosophy of Bush, which was that "the ends ALWAYS
justify the means," whether it be lying, cheating, smearing, stealing,
or killing....



 






 

"Severe Conservative" Romney's sexist Mormon Church greater threat to womens' birth control and abortion rights (2/19/12 reprint with UPDATE)!

Something not mentioned this month during the assault on womens' rights from Republicans is the connection between the likely wealthy primary winner, Mitt Romney, and America's richest Church, the Latter-Day Saints or Mormon Church, to which Romney has contributed millions of dollars. Romney and the Mormon male hierarchy are happy to have the financially strapped Catholic Church take all the bashing for sexist beliefs and policies, but few Americans know that the LDS Church goes well beyond the Catholic Church when it comes to sexist and homophobic policies. Whereas Catholics are told that women should only limit families by "natural" means (i.e. rhythm method), Mormons are blatantly told that, not only should women get married to a "good Mormon" man who is needed to bring her into "the celestial kingdom" while he goes on to godhead, but she IS ENCOURAGED to then have as many children as possible for there are billions of "spirits waiting to have physical bodies." This is also why these same "good Mormons" are often rabidly homophobic. It has been the Mormon Church which has used its financial and political clout to thus
Fundamentalist Protestant Republicans worry about Romney's Mormon theology. But everyone else had better be concerned with Mormon political, social, and financial clout when they think about Romney becoming President. The Mormon hierarchy believes that the United States is the "New Zion;" indeed, that Jesus Christ even preached in America centuries ago! They also believe that one of their own will become President and give their Church great influence. far keep same sex marriage from becoming legalized in California, not to mention states like Utah, Arizona, and Idaho.

When Romney was in charge of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, there were reports of the LDS Church using its influence to not only get SLC as the city chosen (indeed there was an "Olympic Committee bribe scandal" that was underreported), but to financially benefit from Romney's executive position.

You can be quite sure that if Romney is elected President in 2012, the Church will benefit again; this time from some of the tax money that women and gays pay the United States Government to discriminate against them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: August 27, 2012

The Republicans are about to open their convention in Tampa, Florida, and
anoint Romney as "the next President of the United States."

Since I wrote my above post, the U.S. media has been gushing over "family
man" Romney and his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
(MORMONS), giving this sexist, homophobic, and racist Church ONLY
POSITIVE PRESS and not probing the self-serving answers of spokesmen
for the Church.

It is no surprise that Romney continues to say whatever his "at the moment"
audience wants to hear. Mormons are taught from an early age that their
Church is "THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH" and therefore you only have to
be honest and truthful with fellow good Mormons. All others are "Gentiles,"
the "unchosen" and any lies, dishonesty, and cheating of them is perfectly
acceptable if it benefits any or all Mormons; for Mormons will one day
RULE AMERICA, the "NEW ZION," and will be the MASTERS of the
"GENTILES."

Romney and his Church will, of course, deny these things, but one only
needs to read the Church's Scriptures: THE BOOK OF MORMON, THE
PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, and DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS to see
that they do INDEED believe these things. The Church, however, has both
an extremely saavy public relations network and missionary network that
tries very hard to make sure that the American public only hears and reads
what they are told by these  networks.

So...realize that if the Republican "stop the urban vote" machine succeeds in
getting Romney to the White House in January, you will not only have a 4 to
8 year dose of Romney "steal from the poor to give to the rich" politics, but
you will have Mormons placed in high U.S. Government staff positions, and
a steady dose of mainstream media parroting of what the Church's networks
want you to hear!

"Domestic Terrorism" ???

It is not at all surprising to this writer that the FBI decided to treat the
killing of 6 Sikh temple worshippers in Wisconsin as an incident of
"domestic terrorism."

If this latest mass killing, which by all accounts was done by a white right-
wing male, was called what it REALLY is,  it would implicate the FBI itself,
which has been in the forefront of stirring up hatred toward "Muslim
looking people" since 9/11 with its blatant racial profiling program.

In fact, one could say that the FBI has been the country's
foremost "domestic terrorists" themselves due to the millions
of people living in America that they have set-up on false
and inflated charges; or harassed, intimidated, or stolen
from. In addition to millions of Muslims, they have
aggressively targeted public critics of the government on
the left wing, while secretly supporting the flag waving,
gun toting fanatics on the right, which is the political side
they, like all U.S. "law enforcement," and military people,
have a kinship with.

If this latest mass killing was investigated as the HATE CRIME that it was,
stroked by the bigotry of "law enforcement" and the military, it would
encourage those groups who have been the continual victims of "law
enforcement" and the military in the U.S. to become much more zealous
in their outspokenness and civil disobedience; something that cannot be
tolerated by those with the power; especially during an election year. 

Sh*t That Mitt Told Me

Mitt Romney's campaign sticker theme is "Believe In America." Very vague, isn't it? Well that's true about Romney as a candidate and a person, period!  Just like it took him years as a candidate to release any tax return to hide his great wealth, so his slogans and his presidential plans will be vague until he has the ability to spring them upon unsuspecting Americans.

Romney has been calling himself a "fixer," proclaiming that he is a "successful businessman" who knows how to fix problems and will do the same for the U.S. Government as he has done for businesses he controlled.

Yet five years ago, when Romney was beginning his run for the Presidentcy in 2008, the New York Times in a detailed report, noted that "He made his money mainly through leveraged buyouts, mortgaging companies to take them over in the hope of reselling them at big profits in just a few years."

Romney has bragged about being able to make "the hard choices" to solve problems. Yet, just as he bragged after finally releasing one past tax return, that "I never paid a penny more than I owe," so too has
he made sure that he never LOST a penny either; instead escaping as a robber baron while causing massive loss and suffering to the families whose members he laid off.

He also brags about "saving" the 2002 Olympic Games. Yet, the scandal concerning bribes to get the Games to his Mormon Capital, Salt Lake City, he made sure was quietly contained, so that his Church would not become involved. Yet rumors were present, not only about involvement the Church may have had in the bribe scandal, but also, whether Romney had Olympic money funnelled to his Church,
through such means as paying for spanking new big parking lots on property owned by the Church, etc..

And now, this very day, in 2012, rumors are swirling, as Lee Fang reports on Op-Ed News, that Romney, if elected President, will choose close Mormon multimillionaire friend, Jack Gerard, as his White House Chief of Staff. Gerard happens to be the president of the American Petroleum Institute, the top oil lobbying association in the country!

So then, Mitt Romney will surely "fix" the problems of his wealthy Mormon friends if elected President, but for those millions of Americans
who were laid off by the "Romney's" of the nation's top 1%, his national "fixes" will make him nothing but "MITT THE SHIT" to them.

The OTHER 1%, Our REAL heroes: Those risking their all for economic, social, & spiritual justice

The REAL heroes in the United States are NOT who the Government & the Government manipulated media claim they are: The Military, The FBI & CIA, and the Police. No, they are the women, men, & even children who are willing to publicly march and speak against the U.S. policies which oppress the poor, murder and maim thousands around the world every year, and systematically fuel HATE rather than LOVE.

Yet, Republican & Democratic politicians, news networks, talk show hosts, and the majority of TV shows and movies praise daily as heroes the above mentioned entities who actually are the oppressors and the forces that try to guarantee that there will never be any REAL change in the United States.

Meanwhile, those oppressors are always on the prowl for more critics to infiltrate; for more dissident leaders to frame for "terrorism" or some other set-up "crime." They are always using every means to COVER-UP their violation of human and civil rights, by such means as actually making it a "crime" to videotape their brutality, by destruction of documents; by shielding lawyers for dissidents from having access to what information remains because of "national security."

In the Occupy movement, we have heard about the 1% and the 99% percent
over the past year. For years before the Occupy movement and still now,
I have always believed that in the United States there was the 1% who were
those who controlled the wealth and the power & who oppressed those who
didn't have it; but ALSO just 1% who REALLY knew what that controlling 1%
was doing & publicly tried to change it ... the REAL heroes...
while the controlling 1% is fully aware of this and is daily trying to wipe out
that OTHER 1%, if not physically, then at least by destroying their lives, their
families, & their opportunities to speak and act!  ...Then there are the other
98% of the population that are largely self-absorbed, that go along like sleep
with what the Government, the Government heroes, and the media tell them.

What is our task then? To support the REAL heroes in their quest for economic, social, and spiritual justice in what ways that we can, and to change any of those "sheep" into mindfully aware human beings.

This New Year's Thought is Relevant for May Day Too!

After reading about May Day 2012 demonstrations in the U.S. and around the world, I realized that my blog post of January 2, 2011 needed to be shouted out today as well! And we need to thank our REAL heroes: those willing to endure police brutality, arrest, infiltration, and ongoing harassment, for their public cries for justice & human rights, and their public expression of democracy within "democracies" that don't practice it!

"A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea."

Victor Hugo

A new year ... same old wars.  It can be frustrating and anger

producing. Yet we must remember that all the trillions of dollars

spent on military force will not crush the ideas of the demand for

economic justice, social equality, and the rights of freedom of

speech and association.  There is something hardwired within the

millions of poor people that are continuing to be denied these

things, that these are basic rights. And, therefore, those rights will

continue being pursued in 2011.

Pursuing the Same Failed Policies On Latin America & Brazil

Both U.S. Political Parties continue to believe that admitting U.S. foreign policy failures to the world is a sign of weakness. And God forbid that the U.S. appear as anything but the overarching strongman and cop to the rest of the world!

Yet the rest of the world continues to "talk behind the bully's back" about how "he" really is a weakling, because a power that is really strong would use "brains" first rather than "brawn."

Those countries south of the U.S. border know that the U.S. "drug war" started by Republican hero Ronald Reagan in 1981 has been a waste of billions (or now trillions!) of dollars in taxpayer money that could have lifted millions of citizens out of poverty.  Why didn't the U.S. learn anything from its 13 year history with Prohibition of alcoholic beverages between 1920 and 1933, when crime dramatically increased, revenue from taxes dramatically went down, and the Great Depression began, while prosecution of "scofflaws" was wasteful and ineffective.

Secondly, this same Ronald Reagan is lauded by Republicans as "ending the cold war," allegedly between the communist east and the capitalist west. Yet in 2012 we are still blacklisting Cuba and enforcing a ridiculous embargo while we are still stealing Cuban land to maintain a prison where torture is practiced in Guantanamo! Our neighbors to the south all see the hypocrisy in this, but the U.S. government doesn't have "the balls" to admit to this folly of more than a half century!

Next time there is a summit planned for the countries of the Americas, wouldn't it be a treat to see the United States be the only one who is excluded: kind of like "the bully made to sit in the corner by himself."

Oh well...one can dream....   

Enough Is Enough!

     Just as the United States supported the South African apartheid government when most of the world was supporting the victims of this apartheid, so, to a much greater degree, it continues to support the Israeli apartheid government, and provides billions of dollars every year to support the Israeli discrimination, imprisonment, maiming, killing, and land theft that goes on every day.

     Tomorrow, March 30, is Land Day, commemorating the bravery of 6 Palestinians who were murdered by Israeli forces in 1976 when they were trying to keep their land from being appropriated by the Israeli government. For the 36 years following, the apartheid government of Israel has been nothing less than a slow form of genocide against the Palestinian people.  Yet no country in the world has had their wrongdoing protected more than Israel, thanks to the threat of the United States to punish economically and militarily any country who would use means at their disposal to protect the Palestinian victims of these past 36 years.

     It is disgraceful that the United States Government continues to bully the United Nations and its "coalition" about "human rights abuses"in countries it does NOT control, such as Syria, North Korea, Iran, and Cuba, and to whine and moan about the "nuclear intentions" of Iran, when it blatantly partakes in the daily human rights abuses of the Israelis and for decades has protected Israel from any international nuclear weapons inspection, even though this renegade country has always ignored all admonitions from the United Nations, has launched assassinations in other countries, and threatens to invade the sovereign territory of whoever it perceives as a threat!

     The Palestinians have suffered in Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights for far too long. Let's hope that their massive peaceful protest tomorrow on Land Day will finally cause some "coalition" country to have the balls to say "no more!" to their participation in the Israeli and U.S. evils against the Palestinian people!

Vietnam II: A U.S. Anti-War Movement Should Demand That All U.S. Troops Leave Afghanistan

After the massacre of Afghan civilians by another alleged "lone gunman" this past week, I was appalled to hear the U.S. and British heads of state recommit to having troops continue the senseless killing, now in its 11th year, in Afghanistan. However, since I was not surprised by that, I am more disturbed that the U.S. Government, with the daily propaganda of its captive media outlets, has been able to mute any significant anti-Afghan protests. One would have thought that, with the economic destruction brought about by the policies of the Bush regime, that "Vietnam II" protests would be the norm, FORCING the media, by now, to make this issue front and center in their reporting.

I dare say that the latest war crime is only one of many committed by U.S. troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade, the majority which have been covered up by the U.S. Government, and the military in particular. Bush and Cheney were responsible for making the torture and killing of Iraqis and Afghans for sport an acceptable "entertainment" in the eyes of many right-wing recruits, so such incidents as the latest should be no surprise. But let us hope that this terrible incident finally encourages more and more Americans to publicly condemn the Afghan war and to vocally demand that the billions of dollars wasted on this war be returned to pay for the needs of the millions of Americans presently suffering from lack of jobs, housing, and health care because of the reckless decisions of its leaders since 2001.

The US will continue to do what it damn well pleases....

Two major headlines today were no surprise to this writer: 1)Attorney General Eric Holder says it is okay for the US Government to kill one of its own citizens if they are plotting a "terrorist attack," and 2)Obama assured Israeli demogogue Netanyahu that "we've got your back" on whatever is done to Iran.

These two bellicose nations: the US and Israel are always ready & willing to spend trillions of US taxpayer dollars to get their way through military force and intimidating bribery and blackmail, never caring how many MILLIONS of people suffer from their crimes. Since the new millenium began, even the pretenses of obeying international law, or the US Constitution, have been, piece by piece, stripped away.

Pre-emptive wars, assassinations, "acts of valor" strikes in any country at any time are a REALITY in 2012 with these "unbreakable bond" countries, as Obama calls them.

How strange it is that the COUNTRIES much of the world would call the greatest "terrorists," are so brazen to disregard their own actions and their terrible consequences, while reserving the right for themselves to say what individuals and groups throughout the world are "terrorists," and to make it a CRIME to even communicate with those who are blacklisted by them.

Do Americans ever wonder how many FEWER alleged "terrorists" they would have to worry about, if their government focused on making friends instead of enemies; celebrating different systems of government, rather than forcing uniformity; seeing other nations as equals, rather than slaves to US & Israeli ambitions???

IT IS THE RIGHT-WING "TRIGGER HAPPY" NUCLEAR WEAPON OWNER ISRAEL THAT THE WORLD SHOULD BE FEARFUL OF, NOT IRAN

Five Iranian scientists have been murdered in the last two years by Israeli &/or American agents. Those nations have more nuclear bombs NOW than the rest of the world COMBINED, and yet they are both itching for a war with Iran because they MIGHT have a nuclear program underway. Duh? Wouldn't ANY nation that knows damn well that the U.S. and Israel may invade their air, sea, and land space WITHOUT WARNING want to protect itself against them??

The world should be far more worried about what the fanatical right-wing government in Israel right now, with the unconditional backing of the world's Super-Bully, the United States, rather than Iran, North Korea, or China. Their world propaganda apparatuses continue to cause the foolish to believe the "we're the 'good guys' myth." "Good guys" don't hold the world
captive to their whims and desires with the constant REAL threat of lethal force from EXISTING MASSIVE arsenals of weapons of mass destruction!

The Myth That "Americans Will Elect" A Democrat or a Republican

The American media is all buzzing about who will win the Republican primary in New Hampshire tomorrow. It is already clear who will
LOSE; not only from this primary, but from the general election
this November: "the 99%" that don't control the wealth & the power
in this faux-democratic country!

The REAL heroes in America these past few months have been those of
that 99% who have been brutalized by police, harassed by FBI &
Homeland Security informants, and virtually ignored by the top 1%'s
controlled American media, in their attempts to get the American
public to wake up to WHY we still promote "this endless war;" promote unrestricted Pentagon & "intelligence"(surveillance & assassination) spending; and bailout the richest corporation & individuals, while
cutting public SERVICES without remorse.

The WHY, of course, is that the "Animal Farm" is run by and for the benefit of the fattest animals at the trough!

About 60% of Americans will not even vote this November, not only
because they have NO choice in who the candidates will be, but because many of them have had more and more barriers erected for them to even be
able to vote for "one of two sides of the same coin (i.e. Republicans/Democrats)."

How shameful it is that the United States keeps trying to force "democracy" on countries around the world by bullet, bomb, theft and imprisonment, when with each "election" it moves farther and farther towards a police state!